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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Decision Afghanistan

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9/11 was the reason for the war in Afghanistan. At the time its purpose could not have been clearer. Nearly every American, joined by much of the international community wanted the Al Qaeda-protecting Taliban removed from power in Afghanistan. In the fall of 2001 strategy for that purpose was forcible simultaneous eradication of the Taliban and Al Qaeda from Afghanistan. As a bonus, the political vacuum would be filled by democratically elected government. The symbolic goal of the Afghan war was and remains the capture of Osama Bin-Laden.


Then came the Iraq war, distracting attention from the war for which the world clamored on 9/11/01. By the time US focus returned to Afghanistan 8 years into the war, the situation had changed dramatically from the near eradication of the Taliban in short order after the war’s beginning. Not only are the Taliban back as a military threat to the shaky Karzai government but they grabbed a province or two in neighboring Pakistan. And, amazingly enough, despite all the high tech equipment available to coalition forces, Bin-Laden remains at large.


Now that President Obama has turned his attention to the war in Afghanistan he has an exceptionally difficult, complex decision to make on its future direction. The fundamental question he must decide is the purpose of our being there and the strategy we wish to employ in accomplishing it. Only after why are we there and what do we want to do are decided can tactics be designed and troop levels be determined.


Lawmakers urging quick action in responding to General McChrystal’s request for more troops apparently learned nothing from the previous administration’s failures in prosecuting the Iraq war. Theirs was an incomplete strategy. The future prosecution of the war in Afghanistan must not suffer the same fate – that of thousands of lives.


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Monday, September 28, 2009

Check This Out – US Navy’ Jump Rope Team

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The US Navy’s Kings Firecrackers’ 2008 performance at Notre Dame.





View the video on blip.tv: http://blip.tv/file/1816913

This and other performances are also available on youtube.

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Monday, September 14, 2009

Friday, September 11, 2009

9/11 Remembered

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Eight years after the attacks of 9/11/01 the memory of the most horrific attack on our country must never fade from our memories.



The first video was created by a Vietnam War vet several days after the 9/11 attacks; the second by a cyber buddy, Black Onyx.




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September 11, 2001








Remember - A Tribute to New York City



Monday, September 7, 2009

From Across the Pond – The Right Wing & Obama’s Public Option

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Why the American right make me sick


Simon Hoggart, The Guardian, August 15, 2009


• There are few tribes more loathsome than the American right, and their vicious use of the shortcomings in the NHS to attack Barack Obama's attempts at health reform are a useful reminder.


I was thinking of this during a visit to my 91-year-old dad who is still in an NHS hospital after three weeks, recovering from a broken hip. He has had fantastic care, including a new metal hip, blood transfusions, different antibiotics to match every aspect of his condition; all administered by nurses who remain cheerful even when asked to perform tasks on men – the lethal combination of pain and old age makes some in the ward exceedingly grumpy – that I would not want to do for £1,000 a time. If he was in an American hospital he'd be using up half his life savings to get that standard of care, and few ordinary Americans could afford the insurance that would provide it. (This is because health insurers spend a large part of their income on PR against the "socialised medicine" and on sending pro forma letters explaining why your policy doesn't cover actual illness.) All over the US there are people whose lives are being destroyed for lack of proper health care provision, and there is no sight more odious than the rich, powerful and arrogant trying to keep it that way.


To read Mr. Hoggart’s full article:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/aug/15/simon-hoggarts-week


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Sunday, September 6, 2009

Ten Thoughts for 2009

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Number 10 - Life is sexually transmitted.

Number 9 - Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Number 8 - Men have two emotions: Hungry and Horny. If you see him without an erection, make him a sandwich.

Number 7 - Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.

Number 6 - Some people are like a Slinky.....not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.

Number 5 - Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Number 4 - All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism

Number 3 - Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut saves you thirty cents?

Number 2 - In the 60's, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

Number 1 - We know exactly where one cow with mad-cow-disease is located among the millions and millions of cows in America but we haven't got a clue as to where thousands of illegal immigrants and terrorists are located. Maybe we should put the Department of Agriculture in charge of immigration.


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Friday, September 4, 2009

Idiots Fear President of the United States Will Brainwash Nation’s Schoolchildren

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On September 8, 2009 the President of the United States is to speak with our nation’s schoolchildren about studying hard and staying in school. This is not unprecedented – George H.W. Bush urged kids to study hard and say no to drugs. President Obama is speaking directly to the kids. And that’s where the fight started.


Reactions to this cool, effective way of getting through to kids:


Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer released a statement Monday accusing Obama of using taxpayer money to "indoctrinate" children.


Parents are afraid that their children will be indoctrinated or brainwashed by the President’s speech.


"I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now."


"The idea that schoolchildren across our nation will be forced to watch the president justify his plans ... is not only infuriating but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power."


Blindsided by the hysteria the planned speech evoked, the administration clarified:


"The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard, stay in school and dramatically reduce the dropout rate," an administration spokesman said. "This isn't a policy speech. It's a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school."


As to the letter writing plans, the administration agreed that they were “inartfully worded”, withdrew them and issued revised versions focusing solely on each child’s education goals.


This is what this country has come to over this summer of discontent and frustration – Americans accusing their president of brainwashing school children!


Have you people lost your minds? Are you really that stupid? Are you that easily influenced? Have you lost touch with reality?


Idiots! All of you.

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Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Devil Went Down to Georgia - Rednex

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Even Conservatives Reject Red Herrings

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September 3, 2009


Conservatives See Need for Serious Health Debate


By JIM RUTENBERG and GARDINER HARRIS


WASHINGTON — The roiling debate over health care this summer has included a host of accusations from opponents of the plan that have been so specious that many in the mainstream news media have flatly labeled them false.


Far from embracing the attacks, many leading conservative health care policy experts said in recent interviews that the dynamic was precluding a more robust real-world debate while making it nearly impossible for them to inject their studied, free-market solutions into the discussions. And they said the focus on what they consider misleading or secondary issues was getting in the way of real questions about the plan they believed worthy of consideration.


“There are serious questions that are associated with policy aspects of the health care reform bills that we’re seeing,” said Gail Wilensky, a veteran health care expert who oversaw the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs for the first President George Bush and advised Senator John McCain in his presidential campaign last year.


“And there’s frustration because so much of the discussion is around issues like the death panels and Zeke Emanuel that I think are red herrings at best,” she said, referring to a health care adviser to President Obama whose views on some issues have been misrepresented by opponents.


Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group, is among those making policy-laden arguments against Mr. Obama’s plan that do not lend themselves to easily digestible catch phrases like “death panels” or false but sensational assertions that the elderly will be told to choose euthanasia as a cost-saving measure. But his critique is based on related fears that the plans being discussed would inevitably lead to increased government involvement in personal medical decisions and eventually affect vital services.



Read the full article at:


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/health/policy/03conservatives.html?scp=1&sq=Experts%20say%20catch%20phrases%20take%20away%20from%20studied,%20free-market%20proposals&st=cse


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