Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > February > 12 > Entry
Lexus lanes, celebrities and resignations
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Notes from the weekend:
Item: The general manager of the Cartoon Network, Jim Samples, resigned on Friday “in recognition of the gravity of the situation that occurred under my watch” — that beingthe marketing campaign gone awry in Boston. With his resignation, I immediately join the Jim Samples Fan Club. At last, a key figure in a bad scene takes responsibility genuinely. He was in charge of an embarassment that cost his company big bucks and he paid the price. I’d hire him tomorrow.
The first day’s treatment of the network’s Boston scare was to poke fun at police for failing to recognize a marketing prank. But in the age of shoe-bombers and liquid explosive devices, I prefer cops who over-react and suppose the worst until convinced otherwise. Turner Broadcasting’s apology and $2 million payment to Boston authorities as compensation for costs incurred in dealing with the marketing dummies was warranted.
Item: Does the Anna Nichole Smith age of celebrity — famous for being famous — suggest that a first-term U.S. Senator famous for a speech he made to the Democratic National Convention have a shot at being elected President of the United States? U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) declared Saturday. The media loves this guy and, for the moment at least, he’s the beneficiary of its uncritical adulation. The suggestion here is not that he’s another Anna Nichole Smith, but to note that the public develops a fascination with some personalities and rewards them for being “famous.” I still think Hillary’s the Democratic nominee, but her capitulation to the party’s anti-war left in the face of Obama’s challenge erases any question about whether she has the strength of character to be President. She doesn’t. Like her husband, she’s a Poll Mold.
Item: I’ve never understood why any of us should get agitated about the so-called “Lexus lanes” on interstates, or by an airport security sytsem that allows frequent flyers to pay for a background screening check that would allow them to whiz through airport security lines. The idea that somebody could use their wealth to buy “special treatment” infuriates most Americans. Neither bothers me. Anything that shortens my line in traffic or in waiting to pass through airport screening suits me just fine.
Item: The Dixie Chicks win three top Grammys Sunday night. The judging standard for the Chicks is 20 percent music, 80 percent politics. In your eye, George Bush!




DEL.ICIO.US

Comments
By Howard
February 12, 2007 08:31 AM | Link to this
Jim…great column…I like the idea of you reviewing the weekend events. AQs for Barack Obama…has anyone checked out this guy seriously?? He’s further left than Hillary and is a danger to this country…his ideas are being hidden beneath the sheep’s clothing that is the mainstream media’s fawning and gushing. As for Hillary…if that evil woman does get the nomination, there will be no clearer choice for this country. Any Republican or independent that sits out the 2008 prez race because they don’t like Giuiliani or McCain or Romney because of some of their views is NUTS!!! Sitting out the election wil opnly elect that despicable female. If I was Barack, I’d watch my backl and not get in any 737 jets bound for overseas or venture near any parks in the DC area. Ask Ron Brown or Vince Foster. As for the Dixie Chick-en-!@##s, who watches those stupid awards shows anyway?? All they are…are political left lovefests…kinda like that insane Sundance Film Festival.
By Jeff
February 12, 2007 08:31 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten:
Our cracks are starting to show…
Item 1: Why the big fuss anyway? Turner should have never paid the $2 million and the CEO should never have resigned. This only fuels wackos who can claim to be scared of a hamburger.
Item 2: Obama will have my vote LONG before Hillary does. That being said, however, I spent quite a bit of time in airports this weekend on my way to and from an interview in Phoenix. (4 hours worth of layovers in ATL in particular.) So I watched quite a bit of this guy. He is also a Poll Mold, and his ideas are the exact OPPOSITE of individual freedom and individual responsibility. Therefore he also stands no chance with me.
Item 3: It won’t happen. As soon as it does, lawsuits will come saying people are not being treated “equally”, and they will win. Now, I’m not a fan of all this “equal” BS from people claiming that me getting into college instead of them is racist or any other -ist. HOWEVER, neither am I a fan of abuse of power, which I see these “Lexus Lanes” as an example of. Why should you get a free ride through traffic just because you have more money?
Item 4: My problem with DC was NOT their comments. At that point, I had never bought any of their records and decided that I never would, but I would listen to their songs on the radio. My problem was their attempts to silence the opinion of conservatives (and, admittedly, neocons - of which I was one at that point), notably with Maine’s infamous “FUTK” shirt… at a remote feed. She didn’t even have the COURAGE to be in the same venue and wear said shirt… then wants to disrespect our men and women who face bullets and bombs rather than words and tomatoes….
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 08:40 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. The tying theme of the four issues may be “character.” Generally agree with Jim’s assessment of Mr. Sample’s character; his lapse in judgment was failure to ensure his marketing goons contacted the police before setting out their toys. If you are going to use a city street for filming, it’s a good idea to talk to the police first.
BO on the other may have failed the character test this weekend. The Australian prime minister expressed his opinion that the terrorists would be delighted to see a cut and run democrat elected president of the US – not exactly a radical thought. BO could have done the rational thing, and just let it pass, but noooooooo, he had to tell the Aussie to stuff it – thus magnifying the original comment. Blew himself out of the water, and damaged his policy-switching rival at the same time.
Lexus lanes – certainly no socialist will tolerate the idea of using market forces to clear. The fact that such a self-imposed tax could be used to build new traffic lanes will likely escape their cognition.
President Carter at least got a Nobel Prize and big tax-free bucks for his treachery; the Dixie Chicks sold out for a metal victrola-shaped award.
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 08:46 AM | Link to this
Clarification - the “policy-switching rival” is Hilla-witch
By Bob J.
February 12, 2007 08:56 AM | Link to this
Fellow Rednecks,
At the time of the “I’m ashamed…” statement, The Dixie Chicks had a song at the top of the country charts, ironically, about a young VietNam soldier. We should have paid closer attention to the lyrics.
Forget the Grammys. On Iraq, the Dixie Chicks were right, and we were wrong.
By SusieHomeMaker
February 12, 2007 09:12 AM | Link to this
Oh right!! And Dumbya who has us in a loosing initiative in Afghanistan, (they’re begging for more allied help) AND a loosing initiative in Iraq, (he’s beggin for more allied help); and NOW he’s trying to push up on IRAN is NOT a danger to this country? Dude, you’d better get in shape because once the draft comes back they’re gonna need all the men they can get, no matter they’re age!!
Wooten:The Dixie Chicks win three Grammys Sunday night. The judging standard for the Chicks is 20 percent music, 80 percent politics
What would YOU know about music? Alternative Hitler Youth Music notwithstanding…..
By Jim's an Oligarch
February 12, 2007 09:14 AM | Link to this
Jim,
It’s tough to compare highways and airport lines (but I know how you like to use disparate examples to make your point). People going to the airport are paying for a service, not using a public resource. There are natural levels of deliniation there between services offered and types of users.
Highways are public resources that we all have to use. Your car is no better than mine and your tax dollars are of no more value than mine.
“But wait”, you say. “I pay more taxes than you, so I’m entitled to more highway.”
“You’re right,” I say. “That’s a failed model. Taxes for roads should be levied at the place that separates the heavy users from the light users - at the pump. Let’s slap a $1 a gallon tax on gas to fund the GA DOT…”
“That way,” I continue, “The people who use the resource the most are the ones who are funding the development and maintenance of that resource.”
“Oh”, I add, “and not only that, the tax is an incentive for light users to use alternate forms of transportation which can be funded with some of the gas tax, thereby reducing the amount of traffic messing up your commute and reducing the amount of construction work that must occur to grow that resource.”
“But wait again,” you say. “What about all of those paving contractors who are latched on to Georgia’s engorged DOT teat?”
“This isn’t about them,” I say. “It’s about us. Our roads suck.”
By Dixie Chicks Rule
February 12, 2007 09:14 AM | Link to this
The Chicks were right all along, the neocons were wrong. Deal with it losers.
By CJ
February 12, 2007 09:14 AM | Link to this
Since President Clinton left office with approximately a 63% approval rating, and our current President is likely to leave office with something in the low 30s — it seems that most Americans prefer a president who, at a minimum, considers their views over a “man of principal” who entirely ignores the views of the people he’s supposed to be representing.
Bush lied in his first campaign when he said that he thought the U.S. shouldn’t be involved in nation building. Bush lied when he said that he would cap carbon emissions. Bush lied when he said that he was a compassionate conservative — as he seeks to cut funding for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, law enforcement, and his own education program — all at the same time that he’s seeking to add billions to the already bloated military industrial complex.
Bush pulled a bait and switch on American voters, and most would take a “Poll Mold” over this guy any day.
By Brian
February 12, 2007 09:15 AM | Link to this
Let’s face it. Obama is a flash in the pan. The media gurus are falling down at his feet. There is no substance to Obama’s political background, personal background, and what kind of upbringing he had, and the mainstream media establishment won’t go there. We’ll all just have to see how Obama handles serious political pressure like having his ears made fun of.
The idea that somebody could use their wealth to buy “special treatment” infuriates most Americans.
No, it merely infuriates the Left in this nation. From their perspective, anything one has as an advantage over someone else is unfair and therefore must be eliminated. It’s the universal Fairness Doctrine of being a Liberal. In a perfect world, we’d all have the same bank account size, the same weight, the same homes & cars, live to the same age before dying, and so on. Unfortunately, utopian dreams aren’t reality, even as hard as the Left tries to make it as such..even at the expense of those who do have more than others. How more fair can you get?
The Dixie Twits winning Grammys is so non-shocking. The Oscars, the Grammys, and other awards shows have become nothing but political venues, especially since George W. Bush got in office. I stopped watching all awards shows years ago. During movies, you only hear what actors are told to say. I don’t care about their personal opinions. The same goes for singers. But back to the Twits, only time will tell if they and the Left who did’nt vote for war authority were right or wrong about Iraq. One of the main faults of the Left, and there are many, is that they want instant fixes for everything. The real world just doesn’t work that way.
By Men's Club
February 12, 2007 09:18 AM | Link to this
Ah hear no one has claimed Anna Nicole’s body. The men’s club will do so if no one else wants it, and if we are permitted to have it stuffed and mounted for display at our secret club house. Are those things real?
By Come the Revolution
February 12, 2007 09:21 AM | Link to this
Lexus drivers will be amoung the first to be put against the wall! So convenient that they label themselves via the car they drive.
By Van
February 12, 2007 09:22 AM | Link to this
Wow, who would have known. A group of girls know more about foreign policy than a whole city of experts.
I am certainly impressed. But I am ashamed that they are from Texas. California maybe, or New England, but not Texas. I am truly ashamed.
As for Turner and Company. I would have to ask where was their legal department? Talk about not doing due diligence.
By Jim want to be Bush's Propaganda Minister
February 12, 2007 09:24 AM | Link to this
But he does not have enough talent for the job, hence this blog to generate ideas for the intellectually weak nit wit.
By abc
February 12, 2007 09:27 AM | Link to this
I’d like to see a black man be the President, but I wish it was Colin Powell instead of Obama. I certainly hope that Hillary doesn’t win the nomination. To me, that’s just ridiculous!
Regarding tax increases and budgeting, I like Chip Rogers’ take on that. Perhaps state and federal budgets don’t relate to each other in such a way that his ideas would be applicable, or maybe they do. I like his thinking about it, at any rate. I’m not a Republican, either.
I don’t know what’s up with Dixie Chicks winning Grammies. I don’t care for them, but it’s not to do with their political psuedo-stances (although they could take a tablespoon of shutup); their personas are irritating to me, their music is simpleton, the singer sounds like a bug.
By Van
February 12, 2007 09:28 AM | Link to this
Re: Lexus Lanes and airport security.
Sounds like a bit of envy. The rewards of hard work is the ability to have a few things not everyone else has. If that is a frequent flier card that gets you through airport security faster, hooray for you.
There is not anything better than having earned a few extra bucks and reaping the rewards. To the socialists out there - eat your hearts out.
As to the Lexus lanes, I do not like them at all. I think they are a waste of time and effort on the part of the DOT. If they were mass transit lanes only, that might be different.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
February 12, 2007 09:32 AM | Link to this
Some more liberal media.
Jim, let’s form a group of like-minded individuals this very instant and sue the AP for this slandarous bit of libel. Lies. Nothing but lies:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sworn testimony in the perjury trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has shone a spotlight on White House attempts to sell a gone-wrong war in Iraq to the nation and Vice President Dick Cheney’s aggressive role in the effort.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald rested his case against Cheney’s former chief of staff on Thursday in a trial that has so far lasted 11 days. The defense planned to begin its presentation Monday.
The drama being played out in a Washington courtroom goes back in time to the early summer of 2003. The Bush administration was struggling to overcome growing evidence the mission in Iraq was anything but accomplished.
The claim about weapons of mass destruction that was used to justify the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 had not been supported. Insurgent attacks were on the rise. Accusations were growing that the White House had distorted intelligence to rationalize the invasion.
Trial testimony so far — including eight hours of Libby’s own audio-recorded testimony to a grand jury in 2004 — suggest that a White House known as disciplined was anything but that.
What has emerged, instead, is:
A vice president fixated on finding ways to debunk a former diplomat’s claims that Bush misled the U.S. people in going to war and his suggestion Cheney might have played a role in suppressing contrary intelligence.
A presidential press secretary kept in the dark on Iraq policy.
Top White House officials meeting daily to discuss the diplomat, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, and sometimes even his CIA-officer wife Valerie Plame.
Libby is accused of lying to the FBI and the grand jury about his talks with reporters concerning Plame. Libby got the White House press secretary to deny he was the source of the leak. He says he thought he first heard about Plame’s CIA job from NBC’s Tim Russert.
But after checking his own notes, he told the FBI and the grand jury Cheney himself told him Plame worked at CIA a month before the talk with Russert, but Libby says he forgot that in the crush of business.
Cheney already was helping manage the administration’s response to allegations that it twisted intelligence to bolster its case on Iraq when Wilson’s allegation — in a New York Times op-ed piece on July 6, 2003 — came into his cross hairs.
Cheney told Libby to speak with selected reporters to counter bad news. He developed talking points on the matter for the White House press office. He helped draft a statement by then-CIA Director George Tenet. He moved to declassify some intelligence material to bolster the case against Wilson.
Cheney even clipped Wilson’s column out of the newspapers and scrawled by hand on it: “Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an ambassador to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?”
Daily discussions on Wilson’s Africa trip Cheney and Libby discussed the matter multiple times each day, according to Libby’s grand jury testimony.
A former Cheney press aide, Cathie Martin, testified she proposed leaking some news exclusives but was kept partly in the dark when Cheney ordered Libby to leak part of a classified intelligence report. Later she arranged a luncheon for conservative columnists with Cheney to help bolster the administration’s case.
“What didn’t he touch? It’s almost like there was almost nothing too trivial for the vice president to handle,” said New York University professor Paul Light, an expert in the bureaucracy of the executive branch.
“The details suggest Cheney was almost a deputy president with a shadow operation. He had his own source of advice. He had his own source of access. He was making his own decisions,” Light said.
Wilson had written that he had not discovered any evidence that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa. Wilson also asserted that the administration willfully ignored his findings.
Bush mentioned the unsubstantiated Africa connection in his State of the Union address in 2003. The White House and the CIA disavowed the 16-word assertion shortly after Wilson’s criticism appeared in print.
A week after Wilson’s article, his wife’s CIA employment was disclosed in a column by Robert Novak, who wrote that two administration officials told him she suggested sending the former ambassador on the trip.
The disclosure led to a federal investigation into whether administration officials deliberately leaked her identity. Her job was classified and it is a crime to knowingly disclose classified information to unauthorized recipients.
Libby, 56, is not charged with that. He is charged with lying to the FBI and obstructing a grand jury investigation into the leak of Plame’s identity. Libby is the only one charged in the case.
Cheney was upset by Wilson’s suggestion that his trip was done at the vice president’s behest and that the vice president had surely heard his conclusions well before Bush repeated the Niger story in his speech.
The CIA later said Wilson’s mission was suggested by his wife but authorized by others. The agency said Wilson’s fact-finding trip was in response to inquiries made by Cheney’s office, the State Department and the Pentagon.
Spokesman appeared to be out of loop Testifying for the prosecution, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said he was surprised to find the administration was backing off the 16 words that he had been defending. He said it wasn’t the first time he spoke of the administration’s position with great certainty, only to find it had changed and nobody had bothered to let him know.
Fleischer acknowledged passing along Plame’s identity to two reporters. But he testified he did not know at the time that her CIA job was classified.
According to prosecution testimony, Libby had conversations about Plame’s identity with Cheney as well as with a Cheney spokeswoman, a undersecretary of state and two CIA officials before he talked to Russert. In addition, former New York Times reporter Judith Miller and former Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper testified that Libby discussed Plame’s CIA employment with them.
Russert, the final witness for the prosecution, flatly denied Libby’s assertion that the two had discussed Plame before Novak’s column appeared.
On the grand jury tapes, Libby also described steps that Cheney took to use parts of a 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, a classified assessment of Iraq’s weapons capabilities, to rebut Wilson.
Among those not informed about this Cheney maneuver, according to the Libby tapes, were then-White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr., then-CIA Director George J. Tenet and then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
“What was interesting to me was what appears to be the total involvement of the vice president,” said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar who worked in the Eisenhower and Nixon White Houses. “If he’s down to micromanaging news leaks and responses at that level, I found that quite astounding.”
Meantime, it’s become clear that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the first to disclose Plame’s work to reporters — Washington Post editor Bob Woodward and then Novak. Armitage says it was a mistake, claiming he didn’t know her job was classified.
Ultimately, he, Fleischer and special presidential adviser Karl Rove all have acknowledged talking to reporters about her. According to testimony, at least six reporters were privately told by top administration officials of Plame’s connection with the CIA.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
February 12, 2007 09:40 AM | Link to this
Van,
Nice way to repeat a flimsy myth. I’d be interested in seeing the stats you and Jim have relative to this “bit of envy” you describe.
Who are these people who are saying that having nice things as a result of working hard is bad? Ya’ll keep referring to “them”, but I don’t know who “they” are.
Do they have a lobby? You know, the Christain Coalition has a lobby, and their wish list can be pretty well detailed. But I’m just not seeing anything from this dubious group that you refer to as “the left” and all of these speculative wants of theirs.
As for me, I’m repeatedly refered to as one of “them”, but I’m perfectly fine with first class and high-use passengers at airports getting better treatment.
Let’s see that data so we can clear this up.
By Dusty
February 12, 2007 09:41 AM | Link to this
Hey,
I’m not worried about the Lexus Lane. I shall immediately demand a Chevy Cavalier lane for equal rights. That’s fair, isn’t it? My American made Cavie is a fine car and nobody is gonna speed by blowing their fancy fumes on my black beauty. No sir!!
By RJ
February 12, 2007 09:51 AM | Link to this
The Dixie Chicks received the wrath of fans and others for speaking their minds about President Bush and his war. The travesty here is the lack of tolerance for opposing viewpoints. Freedom of speech is a bedrock of our Democracy. The frightening aspect of this matter is how fear, generated by 911, decreases appreciation for rational thinking. Debate is the fuel for American Democracy.
The way those ladies were treated reminded me of the way the Japanese were treated in the 40s and McCarthyism in the 50s… all driven by fear.
Those who love freedom should not be condeming but praising their courage.
By JoeD
February 12, 2007 09:55 AM | Link to this
First of all, Jim, I don’t see why you would need to hire Samples. You do a pretty good job of creating embarrassments all by yourself. And is resigning the only way that a person can prove himself truly contrite? Cherry Picker, great article, but apparently you missed the news that Joe Wilson is actually the reason we went into Iraq. Ann Coulter said so (with irrefutable logic) and JBM shared that with us last week. Obama will be more closely scrutinized as the voting actually gets closer next year. Did you catch that? Next year. He is Now just announcing his candidacy. Did you want him to be eliminated before the first vote was cast? If he didn’t have some unqualified support at this point, he probably wouldn’t be running. Give the process a chance to work.
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 10:09 AM | Link to this
Dear JaCP @ 9:32, it is now incontrovertible that:
(1) Joe Wilson’s report, contrary to his representations and his intent, totally convinced the CIA that Saddam was seeking yellowcake in Niger,
(2) Joe Wilson lied when he said the Vice President’s office sent him to Niger on the CIA mission, when in fact it was his wife’s recommendation,
(3) Joe Wilson had published his wife’s CIA profession on his website long before the trip to Niger,
(4) Valerie Plame had not been a covert agent within six years of the publication in the newspapers,
(5) that Colin Powell’s aide, Richard Armitage, a non-Bush- or Cheney-insider was the source of the disclosure that reached the newspapers, and
(6) Patrick Fitzgerald was aware of all of the foregoing before Scooter Libby ever testified to the grand jury.
Libby is thus charged with lying to cover-up something that was not a crime in the first place, and giving false testimony because he and another disagree over their recollection of the facts. Andrea Mitchell may well support the Libby version of events, even though Tim Russert is her boss. Doubt that the leftists will laud her courage.
You were one of the “Karl Rove is evil” crowd, so you surely ask yourself, “why Libby instead of Rove?” There it seems Libby and Fitzgerald have crossed swords before. Back in the late 1980s, when Scooter Libby was in private law practice, career-government prosecutor Fitzgerald was chasing billionaire-leftist financier and thief Marc Rich, while Libby was doing some effective defense planning for Rich. Libby ultimately won that battle when Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, thus leaving Fitzgerald a serious case of prosecutus-interruptus. The only real difference between Fitzgerald and Mike Nifong is that Fitzgerald does not answer to voters or anyone else.
By Mid-South Philosopher
February 12, 2007 10:19 AM | Link to this
Good morning, Jim,
I am running a bit late with my verbiage today.
With respect to the myriad field of candidates for the Democratic and Republican nominations for the Presidency of the United States, I am not impressed. For every positive that can be enumerated for each candidate and equal negative can be deduced.
I think something has been overlooked by the pundits.
The United States has been (at least since 2000) and continues to be about evenly divided between the conservative and liberal trains of thought. There are damn few moderates in this country any more. Probably the abortion issue is the clearest manifestation of this phenomenon.
Consequently, how about a unity government?
Make the Vice President truly the President of the Senate, with responsibilities in the chamber.
Then, suppose we run Barack Obama and Mitt Romney…or maybe Newt Gingrich and John Edwards…or how about Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice…or even Mike Huckabee and Bill Richardson.
Likely we wouldn’t have more gridlock than we continue experience. Besides they could keep and eye on one another.
By Curious Observer
February 12, 2007 10:19 AM | Link to this
I think we could save a fortune in road-building if only we used wealth as the sole criterion for traffic accommodation.
People driving Lexuses, Mercedes, and BMWs would have the right to use the fully paved lanes on the left. Those in reasonably new Infinitis and high-end SUVs could use the gravel-paved lanes in the center. And the scum driving economy cars, older cars, panel trucks, and low-end pickup trucks would have to settle for the dirt lanes on the right. We could also have anti-Dixie Chicks signs marking the exits. And, of course, we could have “Trashy Anna Nicole” memorial markers designating the highways—as a fitting tribute to the sexual perversion so revered in the South.
My vision of conservatism has now fully crystallized. No wonder you guys lost the election and will lose many more to come. Even Hillary and Obama look outstanding in comparison. I’m glad I’m mostly bald; otherwise, I would have to tug on my forelock as a precondition of approaching your elite selves.
By jm
February 12, 2007 10:29 AM | Link to this
Just curious, how many people on this blog had ever watched “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” or even knew what it was. For the record, I have. Not something I would tivo.
Interesting comment on “the age of celebrity”, especially considering that the only thing our current president had going for him is his last name, Bush. Unfortunately, this one had the first name of George, not Jeb (you know, the competent one). At least Senator Obama has earned what he has on his own merits, not daddy’s connections. Isn’t the supposed to count for something among conservatives?
As for Lexus lanes, highways are public resources. If you afford to build your own highway, knock yourself out. Otherwise, they belong to the public.
By Dennis
February 12, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this
jbmlaw said @10:09, “4) Valerie Plame had not been a covert agent within six years of the publication in the newspapers.”
That’s really beside the point. Her outting revealed a CIA operation and its location (active or inactive) and possibly outted other still active or reassigned agents as well.
A good lawyer should know that. Why don’t you?
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 10:32 AM | Link to this
Dear Mid-South @ 10:19, would your argument be served by democrats nominating a truly-anti-abortion presidential nominee, or by republicans nominating a truly-pro-abortion nominee? While I doubt Sen. Casey – he is the only prominent anti-abortion democrat - has a chance at the democrat nomination, the WSJ seems to have switched its support from Mitt Romney to Rudy Giuliani. I could see Giuliani getting the republican nomination – he is the symbol of anti-terrorism in this country.
By Dusty
February 12, 2007 10:42 AM | Link to this
jbmlaw,
You did a great clarification job at 10:09. If only the news people could do as well.
Every day we seem to get some reporter who can’t remember, or remembers INCORRECTLY, or disagrees with other reporters, or like the Wasington Post, quotes the wrong report such as Levin’s comments instead of the official committee report. The Washington Post made a correction on the Levin fiasco but little is said about that. Now, Andrea Mitchell jokingly says that she was drunk when making her statements (with a laugh of course). What you see (or read) in the news these days is all to be taken with a big grain of salt.
By Gold Domer
February 12, 2007 10:46 AM | Link to this
So, what you’re saying is you are wealthy? Since when did the AJC start paying that well? Are you hooking for $10,000 a pop on the side or something? Or maybe Sonny has you in for a cut of the public trough to buy your silence?
By Mid-South Philosopher
February 12, 2007 10:51 AM | Link to this
Dear jbmlaw,
We elected George Bush thinking that he was a “less government, fiscal conservative.” We discovered that he is neither “less government” nor “fiscally” conservative. He borders on “social conservatiism” when it fits his purposes. When it doesn’t (like with the issue of immigration), he wanders away…probably lost in Alabama…
Now we have Hillary Clinton trying to dodge questions about her vote to support the war…which, incidentally was correct…and trying to out shine Barack Obama. Is it possible she is a closet conservative (in a liberal sort of way, of course).
Who knows about Giuliani? Once elected, he might turn out to make a reformation on social issues the like of which George Corley Wallace made on racial issues!
At least this election is not going to be boring.
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 10:52 AM | Link to this
Dear Dennis @ 10:31, you raise a great point with your argument on my #4, but does that not trouble you when you lay your argument across my #3 – that Joe Wilson had actually “outed” his wife? Why did he do that? To support the troops?
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 10:54 AM | Link to this
Thanks Dusty.
By Van
February 12, 2007 10:54 AM | Link to this
RJ,
What got the Dixie Clucks in trouble was 1) insulting the President (respect the office if not the man) and 2) doing it at a foreign venue. If they had the brass to do it here first that might have made a difference, look at Barbara Streisand and her anti-Bush concerts.
By Brian
February 12, 2007 10:56 AM | Link to this
Who are these people who are saying that having nice things as a result of working hard is bad? Ya’ll keep referring to “them”, but I don’t know who “they” are.
That they would be you unprincipled class warfare liberals, Cherry Picker. Shall we start with you people’s comments of tax breaks for the rich and work our way back? You Liberals can’t let a day go by without complaining about neocons driving SUVs and living in mcmansions. Denying that people are envious of success, especially you Liberals, is unbelievably laughable! Who needs a poll to prove it when we have this blog?
By getalife
February 12, 2007 10:56 AM | Link to this
“At a farewell reception at Blair House for the retiring chief of protocol, Don Ensenat, who was President Bush’s Yale roommate, the president shook hands with Washington Life Magazine’s Soroush Shehabi. “I’m the grandson of one of the late Shah’s ministers,” said Soroush, “and I simply want to say one U.S. bomb on Iran and the regime we all despise will remain in power for another 20 or 30 years and 70 million Iranians will become radicalized.”
“I know,” President Bush answered.
“But does Vice President Cheney know?” asked Soroush.
President Bush chuckled and walked away.”
No laughing matter w.
cheney runs the WH, w is just the idiot with the title.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
February 12, 2007 11:02 AM | Link to this
Jbmlaw,
Like I said. We shold sue the AP for their slanderous and treasonous report.
You’re a lawyer. Pursue it. The AP is lying.
And in your professional, legal opinion, isn’t this a bit like Clinton being tried for lying about something that wasn’t illegal?
What’s all the fuss about? Lying under oath? Is that it?
If I were you, I’d go sue AP. Whining about it here does no good.
By Brian
February 12, 2007 11:02 AM | Link to this
People driving Lexuses, Mercedes, and BMWs would have the right to use the fully paved lanes on the left. Those in reasonably new Infinitis and high-end SUVs could use the gravel-paved lanes in the center. And the scum driving economy cars, older cars, panel trucks, and low-end pickup trucks would have to settle for the dirt lanes on the right.
Thank you Curious Observer. Cherry Picker, there’s your Liberal class warfare example. Who needs polls to prove Conservative points when we have this blog.
By AstroPain
February 12, 2007 11:05 AM | Link to this
If the Dixie Chick doesn’t have a fit, the our president has quit.
They’ll stand down when bush steps down.
Clown.
By Redneck Convert
February 12, 2007 11:06 AM | Link to this
Well, I’m real upset that the traters Dixie Chicks won that award. My favarite country radio stations won’t play them and that’s good for us all. Anybody that critasizes my President is nothing but a trater. That bunch of libruls was dead set on giving us good folk a black eye. Ought to take them out and horse whip them, like my daddy did the uppity part of Those People.
Up here in north Forsyth, we are all in morning about Nicole Anne. She was a good Southren girl. And like a good Southren girl, she was in a lot of mens beds but never got caught in one. While northren girls get caught. My buddy Jim Earl keeps saying I ought to sue to get that dotter and the money. He says so many men could be the dad that I have as good a chance as anyone.
I don’t care much about the Lexus lane or paying to get 1st in line at the airport. I ain’t never flew and I don’t own a Lexus, so it ain’t nothing to me. I figure all the rich people will just crowd that lane and get in wrecks and have to use the poor folk lane anyway. And you can bet there will be a shootout when some nut like TFTT gets cut off and looses his temper again. There’s only so far that saying “bollocks” and them other English words can go before it comes to blazing away. I been warning you all for a long time. His L-avater don’t go to the top floor.
I’d hate to see my Vice Presadint Cheney in jail but it looks like its headed that way. Sooner or later that Libby guy won’t be able to keep his mouth shut and he’ll tell. If it wasn’t for the libruls we wouldn’t be having this trial. Maybe Anna Nicole would still be living if a bunch of librul press people had left her alone and then I’d have a chance of being the daddy of one of her kids. You never know what you are going to find in your bed down here in the South.
Well, the Baptists really cleaned out the stock at the bars this weekend, so I’m having to hump case after case of beer from the truck to the bars. I went into a new one a while ago and some squirrely guy with make-up asked if I wanted to dance. I didn’t see no women around, so I told him no. Have a good day, everybody.
By Van
February 12, 2007 11:07 AM | Link to this
Jim’s a Cherry Picker,
“Them” refers to the far left socialists. Those are the folks that feel everyone should be treated equally. No one should have a reservation at a restaurant, no one should be allowed to fly first class, no one should drive a kraut-mobile and everyone should be able to have a living wage regardless of the effort they put into the job.
You know, the old Marx and Engel’s “From each according to their means, to each according to their needs.” Or some wording like that.
Is it fair for me to live in a 3000 sq. ft. house on 3/4 acres while some are living in a 675 sq. ft. apartment? Is it fair for me to have only a high school education, but work at a large blue chip IT firm while people with degrees from liberal arts colleges are flipping burgers?
To each according to what they can attain. Work hard and attain all you can. A home, financial security, looking after your family, raising good smart kids, giving to charities and other worthy organizations, supporting your church and its ministries, being a good, fair person.
Wait - that is the description of a conservative.
By Dusty
February 12, 2007 11:08 AM | Link to this
MidSouth,
Now you are making jokes! Hillary Clinton a *closet conservative”???
I think Hillary would rather be in the infamous “Black Hole of Calcutta” than in a conservative closet. (And I’d rather be in ‘said hole’ than vote for her.)
Ohh, that’s a good one, Mid South.
By Dennis
February 12, 2007 11:12 AM | Link to this
jbmlaw @10:52 said, Dear Dennis @ 10:31, you raise a great point with your argument on my #4, but does that not trouble you when you lay your argument across my #3 – that Joe Wilson had actually “outed” his wife? Why did he do that? To support the troops?
Well, that’s interesting. and if you can give me a source for that I’ll send it on to Libby’s lawyers and Libby should be a free man within 24 hours.
In fact, why don’t you do it. You’re welcome to the credit and no doubt, Libby, Rove and in particular, Cheney, will be greatful. Hell, you might even get a position in the White House as their new attorney general. God only knows we need a good one.
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By harold
February 12, 2007 11:13 AM | Link to this
the only problem with lexus lanes is eventually they will all be lexus lanes and we will just have a toll road
of course, harold does not think that’s a problem if the tolls have the road users paying for the roads instead of taxpayers paying for the roads.
road users need to pay daily in cash for their roads so they can realize how absurdly expensive driving a car everywhere is.
harold says “make every lane on every road a lexus lane! except the HOV lane. leave it as the one free lane.”
Harold does not care what Hilary and Barracks are up to. They need to STFU until next year. They are the ticket, the only question is who will be the P and who will be the VP? Until they decide that, STFU about them!
By KP
February 12, 2007 11:19 AM | Link to this
Van,
The other side: The ones in that 675 SF apartment call it a condo and they own your blue chip IT firm.
By harold
February 12, 2007 11:21 AM | Link to this
!!!!!!!!CYNTHIA MCKINNEY PARKWAY SHOULD BE RENAMED DIXIE CHICKS SPEEDWAY!!!!!!!!!
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
February 12, 2007 11:22 AM | Link to this
Van,
Well, since you feel obliged to lump eveyone who disagrees with you into that category, I’ll do the same.
Moving forward, “ya’ll” are a bunch of intolerant, bible-thumping, gun-toting, corrupt, morally suspicious, self-righteous, greedy, paranoid, racist white sepratists.
I’m sorry that it has to come to this, but since generalizing large swaths of humanity helps you bang your square peg into whatever round circle is in front of you, I feel compelled.
Oh, and I don’t have any data that backs up my assumption, but that’s ok. It helps me make my arguments so I use it.
By JP
February 12, 2007 11:27 AM | Link to this
SusieHomeMaker @ 9:12AM, I’m with you 110%.
Some Faux News anchor recently bashed the Academy Awards—intended to spotlight the best in film arts—because the nominees weren’t movies he’d seen at the local multiplex. Apparently he’s confused the Academy Awards with the MTV Movie Awards. Howard seems to have the same problem.
I’m not a Chicks’ fan, but I respect their stand. Freedom-loving Americans should take dissent as a CHALLENGE to establish better evidence and deliver a more persuasive argument, rather than bashing their patriotism.
Mid-South Phil, I suggest you look into Unity08. There’s a movement toward the direction you seek, and I’m somewhat on board at the moment. Need more convincing, but the idea has some merit.
By harold
February 12, 2007 11:30 AM | Link to this
“ya’ll are a bunch of intolerant, bible-thumping, gun-toting, corrupt, morally suspicious, self-righteous, greedy, paranoid, racist white sepratists.”
not true! there are probably some black folk reading this. they’s intolerant, bible-thumping, gun-toting, corrupt, morally suspicious, self-righteous, greedy, paranoid, racist black sepratists.
By Stella Nuther
February 12, 2007 11:32 AM | Link to this
The market seems to have approved of the Bush adminisration. Long bull market. Market must approve the war too. The market is the litmus test. The country appears strong. The media can make it seem that everything is going to H in a hand basket, but when you look back at the last twenty years, overall, no matter what the media protrays, the USA keeps getting better. People keep buying things. The world just passes us by when we try to declare an era or a trend. We can never know what’s really going on, only assume that it’s all for the best and keep the faith.
By Doing the Math
February 12, 2007 11:42 AM | Link to this
The market seems to have approved of the Bush adminisration.
That oil and defense stocks have raised the overall “market” performance does not equate to a strong economy for most Americans.
If 49 of us bloggers were in a room with Bill Gates, our combined and average net worth would be BILLION$. To say that “the room” is doing great, based on those numbers is false. Most of us are paying more for less every year on stagnated wages. A few folks are doing great. Unless you are a “socialist” GASP! Call the Exorcist! who thinks we actually all share that money, then your “point” is a non-point.
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 11:46 AM | Link to this
Dear Dennis @ 11:12, this is all old news: WSJ, 2/1/2006, http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007888 WSJ, 9/15/2006, http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008948 I previously supplied the info on Ann Coulter’s brilliant argument; advise if you need that again. You err in giving me credit for anything; all I know is what I read in the papers.
By tired
February 12, 2007 11:50 AM | Link to this
Doing the math:
You really should use some form of statistics to make your point, not just your word!
The market is a great indicator.
By harold
February 12, 2007 11:56 AM | Link to this
statistics are nothing more than the word of some statistician
By Van
February 12, 2007 11:56 AM | Link to this
KP,
maybe they have a bit of Big Blue, but then again I have some of the Retail REITs they use.
By Devastator
February 12, 2007 12:03 PM | Link to this
The Dow Jones setting records is a good indicator of what’s going on economically, but don’t forget other factors, such as unemployment, an idiotic war and increased competition from foreign nations(Toyota surpassing Ford).
By melo
February 12, 2007 12:12 PM | Link to this
DEAR HEAD IN THE SAND CREW, Welcome to real world
The Dixie chicks win BIG and BO is all over the map.Redneck hatrade is in the air.
Jim was up till 11.30pm like the lefties, watching the Grammys!!pseudo redneck?
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 12:12 PM | Link to this
Dear Devestator @ 12:03, you suffer from “economics deficit.” In market economies, competition comes from companies, not nations. Your appeal to xenophobia notwithstanding, Toyota is about as American as any other automobile company. They now have multiple plants in the US – it is almost impossible to buy a Japanese-made Toyota, and you can buy stock (ADRs, actually) on the NYSE.
By Doing the Math
February 12, 2007 12:14 PM | Link to this
Tired, bend over, and I’ll put some out of your behind. Isn’t that where you keep them?
If I had Exxon stock, I’d be doing great in the current economy! If I can’t afford stock, because insurance, health care, fuel, and utility costs keep rising and my wages don’t, and several hundred decent-paying jobs in my town were outsourced last year, then it ain’t so great.
You say “people keep buying things?” Don’t you mean: people (like our government) keep buying things ON CREDIT they can’t afford, resulting in debt they can never repay, setting up financial disaster, which is the opposite of strong economy?
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 12:20 PM | Link to this
Dear Devestator @ 12:03, your “unemployment” note puzzles me. Total employment when President Clinton left office was 136.0 million (ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/History/empsit.02022001.news) Today it is 146.0. (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_02022007.pdf) Ten million more jobs, despite the dotcom bust, the world trade center attack, the war in Iraq. Frankly that sounds like pretty good economic performance.
By Dennis
February 12, 2007 12:27 PM | Link to this
By jbmlaw February 12, 2007 11:46 AM said, “Dear Dennis @ 11:12, this is all old news: WSJ, 2/1/2006, http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007888 WSJ, 9/15/2006, http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008948 I previously supplied the info on Ann Coulter’s brilliant argument; advise if you need that again. You err in giving me credit for anything; all I know is what I read in the papers.”
JMB, you need to read a better paper.
OK, and I will read those articles. But NOTHING by Ann Coulter. That dame belongs on a stool in a bar somewhere.
In the meantime, if what the articles state is correct, then why hasn’t the justice department called off this whole thing a long time ago; after all, could not Gonzales as attorney general squelch it all in a moment, or is there a case? It seems now that even Cheney could be on the witness stand - something he has tried desperately to avoid.
(Thankfully he’s not being questioned by Tim Russert).
For your viewing pleasure, I just ran across this site; http://www.morethings.com/images/anncoulter/anncoulterphotogallery01.htm
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By Devastator
February 12, 2007 12:27 PM | Link to this
JBMlaw,
I’m aware that competition comes from companies, that’s kind of why I used a company as an example. Also, I was referring to technological advances in certain areas, like autos or techs. It think its wonderful that they have offices here, but that’s nothing in comparison to the headquarters there. What are you going to do when Ford goes bankrupt? Still buy Toyota stock? I hope so, I’ll sell it to you.
By melo
February 12, 2007 12:27 PM | Link to this
IS THE MISSION ACCOMPLISHED YET?, OH BY THE WAY, THE TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD GRADUATE SAY IT IS!
BRAVO COMRADES.
By jm
February 12, 2007 12:28 PM | Link to this
As Mark Twain said: “There are lies, damn lies and statistics”. You can prety much spin economic indicators anyway you choose to try and make the point you are trying to make.
Shoot, it is amazing how many people the last 25+ years have made the national debt and federal deficit sound like a “good thing”.
By Rod
February 12, 2007 12:29 PM | Link to this
Jim, you’re critisizing the Clintons for caring about what the US public thinks?
Oh yeah, that’s right - you agree with Georgie Bush who says “to hell with what Americans think, I’m gonna stay in Iraq.”
I’d much more gladly vote for a candidate who has the interests of the country at heart - not just his own bloated ego.
By Rod
February 12, 2007 12:32 PM | Link to this
Jim - do you ever check your facts before writing? Oops, sorry - I guess it’s obvious he doesn’t.
“The Dixie Chicks win three Grammys Sunday night.”
WRONG. The Dixie Chicks won five Grammys - including the three biggest awards out there: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year.
Ever check your facts Jim? (If you did, you’d be a Bush Basher!)
By harold
February 12, 2007 12:37 PM | Link to this
harold does not want a 2nd clinton any more than harold wanted a 2nd bush
division of powers should have an exclusion about families retaining control such that anybody becomes president no descendant of theirs can for at least 4 terms from their departure from office
By Rick
February 12, 2007 12:38 PM | Link to this
jbmlaw - are you that stupid? You say there are 10 million more employed - uh, yeah, but that’s because it’s several years later and more people have entered the job market. DUH?
The unemployment rate is higher under Bush. Try comparing apples to apples, not to oranges.
By Doug
February 12, 2007 12:39 PM | Link to this
Did the Dusty/RW/Buy Danish/Marcus ship of fools UE checks finally run out? Did he/she/they finally have to get a job?
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 12:40 PM | Link to this
Dear Dennis @ 12:27, you erroneously assume I do not read the AJC; I do. As to your willful blindness re: Chairman Ann’s brilliant argument, I can understand why you don’t want to be in a position where you have to confront irrefutable logic; you can continue to argue from ignorance.
By MarkP
February 12, 2007 12:43 PM | Link to this
Correction: The Dixie Chicks’ grammy awards were 100% about music, 0% about politics. The Nashville and Branson-based Country Music Industry, on the other hand, are now 0% about music, 100% about politics. No other music genre has been so dominated by associations with specific political causes and issues while producing such a bland generic product. The Dixie Chicks were one of a few exceptions, but then they had the gall to publicly state an opinion contrary to Charlie Daniels and Toby Keith, apparent spokespersons for the industry, leading to the Dixie Chicks’ mutual defection from / disownment by the Country Music Industry. The last gasp of decent country music that was acknowledged as such by the Industry was probably in the early nineties. The songs and albums that gained the Dixie Chicks their grammies this year fetaure great music, as have their previous albums. Long live all of the country music outlaws.
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 12:45 PM | Link to this
Dear Rick @ 12:38, I agree that one of us probably is uninformed, but I disagree with your analysis. I understand that workers, when discouraged, leave the market and give up trying to find jobs, as they did in droves at the end of the Clinton administration. I am also smart enough to see real growth – not the inflated stock prices of the dotcom era, but one where tax cuts stimulated true job formation and long-term expansion. These are the good times.
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 12:49 PM | Link to this
Dear Mark P @ 12:43, so all music awards except the Grammys are political? Are you on the payroll of NARAS?
By Doing the Math
February 12, 2007 12:52 PM | Link to this
Hey! The stock market IS a good indicator of success if your name is Bush and you’re willing to break some rules, through a few favors around, and keep it all between friends and family. Can’t make this stuff up, folks. Money gone from treasury - money into Bush pockets! Lexus lanes, here they come!
By 911
February 12, 2007 12:53 PM | Link to this
wait a minute,you say that the people on the left are envious of rich people who get special privliages because they “earned” the right to be in 1st class,and have the lexus lane.But yall get mad at young,rich,black athletes like Mike vick who yall say are spoiled thugs who gets special priviliages because he’s rich!(remeber the airport incident?)yall hate young black rich rappers who wear flashy jewerly and drive fancy cars. And yall hate O.J because he got off because he was rich. Now whose jealous of who?
By Magneto
February 12, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
911:
Please don’t ever blog here again. You cannot see past race and don’t have the intelligence to use proper english when speaking. This is not a children’s blog, get lost.
By Quick Observation
February 12, 2007 01:04 PM | Link to this
Quick observation — It took over five years for both federal revenues and the Dow, under Bush, to reach the heights they were at under Clinton (so much for the Laffer curve argument to support Bush’s tax cuts).
I’m sorry, but celebrating such recent “all time highs” as evidence of Bush’s economic competence is like telling your wife that it was great that you were laid-off in 2001 because you’re finally earning more today than you did back then (which, by the way, is exactly what has happened to millions of families).
By harold
February 12, 2007 01:05 PM | Link to this
jbmlaw you must remember that 20 million AMERICANS lost their jobs and got replaced with 30 million MEXICANS and THAT is why employment is higher
By My dreams long passed
February 12, 2007 01:10 PM | Link to this
Regarding the Dixie Chicks, Anna Nicole Smith, and Rosie O’Donnell, I can only say that I hope hell is a never ending treadmill. Run pigs run!
By JoeD
February 12, 2007 01:11 PM | Link to this
jbm, first, neither of the two citations say Joe Wilson outed his wife first. They mention his 2004 book, which was after she was outed. And as I noted on Friday, where has this “brilliant, irrefutably logical” argument been for the last three years. Why hasn’t Cheney or anyone else in the administration, or Libby, for that matter, raised it? Is Charwoman Ann just that much smarter than everyone else? Or has it just taken her three years to come up with some story to try and let the Bush administration off the hook?
By jbmlaw rationalizations
February 12, 2007 01:11 PM | Link to this
jbmlaw wrote “I am also smart enough to see real growth – not the inflated stock prices of the dotcom era, but one where tax cuts stimulated true job formation and long-term expansion. These are the good times.”
Let me get this straight. So the longest peace time economic expansion ever under Clinton — when government deficits were falling and surpluses were materializing — wasn’t real? On the other hand, the economic fits and starts under Bush — much of which is generated by government deficits and war time spending — is real?
jbmlaw — Such rationalizations do not serve you well.
By Dusty
February 12, 2007 01:12 PM | Link to this
Doug @ 12:39
Sorry you can’t read. I’ve been posting this morning with a nice discussion tone.
Whatsa matter? You want to be a prevaricator, commentator, agitator or sissyphant simpleton and can’t find a good name calling suspect?
If you are looking for a ship of fools, there’s plenty here but none are conservative.
By JoeD
February 12, 2007 01:27 PM | Link to this
Van, @11:07, which conservative were you describing?
By Old Teacher
February 12, 2007 01:35 PM | Link to this
jbmlaw re: your 10:09. I couldn’t find any support for your #3 in either article. I read both twice. Could you direct me to the appropriate paragraph of which article? Both articles seem to be opinions of the authors, similar to the op-eds of the New York Times re Bill Clinton’s impeachment, instead of verifiable information.
By melo
February 12, 2007 01:49 PM | Link to this
Do not worry about this jbmlaw woman. Shim is too senile to research.
By Van
February 12, 2007 01:56 PM | Link to this
JoeD,
Just a regular old fashion conservative.
By Van
February 12, 2007 01:59 PM | Link to this
911,
I would be just as critical of a well dress white rich guy caring on like Mike Vick.
Regardless of your wealth or lack of wealth, a class act is just that. Childish actions earn all the respect they deserve.
By Doug
February 12, 2007 02:20 PM | Link to this
By Dusty
February 12, 2007 01:12 PM | Link to this
If you are looking for a ship of fools, there’s plenty here but none are conservative.
Since there are no TRUE conservatives here, I think that the ship of fools is full up today. And Dusty, you are the captain.
By melo
February 12, 2007 02:26 PM | Link to this
The Dixie chicks also got Death threats for voicing their opinion on President DUMB’s Iraq War.I wonder who, among the HEAD IN THE SAND CLUB members, was responsible.
Reminds of SCOOTER THE LIMP LIBBY and MY DICK, THE CHENEY. Their strategies reminds me of Hitler’s GESTAPO.
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 02:27 PM | Link to this
Dear JoeD @ 1:11, Oldteacher @ 1:35, and Melo @ 1:49, I understand you guys are incapable of learning anything on your own and that you rely on the genius of conservatives to spoon feed you. As to how Joseph Wilson indisputably outed his wife, a good place to start is wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair “In that column Novak also claims to have learned Mrs. Wilson’s maiden name “Valerie Plame” from his [Joe Wilson’s] entry in Who’s Who In America,[19] though it was her CIA status rather than her maiden name which was a secret.”
All Novak did was conjoin Wilson’s disclosure of his wife’s name with the “public secret” in the second WSJ link I provided: “There was a crime only if Ms. Plame were covert and the person revealed that fact with knowledge of her status. Mr. Fitzgerald learned during the investigation that not one person had any basis to think she was covert. Just ask Mr. Armitage, who asserted in his apologia, ‘I had never seen a covered agent’s name in any memo … in 28 years of government.’ “During the investigation Mr. Fitzgerald learned that a former New York Times reporter, Cliff May, twice told the FBI that, prior to Mr. Novak’s column, he had heard in an offhand way from a nongovernment employee that Mr. Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, a clear indication that her employment was known on the street. Ditto columnist Hugh Sidey, who wrote that Ms. Plame’s name was ‘knocking around in the sub rosa world … for a long time.’” Hope that helps you guys. Dear JR @ 1:11, I understand you do not distinguish illusory (i.e., “phony”) economy from substantial growth. I also suspect you do not acknowledge that the then-coming recession – which G. W. Bush was smart enough to identify during the 2000 campaign, remember his call for tax cuts immediately, to prevent the recession? – began before the change in administrations. The recession that eventually proved to have begun in March 2000 was attributable to the economic policies that went before – economic rule of jbmlaw says an 18 month lag is about right. The growth we see today is attributable to the economic policies that went before – same 18 months rule. By my assessment, G. W. Bush is responsible for the effects of his policies after (around) July 2002.
By jbmlaw
February 12, 2007 02:37 PM | Link to this
Dear JoeD @ 1:11, Oldteacher @ 1:35, and Melo @ 1:49, please keep me posted in the event you have additional questions. I have sources for all. I have to run, may not get back today.
By Middle America
February 12, 2007 02:39 PM | Link to this
Two items:
First, Barack Obama is famous because he is intelligent and articulate in addition to his unique background as the son of a mixed couple and his rise to become the first African-American head of the Harvard law review. People like myself are drawn to intelligent candidates who can put more than 10 words together without sounding like they were plucked from a local gas station and asked to read a cue card like GWBush. I want to know that the most powerful man in the world is more intelligent than myself. And for the last 6 years I feel like our country is being run by a borderline mental reject. Not to mention that Obama represents what our country is all about….opportunity. Opportunity for EVERYONE, not just sons of former presidents or congressmen or for WASP’s.
Secondly, if you took 30 minutes to listen to the Dixie Chicks album that won 5 Grammy’s you’d realize that they made a pretty damn good album and that not everything in entertainment is done to p** off old white guys in power. Any music lover knows that really good songwriting often comes from traumatic and life changing experiences. And I think having their lives threatened (to the point of a place and time) and being completely blackballed from their music genre qualifies as traumatic and life changing. And the result was an album of real anger, pain, regret. But just like the millions of country fans, the radio stations, etc., you pre-judged based on a few details that you know and will continue to have a closed mind about things that you don’t agree with. And for that, you are very sad.
By Doug
February 12, 2007 02:40 PM | Link to this
All of this will be moot come November of 08. The great American backlash of 06 will be complete. Never again will this country be so fooled by the neo-cons. And by the way, did anyone see the total fool that Douglas Feith made of himself Sunday morning?
By 911
February 12, 2007 02:44 PM | Link to this
…speak correct english?ain’t that how yall rednecks talk in cherokee county? Anyway my point is don’t get mad at the next rich athlete or rapper who gets special privilages Because they are rich! And don’t get mad at OJ because he got off because he is rich. I’m just repeating what jim and some other bloggers said.
By melo
February 12, 2007 02:44 PM | Link to this
Dear JoeD @ 1:11, Oldteacher @ 1:35, and Melo @ 1:49, I understand you guys are incapable of learning anything on your own and that you rely on the genius of conservatives to spoon feed you. As to how Joseph Wilson indisputably outed his wife, a good place to start is wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affairJBMLAW
U spend your entire day hooked on the net to give us this hogwash. Why bother when the case is in the courts right now? Enjoy your retirement!!
Some savy boomers are in Florida as we speak whilst you waiting to take up your night shift at Walmart, or is it Publix? Dont worry us about moot points. Bush senior lost the election.Move on.
We are in the last throes of a HORRIBLE PRESIDENT DUMB LEGACY and STUPID LOST WAR.Concentrate your research on how u can help to ameliorate the situation in IRAQ-YOUR MIDDLE EAST VIETNAM.
By jbmlaw rationalizations
February 12, 2007 02:52 PM | Link to this
jbmlaw —
It is you who do not distinguish illusory economy (one underwritten by federal deficits and war) from substantial growth (one underwritten by private sector growth). The position you take on the economy under Clinton when deficits were decreasing vs. that under Bush when deficits are rising is ironic considering the views you espouse.
By the way, see the post at 1:04 where the person observed that it took Bush policies over five years to reach the levels of the Dow and federal revenues previously reached under Clinton. Your 18 months rule does not help your cause.
By Stella Nuther
February 12, 2007 02:55 PM | Link to this
If the Dixie Chicks dont (have a) fit, then W must have quit.
By Amber
February 12, 2007 02:56 PM | Link to this
Middle America at 2:39,
Thanks for those excellent comments!
By melo
February 12, 2007 02:57 PM | Link to this
I have to run, may not get back today-JBMLAW Like i said, you have to go. We understand. Its almost 3.00 pm, the traffic will be bad after that. Do you work at the Walmart in Cartersville? Will hear from you tomorrow morning.Make sure you get some of that QT coffee on your way to the library computers!!
By JoeD
February 12, 2007 03:03 PM | Link to this
jbm, it seems to me the important fact was that she was a CIA agent. Wilson just listed his wife’s name in his biography. Novak told the world she was a CIA agent, and says that he got the information that Wilson was sent by his wife from a long conversation with an administration official. Your “irrefutable” logic eludes me. You seem to be arguing that it is not a crime to have revealed her name, which may or may not be the case given her status since 1997. But the fact that Joe Wilson put her name in his bio is not evidence he “outed” her as a CIA agent. And my earlier comment was based on the fact that your two WSJ citations did not say that Wilson outed his wife. You need to go back and read the articles yourself. If this is relying on conservative genius, then we can see why all is going so well in the administration these days. I for one won’t be asking for your help on anything anytime soon if this is the best you can do.
By Renee
February 12, 2007 03:07 PM | Link to this
My dreams long passed - I’m sure you’ll personally get to find out what hell is like!
By Curious Observer
February 12, 2007 03:10 PM | Link to this
Joe D,
jbmlaw is to law and logic as I am to handsomeness and beauty.
There is an old adage that applies here. Never wrestle in the mud with a pig. You just get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.
By JoeD
February 12, 2007 03:17 PM | Link to this
Good advice, curiosu observer. I will remember that.
By Dennis
February 12, 2007 03:17 PM | Link to this
By jbmlaw said, February 12, 2007 12:40 PM “Dear Dennis @ 12:27, you erroneously assume I do not read the AJC; I do.”
I do agree with you that the AJC is a better paper than the WSJ. Especially Tucker, Bookman, King. Wooten is a good writer even when he’s “irrefutably” wrong.
Coming from a conservative background as I do, Wooten will make a great liberal when he wakes up.
“As to your willful blindness re: Chairman Ann’s brilliant argument, I can understand why you don’t want to be in a position where you have to confront irrefutable logic; you can continue to argue from ignorance.”
Well, Counselor, I will state my case again; It was the Justice Department I believe that initatited this investigation. If there is no case, then why are we still having this trial?
(Please note, that I have tamed this reply down from one previously sent - apparently it was not posted because of a sentence I made about Ann Coulter, for which I do not apologize).
Also, Counselor, I looked about two/three hours ago and Ari Fleischer is not looking too good right now.
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By J
February 12, 2007 03:33 PM | Link to this
man, you people have a lot of time on your hands
I didn’t even bother reading most of the pabulum here…just wanted to make a small observation:
I think, as far as the Dixie Chicks Grammys thing goes, people are missing the actual politics involved: I don’t think the issue is liberals vs. conservatives (or Bushies, or whatever), but rather Hollywood vs. Nashville. More specifically, the organization that puts on the Grammys vs. the Country Music Association; they don’t like each other, and I think NARAS was trying to make CMA look bad.
really, I don’t care - in either case, it’s “record industry lowlifes” (to quote The Simpsons) awarding themselves for making money…
By JMB-AIN'T-NO-LAWYER
February 12, 2007 03:58 PM | Link to this
BUT HE SURE NEEDS ONE, AS ALL FOUR OF HIS DAUGHTERS HAVE BEEN ARRESTED OR ARE ABOUT TO BE ARRESTED. WHILE DADDY WAS PLAYING THE BIG MAN ON A BLOG, THE LITTLE HONEYS WERE OUT BEATING UP SOME FAT UGLY WOMEN, REPORTEDLY A BY DANISH OR DUSTY SOMETHING OR ANOTHER. HERE IS THE STORY: Adjust font size: BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) — A gang of girls attacked a woman at a discount store, hitting and kicking her and tearing off her clothes, said police, who arrested a 10-year-old girl accused of being involved.
The girl, who was not identified, was charged with assault and battery for kicking the 22-year-old woman in the head and stomach on Sunday, said Officer Eddy Chrispin.
The three other girls were not arrested, but police said they would seek criminal complaints against them. Their names and ages were not released.
The woman apparently had bumped into the 10-year-old girl in an aisle at a Target store and refused to apologize, Chrispin said. Witnesses told police the four girls then knocked the customer to the floor “where she was being hit, her hair was being ripped out, and her pants were taken off,” he said.
The victim, a fat stinky woman going by the name of Dusty aka By Danish was treated at a hospital that specializes in bariatric patients with foul body odor.
By JMBLAW to be arrested for impersonating a lawyer
February 12, 2007 04:08 PM | Link to this
The georgia bar association has sworn out a complaint for a blogger that goes by the handle of jmblaw for impersonating a lawyer, giving false legal advice, and generally embarassing the profession. Orders have been given to the police to shoot on sight, as this blogger has a very foul body odor that precludes any physical contact with law enforcement officers.
By Jim's a Cherry Picker
February 12, 2007 04:42 PM | Link to this
Ha:
“House approves concealed gun bill By Jeremy Redmon | Monday, February 12, 2007, 03:49 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s House of Representatives approved legislation today that would allow motorists to conceal loaded firearms in their cars.
Georgia’s police chiefs association and other critics say House Bill 89 would endanger police making traffic stops.
Proponents say the measure would extend their Second Amendment rights from their homes to their cars and let them place firearms in easy reach to defend against criminals.
The House approved the bill on a 130 to 38 vote. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.”
I’ll wait till Sonny signs it into law to begin my “road-rage shootout: when and where” countdown/pool.
Ten bucks a square. My money is on the Windy Hill/Hwy 41 intersection…day one.
By Dusty
February 12, 2007 04:56 PM | Link to this
I see the juvenile demented delinquent has arrived home from the “institute”. 3:58 & 4:08 sad case. Go play basketball or something, fellow. Maybe you can get one in the basket. But I doubt it. You show all the signs of a loser.
By ultram
February 12, 2007 05:11 PM | Link to this
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By Markus
February 12, 2007 05:14 PM | Link to this
Well here’s something you won’t see Chris “Softballs” Matthews, George Steponanoctapus, CNN, the New York Slimes, or the Washington Compost bedwet about with regards to the minimum wage: job loss.
Yeah, all those know-it-all pseudo biz expert neoStalinist liberals and “experts” said there would be no cuts or cutbacks on jobs by raising the minimum wage. Well, who’s shocked that the people who either come from a lawyer background or a government dependency background are wrong on an economic background. I wonder what the Great Liberal Socialist Robert Reich has to say about this:
Mark Messner, owner of Pepi’s Pizza in south Phoenix, estimates he has employed more than 2,000 high school students since 1990. But he plans to lay off three teenage workers and decrease hours worked by others. Of his 25-person workforce, roughly 75 percent are in high school.”
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0210biz-teenwork0210.html
I wonder, what will Pepi’s do for labor when kids are forced to go to school year round like liberals like Obama want because the 9-month school season is “outdated like children farming in the fields.” Once again a sickness of the disease of liberal fascism rears it’s ugly head. Yeah that’s right… you’ll get NO jobs and like it, neoStalinists. Pathetic.
Global warming? More stuff you won’t see from the aforementioned liberal media crockery:
Cosmic rays and global warming and a non-funded research experiment that says we are wrong on man-made climate change. Well DUH, if you don’t have a bunch of left-wing institutions sucking the government teet for research funds to get an answer a certain group wants to hear, the well dries up quick.
Oh wait, just like 30 years ago, man-made global warming must be causing all this 146 inches of snow to fall in upstate New York. Man-made global warming = global cooling. How convenient that anything can be twisted and distorted to be the cause of alleged man-made global warming. Global warming = hurricanes. Global warming = no hurricanes last year. Global warming = melting Arctic icecaps (while conveniently ignoring the GROWING Antarctic ice caps). How the hell can THAT happen. The sick Alsores say nothing.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070212/D8N872980.html
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius
And the Czech Republic president does just that with Al Sore. Hah. Hahaha. HAHAHAHAAHA!
In an interview with “Hospodárské noviny”, a Czech economics daily, Klaus answered this question:
Q: Don’t you believe that we’re ruining our planet?•
A: I will pretend that I haven’t heard you. Perhaps only Mr Al Gore may be saying something along these lines: a sane person can’t.
Now the jackasses on the envirowacko left are telling us that we can’t send roses to our women anymore because of the fumes from the aircraft are causing global warming. Have these enviroNazis mentioned that to Al Sore? Sick mindless libobots.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/10/nbouquet10.xml
Random facts on the recent state of the economy within the past year that you won’t see on PMSNBC, CNN, or read in the New York Slimes or Washington Compost or al-Jazeera Constipation.
http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2006/20060906170003.aspx
By Georgia Legislators are Cherry Pickers
February 12, 2007 05:22 PM | Link to this
It seems that our cherry-picking legislators skipped the the first half of the Second Amendment — the part that reads “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State…”
The Supreme Court has written that the right to bear and keep arms isn’t an individual right…but a right granted to the states for the sole purpose of creating and maintaining a state militia — read the decision of United States v. Miller. There are numerous federal decisions consistent with this case.
By jm
February 12, 2007 05:27 PM | Link to this
Markus@5:14 - I would rather those high school students were hitting the books than working in a pizza place. Unless of course, they plan on doing that for the rest of their lives. Reality check, high school students today will be competing for jobs with people from all over the world. If they don’t have the education to compete, they will be roadkill. Capitalism can be rather cold blooded. If the folks in another country can do the same thing better and cheaper, guess what, that is where the jobs will go. All of Mr. Wooten’s columns (and the interesting comments that come with them) on education and education reform are quite meaningless if high school students are spending more time making pizzas than studying.
By oldpunk
February 12, 2007 05:31 PM | Link to this
To clear up a few things:
The Dixie Chicks did not insult the troops or anyone else except George W Bush, American Citizen. “Another country”? It’s our only other ally. Why do Republicans want to live in a dictatorship, worshipping our ‘Dear Leader’?
And for jbmlaw yesterday, Jesus, use that internet browser thing and find out some facts. Joe Wilson did not out his wife. He did not claim that the VP himself sent him on the trip. His findings did not support claims that Saddam attempted to buy yellowcake. Valerie Wilson was working Iraqi WMD’s which she was not finding. Doesn’t matter if she was no longer covert, she had been covert. Grow up, join the real world full of those things called facts.
By Markus
February 12, 2007 05:39 PM | Link to this
These are the people that liberal tax nazis want the rest of us to take care of via the gubment socialist teet. Here we have an exhibit of having six children from three different fathers and quitting a job that paid $40k after the birth of child #3 back in 1996.
Now the idiot woman is complaining about not making ends meet and not being able to find a job that pays more than minimum wage. Well exactly who’s FREAKING fault is that? When the HELL are people going to learn that decisions they conciously make has consequences?
We are rapidly becoming a nation of spineless whineyassed big babies. Our forefathers that went through the Great Depression and other REAL hard times would be laughing their @sses off right now at people like this that represent America’s liberal voter base.
http://v2.charleston.net/assets/webPages/departmental/news/Stories.aspx?section=localnews&tableId=130028&pubDate=2/11/2007
By DB
February 12, 2007 05:43 PM | Link to this
Markus: Although you believe anyone who disagrees with you is an liberal envirowacko, you may need to take a few courses in meteorology and climatology. It’s not the “leftist” envirowackos that came up with global warming. It’s called science. That’s the same method that your doctor studies to cure you when you have a headache or sore throat. It’s just that ignorant morons on both the left and the right have made this a political issue when it is not. The most vocal people are the ones that know NOTHING about climatology, or any science for that matter, whether it be Gore or Time Magazine. And, be assured scientists have shown great reluctance to attribute recent trends in temperature to anthropogenic sources. However, the data is in, and it’s undeniable. The patterns predicted 10 and 20 years ago are now occuring. And, yes, global warming was actually predicted to cause cooling in the Southeast as we have experienced in the last 20 years or so. You see, the areas closest to the poles are where the most warming occurs. Some places warm, and some places cool, but the average is that the Earth’s troposphere and ocean temps are rising creating a more unstable atmosphere resulting in weather extremes.
The question is no longer whether or not global warming is occuring or whether or not it’s caused by humans as both are affirmative. The question is whether or not global warming is a good thing or a bad thing. Only time will tell because in all honesty I don’t believe humans are going to change their ways enough to stop it or even slow it down. We may be past the tipping point anyway.
So as people like you keep bickering about global warming quoting data that’s 10 or 20 years old, science keeps moving on. Most of the arguments against global warming are so old and invalid, I don’t even know where to start.
Also, for those of you who think the global warming alarmists are trying to kill the economy, please tell me how accepting global warming kills the economy. It spurs and economy in alternative fuels and alternative energy, both of which are finally taking off. Ask yourself a question. How are the property insurance rates doing(and the insurance companies) for the entire Southeastern coast from Brownsville to Jacksonville? We sure were lucky there weren’t any hurricanes this year!
By Markus
February 12, 2007 05:48 PM | Link to this
jm-
I would rather those high school students were hitting the books than working in a pizza place.
It’s called character building and learning work ethic and money responsibilities. You can’t learn EVERYTHING in school, not the least of which these days where schools are teaching more important topics like how to put a condom on a banana.
“…if high school students are spending more time making pizzas than studying.”
Agreed. However, since the 1950s and drive-ins people haven’t had a problem doing it in high school. Why should it be any different than today? Our school quality and idiot social promotion codes where being passed is more important due to keeping self esteem than learning something knew are why this nation’s public school system is in the toilet. Oh, that, and the democrat-supporting NEA union.
By Markus
February 12, 2007 05:54 PM | Link to this
DB-
Global warming and global cooling have always happened and always will happen. The “hockey stick” that Al Sore uses also conveniently aligns with the solar output of our sun during the past 100 years. I’ll bet you didn’t hear about that. The Antarctic ice cap is increasing while the Arctic ice cap is melting. How the hell does that happen if the globe is truly WARMING over the course of time?
Regarding the economic issues, why are China and India not included in the Kyoto accord when they are much worse polluters than we are per capita, not even including that a Tahoe is cleaner burning than most of their cars?
No, you continue to support your Church of Global Warming. I’ll pass on the Kool Aid.
By Jake
February 12, 2007 06:00 PM | Link to this
GLCP @5:22
Thanks for the information, but I don’t have to read a Supreme Court decision about the 2nd Amendment. This Amendment isn’t ambivalent or unclear in any way:
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
This Amendment applies specifically to state militias. For individuals, the right doesn’t exist. Period.
By Dennis
February 12, 2007 06:01 PM | Link to this
Let me agree with Marcus @5:48 on two things; “You can’t teach everything in school”, but, you’re expected to. And what should be taught depends on who is doing the final decision making, and it’s not your classroom teachers.
As to promotion codes, that’s a decision by your local/state school boards who cannot afford to retain a student because there is a student coming up behind him who passed his class and needs the failure’s desk.
Teachers can and do recommend retaining students especially in elementary, but after that it becomes more rare. But a teachers decision can and is often over ruled by parents.
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By jm
February 12, 2007 06:08 PM | Link to this
Markus@5:48 - well, if working in a pizza place builds money responsibilities, I think I know a good place for President Bush (and his republican enablers in congress) after he leaves office.
oh yeah, before you start the name calling, I am neither republican or democrat. I have no use for either party. Just that for the last 6 years, the republicans (and conservatives) have worn the throne. It makes no sense to pick on the people out of power.
By Markus
February 12, 2007 06:18 PM | Link to this
jm-
I’m not interested in your political persuation, but amazingly, this “conservative” blog seems to have more “non-democrat” this and “non-liberal” that than any other blog I’ve come across.
Anyway, I’m not ashamed to say who I am and what I stand for, and that’s traditional Reagan conservatism. Something that’s been lost for a while now, and Bush W., just like his father, is no social conservative. That’s the main reason Republicans are no longer in power vs. Dems thinking they actually beat out the Republicans on better ideas. (laughable since they were the same old tired liberal retread causes since the days of LBJ).
By shelley wynter
February 13, 2007 08:41 AM | Link to this
It is so interesting to me how some people think. I am a black conservative who after investigating obama can see some good in SOME of it. Crime, Education, Jobs for AMERICANS. these i can agree with. Illegals within social security sysytem i will fight him tooth and nail but my question to you guys is which republican candidate has made you excited about 08? please tel me so i can know what to do and get fired up
By Jeff
February 13, 2007 08:54 AM | Link to this
Shelly:
Who do the Republicans have at this point? Romney, Guiliani, who else? As far as the two of those go, I say neither can be elected in the South. Romney has to battle the stigma of both Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry, not to mention his LDS beliefs. Guiliani, while having good 9/11 memories, also has the stigma of Hillary and NYC in general, not to mention his multiple affairs/divorces.
By shelley wynter
February 13, 2007 09:42 AM | Link to this
rudy g was losing his appeal and 9/11 saved his political career. now he is running on that when was the last timea big city mayor sat out of office almost 6 years and then runs for prez? Mccain excites me but he is 77?
By Jeff
February 13, 2007 09:51 AM | Link to this
McCain could do it. I would want a strong VP on that ticket though, because as you poit out, the man IS 77!
By DB
February 13, 2007 12:13 PM | Link to this
Markus:
Al Gore is not a climatologist, and I never watched the video anyway. He’s a politician politicizing this. That’s why it’s such a big argument in the first place. It’s not that big of an argument in the scientific community. Besides, when did I mention “An Inconvenient Truth”? I see you stereotyped me into that political group. You couldn’t be more wrong. I’m more interested in real science, not politics. Besides, the hockey stick graph isn’t even accepted by scientists. And even more warming is occuring than can be explained by Solar Activity, especially since solar activity has actually stabilized since the 1970’s. And warming has actually accelerated since then. Also, the Kyoto protocol is not great, but the fact that it doesn’t include certain countries shouldn’t give us the license to emit more carbon dioxide. Besides, I haven’t seen us come up with any alternative plan. Again, that’s politics. If we find out in the future that humans have caused serious problems with global warming, I would guess that those same people against it at first would want threaten to invade other countries if they don’t decrease they’re carbon emissions, huh? A treaty is a step in the right direction regardless of what you say. Please tell me how the U.S. has decreased carbon emissions in the past 10 years. We haven’t! So, in essence, we’re much worse than the countries we badmouth. We emit 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide.
I won’t get into much detail, but your arguments against global warming are completely outdated and inaccurate, and they’re not arguments at all.
Yes, temperature variations have occured throughout the past. But the one big point is that the temperatures are increasing faster than would be expected due to expected variations alone. In other words, the increase in carbon dioxide in our atmosphere due to the deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels has caused faster warming than natural forcings alone(expected variation due to all factors). I suppose you want to argue againsts the facts that carbon dioxide increases atmospheric temerature and it is increasing in concentration in the atmosphere. And you’re probably ready to argue that the ocean level has not risen. I think not.
The Antarctic Ice Cap WAS inceasing(from 1979-1999) in the Antarctic because of the fact that global warming affects the Northern Hemisphere more than the Southern. However, it is now decreasing! As mentioned before, argument outdated. In fact, it contributes to a 2mm ocean level rise per year from the Antarctic. And, globally, there is a whole lot more ice melting than forming. And that’s why the ocean is rising each year, hence GLOBAL effect. Again, the Antarctic was just a variation of climatic conditions. But now even that is no longer occuring as the ice cap is decreasing there, too. At any rate, on a global scale the amount of ice melting from ice sheets and glaciers is much larger than the amount of forming.
Again, like I said, global warming may not be a problem as much as people think. We really don’t know. But I would rather take caution in case it’s a bad thing. There is no argument as to whether or not humans are accelerating global warming. Also, weather becomes more extreme throughout the world as global warming occurs. The more energy in the atmosphere, the more violently is balances itself.
If you’re going to argue something, please use accurate and up-to-date scientific information. I know better to waste more time with this as it’s all too easy to see where it’s going.
Good luck.