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Open thread
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted at 1:05 a.m.
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“Entertainer” Jerry Springer Gave $10,000 to Kansas Democrats Last Monthhttp://www.kansasmeadowlark.com/2006/11-24/index.htm
Springer’s interest in Kansas politics is a bit of an enigma.
That is no surprise, if you have watched his show. You will have noticed that most of his guests seem to be from the trailer parks of Kansas.
Or…maybe Springer just really has seen enough crap that he thinks abortions should stay legal lol! I know I think that everytime I watch that show.
Not really, I’m mostly kidding.
Other than that, SO WHAT? A democrat supporting other democrats. Wow, that’s a shocker!
Maybe he felt sorry for us.
Pariticipated in my first Black Friday. Very interesting… *grin*
On yesterday’s “Open Thread for November 23rd,” in response to a comment by WE blogger, Kelly — I expressed some general information and my opinion on the upcoming “non-partisan” Wichita mayor and city council election. As of this AM, its at the end of that thread. I hope some of you interested WE bloggers will add your comments there about city politics. JWink
Kelly, methinks, is the brother in law of one Carl Brewer.
I just responded to your previous note on the other thread. sorry, I had to get some sleep.
OMG! Lark is upset about Springer’s political donations. Really? How about the Kochs?
The millions they drop to benefit themselves is apparently just fine to Meadow pies.
At least there’s no “enigma” there . . . just an enema for everybody else in Kansas.
Remember folks, as the buying orgy we call Christmas begins, a dollar spent at Wal-Mart is a dollar that outsources American jobs, keeps the poor poor, aids and abets pollution in the community, and hurts our infrastructure.
Besides, it’s a ugly place to shop too.
BOYCOTT WAL-MART.
Well, well, the truth is FINALLY starting to emerge:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-23-whistle-blower-faa_x.htm
Ex-employee says FAA warned before 9/11
Updated 11/24/2006 12:18 AM
By Catherine Rampell, USA TODAY”Immediately (after 9/11), numerous government officials from FAA as well as other government agencies made defensive statements such as, ‘How could we have known this was going to happen?’ ” Bogdan Dzakovic testified later before the 9/11 Commission. “The truth is, they did know.”
From 1995 to 2001, Bogdan Dzakovic served as a team leader on the Federal Aviation Administration’s Red Team. Set up by Congress to help the FAA think like terrorists, the elite squad tested airport security systems.In the years leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Dzakovic says, the team was able to breach security about 90% of the time, sneaking bombs and submachine guns past airport screeners. Expensive new bomb detection machines consistently failed, he says.
The team repeatedly warned the FAA of the potential for security breaches and hijackings but was told to cover up its findings, Dzakovic says.
Eventually, the FAA began notifying airports in advance when the Red Team would be doing its undercover testing, Dzakovic says. He and other Red Team members approached the Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General, the General Accounting Office and members of Congress about the FAA’s alleged misconduct regarding the Red Team’s aviation security tests. No one did anything, he says.
Then came 9/11.”
Notice that the team was set up during the CLINTON administration.
RD, what’s “Black Friday”?
Mary, not pretending to answer for RD, but the term “black Friday” is used to describe the Friday after Thanksgiving when the influx of shoppers at retail establishments allow them to turn a profit for the year, thus to be in the “black”, thus “black Friday”.
OMG, all H*** is breaking loose in Baghdad; all you folks in uniform; stay safe!
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/11/24/iraq.main/index.html
Mary,
Vaughn gave you the technical definition. The un-techie def is super sales starting at 5 a.m. at many stores. That means arriving well before that time to get close to the front of the “line.”
I don’t usually do this, although I did get a great price on a couple of coats at Penney’s on New Year’s Day, years ago. 7 a.m. for that one, if I remember. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes.
Today, I joined one of my sons-in-law at Wal-Mart at 4:30 a.m. (No booing on the WM thing. It’s close and they had what I wanted.) It was a bit hectic for some–not me–but I’ve heard about worse.
Do I recommend being a part of Black Friday? It depends on what you’re looking for, where you’re shopping, and how badly you want a low price. *grin*
*He also uttered a common chant heard on the streets of Baghdad: “No, no to America. Yes, yes to Islam.”*
So how’s that plan for democracy going, guys?
RD, you’re a brave person; I participated in two “black Fridays” in prior years for the reasons you provide, and have made it my sworn duty to avoid this masochistic behavior whenever possible! (Acknowledging, of course, that if there is, indeed, that one item which is deemed indispensible by the spouse at a price never again to be placed thereon, I’ll be there at 0430 hrs, CST, to get my place in line….)
Yep VT, we installed a hardline fundamentalist regime, now they’re going to kick us out so they can run the country like Iran.
This is nuts. We need to get our Military over there to set up three borders, put them all in their individual corners just to settle down the violence.Or we need to get out. Those are our options. We broke it, now if we walk out we’re going to have the Iraqi’s blood on our hands from the genocide. If we stay, it incites more anger and violence. Quagmire. Vietnam.
I’m going to steal this line:
Worst. President. Ever.
For those interested, the Trudy Rubin op-ed piece in today’s Eagle raises a point which, much to my dismay, I had not considered; unlike Vietnam, there is no “nationalistic group” waiting to take over in Iraq. I know I have opined on the need for the disparate factions to develop a feeling of nationalism as a condition precedent to successful building of an army, etc.; but hadn’t considered the lack thereof to distinguish Iraq, with the current civil war, from Vietnam, with the U.S. walking into an existing civil war.
I’ve never been to a black friday, never plan to go to one.I try to keep my gift giving very simple. I just buy practical gifts or give money to a few special people, the only ones I might splurge a little on are my three grandkids.My husband and I don’t even buy for each other, we just do something like enjoy a nice dinner together.
There were no “doorbusters” worthy of getting me out to the stores at daybreak.
Has anyone ever considered our power as consumers?
If we agreed en-masse to not shop the last week of November, the stores would become frantic and REALLY drop prices the first week of December.
I have been at Black Friday for the last seven years. And they say that humans are not animals!This year was slow, in the past a kitten had a better chance in a pen full of Pitbulls.
OMG this is awful…Shiites burn 6 Sunni worshippers alive.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061124/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
Folks,Enough is enough. The Shi’ites, Sunni’s, Kurds, and Iraqi’s in general have failed to take advantage of the opportunity presented to them. They are purposely killing each other. This is a civil crisis. I no longer feel America should have a dog in this fight.It is ridiculous that another American should die trying to police a city/state in which its citizens refuse to police themselves. This isn’t insurgency – this is cultural squabble.The Russians are grouping with Iran. Syria hates us. We do not belong in the region.Bush FAILED to anticipate this mess. Failure does not mean we have to kill more soldiers while we “hope for the best.”I am sick of all this crap and I live safely in Wichita. Our President is so completely incompetent that we are risking America’s influence worldwide while Bush sits on his little hands and gets all hardline.Yesterdays nightmare is enough reason to springboard for a Bush impeachment. I also recommend that Democrats yell “BOO!” each time they are within three feet of Cheney, maybe that will shock the quick impeachment into him….As for Bush Sr. – Jeffrey Dahmer’s Dad didn’t want to believe it either…until the evidence told the truth.
I call for the impeachment of the Butcher from Texas.
I read the Trudy Rubin piece, too. Today’s effort is better than her usual.
Yesterday after thanksgiving family members and I were discussing what would make for a good exit strategy in Iraq.
I know this will make some heads around here explode, but what about telling Sadam: “You know, that death penalty thing — forget about it [said with a Tony Soprano accent] — we have this job we’d like for you to do. Sorry about messing up your country and GWBush promises to return your revolver that he shows off to people. See ya and good luck.”
Steven,Had we never set foot in Iraq there would probably be far fewer dead, no civil uprising, and Bush could have used his energy to control immigration. Our soldiers would be alive. Our global standing ‘might’ still be intact, and Henry Kissinger would be allowed to go and rest peacefully for everafter.Give the man back his pistol and give georgie butcher his lasso and let’s get back to the business of diplomacy.
Okay, that was fun but very unrealistic. I say – we just split. Just go. Declare victory and get the hell out of there. If Bush wants to show us he has guts he could (1) get a gun and go over there and lead the fight, or (2) call our troops home. It takes guts to do either one. It is gutless to sit around hem-hawing a decision.
Real American guts would be spending all that Iraq money on our Mexican border. Someone please tell me – if as individuals we fence in our yards what is so wrong with fencing in our country?I am not anti-hispanic, I am anti-illegal entry. I am not espousing that we ship back all the illegal aliens – I am espousing that we never have a reason going forward to ship anyone back because no-one is getting in.140,000 soldiers could guard the border while walls are being built. We are Americans – we can do it anyway we want.Back to Iraq.
The whole issue of what to do about Iraq hinges on the question of whether our troop presence there is a “somewhat” stabilizing force? I think it is and I think the civil war would get worse if we leave. A broader sectarian civil war across the middle east is not in our immediate or longer term interests. The world actually has an economic (read oil) interest in there not being regional war in the middle east.
Today, Cheney is in Saudi Arabia, I presume to appeal to them in helping with Iraq. We need to get those neighbors who have vital interests in this problem to help us — it is called diplomacy.
Using diplomacy as a tool is a skill this administration has not been able to yet demonstrate. This from _State of Denial_ (p. 329):
“Their [Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld & Rice] idea of diplomacy,” [Richard] Armitage said to [Colin] Powell once, “is to say, ‘Look fucker, you do what we want.’”
Steven Davis, I reluctantly agree with you that the presence of our troops in Iraq represents a “stabilizing force” of some quality at the present. I also feel that immediate and precipitous withdrawal would present the real probability of increased civil war; however, I still cling to my belief that whether our troops are withdrawn fairly soon or at some point in the future, there is a very high probability of such civil war occurring.
Armitage and Powell thought that the Bush core group viewed the state department as a “bunch of appeasers” and not “real men” in a geopolitical sense. I think our only hope at this point is that the Baker group can show GW a way out of the mess he created.
Vaughn,
If you are correct and there is going to be a larger civil war regardless of when we re-deploy (love that word), then it would make sense to me to not lose one more American life. We should leave now.
I can’t see how the “sunk cost rationalization” (i.e., we have to honor the fallen by having more soldiers fall) is going to work any more as a jutification for staying in Iraq. It needs to be convinvcingly demonstrated that our troop presence is accomplishing something. I am not sure how that demonstration can be done.
Steven, the “sunk cost” justification is so much BS, it deserves no further comment.
The “no matter when we leave, a civil war is inevitable” idea is one I heard discussed both pre-invasion (as a justification for not even going there); early post-invasion (as a justification for getting out, in light of the then-nascent insurgency); and one-year post invasion ( as a response to those urging “stay the course”, e.g.); I haven’t heard much about it since. The arguments were advanced by those whose adult lives have been spent in studying middle-Eastern politics, etc., and always made sense to me. My regret is that I didn’t bookmark these arguments “back in the day” so I would have something to easily post as a link without spending too much quality time with “the Google” trying to find them again.
Mr. TolleBookmark this:We should get out now (Nov/Dec 2006) out of respect for our dead and our living soldiers. We should call for the resignation of Cheney. Iran/Syria/Saudi Arabia/Russia and the U.N. will be stuck with the mess. Our President and his team are not capable of fixing this militarily or diplomatically.Powell and Armitage wore uniforms, Bush, Cheney, and Rice have not.You don’t go to the bank to get your car oil changed, we shouldn’t go to a think tank to engage in war.
Did you notice that after acknowledging that BushCo has totally screwed this up she basically ends up with “stay the course”? Sadly, I find myself agreeing with partition; to make matters worse our best ending is with Syria and Iran running Sunnistan and Shiistan respectively.
My what a mess Bush deliberately and with malice aforethought created.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
So much for Bush’s Iraqi government and ARI:
“Iraqi soldiers at a nearby army post failed to intervene in Friday’s assault by suspected members of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia or subsequent attacks that killed at least 19 other Sunnis, including women and children, in the same neighborhood, the volatile Hurriyah district in northwest Baghdad, said police Capt. Jamil Hussein.”
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/breaking_news/16084950.htm
Civil war is already happening.
The one thing you can say for Trudy Rubin is that she has been on target throughout this whole mess with her analysis of the war. If you read her book,”Willful Blindness”, you’ll see that almost everything she predicted has become reality in Iraq. She’s studied the Middle East for over 30 yrs and has a deep understanding of their culture. Too bad Bush&Co didn’t read her book, it might have saved this country a lot of grief.
Is the number 1 truly a number?
A number by definition is something that can be divided by itself.
But as anyone knows, you can’t divide 1 into itself!
Go ahead, get a calculator and input 1 divided by 1 and you will get an N/A message.
Oh yeah, I didn’t need empirical evidence to understand this concept either. Have I puzzled the athiest yet?
Mary used to use the nic Damoon. She has been posting with us since the early days of the blog.
Will – when I devide 1 by 1 I get 1. Now zero …
Ben,
You can not divide a whole by itself. The entire concept is illogical.
What’s with the Popup thing?
The concept of an open thread was first given to the forum in March of 2005. This most likely was the result of bloggers asking for a thread to discuss the first face to face “meet up” of some of the bloggers at that time. Originally there was one “open thread” a week posted on Friday.
The idea was such a success that the open threads were the most posted. A poster called heartlander petitioned for several open threads a week to accomodate the traffic and the editors adopted his idea.
will – I disagree: n/n=1
Not illogical.
Ben that’s a variable!I’m talking of 1/1=N/A
Not many posters today huh?Must be out immersed in the Black Friday madness! Either that, or they’re still tired from all the turkey they stuffed themselves with!
I agree with Marys’ approach to gift giving — I do intend to spoil my new daughter in law (I’ve got 3 sons – never had a daughter) a little more than my kids this year — but I intend to keep gift giving very simple this year –
We have become so removed from the true reason for Christmas — it’s an annual celebration to conspicuous consumption, lots of gifts are bought / given out of a sense of “I have to” instead of “I want to” — want to do something special? Try donating a day of your time, or a few hours a week at the VA hospital or other meaningful charity.
I find that Xmas is something I really look forward to because I don’t get caught up in all the shopping and thinking everything has to be just perfect. I love the holidays, but that has come with setting some boundries for myself. After my cancer, I really looked at everything differently and my priorities fell into place. I wouldn’t wish cancer for anyone, but to me it was a gift that changed my life for the better. I’ll never look at anything the same way again, and I enjoy life so much more.
Will: 4/4 = 1 or you could say four goes into four one time.
Same way, 3/3 = l
And 2/2 = 1
And 1/1 = 1 or said another way, one goes into one, ONE TIME.
Of course if the problem was: what is one divided by 0, or 1/0, the answer would be — can’t be done, “you can’t divide by zero.”
Try this, 3 cubed = 273 squared = ___3 to one power= ___3 to 1/2 power= ___3 to 0 power= ___3 to -1 power= ___3 to -2 power= ___3 to -3 power= ___
These problems would look simpler if I could type exponents on this screen … but this is really very basic algebra.
93about 1.6711/31/91/27
Ben: You get an A ! JWink
Ben: Actually square root of 3 is more like 1.732 but 1.67 or 1 2/3 is pretty close. Still an A. JWink
The DVD of Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ has an update covering climate crisis evidence discovered since the film was made.
One item is an increase of glacial earthquakes in Greenland. Note the rise in graph “b” at,http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news/2006/03_23_06.htm“Annual totals hovered between 6 and 15 through 2002, which was followed by sharp increases to 20 earthquakes in 2003, 24 in 2004 and 32 in the first ten months of 2005″
Gore’s DVD is packaged in heavy paper, instead of a plastic case. It asks you to “watch it, share it, donate it”.
Good to know cosmos.
I will watch for the dvd at Dillons.
After a few months rental, they sell off most copies of the new releases. I’ll try to secure a copy, see the new stuff, then donate it to either my kids school or the public library.
Division isn’t that hard. It’s the way of saying, for A/B, “Take A objects and put them in equal numbers in B boxes, and report the number of objects in each box.” Therefore, if A and B are both 1, then you put one object in one box, and there is one object in the box. Division isn’t destructive, meaning that you have to ‘cut’ something to divide. 1 divided by 1 equals 1, no matter what your calculator tells you. Any number, regardless of magnitude, divided by itself is 1. I suggest you invest more faith in the laws and axioms of modern mathematics than in a calculator which obviously was not manufactured with any kind of quality control as it applies to these laws and axioms. If I had a calculator that told me that the square root of 9 was 4, I’d buy a new calculator, not insist that the square root of 9 was 4 to prove some vacuous epistemological point.
Also, to Kansas Meadowlark:
The process of posting to the thread methodically to link to an external site of your own creation to draw traffic is called SPAMMING. Please stop.