Politics: J'accuse!

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by sgtclub
This is the first time I've been called a moderate here? Maybe the board IS changing for the better.

Its all relative. Heck, Bilmore was a moderate on the old Board.

S_A_M

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
The Ukrainians cut and ran from the town of Kut after taking mortar and small arms fire.

The Spaniards watch as the al Sadr militia takes over Najaf.

The Italians hold the bridges over the Euphrates in Nasiriyah, after some sharp engagements.

It is now clear, as it always should have been, that much of our "coalition" is a paper tiger at best. Maybe now, also, we can stop posting all the bullet-point lists touting the new Iraqi Army and National Police Force.

We now can't control Iraq without defeating Sadr's militia and dragging him off in chains. Many Shiites do not support Sadr, but the question is whether the process of doing so will cause the situation to degenerate irretrievably.

He is remarkably ungrateful for his liberation from Saddam's tyranny.

S_A_M

I am very concerned with the current situtation. Not sure if you caught Jim Lehrer (sp?) last night, but he had several high ranking retired military guys on and the consensus was that we are caught between a rock and a hard place. We need to quickly exert overwhelming force to quell the uprising, but by doing that we risk giving credence to the idea that we are foreign occupiers, which is likely to spur more resistence. The alternative is also not a good option because if we show weakness this will also embolden the militia.

[Hank Chinaski]

http://money.cnn.com/services/ticker...3_FORTUNE5.htm


This is fucked up. I may end up voting for Nader. How can one station be fined but the others who played the same content not be? Are the fines based upon a local complaint ( I know the investigations are) and thus adverse to the local station?

[Bad_Rich_Chic]

I just wanted to say that, having complete my taxes today, I have a new-found welling of warmth in my heart for W.

Not that I'll vote for him, but ... thanks, man.

[Aloha Mr. Learned Hand]

Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic
I just wanted to say that, having complete my taxes today, I have a new-found welling of warmth in my heart for W.

Not that I'll vote for him, but ... thanks, man.

Hear hear. Total bill down like $3500 from last year. Despite the efforts to program me to feel bad that I'm not paying (in some people's opinion) enough in taxes, I don't feel bad at all. I currently pay more in federal taxes than I made, period, at my first job out of college and pay a far higher % of income than most people. Don't even tell me I'm not doing "my share"...

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Aloha Mr. Learned Hand
Hear hear. Total bill down like $3500 from last year. Despite the efforts to program me to feel bad that I'm not paying (in some people's opinion) enough in taxes, I don't feel bad at all. I currently pay more in federal taxes than I made, period, at my first job out of college and pay a far higher % of income than most people. Don't even tell me I'm not doing "my share"...

But at the end of the day, you still have more money than everybody else - since the result is not equal, you are a bad person.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic
I just wanted to say that, having complete my taxes today, I have a new-found welling of warmth in my heart for W.

I was all set to be happy, but fucking AMT. And generally fuck you Washington, D.C.

[Aloha Mr. Learned Hand]

Originally posted by sgtclub
But at the end of the day, you still have more money than everybody else - since the result is not equal, you are a bad person.

Da, Comrade...

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Atticus point's out that the Civil War reference was benign because West Virginia was on the side of the Union! I question whether Byrd would have voted to stay in the Union if he had been in W. Virginia at that time, particularly if the question was framed solely on slavery.

Not sure I agree, and the way you phrased your post leads me to conclude that you're a little fuzzy on exactly how W.Va. came into existence. Did your H.S. history teacher run out of time after the Age of Jackson?

Many people in W.Va. hate snobby Virginians and are proud of their secession from the Commonwealth over the slavery issue. Do not assume that white men with southern accents are appropriately classed as pro-Confederacy, especially in border states like W.Va. I highly doubt that if Byrd had made pro-Confederate statements, Dodd, who has an electorate of his own to answer to, would go out of his way to say that he would have been on the right side of that war. It seems more likely that Dodd meant that if Byrd had been alive in that time, he would have fought with his state. Also, many people opposed to slavery (then and now --- duh) are nonetheless virulent racists. So Byrd's racism, past or present, is not evidence of his position vis-a-vis the War Between the States.*

I'm not on the KKK Platform Committee (damn redistricting), but I'm pretty sure they didn't have the reinstitution of slavery as a high priority. By the 1940s, there were new methods of internecine warfare between poor whites and blacks.

*This has always bothered me. "Among"?

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by sgtclub
But at the end of the day, you still have more money than everybody else - since the result is not equal, you are a bad person.

Always ready to chime in with a fourth grader's appreciation for an opponent's argument, aren't you? When Slave does this, he's funny. I repeat my recommendation that you buy a notebook and TAKE NOTES.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Dodd and Lott.

I'm not suggesting that Dodd's comment was a good thing, or that I agree with him, or anything of that sort. I'm suggesting that I see a qualitative difference between their statements, and that I don't buy the "liberal media" bullshit that you and your cronies constantly spout. Lott deserved to be baked for his lauding his state's vote for the segrationist party (and no, I don't "know" that the "problems" he referred to, in the present tense, were limited to "Vietnam and JFK." I don't even think that, let alone "know" it.)

But your own words say it best -- the GOP did not support Lott. And if what he said was so innocuous, was just a little fond reminiscence about an old man, than why not?

And don't tell me it's because the GOP -- today the party of nation-building and the benefits of deficits -- has such enormous integrity that it always admits when it was wrong.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Why is that when your camp repeats over and over again the "Bush lied" mantra - so much that its become the "Hare Krishna" of the Aughts - I don't think you meant something akin to "Far too many American lives will be lost is this cause"

Why is it that anyone who acknowledges that George Bush was less than truthful in drumming up support for the war suddenly in "our camp"? (Does that mean "traitor", or "terrorist"?) I find it hard to believe that you would have considered George Will and Ty in the same camp, say, last week.

And yes -- far too many American lives have already been lost in this cause. See my recent posts asking why we've sacrificed 600 Americans and counting in order to make Iraq safer for Hamas and Hezbollah.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
He is remarkably ungrateful for his liberation from Saddam's tyranny.

Why would you expect anything different? Hating the US is his nature.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Many people in W.Va. hate snobby Virginians and are proud of their secession from the Commonwealth over the slavery issue. Do not assume that white men with southern accents are appropriately classed as pro-Confederacy, especially in border states like W.Va.

And you shouldn't assume all West Virginians were/are KKK'ers. Your say Byrd 1861 might have been anti-slavery, and still the kind of guy who'd join the Klan. I guess I can see that as possible; it would be so he could fuck with black people without having thorny property issues arise, right?

You are willing to admit the KKK was not a positive force for the southern black population, aren't you?

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Always ready to chime in with a fourth grader's appreciation for an opponent's argument, aren't you? When Slave does this, he's funny. I repeat my recommendation that you buy a notebook and TAKE NOTES.

I think what you meant to say is that I'm always ready to chime in with an appreciation of an opponent's 4th grade argument.