Patting the wrists, rolling the eyes.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
http://www.variety.com/VR1117919604.html

(CNN signs Larry King through 2009)

CNN really needs to jettison this guy. Honestly, one of the ways I even became aware of Fox News was channel surfing, looking for something other than Larry King. The linked article mentions his numerous important interview subjects and moments, but on a day to day basis, his show is typically insignificant gossip. Sure, he's interviewed presidents, but when you tune in he's interviewing a Tammy Faye or Elizabeth Taylor or some attorney with insights on the MJ case. It's enough to drive me over to Hannity & Colmes or whatever Springerian freak show they're showing on Fox. The King is dead, but CNN keeps saying "long live the King."

I can't stand his interviews

[SlaveNoMore]

Tyrone Slothrop
If it became necessary to destroy the UN in order to save it, they were willing to take that risk.

In case you missed it, it's still there.

You realize this whenever you are unable to park anywhere between 38th and 45th streets on the East Side.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Spanky
I can't stand his interviews

I was speaking to someone yesterday who was criticizing him, and I realized that I've never actually watched him do his show. Ever. My friend was sort of amazed.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
He's been sufficiently vague that anything can be characterized as a win. The Clintons' big mistake was actually having a detailed proposal. More fools them.

Maybe to people not paying attention, but I think everyone who is following this knows that Bush has been trying to use the "crisis" to take the opportunity to divert money to private accounts. For the Lochner crowd in the GOP, this is their chance -- if not now, then when? If there's a reform that shores up SS, that removes the phony crisis that they'd like to use to destroy the social insurance aspect of the system. So: reform that strengthens the finances is a defeat for Bush.

Doubtless Bush will try to spin it as a victory in any case. That's why he's all about not negotiating with himself, as he puts it. But inside the Beltway, everyone will know the score, and Bush will be a lame duck that much sooner.

[SlaveNoMore]

Spanky
I don't think anyone really does. But the Security Council is another matter (as long as we are a permanent member with the power of the veto).

Right.

When was the last time the Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel?

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
. . . and Bush will be a lame duck that much sooner.

Isn't he one now? Or is there another definition I'm missing?

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
Unless I'm quite mistaken, the salary for a junior enlisted soldier (E-4 and below), won't take a family of four above the poverty line. The benefits help some (PX, AAFES grocery shopping, health care) -- but (I think) there are tens of thousands of junior enlisted families that qualify for and receive AFDC.

That, Burger, is one reason why military pay and benefits might could use to be somewhat higher. (Although you could also take the position that young junior soldiers should not get married or have children. Good luck.)

S_A_M

Here's a military pay calculator that will show eqivalents. Here are the
poverty level guidelines. At E-4, salary is likely below the poverty level but you have to also add in the housing allowance. I don't know the AFDC guidelines, but have also heard that many military get AFDC benefits.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by bilmore
I was speaking to someone yesterday who was criticizing him, and I realized that I've never actually watched him do his show. Ever. My friend was sort of amazed.

Save your time. Next time you're travelling, look for his column in USAToday. You'll get the idea. Or just wait til you see Norm Macdonald's portrayal of him on SNL. It's pretty much dead on.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by bilmore
I was speaking to someone yesterday who was criticizing him, and I realized that I've never actually watched him do his show. Ever. My friend was sort of amazed.

Twenty years ago, he was kinda fun to listen to on late-night radio. Now, I have taught my children to run screaming from the room when he appears on the screen.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by bilmore
Isn't he one now? Or is there another definition I'm missing?

There's some magic moment when he turns from being the newly re-elected President with political capital to burn in his pocket, to being a lame duck. It's never clear when that happens until it happens. But if Bush takes his shot at SS, and whiffs, it's happening a lot sooner.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Shape Shifter
Next time you're travelling, look for his column in USAToday.

See, now I'm really starting to feel uninformed. I don't watch Larry, and I leave the USA Today outside the Sheraton door in the morning.

(Who ever thought of the concept of a newspaper with no comics? I mean, why bother?)

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by bilmore
"WASHINGTON (CSM) - Something remarkable is happening in the Middle East - a grass-roots movement against autocracy without any significant 'Great Satan' anti-American component. . . . The movements for democratic change in Egypt and Lebanon have happened since the successful Iraqi election on Jan. 30. And one can speculate on whether Iraq has served as a beacon for democratic change in the Middle East. During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, President Bush said that 'a liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region.' He may have had it right."

Daniel Schorr, NPR host, in Christian Science Monitor.

• To Americans desperate for good news from abroad, the Beirut Spring is the apotheosis of a Middle Eastern perestroika. To the White House, and many American pundits, the crowds in Martyrs' Square have vindicated the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq. The image of Iraqis voting freely, so the narrative goes, struck a chord in other Arabs that finally gave them the courage to reach for the prize. NPR's Daniel Schorr argued that President Bush "may have had it right" when he said, "A liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region." Dennis Ross, writing in the Financial Times, attributed Lebanon's uprising to the "Iraq effect." Washington Post columnist David Ignatius made the same point, citing Lebanese opposition leader Walid Jumblatt, who told Ignatius, "It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. ... When I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, eight million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world." Jumblatt's quote caromed across the Internet, cropping up on numerous conservative blogs and in other columns. In The New York Times, David Brooks quoted Ignatius quoting Jumblatt and concluded, "People around the Arab world look at voters in Iraq and ask, 'Why not here?'"
  
  There's just one problem. The idea that the Lebanese were inspired by the Iraq war doesn't have much currency in Beirut. "I've never heard it from anybody except Walid Jumblatt," laughs Jamil Mroue, editor-in-chief of Beirut's Daily Star newspaper. "I've heard the Lebanese say, 'What the heck, are [the Syrians] going to take us back to the Stone Age?' They're saying 'Fuck it, we're not going back. And, if it means demonstrating in the streets, and if it means changing the government, then so be it.' But I don't think they thought, 'Oh, the Iraqis voted, so we can, too.'" In actuality, some Lebanese have been struggling for reform for decades, hating their Syrian overlords. "Lebanon has been the only satellite state in the world since the end of the cold war, and no one lifted a finger," says Farid El-Khazen, a political science professor in Beirut. "It was business as usual until 9/11, and U.S.-Syria relations began to deteriorate. Internally, there was a movement all along that pushed for an end to the occupation. ... There is a linkage, if you like, with Iraq, in the sense that American policy has changed toward Syria due to their interference in Iraq. But [the Lebanese opposition] has been going on for a long time."
  
  Because the Beirut Spring happened so soon after Iraq's election, and just as Hosni Mubarak said he would allow opposition parties to run for office in Egypt, the foreign press has linked the so-called Cedar Revolution to these other events. What has happened in Lebanon, however, is fundamentally different from events in other parts of the Middle East. Unlike other Arab states, Lebanon is not a dictatorship and never has been. It already has a civil society and a democratic infrastructure--the freest press in the region, a long history of relatively free elections, and a tradition of pluralism. D. Roman Kulchitsky, a political science professor at the American University in Beirut (AUB), says, "People here have been experimenting with democracy for a very long time. But there's always been so many external forces getting involved."
  
  Indeed, for years, the United States was complicit in the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. After the 1989 Taif Accord, Syria became the main power broker in Lebanon, an arrangement accepted by the United States in the interests of "regional stability." At the same time, Washington invested relatively little in promoting liberalization in Lebanon: In 2003, the National Endowment for Democracy spent less than $700,000 on democracy promotion there; by comparison, the United States spent nearly $2 million on democracy promotion in the Ukraine. "The Lebanese not having a democracy was partly the American government's decision in supporting the Syrian hegemony over Lebanon," says Mroue.

Annia Ciezadlo, from Beirut, in The New Republic

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy
Here's a military pay calculator that will show eqivalents. Here are the
poverty level guidelines. At E-4, salary is likely below the poverty level but you have to also add in the housing allowance. I don't know the AFDC guidelines, but have also heard that many military get AFDC benefits.

AFDC no longer exists. It's Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) now. I wonder how many military are timing out of it? Or is there an exception for them?

[sgtclub]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
There's some magic moment when he turns from being the newly re-elected President with political capital to burn in his pocket, to being a lame duck. It's never clear when that happens until it happens. But if Bush takes his shot at SS, and whiffs, it's happening a lot sooner.

It happens after the mid-terms.

Incidentally, has anyone been watching Terry McCaulliffe as guess host on Fox News this week?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sgtclub
It happens after the mid-terms.

Incidentally, has anyone been watching Terry McCaulliffe as guess host on Fox News this week?

Incidentally, has anyone been pounding roofing nails into their knees?