I saw the shiftboat video on then Capt Kerry. I beg to disagree. In it, they showed him turning his boat from a fight and then later returning. He did pick up wounded and some in the water. But he did not engage in the fight.....if I what remember of the video correctly. Not much defense there....so many we are getting info from two different swiftboat groups.....or maybe there are two different John Kerrys.
As for blanket a calling of Republicans as loons. Well can we then use a blanket association of Democracts....as being like Rev Wright? It does not taste good nor is such a blanket covering for either party fair.
I said I did not know if it was true or not. If Rev Wright was discussing John McCain or Presidant Bush, do you think that he would place that cavet on such? That is part of the difference between a honest man and dishonest man, in my opinion. The honest man will tell you he is working with unsubstantiated info. The dishonest man will not.
By the way, you made an error......the Vet Nam war was did not kill 'billions'...see how easy they can be made? Maybe that is why John McCain let George Bush off the hook on his daughter.
Dude is going to like this. Actually I have been to Denmark.....It is a neat country. I took a soccer team on a 30 tour of Europe...Denmark was on the route....in the mid 90s
But Dude is clueless to the problems of a geographically big country like the US compared to the problems of a smaller country,as Denmark. Ethinc diversity to Dude is when a girl from a different Danish town, wears a different color flower in her hair than his own town wears. Just slightly different here in the US.
Dude does not understand that when you have an influx of of 12 million into the country and with another 18 million coming, how it can effect your country. They get a couple of million tourist in Denmark and call it a good year for tourism. We get more illegals here than they get tourist in year's time there.
Dude has a hard time with the American political process. Heck, Americans have a hard time with the American political process. But if we were not calling each other names, we would be out doing worse I suspect.
Dude wants the world have peace so badly he can taste it. That I give him credit for that. The real deal question there is how do you go about it? Most Americans after 9/11 said you cannot have peace when people are flying aircraft into buildings. That the chaos to society and country from such is far to much to have.
Dude would say where is the justification for Iraq war, then? I hope he reads and understands my other post on Hanz Blix and Sadam's wmds. If you don't Dude....do ask. I will try to explain.
Those 'loons' as you put them....are American, served with John Kerry in Vetnam....all had honorable discharges and many had military honors and awards given.
What I heard was that John Kerry wrote himself.....because we was boat commander...and filed the reports.....wounded in action reports....on minor wounds......so that he could be sent home in 90 days and not do the full 1 year tour. That is what I have heard and a little more. Honestly, I don't know if this true.
Comes home...proceeds to join the vet against the war group......which many did....becomes an activist in it with stting with the likes of Jane Fonda.....all the while John McCain was sitting in N. Vet Nam prison. He is lucky John McCain was not leading the Swift boater.
Those loons as you call them have every right to thier opinions, to freedom of speech/press....they presented this without anger or hate. Allowed the American people to decide themselves on John Kerry and his military service to the country. Think that is what we would get from a Rev Wright presentation of John McCAin and his service to the country?
Maybe McCain realized the Bush had a fact wrong...did not want to bring his adopted daughter into the middle of a political debate. So took a high road here and ignored the comment.
McCain is own man.....been battling against various Republican policy and positions for years. Remember his idea for financial reform? Yes, he was going to reform a Republican run gov't.
As for smearing Kerry. Well Senator Kerry was discussed by his fellow service men that served with him in Vet Nam. I suspect that they knew him well. Their comments did not leave him in good light.
If McCain has this intergrity problem that you discuss.....you don't think that a similar group will not emerge to discuss him? None has todate....so maybe that means those that serverd with him...were imprisoned with him.....felt he is a loyal American, dedicated to country.
I don't know all the Kerry's story of his service. The little I have heard...I am less than impressed with if accurate. This is not to discredit it......because the military service is one those kinds of service where often many give to it.....in very small ways....and never get the appreciation or recognition for what they have done. Maybe that was his situation. But also maybe Kerry deserved the smear....and McCain knew that.
You have a copy of the CS rulebook? They did not issue me one.
This is like having my passport history compromised, time to get some CS staff fired. SECRURITY BREACH! SECURITY BREACH! Let us start of a major investigation here........man.........not handing out handbooks to all the CS users.......sound very unfair to me.
Reporters say that McCain enjoys to openly talk to them on issues, questions, politics....whatever. They often will interview him as he walks from Senate meetings......that he 100% candid in his comments. He like the interface and open discussion with them.
He dislikes the 'canned speech'...Obama strength one might say.
I noticed the other day after Obama's race speech....he did not take questions. These were even questions that would have most likely be from his supporters. Interesting yes?
It seems to me that if you have a problem with integrity. The canned speech is the way to go. The open dialoque with reporters seeking a story is best for those with a lot of intregrity. Because they will question you on just about anything and probe you on anything.jmo
Hey don't forget 'Dancing with the Stars'....I bet he can do both at the sametime AND win the Presidency.......nothing like a little song and dance on the campaign trial
search : "Transcript of Blix's U.N. presentation-March 2003"
Ship, Middle weapon deals are seldom straight line. They usually have a number of middle men involved. Sadam and bin Laden did not like each other, that we do agree. But Sadam would not go directly with an offer of WMDs to binLaden. He go to him via these middle men. They had common associations with the following:
The Mushadeen Freedom Fighter of Iran Sadam supported them during the Iran/Iraq conflict.....they most consists of Mushadeen from Afghan and Pakistan (e.g Taliban)
El-Zharcki (wounded in Afghan and medically treated in Iraq) was the first commander of AlQeada of Iraq
The terrorist training site in northern Iraq Sadam gave them a location to train at in his country, they had connections to AlQeada
These are the ones that publically, I have learned of. The coming FBI report on Sadam, binLaden, AlQeada, and Iraq.....I bet will have more connections between them.
The package that bin Laden got might not have Sadam's return address on it. And bin Laden might never know where it originated. But think that he would care? The intel from his camps in Afghan showed they were interested in acquiring chemical and biological weapons. They had tried to develop their own versions of them (the dog experiment video tape).
In the US, they had a common enemy.....eventually they would have hooked up.jmo
I would like to agree with you. That Sadam did not have wmds. But let me quote Hans Blix in his last report to the UN only 10 days prior to the war starting March 19th. In his report he says:
"To date, Iraq has unearthed eight complete bombs. comprising two LIQUID filled intact R-400 bombs and six other complete bombs. Bomb fragments and also found. SAMPLES have been taken." (Highlight mine.)
The only weapon that the R-400 bomb was able to deliver was a chemical / biological agent. It was both a storage system and a delivery system for agents. Missing from Iraq inventory were some 300-400 of these...and some 100-400 tons of chemical and biologic agents.
It does not take a lot of agent to kill a lot of people, specially if the agent is VX or sarin. Several quarts will do the job.
Hans Blix and his group never filed a UN report or other document that what the test results of his samples of these liquids were, that I have been able to find. I am still looking.
Put yourself in President Bush position and the our militaries command position some. Iraq had buried or destoyed these munitions from the Iran war beginning after the first Gulf War. Now in 2003.....they are able to go out and find a site..unearth it..AND have access to the chemical agents inside them. Yes, it was biodegrading with time, but anyone here want to drink 10-20 year old VX or Sarin in his water?
When Hans Blix filed the report with the UN, it confirmed many of the reports that they (US) already had......that Sadam was able to get back his wmds that had been disposed of. That likely kicked up the timeline of the war.....it started only 10 days later.
So why did we not find more wmd?
To relocate a bury site like this on a military base/range of several 1000 squares miles, it takes a very accurate mapping and site recording. Blix said that Sadam ran a very beauractic and detailed gov't. The final Iraqi report on thier weapons to the UN was 12,000 pages long.
My bet is......you will find no mapping or coordinate positions to where this stuff is buried in the 12,000 pages. But obviously to relocate just this one site.....they had those maps and coordinates. They just had not turned them over to Blix or the UN. Later when the war went, the maps were destroyed/hidden.
Blix had a inspection team of only 125 people. He was never going to be able to fully monitor these sites as their excavations occurred. He needed Sadam's people to even tell him where they were. The way the report is written....all in past tense..... indicates that this site was opened prior to his team even getting there. So was it really 8 or was it 18 R-400 there? Blix cannot tell us, by the size of his team and by his reliance on information being provided by Sadam. We were going to be in the dark if the accounting of Sadam wmds was going to be a accurate one.
Washington realized this and is why the war occurred in my opinion. They realized that they needed to keep these sites buried, until complete bi degrading had been accomplished.
Where Hans Blix and his team really fail....... opinion here.....they never told the world what the test results of those samples were. The month prior, C. Powell had made the case at the UN. Now in this report, Blix is taking samples of liquids from recovered R-400 bombs. You don't store soda in a R-400 bomb, you store leathal agents.
Blix knew that war was coming. So why did he not rush the testing of these samples and get the test results into his final UN report? I don't know......but is a great question for him someday to answer. He had all the time from when they were first collected, and another 10 days prior to war. Even after it began to file the test report on the samples. All that was likely to come up in that test report....is guess what...they were chemical agents in Iraq....wmds...and that alone would confirmed C. Powell.
Once his prohibitive views of firearms ownership become known to America’s millions of gun owners, they may well decide that a gun-grabbing Barack Obama promises the kind of “change” that they can’t believe in.
Watch how Sen. Obama takes position on two court cases recently decided here.
The first was a Supreme Court ruling that went against the District of Columbia that passes a very strict hand gun control law. Basically making them illegal in DC. A DC resident brought a hand gun and then took them to court on the issue. The Supreme Court up held his right to bear arms.
The second is little more involved. It involves a shooting case in New York, in which a black man used a hand gun (that was on his night stand) to kill a white teenager on the black man's driveway. The teenager had gotten into a arguement with the black man's son. The black man position is he was defending his son. The white teen boy was unarmed and shot in the face at close range. The black man said it was a unintentional shooting. Their was a criminal court case, where the prosecution wanted a sentence of 20 years. He was convicted of a lesser charge to a term of 2 and half year?......which he is appealing. This case has a lot of anger and passion to it.
But I would like to see what Senator Obama says to both.
Does he feel the DC gun ban law was unconstitutional.....which it clearly was.
and
Does he feel the judgement of the New York court was approriate to the act done in ending the teen's life.
I pulled the 2nd up prior to posting. I quote:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
As I read it, it is 'very opened ended' to the kinds of arms that can kept and bear......even swords (common then) and non firearms weapons could be kept. Legislation since then has excluded wmd and nuclear devices by the way. So there are some limits here. So we are not quiet to that point here in the US.
The black man had a right to keep his weapon on the night stand, he did not have a legal right to kill (murder) someone with it unless it was in defense. That was his case. But how strong case that is.....well is in question.
Also the DC resident had every right constitutionally to own the weapon that he bought.
Sen Obama position on both court cases and on the broader issue of gun control and ownership......can effect his campaign in my opinion.
Coming from Chicago or some other large city where hand gun crime is common, where shootings deaths are high, where guns are often connected to illegal drugs, I can understand his position to controling guns. But the vast middle America, does not have these kinds of problems or to the degree of the big city. His position to control hand guns and other firearms, tells me that he does not understand middle America very well yet.
The reasons that the Noth Korean situation ended with negotiation are many. But these same reasons we did not have with Sadam or Iraq. Let me give you differences:
1) The group of seven was effective in sanctioning North Korea. The north was hurting so badly for food, fuel and other basic items.....they did not have much choice. With the oil of Iraq and the way Sadam was treating the Iraqi people......that was not the same. He would just let them do without.
2) Secondly you are wrong. North Korean missiles even today don't have the range to make the US. They have tested several that 'could' make it, but none successfully. Sadam was a little different. I know you don't buy the wmd story.......but at the time of the invasion.....most of the congress did. Sadam combined with AlQeada was a real threat...actually is today a even threat without Sadam.
3) North Korea had a small number of nucs. But get real......they use one....their country is history with the retaliation. Bombed as one of our Secretary of States once told Musharraf......bombed into the stone age. They were never in a position to win a nuclear arms race. Sadam on the other......did not have to even use wmd....to hurt us. All he had to do was fund AlQeada. Be the money man.
One we had avenues to negotiate with.....the other we don't. As for human rights....and oil reserves......hey what can I say. Both Kim and Sadam treated thier people poorly. Oil reserves......well I am sure that oil had some relevance to the Iraq war. But since most of the Iraqi oil comes from the southern fields near Kuwait.....we could have had those without going to Baghdad. Never made the regime change. So the real object to the Iraq war....was just this, a regime change.jmo
What one likes about Collin Powell.....is that he lives with a moral code. And we see it him. He lives it.
A true stories on Collin Powell.
On tour in Vet Nam....he was a Capt of mixed unit of Army and locals. The locals knew the terrian, so on patrol they were always on point. Well if you know what point is.....it is the most dangerous position in a patrol....you always walks into the ambush first.
Powel had gotten issued a bullet proof vest......one of the first to be issued over there. He gave to his point man and got as many others as he could issued them to the locals.....and went with out himself because they had a limited supply of them. The locals loved him....when they saw put them above himself.
That is Collin Powel's code of honor and diginity. The first patrol with them, his point was caught in a fire fight......hit three times with rounds to the chest of the vest. Knocked him down.....they all thought he was dead.....but the vest stopped the rounds. From that day on.....he had a great combined unit of Americans and locals.
He has this philospohy on harsh and crude talk. Feels that it never achieves an agreement or makes a friend or motivates one to do better. So he has a very low key manner to how he works with people. He never yells or screams. Something in the Army....is unusual.
Powell is a soldier at heart. He lives with a soldier code of honor and love of country.
I have seen some tv advertising on them. Have not look into to much. Thanks for the site.
Give us a hybrid or electric that can pull out a bass boat that is on a stuck trailer on a boat ramp.....with a good price......and you got a winner around here.... I think.
Still reading your post with an extremely critical eye, here, Indy! Looking for that one fatal word or phrase that will doom the country and us........just taking the pressure off you to get it right.
I am using the example of a man...that was in a very similar position as Obama is today. A man most would consider a great American. We have his words.....just as we have Obama words.....on how they handled a very similar situation......yet handled them very differently.....so it is fair comparison, in my opinion. Many have been comparing Lincoln and Obama from the day his campaign began. But now we come to vast divergence to them though. I just pointed it out.
As for the Black community and black religous services. You say that the Rev. Wright is not extremist and hater and that this is common for the Black community. You listened to the quotes....as we all have. Honestly now.....can you keep that position? I know black men in my Church congreation, that likely cringed (to use Obama words) when they heard the words of Rev. Wright.
Obama should be not considered a hypocrite for embracing a fallen man......which can be a very charitable/noble thing to do. I even said his speech was honest. But maybe he should be criticised for not having the courage to keep his family from having such a lengthy contact with such a man, as Rev. Wright.jmo
For if every Black Pastor in America was reading the words of a Rev. Wright sermon verbatim, it does not make them right, honest, justified or fair words.jmo
The Church I attend......gives service....to blacks, hispanics and whites. Noone is excluded from our body for race. And none of the 10 pastor (most recent) that have served there are anywhere close to Rev Wright and his fanaticism (that is the term Lincoln used for John Brown). If that your rationalization is that all Black churchs.....have to be like Trinity Church and all black pastor have to be like Rev. Wright....it still does not make them right, honest, just or fair. jmo
I know that most Black churchs are not like Trinity and are most Black Pastors not like Rev. Wright. A black College professor of theology, said that Rev. Wright was in the 'exteme' for Black pastors on ORielly, a few nights ago. That he was a number 10 on a scale for extremism with 10 being the highest level of it. So for Obama, it would have been easy in his 20 year association to change to a Church where a less than racially fanantical and historically twisted view of the country was being presented. He choose not to.
I think that you are on target again....whether is an Ann Clouter or Rev Wright....when they use thier pulbic position and forum to incite and draw others into the extreme positions and to polarize....give them false and divisive history of events...they are simply tearing the fabric of society.
I am looking at from a society issue. And it hurts building a better country. It creates distrust, disunity and disharmony in the country.jmo
I think that you are on target again....whether is an Ann Clouter or Rev Wright....when they use thier pulbic position and forum to incite and draw others into the extreme positions and to polarize....give them false and divisive history of events...they are simply tearing the fabric of society.
I am looking at from a society issue. And it hurts building a better country. It creates distrust, disunity and disharmony in the country.jmo
So if you like 'nice men' and consider Obama a 'nice man'.......how do you rationalize his continued relationship with someone like Rev. Wright? How does a 'nice man' not sever a relationship with a extemist and hater?
I think that Obama gave us a very honest speech on race. But he did not say that hating America or those that do....is wrong and not part of his support base. Did not say that they were not accepted into it. He said he still embraced Rev. Wright, yes?
Canidate Lincoln did exactly that (severed himself and his party) from John Brown......his Rev. Wright of the day.
Can Obama have it both ways.....beconsidered a 'nice man' and shake hands with men that are very less much than 'nice'?
I think that you got it, Sparky! The only this gets this better is via a united country...only problem there is the extremes of both side of the political spectrum keep that from happening.
The word "Lamborghini" is a babe magnet! Tell a young woman that you worked on a Lamborghini that day.....she will have instant attraction for you. Just don't tell her you work at a car wash.
In South East USA, we some problems with some of the alternative electical production systems. Imagine a wind mill farm following a 100+ mph wind hurricane passing. What you would see is a lot broken turbine blades on the ground.
Also we get long periods of time with heavy overcast here. Yes I know....countary to what the Florida Tourism boards tell you to visit sunny Florida. But such overcast reduces the effectiveness of the solar electric systems. They still do place solar cells on the houses here and there is a state lawed utility pay back program on kwa going into the grid system.
The big thing that many here are looking at is the 'thin film' solar cells. They are low cost, light weight and very efficient in making electricity. So unlike the heavy solar cells, they are easy to place and will not weight down a roof.
On the electric car. A real question there for most American....that love our big hp vehicles is this. I am passing someone in a electric that I have been using for a time.......its batts are down.......and I am trying to get around a car doing 70 on a two lane road. I pull out to pass the guy, and don't have enough juice to go over 75. This is not a good situation.....as that 18 wheeler coming in the other direction at 75 gets closer and closer and closer.
The electrics and the hybrids have the range to do well. But do they have the horse power to survive on our roads? Where I live.......hemi power dual wheel drive cab trucks are a standard for many. Putting a electric on the road with them is like putting a lamb into a wolf convention. The lamb is not going to like the experience.
Great thought that needs no further comment, Tinker208.
I was training nco and have trained female recruits.
Training is somewhat different than with men. But the bullet thier m-16 fires is the same bullet that a man's m-16 fires.
I have magazine here that has an article on women soldiers in Irag. Todate over 100 have killed in combat and accidents near combat areas. Including from just about every mos that the services have.For Gilly...mos...military occupation speciality.....
With most, I would have no problem at all sharing a foxhole with. No, not for that reason......rather because it was going to be as safe of place that day/night as any other place in the area. With a few, I might have a problem saying that. But I would say that about a few men as well.
magazine is American Heritage winter 2008 Vol 58 No3
It is a good read on women in service and combat from USARMY, USMC and USAF.
Lastly, a female medic....just got the silver star for saving 5 wonded in her convoy in a Iraq action a couple years ago. While under fire, she moved and protected them with her body from hostile fire. Don't kid yourself, the ladies have courage, resourcefulness, and determination when it comes to fight.
TTom50 Forum Posts (1,301)
RE: o'bama o'bama o'bama o'bama
The other woman, that Obama mentioned in his speech.