Space Ghost - in case you haven't been paying attention, basso has a continous, repeated pattern of blasting people who disagree with him as communist traitors who are trying to bring down the Republic. That kind of vile McCarthyist bullsh-t is an embarrassment. If you can't figure out why, then you're not worth me wasting the time to explain it to you Basso humiliates himself every time he brings it up - it's ironic because he's trying to hide his shame at having been so wrong about the war, but he just compounds it. It's not like it matters of course, though to him it does as he takes BBS posting rather seriously. This statement makes no logical sense, but anyway since you asked, the "heartbeat of America" "being displayed on CNN" - whatever the hell that means -- I'm pretty sure does not advocate classical Marxism, Marxist-Leninism - or any other variant economic and political philosophies that we traditionally associate with "communism" so in conclusion you're wrong. No, taking away freedom of speech is trying to shame anybody who disagrees with you with the disgraceful tactic of claiming that they are unamerican. That tactic in and of itself is un-american. That's why basso should leave the country if being unable to use it bothers him so much. Explain that to your buddy basso. Explain that to your buddy basso, except take out the communism part because you don't understand what it is. Well I wonder who the corporate controlled media sides with...
too much dissent does undermine things. that said, it does not mean the Executive branch has a blank check to do whatever the hell they want. if they dont want too much dissent, maybe they ought to stop inviting it with their actions.
Why does everyone think this war was poorly planned and poorly executed? Either we the people are stupid or the government (Both sides of the aisle) is stupid. They aren't stupid, they are a little deceived and greatly controlled. How many of you were in on the initial planning of the invasion and know for certain when the planning actually began? (you might be surprised). How many of you really know for certain what the real motives and objectives of the invasion were? How many know for certain that the actual motives and objectives are known to this date? I would bet (if I bet) all I have that we are acheiving the exact objectives we set out to acheive and nothing is going to change regardless of who is president until mission is accomplished. Do you believe Bush and his cabel are stupid and act irrational? (the people who pull his strings aren't that way). If it happens it happens with a purpose and an objective. These things aren't mistakes, mishandling and misguided. I am quite sure the military bases we are building in this region, the control we have in Alfganistan, corporate oil and gas issues, and the opium crops were all factored into these decisions long before Sept. 11, 2001. We Americans have become morons- We think we are bumbling around Iraq without a plan or purpose. We are hypnotized by the so called rhetoric between the political parties, all the while making bankers filthier and richer, companies like KBR and Halliburton and others filthier and richer; and securing a strong US military presence within direct striking distance of most of the known world oil and gas supplies. We have secured the Caspian Basin, and we will dictate the future of oil based economy. At least as long as our military is as strong as it is. It is time to quit worrying over the war. Politics won't change a thing until the mission is accomplished. Once the Democrats are in office they will come up with the exit plan that reinforces our objectives. We will leave a very strong military presence. Then the Democrats will turn to their part of the chess game which is to borrow more money from the Banking Mafia to further socialize federal control over our lives. Over the last few administrations apparently when the power brokers want foreign policy objectives they typically use a republican president. When they want domestic policy objectives they typically use a democratic president. My guess is the next president will definately be a democrat. So start campaigning.
good post dude. this war is going exactly the way those in power want it to go. as bad as it is, this didnt happen due to incompetence. the people running this country would not be running it if they were as incompetent as it appears. i just finished crossing the rubicon last week too.
One big threat to our voice is the use of electronic voting machines so that the elections are better controlled. Here is one link to study, there are some good websites on this and some that aren't so good, but we all need to educate ourselves to the dangers of vote fraud; it is a growing and big problem. This is crucial to our future freedom. Because the political parties are controlled don't expect there to be any voting reforms. Voting
Awesome book, I don't know if you are aware that shortly after the release of the book the author was continually robbed, harrassed and his business wrecked. He left the country, where he was poisoned and is now dying. (I am going to try to update this) OK- according to his website he is in Canada recovering. They haven't verified if it was poisoning. Tragic.
There is no reason not to hand count votes by citizens. I hate the electronic vote machine deal. We shouldn't let them stuff that one on us.
Because it was - even the people who planned and executed it have admitted this to an extent. The short answer to your question is within the first few weeks of his inauguration - there was an NSC briefing on "Plans for a Postwar Iraq" in February of 2001, I've seen the documentation (and posted it here). There is a rather extensive body of reportage and documentation on pre-war planning, mostly in books like Cobra II,Fiasco, Woodward's various books, James Fallows' articles in the Atlantic Monthly, John Lee Anderson's New Yorker articles, and countless pieces from the NYT, WSJ, Washington Post, etc. It is not as big a secret as you make it out to be.
Sam you do know that rhester is alluding to something else entirely right? It's probably a position that you even might agree with if rhester said it more clearly rather than just hint at it lol
Yeah I know he has some weird libertarian conspiracy thing going but I don't agree with that as a general rule. While I agree that a pleasant side effect of incompetence on behalf of the administration is to take care of its friends (and not only does the price of oil benefit the admin's friends, but it benefits enemies like Ahmedinijibad and Chavez, which allows them to play off each other for domestic gain) - I don't believe it's deliberate.
please, who is advocating taking away your freedom of speech? exercising that right does not carry with it an immunity to criticism, otherwise you'd be guilty of exactly the behavior you try to pin on others...oh, wait... in short, speech is not w/o consequences. so you may try to tell yourself that you're just exercising your noble "inalienable" right, but don't delude yourself that your actions in this case are just words, and w/o consequence for the men and women in the field for whom you profess to care so much about.
There is not alot of difference between a plot and a plan is there? I wouldn't call it a 'conspiracy' at this point since it really isn't all too secretive. You guess, now I'll guess- An original goal to control the oil, gas and drugs in this region may or may not have included invasion. The strategy of invasion was developed because of favorable conditions that met the original goals. My guess is we invaded to- 1. Protect the Saudi Oil reserves on the Eastern edge of Saudi Arabia (most all their oil is on the Iraqi border where our bases are being built). 2. Secure the newly available oil rich areas of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan (and the rest of the Caspian basin). 3. Establish military bases in the region in face of competition with Europe and China for increased petroleum demands and to secure pipeline routes critical to US exports. 4. Stop Suddam and others from trading oil in anything except US dollars. The switch to Euros would be crushing to our economy. There were some others but I'll stop there. Now whether these were the plans or not, this is WHAT HAS HAPPENED, and it has been executed perfectly IMHO. Read Crossing the Rubicon by Michael Ruppert, there is alot of data, some good old fashion conspiracy stuff that you can ignore, it is the DATA that is important. Everything is footnoted (about 900 footnotes) . I spent time in the footnotes before I formed any opinions.
Basso, there is a difference in kind between disagreeing with somebody's opinion on its merits and then calling everybody who disagrees with you a fellow traveler traitor who supports the terrorists. That sort of thing is tantamount to suppression of speech and has historically been treated as such. YOu know this full well so I don't have to waste my time explaining it to you any further. And LOL here's basso supporting the troops again, basso sorry, how many times have you tried to mathematically minimize dead and maimed soldiers this week? Yes, basso cares....he cares a lot....
basso, how did I know you stumbled across that r****ded factoid at some place like Instapundit. In any case, linking to a discussion on a blog where the "analysts" are making errors like placing the invasion of Grenada in 2003 tells us all we need to know about the credibility of the analysis.
This is way off topic, but I have a hypothesis about this. I think that there has been a concerted effort by major international bankers to devalue the dollar, pump up the Euro, and hope that the US converts to the Euro (call it WTO Dollars or whatever). The US economy has been much stronger than the EU economy. The US deficit is worse than the EU's (aggregate), but not significantly so. It would make better economic sense to invest in dollars (best to invest in Canadian Dollars), but international players are converting many investments to Euros. If they can continue to devalue the dollar and pump up the Euro, international business will convert significantly over to the Euro. US businesses would pressure the government to convert to the Euro (sure to be renamed). The UK and Japan would follow right in the US's footsteps. I fully admit that this is pure speculation, but it wouldn't suprise me, and it explains the actions of international investors better than anything else I've heard.
Sishir, I'm aware there are peace time military deaths due to accidents and just the general mortality rate for any large # of people. However, I know it is complete bs to claim that 3,000 additional deaths on top of the base line death rate due to accidents and illness over a period of five years is going to be "statistically indistinguishable " from any five year period when there were not anything close to 3,000 combat deaths. However, basso has linked to a couple of pajamanalysts who are certain this is so. Maybe, I need to rethink the whole thing.
I could see this or some other type of currency adjustment. If oil is pegged to the Euro the cost of oil will sky rocket here. If China pegs its currency to the Euro- look out These two phenoms alone have kept us from paying the full impact of our inflation debt. You raise a very bad scenario.
