Loretta Sanchez?Watching the Petraeus hearings would normally give the Republicans hope that they even may have a chance in the next election. The Democratic Party is richly marbled with some very stupid people. The bad news is that these people are the elected representatives of the people. More hearings please or dare I say, "bring them on?"
Barbara Boxer?
Patrick Kennedy?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Tuesday he's not returning $6,600 in donations he got from Norman Hsu, a prominent Democratic donor whose criminal past was recently revealed...
The Congressional Black Caucus, a particularly rich vein to mine.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSynergy's a great thing:
ReplyDeleteJust went to Drudge for the first time today, featuring a big close up of Pelosi.
Like living through the nite of the living dead in Groundhog Day fashion.
Then I saw Couric's record low ratings from Iraq and I thanked God for make things bearable again, and me with enough strength to weather this storm, or not, depending on it's duration.
Now the Bar provides me a place to Post It!
Many Thanks!
Look at this! Is it real or is another, "I'm the father of Nicole's baby."
ReplyDelete'60s Figure Says He Financed Donor Hsu
By Ianthe Jeanne Dugan and Brody Mullins
Word Count: 1,910
Where did Norman Hsu get his money?
That has been one of the big questions hanging over the prominent Democratic fund-raiser, as reports have surfaced about hundreds of thousands of dollars he made in political donations, plus lavish parties, fancy apartments and a $2 million bond he posted to get out of jail earlier this month.
New documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal may help point to an answer: A company controlled by Mr. Hsu recently received $40 million from a Madison Avenue investment fund run by Joel Rosenman, who was one of the creators of the Woodstock rock ...
• THE FULL WSJ.com ARTICLE IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
New England Patriots caught red-handed in spying scandal. Have been suspected previously. Sanctions to follow.
ReplyDeleteRussia and China are silent.
I don't know about dumbest dems but I would nominate for most disgusting, Gerald Nadler, D-NY and Henry Waxman D-CA.
ReplyDeleteDumbest Dems that come to mind include the Georgia Delegation, Cynthia Mckinney and the old Civil rights campaigner...John Lewis.
John Lewis is as dumb as dirt.
ReplyDeleteHenry Waxman?
ReplyDeleteThere's a difference between the dumbest and the ugliest.
Stormin Norman Podhoretz:
ReplyDelete[...]
Today, like the McGovernites with respect to Vietnam in 1972, the overwhelming majority of the Democrats in Congress, and all the Democrats hoping to become their party's candidate for president, want America out of Iraq, and the sooner and the more completely the better. And like Nixon in 1972, many Republican members of Congress, along with a few of the Republicans running in the presidential primaries, also want out, but with our honor intact.
Well, Nixon did get us out of Vietnam. By 1975, when the North Vietnamese communists conquered the South, not a single American soldier was left in the country. But never in American history had our honor been so besmirched as it was by the manner of our withdrawal. Having left with the promise that we would continue to help save the South Vietnamese from communism by supplying them with arms, Congress nevertheless refused to send them so much as a bullet when the communists of the North were already storming the gates. As President Bush recently reminded us, to the sputtering rage of those who did not wish to be reminded, the price "was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps,' and 'killing fields.' "
It is impossible at this point to predict how and when the battle of Iraq will end. But from the vitriolic debates it has unleashed we can already say for certain that the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, did not do to the Vietnam syndrome what Pearl Harbor did to the old isolationism. The Vietnam syndrome is back and it means to have its way. But is it strong enough in its present incarnation to do what it did to the honor of this country in 1975? Well acquainted though I am with its malignant power, I still believe that it will ultimately be overcome by the forces opposed to it in the war at home. Even so, I cannot deny that this question still hangs ominously in the air and will not be answered before more damage is done to the long struggle against Islamofascism into which we were blasted six years ago and that I persist in calling World War IV.
"Long struggle."
Don't say it isn't catching on among discerning hawks.
Abizaid: Fight against extremism going poorly
ReplyDeleteBy Richard Lardner - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Sep 11, 2007 18:12:21 EDT
ADELPHI, Md. — It will take three to five years before Iraq’s government is stable enough to operate on its own, according to the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, who said the surge of American forces has not succeeded in solving the country’s broader problems.
In an interview with The Associated Press, retired Army Gen. John Abizaid also said that beyond attacking the global threat of terrorism with military strength, the U.S. has done a poor job of applying the economic, political and diplomatic means to fight Islamic extremism in Iraq and elsewhere.
“I don’t blame it on any people,” Abizaid said Tuesday. “I just blame it on a bureaucratic system that has been unresponsive thus far to the challenges of the 21st century. We need to change that as a matter of national priority.”
[...]
“The fact the Iraqis want us to go, we want to go, is one that none of us should ever lose sight of,” he said. “We’re trying to work ourselves out of a job. But we can’t do it in a way that destabilizes the country and allows precisely the worst thing to happen, which is the country becomes an even greater safe haven for extremist groups such as al-Qaida.”
While in uniform, Abizaid had been opposed to a “surge” of U.S. forces in Iraq because he believed that simply building up military strength wouldn’t solve the more deeply embedded problems.
“It was clear that putting additional troops in would gain temporary security,” he said. “What was not clear to me was what we were going to do diplomatically, economically, politically and informationally to make sure that we moved forward in a way that just wasn’t temporary.”
“And it appears to me, that those aspects, all designed to build better governments, haven’t necessarily achieved the effect that people would have hoped for,” he added.
[...]
While at Central Command, Abizaid coined the phrase the “Long War,” a term intended to convey the lengthy struggle the U.S. is waging against Islamic extremism. But his replacement, Navy Adm. William Fallon, ditched the phrase shortly after taking over because he thought it suggested the U.S. would maintain a military significant presence in the Middle East indefinitely.
Well regarded for his knowledge of the region, Abizaid was considered a straight shooter during his time as CentCom chief. In July 2003, he was the first high-ranking officer to say publicly the war in Iraq had become a guerrilla war — a development that then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others had refused to acknowledge.
Since retiring, Abizaid was named a distinguished visiting fellow at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution in California. He also has formed JPA Partners, a consulting company.
From Shock and Awe and Mission Accomplished - to the Long War - to the Long Struggle. (To the Time of Troubles?) We've come a long way, baby.
Pat Buchanan:
ReplyDelete[...]
Democrats have been psychologically damaged by 60 years of GOP attacks on them as the party of retreat and surrender.
Their hero, FDR, was posthumously ripped apart for Yalta, the appeasement of "Uncle Joe," and the abandonment to communism of Poland and Eastern Europe. Truman fired Gen. MacArthur, fought a no-win war in Korea and was savaged, along with Gen. Marshall and Dean Acheson, by Joe McCarthy. By 1952, Truman was at 23 percent and finished. In January 1954, the Tailgunner was riding high at 50 percent.
Came then Vietnam and the credible charge that the Liberal Establishment, The Best and the Brightest, had marched us in, then cut and run, abandoning our Vietnamese and Cambodian allies to a holocaust, and bringing on the worst strategic defeat in U.S. history.
When Ronald Reagan, in the closing days of the 1980 campaign, declared Vietnam a "noble cause," the liberal media leapt on it as a gaffe. It wasn't. Reagan was wired in to Middle America.
John Kerry understood this. Thus, he ran in 2004 as a decorated Vietnam vet, not the onetime icon of the antiwar movement.
Bush is winning today because he has jettisoned the jabber about global democracy and argues that a U.S. withdrawal risks a strategic disaster, national humiliation, massacre of our friends and triumph for al-Qaida. Democrats, fearing he may be right, are in paralysis.
Scourged for 20 years over "Who Lost China?" they don't want to spend the next 20 years answering "Who Lost the Middle East?"
Thus the rout of the peace Democrats. But the movement will be back. For, Petraeus' good news notwithstanding, there is no light yet visible at the end of this tunnel.
Pod Senior was on Hewitt today:
ReplyDeleteI actually felt some sympathy for Jr being such a dumb shit.
Norman's sposed to be all brilliant, all the time.
Well, he may be an intellectual, but his head reaches into the digestive stratasphere.
He thinks one of the Central Unique, and Wonderful Insights of the Great one in the WH is that he recognized 9-11 was an act of War, not just another terror incident to be dealt w/in court.
How removed from main street do you have to be to be that divorced from reality?
I know Porn when I See it.
ReplyDeleteMy vote for dumbest democrat must go to Dennis Kucinich, but I may be just temporarily influenced by an idiotic video I saw of him being interviewed by some bimbo in Damascus, Syria just yesterday. It's admittedly a hard choice. Who's the dumbest Republican? Today, I'm tempted to say Larry Craig, but it's a hard choice there, as well. Who's the dumbest blogger on the internet? No one here at EB.
ReplyDeleteChuckie Hagel gives Larry a run for his money.
ReplyDeleteCraig's court date is September 26th, when his lawyer is to argue his case before the court in Minnesota to see if he can't get his guilty plea withdrawn. Craig is not acting as his own attorney at this time, having learned the old rule about acting as one's own attorney and having 'a fool for a client'.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe dombist Dem, that is that nameless Florida Dem, in Dade County, the approved the 2000 butterfly ballot, the one that put Mr Pat's punch across from Al Gore's name. The only county in Florida where Mr Pat performed above his statewide average.
ReplyDeleteThe ballot design that confused the Democratic voters and allowed Mr Bush to carry the State. There were that many stupid voters in Dade County.
A tale of cascading stupidity that has never been matched, before or since by either of the Parties faithful
OBAMA CRITICIZES HEARINGS BEING HELD ON 9/11...
ReplyDeleteHe then went on to suggest that General P's eyes clash with his dress uniform, and if he really had wanted to show proper respect for the Senators, he would have purchased some cosmetic colored Contact Lenses.
Barrack Hussein looks pretty stupid when he really tries hard to look all wise and intellectual beyond his years.
ReplyDeletePlus, he married his wife.
Don't it make your brown eyes, blue?
ReplyDeleteThe dumbest democrat in our local area is definitely Nancy Chaney, Mayor of Moscow.
ReplyDeleteJust had to get that in.
And she's scary to look at to boot, AlBob.
ReplyDeleteShe ain't Swedish, is she?
If our decorated Marine and Camp Perry graduate shows up a little earlier today, we may well go above 500 posts on this thread.
ReplyDeletePlace your bets.
I know Doug'll do his part.
ReplyDeleteChrist, for the good old days when Everett Will was mayor and dad city attorney. Then we didn't have non sense like in Item #6 of this document, which clarifies an item in dispute as to how the city goes about stealing from the developers.
ReplyDeleteThe head of the park department told me not so long ago, "Bob, nobody uses the parks, for the most part, and I don't have the money in the budget to even keep them up."
NO swede would admit to having been born in Seattle and raised in San Francisco, Doug. At least I hope not. I really don't know her geneology, though I suspect she's only 1/2 human.
I rode on a bus not so long ago in Moscow--I was the only one on it--asked the driver, 'you ever get any riders?' 'Nope' Subsidized by me the taxpayer, and some federal monies. Bus just drives around town all day, empty. Who wants to ride a bus in little old Moscow? I went to the 1912 Building(the old high school) same day to look around. They have dumped hundred's of thousands into it, trying to make it into a 'senior citizens center'. Had done some work on the first floor. Got in an elevator, door closed, pushed the button to Floor 3 to see what was up there, nothing happened. Pushed all the other buttons, nothing happened. Started to get a little worried as there was no one else in the building but a few old deaf folk down the other way. CLAWED that door open finally, just barely.
As I am approaching senior citizens status myself, I would rather have my taxes back, and get a big screen tv, than waste any more on the 1912 Building, which is loaded with asbestos, as Mayor Chaney wants to do. Bulldoze it down and make a parking lot, best that can be done. We actually need the parking space.
I wonder if my family would have collected big, if I had died in that elevator, which didn't even have an 'open' button?
Doug, if you think Nancy is scary to look at try Linda Pall
ReplyDeleteShe ran against 'Butch' Otter, our current gov, for Congress some time back. He slaughtered her.
After a six pack or two, she is probably quite fetching.
ReplyDeletehehe--saw a video one time just to that point--shows this ugly bitch, and a guy drinking, more he drinks, better looking she gets, finally she looks great, they end up in bed, but the next morning when he wakes up.........
ReplyDeleteHope a Pall doesn't come over Ms T!
ReplyDeleteShe will, but I just hope Ms T isn't there when she does.
ReplyDeleteThey've made a video about my well spent youth, bob?
ReplyDeleteI wonder where the royalty check got to ...
TRISH: Came then Vietnam and the credible charge that the Liberal Establishment, The Best and the Brightest, had marched us in, then cut and run, abandoning our Vietnamese and Cambodian allies to a holocaust, and bringing on the worst strategic defeat in U.S. history.
ReplyDeleteCut and run? 'Twas Nixon (R) who got us out of there, and Demos didn't defund anything until 1975. And if it was a strategic defeat how come Vietnam is one of the the hottest capitalist markets in all of Southeast Asia?
Let that be a lesson to us, Teresita.
ReplyDeleteVote for Dick.
Hope a Pall doesn't come over Ms T!
ReplyDeleteUnless you're talking about Gloria Pall
From the NYTimes, but echoing the President's message, and a perspective of the time yet required, ten years according to General P.
ReplyDeleteSeveral people said they were certain that the trend of decreasing violence cited by General Petraeus would reverse itself as soon as the Americans left, unless the troops stayed for years and wrought a deeper change in the government and the culture.
“Violence could erupt at any moment if the Americans leave, the ones who do these terrible things are asleep, not gone,” said Sara al-Zubaidi, 30, whose father is Sunni and whose mother is Shiite. “They are waiting for the opportunity, just waiting for the opportunity to eat one another,” she said.
IBEC/WalMart, not the tools for cultural change, in Iraq, or are they? Plus a marketized Social Security system, as installed in Chile?
Slow going, factor in the regressive nature of their dominant religion. Ten years is optimistic. The WalMart revolution went public.
This is an interesting sentiment for the NYTimes, or they've taken a new tact, in projecting victory as defeat.
While most of the Iraqis interviewed blamed the Americans for the country’s deterioration, several echoed members of Congress who blamed the Iraqi government for failing to provide services and for allowing sectarianism into the security forces. However, Iraqis make the point that it was the Americans who in large measure created the government, so they bear the responsibility for fixing it. Several people went further, saying the Americans should start all over again — even if it meant they would remain in Iraq for years.
“The Americans are to blame for the mess,” said Baider, 31, an Iraqi contractor. “They need to reoccupy the country in order to make it safe and strong.”
Whoa--there's a Pall can come over me. Reminds me a little of Zsa Zsa.
ReplyDeleteGot to go into--Moscow. Take care.
"Ten years is optimistic."
ReplyDeleteYa think?
You fubared the project, better start over.
ReplyDeleteWhile the message of General P
That's the message left in limbo
Things are good enough for
Troops home for Christmass
Thirty Thousand home by Labor Day '08!!
Things are going so well.
Instead the message machine is broken. The "brain" gone home to Texas, the "mouth" a sick man recovering from cancer treatments.
Senator Warner's proposal writ large. Being ignored by both sides of the asile. A Senator or two mention the message void, but could not fill it.
The political ineptitude just unimaginable...
... the train pylling out of the station, on time, on target. The Administration still in the mens room.
Checking out their stance, I guess
Man, I had no idea their were so many ElvisWomen!
ReplyDeleteI hope 41 doesn't go suicidal, since he's known this was where the moron was headed since day 1.
ReplyDeleteWhile the "Chinese finger trap" is an apt metaphor for our military situation in Iraq (more force applied gets US more stuck) an apt metaphor for our political situation in Iraq is "We're trying to push the rope"
ReplyDeleteSo, while we struggle trying to extricate ourselves from the Chinese finger trap lets also figure out how we're going to push that rope to place we want it to go :)))
Say the Curse!
"Stay the course"
"Push that Rope"
Ten years is not even a beginning
ReplyDeleteSmother the sectarian divide with presence, until the fires are out.
Ten years 500,000 troops
Then ten years 150,000 troops
The requirements for twenty years of progress, at the minimum.
Revamped school cirriculums
Then those graduates moved into Leadership roles ... Thirty years
To get a Korea, if successful
Which, Iraqi not being Koreans, it won't be. Even the Koreans would like US to leave, it seems. Popular sentiment is anti-US, I think.
"You fubared the project, better start over."
ReplyDeleteAs long as we get to start over in 02.
No. Make that 98.
"wrought a deeper change in the government and the culture. "
ReplyDelete---
Leave it to W to come up w/Mission Impossible:
As if Cultures can be Born Again in an instant, like a delusional moron I know of.
No project. No problem.
ReplyDeleteVoice vote:
ReplyDeleteHas the Player outstrategerized even the dumbest Democrat?
Teach those Iraqi a lesson about responsibility.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't take "good enough" care of them.
Ungrateful swine. That's the message sent by the NYTimes.
Could be standing with Mr Maliki, shoulder to shoulder, announcing the troop draw downs,
Troops home for Christmass
hailing Iraqi soveriegnty and the progress made there.
Instead the message dribbles to the floor, a case study in premature articulation.
"Could be standing with Mr Maliki, shoulder to shoulder, announcing the troop draw downs"
ReplyDeleteMaliki wants troop draw downs?
Maybe get a Double Dip:
ReplyDeleteDo the Maliki thing,
and on the way out, do the same thing with the 21 Tribe.
Like you said, Trish, no project, no problem.
ReplyDeleteWhat's he gonna do that he hasn't already done?
You can cut Maliki loose and announce troop draw downs.
ReplyDeleteOr you can stand shoulder to shoulder (maybe cheap plastic ruler's length) and...not.
Does not make any difference what Mr Maliki wants, it's what Mr Maliki gets.
ReplyDeleteThe very idea tha Mr Maliki would have much of an option, I find interesting. If managed correctly Mr Maliki would be happy to be in convoy, ahead of the curve, rather than run over by a truck.
This announcement was fore told last January & February. There was never a doubt they'd make it before November.
November was when Mr Maliki had proomised the Iraqi would be ready to secure their own country.
Honor and face saving for him, and the US.
Instead the biggest news of the War, from a propaganda viewpoint, Success and Departure has begun, a scheduled turn over, as was just successfully completed in Basra.
Maliki would have signed on.
Success writ large in Anbar, Basra, Kurdistan, and even now in Baghdad stability and justice advance.
That whole opportunity for a positive propaganda message, the battle field of hearts and minds,for US and Iraqi alike.
Becomes a puddle on the floor.
Cutting Maliki loose is admitting that four years of blood and treasure were wasted.
ReplyDeleteCan't do that.
No wonder you're married to a Lifer. No two way trafficon a one track mind.
Mr Maliki represents the Iraqi Government, it's human face.
Whatever actor is hired to replace him, Dorian Grey, he won't be.
Stay with the one you came with.
Old and sage advice.
"Maliki would have signed on."
ReplyDeleteAnd left the country in a car trunk?
No he wouldn't have.
That he would have had no choice, push come to shove, to accept it, sure.
I don't know what the positive propaganda message would be of a troop draw down other than Hey, look, we're leaving! (Floats my boat, but not that of the base.)
That it'll come down to Hey, look, we're leaving! at some point doesn't mean it can be spun.
"Cutting Maliki loose is admitting that four years of blood and treasure were wasted."
ReplyDeleteWasted regardless.
Isn't it amazing how the Petraeus testimony just happened to coincide with 911 anniversary?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, on the lighter side, but with quite sharp analysis, one should check out Jon Stewart's "Iraq Me Dave Petraeus" at
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml
I quite like the bit about not being able to predict the future in Iraq, unless we choose to leave.
You have to be kidding, couldn't be spun.
ReplyDeleteIt would have become the positive action, pretold proof of success. Instead of "benchmarks" judgements, go to ideology. Support of Democracy.
Announced at the start of the Surge, that the end would come with success.
General Jones or whomever would annouce that in 24 months the 450,000 man Iraqi Security Force should be ready.
Announce the withdrawals for Christmass now and a flexible results driven timeline, that the US would be down to it's "Stay Behind" security force, in the Anbar desert bases, in 24 to 30 months.
Get ahead of the leadership curve, not be continually buffeted by events, but create them.
DR, you'd be the first out of the block to ridicule any successes claimed; or am I mistaken in my interpretation when you trumpet the Basra success to be somewhat...sarcastic?
ReplyDeleteNo, not from a message perspective.
ReplyDeleteIf the military leadership are thinking way, they're fubared.
The US ideology that Maliki represents, even flawed, is immense. Unfathomable how tied together the US and he are, he representing Iraqi democray in the US.
You'll never win a heart or a mind, cutting and running on your democraticly selected allies. Proving Professor Lewis correct, yet again.
The stage management skills of the Team 43 are lacking. Not enough people of wide standing, to properly manage a show on the world stage.
Their spin machine has actually been quite good - however reality tends to intrude upon even the best spin.
ReplyDelete"You have to be kidding, couldn't be spun."
ReplyDeleteNo, it couldn't be. Leaving is retreat. Tail between the legs and all that.
The Pod people know it. The Republican base knows it. The Democrats know it.
We've long been in the Peter Sellers "Being There" school of victory.
Gonna un-sell it?
No, ash, I take General Simmons at his word about Basra.
ReplyDeleteI believe that within Anbar, allowing the Baathist to run their own show, that'll provide security to the locales.
Same as in Basra. The violence diminished when the Brits left.
A "lull" the Brit Commander called it, not admitting the possibility he forces were a cultural thorn, causing the irritation.
Kurdistan, save for the PKK, is secure enough.
I have been saying for almost two years, at least, that Iraq was secure enough, militarily, to leave, if the aQI were handled by the locals, as criminals.
Such is the case, now.
You attribute to me traits I do not have.
If there are those that believe that Iraq is part of a larger war, that Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Pakistan are all part and parcel of it.
Make the case, get it Authorized by Congress, or chase after Osama and those that assist him, as per the Law. If any other those above mentioned are on the Osama sponsor list, have the President let US know and it's off to war we go!
It is only retreat because it was never portrayed as victory.
ReplyDeleteFailure in planning and strategy by a blindered military and idiot politicians.
Leaving was preordained, to not structure it as a success, incompetence personified.
On the military, and political levels of command.
Abandoning the Wienberger Doctrine as outdated, the work of fools and knaves.
No propagandist are allowed in the button down world of the military, nor Governmet so they're message misses the mark, most times.
Where a mail list specialist is considered a genius. Or the slogan
An Army of One
would drive increased recruit enlistments, proof enough of that ignorance.
It's impossible to portray a Surge in strength leading to withdrawal as anything but defeat.
Now that is defeatist
...and ceding all that oil wealth to Iran and its surrogates is VICTORY!
ReplyDelete"It is only retreat because it was never portrayed as victory."
ReplyDeleteWell, Rat. There you have it.
And you can't portray it as victory now. All that's left is the question of ownership of failure.
Seeing as how we sell almost-success in six-month installments, it'll be interesting to see how that turns out.
In any event, OIF is an endeavor of towering smallness.
And the same could have been said of Vietnam.
Spearheaded by people of towering smallness.
ReplyDeleteAs long as it sells at market prices, or close to them, makes little difference who profits by it, the Shia that live on it, or the Sunni that used to.
ReplyDeleteIf the Iranians are such a major threat, we should use our greater economic strengths first, before abandoning our ideological bastions or going to an expanded regional war.
That'd be a worse defeat than withdrawing 30,000 troops over eight to ten months.
Power to the people, through their elected representitives.
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost
However flawed that US & UN approved process was, we celebrated the process and the results. That the reality fell short of the salesman's spiel ...
There is a little buyers remorse?
We are well beyond the return policy deadline. We've bought it, best learn to love it, even of it's a lemon. Trade-in opportunity is coming, In 2010 they have scheduled elections in Iraq, don't they? 09 or 10?
there is a very real chance that elected representatives will fail to hold on to the reins of power, but hey, Saddam's gone, so victory is ours.
ReplyDelete"We've bought it, best learn to love it, even of it's a lemon."
ReplyDeleteThat's the spirit.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePeople that I know and respect, who were there, tell me that the Indo-Chinese project was going very well, until the Regular Army showed up, in force.
ReplyDeleteThen things headed south, the South Vietnamese never developing localized supportive security infrastructure.
A greater sized US footprint in Iraq does not always equal an improved result.
If the Mission was peacekeeping, not security, with the security missions devolving to local police and militias.
As in Anbar and Basra
Just help the Iraqi reach a defacto partition, a localized stability, then blend those locals into the Federal System.
While, over the coming 12 to 18 months, the Iraqi Security readiness levels spike upwards and as they stand up, we begin to stand down.
Announced last January, today it be viewed as victory.
"Iraqi leaders understandably want to assume greater sovereignty in their country, although, as they recently announced, they do desire continued presence of coalition forces in Iraq in 2008 under a new UN Security Council Resolution and, following that, they want to negotiate a long term security agreement with the United States and other nations." ---
ReplyDeletefrom the Petraeus Report
well, DR, if you can convince the Bushies of it then I'll try to stifle my giggles and support the withdrawal. Unfortunately they seemed to have bought in to your long war meme.
ReplyDelete"People that I know and respect, who were there, tell me that the Indo-Chinese project was going very well, until the Regular Army showed up, in force."
ReplyDeleteI keep referring back to McNamara's insight: We mistook a civil war for a war of communist aggression against us.
The worst errors are conceptual. We committed that error in Iraq. In spades.
(Near the end of his time in office, McNamara noted incredulously that he and the President were receiving passionate recommendations to bomb China.)
UK troops are sent to Iranian border
ReplyDeleteRenegotiate the terms of the occupation, with the UN, now that the democratic government has emerged.
ReplyDeletePerfectly reasonable & preordained.
Schedules will become all the rage, departure times drawing ever closer.
Satisfies al-Sadr's long term demands, gives the Iraqi rope a push, hat tip Senator Warner, a reasonable man.
The UN will become more prevelant in negotiations amongst the locals, outside of US command strucutres.
"Renegotiate the terms of the occupation, with the UN, now that the democratic government has emerged."
ReplyDeleteThat's between the Iraqis and the UN, now that the democratic government has emerged.
elijah's back and provides further evidence that Basra is secure.
ReplyDeleteThe Brits pulling out the last 500 men from the Palace, but then sending 350 squadies off to patrol the Iranian border
While previous US military action has been primarily directed against Sunni insurgents, it is Shia fighters, which the US accuses Iran of backing, who now account for 80 per cent of US casualties.
For the British military the move to the border is a change of policy. They had stopped patrols along the long border at Maysan despite US concerns at the time that the area would become a conduit for weapons into Iraq.
The decision to return to the frontier has been heavily influenced by the highly charged and very public dispute with the United States. British commanders feel that they cannot turn down the fresh American request for help after refusing to delay the withdrawal from Basra Palace. They also maintain that the operation will stop Iranian arms entering Basra.
The US does wield some influence at the UN, and will.
ReplyDeleteThe UK press is the US-Iran war tabloid.
ReplyDeleteSince dumb is the topic of the day, should a Dumb Bastard be able to slip the hangman's noose, just because he is dumb? Is this equal protection under the laws?
ReplyDeleteDumb
ReplyDeleteIt does, but we can't negotiate for Iraq, Rat.
ReplyDeleteWe're already stuck with it.
The People magazine of foreign affairs.
ReplyDeleteMinus the Page Six girls.
ReplyDeleteBOISE, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2007 AT 10:00 A.M.
ReplyDeleteIN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF IDAHO
GERALD ROSS PIZZUTO, JR.,
Petitioner-Appellant,
v.
STATE OF IDAHO,
Respondent.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
Docket No. 32679
Appeal from the District Court of the Second Judicial District of the State of Idaho, Idaho County. Hon. George R. Reinhardt III, District Judge.
Joan M. Fisher, Capital Habeas Unit Federal Defenders Services of Idaho, Moscow, for Petitioner-Appellant.
Hon. Lawrence G. Wasden, Attorney General, Boise, for Respondent.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerald Pizzuto appeals the district court’s dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief alleging that he is mentally retarded and that his execution is barred by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Atkins v. Virginia.
In 1986, Pizzuto was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of felony murder, and one count of grand theft, all in connection with the deaths of Delbert and Berta Herndon in 1985. Pizzuto was sentenced to death. Pizzuto subsequently appealed his convictions and filed four separate petitions for post-conviction relief. His murder convictions were upheld on appeal. His first four petitions for post-conviction relief were dismissed, and those dismissals were also upheld on appeal.
On June 19, 2003, Pizzuto filed a successive petition for post-conviction relief alleging that he is mentally retarded and that his execution is prohibited under Atkins v. Virginia. The State moved to summarily dismiss Pizzuto’s petition on the grounds that it was untimely and would constitute the retroactive application of new law in violation of Idaho Code § 19-2719(5)(c). Pizzuto moved for summary judgment on the ground that there were no genuine issues of material facts in this case. After a hearing, the district court denied Pizzuto’s motion for summary judgment and granted the State’s motion to dismiss. The district court found that the petition was not timely filed and must therefore be dismissed. The district court further found that if Pizzuto’s petition was timely filed, it must nonetheless be dismissed because Pizzuto failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact supporting his claim of mental retardation.
Pizzuto argues on appeal that the district court’s dismissal of his petition as untimely violated his right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and to due process of law, and is inconsistent with the relevant Idaho statute. He also argues that the district court imposed the incorrect standard of mental retardation. Pizzuto further argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the district judge.
The State rejects Pizzuto’s claims, and argues on appeal that the district court correctly dismissed his petition as untimely. The State also argues that Pizzuto’s successive petition is not supported by material facts supporting his claim of mental retardation. The State further argues that the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Pizzuto’s motion to disqualify the district judge.
Well shucks, this is all I can get to post. Basically, the guy's IQ--around 70--is so low, the statute says the state can't bump him off. They are arguing about how dumb he is--the IQ tests. He killed a couple of people outside McCall. Just cause you're really dumb, should you escape the noose? Are democrats exempt from capital punishment?
Exactly the case, trish.
ReplyDeleteBut this should all have been stage scripted, from this time last year, from November's electoral defeat at least.
Each move has been well telegraphed or preordained, since Novebmer '06. Right on through to September of '08.
The Administration should have controlled the storylines better.
But they cannot see, those Texicans, the forest for the trees, huckered down like Crockett, Bowie and Travis in the Alamo Mission. Having fortified that hallowed religious sanctuary.
They stood and fought straight up, and died, when a skirmishing retreat could have bought Sam Houston and his Texican recruits even more time to stand up.
The ultimate story of a Texican moral victory. Dying at the Alamo
Instead of cutting Santa Anna, then running, then cutting him again, and again then even more.
Would have been a better asymetric strategy. Gaining more time, saving more troops to fight another day. Than holding the last three days at the Alamo. They had held Santa Anna up. If they had faded to north, then raided his forward elements. Slowing their advance, instead of marching unopposed ...
What could have been, but became the Americas "Battle of Thermopylae" instead.
A piece of Texican history, held dear.
Well looka at this
ReplyDeletenews item
Any wonder on who they're gonna call?
Massive quake hits Indonesia
6 hours ago
JAKARTA (AFP) — A massive 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island on Wednesday, toppling buildings and triggering a tsunami alert across the Indian Ocean region.
There was no immediate word on the full extent of casualties and damage, but at least two people were reported killed and dozens injured in the quake, which split open buildings 300 kilometres (185 miles) from the epicentre.
In the capital Jakarta 600 kilometres further south, high-rise towers wobbled, water sloshed from swimming pools and panicked office workers ran into the streets. Elsewhere, power was knocked out and phone lines went dead.
The huge quake -- anything over magnitude 7.0 is considered to have the possibility for massive damage and loss of life -- was felt in neighbouring Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, where office buildings swayed and shook.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said an alert was in effect for the entire Indian Ocean area including Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the Maldives -- all affected by the devastating December 2004 Asian tsunami.
"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicentre," the Hawaii-based centre said.
The undersea quake erupted around 1100 GMT some 100 kilometres southwest of the city of Bengkulu at a depth of roughly 30 kilometres, the United States Geological Survey said.
It adjusted an earlier report of magnitude 7.9 to 8.2.
Indonesia's meteorology agency said several aftershocks were recorded after the quake, which hit on the eve of the start of the Muslim Ramadan holy month, including one at magnitude 6.6 that prompted a second local tsunami alert.
Mr Putin to put a Federal Prosecutor in the Top Slot.
ReplyDeleteLessons to be learned?
Where do the McCain voters go
ReplyDeleteTo Rudy or Frank?
Republicans (w/out Gingrich)
Giuliani 28 (-9 vs. last poll 7/21)
Thompson 19 (+4)
McCain 18 (+2)
Romney 10 (+2)
Huckabee 5 (+3)
Undecided 15 (+4)
Overall, Giuliani leads by 4.6% in the updated RCP Average.
Rudy down 9 points
ReplyDeleteEverythig else,
combined up 15 points
Six points added to the pot, just to make Rudy's position look worse than it is.
A subliminal message, sent seminally
BOBAL: Are democrats exempt from capital punishment?
ReplyDeleteTrue Christians believe that Christ was the last human sacrifice required by God for murder. In fact, they believe that God is offended when people attempt to add the blood of murderers to the perfect sacrifice of His Son on the cross.
Trish,
ReplyDeleteWhat if we point the Remote at Iran, push the button,
and, IT WORKS?
'I looked like a fat pig,' says Britney after MTV fiasco
ReplyDeleteHey!
Could be the first step in a journey of self-knowlege of monumental proportions.
That was the "Darth Cheney" plot, doug.
ReplyDeleteYou've hit the nail on the head!
A plausibly deniable nuclear explosion. Somewhere in Iran, like an accident, or something.
When it really be one of those cruise missiles, traveling straight and hot.
The Syrian anti-aircraft on par with Iranian, Those five IDF planes transited Syria, the cruiser could make it to the target, too.
Unseen through the breaking dawn or failing sunlight at dusk, as the particular case may be.
Britney's challenge, is just father time, droppin' a couple of kids...
ReplyDeleteLiving in a fantasy world of "hot stuff".
They all look pretty plain, truth be told. This era's pin-up girls.
Actually, 'Rat, I was referencing Trish's
ReplyDelete"Being There"
cite:
Did you ever see that Peter Sellers Classic?
The only time Chauncey confronts the grown up World, outside his garden, or watching TV, he runs into a few Giant Thugs on the street.
Hoping to put an end to that unpleasant scene, he pulls out his remote and anxiously presses the "stop" button repeatedly!
"This theory explains much: the reckless driving, the abuse of small dogs, the thirst for fame, the fabrication of personal experience, the secretiveness about how he wrote, the denial of his Jewish identity. 'There was a hollow space at the center of Kosinski that had resulted from denying his past,' Sloan writes, 'and his whole life had become a race to fill in that hollow space before it caused him to implode, collapsing inward upon himself like a burnt-out star.' On this theory, Kosinski emerges as a classic borderline personality, frantically defending himself against… all-out psychosis.[11]
ReplyDeleteJerzy beat dogs, so it is said, a no-no. Wrote some good books. Hard to figure him out.
Jerzy Kozinsky
ReplyDeleteAs the 100th poster, I'll have a Headless Madonna, barkeep.
"Did you ever see that Peter Sellers Classic?"
ReplyDeleteI did.
Me too. Had read the book first. Great movie. Love Sellers.
ReplyDeleteDoug Zembiec
I believe the one overriding factor in regard to our continued presence in Iraq is the matter of troop rotations. Beyond next spring requires 18 month rotations which are untenable.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, I predict more good news in the coming months. Oh, the press will claim otherwise but there will be significant progress on all fronts. Even the political dynamic will change as "reconciliation" begins.
No shame on us. Of course, those that hate us will say all manner of outrageous things just as they have for years. They will try to hang labels all over us but, it is up to us to refuse to wear them.
We will have given the Iraqis a democratic country and it will be up to them to keep it. We will have done more than the rest of the world combined and the shame is on a world which does no more than nip our heels.
"We will have given the Iraqis a democratic country and it will be up to them to keep it. We will have done more than the rest of the world combined and the shame is on a world which does no more than nip our heels."
ReplyDeleteKnow what, whit?
I envy Denmark.
When do we get to be Denmark?
ReplyDeleteWhen do we get to send a casserole?
Just as soon as we get out of Iraq, we'll be the ones showing up with a couple of dozen store bought rolls.
ReplyDelete(Or we should be!)
And if there are any Danes trolling: I know, I know. Your non-casserole contribution is most sincerely and eternally appreciated.
ReplyDeleteNo offense.
Just as soon as we get out of Iraq?
ReplyDeleteAlrighty then.
Whit, we've got that Messiah thing (warmed over Brezhnev Doctrine; take your pick) goin' on. Who are you kidding?
Finding Paradise in Sweden
ReplyDeleteGreat, Albob!
ReplyDeleteNow you've given our local dog beaters advocate more ammunition!
Doug:
ReplyDeleteDo you ever sleep?
Heard Crocker on NPR this evening.
ReplyDeleteThe interviewer was pressing him on how the population was self segregating along ethno-sectarian lines.
He adroitly countered with the fact that Iraq is a federal republic and the real question is going to be the level of provincial autonomy.
Sounds like we're building up Anbar as a successful province, Kurdistan a successful collection of provinces, and quite possibly the south a Shia province waiting for success - with Basra being the lead.
Don't know.
Here's a link to General Petraeus' briefing slides
Foreign fighter flow is only shown as coming through Syria in slide 1. I have no doubt that is a transit route.
Having no arrows pointing north from beyond the southern border of IRQ just seems way to tidy to me.
I don't know.
This is why we tilt toward the Israelis:
ReplyDeletePalestinian Friday Sermon by Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris: Muslims Will Rule America and Britain, Jews Are a Virus Resembling AIDS
Gafney was on Hewitt, said the ethnic cleansing of Sunnis in many neighborhoods of Baghdad has already been accomplished.
ReplyDeleteThere are 2 Million refugees in Syria!
Someone else was just on saying we know a lot about Iranian input from those Quds folk we captured a while back.
That was one where you put your opinion on the line and turned out to be wrong, Trish:
You argued no direct connection to the Iranian govt could be found, remember?
Welcome to the Club!
Whit,
ReplyDeleteWhat can you do while you're asleep?
"That was one where you put your opinion on the line and turned out to be wrong, Trish:
ReplyDeleteYou argued no direct connection to the Iranian govt could be found, remember?"
And none has. Save that approved by the Iraqi Gov.
Because the Iranians aren't that stupid.
Quds are directly connected to the govt:
ReplyDeleteThe minister of defense is a Qud.
Qud documents outlining their activities in Iraq were found and examined.
Maybe they figured we were too stupid to take them into custody, and take their records.
ReplyDelete2006 detainment in Iraq
ReplyDeleteOn December 24, 2006,
American newspaper The New York Times reported that at least four Iranians were captured by American troops in Iraq in the previous few days. According to the article, the US government suspected that two of them were members of Quds Force, which would be some of the first physical proof of Quds Force activity in Iraq.[22]
According to the Pentagon, the Quds Force members were "involved in the transfer of IED technologies from Iran to Iraq."[23] The two men had entered Iraq legally, although they were not accredited diplomats.
Iraqi officials believed that the evidence against the men was only circumstantial, but on December 29, and under US pressure, the Iraqi government ordered the men to leave Iraq. They were driven back to Iran that day.[24]
In mid-January 2007 it was said that the two Quds force officers seized by American forces were Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi and Col. Abu Amad Davari. According to The Washington Post, Chirazi is the third highest officer of Quds Force, making him the highest-ranked Iranian to ever be held by the US.[25]
American newspaper The New York Sun reported that the documents described Quds Force as not only cooperating with Shi'a death squads, but also with fighters related to al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunna.
It said that Quds Force had studied the Iraq situation in a similar manner to the US Iraq Study Group, and had concluded that they must increase efforts with Sunni and Shiite groups in order to counter the influence of Sunni states.[26]
US attack on Iranian liaison office in Arbil
ReplyDeleteOn January 11, 2007, US forces raided and detained five employees of the Iranian liaison office in Irbil, Iraq. The US military says the five detainees are connected to the Quds Force.[27][28] Alireza Nourizadeh, a political analyst of Voice of America, states that their arrests are causing concern in Iranian intelligence because the five officials are knowledgeable of a wide range of Quds Force and Iranian activities in Iraq.[29] According to American ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, one of the men in custody is Quds Force's director of operations.[30]
Although Ali Khamenei is the ultimate person in charge of the Quds Force.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Richard Clarke,
"Quds force reports directly to the Supreme Ayatollah, through the commander-in-chief of the revolutionary guards."[39]
74 to 24 defunding the Mexican truckers. Senator Craig not voting. He would have voted for the Presidents position.
ReplyDeleteGood News,
ReplyDeleteright, Trish?
No Hate Crimes Charged in Kidnapping, Rape, Torture
ReplyDelete"If you can put them away for life, what more can be done."
He could do a straddle on the border with his wide stance, a symbol of unity, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteBIG CREEK, W.Va. (AP) -- Authorities decided Wednesday not to pursue hate crime charges in the kidnapping and weeklong torture of a black woman, instead going after the suspects, who are white, on state charges that carry stiffer penalties.
ReplyDeleteWhile federal civil rights or state hate crime charges remain an option, a state kidnapping count that carries a sentence of up to life in prison will provide the best chance for successful prosecution, officials said.
---
Wow:
I knew that Black people don't carry the hate-crime gene, good to know SOME whites don't either, but of course in the majority of White on Black violence, the white hate crime gene is found to be the culprit.
"One small dump for a man,
ReplyDeleteOne United Poop for Mankind!"
Sanchez'Illegal Entry into Politics:
ReplyDeleteIn 1994 Sanchez ran unsuccessfully as a moderate Republican for the Anaheim City Council under her then married name, Loretta Brixey. In 1996, she changed parties and recast herself as a moderate Democrat to run in the 46th District against controversial six-term Republican incumbent Bob Dornan.
The bitterly fought race saw Sanchez charge that Dornan was out of touch with his constituency, especially after a distracting run for the 1996 Republican Presidential nomination. The 46th had always had a Democratic tilt, but became even more Democratic after the 1990 census when it received a considerably larger number of Hispanics than had previously been in the district. Sanchez won by 984 votes, and Dornan contested the election, alleging that many votes were cast by people who were not U.S. citizens.
A Congressional investigation found evidence that 624 votes were indeed cast by non-citizens and an additional 124 were improper absentee votes, but these votes were not enough to throw Sanchez's victory into doubt so the investigation was halted and the outcome was upheld by a Republican-controlled Congress,[3] making Sanchez the first Latina to represent Orange County in Congress. Dornan continues to assert that illegal voter registration of non-citizens was decisive in Sanchez's victory.
In consultation with the INS, the House committee identified as many as 4,700 questionable registration affidavits;[4] however, the probe was dropped before these affidavits were investigated.
---
Dornan ultimately was a victim of his ongoing contentious relationship with Speaker Newt, resulting in the investigation being aborted before it was complete.
All of Dornan's signage was torn down in "areas friendly to Sanchez" including signs on people's lawns.
ReplyDeleteVoting by race was also an important part of her illegal victory.
Power to the (Hispanic) People!
BOBAL: 74 to 24 defunding the Mexican truckers. Senator Craig not voting. He would have voted for the Presidents position.
ReplyDeleteAnd the President promises to veto it, setting himself up for the first override of his presidency (the House vote in May was 411-3 against the Mexican trucks coming in). Bring it on!
Never thot I'd say this:
ReplyDeleteCheers for Dorgan,
Boos for Cornyn!
---
Tonight's vote is a vote for safety," Dorgan said. "It also represents a turning of the tide on the senseless, headlong rush this country has been engaged in for some time, to dismantle safety standards and a quality of life it took generations to achieve."
Teamster General President Jim Hoffa praised the Senate for "slamming the door on the Bush administration's illegal, reckless plan to open our borders to trucks from Mexico."
"The American people have spoken, and Congress has spoken," Hoffa said. "Now it's time for the Bush administration to listen. We don't want to share our highways with dangerous trucks from Mexico."
A counter amendment offered by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, was submitted in an effort to keep the truck project alive, even if on life support.
Cornyn had proposed to allow the demonstration project to go forward, while reserving the right of the Senate to pull the plug if safety problems developed in the initial phases of the program roll-out.
Cornyn's proposal was killed by a strong bipartisan 80-18 vote.
Repeatedly, in arguing from the floor of the Senate for his amendment, Cornyn mischaracterized NAFTA as having created a "treaty obligation" requiring the U.S. to allow Mexican trucks free access to U.S. roads.
Dorgan objected, pointing out NAFTA was passed in 1993 as a law, not a treaty.
DOUG: Voting by race was also an important part of her illegal victory.
ReplyDeleteWIKIPEDIA: "A Congressional investigation found evidence that 624 votes were indeed cast by non-citizens and an additional 124 were improper absentee votes, but these votes were not enough to throw Sanchez's victory into doubt so the investigation was halted and the outcome was upheld by a Republican-controlled Congress..."
That's Disgusting, Ms T.
ReplyDeleteBut then what isn't re:
Relations between
el Presidente Jorge, and Mexico?
---
Override the Outlaw President!
Check out the last two paragraphs of my post, T.
ReplyDeleteCraig shouldn't have any trouble getting in the saddle when he retires to the ranch(if he still owns it), with his wide straddle, and stance.
ReplyDelete"The two men had entered Iraq legally, although they were not accredited diplomats."
ReplyDeleteAlthough?
Leave it to the NYT.
Information operations, Doug. Tis a wonder to behold.
The US rounding up unaccredited diplomats. Wonder how long they were going to have to wait for their creds? And who made them wait?
I'm sure they've been replaced by more suitable specimens. Promptly accredited.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened concerning that story about the two 'middle-eastern' looking fellows that the FBI posted the photos of, the ones spooking around the ferries around Seattle? Story seemed to vanish.
ReplyDeleteI'd think that Nancy Pelosi and Dennis Kucinich ought to be hopping on a plane to Damascus to check ought 'what really happened' with the recent Israeli Air Force action in Syria. We all need to know, and who better than Nan and Den to tell us, both having such good contacts there.
ReplyDeleteSo you don't believe it when our Military says they were Quds forces, and they confiscated Quds Forces plans for their operations in Iraq?
ReplyDeleteBeing obtuse and difficult again, Trish.
Does the CIA pick and choose through the details, selecting only the facts that support their desired outcome?
ReplyDelete---
They were either there or they weren't:
They Were.
Sounds like BC:
ReplyDeleteBlame it on the times, the cheerleaders will excite the crowd.
Repeat:
ReplyDelete"In mid-January 2007 it was said that the two Quds force officers seized by American forces were Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi and Col. Abu Amad Davari.
According to The Washington Post, Chirazi is the third highest officer of Quds Force, making him the highest-ranked Iranian to ever be held by the US.[25]
---
Maybe we should dismiss it 'cause it's a WaPo Report?
Better yet, avoid it and point elsewhere.
"
"So you don't believe it when our Military says they were Quds forces, and they confiscated Quds Forces plans for their operations in Iraq?"
ReplyDeleteNo. What the military doesn't have is a line between Qods and the government. The admin doesn't have it either.
As for confiscated plans...
No fucking way.
According to Richard Clarke,
ReplyDelete"Quds force reports directly to the Supreme Ayatollah, through the commander-in-chief of the revolutionary guards."[39]
---
According to American ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, one of the men in custody is Quds Force's director of operations.[30]
----
----
No serious person denies the connection between the govt and Quds forces:
I already said, the minister of defense is in the Quds Forces!
Get Serious!
"He could see both of his testicles hanging on the outside of his body," said Thomas' attorney, Carl Hughes.
ReplyDelete"He was wearing a pair of white shorts, which made it that much worse."
It took more than 60 stitches to close the wound, and police interviewed Thomas at a nearby hospital emergency room.
Beckett, a 53-year-old church deacon, federal auditor and former Army combat veteran, has pleaded not guilty.
His next court appearance comes Oct. 4, two days before the Sooners and Horns tangle in their annual football game at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Thomas, who once lived in Houston and became a Texas fan during the heyday of star running back Earl Campbell, is still recovering from his injuries but has returned to work as a meat cutter at a Sam's Club warehouse store.
The Revolutionary Guards are an NGO.
ReplyDeleteSo to speak.
"No serious person..."
ReplyDeleteThat and a couple of bucks'll get you a cup of coffee.
The Revolutionary Guards are an NGO.
ReplyDeleteSo to speak.
---
Ha Ha!
No wonder you can look a threat in front of your nose and proclaim:
"No Problemo!"
The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.
ReplyDelete---
Formed in 1979 and originally tasked with protecting the world's only modern theocracy, the Revolutionary Guard took the lead in battling Iraq during the bloody Iran-Iraq war waged from 1980 to 1988.
---
So the Iran-Iraq WAR, with MILLIONS killed, was an NGO Skirmish, with no connection to Tehran!
---
Interesting Perspective!
They really are an NGO, Doug.
ReplyDeleteThat was kinda wise of them, don't you think?
Kinda Stupid of you.
ReplyDeleteBut then Trish is NEVER Wrong.
Just ask her.
No wonder you can look a threat in front of your nose and proclaim:
ReplyDelete"No Problemo!"
- Doug
A threat to whom, you weak-kneed suck-up to Israel?
If you could show me CIA documents that say it is non-governmental, that makes it so, as tho the Iran Iraq War was funded by the Tooth Fairy on Iran's side?
ReplyDeleteOr does exchange of legal tender for services rendered not represent a "connection" in CIA World?
Show me USG documents establishing the link.
ReplyDeleteGee, Israel appears outta the Blue.
ReplyDeleteYour silly assertion was that there was no connection to the govt.
The families of US Soldiers killed by Quds and by Qud provided Weapons would consider them a threat, I guess.
Show me ANYTHING that says the Revolutionary Gaurds are not connected to Tehran!
ReplyDelete"Gee, Israel appears outta the Blue."
ReplyDeleteOnly if you've been unconscious for the past, oh, 10 years.
Good Diversion, Trish.
ReplyDeleteWhat does that have to do with our dead soldiers?
Not my job to prove a negative, sweetheart.
ReplyDeleteMe asserting the Quds are a threat, and showing connections to the government makes me a suck up to Israel?
ReplyDeleteYou didn't show anything.
ReplyDeleteI gave specific INDIVIDUALS that are Quds members that are connected to the government.
ReplyDelete"Russia has tested the "Father Of All Demolitions," a conventional air-delivered explosive that experts say can only be compared with a nuclear weapon in terms of its destructive power...."
ReplyDeleteF.O.A.D., aka Fuck Off And Die.
"I gave specific INDIVIDUALS that are Quds members that are connected to the government."
ReplyDeleteThat's fine. That doesn't make Qods a government entity.
Doug,
ReplyDeleteTrish has a point. Proving a negative is pretty nigh impossible. You are making a factual assertion and evidence is needed to establish it. And her question as to whom the threaten is also valid. They appear to be more of a threat to Israel then to US, no?
Trish, at best, established a distinction without a difference. The established government of Iran is responsible for what comes out of its territory. If it doesn't have control of the IRG, that's their responsibility, even if we currently cannot hold them accountable (as with Pakistan).
ReplyDeleteEven the distinction is questionable because the IRG itself is a significant portion of the country's governing oligarchy. Yeah, it isn't of the government - but the government isn't the dictator of security and defense policy in the country, anyway.
"country's informal governing oligarchy"
ReplyDelete"at best"
ReplyDeleteBoo-ya.
She'll settle for that tonight.
Anti-Americanism goes to the heart of Khomeini's Revolution. It isn't something the Old Guard's simply going to drop in the near future.
ReplyDeleteSince we're unlikely to withdraw from the Middle East under any of the major Presidential candidates, there's no use pretending that that if we did so they'd simply forget about it. We're going to be in the Middle East for at least the near future, whether I like it or not, so they're still something to be concerned about.
"Anti-Americanism goes to the heart of..."
ReplyDeleteWhat, cutler?
If you can figure out what Americanism means, at home or abroad, I'll tip my hat.
Far as I'm concerned, it doesn't mean shit.
Did I really say that?
ReplyDeleteYes I did.
It means hundreds of American deaths since 1979.
ReplyDeleteAnd counting.
What was "Judeo-Bolshevism"?
A figment of imaginations that got people killed, nonetheless.
No, cutler.
ReplyDeleteI was asking for a definition of Americanism.
Time to call Petraeus a Liar now, Trish, admit you are wrong, or continue to make a fool of yourself:
ReplyDelete---
Petraeus says Iran involvement in attacks 'clear'
"The evidence is very, very clear," Petraeus told a news conference here. "We captured it when we captured Qais Khazali, the Lebanese Hezbollah deputy commander and others. And it's in black and white."
The US military in July announced the capture in Basra of a senior Hezbollah militant, Ali Musa Daqduq, who it accused of training "special groups" of Shiite militants at camps near Tehran under the auspices of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force.
Iran has denied the charges.
Petraeus said video-taped interrogations of the captured operatives have been shown to senior Iraqis, some of whom then confronted the Iranians with the evidence.
"Qais Khazali, himself, when asked, 'Could you have done what you have done without Iranian support?' he literally throws up his hands and laughs and says, 'Of course not.'"
"So they told us about the amounts of money that they have received. They told us about the training that they received. They told us about the ammunition and sophisticated weaponry and all of that that they received," he said.
---
---
"And so, this is evidentiary. It is not just intelligence. It rises to the level of evidence, particularly what we captured when we got the hard drives of the computers from the individuals that we picked up in Basra," he said.
"And so, this is evidentiary. It is not just intelligence. It rises to the level of evidence, particularly what we captured when we got the hard drives of the computers from the individuals that we picked up in Basra," he said.
ReplyDeleteThat would be
GENERAL PETRAEUS!
So far as I see it, what I think "Americanism" is is isrelevant to the question of whether Iran is a threat to American security or not. It is irrelevant, as well, whether "Americanism" actually even exists.
ReplyDeleteWhat is relevant is what they believe. And they believe that Americanism is Gomorrah embodied.
Or am I missing where you are going?
It rises to the level of evidence.
ReplyDeleteNicely couched, don't you think?
DOUG: "Petraeus says Iran involvement in attacks 'clear'"
ReplyDeleteDeja vu all over again:
"..there is long, consistent, clear evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction..." Colin Powell, June 9, 2003
It is irrelevant, as well, whether "Americanism" actually even exists.
ReplyDelete- cutler
In order for there to be anti-Americanism, there has to be Americanism.
Or. Maybe I'm missing something.
Uh, Ms T:
ReplyDeleteThey have the evidence, it is not simply some CIA assertion.
They have specific individuals and hard drives testifying to and containing that evidence.
As I said, "Judeo-Bolshevism" didn't exist either, nor any number of other imaginary ideologies that have caused men to kill. What mattered was that they believed it and were willing to follow up on it.
ReplyDeleteYou love to speak in your finger trap way, Trish.
ReplyDeleteYou have convinced me you are not willing to engage in rational debate.
Grow Up!
Or go March for Ron Paul in your delusional Bliss.
It's a mystery to me, Tersita, why Powell is so despised by the Right.
ReplyDeletetrish said...
ReplyDeleteIt rises to the level of evidence.
Nicely couched, don't you think?
---
No, I don't know what you are getting at:
Please Explain!
Are you saying the US possesses an imaginary ideology, cutler?
ReplyDeleteI am asking you to state that ideology.
Jesus H Christ, Doug.
ReplyDeleteIs it evidence or is it not?
It is not.
Therefore it rises to the level of.
Do you need classes on this?
(Or do you think it only really occurs under a Democratic administration?)
I'm not talking at all about the US. I'm talking about Iran and the theological fight Khomeini picked with us in 1979. Not a political fight, but a religious/ideological one. The one that ended up with the US as the Great Satan whose influence was the root of all evil in the world (something that he, oh great fraud that he was, actually stole from Zoroastrianism, ironically). One that I don't think will be easy for Khomeini's modern day followers to give up.
ReplyDelete"I'm not talking at all about the US."
ReplyDeleteYou brought up anti-Americanism. We must've figured in there somwhere.
I'll try.
ReplyDeleteAmericanism--that form of societal life in which the secular is the dominant power but is informed by the sane spirituality of the past, limited by the constitution, and excluding those elements in our life that would wish to tear it down,so as to be protective of individual liberty.
Just an attempt, open to amendment.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards take over key policy body
ReplyDeleteTehran, Iran, Sep. 27 - As part of a plan to bring Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) under the complete domination of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), several highly-placed commanders of the elite military organisation are filling the top slots in the key decision-making body on security and defence policies, Iran Focus has learnt.
The most significant changes include the expected entry of the second-in-command of the IRGC who will soon be named as the new deputy chief of the Supreme National Security Council, which is in charge of the country’s nuclear negotiations with the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
IRGC Deputy Commandant Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr is expected to be appointed to the post in the coming days.
Brigadier General Zolqadr would leave his post to take up another senior position.
Zolqadr is a protégé and trusted confidant of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and has a key role in the country’s security apparatus. He has been close friends with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for years. His departure from the IRGC high command will be a significant change in the force’s command.
Another senior IRGC commander, Brigadier General Mohammad-Ali (Aziz) Jaafari, was confirmed on Sunday as the new head of the SNSC’s directorate for internal security.
In mid-August, Khamenei put Brigadier General Jaafari in charge of forming the “IRGC Centre for Strategy”.
The idea for the creation of the new centre for strategy came from Khamenei himself, who regularly receives the top IRGC commanders and closely follows their activities. He had asked IRGC Commandant, Major General Rahim Safavi, and his commanders to devise a new command structure and military strategy for the IRGC that would give the elite military force unlimited access to national resources and absolute priority over the regular army in case of a foreign military confrontation. The new centre will draw up the new strategy and implement the necessary changes to ensure rapid and efficient transformation of the country’s civilian infrastructure and resources to military footing under the control of the IRGC.
"And so, ***this is*** evidentiary.
ReplyDeleteIt is not just intelligence.
It rises to the level of evidence."
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Plain as Day what he says.
You claim the latter refutes the former, when in fact he's simply saying it goes ***beyond*** intelligence.
...it RISES TO THE LEVEL OF ***EVIDENCE!***
Oh, no!
ReplyDeleteNo connection whatsover!
Time to bring up some more diversionary nonsense, Trish!
Only to the extent that we are the Khomeinists' hate object. The glue that created their religious revolution. And they have proved themselves to be true believers willing to act on it. Moreover, for them to ditch it would be dangerous to what's left of their ideological legitimacy, because Khomeinism and hatred of the US are indistinguishable.
ReplyDeleteSo therefore I think it is hard to dismiss them as a threat. Particularly as long as we're in the region, and I think we will be for the near and intermediate future.
Clear as mud?
Death to the Great Satan is not Anti-Americanism, Cutler, you fool!
ReplyDeleteThey just want us dead!
No offense.
As opposed to
ReplyDelete"This is evidence of..."
Seems like a lot of folks are coming to the conclusion that Talking
ReplyDeleteTo Iran is pretty much a one way conversation.
Another key Revolutionary Guards commander who will be entering the Supreme National Security Council is Brigadier General Seyyed-Ali Hosseini-Tash.
ReplyDeleteHosseini-Tash was the deputy Minister of Defence in the administration of Mohammad Khatami and according to the opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran, was the ranking defence official involved in Tehran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.
It's a mystery to me, Tersita, why Powell is so despised by the Right
ReplyDeletePowell is quoted as describing the neocons to British foreign minister, Jack Straw, as "fucking crazies". He also thinks that after all the torture and occupation, "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." He's simply pitied by the Left, for letting himself become the Bushite tool to get us into Iraq.
Cutler, they're not going to be dismissed as a threat.
ReplyDeleteBut thanks for taking so little interest in the question of Americansim.
Such people we are led by.