[Ninong]

Tancredo just said, "Republicans have lost the mantle of fiscal responsibility." No kidding!

Then he closed his comment by saying that there is ONLY ONE ROLE FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THAT'S THE DEFENSE OF THE COUNTRY!!!!

Wow! That's really, really radical! Think about what he is saying for a minute.

[Ninong]

Gilmore just said that Giuliani, McCain and Romney are NOT conservatives. He's the only conservative. He is now trashing all three of those guys!

Oh, and he just accused Huckabee of raising taxes in Arkansas.

Giuliani just made a funny! He said he thinks Rudy McRomney wouldn't make a bad ticket and he kinda likes the order there. Haha! That was in response to Gilmore saying that the three guys in the lead are all NOT true Republican conservatives.

Chris Wallace keeps asking Giuliani why he endorsed Mario Cuomo, a Democrat for governor. Rudy's ignoring the question. He's pointing out that he was mayor during and after 9/11 and he took charge. 9/11, 9/11, 9/11. That was in response to a question about his position on gay marriage.

Walnuts! just repeated that he will "reach across the aisle." He uses that line over and over again. He's been saying that for the last seven years now.

[Ninong]

Brownback just defended his position that rape victims and victims of incest should NOT be allowed to have an abortion. If you get raped, tough! You're going to have to have the baby if Sam "Opus Dei" Brownback has his way. The blastocyst-citizen's rights are more important than the rights of the rape victim. In other words, Brownback agrees with the Catholic Church's position that rape, even incestuous rape, does not justify termination of the pregnancy. You might remember that several years ago there was the famous case of the 10-year-old girl in South America who was denied permission by the Church to have an abortion even though several doctors said that carrying the pregnancy to term threatened her life. She was the victim of incestuous rape!

Tancredo just said the top three GOP contenders are all soft on immigration. They don't hate Mexicans as much as he does.

They're all dumping on McCain now. They keep repeating McCain-Kennedy (immigration) and McCain-Feingold (campaign finance reform). They're all getting a kick out of tying Walnuts! to the two most liberal Democrats in the Senate. (Well, close to the most liberal. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry are both more liberal.)

Duncan Hunter just said that he personally "built the border fence in San Diego." Yeah, right! And Al Gore invented the Internet.

[Ninong]

They just asked McCain about his position on flying the Confederate flag on top of the state capitol building in South Carolina. The audience booed at the question. McCain said he was wrong to say back in 2000 that it should be up to the state to decide. He agrees with the current compromise. (I believe they fly the Confederate flag on the grounds of the state capitol but not on the building itself. It should be under glass in a state museum!!!)

Are they scheduled to have any debates in Georgia? That should be fun! How many state flags has Georgia gone through in the past few years? I believe they went through three different flags in less than three years. They removed the Confederate battle flag from the Georgia state flag but then the next flag had Confederate bars (three of them). I have no idea which flag is the current official state flag in Georgia right now because they keep filing lawsuits to abolish their state flag.

I think it's time they accepted the fact that they lost the war. It was a long time ago. Get over it. It's history. Put it in a museum and move on.

Giuliani just endorsed waterboarding and the audience applauded!!! Good grief! Giuliani said he would "tell the interrogators to use any interrogation methods they could think of." Any at all.

Romney is now talking about prevention. He's dodging the question on torture. OK, Romney just said "but not torture."

McCain just said that he regards the "enhanced interrogation techniques" as TORTURE! McCain is now telling them that ALL of the retired military and active-duty military support his position AGAINST TORTURE! He even mentioned that Colin Powell supports his position against torture. Take that, Giuliani!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

Giuliani just endorsed waterboarding and the audience applauded!!! Good grief! Giuliani said he would "tell the interrogators to use any interrogation methods they could think of." Any at all.

McCain just said that he regards the "enhanced interrogation techniques" as TORTURE! McCain is now telling them that ALL of the retired military and active-duty military support his position AGAINST TORTURE! He even mentioned that Colin Powell supports his position against torture. Take that, Giuliani!

I still can't get over the audience cheering wildly when Rudy Giuliani and several other GOP presidental candidates strongly endorsed torture! McCain was the only one to speak out strongly against torture under any circumstances. And he's the only one of them with personal experience in this field.

From the Washington Post: (Read the full article, I'm just quoting the closing paragraphs here.)

Torture betrays us and breeds new enemies

By Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar

Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld once wondered aloud whether we were creating more terrorists than we were killing. In counterinsurgency doctrine, that is precisely the right question. Victory in this kind of war comes when the enemy loses legitimacy in the society from which it seeks recruits and thus loses its "recuperative power."

The torture methods that Tenet defends have nurtured the recuperative power of the enemy. This war will be won or lost not on the battlefield but in the minds of potential supporters who have not yet thrown in their lot with the enemy. If we forfeit our values by signaling that they are negotiable in situations of grave or imminent danger, we drive those undecideds into the arms of the enemy. This way lies defeat, and we are well down the road to it.

This is not just a lesson for history. Right now, White House lawyers are working up new rules that will govern what CIA interrogators can do to prisoners in secret. Those rules will set the standard not only for the CIA but also for what kind of treatment captured American soldiers can expect from their captors, now and in future wars. Before the president once again approves a policy of official cruelty, he should reflect on that.

It is time for us to remember who we are and approach this enemy with energy, judgment and confidence that we will prevail. That is the path to security, and back to ourselves.

Charles C. Krulak was commandant of the Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999. Joseph P. Hoar was commander in chief of U.S. Central Command from 1991 to 1994.

[Ninong]

Daddy Dobson reiterates his love for Rudy Giuliani in an op-ed on WingNutDaily.

It's stuff like this that makes the GOP candidates' campaign so much more interesting that the Dems. I mean how excited can you get about $400 haircuts?

I can't wait for Big Daddy to reiterate his love for the Virgin Mary Cheney when she bears the Vice President's sixth -- and first out-of-wedlock -- grandchild. That miracle is due any day now. Look for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and the Democrats to offer congratulations to Mary Cheney and Heather Poe, whereas most of the Republicans will avoid mentioning Heather's name at all, assuming they say anything.

[Ninong]

Walnuts! took a couple of shots at Romney today!

Sen. John McCain used a blogger conference call today to unleash his toughest -- and most personal -- attack yet on former Gov. Mitt Romney.

Per a McCain aide, one of the bloggers asked about the immigration issue and Romney's attack on the compromise.

"Maybe I should wait a couple of weeks and see if it changes because its changed in less than a year from his position before," McCain responded, referring to his rival's immigration stance. "And maybe his solution will be to get out his small-varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn."

McCain's reference to "Guatemalans" was an allusion to the Boston Globe story from late last year that reported Romney used illegal immigrants from that country to do work on his lawn.

[Ninong]

A new answer to the question: What would Jesus do?

The gentle folk from the Westboro Baptist Church showed up at Jerry Falwell's funeral with their bullhorns and colorful signs for one of their typical God Hates Fags protests.



A student at Falwell's Liberty University decided he was going to bomb the Westboro Baptist protesters with his "homemade gasoline-based napalm bombs."



Mark Uhl, a student at Liberty University, was arrested today for possessing several homemade bombs which he told authorities he made to disrupt protesters at the funeral of Jerry Falwell.

The 19-year-old student, reportedly had six devices on his person or in his car when he was arrested. Some reports say the devices were gasoline-based "napalm" bombs.

Authorities were alerted to Uhl's plan by a relative.

[Ninong]

Fred Thompson may be laying the groundwork for jumping into the fray.

Former Tennessee Senator and potential Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has shut down a political action committee that paid out more money to his son than it did in political donations.

Federal Election Commission records analyzed by the Blotter on ABCNews.com show Thompson's committee paid $178,000 to his son's political consulting firm, Daniel Thompson Associates, since 2003.

In contrast, the committee made only $66,700 in contributions to other campaigns and political committees in the four years since Thompson retired from the Senate.

The payments to Thompson's son were described as for management and consulting services.

[...]

When Thompson left the Senate in 2002, he converted more than $370,000 in leftover campaign funds into a "leadership PAC," which allowed him to contribute to other politicians at a $5,000 limit and pay for a variety of other expenses, including travel and consulting services.

P.S. -- How can you justify paying $178,000 in "consulting fees" to your son to manage a total of $66,700 in total disbursements? He must have gotten this idea from the Tom DeLay school of accounting. DeLay paid his wife and daughter more than $500,000 in consulting fees out of campaign contributions. John Doolittle perfected this technique by having his wife take a 15% commission from all campaign contributions.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

A new answer to the question: What would Jesus do?

The gentle folk from the Westboro Baptist Church showed up at Jerry Falwell's funeral with their bullhorns and colorful signs for one of their typical God Hates Fags protests.



A student at Falwell's Liberty University decided he was going to bomb the Westboro Baptist protesters with his "homemade gasoline-based napalm bombs."



Mark Uhl, a student at Liberty University, was arrested today for possessing several homemade bombs which he told authorities he made to disrupt protesters at the funeral of Jerry Falwell.

The 19-year-old student, reportedly had six devices on his person or in his car when he was arrested. Some reports say the devices were gasoline-based "napalm" bombs.

Authorities were alerted to Uhl's plan by a relative.

Update:

Mark Uhl, the Liberty University student who was arrested with half a dozen homemade "napalm bombs" in his car was in Liberty University's Army ROTC program studying to become an Army Chaplain.

Onward Christian soldiers.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Ninong

I can't wait for Big Daddy to reiterate his love for the Virgin Mary Cheney when she bears the Vice President's sixth -- and first out-of-wedlock -- grandchild. That miracle is due any day now.

Vice President Cheney and his wife Lynne pose with their new grandson, Samuel David Cheney.

[Ninong]

John McCain is absolutely, positively delusional!

He's just as delusional as his BFF George W. Bush. Both of them are completely out of touch with reality!

First Walnuts! was trying to convince us that it's perfectly safe to go on rug-shopping strolls through outdoor markets in Baghdad and now he's trying to convince us that the majority of the American public supports funding the war without any benchmark restrictions. He's either lying through his teeth or he has totally lost it. Probably both!

Here is what McCain said this morning: "I was very disappointed to see Senator Obama and Senator Clinton embrace the policy of surrender by voting against funds to support our brave men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. This vote may win favor with MoveOn and liberal primary voters, but it's the equivalent of waving a white flag at al-Qaida."

So, according to Walnuts!, only MoveOn.org members and liberal primary voters support funding the war without benchmarks. That's a big lie and he knows it!!!

Only 15% of Americans support the position of the Bush Administration and Senator John "Walnuts!" McCain

Even 62% of Republicans disagree with him and his buddy, George W. Bush! That's right, the majority of Republicans favor attaching benchmarks or other restrictions to any war funding.

13% of Americans believe "Congress should block all funding for the war no matter what."

69% of Americans believe "Congress should allow funding, but only on the condition that the U.S. sets benchmarks for progress and the Iraqi government are meeting those goals."

That's 82% in favor of restrictions or an outright halt to funding!!!

15% of Americans believe "Congress should allow all funding for the war without any benchmark conditions."

Here.

P.S. -- Other numbers from that same poll: 30% overall job approval rating for President Bush! Majorities disapprove of Bush's handling of just about everything you can think of -- Iraq, the economy, immigration, terrorism, you name it. The bottom line: Bush sucks and Americans finally get it. Lots of luck to Walnuts! for tying his campaign to this loser.

72% of Americans agree that "generally, things in the country are seriously off on the wrong track."

61% say that the United States should never have taken military action against Iraq.

76% of respondents (including a majority of Republicans) say that the additional troops sent to Iraq this year have either had no impact or are making things worse. Only 20% believe the troop increase is improving the situation in Iraq.

53% said they have a favorable view of the Democratic party vs. 38% who said they have a favorable view of the Republican party.

Besides Bush's 30% overall job approval, 23% approve of his handling of the situation in Iraq, 25% approve of his handling of foreign policy, 27% approve of his handling of immigration issues, 38% approve of his handling of the economy and only 40% approve of his handling of the overall war on terror.


P.P.S. -- Another big lie that I'm tired of hearing on TV talk shows without the host challenging it is the claim that the Republicans are the majority party in this country. Some moronic GOP spokesperson said that a couple of days ago on Hardball and Chris Matthews let it slide. They haven't been the majority party for the past three years now. Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 5 percentage points (36.5% to 31.0%). The last year that Republicans outnumbered Democrats was 2004 and it was by only about 1 percentage point.


__________________________________________________ _________

"God has spoken to me. I listen to God, and what I’ve heard is that I’m supposed to devote myself to rebuilding the conservative base of the Republican Party, and I think we shouldn’t be underestimated." -- Tom DeLay, in the June 2007 issue of The New Yorker.

[Ninong]

Looks like Fred Thompson is definitely running!

He certainly fits in with the other Republican candidates, except for Romney. He's on his second wife, which is one less than Giuliani, but like Giuliani, he's much older than his wife -- 25 years to be exact. Future First Lady?

Newt Gingrich is also much older than his third wife but Newtie hasn't decided if he's running yet. In the meantime, he's taking potshots at all the other candidates from both political parties. The Thompson people are quick to point out that unlike Giuliani, McCain and Gingrich, he wasn't banging his current wife while he was still married to his previous wife.

And, as a veteran Hollywood actor, he should be an expert on the "Hollywood values" the Republicans are always ranting and raving about. And with 17 years experience as a heavy-hitting corporate lobbyist, he knows how to get things done in the nation's capital.

The GOP seems to have a fetish for Hollywood actors -- George Murphy, Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and now Fred Thompson. (Murphy and Reagan were both former presidents of the Screen Actors Guild.) I'm not sure if Thompson counts though, because he's not from California. I think only actors from California can be elected as Republican candidates.

Another thing Fred Thompson has in common with former Republican stars like Tom DeLay is that he loves illegal Cuban cigars -- but he doesn't think Michael Moore should have visited Cuba in violation of our ban on trade with that despicable dictator, Fidel Castro. Buying illegal Cuban cigars doesn't count if you're a Republican, just ask Tom DeLay. Actually Tom DeLay wouldn't know anything about "buying" Cuban cigars because all of his were given to him.

[Ninong]

Speaking of Fred Thompson...

I found a better picture of Thompson and his current wife, the wannabe First Lady.



If you think she looks a bit younger than Thompson, you're right. In fact, she's 25 years younger. She's even four years younger than Thompson's daughter. Not only that, but Thompson has grandchildren who are older than the two children he has with his new wife, Jeri, pictured above wearing a mermaid costume.

I think all these divorced Republicans make wonderful "Family Values" candidates. It's obvious Thompson was thinking ahead like Newt Gingrich. Gingrich said at the time that one of the reasons he divorced his first wife was because she was "too old to be First Lady and, besides, she has cancer." Gingrich's second wife was younger than him but not young enough to be First Lady material. His third wife is much younger than him. I see a trend here.

P.S. -- I almost forgot to mention Thompson's distinguished war record. No, he didn't actually serve in the military, he had other priorities, but he did play Lt. Col. Reinhardt in a 1989 episode of China Beach -- scroll down to item #35.

[Ninong]

Hey, don't forget to watch the GOP candidates debate this evening (7 p.m. EDT).

It's on CNN with goofy Wolf Blitzer moderating. Let's all watch to see if he gets even more ridiculous than he did with the Democrats at the same venue.

Fun and games on the GOP campaign trail:

Tom Tancredo and John Walnuts! McCain happened to end up at the same local restaurant for lunch today. Tancredo had the waitress bring an order of nachos to McCain's table. Haha! GOPies are such cutups!

No doubt Wolf will ask all the GOP candidates to hold up their hands if they approve of the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill. That should be interesting.

And Rudy Giuliani issued a personal apology today to Mitt Romney. Rudy has no idea why one of this campaing staff sent out that email about Mitt being the fulfillment of the "White Horseman" myth that is believed by many Mormons. Mitt says he is not the so-called White Horseman who is supposed to be elected President of the United States during the End Times to save the nation and the Constitution. Furthermore, Mitt says that legend isn't even official Mormon doctrine.

P.S. -- Unfortunately, Fred Thompson won't be there. He's expected to officially join the fray on July 4. So theatrical! He will then tour the country in his old red pickup truck trying to con people into thinking of him as an outsider in spite of his spending 26 years in Washington, D.C. -- 18 years as a high-paid corporate lobbyist and 8 years as a U.S. Senator.

[Ninong]

OK, I did my civic duty for an hour. I watched the first half of the GOP presidential candidates debate. I just couldn't take any more than that. At least it reinforces my belief that it will be virtually impossible for the Democrats to blow it this time.

BTW, the new Pew poll just came out and Bush's job approval is at 29%, which is the lowest ever in that poll. He still retains the approval of 6% of Democrats. They must be from the Joe Lieberman-Zell Miller wing of the Democratic Party.

[Aragorn]

I caught it last night Ninong. I admit, there were moments when I had to leave as I was sickened by the neo-con rhetoric. I know you don't like Ron Paul and I know that he doesn't stand a chance, but I've donated to his campaign now.

Ron Paul was the only candidate (with what little time they gave him) who stayed on message and didn't back away from his anti-war stance.

Ghouliani scares the hell out of me when I see him up there spouting "It's our moral obligation to spread our freedom and democracy to the world"...We are Empire. WTF?

[Ninong]

The Republican presidential candidates are so clueless, it's pathetic!

Here are just a few random observations from last night's exhibition of ignorance.

Rudy Giuliani went on and on about how it would be "unthinkable to leave Saddam Hussein in charge of Iraq and be able to fight the war on terror." 'America's Mayor' was telling us that invading Iraq was a good thing and he would do it all over again even knowing what we know now. This is a recurrent theme among Republican politicians who are out of touch with reality.

Invading a Muslim Arab country where we are now bogged down in a civil war has reinvigorated al-Qaida. It has tied up our military resources and made it virtually impossible for us to do anything else, including waging war against the people who attacked us on 9/11. Iraq was not an imminent threat to our national security. Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein was not aiding al-Qaida.

The Republicans continue to try to mislead the American people about the pre-war intelligence. They still point to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's presence in Iraq prior to the invasion and claim that is proof that Saddam was harboring terrorists. We know for certain that Saddam was trying to catch al-Zarqawi so that he could kill him. He was not harboring him. Al-Zarqawi was holed up in a Kurdish-controlled area of Iraq with Ansar al-Islam.

Giuliani claims Saddam would have given biological and chemical weapons to al-Qaida if we had not taken him out first. What biological and chemical weapons? There were none. They were all destroyed. We now know that for a fact, so what is Giuliani talking about? And besides, Saddam despised Sammy bin Laden because bin Laden said Saddam was not a true believer who was not going to paradise and not getting anywhere near the 72 virgins. Saddam was a ruthless dictator but he was not a friend of al-Qaida.

Al-Qaida in Mesopotamia (sometimes called Al-Qaida in Iraq in the media) was formed by the Jordanian anti-monarchist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. After he beheaded Nick Berg, he got permission from Sammy to use the al-Qaida name. Most of the Al-Qaida operatives in Iraq are home grown. Only a few are foreign fighters. It's true that foreigners have entered Iraq to engage our troops but that's because we're there. They were not there before we got there and they would not be there now if we had not taken out Saddam Hussein.

If we had not invaded Iraq, we wouldn't be having the problems we are having right now in Afghanistan. If we had finished the job in Afghanistan, it would be a relatively stable country by now. As it is now, Afghanistan is in much worse shape now than it was a year after we expelled the Taliban. The Taliban has retaken much of the countryside. They are closing schools and hospitals and killing teachers and we can do little to stop them because we are tied up in Iraq. The opium poppy crop in Afghanistan is setting new records every year and now they're growing poppies in Iraq because they realize that they can get away with it.

As long as the Republican presidential candidates continue to say that it was a good thing to invade Iraq and that they would do it all over again, they are digging themselves deeper into a hole that they can't get out of. Sixty-one percent of Americans now believe it was a mistake to have gone into Iraq in the first place. Anyone running for office who tells them they are mistaken, is digging himself into a hole that he won't be able to get out of by November 2008. The Republicans are preaching to the 29% of Americans who still think George W. Bush is doing a good job as president.

Why do the Republicans think they can get mileage out of attacking Sen. Harry Reid for saying exactly what our own military commanders have been saying? Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez (of Abu Ghraib fame) was the latest high-ranking military figure to say that the war cannot be won militarily. Sanchez said that the best we can hope for is a statemate that allows us to leave. Even Gen. David Petraeus has said the exact same thing. Petraeus has said that a military solution is not possible and that the only way out of Iraq is through a political solution. But when Reid said exactly the same thing a few weeks ago, the Republicans started calling him a traitor who should be strung up from the nearest tree. Reid said he told President Bush he thought the war could not be won through military force but that the U.S. should still pursue political, economic and diplomatic means to bring peace to Iraq. This is part of the Feingold-Reid proposal to begin a staged redeployment out of Iraq. This is exactly the same as what our own military commanders are telling us -- a military victory is not possible! Reid went on to say, "I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and -- you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows -- (know) this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday." Period! That's what he said verbatim.

Both Robert Gates and Condoleezza Rice have said that a military victory in Iraq is not possible. All of our military leaders have said the same thing. But if you use the word "lost," you are somehow a traitor. What Reid probably should have said is the the Bush Administration won the war but lost the peace. However, I wouldn't even give them credit for that much. It was only an illusion to think that we were truly victorious during the first three weeks of the campaign. We did not secure anything on our march to Baghdad, and once there, we permitted the looting of virtually everything except the oil ministry building. Donald Rumsfeld famously declared that the people were just enjoying their freedom and that he had seen the same vase a hundred times. This is in no way a reflection on our troops, it is a reflection on the civilian military leadership -- the secretary of defense, the president and the vice president. The vice president has absolutely no constitutional authority in this area but we all know he was the one calling the shots. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz designed this battle plan and then forced it down the throats of the military. Gen. Eric Shinseki told them it wouldn't work and they treated him with contempt. Rumsfeld did not tolerate dissent from the uniformed military leadership. Rumsfeld, who never saw combat himself, knew better. At least he flew some training missions. Cheney and Wolfowitz were both draft dodgers.

Even the toppling of Saddam's statue was an arranged PR stunt. It was not a spontaneous demonstration as we were led to believe at the time. We closed off all the surrounding streets and assembled the crowd we wanted for the cameras. We then had a military tank on hand to pull the statue down for the cameras. I'm not knocking it, I'm just saying it was a planned PR event.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Aragorn

I caught it last night Ninong. I admit, there were moments when I had to leave as I was sickened by the neo-con rhetoric. I know you don't like Ron Paul and I know that he doesn't stand a chance, but I've donated to his campaign now.

I wouldn't say that I don't like Dr. Ron Paul personally. I just don't think he has a snowball's chance in hell of winning the Republican Party's presidential nomination but at least he's willing to tell it like it is on some of the Iraq issues.

Last night he mentioned something about our involvement in the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Iran in 1953 as one of the reason we have problems in that region. Of course he's absolutely correct but that's not something the Republicans want to hear. Long before Saint Ronald Reagan, there was Saint Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was Eisenhower who ordered the CIA to take out the Iranian leadership in 1953 because he feared they would nationalize the British oil interests there. At that time Iran was believed to have the world's largest oil reserves. That was long before Saudi Arabia's oil fields bloomed.

Trivia: The CIA agent in charge of that operation was Teddy Roosevelt's grandson. Reza Pahlavi was scared the coup was failing, so he fled the country. Three days later we had to get his ass back to Tehran so we could install him as the shah.

[Aragorn]

I'm paraphrasing here, but what was really scary last night was Ghouliani stating "We need to spread our freedom and democracy to the Muslim world."...Huh? Oh and "We need to retrain our military for Nation Building."...WTF? All hail Emperor Ghouliani...We are Empire. I'll post more later, but I've got to run...

FWIW, I know that RP is a remote long shot...but i have to stay true to my convictions. I've been voting since 1978. I recently made a vow that I will no longer, EVER, vote for the lesser of two evils...I will always vote my conscience. I can't go back.