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Open thread
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted July 4, 2006 at 12:07 a.m.
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76 Comments
Ok this one upset me, I noticed a new DVD on the rack at Wal-mart.It is called “Homecoming” the write up on the back said: “An unpoplar war is raging oversea and the Republican administration is up for re-election. They make a statement that they wish all the fallen heroes could come back and tell the American people just how proud they are to have served their country.
Then suddenly the fallen heroes start raising from the flag draped coffins for the most hideious reason…To vote!Are the heroes of this nation or mindless zombe desenterts?
How can the adminsitration spin this? These heroes died for a war of lies, how will they seek their revenge?”
So time ago it was said that our soldiers are dieing for nothing. Never should a soldiers death be accused of being for nothing, right or wrong they died for this country. Is that nothing?
Now their deaths are used to make a politic statement. I do not support the invasion of Iraq, it was wrong on more levels that I will waste time listing now. But to use their deaths in such a manner is the height of shame to me. Republicans lie, Democrats lie, the media lie. You can not trust anything that anyone said. Why defend this? Is there nothing left that is the truth? Ann Coulter is so low as to think anything is fair game. The left and right both that that way, justifying it by say the other side is doing it! Are we still a people worth defending? Some times all I can think of is that old saying…A plague on both your houses!.
Sorry but I do stand for something, Honor above all is worth the fight. Without honor there is not need to fight!
Happy 4th to everyone and please remember why this is a holiday.
Gee writerdog,
That is kind of how I feel everytime something happens to an American soldier and the people here use it to blame Bush and demand for us to cut and run….
I understand your point Writerdog, but aren’t you doing the same thing?
You might find it repungent that the pro-war crowd uses soliders death as a commemoration for freedom, but you attacking the use of soliders deaths as a political statement is basically making a political statement about soliders deaths.
Nathan,When our soldiers become a part of the problem, then there’s no way they can effect a solution except by leaving.
War is politics
Happy 4th of July everyone!
Today, my thoughts are with the crew of Discovery as they (hopefully) take that aptly named ship and America back into space! Safe voyage Discovery! And on the 4th of July no less!
Did Bush throw Cheney under the train?
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0703nj1.htm
Thanks DD – and BushdaBum has the Chutzpa to complain when others do the same.
Yes, Ben, Bush knows when there is “good leaking” vs. “bad leaking”. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so scary.
I just got through watching a very informative and great documentary called “Why We Fight”
I recommend it to anybody interested.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/
Thanks Joe – by the way – shuttle is up.
Military Industrial Complex, Joe?
I saw that back in March or April. I thought I posted the link, although it was at Information Clearing House, but maybe not.
Whatever, Eisenhower knew what he was talking about. Nobody paid attention to him. And just look where we are today.
One topic I’d like to raise is the serious danger that i believe the easily hackable electronic voting machines represent to our democracy. This is not the raving of paranoid moonbats — unless you consider Lou Dobbs and Roger Hedgecock to be extreme ‘lefties.’
The Brennan Center for Justice report has demonstrated over 120 security flaws in these machines,(for those who wish to read the report, it is athttp://www.brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/Executive%20Summary.pdf)and a Finnish computer scientist named Harri Hursti has, in a number of demonstrations, shown how easy it would be to reverse the results of an election through simple hacking techniques. (The complete and now unredacted report is athttp://www.bbvdocs.org/reports/BBVreportIIunredacted.pdf)
The most vulnerable machines are those that have wireless ports, and which can be hacked without the hacker even being in the room with the machine. Yet only three states have banned them.
If you think this is merely a ‘theoretical possibility’ — and even if it were, it is one which should be watched for and corrected — note that in the recent Bilbray/Busby race to replace Duke Cunningham, poll watchers were allowed to take the machines HOME with them for periods up to a week. Hopefully they were all either honest or clueless when it comes to techniques of computer hacking, but how long can we trust this will be true.(Ironically, when this idea was used as a theme on the DEAD ZONE tv program, I thought they were going ‘over the top’ that precautions were being taken to prevent this sort of action. Apparently I was wrong.)
For those who are interested, the best coverage on the issue ishttp://www.bradblog.com/(no, I have no affiliation or connection with them) and if Lou Dobbs’ recent series of programs on the subject is available at the CNN website — you’ll have to hunt a little and go off site if you are no more adept than I am — read them as well.
Godspeed Discovery! What a magnificent “birthday present” for America! Good on you NASA!
I guess North Korea wantedto play too. Their “show” kinda fizzled though.
Now for a word about a big supporter of the Military Industrial Complex:
http://tiahrtfolly.blogspot.com/
Joe the movie is an anti-bush/anti-war movie. A soldier does not have a right to refuse to go where he is sent nor to fight.
A political statement? Hardly, it is a statement on those that use the death of a soldier to make a political statement. Sure it would be interesting to ask those that have fallen in this war if they think it was worth their lives. But this movie presumes to speak for them, to make a statement for them, if Nathan God forbid dies walking of the plane. He will died still thinking it was right, but he is a Marine he is not given the option to think otherwise.
Nor are the dead given the option to express if they think it was wrong, it would be just as wrong if the movie made that statement that they did think it was right. But the dead are not given the chance to say one way or the other. Only the living have the option, I will say that the invasion was wrong, I would say that it has been a dark spot in this country history for the way that we ended up there. But never will I say that those who die in the serve of this country died for nothing., for a lie, for oil. They died for this country, for you and me. If given the option they would have chosen not to die, but they served with the knowledge that it could happen. After weighting the options they still served, they did not die so someone could use them as a statement.
Nathan accuses many of that, if I saw it that way I would be jumping with both feet. But it is the supreme cost of this war, many of our best have fallen. They did not chosen this fight, they are not to be blamed, used or belittled. Only those that choose this fight should suffer that fate.
I grew up in a time this country did the worst thing imaginable, it did not separate the warrior from the war.You and Nathan read about those times. It was a nightly thing for me, it was the topic everyday. perhaps that is why I feel so strongly about this, for it to be repeated is a worst sin then the first time. Joe the President of the United States lie, he lied about Saddam WMDs, about a connection to Al-Qaeda, he lied to the Congress, the American people, to our strongest ally, to the world. It was not misinformation, it was not faulty intelligence. He CHOOSE to invaded Iraq, to pull the 5th Special forces out of Afghanistan to be used in Iraq before he even told Congress of his plan. That sir is from Gen. Tommy Franks book “American Soldier”. Now that is a politic statement, though not based on partisanship as right now both parties are to blame for allowing this to continue. You call that Bush bashing, that is simply a name it is President bashing. Bush just happens to be the one that did it. It goes beyond the childish partisan, it strike to the heart of this nation.
But no, in my opinion there is nothing political about those who have died for this country, it is a non-issue.Nothing to be discussed, to be argued, plan and simple they died for this country nothing less or more.
thank you writerdog – I too came of age in that time you refer to. I watched helplessly as a Vet was beaten in his wheelchair by a bunch of armed thugs. I was able to do a small part – I took photographs that we turned into wanted posters of the thugs. We posted them all over campus (UCLA) where they were working at the time. Chief Davis definitely did NOT like that.
The anti-war groups I was involved in DID make the distinction; largely because of the influence of VVAW members with us. I also worked with many vets who were totally screwed up due to their experiences only to get screwed over again by the VA and good “patriots” who would not hirs them.
I remember an incident earlier at MIT when the VA conveniently ‘lost’ the financial aid money due to vets for tuition etc. While many schools bounced them because they could not pay MIT took a different course. They called them all together, told them their accounts were being put on hold and wrote emergency checks to cover rent etc. My fraternity followee the lead of the ‘tute in holding room/board open. Then MIT dropped the other shoe. The conveniently ‘lost’ all research results the government wanted. Gee. the money – and the research results – were suddenly found!
Prup (aka Jim Benton), excellent post. I wish I could say I’m surprised that people in general aren’t more concerned about security of voting machines, but most people don’t know what’s involved in a “hack”, and how easy it is to do. Conservatives don’t care because they think they have the companies that manufacture the machines in their pocket, but all it’ll take is one smart Liberal hacker, and the jig is up. Nobody will be able to prove anything because there’s no paper trail.
Writerdog,
Everyone since even the Clinton Administration thought Saddam had WMD’s.
The worlds best intelligence agencies thought Saddam had WMD’s.
People who had defected from Saddam said that he was trying to aquire and develop them.
Saddam never accounted for the WMD’s he did have.
Now you are going to sit here and say Bush lied?
Enough with your anti-Bush crap already.
No matter how many times you try to make it sound like Bush told an outright lie about Saddam having WMD’s it is not true.
Agreed Nathan, bush did not lie about thinking Saddam had WMDs.
I say bush KNEW Saddam had no WMDs.
The carnage that would have occurred if Saddam had actually had WMDs would have been to much troop and civilian death and pain. bush’s handlers knew better than to go down a road like that.
They KNEW Saddam had no WMDs. And they lied and speculated that he did.
How do you know that Bush knew Saddam had no WMD’s JR?
“I say bush knew” was what I posted Nathan. And then I outlined my reasons for that opinion.
So, JR…
You don’t really know at all. It is merely an assumption you make based on another assumption.
We are making progress now.
Yes Nathan we are making progress.
A war was sold to the American public on an assumption……no an assertion that Saddam had WMDs and was a threat to the US and the world.
IF bush’s handlers did truly believe Saddam had WMDS, this would have entered into their war calculation. They would have had to consider US troops and Iraqi civilians killed by biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. The losses in US Troops and Iraqui civilians would have been FAR FAR more in just the first few days of this “war” than the last three years……had Saddam had the WMDs. But he did not. And the knowledge that he DID NOT have those weapons made the war palpatable and saleable for bush to America and its representatives.
Put more simply…..bush gave us a boogeyman with false teeth. We had to fight! But bush’s handlers knew Saddam could not “bite” us.
JR,
“They would have had to consider US troops and Iraqi civilians killed by biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons.”
They did consider that. Why do you think our Soldiers were wearing full MOPP gear most of the time?
“The losses in US Troops and Iraqui civilians would have been FAR FAR more in just the first few days of this “war” than the last three years……had Saddam had the WMDs.”
Here is the assumption part. You assume that Saddam would have used them if he had them.
“And the knowledge that he DID NOT have those weapons made the war palpatable and saleable for bush to America and its representatives.”
And yet more of your unproven assumptions.
Oh so rarely is a softball lobbed to me like this one:
“You assume that Saddam would have used them if he had them” (This Re: Saddams WMDs)
Nathan? Do you assume that Saddam had WMDs and DID NOT use them? I have asked you about this before.
Well lets see. I’ll pretend I am Saddam. I’ll pretend that I have WMDs. bush asserts that I have WMDs and uses same as reason to invade my nation and hunt me down for capture/execution.
Now just why would I NOT use my WMDs? Second thoughts?? A momentary slip from self preservation in the direction of kindness? Maybe I can’t find my WMDs? Maybe I’ll hide my WMDs………little good they will do me after I am captured? Maybe I will farm out my WMDs while my nation is overrun and I am deposed?
Oh hey maybe I will just make bush look bad because he invaded my nation, captured me, and could not find my WMDs?
There never were any WMDS Nathan. bush’s handlers knew it.
JR,
“Nathan? Do you assume that Saddam had WMDs and DID NOT use them? I have asked you about this before.”
I don’t have to assume this. He didn’t use them.
I don’t have to assume that he had WMD’s. He hs used them in the past and never fully accounted for them or disclosed his programs. All the best intelligence in the world thought he still had them.
I could speculate and assume several plausable reasons Saddam didn’t use WMD’s when we attacked. They would be just that… assumptions and speculation though. Just what you are doing.
“There never were any WMDS Nathan.”
Ever? At what point were there no longer WMD’s in Iraq?
“bush’s handlers knew it.”
Once again, another assumption with no proof.
The president of the United States doesn’t have the luxury of being wrong on an issue of this scale. If he didn’t lie, he made a huge mistake and should be impeached for criminal incompetence. His stupidity has gotten tens of thousands of people killed.
The republican party is led by a moron.
X – well said.
Is anybody familiar with the V.A. benefits our returning troops are getting? My understanding is that those recently out of the military have to go through an “application process” to get V.A. benefits – which amounts to delays and waiting lists.
I guess “supporting our troops” means different things to different people. If you have a yellow ribbon sticker on your mini-van, you should be concerned about this.
Nathan, We KNOW North Korea has WMDs, and just test fired them. They even have one possibily capable of reaching the US. Why aren’t we declaring war on them?
Listen for the silence……
Is there a way to call Pat Roberts on the carpet? He is dragging his feet on the second report that deals with the Intel. This report would clear things up one way or another and help heal the country. If there is this much corroborated evidence out there for most to see. Why is it taking this long? Either what the majority believes is true or the majority have been fooled worse than Bush could have fooled us. It is time to put this to bed Senator Roberts!
Damoon, it is a proven fact that N. Korea has WMDs and now a rocket to deliver them to the U.S. They have become a real threat, Bush&Co. do not deal with real threat well.
North Korea has tens of thousands of missles aimed at Seoul, one of the largest populated cities in the world. Plus not to mention Tokoyo also.
North Korea is deligate, even Clinton knew that.
We all know that Iraq is just for oil. Right?
Joe,”We all know that Iraq is just for oil. Right?”
Or maybe the war is just a tool to keep us occupied so we don’t pay attention to what’s really going on, the whosale giving away of the country to corporate interests.
Or maybe it’s just that conservatives need war and someone to hate (or fear).
Damoon asks a good question. N. Korea has the weapons and seems to have no qualms about who winds up with them. Why did we not attack N. Korea? Could it be because they have a million man army? Or maybe the administration knew that the American casualty rate would be so high that Americans would be clamoring for their blood for launching an attack that might trigger a regional conflaguration.
Good thing we didn’t attack N. Korea if we can’t even win in a pest hole like Iraq.
Too bad Bush junior didn’t have the wits his father had. HW had the good sense to hit Iraq and then get out. Junior left over 100,000 troops in a shooting gallery.
Moron.
Sgt. Matthew Bee is a decorated Akron Marine who spent seven months in Hadeetha, serving with the 3rd Battalion 25th Marines Weapons Company based in Brook Park.
Bee received six medals of commendation, but one of them he will give back to President George W. Bush, calling the medal political, NewsChannel5 reported. The medal is the War on Terrorism service medal, and Bee calls it “eye candy” from Bush.
“So, he took something noble and honorable and made it kind of dirty. And I always thought that medal was the one he pinned on us and said, ‘This is my war. This is my stamp in history,’” said Bee.
Bee said he is not anti-war, but rather pro-peace. He plans to travel to Washington, D.C., with a small group of Marines who feel the same way he does. They will all try to return their War on Terrorism medal to Bush personally or to members of Congress.
http://www.newsnet5.com/akroncanton/9462624/detail.html
Questions for Joe and Nathan:
Why would a dictator lie about WMD, knowing he would be invaded by a force that had already defeated his entire force once? Why would he lie about having WMD, knowing he didn’t and risk being forced from his cush job of running an entire country? Why would anybody, dictator or not, be that stupid?
The answer, in my opinion, is they wouldn’t. The bottom line is Bush was going to invade Iraq come hell or high water. It didn’t matter if there were mega WMD, or zero WMD, Iraq was in Bush’s site, and was destined for invasion by the Bush regime.
The invasion was never about WMD anyway. It was about oil, pure and simple.
Saddam’s acting like he had WMD derived from the fact that he needed convice people like Iran not to mess with him. His false WMD threat display was like what a male Beta fish does to another male Beta fish. The first one hopes to scare off the second without a full scale confrontation; because the first one knows that his threats may only be about fish feces; and he’s counting on the second being unwilling to take the risk of finding out for sure.
All of this works well (mutual threat displays) until you add in a very big fish that is a little bit crazy and in need of ego repair (USA) – then things get all screwed up – witness, Iraq today.
The ethology of Saddam & WMD – brought to you by the nature channel…
Saddam had WMDs back in the 80s – that we know. He used them up against our enemies in his campaigns against the Kurds and Iran. What little was left was destroyed after Gulf War 1. Saddam never had the capability to make his own WMDs; he only had what he could buy pre-Gulf 1. Iraq had been thoroughly combed by international inspectors during the years after Gulf 1. If BushdaBum didn’t know that then he is incredibly stupid.
Convicted Enron chairman Ken Lay is now the LATE convicted Enron chairman. Heart attack in Colorado (looks like he didn’t have to sell ALL his vacation properties).
It also looks like Mizzou won’t be pressured anymore to give back the late Mr. Lay’s $1M donation to pay his legal bills. Or are his lawyers going to fight for the money to keep his memory alive?
Hooray that Ken Lay is dead!!!! Too bad the sonovabitch never saw prison time. He has also saved bush some exective pardon pen ink.
In other “news”, Rush Limbaugh will not be prosecuted for illegal activities with prescrition drugs………AGAIN!
Truly we have the best justice system money can buy.
For those interested in the facts on the Limbaugh story, here is a link.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/05/D8IM1A3G2.html
From the article:
Dr. Steve Strumwasser’s name was on the Viagra bottle, not Limbaugh’s. Strumwasser, who is Limbaugh’s psychiatrist, told authorities he “agreed to have his name on the label in an effort to avoid potentially embarrassing publicity for the suspect,…”
That didn’t exactly work out, did it!
“It is generally not illegal under Florida law for a physician to prescribe medication in a third party’s name if all parties are aware and the doctor documents it correctly, said Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for the state attorney in Palm Beach County”.
Hmmm..,”not illegal”. This begs the question of why Limbaugh was detained and dragged through the mud? I’m sure that the appropriate apologies are on their way from the Palm Beach County authorities and the media.
“The invasion was never about WMD anyway. It was about oil, pure and simple.”
I love conspiracy theories.
“The worlds best intelligence agencies thought Saddam had WMD’s. People who had defected from Saddam said that he was trying to aquire and develop them. Saddam never accounted for the WMD’s he did have.”
None of the above matters to a rabid left hell-bent on avenging hanging chads in Floriduh.
If you say “Bush lied” and “It’s about oil” long enough, apparently some folks will buy into it.
Patriot,So what you’re saying is that president Moron made a collosal blunder. It’s not like he spaced out trash day. He made a stupid mistake that has cost a lot of lives.
The leader of the free world is an idiot.
“The worlds best intelligence agencies thought Saddam had WMD’s. – only because they followed the lead of our public pronouncements
People who had defected from Saddam said that he was trying to aquire and develop them. – Curveball had been shown to be a liar
Saddam never accounted for the WMD’s he did have. – as noted above we knew what his inventory was pre-Iran/Kurdistan and that he ‘blew his wad’ in those campaigns. We also knew from post-Gulf 1 inspections that he was tapped out.”
Outlander–
What begs the question is why an unmarried man who preaches abstinice and “family values” on his radio show FOR OTHERS flew to the prostitution capital of the Carribean with a bottle of Viagra in his pocket.
The same irrationality that allows you to make Rushbo into a victim in this case shows how you can tolerate the crap he blows forth on the airwaves.
Rush’s comments on why he was in the Dominican Republic:
“I had a great time in the Dominican Republic. Wish I could tell you about it.”
You gotta keep that abstinence on the “down low” don’t cha know.
I seen Ken Lay kicked the bucket. Too bad, I would have rather read about him being raped, and shived in the kidneys in prison.
OK, I just thought that the left was the paragon of privacy. I guess then that it is OK to roust folks around for no legal reason and drag them through the mud over there in Palm Beach County.
That maybe a little harsh. It’s probably only OK if they are a right wing talk show host who just embarrased the D.A. (a Democrat?) in the doctor shopping allegations.
Yes well,
Apparently El Limpbo will have to find recreational opportunities with his Viagra more domestically for awhile. He said today he is intimidated now to deal with US customs until his year and half probation expires. So no more weekends in the Dominican republic to hold his wee wee up with one hand just to keep it fair!
I hear Ann Coulter is free.
Patriot,”"The worlds best intelligence agencies thought Saddam had WMD’s. People who had defected from Saddam said that he was trying to aquire and develop them. Saddam never accounted for the WMD’s he did have.”
I guess if you hear that enough, you might start believing it too . . . if you’re not intelligent enough to get past the bs this president spouts.
Apparently, Ann “the plagerist” Coulter is under fire for, gee, let’s see . . . plagerism. Wow, the queen of lunacy may also be a liar, a cheat, and who knows what else. Maybe her book will be savaged by Oprah. Hell, maybe Oprah will savage her. I would watch that.
I like Robbin Williams take on the Rushter and Viagra: “Why would he take it in the first place. It can only make him taller.”
Hello Peoples,
I hope everybody had a great holiday, I sure did. I came across the following article and thought that it might be of interest, enjoy. It seems that cheney and the other rats are preparing to jump ship.
Viva La Raza Blanco!!!
Is Cheney Betting on Economic Collapse?Opinion; Posted on: 2006-07-05 00:06:22 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ]by Mike Whitney
Wouldn’t you like to know where Dick Cheney puts his money? Then you’d know whether his “deficits don’t matter” claim is just baloney or not.
Well, as it turns out, Kiplinger Magazine ran an article based on Cheney’s financial disclosure statement and, sure enough, found out that the VP is lying to the American people for the umpteenth time. Deficits do matter and Cheney has invested his money accordingly.
The article is called “Cheney’s betting on bad news” and provides an account of where Cheney has socked away more than $25 million. While the figures may be estimates, the investments are not. According to Tom Blackburn of the Palm Beach Post, Cheney has invested heavily in “a fund that specializes in short-term municipal bonds, a tax-exempt money market fund and an inflation protected securities fund. The first two hold up if interest rates rise with inflation. The third is protected against inflation.”
Cheney has dumped another (estimated) $10 to $25 million in a European bond fund which tells us that he is counting on a steadily weakening dollar. So, while working class Americans are loosing ground to inflation and rising energy costs, Darth Cheney will be enhancing his wealth in “Old Europe”. As Blackburn sagely notes, “Not all ‘bad news’ is bad for everybody.”
This should put to rest once and for all the foolish notion that the “Bush Economic Plan” is anything more than a scam aimed at looting the public till. The whole deal is intended to shift the nation’s wealth from one class to another. It’s also clear that Bush-Cheney couldn’t have carried this off without the tacit approval of the thieves at the Federal Reserve who engineered the low-interest rate boondoggle to put the American people to sleep while they picked their pockets.
Reasonable people can dispute that Bush is “intentionally” skewering the dollar with his lavish tax cuts, but how does that explain Cheney’s portfolio?
It doesn’t. And, one thing we can say with metaphysical certainty is that the miserly Cheney would never plunk his money into an investment that wasn’t a sure thing. If Cheney is counting on the dollar tanking and interest rates going up, then that’s what’ll happen.
The Bush-Cheney team has racked up another $3 trillion in debt in just 6 years. The US national debt now stands at $8.4 trillion dollars while the trade deficit has ballooned to $800 billion–nearly 7% of the GDP.
This is lunacy. No country, however powerful, can maintain these staggering numbers. The country is in hock up to its neck and has to borrow $2.5 billion per day just to stay above water. Presently, the Fed is expanding the money supply and buying back its own treasuries to hide the hemorrhaging from the public. Its utter madness.
Last month the trade deficit climbed to $70 billion. More importantly, foreign central banks only purchased a meager $47 billion in treasuries to shore up our ravenous appetite for cheap junk from China.
Do the math! They’re not investing in America anymore. They are decreasing their stockpiles of dollars. We’re sinking fast and Cheney and his pals are manning the lifeboats.
The American manufacturing sector has been hollowed out by cutthroat corporations who’ve abandoned their country to make a fast-buck in China or Mexico. The $3 trillion housing (equity) bubble is quickly loosing air while the anemic dollar continues to sag. All the signs indicate that the economy is slowing at the same time that energy prices continue to rise.
This is the onset of stagflation; the dreaded combo of a slowing economy and inflation.
Did Americans really think they’d be spared the same type of economic colonization that has been applied throughout the developing world under the rubric of “neoliberalism”?
Well, think again. The American economy is barrel-rolling towards earth and there are only enough parachutes for Cheney and the gang.
The country has lost 3 million jobs from outsourcing since Bush took office; more than 200,000 of those are the high-paying, high-tech jobs that are the life’s-blood of every economy.
Consider this from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) June edition of Foreign Affairs, the Bible of globalists and plutocrats:
“Between 2000 and 2003 alone, foreign firms built 60,000 manufacturing plants in China. European chemical companies, Japanese carmakers, and US industrial conglomerates are all building factories in China to supply export markets around the world. Similarly, banks, insurance companies, professional-service firms, and IT companies are building R&D and service centers in India to support employees, customers, and production worldwide.” (“The Globally integrated Enterprise” Samuel Palmisano, Foreign Affairs page 130)
“60,000 manufacturing plants” in 3 years?!?
“Banks, insurance companies, professional-service firms, and IT companies”?
No job is safe. American elites and corporate tycoons are loading the boats and heading for foreign shores. The only thing they’re leaving behind is the insurmountable debt that will be shackled to our children into perpetuity and the carefully arranged levers of a modern police-surveillance state.
Take another look at Cheney’s investment strategy; it tells the whole ugly story. Interest rates are going up, the middle class is going down, and the poor dollar is headed for the dumpster. The country is not simply teetering on the brink of financial collapse; it is being thrust headfirst by the blackguards in office and their satraps at the Federal Reserve.Source: Information Clearing Househttp://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=9463
Yeah I, too, have received a flood of stuff coming from Wall Street like this. Lots of warnings about a looming “fundamental breakdown” in the US economy due to our national debt load (according to the stuff I get, real estate holdings seem to be headed for a fall); also lots of email crap on how to sell [X] short profitably.
Punch another hole in that belt ya keep tightening. Hmmmmm, do we eat (prices going up because of the rise in transportation costs), pay bills (utilities going up because of the rise in oil prices), or buy gas (this explains itself)?
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil jumped to a record high above $75 a barrel on Wednesday on strong U.S. demand and ongoing tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.
U.S. crude last traded $1.22 higher at $75.15 a barrel after hitting a record $75.40 a barrel earlier on Wednesday. The market was closed on Monday and Tuesday for the Independence Day holiday. London Brent crude was up $1.52 at $74.03.
“OK, I just thought that the left was the paragon of privacy.”
We are. But it sucks to be you guys when one of your heros has his head so far up his ass. Pathetic, really!
at JR’s request
blogarting – taking over a thread on one topic and turning/(hijacking) the discussion to a totally separate issue.(example: posted thread for fireworks turning into motorcycle accidents). similar to bogarting.
Rush loves drugs and outside of marriage sex, sounds like the guy he used to berate daily. Except, he wasn’t into the drugs.
JR, Purple chicken.
XXX-The pro from Dover knows!
Senator Biden (D) racist remark caught on tape.
http://video.nationaljournal.com/Monday/BidenIndian.mov
gster, the trains may move but the geese get nowhere.
Copperhead will pay you a visit yesterday.
Note to the liberals:
Please refrain from spitting on returning US soldiers just because you don’t like President Bush.
Thanks in advance.
I’ll make you a deal LRB: since I have never done anything of the sort don’t you refuse to hire them like you did with returning ‘Nam vets when I was trying to help them get through school and get jobs.
Looks like the administration is in trouble overseas. The Italians, participants in the Iraq-invasion “coalition” are not only pulling out, they are investigating alleged illegal CIA activities in their country and have issued arrest warrants for 26 AMERICANS. Let’s see former Fox show-host and current admin press officer Tony Snow try to spin this one.
See http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fg-italyspy7jul07,0,6412231.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Here is what Foreign Minister, Massimo D’Alema said: “At what point is it legitimate, in the fight against terrorism, to negate the values you are fighting for?” D’Alema said. “One of the principles of Italian foreign policy will be to promote the defense of human and democratic rights as universal values.”
You see, when a democracy fights an undemocratic opponenti, it can either accept the limitations of democracy, as a fundamental construct, or become LIKE its enemy. Most Americans, being brainwashed, don’t get this: BUSH AND CO ARE HELPING THE TERRORISTS WIN.They aren’t going to invade our country–they don’t have anything close to this power. But, if they cause America to become a feudal plutocracy, like they are, in “The War on Terror”, then the Arabs will win, because they are causing us to become like them, in order to beat them.
LRB,”Note to the liberals:
Please refrain from spitting on returning US soldiers just because you don’t like President Bush.”
That’s about the kind of disgusting filthy thing I’d expect you to say. Please demonstrate where such a thing has happened to any vet returning from Iraq.
That was a vile comment, even for a conservative.
A major problem is our oil-dependent economy. Whoever controls oil gathers and weilds enoromous power. This is why we are in Iraq. It is why Saudi terrorists blew up the World Trade Towers (unless it was inflicted by some Americans to create the opportunity to establish a dictatorship, which would still be a return to feudal plutocracy.) We need to not only free ourselves from the addiction of OPEC’s oil, we need to decentralize energy resources. This is why I am strongly in favor of home-based electricity generation, such as home windmills and solar panels. Become more self-sufficient, and your views of what “America” must do change. Like leaving “Iraqis” to work out their own problems. “Iraq” is a phony “nation”. It was created by Great Britain’s oil oligarchs, not by the inhabitants of that region. The “Kingdom” of “Saudi Arabia” is phony. It did not exist a century ago. It was created by western oil interests to advance their own interests.
I told you all LRB would be “interesting”.
I agree with you X as to LRBs comment. But LRB has not had the courage so far to state a conservative bent.LRB is “coming out”.
Hey LRB? I’d never spit on a vet. Please refrain from assuming/asking me not to based on your take my politics before you have the guts to define your own.
I’m a liberal (despite Apophis’s misread of me). I also have a son who is scheduled to go to Iraq. The denigration of returning Viet Nam War vets was tragic. Most of them were drafted: they were forced to go there against their wills.
Now we have another phony war. This time, most people understand that our volunteer soldiers don’t have opportunities in the “free trade” economy, and are just doing what they can to learn marketable skills that their public high schools didn’t give them, and/or get financial aid for college.
Both Vietnam and Iraq are really class wars, since the privileged sons and daughters are not really involved. Al Gore was a “reporter”, we don’t know what Kerry did or did not do, and Georgie Bush was in the National Guard, “protecting us” against “an invasion” from Mexico. This is Alice in Wonderland stuff.
The Bush family has exercised “cut-and-run”. GHWB’s administration could have offered captured Iraqi troops generous stipends to join Americans, turn their tanks around and totally defeat Saddam, plus armed the Kurds, and then offered Saddam and his henchmen payoffs to live very comfortable lives in Portugal or Switzerland before the coalition forces came to town. It wasn’t like the American public said, “Three weeks of war is enough, bring our boys back home.” The Bushes are basically f/ups whose strings are being pulled by others who are hiding in the shadows.