Letters to the Editor
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@had_enough
You make plenty of sense. One point I'd like to underline: that trillion bucks we've borrowed and spent didn't get raked into a pile and set on fire. Most of it has gone into American pockets. The bullets, the Humvees, the M-16's, the Blackhawk helicopters -- all the materiel and support for our expeditionary force has been provided by American companies who pay their workers, and of course their CEOs, whose income for the most part is re-plowed into the American economy (except for some of those nifty foreign-made yachts and private jets). So the burden isn't just that we owe the Chinese a shitload of money. It's that our economy is at least partly held up by this spending and when it stops and we haven't educated our kids or refurbished our infrastructure or underwritten basic research or done all the myriad things the borrowed money could have been used for that would have enabled us comfortably to pay it back with interest, we're going to be a much lesser country than we were when we started.
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Heh, funny, me laugh
Your pathetic trashing against the inevitable tide of history is reminiscent of King Canute's attempts to command the waves. Despite your best efforts, President Bush will be remembered as the unleasher of American greatness and world leadership. You will have a rude shock on November 4, 2008 as President-Elect Rudy Giuliani obliterates Hillary Clinton in the most one-sided Presidential election in American history and the Republican Party makes a clean sweep of Congress which will make 1994 and 2002 look like a bagatelle. Pelosi and her defeatocrats will be jettisoned even in the most supposedly safe liberal districts as the American electorate spurns them with the utter disgust they richly deserve.
NOW I get it. Is that you, Mr. Colbert? This is pretty good stuff. Looking forward to seeing you Monday night as you return from that painfully long 2-week vacation. Look out--there's a bear!
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@Some Anonymie who spoke early about St. David
“A friend whose brother is a highly placed general in the US Army tells me that Petraeus may be the darling of the press and the Washington establishment, but he is not much liked by his fellow high-ranking officers. He is quite skilled at buffing his image as genius leader and tactician, but is seen as a self-promoter who claims credit and cuts out those have made his success possible.”
Gen. Petraeus has the same political mind as Colin Powell and those other senior officers who rise to the top in the military through inflated egos and self-promotion. Anything that Petraeus says has to be judged with a lot of grains of salt because he has now staked his entire reputation on becoming a historical giant through his “genius” and “winning” in Iraq. It is entirely impossible for him to act in any objective or impartial manner because he would die inside if his ego were to deflate and he ends up being blamed for unnecessarily prolonging the war, which is bound to happen. Deflate it eventually will as it has for almost all these emotionally scarred “leaders.” I’m sure Powell has died inside even though he has tried unsuccessfully to explain and blame his way out of his UN performance and not really trying to slow if not stop the Iraq invasion.
Colin Powell and Petraeus are detested by the true military leaders who made it to the top by taking care of their troops and mission and not giving a damn about promotion except for how it would better serve the troops and the nation. Generals like Powell and Petraeus thrive when we have sick leaders like Nixon, Reagan and Bush.
But of course we should listen with baited breath for the wondrous things that Petraeus will impart to the nation.
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Sorry To Go A Bit "Beyond Unserious" But...
...the notion of "forced withdrawl" has about the same connection to reality as "conventional wisdom." Stop chasing this white whale and think something through.
Do you really imagine that this congress hitting this regime in the knee with its purse is going to "force" anything but more muted chuckling?
By what mechanism? Has someone alchemized the magic potion to circumvent "Rule By Signing Statement?" I thought not.
Or has the departure of "Fredo" Gonzales suddenly instilled in this family of Nixonites, Iran/contra-dors, and Poppy pardonees a longing for the "legitimacy" found in acquiescence to such "quaint" notions as constitutional gov't, popular sovereignty, and avoidance of war criminality? Hardly.
If there is something other than impeachment that qualifies as non-masturbatory, I think it's long past time that even the vaunted netroots need to describe it in tangible terms. Either that or admit that they're just carping about having to occupy the bench seats in the Euphemedia Peanut Gallery.
Why not just have a go? You can say it. "Impeachment" ... "for Torture and War Crimes" ... "for Terrorizing the Nation into War with a Bomb-Threat of Mushroom Clouds!" ... "It is our ONLY moral, patriotic option" ... "let the chips fall where they may."
It's just reality. It won't bite you.
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And this can be summed up in one word
"The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment." - casual_observer
Which makes liberals - unreliable.
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thedeanpeople
If there is something other than impeachment that qualifies as non-masturbatory, I think it's long past time that even the vaunted netroots need to describe it in tangible terms. Either that or admit that they're just carping about having to occupy the bench seats in the Euphemedia Peanut Gallery.
If Congress' unequivocally cutting off funding or conditioning funds on withdrawal wouldn't stop the President from doing what he pleases (according to you), then why exactly would impeachment?
This line of argument is facile but illusory. Constitutionally, the legislature's power of the purse is at least as powerful as the power of impeachment.
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I miss the days...
When people would complain about how Bill Clinton just did what ever the polls said we wanted. Government of the people, by the people and for the people. It wasn't perfect, but at least we weren't being completely ignored.