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Only Now You Get Angry
by
David Schlecht
We’ve posted before regarding the problem with compartmentalized thinking. This post makes such a fine example of the sickness and it’s symptoms. Check out the question about why you take till now to get mad.
You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.
You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.
[DailyKos]
What are your thoughts?
It’s Time to Get Out
by
David Schlecht
I suggest that we reevaluate our focus in Afghanistan before we lose the war. From the latest poll, 27% of Afghans say they support attacks against foreign troops. But aren’t we supposed to be there to help them?
The Corrupt Media
by
David Schlecht
It’s laughable to hear the conservatives decry the liberal media. Oh my gosh, how absolutely upside down. Will a multi-billion dollar industry be interested in advancing issues and ideas that are progressive in nature? Progressive policies generally strive for fairness. Fair taxes, fair benefits, fair opportunities. A monopoly does not want to advance liberal issues.
However, in the past few years, some news outlets have published facts that have a naughty habit of being liberal in nature. BP oil spill is a good example. How awful it must be for a conservative to watch the news and see stories about the devastation in the gulf caused by greed.
A truly unbiased media would be pointing out how unregulated greed caused the mess. It would be pointing out how the REPUBLICAN mantra of smaller government, and no regulations is the direct cause of this disaster.
Yes, a republican will think the media is biased but then they think the world if flat and free markets work so you wouldn’t expect them to understand the cause and effect of their failed policies.
We liberals know how biased the media is. We know that only the bravest of op/ed reporters will dare put this at the feet of the failed republican policies. We know the media is controlled by boards of directors which has many of the same directors that run the industrial military complex. We know those news outlets will never say anything about the harm wrought upon our nation by the ill conceived Bush wars.
But, just knowing these things doesn’t fix them. We need to get the big money out of our media. We need to break up the media. And we need to bring back the requirements that the media is to serve the public interest. Now, there’s a novel idea.
It’s Still Obama’s Vietnam
by
David Schlecht
Well, Obama, it’s been over a year since you took office and we’re no closer to getting out of Vietnam, oh, I mean Afghanistan. What gives? Get out, already.
I know, I know, Bush got us into this mess, but really, Obama, can’t you do a little better about getting us out? Killing civilians isn’t winning over the hearts and minds of the Afghans and the longer we stay there the more civilians will die, not to mention the more dead Americans.
Things are not getting better there and they will only continue to worsen the longer we’re there.
It’s time to declare victory and get the heck out of Dodge.
Winning in Afghanistan
by
Captain Jack
The USA is currently in two overt wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, and who knows how many covert wars like Pakistan. We’ve seen what it takes to get into a war, but no one knows what it takes to get out, these days.
Wars aren’t what they were 60 years ago when we had well defined enemies or opponents, when the only acceptable reasons for going to war were for self-defense or to defend our allies. . These days the opponents are fluid, such as with Saddam Husein. He was, at one moment our ally helping keep pressure on Iran. The next day, he’s a ruthless villain that we must rid the world of.
One day, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda are our greatest wedges getting the Soviet Union out of the middle east, and the next day, well, you know.
Without well defined opponents and well defined borders and without armies and soldiers, it’s really hard to apply the word “War”.
Even harder than applying the word “War”, is applying words like “finish” or “win” or “succeed”. Let’s consider what, exactly, it means to win a war like these. To know if we won we need to know what our purposes were for going to war. If we take Bush and the Republicans at their word, we are in Afghanistan because 1) they invaded us and are a risk (a lie), 2) we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here (sheer foolishness), 3) they’re really really really bad people and we need to kill them, 4) who knows whatever foolishness has been offered?
Looking at #1, they didn’t invade us. Read the 9/11 Commission Report and you will see that Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11. Osama bin Laden may have helped fund it but al Qaeds is not and was not the government of Afghanistan. Still, if we use this as a reason to invade, then we’ve already toppled the government and it’s time for us to get out. Since we’re still in there, it’s obvious that this is not the reason we’re there.
Looking at #2, we’re much stronger and much better off fighting them over here, in our courts. If people see that the criminals are being dealt with fairly we will make fewer enemies. By killing them over there, we are creating a perpetual supply of warriors intent on hurting America. The more we kill, the more there will be to take their place.
#3 is the only real reason we’re there. Well, that and because Bush needed a war in order to be a war president. Yes, there are many small groups of people who hate America. By killing more innocent bystanders, though, we are making more people intent on destroying us.
If you have one country bombing you into submission and another helping you rebuild your country, which one will you despise and which one will you appreciate and defend? The answer is obvious. Killing people over in Afghanistan is not helping, but is hurting our cause.
If this is really why we’re there, then war was not the solution. We need to find a way to change their hatred of us into appreciation. Now is the time to help rebuild their country. Remember how we helped rebuild Japan and much of Europe after WW II? The hatred of America dissolved when we quit killing them and started helping them.
Since it’s obvious that we’re done with the military invasion, the next question has to be, how do we get out of there, now?
We can’t just pack up and leave or all the hatred of America will just expand as they suffer, unaided, from the effects of our invasion. It should be quite obvious that we need to provide enough security to allow for a peaceful transition into self-governance, but no more. We need to help them build a respectable court system so the murderers can be brought to justice.
In conclusion, we’ve already “won” in Afghanistan. Now it’s time for us to fix the mess we created over there.
How about #4? What other excuses have you heard for our being over there killing the Afghan people?
Another Escalation
by
Captain Jack
Obama has decided that he is to be remembered as a war president. This single act will do the most to lose him the support of those who voted him in. He was quite up front about finishing the job when he was campaigning but I, like many others, hoped that it was just rhetoric.
Well, here we are, killing more people and wondering why we’re losing support around the world. There are around 100 al Qaeda in all of Afghanistan. For this it takes America 100,000 or 200,000 or 300,000 soldiers and mercenaries and support personnel?
What are your thoughts?
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Who Owns the Deficit
Thursday, July 21st, 2011Who Owns the Deficit
Dave Speck
So we hear the republican chanting over and over how the sky is falling if we don’t balance the budget, even if it means we have to take food out of the mouths of our elderly and sick and weak and poor. The world will end. Why all the noise?
The Republicans voted to raise the debt ceiling 18 times during Reagan’s administration. Got that? 18 times. During that time Reagan increased our nation’s deficit by three trillion dollars, more than all the previous presidents combined.
Where did all that money go? It went to tax breaks for the rich, mostly. That and to the military budget and his failed Star Wars program.
Then, along came Clinton and he balanced the budget and had a surplus that would have paid off the deficit in 10 years.
Where did all this money come from? Clinton ended “Welfare as we know it.” In other words, he stole it from the poor. He also raised taxes on the wealthy a couple percentage points.
Then, Bush added almost five trillion dollars to the deficit and the republican voted seven times to raise the debt ceiling.
Where did all that money go? Tax breaks for the rich and two illegal wars.
Then the economy crashed, as it always does when you lower taxes on the rich, and Bush pushed through another trillion dollars to the banker crooks.
Now, Obama wants to add a small fraction to the debt, less than 8%, and the Republicans are threatening to bring the entire country down unless we take more money from the poor.
Do you see any sort of pattern here? The republicans ran up almost all of the 10 trillion dollar debt and they don’t want to pay for it. They want the poor and the weak and the elderly and the sick to pay for their big party.
The republicans and the rich have been living large for the past 30 years at our expense and now they want you and me to pay for the bill.
What would you say about a political party that does this? What would you say about a party that is willing to crash our economy if they don’t get their way on everything? We’re in this mess because of the tax breaks to the rich and the republicans are saying they will destroy the country if we don’t give more tax breaks to the rich.
What party does big business own?
Tags: afghanistan, bush, corporate welfare, depression, iraq, redistribution, rich, taxes, wealth
Posted in Finance, Politics | 1 Comment »