Monday, August 25, 2008

On Swampland

Somebody objected to the fact that prominent Democratic women were being introduced with their family size leading as in:

Grandmother of two to head United Way" or "Mother of three up and coming Democrat.....

I respond:

Perhaps to compensate, when introducing Republican noteworthies we should refer to them as "owner of seven houses including a 400 acre ranch" or "Owner of two residences both considered primary depending on whether we're discussing the father's Congressional district or the child's school district"...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Left on a Swampland thread:

After all the back and forth over what constitutes bigotry, I have to firmly second THIS sentiment:

I'm tired Sean. I'm tired of living in a country that hates intelligence. I'm tired of living in a country whose people DO NOT WANT TO ELECT A MAN OF INTELLECT, because apparently intelligence is equal to effeminacy. I'm tired of my and my family's future being tied to a populace who wants to elect a beer buddy.

This is the center of the problem. Not only is there an active effort to mock and ridicule people BECAUSE of their intelligence, but it's being joined by the press corps and media folks who themselves OUGHT TO BE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER!

There's been a shining beacon on mediocrity ever since Obama made a comment about bitter Pennsylvanians and it qualifies as a full-on fatal illness as far as our nation is concerned. Because its going to guarantee that we continue to deal with the challenges we face globally with proud ignorance.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

WaPo notices Randy Scheunemann but misses an important detail

While Aide Advised McCain, His Firm Lobbied For Georgia

You think that an article about Mr. Scheunemann's ties to the Georgian government might also merit a sentence or two of background mentioning his former ties to Ahmed Chalabi and his participation in pushing us into Iraq.

It would seem that committing US troops into the service of foreign interests seems to be Job 1 for him. Good thing he's nowhere near the White House.

Oh wait....

http://phd9.blogspot.com/2008/07/must-publicize.html

Monday, August 11, 2008

Just an observation re: Russia/Georgia

The central paradox to all this debate is the fact that military force is only capable of destroying stuff and it takes a different sort of activity to build stuff.

I know that war-cheerleaders may think of themselves as sculptors who are busy simply removing those parts that aren't supposed to be part of the finished product but in reality there are very strict limits on what can be accomplished with bombs alone.

This is why we need to make sure that we have ALL the tools at our disposal when we're dealing with crises. Confining yourself to the hammer, leads to less than optimum results.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

When is a terrorist not a terrorist.

Seemes like a nice time to point out the astounding difference in how terrorist suspects are treated depending on their ancestry.

If reports are to be believed, Bruce E. Ivins is responsible for a horrible terrorist attack on American soil. Why wasn't he in Gitmo? Why wasn't he waterboarded? Why wasn't he stripped naked and threatened with growling dogs? Why wasn't he placed in stress positioned and deprived of sleep until he confessed. If it's good enough for Afghani captives, why not Ft Detrick terrorists? At least in his case we had identifiable victims. What's the difference?

Saturday, August 02, 2008

An enlightening experiment:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=McCain+Lies

Yields 1300 articles most of which detail various lies McCain has told about Obama.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=Obama+Lies

on the other hand yields 1700 articles most of which detail various lies McCain has told about Obama.

I wonder if there's any conclusion we can draw?

Hmmm......

Friday, August 01, 2008

Where are they now....

And now that Anthrax is in the news again it appears that the name Woolsey is getting mentioned a lot.

It would be interesting to see what a "where are they now?" article about the people who claimed that Iraq was responsible for the antrax attacks would look like.....

oh wait!

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0511-07.htm


James Woolsey, former CIA boss and influential adviser to President George Bush, is a director of a US firm aiming to make millions of dollars from the 'war on terror', The Observer can reveal.

[...]

In 2001 US Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz sent Woolsey to Europe, where he argued the case for links existing between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. He was one of the main proponents of the theory that the anthrax letter attacks in America were supported by Iraq's former dictator


http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/woolsey-joins-mccain-camp-as-security-adviser-2007-04-23.html

James Woolsey, who served as CIA director under President Clinton, is endorsing Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president and will serve as national security and energy adviser, the campaign announced Monday.

[...]

“These individuals are recognized and respected for their seriousness and leadership on the important security issues confronting our nation,” McCain said. “I am honored to have their support, and I look forward to working with them to develop innovative policies that move America forward.”