Thursday, April 10, 2008

Are Hillary and Obama Economic Illiterates or Just Shameless Democrats?

Bob Zawacki and I once served on the same duty post. He is not allowed to say where.

He brings up a good point on the economic plans of Clinton and Obama. The last thing we need is anything that reduces capital formation. We are also in the unenviable position that we require foreign markets to provide capital. Any increase in capital gains taxes will not help. The time has arrived where continued deficit spending is obviously unsustainable. Any future President will be forced to unwind spending programs. That is never any fun for politicians.

Increasing taxes is no solution.

_________________________

Guest Post- Robert Zawacki
As a retired Business Professor from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and before that the Air Force Academy, I can no longer sit by and listen to Hillary and Barack put forth their tax increases as solutions to our current economic downturn. Let me use just one example taken from Obama's recent statements on Capital Gain Taxes. These quotes and some of my paraphrasing are extracted from and supported by an op. ed. article in the Wall Street Journal, April 5-6, 2008, p. A8.

Recently Obama was interviewed by Maria Bartiromo of CNBC and asked how much he would increase capital gains taxes because he previously stated that it is necessary to restore fairness to the tax code. The current capital gains tax rate is 15% for long term investments. Obama replied,

"When I talk to people like Warren Buffett or others and I ask them, you know, what's how much of a difference is it going to be if it's 20 or 25%, they say, look, if it's within that range then it's not going to distort, I think, economic decision making."

He further stated that, "a higher rate would allow the federal government to redistribute "relief to middle class and working class families."

I will make 4 points about Obama's policy of increasing the capital gains tax. These same points can be make for most of the other numerous taxes proposed by Obama and Clinton.

  1. When capital gains taxes are decreased on the individual, the total taxes on capital gains received by the federal government increases by a factor of 2.5 or 3. For example, when Republicans lowered the rate to15% in 2003, this increased Treasury income from CGs from $49 billion in 02 to $110 billion in 06.
  2. Capital gains are not the exclusive benefit of the wealthy. Buffet and Hillary may be wealthy but this tax increase will impact on households with $50,000 to $200,000 income. "In recent decades the U.S.has become a shareholder society, and average Americans increasingly rely on investment income to save for retirement or even to pay bills."
  3. Obama and Clinton do not define the "wealthy super rich." The truth is that in 2005, 8.5 million households paid taxes on capital gains and 47% had incomes of less than $50,000. 79% had incomes of less than$100,000 - most of our families have 40lKs which are invested in the stock market and will be affected by these proposed tax increases.
  4. With our weak economy, this is not the time to increase taxes. Obama and his fellow Democrats should be reducing taxes, or "indexing it to inflation so average investors are not taxed on so called gains in their mutual funds (401Ks).


Robert A. Zawacki, Ph.D. Univ of Washington
Professor Emeritus of Management & International Business, Univ of CO, Colorado Springs


91 comments:

  1. Google "International Community" and you get 8,640,000 pages. It must be a rather popular concept.

    "Community" is a rather comfy word. "International" is a big word, expansive and inclusive, and we all like big ideas and we must be inclusive. A phrase that includes big things and warm comfy things is a simple seductive idea.
    ---
    We live in a world where isolationism has ceased to have a reason to exist. By necessity we have to co-operate with each other across nation"...
    The International Community

    ..."We are all internationalists now, whether we like it or not"...

    ..."national interest is to a significant extent governed by international collaboration and that we need a clear and coherent debate as to the direction this doctrine takes us in each field of international endeavour."...

    ..."Many of our problems have been caused by two dangerous and ruthless men - Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic."...

    ..."The most pressing foreign policy problem we face is to identify the circumstances in which we should get actively involved in other people's conflicts. Non -interference has long been considered an important principle of international order. And it is not one we would want to jettison too readily. One state should not feel it has the right to change the political system of another or forment subversion or seize pieces of territory to which it feels it should have some claim. But the principle of non-interference must be qualified in important respects. Acts of genocide can never be a purely internal matter. When oppression produces massive flows of refugees which unsettle neighbouring countries then they can properly be described as "threats to international peace and security". When regimes are based on minority rule they lose legitimacy - look at South Africa."...

    He forgot to mention Rhodesia, rather I mean Zimbabwe, of course.
    How could I forget?
    ---
    Hewitt had a caller who came from Rhodesia:
    Talked of how it was the most prosperous country in Africa prior to it's "liberation."

    Said Hillary and Fucknut *talk* of taking oil companies profits...
    but Mugabe *DID* it.
    ...for the general welfare, of course.
    Hug.
    ---
    Hewitt also had guests that wrote a book about "Millenials"

    Community is everything to them, and, of course, Barry will bring about community throughout the universe.

    Convinced Hewitt that the GOP has a snowball's chance in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ROK Star

    Out of Office and Into a Fishbowl in South Korea

    BONGHA, South Korea
    — Each day, a stream of cars and buses pulls into this hamlet of 121 people, disgorging thousands of tourists on a typical weekday and up to 20,000 on Sundays. They all come to see one man, the village’s newest resident.
    South Koreans regularly gather outside the home of former President Roh Moo-hyun, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. The ex-leader is now a tourist attraction.---And while past presidents have, like Mr. Roh, hailed from rural areas, they chose to make their homes in Seoul upon leaving office. The other four surviving former presidents now live under heavy police guard in the capital, where some meddle in domestic politics but none mingle with ordinary people.

    Mr. Roh, in contrast, rides his bicycle through Bongha, a village near the city of Kimhae. He plants trees and cleans ditches with farmers. He keeps a blog. And he has visitors, thousands of them, every day.
    ---
    “Hey, President!” blurted an old man. “Where is the first lady? Can we see her too?”
    Mr. Roh’s wife, Kwon Yang-sook, sometimes joins him to greet the crowds.
    Otherwise, he fends off the common request with a joke.
    “She is washing dishes,”
    he says, or
    “She is putting on makeup and doesn’t want you to wait around because, you know, it takes a while.”

    This ritual repeats itself up to eight times a day, said Kim Min-jeong, a tour guide in Bongha.
    ---Mr. Roh said he was busy beefing up his Web site, another first for a former president, which he wants to turn into a Wikipedia-like database on social and environmental issues.
    “I am extremely busy,” he said. “I’ve got lots of things to do. When I was president, I slept at least six hours a day, no matter what, because it was my duty as head of state to keep in good health. But last night I slept less than five hours, staying up until 1 a.m. working. I feel free.”
    ---
    Koreans will probably eat our lunch if anything is left by the Chi-coms and Reconquistas.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Poetry from the Ether:

    trish said...

    "There's a mud hut and a month's worth of jerky in a high, hairy asscrack that's got Shit-Talking Dentist written all over it. Say when."

    ReplyDelete
  4. desert rat said...
    It's not that F-13 is killing people, that's not a "real" problem, but that they target folks based upon their skin color.

    That is beyond the pale!

    Feds Take on Latino Gang 'Florencia 13,' Accused of Targeting Blacks in Los Angeles
    12-30-2007 11:58 AM
    By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer

    LOS ANGELES (Associated Press) -- In a murderous quest aimed at "cleansing" their turf of snitches and rival gangsters, members of one of Los Angeles County's most vicious Latino gangs sometimes killed people just because of their race, an investigation found.

    There were even instances in which Florencia 13 leaders ordered killings of black gangsters and then, when the intended victim couldn't be located, said "Well, shoot any black you see," Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said.

    "In certain cases some murders were just purely motivated on killing a black person," Baca said.

    Authorities say there were 20 murders among more than 80 shootings documented during the gang's rampage in the hardscrabble Florence-Firestone neighborhood, exceptional even in an area where gang violence has been commonplace for decades. They don't specify the time frame or how many of the killings were racial.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fear not!
    Ex Gang Member Tony Villar, a majority of the City Council, whore Bratton, LA Times, and etc are now engaged in an all out assault on ANY MENTION of Race-Based Ethnic Cleansing by the always hard-working, patriotic, family centered, Latino Illegal Invasionists.
    ---
    Latest act:
    The trial of Jamiel Shaw's illegal gang-member murderer.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Doug: trish said...

    "There's a mud hut and a month's worth of jerky in a high, hairy asscrack that's got Shit-Talking Dentist written all over it. Say when."


    Sounds more like talk from the men's room than the Belmont Club Ladies' Auxillary.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Neither Larry nor I ever heard that kind of talk from any stall next to ours.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 2164th: The last thing we need is anything that reduces capital formation. We are also in the unenviable position that we require foreign markets to provide capital. Any increase in capital gains taxes will not help.

    In 1921 the capital gains tax went from 7% to 12.5% and we all know what a terrible decade the Roaring Twenties were, economically. Then they were raised to a total of 28% by George Herbert Walker "Read My Lips" Bush in 1990 and Clinton in 1993, and we all know what a terrible decade the 1990's were, economically.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "Absolut said the ad was designed for a Mexican audience and intended to recall “a time which the population of Mexico might feel was more ideal.”

    “As a global company, we recognize that people in different parts of the world may lend different perspectives or interpret our ads in a different way than was intended in that market, and for that we apologize.”
    "
    ---
    Barry Clinton is green with Envy!
    ...exactly WHAT did they apologize for?
    Besides US?

    ReplyDelete
  10. whiskey_199 said...
    Right Habu. GWB will suddenly act decisively after 8 years of acting passively. Like the Iranian people will rise up get rid of the mullahs. That's been predicted every year since 1979. Nearly thirty years of failure.

    Unlike you Habu I judge people by their actions. GWB has shown political cowardice at every turn in confronting his domestic enemies and so has become President Buchanon. The record is not encouraging.
    ---
    The political leadership is disastrous. It is focused on ignoring the obvious.
    (refering to Israel, I think, works for me for Bush)
    ---
    I will make a prediction: Habu will be shown to be the master of wishful thinking when GWB leaves office and nothing happens to Iran. I predict nothing will. No bombing. Nothing.
    ---

    2164th said...
    Trish, Whiskey and Habu are one and the same.
    ---
    but, but...
    Isn't that disinformational?

    (any hints on how you spotted that would be appreciated by this Rube)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Trish has never been in the men's room. On purpose. That she can recall.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Years of looking at data I suppose. A keen eye for a trend or similar signature of an event. All analysis is a guess. On this one I am calling a match with a confidence factor of a three. Five being highest.

    ReplyDelete
  13. UCCS! Mountain Rangers!

    Hoo Ahh

    ReplyDelete
  14. The direct approach is often best, dear host. And in this case promises the most hilarity.

    Ask habu.

    ReplyDelete
  15. My wife and son get a kick out of retelling a story in which I failed to notice that a fay guy, wearing a pink shirt, working at Waldenbooks, was gay:

    ...I complimented him on his close relationship with his "son" who he had been talking to in the store.

    ...he smiled.
    ---
    Trish should enjoy that one.

    Got any Rube Self-Revalations, al-Bob?

    ReplyDelete
  16. CRAP!
    I just watched that alien yesterday!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Okay, at least ask him about that time, when he says he was working for "the company" and just returned to San Fran, that he stowed classified in the trunk of whatever sooper-sexy auto he claimed to have.

    Ask him if he was courier-certified and whether he was DO or DI.

    Just for shits and giggles.

    ReplyDelete

  18. 2164th said...
    Well written piece Whit. I cannot believe that there are many who knowing what we know today, would repeat what has happened in Iraq. We cannot go back in time, but we have to look at the facts. There is no sense of proportionality to what we have paid and what we have gained. We continue to double down on a bad deal.

    I do not give a damn about the intrigue amongst Muslims. It means nothing to me if they have democracy or not.

    I care about American security, which is based on a strong economy and a sense of union and purpose. We had 19 psychopaths hijack 4 planes and murdered their way into oblivion thinking they were on the fast track to paradise. Dumb asses all.

    We should have brutally punished the network that supported them. A few tactical nukes at Tora Bora and the message and payback would have been complete. We could have assassinated Saddam and taken out a brace or two of Saudis as well.

    I understand and support vengeance and brutal disproportionate reprisal. I firmly believe in taking a street sweeper to a knife fight. I detest pious bullshit like Islam being a religion of peace and celebrating Ramadan in the White House.

    I knew it would be a cluster fuck (thanks PK) when I saw that asshole L. Paul Bremer walking in a suit and tie and work boots. Anyone who ever had to use work boots never used an initial for a first name.

    It was over when they fired the Iraqi army and the shiites marched through Baghdad hitting themselves with bike chains. What the hell did GWB and L. Paul Bremer know about Iraq? Every Arab leader in the area begged them not to do it and accurately told them why it would not work.

    Nothing predicted by team 43 was accurate. Nothing, not time, not results, not costs, not outcome, nothing. What on earth will change over the next five years? Nothing.

    Wed Apr 09, 09:01:00 PM EDT


    FUCKIN' A, DEUCE!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Above all, aenea, habu does not wish you to focus on his more than ten years' worth of Agency experience and considerable knowledge of NIEs, NSC deliberations, and...oh, yeah, ask him where graduation was held.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Trish: Above all, aenea, habu does not wish you to focus on his more than ten years' worth of Agency experience and considerable knowledge of NIEs, NSC deliberations, and...oh, yeah, ask him where graduation was held.

    That's the deal with Google, you can pretend to be anyone you want to...when you are answering questions about your bio. But just day-to-day chit-chat you can't hide. The ignorance comes right out to the surface.

    ReplyDelete
  21. DeNiro, in the movie "Ronin" breaks the cover of the SAS wannabe, with a simple question.

    "What color was the boat house ... ?"

    The answer to which, he later claimed to not know, himself.

    habu has led many lifes, in many places, but one of his first posts informed us all he was a millionaire.
    Flying in exhalted airs.
    But proof positive that if he is a millionaire, he's unlike others I know, nary a one would tell you of his wealth, in their indroduction.
    Just not done.

    Anyway, I saw where he has a new time table for Mr Bush to launch a preventative air war, against Iran.

    It'll come after the November election, but before President 44 takes office, in January 09.

    So announced habu, who defended Mr Bush against whiskey, with claims that whiskey has BDS.

    At the site that is supported largely by donations from its readers.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Control questions, they're called. Never leave home without 'em.




    S'okay. We're gonna bomb Iran and not let Hayden in on it. You know, just in case.

    ReplyDelete
  23. "...he's unlike others I know..."

    Like classified in the trunk. Fuck. You'd destroy it before you did that, push came to shove. No matter where you are. It's just not done - not by anyone who takes their job seriously. And with integrity.

    And the agency has always endeavored, with reason, to screen out just the sort of self-obsessed, self-aggrandizing individual that habu is. He's the opposite of the profile.

    Let Belmont have him. He'll be gone again soon enough.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Are Hillary and Obama Economic Illiterates or Just Shameless Democrats

    Both, a little more of the latter than the former.

    My daughter really screwed up my computor. Reduced to the library today.

    Whoever heard of whacking weeds with a broom, Doug?

    ReplyDelete
  25. The Economist talks about the economy.

    See ya later.

    ReplyDelete
  26. "Like classified in the trunk. Fuck. You'd destroy it before you did that, push came to shove. No matter where you are. It's just not done - not by anyone who takes their job seriously. And with integrity."
    ---
    Au contraire, SeƱora Libertad:
    Colin Chapman personally designed a company-approved secret compartment in those sexy Lotus Elites back in the sixties.
    As you will recall, he could easily pass for David Niven, so that was well-within his skill set.

    FURTHERMORE:
    Habu knew specific details of watering holes in Marin County:
    ...only a sincere stealthy guy would have access to inside dope like that.

    ReplyDelete
  27. You did, however, on one fine Merlot-Fired Evening, assert with great certainty that we didn't homeschool.
    When I tell the kid, the shock will be like The Jerk finding out he was white.
    ...or some of the uses out there for his special purpose.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The battle for Basra showed that Iraq has a new army that's willing and able to fight. If the 15 brigades that fought are a sample, the new Iraq may have an effective army of more than 300,000 before year's end.

    But the battle also showed that the ISF still lacks the weapons systems, including attack aircraft and longer-range missiles, needed to transform tactical victories into strategic ones. The Iranian-sponsored Special Groups and their Mahdi Army allies simply disappeared from the scene, taking their weapons with them, waiting for another fight.


    charles left us this piece of wisdom on the last thread.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Here's a question for 'Rat:
    Do you, or do you not, use Dragon Dictate?

    ReplyDelete
  30. If it's true that Maliki didn't tell us, it's probably 'cause he knew Habu's Cowboy Poker Player would find a way to put the Kibosh on it.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Could "annonymous" @ Westhawk be Habu?

    ReplyDelete
  32. Well, just had a 1 and a half hour argument/discussion with my Pakistani taxi driver.

    To give you an idea of where it went, he was a fan of the Saudi Arabian government...even as he blamed us for supporting it.

    Convinced that if Musharraf went away, the country would go happily on its constitutional democratic way and that the Americans were intentionally destabilizing Pakistan.

    Seriously, at the risk of saying the obvious around here, the less we have to do with these parts of the world the better. Course, now the guy's an American...we are the world.

    Seriously. Fuck these countries.

    ReplyDelete
  33. We saved Afghanistan and the Taliban in Pakistan from the Ruskies, Cutler.
    We got our reputation to uphold.

    ReplyDelete
  34. At one point I asked him: "What about Kashmir? You a revanchist? Want to take it from India?"

    "OF COURSE! THOSE ARE MY PEOPLE!"

    "Okay, well I not only would prefer to have nothing to do with your country, but I'd also like to cut all military aid we give you to balance against India."

    "But, there are agreements!"

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hope you don't get run over by a Train on your next Taxi Ride.

    ReplyDelete
  36. One of the things that's always annoyed me about people is when they're completely unaware of their own self-righteousness. Usually because they think that their opinion is the completely normal position, which any well-meaning person must hold. It's one of the reasons the college p.c. police so revolted me.

    Hearing the average "personally aggrieved" foreigner discuss American foreign policy as if they're not at all responsible for the conditions in their own country is a close second (i.e., the Pakistani military just fell out of an American spaceship and grew roots in the country).

    ReplyDelete
  37. Eve White said @2:33

    "That's the deal with Google, you can pretend to be anyone you want to...when you are answering questions about your bio. But just day-to-day chit-chat you can't hide. The ignorance comes right out to the surface."

    A very interesting case, wouldn't you say?

    ReplyDelete
  38. "Google "International Community" and you get 8,640,000 pages. It must be a rather popular concept."

    One of the moments I realized how much trouble we were in was when a guy at a supposedly conservative think tank had me review a government paper regarding future U.S. foreign policy for coherence and was baffled when I looked at the first page, circled the word "international community" about 12 times and wrote:

    "And what exactly does this consist of?"

    ReplyDelete
  39. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  40. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  41. So he was an analyst, aenae. He was never at Perry, as he claimed.

    But he was never an analyst either. Nor a Marine.

    ReplyDelete
  42. And so, like GWB on Peking,
    you have not changed your position?

    ReplyDelete
  43. What was the "tell" that I was fraudulently purporting to be a Homeschooler?

    ReplyDelete
  44. After further analysis, I am upping my confidence factor to a four. Habu-whiskey on the house.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Habu-whiskey on the Rocks.
    So says Viktor Silo.

    ReplyDelete
  46. A spokesman said they had briefed journalists in January that Mr Brown would only be attending the closing ceremony, when the flame will be passed from Beijing to London - which holds the Olympics in 2012.

    Britain will be represented at the opening by Tessa Jowell, Olympics minister.

    He said the Chinese authorities were fully aware Mr Brown was not going - and last night the Chinese ambassador in Britain said they had not been expecting him to attend, despite earlier reports in the country that he was on a list of VIPs at the opening ceremony.


    Trigger Boycott?

    ReplyDelete
  47. Ingraham has some devastating audio of the Straight Talking Cowboy on the Olympics.
    Fully lives up to the Chimp Reputation.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Merkel is NOT Boycotting the Olympics,
    ...she's just not going.

    ReplyDelete
  49. CBS wants Buchanan to replace Couric!

    ReplyDelete
  50. The IOC intends to write to all national Olympic committees with a clarification of what restrictions athletes will face under the Olympic charter, amid concerns that its ban on "propaganda" will be aggressively interpreted by the Chinese. Rogge said that freedom of expression "is a basic human right", a view not apparently shared by the authorities in Beijing.

    Rogge held talks with the Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao this week and he is understood to have been buoyed by the reception he received. The atmosphere among IOC members is understood to have improved markedly since the torch relay was leading global news bulletins.

    Optimism is thin on the ground, however, and as the Games draw closer there will be many, Rogge included, hoping for the best but fearing the worst.


    IOC President's Reign Threatened

    ReplyDelete
  51. Buchanan? But he's conservative. wtf?

    ReplyDelete
  52. What was the "tell" that I was fraudulently purporting to be a Homeschooler?

    Thu Apr 10, 08:29:00 PM EDT

    My enduring dislike of you.

    ReplyDelete
  53. He never claimed to be a marine. His father was the Commander of an airbase in South Carolina that has since been shut down. He wrote of his father here numerous times.

    ReplyDelete
  54. BTW - Thanks for the kind words.

    bob must be dead in the water and going through withdrawals to boot.

    ReplyDelete
  55. She then said she had a solution to the problem - but it wasn't dropping out. Clinton announced that she challenged Obama to a bowl-off here in Pennsylvania.

    Over laughs from the press, she said a bowl-off would give the Obama campaign a chance to "get out of the gutter and allow the pins to be counted."

    "When this game is over, the American people will know when that phone rings at 3 a.m. they'll have a President who's ready to bowl on day one," Clinton said.


    Clinton Speech

    ReplyDelete
  56. No, actually, he claimed to have been a Marine Company commander.

    ReplyDelete
  57. "My enduring dislike of you."
    ---
    Perserverance furthers the Superior SeƱora.

    ReplyDelete
  58. The FBI says it has taken a North Carolina-based Marine wanted in the brutal murder of a pregnant colleague into custody.

    The FBI office in Charlotte said Thursday night that special agents and Mexican authorities have arrested Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean, who is charged with murder in the slaying of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach.

    The FBI said Laurean is still in Mexico and is awaiting extradition back to the U.S.


    Marine Captured

    ReplyDelete
  59. al-Bop is watching Alien Porn on the library's computer.
    ---
    Happy to be away from the homefront w/key tracking software.

    ReplyDelete
  60. "The FBI said Laurean is still in Mexico and is awaiting extradition back to the U.S."
    ---
    We'll have to swear to only slap one wrist.

    ReplyDelete
  61. AMERICANS are unaccustomed to recessions, particularly ones that involve shopping less. During the past quarter-century, the world's most powerful economy has suffered only two official downturns, in 1990-91 and 2001.

    ...

    There are two big questions about this downturn for America and the world: how long? And how deep?

    ...

    If the world economy's biggest problem turns out to be America remaining snail-like for longer than most people expect, many will breathe a sigh of relief. Given the scale of the financial mess, it could be a lot worse.


    American Slowdown

    ReplyDelete
  62. If they had gone back 30yrs, 1990-91 and 2001 would look like a walk in the park.
    (Pre the illegal invasion)

    ReplyDelete
  63. "He said he was unaware of any specific event that might have spurred such demand for the satellite, which will be in geostationary orbit over the western Pacific.
    "It's just a matter of they're out of Schlitz in the Pacific and they'd like to have some more,"
    "
    ---
    Ain't that the Truth:
    Just two days ago I was pining for a Schlitz.

    ReplyDelete
  64. The Rascom system is expected to provide an expanded range of value-added services, including low-cost telecom services in rural areas, interurban links, direct international links, direct TV broadcast and Internet access.

    While the two satellites provide much-needed bandwidth, very little has been done to market and deliver the satellites as a source of affordable bandwidth to Africa.

    "Having a satellite is one thing, offering competitive prices and unrivaled technical support is another," Get2Net's Wambugu said.


    African Businesses

    ReplyDelete
  65. Right:
    Two words to prove it.
    Seems like you type awful fast sometimes.
    Sometimes just awful.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Hillary, Pelosi, and Obama on Columbia prove that no matter how much worse our schools get, they'll get no help/release from the Govt.

    ReplyDelete
  67. Americans want the troops to come home. But they want them to come home with honor; without abandoning gains achieved at great cost; without rendering meaningless the sacrifices of the wounded and dead; without leaving behind the kind of mess that results in troops going back at some future point; and without encouraging terrorists to follow them home.

    IN THAT CONTEXT, the words of General Petraeus stand out in bold contrast to the shallow political pronouncements. Some Americans, after watching the proceedings, might be forgiven for concluding there was a better leader in the room than either Sens. McCain, Clinton or Obama.

    It is frightening to realize that those who would lead could be so cavalier about substituting their limited judgment in military matters for the experience and deep knowledge of the professionals.


    Pro vs. Politicians

    ReplyDelete
  68. "Americans want the troops to come home. But they want them to come home with honor; without abandoning gains achieved at great cost; "
    ---
    That's what Buchanan said on Ingraham.
    He was pretty amazing on Iraq and China.
    Being right on both a long time ago, but updates his position now to take present day realities into account.

    ReplyDelete
  69. On his radio show this morning, Bill Bennett told the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol — who had a personal meeting with President Bush yesterday — that a “conclusion” he drew was that the hearing was “less an argument for getting out of Iraq than going into Iran.” After suggesting that Iran may “have to pay some price at some point on their own soil,” Kristol said that President Bush authorizing an attack of some kind before he leaves office is not “out of the question”:

    BENNETT: Do you think there’s any chance that, and we won’t ask you to reveal anything confidential, do you think there’s any chance that we might take some action against some aspect of the Ira…against Iran, let’s put it that way, before the president leaves office?

    KRISTOL: We didn’t really talk about that, in all honesty, directly. I don’t think it’s out of the question.


    Into Iran

    ReplyDelete
  70. Researching for my thesis I came across this:

    Eerie reading, because it predicted many of our problems in Afghanistan at a time (Jan. 2002) when very few people had even the slightest clue, or wanted to even bother thinking long-term.

    Probably somebody whose work to keep an eye on.

    ReplyDelete
  71. That's the executive summary, full analysis is linked from there.

    ReplyDelete
  72. Sorry, Sam, the Couric thing was a joke between Ingraham and Pat!

    ReplyDelete
  73. We had quite a chorus of folks sayin they just moved east a few miles to regroup, Cutler.
    (not that any of us PREDICTED it like this guy)
    ---
    What I find amazing is the suspension of disbelief necessary to continue to maintain what a threat the one training camp in Afghanistan was to us.
    (Shame on Bubba)
    While at the same time pretending not to see a greater threat from DOZENS of them in Pakistan.

    ReplyDelete
  74. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier travels to the US on Friday, April 11, for talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. DW-WORLD.DE talked with a trans-Atlantic relations expert about the visit.

    ...

    DW-WORLD.DE talked to Julianne Smith, the director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think-tank based in Washington, about the visit.

    DW-WORLD.DE: Considering Germany's foreign-policy stance on issues such as the Middle East [including relations with Iran], Afghanistan, Russia and the European Union's role on the international stage, which of the US candidates are most likely to be more in line with the Germans?

    Julianne Smith: All three of the US presidential candidates have some foreign policy issues which the Europeans and the Germans will be encouraged by. All three want to close down Guantanamo Bay, all three want to get tough on torture and roll back many of the policies which the Bush administration have brought in which have alienated many of Washington's allies, and all three want to get on board with climate change initiatives.


    Fact-finding Mission

    ReplyDelete
  75. Thanks, Sam.
    Now where's the cyanide tablets?
    (and you didn't even bring up comprehensive immigration reform)

    Ingraham had audio of Big John sayin "They're God's Children."

    Gotta outdo W's border-spanning Family Values.

    ReplyDelete
  76. I got an email asking about "Eve White" so I won't assume that everyone got the reference. It's from the 1957 movie called The Three Faces of Eve.

    Sorry that the reference was so opaque. I had fogotten that the movie was made 51 years ago and it's also easy to forget that there are some youngsters on this site who are under 60.

    ReplyDelete
  77. He's not saying what I thot he was going to say, Cutler, and the length precludes my finishing the whole thing.
    If you already studied it, you could provide a Cliff Notes summary for the Patrons!

    ReplyDelete
  78. I thought it might have been a reference to her "brown skin prejudice period," the one that followed the Lesbian Oppression startup position.

    ReplyDelete
  79. viktor:
    I caught your reference and I thought your observation was astute.

    ReplyDelete
  80. Doug: Not young, just ignerant.

    At least the fancy typewriter with the TV on it I use in my hut puts a red line under words when they hain't spelt oll korrect.

    Whit: I caught your reference and I thought your observation was astute.

    That lack of respect, of course, from one of the proprietors, is precisely why I turned in my silver cluster and withdrew most of my enthusiasm for contributing to this fine blog. I won't return evil for evil, but I sure as shit won't let my name be associated with a place so bereft of ideas that it resorts to knee-jerk displays of argumentum ad hominem.

    ReplyDelete
  81. BTW Doug: thanks for the tip @ 8:35

    While previewing this post I caught Eve's 10:17 post.

    I'm speechless.

    ReplyDelete