EagleTribune.com : Blogs : The Soapbox

Mr. Amerding,
As usual, you have hit the nail on the head.

Come on Jim and Taylor,

That column is beyond disingenuous. Both parties engage in such hyperbole and grotesque appeals to faux patriotism.
I find it equally offensive either way.
This country is in serious trouble, domestically and internationally.
And I'm not sure it really matters all that much who becomes president next January.
I suppose that's why I'm headed back to the rainforest. At least there I know who the real snakes are.
Happy Labor Day!

Taylor, you are SO mean spirited....LOL
Free speech and diversity for all...yeah, right....
Just ask Stanley Kurtz and the AIP (American Issues Project) just how much the Democratic party embrace diversity and free speech when it disagrees with their skewed, socialist democratic ideals....

Michael, take care in the rain forest! A little off topic here, but a former coworker of mine used to travel to Ecuador several times a year to visit family, and he brought me back some great Tagua nut carvings...Everyone who visits my home is fascinated by them. They are great conversation pieces....

Happy Labor Day to all!

Taylor, my friend, you always accuse the Democrats of being all about themselves and it's such crap.
One reason I'm an independent is because both parties have a tendency to tell you it's their way or the highway. The Republicans are especially guilty of this by suggesting people who disagree with Bush's Iraq policy are unpatriotic.
Of course the out-of-power party is going to use words like "take our country back." The Republicans talked like that in 1994 (during the midterms) 1996 and 2000.
Personally, I'm undecided as to who I'll vote for. Obama and McCain are both men of honor. My decision will be based on who appears most likely to govern from the center.

Mr Brenner, I'm pleased to know that you are not a democrat. You certainly talk like one.

Well, I do think Republicans resort to the us vs. them talk as much as the Democrats do. Republicans call Democrats elitist, and then proceed to preach the virtues of conservatism in an elitist, snobbish tone. I do vote for Republicans when the candidate inspires me. I liked Bill Weld and Paul Cellucci and I think Beacon Hill is too heavily blue and unbalanced.

On the national level, I think the Bush policies have been a disaster, with record deficits and a foreign policy based on Texas swagger instead of reason.

I would certainly never ask George Bush for help in managing my budget. I think someone swiped his veto pen.
On the other hand, which does Putin and the mad Iranian understand better, Reason or Texas swagger. Think before you answer of Hitler, Hirohito, Kruschev, Castro, etc.

Well, we agree on Bush's budget mishandling, which shows we can all find common ground. As for the Texas swagger, I'm not so sure it has made us a stronger nation. Yes, we need to be tough, but we also need to approach things in a more diplomatic and pragmatic way, like Bush's father did.

The thousands points of light and the global economy have done absolutely nothing for us.
Approach things in a diplomatic and pragmatic way, like not finishing the job in Iraq so that it left it up to a stonger President to do it?
Diplomacy is external politicking pure and simple and nobody wins. Its a feel good tactic that wins friends like France and hurts better friends like Israel.
What we need is a healthy dose of increased defense spending when we can afford it again.

To Mike Cook and Bill Brenner:

Gentlemen: Let us remember the main course of this blog. Hate Speech.....Let us remember the words of the liberal media "General Betray Us!" Is this the American Way? Do we tell those who defend this nation that they BETRAY US? I am at a loss for words for Mr. Cook and Mr. Brenner. Again, I ask of Mr. Cook and Mr. Brenner...when did you put on the uniform of the greatest nation on earth? When did you sacrifice for this nation that you love so dearly? Or is it your sole purpose to tell the American people we are stupid?

Unfortunately, the democrat party has been hijacked by the left wing extremists, in my view. Many of my friends are democrats, and they in no way agree or defend the views of the democratic party as it is today. My mom is a life-long democrat, ex-60's flower child, and even she believes the party has left their base.
I think many moderate democrats are afraid to speak out, for fear of being branded a "republican". Not that being a republican is a bad thing!
I do find it interesting that the party who claims to represent free speech only will defend said speech if it is line with their own views, however.
As evidenced above, Jim and Bill can find a common ground. For those of you who have followed these posts, you know I am definitely a conservative, and yet Michael Cook and I have also managed to agree on some points.
The hate speech and name calling does nothing to further ones cause. By resorting to childish, ignorant rants both parties will lose the people who they need the most, the loyal base.
OT, what does everyone think of Sarah Palin? I haven't looked into her record as Governor as of yet. On a personal level, I thought her speech on Friday was very moving and heartfelt. She gave a good shout out to Mrs. Clinton. Even though I despise anything associated with either of those two individuals, it was a very gracious and classy thing to do.

Mr. Delaney, as liberal a Democrat as I am, perhaps because of that, I probably found MoveOn.org's play on General David Petraeus's name more offensive than you did.

Such disrespect for the brave men and women who volunteer to serve in our dangerously over extended military is beyond the pale.

Unlike many of my fellow liberals, whose hatred for bonny Prince George is almost as pathological as the hatred of the Clintons on the born again, neo-con right, I supported his nibs when he launched military action against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan after 9-11.

I believed then, and I believe now, that no sitting American president, regardless of party, would have, or should have, done anything else.

What I've never understood, well, actually I do, is why the chicken hawk Bushies dropped the ball in Afghanistan to pursue, to paraphrase the late historian Barbara Tuchman, their "march of folly" into Iraq.

Think about. We quickly drove the evil Taliban from power.

In late 2002, early 2003, we had Osama bin Laden cornered in Torah Borah but, for whatever the reason, he was allowed to escape.

Since then, the Taliban, and its enablers, have become resurgent. They threaten stability in not only Afghanistan but Pakistan, a nation that possesses nuclear weapons.

Shortly before he left office, Donald Rumsfeld ordered a select group of special forces to "stand down" when they, once again, had Osama bin Laden sqarely in their sights.

Why? Because if the special forces had killed or captured the pig while he was on Palestinian soil, it would have complicated the Bush administration's relationship with the now discredited former president of Pakistan.

Now, how does all that jive with our bonny prince's claims that he would chase Osama bin Laden to the ends of the earth and into the hole in which he he hides, the same way his nibs does when he and his Scottish Terriers, Barney and Mrs. Beasley, run armadillos to ground on the ranch down in East Armpit, Texas?

I don't know what the election will bring.

But I do know I feel great empathy for all you right wingers who just can't admit what a huge bill of goods you got sold by this most corrupt and incompetent of adminkistrations over these last eight years.

We are all, liberals or conservatives, going to paying for the clean up of this mess, both domestically and internationaly, in ways I don't think most Americans understand yet.

I meant Pakistani, not Palestinian soil. Sorry

How many people knew about the following tiding of good news????

U.S. Military Returns Control of Anbar Province to Iraqis

BAGHDAD-American forces on Monday handed over security responsibility to the Iraqis in a province that the U.S. once feared was lost — a sign of the stunning reversal of fortunes since local Sunnis turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.

Anbar became the 11th province to revert to Iraqi security control, but it is the most significant because it borders Baghdad. The others have been in the peaceful Kurdish north or in the heavily Shiite south, which has proven less difficult for the Shiite-led government to control.

Full link to story here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,414364,00.html

Geography question for y’all: Can anyone tell me where Fallujah is??? Oh, wait a minute, I know, it’s in the Anbar province!!!! You know, the province that the democrats said we would never be able to contain?

The day Fox News aired this story, saluting our military and crediting them with a job well done, the New York Times ran 3 stories ripping Sarah Palin apart, with NO mention of the achievements of our troops in Anbar.
Good news in Iraq is bad news for the democrats and the main stream media who sit so firmly in the back pockets of the lunatic left.

My point is anyone who fully believes the mainstream media in any of their reporting is simply deluding themselves. I know I need not remind rational, intelligent individuals of this, but I get so sick and tired of the whole “it’s Bush and his cronies” fault rant.

While I disagree with many of the things the President has done or has failed to do, I do expect credit to be given where credit is due. The fact that the liberals are unable to do so frosts my cupcakes to no end!!!

/rant over/

bilge rat, you are absolutely right. There is good news to report from some quarters in Itaq.
But for conservatives to chalk it up solely to the "surge" is beyond disingenuous, it's down right dishonest.
One of the bigger reasons we've had such success in reeling in the militias, especially the Sunni militias, is because we've put many of the guys who once fought for al Qaeda in Mesopotamia on the US payroll.
Members of the "Awakening", a Sunni faction that once backed al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, came in out of the cold not because the "success" of the surge had forced them to recognize the futility of their effort. What brought them in out of the cold, and away from al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, was the 300 bucks a month in hard cold American currency the Bushies are paying them to do so.
And now, the Shia led central government is issuing arrest warrants for the US taxpayer paid leaders of the Awakening, who once fought with al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and charging them with war crimes and God knows what else.
All out civil war is still just around the corner in Iraq, the only question now is, "Do American troops now stand a better chance of not being caught in the crossfire?"
I sure as hell hope and pray the answer is yes.
Um, can we say pyrrhic(sp?) victory here?

Blidge rat, check your sources or maybe read the paper, the NY Times' DEXTER FILKINS reported this on Monday the same day as the Associated Press' report that fox news lifted was reported.

As Mike Cook said above this is a pyrhicc victory, nothing has changed in Iraq or its neighborhood, its quiter now and that is a result of the surge (koodos to Bush?) but the question remains as it has always been "What happens when the troops come out".

A excalmation of Mission Accomplished maybe premature.

BTW, it is Bush and his cronies fault

MR. Cook and Mr. (or MS.) Ostrich:
You people have no shame, now you're trying to write history before it becomes history.
As for the New York Times publishing this in a timely manner or before page 99. hell has frozen over .
It is very sad that CBS, NBC and ABC News Divisions are now part of the Entertainment arm of the respective networks .
This campaign and the medias insatiable love for Obama has resulted in a new low point of journalism or what was once journalism.

Mr. Carlson, get a grip.
I used to enjoy bantering with you. But you have lost all touch with current political and strategic reality.
The Bushies put out a bill of goods about Iraq, post 9-11, that you and so many others stupidly fell for hook line and sinker.
You have my deepest sympathies, sir. ir must be reall difficult to admit you were played for a fool.

thank God i've lost touch

Jim, I don't follow your reasoning about writing history. Let me clarify my point, to paraphrase I believe Yogi, the Fat Lady has not even got on the stage yet. Nomatter how well the surge worked (or how quite the region is) the true test of its effectivness is what will happen when we pull out, as it has always been. Can you agree with that? Shame, not about his issue.

I believe they have copy of the NY Times at the Salem library, you should check it out, or online, its free.

You are right about the networks, I haven't got my news from them in years and I stopped expecting to, my advice, turn off the TV and pick up a newspaper, I don't think the Hearld is infatuated with Obama, but you will need to get past their coverage of the Palin controversy to get to any real news (see the front page from Tuesday?)

Interesting post. I have stumbled this for my friends. Hope others find it as interesting as I did.