Comments Posted By Richard Bottoms
Displaying 161 To 170 Of 362 Comments
THOUGHTS ON THE PASSAGE OF HEALTH CARE REFORM
They are just too small a minority to have had any impact at all in “lessening the damage.”
What??? No, really. If the GOP had a plan other than hope Obama fails they could have acted like statesmen (and women) and had rel input from day one.
Their one and only strategy, if ou can call it that was to try to scare the public into clamoring for the status quo.
Except that the quo came right around time for Open Enrollment where everyone got to see the premium increases of 10-20%, recisions, and more horror stories from the current system.
Obama isn't Hitler, Pol Pot, and Stalin as some suggested and the GOP missed an opportunity to be part of the solution.
We'll lose seats next year no matter what. Better to have a win and take Limbaugh's shots which are coming no matter what the Democrats do.
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 8.11.2009 @ 09:23
Pwnage.
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 8.11.2009 @ 03:15
THE HOPELESS BANALITY OF THE BLOGOSPHERE
I don’t see how PTSD could possibly be transferred by talking to someone who underwent a traumatic event. The definition requires that the sufferer went through the event.
The military makes bravery in the face of battle it's highest honor. It might simply come down to Hasan not being willing to face his fear of going to war, of being thought a coward.
One of many examples from your post: how do you “know” that Hasan joined the Army out of “duty?”
How do you know he didn't? It underlies why most people join in the first place, even with the enticements of college and such.
Perhaps he wasn't able to live up to what a soldier should be. Not the first time it's motivated a terrible act.
Captain Jeffery MacDonald comes to mind.
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 6.11.2009 @ 19:57
The Party of Perpetual Outrage swings into action.
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 6.11.2009 @ 14:12Well, if you were wondering what paranoiac smear artist would be the first to step out and attempt to name President Barack Obama as the man who guided Nidal Malik Hasan to his murderous rampage at Fort Hood yesterday, the answer -- naturally! -- is Jerome Corsi. Corsi has a long history of lunatic, fact-averse ravings and he fails to disappoint on that regard on the pages of World Net Daily, today, in a piece entitled "Shooter advised Obama transition." Except, of course, he didn't do any such thing.
Essentially, what the HSPI did (and all of this is spelled out explicitly in this document's executive summary) is convene a giant group of security wonks and academics, heard some briefings, made some "internal deliberations," and generated a set of priorities and recommendations. Then those recommendations got published, and maybe someone at the White House read them, but it's more likely that the content ended up as material to cite in the middle of further security-wonk discussions.
And at some point in the process, Nidal Hasan might have sat in a room while this was happening, with a few hundred other people.
But none of this constitutes formal advice given to the president on homeland security during the transition of power. This was a university panel that has sod all to do with the White House, generating ideas, and calling it "advice" for the president. If two or three of you wanted to meet up with me at the Au Bon Pain on Pennsylvania Avenue this afternoon and chat today, we will have accomplished basically the same thing.
Corsi, in fact, knows this. He writes:
While the GWU task force participants included several members of government, including representatives of the Department of Justice and the U.S Department of Homeland Security, there is no indication in the document that the group played any formal role in the official Obama transition, other than to serve in a university-based advisory capacity.
In short, the facts Corsi obtained torpedo the premise of his piece, which, I remind you, is that the "shooter advised [the] Obama transition." Were this being written for a responsible journalistic entity, some creature called an "editor" would have stepped in and said, "Hey, Jerome, you realize that by your own findings, you article is complete horseshit, right?" But this is World Net Daily, written by and for complete charlatans.
UPDATE: I contacted Frank Cilluffo, the director of the HSPI at George Washington University, who tells me that Nidal Hasan has no affiliation with the HSPI or with George Washington University, at all. "[Hasan] has no role on the task force, other than the fact that he attended these meetings as an audience member, as did hundreds of others." Hasan's name appears on the list of participants only because he provided the HSPI with an RSVP, indicating his attendance. Cilluffo told me, "We always record RSVPs and publish them as a matter of transparency, and will continue to do so."
The shooter might be closer to Charles Whitman than Tim McVeigh. I'm surprised the name hasn't come up more.
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 6.11.2009 @ 11:34
'V' FOR VILLIFICATION: LIBERAL PARADISE, OBAMA NIGHTMARE?
The teabagger loons came to Washing today to "Kill the Bill". Unfortunately the angry mob gets to share the news cycle with an angry shooter at Fort Hood, Texas.
Be thankful no one thought packing heat during the teabagger's outing would be a good idea today.
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 5.11.2009 @ 18:48
Nancy Pelosi has two more votes in the House, last time I checked governors don't get to vote on legislation. The teabaggers gave us a win where it should have been a loss.
More. Louder please.
Moose & Squirrel, 2012
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 4.11.2009 @ 14:24
TOO DELICIOUS TO BE TERMED 'IRONY'
Dear conservative Taliban, thanks for the win in New York.
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 4.11.2009 @ 04:11
But I am tired of arguing with brick walls. Like the liberals from 1980-2006, conservatives are condemned to minority status no matter how badly Obama screws up.
ed.
Yep.
Palin/Jindal
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 2.11.2009 @ 20:26
Moose & Squirrel, 2012
'UNRULY' CONSERVATIVES SHOCK THE GOP IN NY23
ed.
The job now is to marginalize the crazies while giving a strong voice to those who wish to reform the party by bringing it back to its true principles."Good luck with that."
Comment Posted By Richard bottoms On 1.11.2009 @ 19:57
~Wolverine, X3
