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Two news stories today.
One, Republicans expressed feigned outrage over the fact that President Obama took his wife on a date to New York, complaining that enjoying life by doing such, was wrong in a recession.
Two, beached killer whales were shot and mercifully killed upon being found stranded upon the sand, with no hope of survival.
No reports yet on whether Gingrich, Libby, Tancredo, Cornyn, were found among them.
At April 4th’s NATO summit, Barack Obama was appealing for support. During these recessionary times, his appeal may fall on deaf ears. Although many countries would like to assist the US in accomplishing it’s peaceful goals in that region, they are out of money and would have politically a difficult time spending their nations resources halfway around the world from where they were more needed…
But despite the odds, the US has ratcheted up its own strength on the ground, and is looking for others to help do the same..
Adm. Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff put it this way: the security situation in Afghanistan cannot improve until there’s economic and political development in Afghanistan.
In other words we need to fix the economy in a nation on the other side of the world, simultaneously while fixing ours here at home…
The military problem inherent with fighting in Afghanistan, is that whoever holds the high ground, cannot be routed… The British tried but were unable to conquer. The Russians tried but our Stingers stung them.. It is now our turn…
Since the British were able to hold influence for over a period of a hundred years, and the Soviets barely held on for ten, it makes since that we should mimic the British approach as opposed to the choices made by the former Soviet Union….
What we can learn from the approaches of these two former powers, is that the only way we can make inroads in that territory, is to get the local population on our side…
The Victorian British were practical people. They realized that in a mountainous terrain, holding the entire country was impossible. Instead, they realized that controlling certain choke points could control the territory… That is how their handful of soldiers were able to subdue a vast area of wild, moutainous wilderness..
To win Afghanistan and Pakistan, we need to be seen by the local population as “the heros”, and our opponents need to be seen as “the enemy”…. . In planning to insure our safety, half a world away, and with the possibility that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons may fall into the hands of a nutty Taliban, failing our own Iron Man, we need a practical hands-on ground-approach that utilizes the local population working in our favor…
Our plan should be thus…
A. American armed forces are understood to be there simply to protect those locals who choose to support us, from retalitory attacks by the Taliban.. We have no imperial aspirations.
B. All Afghani’s and Pakistani’s who support us, are given free medical, dental, and health care. Feedback from the Special ops in the Phillipines, Columbia, Horn of Africa regions are consistent in the proof that medical care, is our greatest political tool… When the United States of America saves a man’s child from certain death, we gain a friend for life… The Taliban, of course, have no counter weapon, except to randomly kill citizens of villages who choose to accept our free offer… That, of course, then opens up a goldmine of intelligence for our nation, and utilizing our armed forces can eradicate the problem rather quickly thanks to the better ground-game intelligence.
C. We must be respectful of their religion.. The British were.. The Russians weren’t… Religion provides a reason to keep fighting, even when there is none… We need to respect its power, and remove religion from even being an issue. We must make it clear that we are there to protect our allies… We are not there to eradicate our enemies… They will be around forever.. Instead, our goal should be to make them see that their lives will be far better if they fight on our side, than if they fight against us..
D. Which means we have to “put up”… We have to get rresults, to make sure their lives ARE better because they support us. These are not just glib words, or press releases, or photo ops, or video shoots, all propagandizing for the folks back home so America can croon with a collective “Ahhhhhhh”, and feel good about our efforts to “help” other people. These are determined by real results on the ground… determined by whether the people defy the Taliban to support us.
By real results on the ground, we mean educated students; we mean eradicating simple illinesses; we mean installing enough security so men can lay down their guns and play a game of football… We mean fostering an economy that feeds its own population…
If we were as smart as the British, we would buy the opium crop from indigenous farmers, and use the profits once sold over here after processing, to pay down our national debt… Just having us buy the poppies, would cut Taliban support instantly. Instead of this cheap reasonable approach, we choose to send recruits pouring into the Taliban’s training camps each time we attempt to starve them by spraying their fields down with weed killers…
And finally we need to use this potential catastrophe as a portal to the new age, a new allignment. We should not be the ones policing Afghanistan or Pakistan. It should be the Chinese… It is closer to them, and by us even being there, no doubt we are making them nervous.. Imagine our concern were Mexico to be filled with Chinese Regular Soldiers?
E. We should take this opportunity to establish joint operations with the Chinese and work with them upon taking some international responsibility.. Doing so will later will later give us the possibility of pulling out and letting them run things, similar to how the Europeans now handle a similar disaster that occurred in the former Yugoslavia just a decade ago…
The Chinese are the ones who have the most at stake of preventing a nuclear conflageration off their southern border.. They have manpower and muscle to make the changes required of that region.. Our long range goal will be to teach them how to be a “good” international power, and then as we pull back, allow them the opportunity to rise to that challenge…
F. And we need to use our talents to muzzle the fanaticism of the muslim religion in that part of the world. Religion is good. Fanaticism is bad… We as a nation, and hopefully with the Chinese at our side, need to outline the distinction between being a muslim by one’s actions, and being a muslim in name only; ie, not adherring to the teachings of Mohammed himself….
G. We need to stand up in support of the rights of women, and push forward the moderate version of Islam by refuting its insistence that women are nothing… By taking on that challenge, we earn the trust and respect of at least 50% of the population who may remain silent in front of their gun carrying spouses, but who secretly want us to win…
That my friends is how you take a country like Afghanistan, a country that has never been subdued, and turn it into a force for good…
It requires a practical approach unfettered by the poison of conservative philosophy…
It will require more ground forces…
Let us hope that the other, more important services such as medical, educational, and self sustaining economics, will be forthcoming to every Afghani or Pakistani in the very near future.. For removing from consideration their fears of starvation, infection, and economic survival, will create an environment where our aims are achieved with a minimal amount of military involvement.
Our military is there solely to protect those who choose to come to our side… To those choosing to stay apart and live otherwise as long as they leave us alone, we should return their show of respect and do just that: leave them alone…
That will be a future problem for the Chinese.
A Pentagon study released last year, based on a review of 600,000 Iraqi documents captured after the U.S.-led invasion, concluded that while Saddam supported militant Palestinian groups — the late terrorist Abu Nidal found refuge in Baghdad, at least until Saddam had him killed — the Iraqi security services had no “direct operational link” with al Qaida.
600,000.
By investigation, however, it was found that the vast majority of Guantanamo detainees captured in 2001 and 2002 in Afghanistan and Pakistan were innocent citizens or low-level fighters of little intelligence value who were turned over to American officials for money or because of personal or political rivalries.
Vast majority.
The decision to withhold the documents was announced by the CIA, which said that it was obliged to do so by a 2003 executive order issued by former President George W. Bush prohibiting the release of materials that are the subject of lawsuits.
Our official policy was known to become the subject of lawsuits.
While allegedly being tortured by Egyptian authorities, Libi provided false information about Iraq’s links with al Qaida, which the Bush administration used despite doubts expressed by the DIA.
False information was used despite doubts expressed by the DIA.
The administration ignored warnings from experts in the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the State Department, the Department of Energy and other agencies, and used false or exaggerated intelligence supplied by Iraqi exile groups and others to help make its case for the 2003 invasion.
Ignored warnings from its own experts.
A bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report in December traced the abuses at Abu Ghraib to the approval of the techniques by senior Bush administration officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Top officials approved of the humiliation of prisoners of war.
Cheney said that the Bush administration “moved decisively against the terrorists in their hideouts and their sanctuaries, and committed to using every asset to take down their networks.” The former vice president didn’t point out that Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahri, remain at large nearly eight years after 9-11 and that the Bush administration began diverting U.S. forces, intelligence assets, time and money to planning an invasion of Iraq before it finished the war in Afghanistan against al Qaida and the Taliban.
Resources were diverted from finding Osama towards invading Iraq.
A top-secret 2004 CIA inspector general’s investigation found no conclusive proof that information gained from aggressive interrogations helped thwart any “specific imminent attacks,” according to one of four top-secret Bush-era memos that the Justice Department released last month.
No proof interrogations kept America safe… they prolonged the war.
Bottom line…
Torture was sanctioned by Vice President Cheney so it could be used solely to offer credulity to the invasion of Iraq, where there was oil.
America invaded for oil… America tortured for oil, … Every dead American soldier coming back from Iraq, died for oil….
On Armed Forces Day, it would be wise to question whether our members of the American military deserve better.. As individual citizens of this great country, we must make sure that no other future leader misrepresents the American way and abuses our system for their own private gain, as did Dick Cheney
Now as private citizen, it is time that the articles of treason be filed on Dick Cheney, former Vice President of the United States…
After all, he is innocent until proven guilty, but at least the opportunity to hold him accountable, must be taken now. For if no one is ever held accountable, then what is to stop the madness from ever occurring again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and …..
Any person continuing to support private citizen Dick Cheney’s contention’s, should also be viewed as a suspect who is actively working against the best interests of all branches of the United States Armed Forces.
Happy Memorial Day.
Reading the post below, should be required of every American (no I did not write it).
Yes.
The Republican party needs to change it’s ways… For if the Republican party does not pass this evolutionary test, it will evolve from being the current joke it is today, into a fistful of domestic terrorists no different from Al Qaeda, wishing to force their singular minded agenda upon a population at large who couldn’t care less….
Change?
That won’t happen because of the right wing of the party.. They will always be in charge under the current rules and regulations. Therefore, those Republicans who do not wish to see the Democrat party dominate forever into the future, have no choice but to leave their party or even better, throw out those terrorist eunichs holding their party hostage..
I know many Republicans who are bright, clear minded, thoughtful, considerate, compassionate, patriotic. I would willingly share a foxhole with them under any onslaught of incoming foes.. But there is an element within that party who I would actually be more afraid of having them turn their gun on me, than fire at the foe advancing across the field toward us..
My friends in the Republican party know this to be true…
Therefore I now call on them to force a split in that party and I call on their strongest patriotic impulses to force them to do so... America can only get better on a two party system. The Democrats need some challenge otherwise they too will fail.. Everyone who gets lazy, eventually fails. Only the constant challenge of winning elections will keep this country moving forward and foster within that cesspool of politics, the one loaded with all the raw ingredients to evolve new ideas and policies…, the spark of life that initiates their creation.
The old grumpy white men who hate the fact that this country is getting younger, is getting smarter, is becoming more environmentally conscious, is becoming more multicultural, need to die.
Hopefully of old age.
The Republican party cannot wait for that to happen. Nor can this country cannot afford to let it happen…Therefore it it time for the Republican party to stand up, and tell the grumpy white men to sit down and shut the fuck up.
The better half of that party, has an edge on immigration and fiscal policy. Also, their platform position on personal responsibility resonates with almost anyone who has ever, ever pretended he was a son of liberty in the Revolution serving under George Washington….
Their ideas are not stupid, they are upon what this nation was founded. What is stupid in their party, are simply the grumpy old men dictating their policy and politics.
Force the split. If you can’t remove them…. then run enmasse. Become a party that follows the Constitution. Call yourselves Constitutionalists if you wish… for in essence, that is what you will be..
Defenders of the Constitution… And although I may be firmly attached to that other party right now, anyone, anyone, and I mean anyone who seriously defends the Constitution, has got my attention…
So do it.
Force the issue.
Become what your party was meant to be……. either as Republicans or under a different name….
Quite often these days I find someone expressing my observations better than I ever could… Coming across this one, I put away all intentions of coming up with an original post this day, and decided to guest another blog post in its entirety to kick off the Memorial Day weekend… Historically that is when we all become very patriotic and really understand the sacrifices made for us and our country…. Without further ado, I am now featuring txjhb from the blog Social Mode.
“From an Invited Guest Author: Ron Williams…
Republican Party is disintegrating. In many ways this is unfortunate. I have read the Republican Party platform and I find that I can agree with many of their positions, such as immigration and fiscal policy. Also, their platform position on personal responsibility resonates with me.
However, the disintegration of our Party does not come from its stated platform, but from its politics. It amazes me how political the Republican establishment has become. The Party must be judged not on what it says but rather what it does. And what our Party does, is practice a set of politics which is self destructive and, in a very real sense, un-American. It is clear to me that the Republican Party is doing all it can to see that the country does not emerge from the current Recession in an orderly fashion.
It seems the Republican Party is hoping the country in fact does fail to recover, so that they can say, “I told you so.“ I find that position to be actually un-American and, in many respects, traitorous. The Obama administration has been in office less than two months, and the Treasury Secretary in place an even shorter time than that, Yet the Republicans are already “harping” about a failed administration and a failed Treasury Secretary.
We are in a war, an economic war. To actively work to cause the country to lose that war should be seen as an act of traitorous behavior. If the Democrats had worked as actively against President Bush in his pursuit of the Iraq war as the Republicans are actively working against President Obama in this economic war, the Republicans would have gone ballistic in their attacks. We should all go ballistic in our attacks against Republicans for their current behavior. They should be rewarded by losing even more seats in the next round of elections.
Some in the party have an inkling their problems are and are trying to address these problems by looking at their platform and by looking at new ways of selling this platform to middle America. However, this effort is going to be stymied by the far will right wing of the party which is dedicated to its right wing issues and will suffer no “dilution“ of their message.
At first blush, You would think there is a struggle for the heart and soul of the party, but that is not really the case. There is no question that right wing of the party will prevail. And the party will therefore remain a collection of Grumpy Old White Men (GOWMs), with a sprinkling of a few women and a minority here and there. Further, these GOWMs seem to really lament the changes that are occurring in this country. It is becoming younger. It is becoming a multi-cultural society, with no single group as a majority. It is becoming a society where women will play a leading role. It is becoming a country where the natural order is being turned on its head.
I would suggest that this change in the natural order is causing them tremendous heartburn. But what makes matters even worse is their current failure to have developed any serious solutions. In response to the every problem facing this country it was clear that their one and only solution is “tax cut.“ But not just tax cuts in general, tax cuts for the wealthy. Their mantra appears to be if you cut taxes for the wealthy it will free up money to allow the wealthy to buy equipment, buy materials and hire new employees. The problem with this mantra is that it has been tried for the last eight years, and it has helped to bring us the current fiscal disaster. All of the Republican actions have been shown to not work. And it appears the party is not prepared to change its positions. Therefore, I believe the Republican Party is in a disastrous state, but because of its mind set its actions would not change and the party will continue to disintegrate. That is too bad, because we do need at least two parties to keep things in balance. It just appears that the second party is not going to be called “Republican.”
Ronald Williams”
rwilliams@sbcglobal.net
The Joint Finance Committee* met behind closed doors to begin the discussion of carving up the budget. Nancy Cook speaking to reporters, defended the closed door session as a necessary protocall. ” We need to discuss budgets behind closed doors so the citizens who pay money have no idea of into whose pockets the money ends up. Those special interests who run our social cocktail hours as well as our state, would be highly upset if people knew how much money these friends of ours would be getting from state contracts, particularly in light of today’s layoffs or 8% cut backs. Government cannot function when everyone knows where every penny is spent. How can I reward my friends and family with state tax dollars, if everyone knows I’m doing it?”
“For practical reasons we have to meet behind closed doors. If the public knew how we traded contracts and made deals between legislators to get other legislation passed, they would be outraged… Why should you take and waste all our money they would wonder? Closed door sessions are a necesity for efficient functioning of democratic government.”
The opposing viewpoint was offered earlier this year, during the initial caucus to determine the direction legislation would flow this session… We need open government because:
“Look, It’s the “peoples” fuckin’ money!!!”
The two different paths could not appear more clear.
*(note: the joint finance committee does not determine how much to spend on recreational pot for Delaware’s legislators.)
At 8:30 am one could find Jason330 and Delaware Dem sitting on a large leather couch near the registration desk…
Liberal Geek joined them around 8:45 and they proceeded upstairs to a hold a brief meeting with all their assorted groups, posters, fans, anons, and spies… As expected, in customary fashion the meeting was brief.
To borrow an expired analogy from Tommywonk, today was a contest between the inside versus the outside game… McGlinchy owned the entrance with two of his women passing out literature and him occasionally popping out from the bar to meet and greet… They did for most convention goers, what Kryptonite did for Superman.
McGlinchy owned the bar, where breakfast was being served… Daniello’s game, hidden from the entrance, was working the convention floor.
Interestingly having a state convention among slot machines provides an interesting comparison of values.. The opulence of Dover Downs was impressive, with the borg security service patrolling the hallways, and the Fire and Ice bar all iced out, and no one drinking at 9:00 in the morning, but somehow rubbing shoulders with those others there, alone in their chairs, pushing buttons, watching video screens flip numbers in front of them, made politics a rather seedy business, not the high minded atmosphere we had come to expect…
But as with any red carpet, the comings and goings were most telling.. John Kowalko was walking the halls early. Bill Dunn ( who drives fast, we are told) was still moving too fast upon arrival for the coffee attendant, and before the coffee attendant could look up, he had zipped on …
Jerry Northington entered wearing his trademark long sleeved white shirt and either a salmon or mango colored tie (darn casino lighting).
Bob Gilligan breezed by in a suit more gray than his hair has become since becoming the House Speaker…
Matt Denn entered with one little one in tow…
John Carney entered wearing the same suit he was last seen on November 4th; the dark blue blazer, denim blue shirt with yellow tie, and still no mustache… He planted himself at the elevator going upstairs and greeted the late arrivals…
John Klingmeyer, forever mayor of New Castle, also came late, and met up with Terry Mulrooney, Representative for New Castle’s 17th District… Klingmeyer was black suit, white shirt. Terry was in a chambray shirt, chamois colored pants.
The Red Carpet was rolled up as McGlinchey’s group headed upstairs for the “real” convention….
From Delaware blogger extrodianaire, who has brought the word “independence” back into the Delaware political landscape, not so much for his willingness to be a member of a third party, but for his willingness to cross party lines to vote for the better candidate, we see elements of a sea change wafting across the minority party…
Dear Maria Evans what the hell should I do? Is the party so fractured that I must decide to remain a Republicans or not? It kinds of sucks that people in the party I really like line up with the far right and put their backs to me. Fat head down state a promising leader in my eyes (if he gets his head out of his ass) claims to be right of center but I think its all bull.
It’s a fucking shame that we have good young people have so much potential but are being used as party toy soldiers.
Copeland and Lavelle first introduced the financial transparency legislation aka online checkbooks but they were stuck in the political protocol shit and couldn’t use over the top tactics like I did. However the legislation wasn’t Copeland and Lavelle’s idea as it was Dave Burris idea and ask that they introduce the legislation.
I guess next week I’ll go online and switch parties to Democrat.
Serious this is a very hard move for me but it’s obvious the GOP I joined is dead. The democrats like Bob Gilligan I trashed the shit out of and even Matt Denn have looked pass all of that and know I have passion for the issues. Kowalko is another whom I had some very meaningful E-mail exchanges. When you foes are more forgiving then your friends it must be a signal for change.
So Maria Evans, Dave Burris?
What’s holding you back?
If you don’t know who Brian or John is, this post doesn’t matter to you..
Your are busy, 8:30 is early, and so in uncharacteristic fashion, I will be brief…
As a historian, or one who tries to learn from others mistakes, I have always found that there is always a tendency for victors to rest upon one’s laurels a tiny bit too long. Always. Their doing so, ultimately creates monster problems in the future, which rise up to destroy them.
We see this today. The Republican Party who was on top of the world November 3rd 2004, did not heed to call to change, and even today, there are still idiots calling for a more conservative party… Even today.
You may not remember or have even considered Daniello’s finest hour… or as I would like to say, why he was put on this planet…
But we see the evidence every day in our state legislature, in our ability to get things done despite what is now a $800 million dollar deficit.
That is the support this entire state has in our governor. Jack Markell..
Wait, you ask? What does Daniello have to do with Markell?
Everything, you will one day find out… Everything.
Avid fans of mine may remember my picking apart of Daniello two general assembly closing dates ago… (June 30, 2007) Grudgingly, I acknowledged his prediction of how a primary fight would render our party apart, was based very much on both reality and history….. He lived through such an event…
That did not happen this time. Unlike the Shipley-Daniello debacle which galvanized Republican leadership leading to a long reign of power, the Democratic party (save Minner) healed and a combined effort was put into embarrassing the Republican party…
Primarily, because of such…. we stomped the Republicans asses in November… We eradicated, wiped them out, destroyed their party, embarrassed them greatly, made jokes out of them, damaged their effectiveness, made mockery of their philosophy, and otherwise, caused them no end of pain… Metaphorically, we poured alcohol on their hemorrhoids.. yep, that is essentially what we’ve done…
It’s official. Daniello has gotten his revenge.
And that is why we should savor our victory, and move on.. The next battles will be on different terms. We cannot fight a new enemy who already has an awareness of how we work. Instead of waiting for the attack, and then responding with old tricks, exactly what the Republicans did in 2008, we need to carry on the attack of doing what is best for citizens, not speculators or investors…
That is why we need a new coach… Daniello’s expertise will always be available in the capacity of Offensive Coordinator. He will never support a Republican not named Castle over our own… But now, more than ever, we need someone who HAS to prove something… … We need someone who MUST BE successful, or will be thrown out on his ear. We need someone who we can remove quickly if he doesn’t deliver..
Loyalty often get’s in the way of making personel decisions in the real time that is required…
This is why clear thinking persons will support Brian.. Emotions, I know, make up a big part of us and to not support one who went to the line for us, will be hard… I’m choking up as I write this.
But if one uses this mantra: what will be best for the party; and forgets all that other bullshit being thrown at him, ….
Brian comes out on top.
In tracing down a credit card fraud account, I uncovered a can of worms… The culprit in this case is the bank of J P Morgan.
A client discovered a fake charge account had been opened in their name.
Knowing someone on the inside, we were able to ascertain that no paperwork was ever filed for that credit card account which was maxed out immediately at $6,000.. back in 2005 and was never heard of again.. No attempt to alert the person on whose name the card was ever made by that bank.. Yet the bank carried that charge as a pending asset year after year.
No individual swipes or transactions were ever made at the time of opening. A lump sum of $ 6,000 appeared out of nowhere on J P Morgans books, and was attributed to my client…
So we got technical… We traced the path..
Let’s put it this way.. The most logical explanation appears that the bank needed to boost it’s assets so it simply added a charge to this person’s ID and counted it as an asset and someone most likely got their bonus.
Those massive breeches of security which we read about, seem conveniently to benefit the banks. (You can’t blame us: We had a security breech)…
Reading this the first time, you may speculate that someone set up a dummy account and stole the money… Here is the curious part. The money never went anywhere.. It was just put on the books. No one ever spent the money… It just showed up as a debt on the books.
I bring this up now because I just discovered it. Also it makes one wonder just who Tom Carper, Mike Castle, and Ted Kaufman are really helping when the vote to give more power to a bank, than can be given to protect a consumer..
There must be some lingering moral conscience hiding in these men.. Being from Delaware, there is no excuse which can be made in their favor that they don’t “really” know what is going on… Everyone knows you don’t listen to bank presidents… You listen to those working and questioining the unethical practices they see going on about them every day…
Should our representatives sell their soul to the evil enterprise of our financial giants? Or does their soul better belong to us?….
It’s time that some form of legislation originating from Delaware’s coalition, states that any bogus account, must be eradicated by the bank immediately A bogus account would be one for which there was no proof of any transaction, no paperwork trail…. It is fitting that since Delaware is the financial capital of the world, that our legislators should be the ones guarding the public’s trust…
After all banks are just banks. They can afford it.
