Thursday, July 17, 2008

Thursday Minutia

Okay, this is going to be muddled, as I managed to get more sunburn while swimming. Being ass-white when shirtless doesn't help. Plus, it's time to get the news of the week caught up:

More Fun With Jesse - Ah, we finally found out what else The "Reverend" Jackson managed to spit into his open mic. Yep, he dropped the n-word. I'll let others rip him for his hypocrisy. I'm just going to laugh, as you know the whole video will appear somewhere eventually. I'm sure Jesse is going to not be invited to the White House if Obama wins. Maybe McCain would invite him, just to piss off the conservatives some more. My advice to Jackson: Put your foot in your mouth next time, literally. Then you won't say stupid shit that makes you even more irrelevant.

Revisions for the Messiah - Credit where credit is due, in part. The Barack Obama website has changed, removing criticism for the surge. Here's the new page, as I don't have the energy to hunt up the old one. Basically, he's pulled some (but not all) of the Code Pinko-esque stuff off, trying to sound like he has a clue about the war. Yet another thing I'll save for a future post. The credit? At least the rewrite is in the right direction.

Speaking of War.... - It looks like we're going to be accelerating withdrawl from Iraq. And send them to Afghanistan. This is good, as it means we are close to being able to close the books on the greater war in Iraq with a check in the win column. But that means that while the antiwar goofs have been whining about failure in Iraq since five minutes after Saddam's statue got yanked down, Afghanistan has been doing the same thing it did for the Soviets back in the 80's. This means that Iraq could rightly be called a distraction, especially if we find ourselves fighting the Taliban for the next decade. I am wondering if the war in Afghanistan will become the next target for the antiwar dipshits to whine about. And if we can't figure out how to succeed where a totalitarian power with no hesitation to kill the shit out of babies, then we will be in trouble.

Press Conference - President Bush stepped before the piranhas Tuesday. I missed most of it, as I was on the road a good part, but here are my thoughts on what I heard nad read after. He lifted the executive ban on drilling that other President Bush saddled us with, challenging Congress to get off it's collective ass. Yay. Also, no bailouts from the Executive branch. Yay. One quote I take issue with though: "You can't just say, 'low gas,' " Wrong. You can if you can remove a tax immediately, like the tax on every drop of gas.

Observation on Reporting - To refresh myself on the news conference, I Googled for articles. Two articles on the same issue, here are the titles:


The first was the AP article. The second I found on a local news page, pulled from USA today. Same news conference, two different stories. One is more factual, one is more slanted. I linked them both so you can judge which is which.

15 comments:

Beth said...

I get on my Yahoo front page a feed for political news and I'd say Obama gets more top headlines than McCain. Not that I like McCain, but if I did I would be pissed. Even when Obama is whining, or Jackson is talking trash about Obama, he is garning much more attention than McCain.

Meanwhile, Bush is a lame duck and you have to wonder why he bothers, except that perhaps his actions can be a help or a hinderance to his party's candidate. So, I'd say his press conference was such an attempt, but I'm not sure which he was trying to do!

Kris said...

i think i heard somewhere, maybe when mccain wanted a tax holiday on gas, that removing the gas tax would only lower our price by 40 to 60 cents.

kw

Patrick M said...

Beth: McCain would get ink if he had a pulse. Unfortunately, it's hard for anybody to care when he pisses off his own party, turns of liberals, then turns in teleprompter performances that barely qualify for C-SPAN coverage.

My problem with Bush is that he had 6 years with the GOP in power to get things done, and all we did was get into war and grow the government.

Kris: I'll take 40 cents.

Toad734 said...

What Obama should have said is that the surge was a mistake and has failed; it has failed Afghanistan. By pulling troops from the National Guard or out of Afghanistan and sending them to Iraq the deaths in Iraq have decreased while increasing deaths, attacks and the strength of the Taliban. These two events happened simultaneously, the surge in Iraq created instability in Afghanistan.

Oh, and don't pretend that the Surge is the only thing responsible for the lull in violence in Iraq. Us paying off militias plays a big part in that as does the Iraqi army finally getting to a place where it can deal with its own problems. Now that the surge is over, Iraq hasn't sprung back into chaos, yet, so you have to ask yourself if we don't need the troops there now, did we need them the entire time.

Obama is right about one thing, the war mongers said Iraq was too violent to pull out now they are saying it’s too peaceful to pull out. You guys really don't want to win or see this thin end because there is too much money in it for Exxon, Blackwater, Halliburton, etc.

Don't pretend that the surge in violence in Afghanistan has nothing to do with the surge in Iraq. And remember, we had no reason to go into Iraq. Afghanistan attacked us; the Terrorists were in Afghanistan, Iran and N. Korea were the ones developing WMDs.

Removing the gas tax? Then how will we ever be able to afford to pay Blackwater 6x the amount we pay a US soldier for doing the same job? How could we possibly invade Iran with no money? Something to think about.

Patrick M said...

Toad: You could at least present a moving target....

Obama stepped off the claim that the surge was a mistake because it worked. Obama has it right, you have it wrong.

the war mongers said Iraq was too violent to pull out now they are saying it’s too peaceful to pull out.

Last time I looked, the administration was looking at accelerating the withdrawal.

Removing the gas tax? Then how will we ever be able to afford to pay Blackwater 6x the amount we pay a US soldier for doing the same job? How could we possibly invade Iran with no money? Something to think about.

Do you really need me to give you the list of things we could cut instead? There's not enough space on this blog for that.

Toad734 said...

I think Obama is wrong. Sure, Since the surge, Iraq has become a little more stable but what isn't taken into account is that Afghanistan has become less stable. I would rather have Iraq unstable than Afghanistan. After all, Afghanistan is where the terrorists are, the heroin is, the training camps, etc. Iraq has nothing but Oil...Oh wait, Ok, I get it.

But if we withdrawal, they win! Right? Isn't that what they told the Democrats?

Patrick M said...

But if we withdrawal, they win! Right? Isn't that what they told the Democrats?

There's a difference between withdrawal and leaving when the job is done. And according to today's news, the Iraqi government is almost ready.

Toad734 said...

I like how when Obama says he will talk to Iran he is a traitor with no experience, when Rice talks to Iran its ok. When Obama says we should have the troops out in a year or so he's a liberal pussy with no experience but then comes the Republicans, in an election year, talking about how the time has maybe come to start pulling out troops.

Sounds like they are taking leads from the Democrats and selling it as their own idea.

Patrick M said...

Okay, in case you missed it, Obama originally said he, as President, would do so without precondition. He backed off on that one. But right now, something changed that opened this expanded dialogue, but not without precondition. More to come.

And if you say we should pull out for years, it doesn't make you right the whole time when the time comes that we can pull out.

Or you're right ant the GOP is going left. I need a drink

Toad734 said...

They are starting to sound like the Democrats last year, 2 years ago and Obama 5 years ago. I would say they are either figuring out the left was right on this one, or yes they have all grown vaginas and become flag burning democrats.

What happens when we stop paying off the Sunnis and all the other militias?

Patrick M said...

What happens when we stop paying off the Sunnis and all the other militias?

What conspiracy rag did you paste that line off of? Seriously. I need a good laugh.

This reminds me of the global warming arguments. Keep saying the same thing over and over until it happens, then claim it as proof that you are right. Again, fodder for another post.

Toad734 said...

Wait, you aren't aware of this? We make daily payments to the Militias.

Even Tony Snow doesn't refute it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP7quvcxQCM

Its at the very end.

Here is an article which includes the payment to these militias.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17899543

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080302322.html

And an article by Reagans former Asst. Sec. of the Treasury:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02192008.html

So go ahead and do a post about it, that will be a very easy debate to have. Again, just because it's not on Fox New, or Rush Limbaugh doesn't talk about it, doesn't make it a conspiracy theory. That's why you have got to wean yourself off that poison.

Patrick M said...

Toad: After wading through the propaganda (and proudly watching Tony fight a 4 on 1 battle with a smile (his answer got strangely cut off)) I finally found enough information to at least warrant a partial correction.

It looks like we're paying the local militias to provide some security in their home areas. The only thing I question about that is why that money isn't coming from Iraqi oil.

And you complain that I follow only propaganda?

Toad734 said...

There isn't a whole lot of oil flowing out of Iraq right now, hence $4.40 per gallon.

They actually change the subject and move on to the economy and there are better videos out there that don't end so abruptly but he does confirm what we are doing.

Yes, "providing security", If by providing security they mean don't shoot us, then yes, they are providing security. Then why are we still paying Blackwater $1,219 per man, per day if we have the cheaper security in the militias? Or why are our soldiers still there making $164 per day?

It's a bribe to make it look like the surge is working. If Obama wins, they will stop payment and let them run wild again.

Patrick M said...

Do you just wait to jump on my comments? Damn, you had to be typing as fast as I was on another post.

I'm waiting to see that oil money....

But as for why we pay the militias that amount and the others more is simple: You get what you pay for.

As for the "bribe", if it buys us a stable enough country to start withdrawal, I'll take it.