Pretty amusing:
PASSAIC, NJ (Rooters)
by John Cole| 18 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
Pretty amusing:
PASSAIC, NJ (Rooters)
by John Cole| 46 Comments
This post is in: Politics
Via Sullivan, a link to SCOTUS precedents that may be at risk, and Matt Yglesias is right– there are a lot of economic issues that are being overshadowed by the social issues.
The usual supects on both sides of the aisle are going to focus on a few issues, however, chief among them abortion. The Kossacks are already manning the battle stations, petitions are being signed, and Peope for the American Way’s Save the Court website is taking volunteers.
Meanwhile, the folks at Confirm Them are also working themselves into quite the lather, and the hysterics about Alberto Gonzalez have reached a fevered pitch as we are exhorted to ‘STOP GONZALEZ NOW!’ So much for the notion of the President being allowed to choose the nominee.
At any rate, I have to admit to finding the Democratic response a little amusing. They can sign 92 billion petitions, get a million volunteers to form a human wall around the Supreme Court, and the simple fact of the matter is it just does not matter what they think or what they want. Elections mean things, and the Democrats are the minority party. Their only recourse is the filibuster, should they find a nominee objectionable.
So thus, the real participants in this debate are not the Democrats- ignore them. They can do what they want to try to shift the balance, but the real power brokers are the seven Republicans who approved of the recent compromise. This is, for the most part, a debate that will happen inside the Republican party. Sure, it would be all puppies and hugs and rainbows if Bush selected a nominee that 100 Senators could support, but that person does not exist. This is a debate between the conservative hardliners and the moderate wing of the party, and the real key is to peel off enough of the moderates to break the filibuster. If Bush selects a nominee that is acceptable to them, it matters not a whit what the Democrats think, and John McCain’s statement this morning should be a sign of what is to come in the form of a nominee:
Another conservative Republican, Senator John McCain, who is from Justice O
by John Cole| 52 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
Look- Operation Yellow Elephant is, in my esitmation, nothing more than a variation of a dishonest ‘chickenhawk’ meme. That doesn’t mean I didn’t and don’t see the humor in it all, however. It is, any way I look at it, funny. The chickenhawk stuff, a little less so. At any rate, it sure is pissing some people off, and as usual, people on both sides of the issue are going apeshit and Young Republicans are geting emails like this:
“Why do you hate Ameirca? I served when my country needed me. Are you saying you are better than I? What am I misunderstanding here? Or are you just plain YELLOW? I am curious, YELLOW.”
The obvious response to this is to state the following:
So what? I know, I know. These people are just pissed off that President Bush won reelection. There were mad that he was elected in the first place and now having nothing new and no educated position to attack from, they just simply make an attempt to create a controversy. But these people are not new. When was the last time I received a comment on this blog challenging President Bush’s proposal for reforming Social Security? Never. How come these hippies refuse to send me a statement about why they support the Democrat proposal for reforming Social Security. (Most likely because the Democrats still don’t have a plan!) The same goes for every other major issue of national policy. All they have is no-Bush. And they lost that vote…TWICE ALREADY. And they aren’t stopping….just wait until 2006 when there will be another round of Republican victories. These hippies will stop smoking pot for about 30 seconds, scratch themselves, and wonder why they keep loosing elections year after year.
Leftist hippies are the real threat to America – these “domestic terrorists” wish to destroy our country. They hope to remove everything we stand for. They strive the adoption of French as our national language and the forced conversion of the country to Islam.
Something is terribly awry when I start to look like a voice of reason in a debate. At any rate, Jon Henke has more on the chickenhawk silliness.
by John Cole| 10 Comments
This post is in: Military
Cross your fingers:
A small team of U.S. soldiers was missing Friday in the same mountains in eastern Afghanistan where a special forces helicopter was shot down earlier this week, and U.S. forces are using ”every available asset” to find them, a U.S. military spokesman said.
The MH-47 Chinook helicopter — with 16 people on board who all died in the crash — had gone into the mountains Tuesday to extract the soldiers who are now missing. The team on the ground has been unaccounted for since the chopper was downed, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara said.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Mullah Latif Hakimi, meanwhile, claimed the rebels had captured a U.S. soldier in the area, near the town of Asadabad, close to the Pakistani border.
”One high-ranking American has been captured in fighting in the same area as the helicopter went down,” he told The Associated Press. ”I won’t give you any more details now.”
Reacting to the claim, O’Hara said, ”We have no proof or evidence indicating anything other than the soldiers are missing.”
Hakimi, who also claimed that the insurgents shot down the helicopter, often calls news organizations to take responsibility for attacks, often with information that proves exaggerated or untrue. His exact tie to the Taliban leadership is not clear.
O’Hara said U.S. forces were using ”every available asset” to search for the missing troops. ”Until we find our guys, they are still listed as unaccounted for and everything we got in that area is oriented on finding the missing men,” he said.
The loss of the 16 troops on the chopper was the deadliest single blow to American forces who ousted the Taliban in 2001 for harboring al-Qaida and are now fighting an escalating insurgency. The bodies of the 16 have been recovered and troops Friday were trying to identify the remains, the military said.
Not sounding good, and the Pentagon has been real hesitant releasing information on this one.
*** Update ***
There are indications a small special operations team of U.S. soldiers
by John Cole| 34 Comments
This post is in: Politics
Red State scoops ’em all. Project Nothing has the round-up of reactions.
This is going to be one ugly confirmation battle.
*** Update ***
And the base is already saber-rattling, should Gonzalez be nominated.
by John Cole| 10 Comments
This post is in: War
It appears that Baghdad is becoming safe enough for more foreign embassies to re-open. Well… safe enough for the Syrians:
Syria plans to reopen soon its embassy in Baghdad for the first time since Damascus sided with Iran in its 1980-88 war with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Iraq’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Syria also pledged to stem the flow of foreign guerrillas into Iraq and said it had already stopped 70,000 of them, it said.
Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hamed al-Bayati said he had met a security and diplomatic delegation over the past two days — the first such high-level Syrian visit since U.S. troops toppled Saddam in 2003. He said the delegation included Syria’s future ambassador to Iraq, Mohammed Sayed al-Bunni.
“We discussed bilateral diplomatic relations and they expressed their interest in sending an ambassador as soon as possible,” Bayati told Reuters.
Woo, boy. Nothing like the stabilizing presence of Syria to help the cause.
“They said that they are looking for a secure site for the embassy. Once they find it they could send an ambassador within a week.”
I have an idea. Why don’t you ask the insurgents streaming across your borders what they plan on blowing up, and then don’t put your embassy anywhere near those locations. On second thought, put it close to those locations.
Bayati said that the Syrian delegation had also pledged help in securing the borders which Baghdad and Washington say foreign fighters are crossing to wage attacks in Iraq alongside indigenous Sunni Arab insurgents.
Gee. Thanks. Not that this administration has any room to talk when it comes to porous borders.
This post is in: Humorous