Keeping it civil instead of returning to our dark ways

[Not Me]

Originally posted by bilmore
Syria

I think I deserve some sort of prize for predicting this.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

To the sound of piped-in fake applause, President Bush throws out the first pitch at the Cardinals' home opener in April.

[bilmore]

Originally posted by Not Me
I think I deserve some sort of prize for predicting this.

I think this was a brilliant set up.

Kerry announces "incredible incompetence". Then we find the russians took the stuff to Syria. Next, Putin is going to admit that his troops also took Saddam's nukes there, too. Finally, on Monday, we get the cameras on the pile of nukes sitting over the border. And all of them have Saddam's portrait on the side.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by bilmore
I think this was a brilliant set up.

Kerry announces "incredible incompetence". Then we find the russians took the stuff to Syria. Next, Putin is going to admit that his troops also took Saddam's nukes there, too. Finally, on Monday, we get the cameras on the pile of nukes sitting over the border. And all of them have Saddam's portrait on the side.

Karl Rove is a genius, isn't he?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by bilmore
This whole thread/mess dealt with dishonorable attempts to smear without factual backing.

No. The point on this side was that you guys are very good at changing the focus from the larger story (WMD, Bush's National Guard record) to the smaller piece of it you'd rather talk about (Joe Wilson, Dan Rather).

Wilson was one such smearer - the actual things he discovered on his trip added almost nothing to the controversy in reality, and in fact even left the commission in the position of saying that his data and official reports ended up slightly supporting the yellowcake claim - but certainly not refuting it. But his public article turned out to be composed of mostly lies - lies that were central to his case. It was said earlier that the attacks on his report were diversionary - but in fact, they went to the central supports of his public proclamation (which, incidentally and again, were pretty wholely debunked by his commission testimony.)

I've posted links before to reporting that makes clear that you are wrong on the facts. You never bother to respond -- you slink away, only to resurface with this stuff later. To my recollection, every statement you make in the paragraph is distorted or flat-out wrong, but I'm not going to do the work tonight because I'm in too good a mood about the Red Sox. I will say, though, that you're in rare form calling Joe Wilson a smearer.

Similarly, it was said here that the attacks on the NYT for publishing this new stolen weapons report without research were only diversionary. People here aren't so naive as to not understand the concept of the news cycle, and the value of even a later-discredited story maligning someone. That was my whole point.

Since you have yet to establish that the NYT got anything wrong, you've got the cart before horse.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
wow! turns out you are an idiot who can't follow logic. my point was the weapons were moved before we got there. I don't know is it was the Russians. i do know that truck convoys moving something, and we thought weapons movement, was part of the evidence Powll provided. When you wake up, you might remember and admit, your suck-boy blix poo-poohed the evidence. Do you know if his perdiem came out of the oil for food program- just a hunch!

I figured you already knew that Iraqi officials say otherwise:

• "The officials that were inside this facility (Al-Qaqaa) beforehand confirm that not even a shred of paper left it before the fall and I spoke to them about it and they even issued certified statements to this effect which the US-led coalition was aware of."
  
  He said officials at Al-Qaqaa, including its general director, whom he refused to name, made contact with US troops before the fall in an effort to get them to provide security for the site.
  
  The regime's fall triggered a wave of looting of government and private property, which US-led troops struggled to contain as they were busy securing their own positions.

link

Keep it up with the stupid defenses of Bush, though. I don't mind anything that keeps this story around for another few news cycles.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Keep it up with the stupid defenses of Bush, though. I don't mind anything that keeps this story around for another few news cycles.

The polls show that the more the press focuses on Iraq, the more Bush's ratings go up, even when the focus is negative. Keep the focus on Iraq, good or bad, and Bush wins.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Not Me
The polls show that the more the press focuses on Iraq, the more Bush's ratings go up, even when the focus is negative. Keep the focus on Iraq, good or bad, and Bush wins.

Actually, 5 out of 6 national tracking polls suggest otherwise in the last few days, but whatever you say.

[SlaveNoMore]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
To the sound of piped-in fake applause, President Bush throws out the first pitch at the Cardinals' home opener in April.

To the credit of RSN, they booed their own junior Senator when he threw out the first pitch the eve before the Michael Moore convention.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Actually, 5 out of 6 national tracking polls suggest otherwise in the last few days, but whatever you say.

1) Bush will win a second term;

2) Legalizing gay marriage will lead to legalizing polygamy;

3) the WMDs are in Syria; and

4) Iraq=flypaper.

You heard it here first.

[SlaveNoMore]

Not Me
1) Bush will win a second term;

You heard it here first.

Sorry P-Greedy. I've been calling this one for months.

Unfortunately, it won't become official until Super Bowl weekend, but a wins a win a win.

[Not Me]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Sorry P-Greedy. I've been calling this one for months.

I felt more confident about my call before I knew the guy who predicted NY would beat Boston made the same call.

[SlaveNoMore]

Not Me
I felt more confident about my call before I knew the guy who predicted NY would beat Boston made the same call.

Fair point.

Oh well. To borrow another Hank schtick:

26-1

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I know the former Iraqui government wouldn't have done bad, because, officials of that former Iraqui government say so, and former Iraqui "officials" are a credible source to me, and what they say validates my belief in something that is logistically imposssible. I am happy to believe in billion-to-one shots.

Here's my favorite part:

Sharaa warned that other sites close to Al-Qaqaa with similar materials could have also been plundered.

"The Al-Milad Company in Iskandariyah and the Yarmuk and Hateen facilities contained explosive materials that could have also been taken out," he told AFP.

Al-Qaqaa is near latifiyah, 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Baghdad. The bulk of materials in question include HMX (high melting point explosive) and RDX (rapid detonation explosive), which can be used in major bombing attacks, making missile warheads and detonating nuclear weapons.

So this stuff is horribly dangerous, and saddam had hundreds of tons of it, and more than we even know because it was at lots of facilities. The UN had put it under "seal" but was happy to leave it in Iraq. Iraq needed it for oil pipelines, but the UN kept it sealed?

Do any of you see how this undercuts your main thesis?

Maybe the UN should start regulating oil pipeline manufacture. Sounds like that is almost more dangerous than a country developing nukes. Hey, SS. In Texas everyone is armed, plus you have oil pipelines. You guys keep this stuff stored all around?

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by bilmore
[Joke]Good grief, your side coddles suicide bombers - of course we're more paranoid than you guys are at big rallies![/Joke]

Certainly I knew about those happenings. We all did, because they were outrageous, and made the news. Out of thousands of rallies and events, some local organizers were overly paranoid and stepped over the line. But, no, of all the events I've been to, none were as you suggest.

Your anecdotal evidence seems contrary to what has been reported elsewhere. And it's contrary to my anecdotal evidence, too -- local BC-04 events here (we got the daughter in law of the
Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture and the roommate of the RA from Jenna Bush's freshman dorm) limited tickets to donors or people who signed a pledge to vote for Bush. But whatever -- I just live in one of those paranoid areas, I guess. Anyway, from the WaPo:

• Tickets to Bush events, distributed by the Republican Party, go only to those who volunteer or donate to the party or, in some cases, sign an endorsement of the GOP ticket and provide names and addresses. Party workers police the crowds for signs of Kerry supporters, who are frequently evicted.
  
  Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said the tickets are distributed by precinct leaders and volunteers, who have discretion about who should receive them. He said those in attendance include undecided voters.
  
  "We give out tickets . . . to people who support his reelection and people who may be undecided but want an opportunity to hear what he has to say," Stanzel said.
  
  ...
  
  Outside the conventions, a series of arrests have kept law enforcement officials busy during the campaign season. In September, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq was arrested at a rally for first lady Laura Bush in Hamilton Township, N.J.; she was wearing a T-shirt that said "President Bush you killed my son." The charges were later dropped.
  
  In another well-publicized case in July, Jeff and Nicole Rank were arrested and jailed on trespassing charges in Charleston, W.Va., for wearing shirts with anti-Bush slogans during an appearance by the president. The charges were later dropped, and the Ranks received apologies from local authorities, who said the arrests were made at the behest of the Secret Service.
  
  The couple has filed a lawsuit against the Secret Service and a White House official. Mazur declined to comment on the case.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...04Oct27_2.html