Why is this still happening?
Two U.S. troops killed in Iraq
June 14, 2011 6:31 a.m. EDT
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Two U.S. service members were killed Monday during operations in southern Iraq, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
There were no further details about the incident, and their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Violence has dropped dramatically in recent years in Iraq. Under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact, which set a timetable to withdraw American forces, U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by Jan. 1, 2012.
However, U.S. troops have increasingly been targeted by roadside bombings and mortar attacks, largely in Baghdad and southern Iraq -- a Shiite stronghold.
Five American soldiers were killed June 6, the single largest loss of life among U.S. troops since 2009, and the military says that attack is likely the work Shiite militia trying to take credit for driving forces out of the country.
This asshole, if not the dumbest president we ever had, is the biggest phony. You can never know what this guy believes in. How the Left can follow him and stomach him is an indication of their complete intellectual dishonesty.
ReplyDeleteThis continued outrage and killing in Iraq would not happen if the American Elites had their kin in this war and I don't mean as JAG officers or dentists.
It is about getting elected, Deuce, not about "Left" or "Right".
ReplyDelete"Left" and "Right" are rhetorical stands, not policy proformas.
How long has the USA had troops in Germany & Japan?
ReplyDeleteDid Americans suffer any attacks after we defeated them?
The difference of course that we demanded and got a "surrender" from those DEFEATED enemies.
The entire problem in the jihadist/arab theaters is that we do not DEMAND surrender anymore.
You can never know what this guy believes in
ReplyDeleteSure you can...
The Greatness of Islam
America, as it was, sucks....
And that HE is the ONE we are waiting for...
The longer we are on the empire track, the less I like it.
ReplyDeleteI tried to tell Mat we are not on an empire track, but he wouldn't believe me.
ReplyDeleteI kept asking him to point on a map where this empire resides, and he never did.
Germany, Japan, the Philippines? Italy? No empire there. Cuba, Nicaragua? No empire there. Canada? Nope. Mexico? Well we do know rat lives in occupied Phoenix.
dwr
Correct, boob.
ReplyDeleteThere is an American Empire, in the Americas.
There is occupied Europe and Asia, Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea all have US troops maintaining the status que for the puppet regimes we established by 1948.
Mexico is full of US proxies for the US government, the most lethal of their drug cartels, trained by the US Army. The Mexican military, trained and equipped, by US.
That your travels are so limited that you do not understand the real political impact of the more than 700 US military bases spread across the globe, just another indicaion of your ignorance.
Any one of the 12 US carrier battle groups can match most of the air forces of our enemies.
ReplyDeleteEach is an example of power projection by an Empire.
No American Empire? Don't torture yourself if you cannot understand a power having military bases all over the globe to be an anything other than an empire.
ReplyDeleteChoose your euphemism if "empire" offends you. Whatever you wish to call it (and deny that it is empire) it should trouble you the same by any other name you choose.
The air force we provided our proxies in the United Arab Emirates can defeat the Iranian Air Force, without outside assistance, according to General P.
ReplyDeleteHe'd know.
That is the narrow focus. The political, economic, technological and cultural empire is more broad and pervasive. It is the cultural empire that is the most threatening to the Islamic crazies. It is the cultural empire they fear and loath, excluding Bin Laden's porn collection, of course.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the term is too emotionally charged for your wolf-addled psyche.
ReplyDeleteDiversity made us do it.
ReplyDeleteThe Empire exemplified by McDonald's, if you will.
ReplyDeleteEven the French peasantry can see it and react to it.
McDonalds in France
ReplyDeleteThere are over 800 McDonalds in France, and José Bové (the farmer turned activist who in an act of civil disobedience drove a tractor into a McDonalds) aside, the French just love McDo (pronounced Mac Dough) as it's called in France. The first McDonalds in France was built in 1979 and is located in Strasbourg's Les Hall shopping center.
The French did at one time have a love/hate relationship with McDonalds;
it was seen as part of an American cultural invasion.
That seems to be past as McDonalds has so become a part of French culture that it's not seen as an American import any longer, but wholly French. In short, McDonalds has grown on the French just like in so many other countries
One of the Council's recommendations to President Obama was to streamline the federal permit process for construction and infrastructure projects. It was explained to Obama that the permitting process can delay projects for "months to years ... and in many cases even cause projects to be abandoned ... I'm sure that when you implemented the Recovery Act your staff briefed you on many of these challenges."
ReplyDeleteAt this point, Obama smiled and interjected, "Shovel-ready was not as ... uh .. shovel-ready as we expected."
The Council, led by GE's Jeffrey Immelt, erupted in laughter.
Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. has long sold weed killer. Now, it's hoping to help people grow killer weed.
ReplyDelete"I want to target the pot market," Mr. Hagedorn said in an interview. "There's no good reason we haven't."
...
"We see very good growth for these types of companies as the medical-marijuana business grows," he said.
If the US was not a global empire, it'd not be concerned with the South Chia Sea.
ReplyDeleteNo US territory borders that body of water.
Beijing Criticizes US for Meddling in S. China Sea Dispute
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei Tuesday was asked for a reaction to legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate that condemns China’s actions in the South China Sea and calls for a multilateral solution to the territorial dispute.
The GOP takes over the House, in 2010, then their travel expenses increase by 35%, in 2011.
ReplyDeleteIt is the spending, stupid.
What travel Austerity
ReplyDeleteCongressmen, they're out there, checking upon the status of our Global Empire.
Of course, the short-term politics get dicey.
ReplyDeleteIt costs more (The First Year) to bring the troops home than to leave them "in-country."
Great for long-term savings, deficit-expanding in the first year.
Hawaii, in Polynesia, exemplifies the Empire.
ReplyDeleteBy the science of geography, Hawaii is not any part of America.
Yet it is one of the United States of ...
By that salient fact, it's proven that the United States, well, it is not bound to the Americas.
Another domestic terrorist, or just a common criminal?
ReplyDeleteMontana authorities are on a manhunt for an "extremely dangerous" former militia leader who triggered a shootout with cops and fled into the wilderness with a cache of weapons.
David Burgert, 47, a former head of a violent anti-government militia group, traded gunfire with Missoula County deputies along a logging trail after a slow speed car chase near Lolo, Mont., on Sunday, cops said.
The ex-Marine and backwoods survivalist started the 30-mile pursuit after cops tried to pull him over for driving wildly at a rest stop, authorities said.
After ignoring repeated commands to surrender, Burgert pulled his Jeep Cherokee onto a remote side road and started shooting, cops said.
Officers returned fire, but Burgert managed to flee into the woods on foot with a pack of gear, Missoula County Undersheriff Mike Dominick said.
No one was hurt, and local police called in a posse of federal and state agents to continue the hunt through the rugged terrain of the Lolo National Forest in western Montana.
"He is armed and extremely dangerous," Missoula County Undersheriff Mike Dominick said.
Read more:
Now that fella, Burgert, seems that he'd fire at the National Guard.
ReplyDeleteThen again, he's already been officially diagnosed as a nut case.
The Hawaiians voted to join the 'empire', so did the Alaskans. Japan, S. Korea, Germany, Italy, all of them could kick us out any time they want. Bases around the modern world, most small, don't an 'empire' make. The Poles, others, wanted us immediately after getting out from under the Russians. Why bandy about the loaded word 'empire' for a much more complex modern reality? If there's an "McDonald's Empire" --jesus how stupid is this? --and 'economic empire', I'd say it's the Chines economic empire, and we are rapidly becoming part of it. You could argue we're part of the oil cartel empire if you wanted, it would make just as much sense.
ReplyDeleteEmpire my ass.
Don't be bitter about losing the wolf argument, Deuce.
:)
dwr
And there are parts of the world that would be much better off if there were an American Empire. Cuba comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell kind of Empire is it that can't control things 90 miles from Miami?
dwr
The US spends, upon its military, more than everyone else, combined.
ReplyDeleteThat an Empire makes.
Its' not the size of the base, but the extension of power projection that is important.
Noone of our proxies want US to leave. They'd have to pick up the tab, if they did.
Major US corporations, like General Dynamics, would lose sales to the foreign firms. The socialists in Europe have no desire to do that. So they welcome the US pretense for presence.
Who are we defending the German government from?
Why is the US footing that bill?
The Romans had an empire, kept in place by the perpetual use of force. They taxed the hell out of their empire.
ReplyDeleterat it was who claimed if the Jews had only been peaceful and hadn't ticked the Romans off by being uppity why everything would have been swell. After all he said the Romans had the Jews best interests at heart!
I've got to go tend to my own financial empire. I have its best interests at heart.
Later
dwr
An Empire that does not care what happens, internally, on the Islands of the Caribe, they have things so under control.
ReplyDeleteBesides, there is a US military presence, in Castro's Cuba.
Gitmo, you know?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAgain, boob misunderstands.
ReplyDeleteThe Jews were not persecuted by the Romans. no more so than the Romans persecuted any other religion or tribe.
Less so, in fact.
The proof of this, the reign of King Herod. During his time in power, the folks in Caesarea and Jerusalem paid their taxes and obeyed Roman Law.
They were unmolested by the Legions of Rome.
It was not until after the reign of King Herod and the start of the revolts against paying those taxes started, that the Romans marched upon Jerusalem and Masada.
Even so, the residents of that piece of eastern Mediterranean shoreline fared better than the Carthaginians had, with regards the Romans.
Better, too, than the Helvetii, in Gaul.
desert rat said...
ReplyDeleteAgain, boob misunderstands.
The Jews were not persecuted by the Romans. o more so than the Romans persecuted any other religion or tribe.
The proof of this, the reign of King Herod. During his time in power, the folks in Caesarea and Jerusalem paid their taxes and obeyed Roman Law.
They were unmolested by the Legions of Rome.
It was not until after the reign of King Herod and the start of the revolts against paying those taxes started, that the Romans marched upon Jerusalem and Masada.
Rat knows as much real Jewish history as yasser Arafat.
Know more than enough, about the history.
ReplyDeleteThe Romans allowed the reconstruction of the Temple, by Herod.
The Roman Empire had no problem with Judaism, until Judaism had a problem with Rome.
Even then, the sizable Jewish population of Rome was not persecuted, during the revolt in Caesarea.
Besides, it is Roman history that is under discussion.
ReplyDeleteRoman attitudes, perspectives and perceptions, not the Jewish view, that are important to the discussion.
We're judging the Romans, by the Roman standard.
The Romans were easier upon the Jews than upon the Carthaginians.
That is beyond dispute.
One could argue we have an economic and militaristic American imperialist right here among us.
ReplyDeleteThe Deuce Empire. After all he's building retirement condos on foreign soil, and supported the US position on the Central American wars, as I did too by the way.
But rather than describing building some nice condos in Costa Rica as the spreading tentacles of an encroaching economic empire, I think he's doing them a good turn, and I'd much rather have a competent American like Deuce down there than the Russians or Chinese. Deuce's work will bring in some older rich from around the world and they have money to spend. Sounds like a good thing, not bad, to me.
As for the Central American wars I basically supported our efforts too, minus any death squads, on the grounds we were trying to build up some kind of viable center in those two countries, and avoid the killers on the left and right. And didn't feel like an imperialist doing so.
How it's working out I don't really know.
Phone rings again.
dwr
The Jew hating, Zionist hating, Israel despising rodent says: The Romans were easier upon the Jews than upon the Carthaginians.
ReplyDeleteThat is beyond dispute.
Anything that you oh anti-semite says that has ANYTHING to do with Israel, Zionism or Jews is suspect.
Your bias, as well as your constant ability to distort, lie and misrepresent puts into question ANYTHING you say on this subject.
Please stay on topics that we all agree you might actually KNOW something... I'd suggest horse rearing and training...
Otherwise, anything you say about Jews, Israel or Zionism should be taken with a major ton of salt. After all EVEN in THIS tread your BRIEF comments about Israel PROVES what a flying fucktard you are, and you are too stupid to EVEN know have ignorant you sound...
But it's not for me to point out where you are dumber than a rock, rather it's for me to point out generally your stupidity and laugh, just as others who visit here and read your ignorant comments about Jewish history....
The more you say, the dumber you look....
.
ReplyDeleteU.S. universities on the whole no longer list American history courses as mandatory.
Now this from the NYT front page,
U.S. Students Remain Poor at History, Tests Show
Only 12 percent of high school seniors demonstrated proficiency in American history in a nationwide test.
When you don't have a knowledge or understanding of history, those in power will write you a new one.
.
Even when you do have a knowledge and understanding of history, those in power will often try to write you a new one.
ReplyDeletedwr
.
ReplyDeleteThey just don't get it.
On CNBC today, Larry Kudlow made the following observation. Stock prices are driven by earnings and corporations are doing quite well right now.
True enough.
But then he goes on to prove his status as faux-economist-in-chief when he states that the we will not have a double dip in the economy because the "correlation between the economy and the market is so strong."
They just don't get it (or just don't care to get it.)
Things have changed. There are two economies now. That of the corporations and the beltway and that of everyone else.
Based on rhetoric and performance the prior has little understanding or sympathy for the latter.
Good for Obama’s jobs council, good for America?
Five of the biggest companies on Obama’s jobs council, General Electric, Citigroup, Intel, Procter & Gamble and DuPont, rely on foreign revenues for a majority of their sales — a shift that’s occurred just in the past several years for most of these firms. As other countries’ economies recover more quickly, these corporations have taken advantage. Earnings at GE were up 77 percent in the latest quarter. Intel is enjoying record profits.
Obama seeks to reassure public, businesses he’s focused on jobsProfits seen boosting jobs. A central assumption in Obama’s economic plan is that private-sector growth will translate into more jobs in this country.
But that strategy could be less potent as decades of globalization have loosened the connection between the health of large U.S. firms and the economy, analysts say.
As a whole, U.S. multinational firms reduced their workforce in this country by 2.9 million between 1999 and 2009, according to recent data from the Commerce Department. Meanwhile, they added 2.4 million workers overseas.
Obama's Jobs Council
Obama' council has set a goal of creating a million jobs in the next two years. That's not enough to keep up with growth in potential new workers for one year much less cut into the millions already unemployed.
.
You have no idea what Deuce is doing, but I'll give you a hint. I am creating 300 manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania on a $25 millon domestic energy project.
ReplyDelete…and not one elk or wolf will be hurt in the process.
ReplyDeleteA headline keeps popping up on CNBC that Ford is investing $12 Billion in a plant in Spain. I'm pretty sure they missed a decimal, or something, but the fact remains:
ReplyDeleteThe Multinationals have over $2 Trillion parked overseas. If they brought it home they would have to pay the 35% Income Tax on it.
They're Not about to "bring it home."
Not until we declare a "Jubilee" on it.
I'll bet the Republicans won't be whining about "Moral Hazard," then.
Deuce said...
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea what Deuce is doing, but I'll give you a hint. I am creating 300 manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania on a $25 millon domestic energy project.
Let me guess...
Your setting up funnel cake oil recycling stations at every major amusement park on the east coast?
actually that aint a bad idea...
think of the bio diesel that could be collected if every county collected and processed all waste cooking oil....
2nd lesbian blogger revealed as man
ReplyDelete– Mon Jun 13, 6:39 pm ET
LONDON – The hoax involving the true identity of a Syrian lesbian blogger has taken another turn, as another man has acknowledged he is behind a lesbian blog that republished vivid accounts of revolt in Damascus.
A 40-year-old American man living in Scotland apologized earlier Monday for posing as a Syrian lesbian blogger named Amina Arraf, whose reported detention fueled attention that eventually led to the man's confession that his blog posts had been an elaborate ruse.
Later Monday, The Washington Post reported that an editor of lesbian news website Lezgetreal.com — who encouraged Arraf and republished her blog entries — was a man named Bill Graber who used the name Paula Brooks as an online persona.
lol too fuckin funny....
Be careful with that Nat Gas, Deuce. They don't call it the "widow-maker," for nothing.
ReplyDeleteI might suggest you read a little bit of Art Berman's work.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not agin it. I'm just a little bit "leery."
Way to go Deuce, you are a creative man.
ReplyDeletedwr
US Housing Crisis Now Worse Than Great Depression
ReplyDeleteI tell ya, if Obama can win in these circumstances, then I'm living in a country I no longer recognize. I don't think he has a chance. All we need is someone who is still alive.
dwr
President Obama says his wife and daughters aren't "invested" in him being president and would have been fine had he decided against running for re-election. But he says they believe in what he's doing for the country.
ReplyDelete66% of the Hispanic vote, 96% of the Black vote, 64% of the Jewish vote. About 45% of the rest of US.
ReplyDeleteThat's what Obama has, right from the start. None of the Blacks, Hispanics or Jews care about anything other than the fact that Obama is not a typical WASP candidate.
That you do not recognize the country, typical of your close minded ignorance, coupled with near sightedness.
Drawn for the first time by an independent commission instead of Sacramento insiders, the proposed new voting maps suggest the GOP could lose as many as five seats in Congress. Moreover, Democrats may be positioned to win two-thirds of the state Legislature, potentially robbing the minority party of its ability to block tax increases, the last vestige of its governing power in the state Capitol.
ReplyDeleteBetween now and next year's elections, Republicans must scramble to reinvent themselves, recruit more moderate candidates and find common ground with more Californians if they are to be at all relevant in Golden State politics, according to independent experts and partisan analysts alike. Then voters in the considerable number of new swing districts that the maps show could opt to elect moderate Republicans just as easily as centrist Democrats.
The field could continue to reshape itself. One of those considering a run is Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose top strategists were among those who left the Gingrich campaign last week.
ReplyDeleteFormer Alaska governor Sarah Palin also has not yet announced her plans. Pawlenty, who was passed up to be McCain’s running mate in favor of Palin, was asked whether she had been a superior choice to Obama’s pick of Vice President Biden.
He described Palin as “a remarkable leader . . . qualified to be president . . . and equally or more qualified than Joe Biden.”
Later, at Mary Ann’s Restaurant in Derry, Romney posed for a picture in front of a jukebox with a few waitresses, who were wearing poodle skirts. Suddenly, he jumped forward, with a startled look on his face, and said: “Oh, my goodness!”
ReplyDeleteIt seemed as if one of the women had touched him from behind.
Asked later about the incident, Romney told reporters that nobody grabbed his butt. He said it was a joke referencing an incident during his last campaign when someone grabbed him at a fundraising event.
A new way to avoid any .08 alcohol issues while driving:
ReplyDeleteI went out with some friends last night and had too many drinks. Knowing that I was way over the limit, I did something that I have never done before.
I took a bus home.
I arrived home safe and warm, which seemed really surprising as I have never driven a bus before.
The American people know that the Pubs are just as guilty as the Dems when it comes to the housing crisis.
ReplyDeleteOne more fuckup like the Ryan Medicare debacle, and the pubs can kiss their asses goodbye.
:)
ReplyDeleteThat's great, Sam.
As for Romneycare:
ReplyDeleteSupport for the Massachusetts universal health care law has increased since 2009, according to a poll of the state’s residents — even as the law has become the subject of blistering attacks in national and presidential politics, and health care costs soar.
Health law poll results
•PDF Full poll results
The poll by the Harvard School of Public Health and The Boston Globe found that 63 percent of Massachusetts residents support the 2006 health law, up 10 percentage points in the past two years. Just 21 percent said they were against the law.
3 : 1
3 to 1 Support?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to find a law, Anywhere, that gets better than 3 to 1 Support.
Oh, and it's increased their State Budget by a whopping One Percent.
For now, at least, America’s relationship with Pakistan keeps getting tripped up. When he visited Pakistan, Mr. Panetta offered evidence of collusion between Pakistani security officials and the militants staging attacks in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteAmerican officials said Mr. Panetta presented satellite photographs of two bomb-making factories that American spies several weeks ago had asked the ISI to raid. When Pakistani troops showed up days later, the militants were gone, causing American officials to question whether the militants had been warned by someone on the Pakistani side.
Shortly after the failed raids, the Defense Department put a hold on a $300 million payment reimbursing Pakistan for the cost of deploying more than 100,000 troops along the border with Afghanistan, two officials said. The Pentagon declined to comment on the payment, except to say it was “continuing to process several claims.”
Bin Laden Raid
In western Libya, Khadafy's troops were bombarding opposition forces controlling a key border crossing with Tunisia, according to Omar Hussein, a spokesman for rebels in the western Nafusa mountains.
ReplyDeleteHe said government forces were targeting rebels holding the road that leads toward the Dehiba border crossing. Dehiba is a key supply point for the rebels who wrested control of a string of Nafusa mountain towns from Khadafy's forces earlier this month.
NATO, meanwhile, reported it had carried out 62 airstrikes on Libya Monday, hitting military targets in Tripoli and four other cities in Khadafy controlled territory. The alliance has considerably stepped up the pace of air attacks over tjhe past several days.