sharkman
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Posts posted by sharkman
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At the end of the day, I think the fact that NK has signed on is good news. Some want to give Bush credit and some want to blame him for it, but it's still good news.
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This reminds me of the time a few months ago when a couple of Palestinian officials said Bush told them that God told him to attack Iraq. Like he's gonna say that to a couple of Palestinians, never mind that it never happened. If they're gonna try to damage Bush in some way they could at least make up believable stories.
None the less, Al-Jazeera has shown themselves to be very hateful towards Jews and Americans, and supportive of terrorism. Even in Canada I was told that the Al-Jazeera network isn't carried because of the concern that the hate speech contained therin would contravene our laws.
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I'm afraid I have no factoids on Thanksgiving or Canada's version of it, just a dittohead's warm and hearty HAPPY THANKSGIVING! May the next 12 months give you much to be thankful for.
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Yes, we are getting into topics that could consume much time and effort, for what purpose? I could spend a half hour refuting and so on to only have you do the same. If you can't see what I see, I'm fine with that.
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True enough, I do remember how the media was pretty patriotic for a while after 9-11. However, after an unparalleled event in American history, when a band of fanatics killed thousands of civilians without the declaration of war, I can understand the response.
And it only lasted a couple of years. By the time Bush landed on the carrier and declared the war over, the media was back being lefties. That's one thing, but the shocking way Dan Rather tried to jazz up some pretend documents for the express purpose of defeating Bush's re-election made up for the previous media behaviour. No media outlet would even declare Bush the winner the night of the election when he won I think it was Ohio by over 100,000 votes. Except for Fox, and they were right.
Anyway, IMO 2 or 3 years of media behaviour out of say 15 years does not reverse the trend towards left of center reporting. That's one reason why Fox does so well. They are the only other option.
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Thelonius, you sound like what Bush supposedly did in reverse. Take intel from the Russian gov. and jazz it down so it doesn't sound so alarming!
If Russia, who doesn't particularly like the U.S. or want it to invade Iraq and damage its economic relationship with Iraq, if they volunteer info they have on Iraqi officials planning terrorist attacks on the U.S. and other places, it's worth looking into.
And could anyone volunteer the news networks besides Fox that are protective or even friendly with Bush, republicans or the war effort in general? Sincerely, it would be nice to hear this slant once in a while.
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I can't figure this out, he's a good guy in a lot of ways but then he does this. Being that it's a repeat performance, I wonder if he doesn't get along with Harper or something. Did he ever say bad things about Preston Manning when he led the Alliance?
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Russia Warned U.S. About Iraq, Putin Says
Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that his intelligence service had warned the Bush administration before the U.S. invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein's government was planning attacks against U.S. targets both inside and outside the country.This article reveals Iraq was involved in exporting terrorism, something no one has commented on yet, and supports the Bush Administration positon.
I keep hearing about media organizations that are protective of Bush. Besides Fox, who are these media people that run with the republicans, I'd like to know so I can watch them on TV instead of the ant-Bush anti-Republican anti-war effort crap that is on ALL the other major news networks. Ditto for Canadian networks, with special recognition for the CBC.
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To the question of why Harper hasn't been more forthcoming on his budget plans, I offer you this: If the CPC openly trot out their plans they expose themselves to the risk that Martin will take one or more main components of said plan, bastardize it, and call it his own, all done simply to get elected. Which is a switch from the traditional approach of hysterically shrieking that it will be the ruin of Canada. Closer to the election the CPC may be more revealing.
I agree with Kliege on many of his points. We are not a democracy. The PM gets elected, then can actually do whatever he feels like, with no repercussions. The thing is the majority have been level headed, with only a gradual slide into social engineering and socialism in general, instead of the immediate change that a communist government would bring. So we don't notice the change.
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No, I'm not advocating that theory you mentioned. The oil was flowing steadily under the U.N. in Iraq, although now we see how corrupt it was(oil for food). To introduce a war into that would actually create uncertainty, hence the oil price flucuation at the time of the attack. And no one knew if the Iraqis would respond with a slash and burn strategy like they did in Kuwait, a situation that would have put their oil production off line completely for some time. In fact they did burn some oil wells. I actually didn't even mention oil. France, Germany and Russia had many contracts with Iraq. I don't believe Iraq could sell oil except with the U.N.'s permission.
Yes, I did mention that the 'cook the books' theory had been around, but had been started in earnest only recently. In using THEY I was refering to the dems. Google just about anything and there will be groups advocating it. For instance, some want to impeach Bush. Who knows, it might come to that, since it was done to 'their' president Clinton, almost.
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Yes, the big three. They all had lots of revenue riding on Iraq. If Saddam got pulled from power, they'd lose it forever. IMO, their reputations are sullied by getting into bed with Saddam after he had attacked Kuwait and Desert Storm happened. After the U.N., an agency they seem to hold in high regard, passed resolution after resolution on Saddam's WMD shell game in the 90s. Although Russia hasn't had much of a rep anyway, Putin probably likes Saddam's style. But all the countries that joined the war effort agreed with the intel.
It's easy to claim the books were cooked, and much harder to then disprove it, or prove a negative. No amount of proof would be enough. The thing is they didn't start this particular conspiracy theory in earnest until the public turned against the war and Bush. The press has been critical of the war since Bush landed on the carrier and declared the war over. The dead count has been particulary silly. In many wars 2,000 troops could be lost by lunch time.
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You could have added quotes by most of the senate and congress dems, including Kerry and Al Gore. The reason they have changed their tunes so dramatically has everything to do with politics, not new revelations. We've known all along that intelligence agencies from key countries involved also came to the same conclusion when looking at the intelligence that the U.S. did. We've known that Saddam attempted to get nukes(nuclear facility destroyed by Israel), used chemical weapons and tried to assassinate a U.S president. We've known for almost a year that there were no WMDs.
This business about 'jazzing up' the intelligence to push for an Iraqi invasion is a smoke screen. After 2 years of nothing but negative coverage of the invasion in the main stream media, surprise surprise, the American population has turned against the war, and Bush's approval ratings have dropped to an all time low. So the dems, who have only a minority in both houses and desperately would like to see Alito rejected, are making all the hay out of this that they can. They want power and they are willing to harm the war effort to do it. I actually heard a recording of Senator Kennedy speaking prior to the invasion about the dangerous threat that exists in Iraq that must be addressed. When asked why he's reversed himself on the issue, he actually said that he didn't believe it as much as Bush did. These are the kinds of reasonings that the administration has to deal with("I actually voted for it before I voted against it" -Kerry) since the media just can't bring themselves to shine a light on it. It's pathetic.
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If the Liberals get in again, they will be in power when Quebec holds its eventual referendum on seperating. The party that royally screwed up its attempt to keep Quebec in the fold and made things positively worse will be the on that the seperatists point to and rightly say, there is corruption and sleaze in Canada, let's not be a part of that any longer. It might well work. They came within a hair of a majority last time. If they leave, Canada will never be the same.
If the conservatives can be in power, they won't have that baggage and can say to Quebec, look, Canada threw the bums out, give us a chance. I know they are aware of the Quebec issue and have been studying it for years, rather than throwing money at it. They want to negotiate up front with Quebec, an honest approach can't be bad.
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Anti-semetism was a fixture in France and most of Europe long before the Muslim population became a factor.
That is true, and the Jewish community has lived there putting up with it until recently when they have started moving out of France. Have the French suddenly gotten more nasty? That is unlikely. But having the population of France augmented by those of the Muslim faith (who have strong feelings about Jews) is problematic.
It's gotten so bad that Jewish kids never walk alone when travelling between home and the Jewish school. They are forbidden to wear anything that would identify them as Jewish, even to the point of trying to wear generic looking clothing, all done in the attempt to avoid anti-semitism. Whomever you blame, France is increasingly unsafe. It's sad to see a country with such a great history come to this.
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It does'nt really, Sharkman. Seeking scapegoats is par for the course. I would not be surprised if the radical clerics paint Jews as responsible for the miseries.
Incidentally, the radicals are all outsiders from other countries, not French. French Muslims are, apparently upset about them just as non-Muslims are.
I believe you disagree with my previous point about young non muslims not being responsible for anti semitism. It appears that you feel I'm seeking scapegoats, then introduce radical clerics and miseries, though I now am not sure if you aree connecting said clerics and miseries to the riots or anti semitism.
Anyway, it's pretty obvious that muslims are persecuting jews.
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And you're positive Eureka that these radicals you speak of are non muslim down to the very last one? I don't know what info you've been hearing, but everything I'd seen and heard says it's children of Muslim immigrants who've been largely involved.
That Jews are leaving France is troubling and the reasons they are giving are anti semitism by Muslims. Or is that just more of that pesky scapegoating?
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Since the rioting has mostly quieted down now,(although 2 or 300 car owners a night would disagree) its troubling to hear that Jewish people are leaving France. They are being searched out and their property torched, among other things. This shows once and for all that it's more than just young toughs frustrated with living conditions.
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(Blackdog quote) You're clearly missing the point. Afghanistan's problems social problems and totalitarian tendancies have a lot to do with the culture. You can't just go in, hld elections and slap together a constitution and expect democracy to take without addressing those cultural issues. (/quote)
That's why I commented:
It's definitely a rough place that is a long way from true democracy. The people have been living under dictatorships and totalitarianism so this new kind of government is quite hard to comprehend. It could take decades. Maybe it won't take at all. (/quote)
At any rate I'm sure you'd agree that Afghanis need to live in a country of peace. How they might be able to achieve that is the hard part. Maybe RAWA has all the answers, but I remain unconvinced, anymore than the U.S. has all the answers.
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The article you linked to made me doubt their objectivity. Lots of hate, obviously only representing one faction of Afghanistan. I wonder why they didn't meet with those like Diane Tebelius while she was in Iraq, and instead write a critique to her article. You say they've been around since the Russians were in Afghanistan? It must have been rough under the Taliban, being women, I can't imagine they were able to do much in their organization's behalf during all those years. And now they are free to complain, welcome to the voting process!
You could probably get 50 different view points from factions of Afghanistan, and none of them would agree. To hold one up as the objective truth would be the same as only listening to the U.S. version. It's definitely a rough place that is a long way from true democracy. The people have been living under dictatorships and totalitarianism so this new kind of government is quite hard to comprehend. It could take decades. Maybe it won't take at all.
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RAWA sounds like a pretty radical group, it's hard to know which source one finds might have an objective clear view of what's going on in Afghanistan or wherever.
On the bigger question of Bin Laden, I think he has been able to create a new norm where a major city occasionally gets bombed and they can't quite prevent it. Even Spain, after agreeing to withdraw from Iraq was hit. I don't think it will ever end. These rabid sickos believe they have their god's blessing to do this and if a person wants to kill some people badly enough, you really can't stop him or her.
I'm surprised that the U.S. hasn't been hit again, though. Surely they have people inbedded in various parts of the country. It's been 4 years, and I can't believe that the U.S. is solely responsible for the absense of more domestic attacks.
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I big factor in the problems facing domestic auto makers are the employee costs per car manufactured. They are markedly higher. In the U.S., medical plans and pension plans are listed as the main culprits. So right off the bat the domestic product is more expensive. And they have always been behind japanese makers in the 4 cylinder engine, multi-valve engines and over all quality. Add these factors to the focus on trucks and suvs when gas prices are becoming a big concern and you can see nothing but trouble for the big three.
They are starting to predict that GM will go bankrupt. This may actually save them as they can be freed from union contracts and this is about the only time when the unions would then sign on for less. And the U.S. gov. would not allow such a huge part of the economy to go under, as they did when they assisted Chrysler in the early 80s.
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I recently read an article that explored this issue from a Canadian viewpoint. Some Jewish people are coming here from Europe as there is an established community. But I wonder how long it will take until some of the over 20 terrorist organizations we have operating in Canada to start copying the behaviours of their 'brothers' in Europe.
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What must be troubling to the courts (not really) is that the child in the story was told by her lesbian parents that there was no father. There is a father and for the parents to be so dishonest regarding a foundational issue like that shows complete disregard for the child. Even if the child was adopted, the adoption agency would keep records and allow the child to meet their biological parents if they wish. To hide such information from children shows that these groups won't let silly things like the facts interfere with their indoctrination. How sad.
Redefining marriage leads to redefining parents leads to redefining families... it never ends. And making up all kinds of new terms such as 'two spirit' only further distances gay activists from the mainstream they insist on being a part of.
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To the question of whether a young person's (or any person's) comments should be treated the same I offer this: any comments should be taken with an open mind as long as they are offered with respect. Sparhawk, many of your comments on this thread have been inflammatory and you repeatedly called the letter a rant when it was very clear it was not. So don't be surprised to find opposition. It's clear you don't think much of conservatives, but at the end of the day I suppose we're all just trying to relate ideas and I know I don't let it bother me.
At any rate, I'm sure the Liberal movement is strong enough to survive the comments of an old man.
North Korea caves in
in The Rest of the World
Posted
That was covered in the first post that started this thread.