[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Samper

...........now with more slime. IT's sad but true.
I honestly don't know what to do this year.

Think of the vacancies on the Supreme Court that will almost certainly come up in the next few years and choose whichever candidate you are more comfortable with being in charge of choosing the court's newest members. If you like Scalia and Thomas, vote for Bush. If you don't, vote for somebody else.

[Ninong]

The Bush-Cheney campaign may wish they hadn't exposed the Iraqi soccer team to so much media coverage in Athens: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...worldviews.DTL It turns out they're not all that happy with Dubya's policies in Iraq and their comments are getting worldwide attention.

[Samper]

This is the thing.........this will be my first time voting and I do plan on voting. The problem is that I don't watch tv. I don't know where to go to get the Facts. My parents are strong republican.......whatever that means. All I know is that I'm sort of more on the liberal side of the house. I like the idea of having privacy. I like the ideas of our constitution. I love the idea of peace. I have two years so far in the united states army as airborne infantry with a year of training in SWTG......special warfare training group. I know that the united states needs a military and that as man is on earth there will be war period. This doesn't mean that I agree with it nor do I want to end up in the sand because of someones greedy ideas.

[Samper]

I thought this was an interesting statement by Sadir, the coach from the iraqi olympic team.

Coach Hamad says, they will have to return home to a place where they fear walking the streets. "The war is not secure," says Hamad, 43. "Many people hate America now. The Americans have lost many people around the world--and that is what is happening in America also.....

[schrocat]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in638571.shtml

[Samper]

Is our country in for a "dark" period no matter who gets elected?

[schrocat]

It's subjective.

In my world the dark period started 3.5 years ago.

Some will describe retiring a few years from now, and finding out their promised benefits are impossible deliverables as a dark period.

...depends.

[schrocat]

Ninong,

A quote from Mackubin Owens, NRO contributing editor.

I would also like to point out to those who praise Kerry for his testimony that, in addition to slandering those he now calls his "band of brothers," he contributed in a major way to the popular perception of the Vietnam veteran as dysfunctional loser. "The country doesn't know it yet, but it has created a monster, a monster in the form of millions of men who have been taught to deal and to trade in violence, and who are given the chance to die for the biggest nothing in history; men who have returned with a sense of anger and a sense of betrayal which no one has yet grasped." This claim helped to cement in the public mind a caricature of the Vietnam veteran: He routinely committed war crimes; he returned home from an immoral war traumatized; he was vilified, then pitied; he was likely to be jobless, homeless, addicted, and suicidal, stranded on the fringes of society.






See...and I thought the movie "The Deer Hunter" started all the bad press.

[Ninong]

OK, I realize this is a stretch, but what if Dick Cheney had actually volunteered for the military? Yes, I know, he "had other priorities" but what if he had somehow found the courage to join up. What are the chances he would have volunteered for a tour of duty in Vietnam?

Instead of talking about whether Kerry deserved as many purple hearts as he received or whether the enemy fire was as intense as the official Navy reports claim, lets talk about someone who did everything in his power to avoid military service. That's when he was not being charged with drunk driving. What's up with him and Bush and all these drunk driving convictions?

1959-1965: Cheney received four student deferments; took SIX YEARS to get a college degree, attended three different schools. He attends Yale, drops out, then returns to Yale, then drops out again in 1962. In 1963 he attends Casper Community College (Wow! From Yale to Casper Community College!) and then moves on to the University of Wyoming. It took him a total of six years to complete his undergraduate education.

1965: Finally finished with his undergraduate education, Cheney decides to stay in school and get a masters' degree.

October 26, 1965: Selective Service lifts the ban on drafting childless married men.

January 19, 1966: Cheney receives a fifth deferment, this time for having a pregnant wife.

July 28, 1966: The Cheney's first child is born. That's nine months and two days after childless married men were deemed eligible for the draft. This would seem to indicate that the Cheneys were seized with uncontrollable passion the moment Dick Cheney became eligible for the Vietnam draft.

Wanna see Dick's DUI arrest record? http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/cheneydwi1.html

Wanna see Dick's second DUI arrest record?
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/cheneydwi2.html

So now we know what Dick meant by "other priorities."

[schrocat]

Some help others...some help themselves.

Hey! that might make a great "by the bootstraps" theme!

"Neocon Republicans aren't afraid to help themselves!"

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by schrocat

Some help others...some help themselves.

Well, lets see. He helped himself to about $50 million dollars by allowing himself to be drafted as the CEO of uber sleazy Halliburton after his stint as Secretary of Defense. His main qualification for the job was his government experience and contacts. There are currently eight separate investigations into corporate malfeasance at Halliburton during the period Cheney was CEO. My favorite investigation is the one looking into Halliburton's dealings with Iran. It happens to be against U.S. law to do business with terrorist states such as Iran but that didn't stop Halliburton. They simply used their Cayman Islands subsidiary to hide their dealings with Iran. They eventually opened up an office in Tehran while Cheney was still CEO. I guess he figured if it was OK for Oliver North, it was OK for Halliburton.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Samper

I don't know where to go to get the Facts.

http://www.factcheck.org/

From the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania:



"We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding."

[Samper]

I'll check it out thanks.

[schrocat]

Check out the Dana Milbank story in the WP. ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...?nav=headlines

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by schrocat

Check out the Dana Milbank story in the WP. ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...?nav=headlines

I couldn't check it out because it requires registration and I hate registering on all those websites.

[Ninong]

Schrocat,

What's up with your pal, McCain? I think maybe we should send him a large bottle of Mylanta. The label says it provides fast relief for "heartburn, acid indigestion and sour stomach." He's bound to need it after swallowing all that pride. Talk about disingenuous!

(Which by coincidence just happens to be what McCain called Michael Moore, without actually naming him. He referred to a certain "disingenuous filmmaker.")

Hmmm... My dictionary says "insincere and calculating." Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Politics makes strange bedfellows. I guess he's already running for the 2008 Republican nomination.

[Ninong]

Did you hear our fine incoherent president explain to Rush Limbaugh that he didn't mean to say what he said when he said the war on terror wasn't winnable? So now we will all be relieved to know that he intends to win the war on terror after all. Looks like he went from mission accomplished to mission miscalculated to mission impossible and back to stay the course until final victory is achieved. He did say something to Rush that I completely agree with. He told Rush he needs to be "more articulate."

When do they break out the "Wanted: Dead or Alive" posters at the Republican Convention? You know, the ones with Osama bin Forgotten's picture. What's up with him? They don't talk much about him anymore. Back in September 2001 Bush said he "wanted justice." That's when he used the "wanted dead or alive" line.

"Wanted: Dead or Alive!" -- George W. Bush, September 2001.

"I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him... I truly am not that concerned about him." -- George W. Bush, March 2002.

[Ninong]

"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road." --Gov. George W. Bush, Oct. 3, 2000.

[schrocat]

Originally Posted by Ninong

I couldn't check it out because it requires registration and I hate registering on all those websites.

A Swift Shift in Stories

By Dana Milbank


Tuesday, August 31, 2004; Page A19

This is a story about Swift boats and FastShip.

Four days ago, retired naval Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. seconded accusations made by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth seeking to discredit Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry's record in Vietnam. But since then, Democrats have discovered that Schachte is also a long-standing supporter of President Bush and a lobbyist whose client FastShip Inc. recently won a $40 million grant from the federal government.

On Aug. 27, Schachte issued a statement saying that after he "avoided talking to media" for months, he was reluctantly stepping forward to challenge Kerry's award of one of his Purple Hearts on Dec. 2, 1968. "Kerry had himself in charge of the operation, and I was not mentioned at all," he said. "He also claimed that he was wounded by hostile fire. None of this is accurate. I know, because I was not only in the boat, but I was in command of the mission."

Kerry has said Schachte was not on the boat that night, adding another mystery to the disputed events of 36 years ago. But other events are not in dispute. According to a March 18 legal filing by Schachte's firm, Blank Rome, Schachte was one of the lobbyists working for FastShip on issues such as the effort to win funding for a new marine cargo terminal. On Feb. 2, Philadelphia-based FastShip announced that it would receive $40 million in federal funding for the project.

In addition, David Norcross, Schachte's colleague in the Washington office of Blank Rome, is chairman of this week's Republican convention in New York. Records also show that Schachte gave $1,000 to Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns.

The Kerry campaign alleges foul play. "It's amazing what a $40 million government contract can do for your memory," Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton said, noting that Schachte did not challenge Kerry's Purple Heart while describing the incident in an interview last year. Schachte is listed as "of counsel" on Blank Rome's Web site, but a receptionist at the firm said he is retired, and messages left for him and a firm spokesman were not returned.

[schrocat]

Originally Posted by Ninong

"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road." --Gov. George W. Bush, Oct. 3, 2000.

Good Philosophy there Flipper.