Still Hating America.

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Depends. Yes if it was Jesus that tells you how the fetus will end up.

Ty@75?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by ironweed
Ty@75?

a 90 foot tall Jesus appeared to me and told me to build the Ty@50 sock.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
This reminds of someone, but who?

• The other ugly English trait promoting The Economist’s success in America is the Oxford Union argumentative style. At its epitome, it involves a stance so cocksure of its rightness and superiority that it would be a shame to freight it with mere fact. American debate contests involve grinding, yearlong concentration on one doughy issue, like arms control. The forte of Oxford-style debate is to be able to sound certain and convincing about a topic pulled out of the air a few minutes before, such as “Resolved: That women are not the fairer sex.” (The BBC radio shows “My Word” and “My Music,” carried on National Public Radio, give a sample of the desired impromptu glibness.) Economist leaders and the covers that trumpet their message offer Americans a blast of this style. Michael Kinsley, who once worked at The Economist, wrote that the standard Economist leader gives you the feeling that the writer started out knowing that three steps must be taken immediately — and then tried to think what the steps should be.

link

The Economist is dull. National Review works a much snider and funnier variation of the gimmick.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
If you're opposed to abortion, would it be OK to abort a fetus if you knew it would grow up to be a doctor who performed abortions?

This isn't reaching what you're going for.

The simple answer is No.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop

"Landing strip. Ask Denny Hastert..."

"Really? Nuts."

[Tyrone Slothrop]

• The names of more than 200 dead U.S. soldiers will be removed from an Iraq War memorial in Lafayette this weekend, organizers said today.
  
  But one angry Tracy man who found his step-son's name on a white wooden cross last week said he and others still plan to protest at the site.
  
  The names of all but about a dozen soldiers will be removed on Sunday, unless a soldier's family gives permission for it to remain. About 300 names of troops from California now grace the 3,188 white wooden crosses that make up the hillside memorial. The decision comes as anti-war activists prepare for a candlelight vigil on Monday to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the war.
  
  "We didn't intend to cause any grief to the families of soldiers that died," said organizer Jeff Heaton. "So when we saw how agitated they were, we (decided) we don't want to turn the memorial into a battleground."
  
  The name plaques have drawn criticism on the Internet and conservative radio shows from people who say it's offensive. On March 8, several dozen supporters of the war and the troops fighting it gathered to confront its organizers, and Scott Conover of Tracy, whose step-son Brandon died in Iraq in January 2006, said he was surprised to find his son's name.

more

[Tyrone Slothrop]

An anti-Bush protest I can endorse:



Anyone who is concerned about having this on their screen Monday morning should either post a lot or send a PM to change the image to a link.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

All aboard the Straight Talk Express!

[Adder]

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that the man behind the challenge to DC's gun laws lives in Florida and just wants to meddle in other people's government.

link

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
An anti-Bush protest I can endorse:



Anyone who is concerned about having this on their screen Monday morning should either post a lot or send a PM to change the image to a link.

I can't tell if that's pro or anti Bush.

Do you have any full frontal nudes?

[Spanky]

From The Sunday TimesMarch 18, 2007

Iraqis: life is getting better

Marie Colvin

MOST Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein, according to a British opinion poll published today.

The survey of more than 5,000 Iraqis found the majority optimistic despite their suffering in sectarian violence since the American-led invasion four years ago this week.

One in four Iraqis has had a family member murdered, says the poll by Opinion Research Business. In Baghdad, the capital, one in four has had a relative kidnapped and one in three said members of their family had fled abroad. But when asked whether they preferred life under Saddam, the dictator who was executed last December, or under Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, most replied that things were better for them today.

Only 27% think there is a civil war in Iraq, compared with 61% who do not, according to the survey carried out last month.

By a majority of two to one, Iraqis believe military operations now under way will disarm all militias. More than half say security will improve after a withdrawal of multinational forces.

Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, said the findings pointed to progress. “There is no widespread violence in the four southern provinces and the fact that the picture is more complex than the stereotype usually portrayed is reflected in today’s poll,” she said.


The Sunday TimesMarch 18, 2007

Violence slashed as troop surge hits Baghdad

Sarah Baxter Washington, Marie Colvin and Samir al Bassam, Baghdad
KARADEH used to be an affluent shopping area of Baghdad. It boomed for a while after the American invasion as goods flooded into Iraq after years of sanctions. But as sectarian violence intensified, the store fronts became shuttered and shell-pocked.

In a vote of confidence in the surge by US troops, the shops were reopening last week. Hareth Salah, a 24-year-old student, said he had stopped attending courses at his technical college when the surge began last month.

“One of my friends was killed by the terrorists,” he said, “but now there are a lot more Iraqi army checkpoints and I’m feeling more secure. I feel better; I can go out and do my shopping. More people have opened their stores and the markets are open longer.”

As the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war approaches on Tuesday, progress remains uncertain but trends are hopeful.

“This is a bit of a rollercoaster ride,” said General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq. “You’re trying to do what is necessary to keep the rollercoaster generally going up, despite the ups and downs and the bumps.”

Murderous sectarian checkpoints have melted away as the Iraqi security forces and American troops extend their grip on the capital. Abu Mohammed, a 34-year-old taxi driver, who lives in the largely Shi’ite Sha’ab district in northern Baghdad, said: “Sometimes I would stop and wait for an hour or two rather than take a chance on passing a fake checkpoint with a customer.

“We were so scared; anybody could be followed and assassinated.”

Figures released last week by Brigadier Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, showed civilian deaths down from 1,440 in the four weeks before the surge began on February 14 to 265 in the four weeks that followed, although there may have been some undercounting. According to the American military, assassination attempts were down by 50%.

The number of US deaths was also down, from 87 to 66, although the concentration of troops in Baghdad led to an increase of 12% in fatalities in the capital.

Frederick Kagan, a military historian and leading advocate of the surge, said: “It is very early days but I’m very encouraged by what is happening. America only has two brigades out of five there and we haven’t even started our major operations yet. I had not expected this little resistance.”

Residents of the Iraqi capital are holding their breath. For each hopeful piece of news there seems to be a car bombing or attempted assassination - such as one on the Shi’ite mayor of Sadr City last week - that threatens their security.

“At least I don’t see bodies thrown here and there on the road, as in the days before the security plan,” said Ramya Ahmed, 35, a Shi’ite living in Adamiya, a largely Sunni neighbourhood.

A demonstration on Friday by militants loyal to the Mahdi army of the Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr shouting “No, no to America” has raised fears of a new outbreak of hostilities with the cleric’s blackshirts.

Vali Nasr, an American expert, said Sadr was still growing in authority. “It is very clear the Mahdi army made a strategic decision not to engage the Americans in Baghdad,” he said, “but it has not been defeated. It is a tactical withdrawal.”

Roughly 700 members of Sadr’s militia have been arrested and others have fled to Iran. “Only the smaller people are left, so everyone is feeling more safe,” said one relieved resident.

American forces have moved with relative ease to install joint security stations with the Iraqis in Sadr City’s teeming slums. The number of these “mini forts” in Baghdad is due to reach 30 in the coming weeks. Some families displaced by ethnic cleansing have returned to check on their homes, although few have felt confident enough to stay.

Car bombings in Baghdad rose to an “all-time high” of 44 last month, according to a Pentagon spokesman, but troops are now fanning out to the suburbs and to outlying towns such as Baqouba in an effort to uncover bomb-making factories.

The Americans’ Stryker Brigade combat team was redeployed last week to the area, where there has been a sharp rise in attacks amid signs that Sunni insurgents are regrouping.

An extra combat brigade and more than 2,200 military police are being dispatched to Iraq, which by the end of May or early June will bring the number of additional US troops involved in the surge to 30,000. But James Carafano, a defence expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation, cautioned that an increase in violence was likely during the spring and summer.

“The first thing you would expect the bad guys to do is to go to ground, map things out, do some reconnaissance and figure out how to screw things up,” he said. “You have to get through to next winter before you can say the surge has worked.”

Suicide gas attack

Three suicide bombers using lorries loaded with chlorine gas killed eight people and caused 350, including six American soldiers, to fall ill in Fallujah and Ramadi this weekend.

The attacks prompted warnings that the insurgents are turning to new weapons to spread panic. Symptoms ranged from minor skin and lung irritations to vomiting.

Insurgents have detonated three other lorries carrying chlorine since January. Major-General William Caldwell, the American army’s spokesman, called it “a crude attempt to raise the terror level”.

Chlorine gas was deployed as a weapon in the first world war but its use has particular resonance in Iraq. Saddam Hussein turned chemical weapons on Kurdish areas in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war. Extra US troops have seen civilian deaths drop from 1,440 in the month before to 265 after

[LessinSF]

Originally posted by Spanky
article

There is no hope. All the quoted article shows is that increased police presence reduces violence. Ok, but we are leaving - sooner or later - and with us leaving, the police presence leaves. If you think that we will be leaving a capable, non-corrupt, non -sectarian police presence in our place, you have lost touch. The statistics from that story alone demonstrate how ineffective we have been. When we are gone, they will elect an Iran-style government, and our achievements will have been ...?1?!?

Disconnect:

Abroad, I get angry drunks in my face all the time who despise Bush (for good reason), and want to attribute his actions to a desire to control the oil. I argue that he must be even stupider than he sounds (also likely true) then, because our actions have raised the price of oil, and, in all likelihood, transferred control from our former puppet to Tehran, and Bush and his advisors couldn't have been that ignorant of the likely result of our actions, right? I prefer to think of him as benevolent - intentionally creating an oil-price crisis so as to raise prices and encourage alternative energy development. I mean, he was taught as well as Hank, right?

LessinColon, Argentina

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by LessinSF
There is no hope. All the quoted article shows is that increased police presence reduces violence. Ok, but we are leaving - sooner or later -

too early to tell for sure. it will certainly not be what we had hoped -- but this effort could produce results to reduce the intensity of the harm done since the overthrow.

Originally posted by LessinSF
When we are gone, they will elect an Iran-style government, and our achievements will have been ...?1?!?

Possibly so.


S_A_M

P.S. They really didn't see most of this coming. The folks who did are now mostly in charge and trying to fix what they can.

[Adder]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
They really didn't see most of this coming.

Yes, this is what is so frightening about continuing to let this administration do anything. The current situation was always strong possibility, and was predicted by many. Why the administration failed to plan at all for it, I have no idea.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

The No Spin Zone, on the road in Los Angeles:

• Apparently, he was not pleased with the efforts staffers had made for him. In particular, he was extremely unhappy with the croissants that were laid out for him.
  
  * * * * *
  
  The croissants were not fresh enough.
  
  Apparently, there is no room for store bought baked goods in the No Spin Zone. They must be from a bakery. And they must be baked fresh, very fresh. Which is why he insisted that a baker in Beverly Hills be summoned to create a fresh batch, just for him. Post haste.
  
  Because Bill is just folks, you know. A regular guy.
  
  He followed that up by demanding that a helicopter take him to Orange County for his next appearance, because he didn't want to spend an hour in the limousine the station had arranged for him. That was too much to ask.

linky