blzrul

Note the use of the word "supposedly" in the post. So you think Russia should join in with those powerhouses like Cameroon and send troops to Iraq? Why? There's no evidence that the plot originated in Iraq. My intelligence sources are about as good as yours. Maybe better - I've never seen your name coupled with the word "intelligence" anywhere on this board.

Well they can either blow Chechnya off the face of the earth or just let them go. Pull their troops out and let all the groups fight each other until they wipe each other out. Sending troops to Iraq would make no sense whatsoever. It was Chechnyan separatists, supposedly, not Al Qaeda or any of the other groups now congregating in Iraq courtesy of Operation Enduring Quagmire. Sending troops to Iraq for something that a totally unrelated groiup did is about as stupid as what Bush did. Putin is many things but stupid is not high on the list.

DirecTV customers who religiously pay their bills for all the services they enjoy are footing the bill for your free football games. They have to pay $120+ a year to get them. The fact that you got the access through an insider just means he's part of the crime as well. There's no difference between what you're doing and colluding with a store clerk to get $50 in change back for a $10 bill, or to look the other way while you steal an occasional six-pack. It's still a crime and the costs are passed along to your fellow Americans.

Operation Truth is a Veterans' group established by veterans of Desert Storm / Enduring Freedom and Enduring Quagmire. Its advisory board is vet-studded and includes Jesse Ventura. The blogs there are interesting. It's a chance to hear from some soldiers who are there as well as those who have served there. It is a nonpartisan organization; you can read about its mission on the site. I suppose that to the extent that the material on this site is irritating or puts one candidate or another in a poor light, it will be dismissed, but that would be a disservice to the men and women who have served and are serving, since they are the source of the information. In any event there are so many people on this board who claim to care for our troops a great deal, I thought this site might be of interest.

Like the big gas guzzling limos your boy rides around in, in his two-mile long motorcades? Or the big guzzling pickup truck he rides around in while he's vacationing on his farm? I suppose you drive a VW beetle? Nothing is too petty for you to gripe about is it?

You could read the report where it describes how they make the determination. I don't make it, the goverment does. If you don't like it, write a letter to the government, explaining your credentials in the area and offer something better. Until then, it is what it is. I expect that a number of people who aren't actively looking are doing odd jobs and other stuff "under the table", living with relatives, babysitting, whatever.

Time is left? Could have fooled me. I don't read it. I wasn't bashing it. It is what it is. By this time it's old anyway.

Well here's an easy way to settle the argument, just go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site and you can read all about it. You can see the statistics and what they mean. If you do, you'll be able to see the number of people who are unemployed, the number of people who are not looking any more and other groupings. Of interest is the increase of long-term unemployed. That number is rising and is up over the previous August 2003 high. For those who are working, a recent $.05 per hour increase in pay is probably welcome news. Anyway read it for yourselves and draw your own conclusions. Unless you prefer to have the media digest and regurgitate it for you, telling you what to "think".

Time-Warner AOL is the name of the company now. Only here will you see any whoop de doo about the Time "poll". You read the fine print and disclaimers and see why. Even the GOP was saying at the time they didn't expect a bounce, the race is too tight. Generally the Zogby poll is on target. As I recall it was pretty much on for the 2000 election too.

Your manliness makes me weak in the knees.

Interesting take on Miller's speech by Mccain: it could come back to haunt Bush, says McCain. link You need to log in to get to the story. It's the Chicago Tribune but no doubt will be picked up elsewhere. McCain continues to mystify me. Kerry is one of McCain's best friends, his own party treats him like crap and he takes it. Perhaps they have something on him from those Keating 5 days, who knows. It's a shame, I think McCain is a man of integrity otherwise and would be happy to vote for him for President.

I was put in mind of Spiro Agnew.

Bush is always on vacation so the fact that he took another one during the Dem convention was purely a coincidence.

My cousin's retired NYPD. And I have for years used "Fleborkistan", "Flaboozlestan" and any other "stan" that comes to mind. So if you were trying to insult me it didn't work, I wasn't insulted, only mildly amused. I suppose YOU should be frightened that we'd have similar thought patterns, remote tho they are!

Thanks for the link. I see that it was ONE protestor attacking ONE officer. When I read the initial topic it gave me the impression that a gang of protestors beat the guy up. But that's not what happened. One a-hole is all it takes I suppose but painting millions of people nutso because of this one guy is like...like...painting an entire country with a bullseye because you don't like their leader or their religion or their lifestyle. Of course it's still bad but this article says he's not injured badly which is good and I am grateful for that. But let's try not to be so divisive eh? Things are bad enough already.

I'm sorry to hear that a police officer was hurt - I haven't seen it in the press nor heard it on the radio but perhaps I will this evening. Regarding all the bitching about why we have lousy candidates to choose from: go read any number of threads on this board. When people stop judging qualifications based on how people look, what their kids do, whether they flubbed a question and other superficialities, then perhaps we'll get something more than a person with ambition and a thick skin. Adapting a metaphor I've used before: If Mother Theresa ran for president, would we be reading about her wrinkles, funny accent and crooked back and making jokes about her vow of celibacy? Probably. So don't complain when good people don't run.

So explain to me how a "minority" such as liberals could have such an effect? Particularly in a conservative state like TX? My kid was a product of TX schools and is now enrolled in a northern school in a blue state where ... surprise ... she's a year or more BEHIND. And she was in one of the "best' school districts in the state. I guess the difference is that there all the funding went to football and here it goes go academics, with the students, parents and community working together to raise money for football and other sports. So the students have both sports AND a decent education.

I saw the 9/11 thing and heard Hillary booed as was Richard Gere. If someone missed that then stop watching sanitized TV and catch in live.

No flip-flop here. Merely the tried-and-true Bush - Rove tactic called LOWERING THE BAR. Make the bar so low that any small success enables him to claim victory. It worked great in TX schools. Test scores too low? Simple answer, dumb down the tests and lower the passing scores and VOILA! Instant geniuses (until the SAT comes along).

According to two different articles the Bush girls were booed too. They appeared in video so of course they didn't have to keep smiling through the boos. It was also stated that it wasn't clear exactly WHO was being booed at or why. But, whatever floats your boat. Just remember when you kid comes home in tears that someone picked on him/her because you are an idiot, that you laughed when it happened to someone else's kids.

Well, the largest protest EVER at a political convention, according to the NY Times, and it was peaceful. Dear me, how disappointed some people must be. C-SPAN covered it live. The only thing I caught was that one of the floats caught fire. The police and FD reacted immediately and stopped the procession. The protesters waited peacefully against the barricades until the fire was extinguished and the carcass of the float moved. The barricades opened and the crowd cheered and moved on. I don't know how long they waited, maybe 20 minutes or more. Pretty impressive. The said the procession started around noon EST, I had it on around noon PST and it was still going. Black, white, Asian, Arab, Jew, young, old and in between. I am sure of course that the 5-6 hardass righties on this board will come out with some nasty comment about them all. But I have to wonder what it is that all those people know? And why is it that the right couldn't summon up more than Lyndon Larouche's buddies to protest Kerry?

I voted for him for Governer ... and lived to regret it. I probably knew a whole lot more about him at the time than many of the people who voted for him. He won TX, of course, but not by huge margins, I think it was something like 55 - 43 with Nader getting a small percentage.

Now THERE is an important basis for choosing a President. Not examining records or anything. Gore's sighing WAS exasperating and annoying and I was disgusted and embarrassed for him. But I certainly didn't base my vote on that any more than I would have Bush's folksy style (as I said at the time, he's gonna aw-shucks his way right to the White House and people are going to be sorry they fell for it).

Actually Kerry DID condemn the Moveon.org ad. The issue is this: by law NEITHER campaign is supposed to have any control over what 527s or PACs do. So the campaign can't approach a PAC and steer their activities. That's the way it works. The groups do what they want. Supposedly. When Moveon's ad came out Kerry acted SWIFTLY to condemn it. Bush condemned NOTHING about the Swift Boat Thugs for Bush, although people from his own party requested he do so. If pressed he'd say "well I said before Kerry served admirably" but he didn't call on the group to cease and desist. After all it was getting all sorts of press. So Bush ignored those calls and the Kerry campaign filed suit after learning that Bush operatives had been involved. The issue wasn't the funding, everyone knew it was funded by a big Bush supporter in TX, and the Kerry camp was ok with letting people draw their own conclusions about that one. But when it came out that, in violation of McCain-Feingold, Bush people were advising the group, suddenly 527's are bad, real bad. And Bush has filed suit to eliminate them. Even though HE signed McCain-Feingold, did he not? I guess he didn't read it, or else he didn't dream the liberal groups would out-raise him by bazillions. Personally I don't like that they spend money on negative ads. I think there are far more effective ways of getting the truth out - just by stating the facts, for example. But I don't have any say over what they do either. Regarding the Michael Moore thing, it's a movie. Kerry's not a movie critic. If anyone bothered to make a pro-Bush movie would you expect him to say anything about that? What about all those anti-Bush books? Should Kerry make a sweeping announcement that any writer, pundit, talking head, film maker etc. should NEVER say anything bad about Bush. You'd probably like that but there's still a first amendment in place. I understand the right is upset because all they ever get for celebrity support are pretty much washed-up has-beens, but that's life. Broaden your appeal and you'll broaden your base.

I don't see anywhere where anyone said most VA hospitals suck, but many of them are old, unquestionably. And they're probably not as fully staffed or equipped as conscientious health care providers would like. In the case of the soldier in question, apparently he's finding it difficult to get the treatment he needs through the VA hospitals. It could be that either they cannot provide the service, or that he cannot use the service due to where he lives or his personal experience with that particular institution. I am sure that there are plenty of caring individuals who work at VA hospitals and that many veterans are satisfied with their services.