Comments Posted By grognard
Displaying 51 To 60 Of 108 Comments
'FROM THE BEIRUT BOMBING TO 9/11'
The CIA complained for some time that the only money they could get was for something that would be built in some district to create jobs that some member of congress could point to on election day. Another problem was the switch over from the cold war mentality of observation vs. human intelligence, obviously terrorist groups weren’t massing easily observed battalions of tanks or aircraft. But of course this is an part of an objective analysis and should be disregarded when blaming liberals is simple and easy.
Comment Posted By grognard On 26.10.2008 @ 12:09
A SHORT, BUT PIQUANT NOTE, ON KNUCKLEDRAGGERS
Prewar Spain, Italy, and Germany. See you at the barricades. That is where we are headed, and both sides have their hands in it.
Comment Posted By grognard On 15.10.2008 @ 16:22
IF ELECTED, OBAMA WILL BE MY PRESIDENT
Yeah I can’t wait for this name calling to end and the killing to begin. That’s where this all ends up just like it did in prewar Germany. Oh well, Germany finally came out of it so I guess the US will also one day. You Conservatives and Liberals have fun slaughtering each other, I’ll just wait for the smoke to clear and bury the bodies.
Comment Posted By grognard On 14.10.2008 @ 23:54
AYERS-OBAMA: THE VOTERS DON'T CARE
Every Democrat that ever ran for office has been portrayed by the right as a bomb throwing leftist. I can guarantee you that this charge, even if true, will be ignored as just another right wing kool aid induced rant. Same thing for the guilt by association charges from the Democrats for that matter. Anyone that has had a life can look back and find someone unsavory that they knew, the charge that you are some fellow traveler with anyone you have ever associated with is nonsense for most people.
I voted for Bush and the Republicans thinking I would get a reduction in government and fiscal responsibility. What I got was the K street project and the Rove plan of earmark deficit spending in key districts to win elections. The Republican party is as much a party of the big lies as the Democrats. The Republicans can blame this on the media all they want, but only by loosing this election is there any hope that they will stop the blame game and look in the mirror to find the real reason for this shift.
Comment Posted By grognard On 8.10.2008 @ 10:22
So breaking up Iraq is a “loony” idea, like, oh I don‘t know, breaking up Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR? Yes here is a good chance of external fights as the Pakistan/India model suggests and there is no doubt that these newly created states still have problems but the idea is not totally without merit. Once these states are created there is a good chance that the animosity would be internal. You can make a good case that factions would fight over the spoils of a government they can get their hands on rather than going after their neighbors.
Comment Posted By grognard On 1.10.2008 @ 13:50
SOME CUTESY OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMING APOCALYPSE
First off a disclaimer, I was one of those who benefited from loose credit. On my first home I paid a minimum down payment, nowhere near the 20% I should have put down. I bought at the very bottom of a very depressed housing market. When my home almost doubled in value I used the equity to buy a better home in a better neighborhood. I am living well within my means and made sure that no matter what happens I would always be able to make my mortgage payment, but I qualified for a loan that was way beyond my means. There is no way could I have taken on the amount of debit I supposedly qualified for.
What strikes me about this situation is how we have been doing this same thing over and over again. We should have learned after the Great Depression that fast and loose credit was a problem. Instead we had the savings and loan meltdown, watched Japan go through an inflated real-estate banking crisis, and now this. We have banks issuing insurance like contracts on debit without the insurance company credentials, or insurance company scrutiny by government. We have people “qualifying” for mortgages that they could in no way afford, and with no down payment. We have banks extending credit and obviously not understanding exactly what the risks were for these sub prime loans.
So now we have a bailout, and if the taxpayers take on this debit there will be demands for more regulation, but I doubt we have learned anything. Never underestimate human ingenuity for finding out ways around any regulation and coming back to exactly this same situation in another decade or so.
Comment Posted By grognard On 24.09.2008 @ 11:28
GOP CONUNDRUM: MCCAIN VICTORY WILL DELAY PARTY REFORM
I have to admit I was one of those idiots that actually believed that the Republicans would honor the Contract with America. I saw how the pay as you go restrictions produced a surplus and naively thought that with a Republican president the long needed down sizing of the Federal Government would now take place. I watched with disgust when three weeks after the election the Republicans did away with the spending restrictions and we were once again on the road to defect spending.
I expected a Conservative revolt but all my Conservative friends wanted to talk about was Liberals, what they might do, could do, should do , etc. etc. When I questioned the preoccupation with he left I was told to tune in Rush Limbaugh to find out the great truth about Liberals. That was an eye opening experience. No talk about what the Republicans were doing just one Kool-Aid rant after another about Liberals. When the details of the K street project came out the pieces all fell into place. Anytime Conservatives started to question what Republicans were doing all Rove had to do was have his henchmen, like Limbaugh, pull out the “liberal bashing bauble” and like a bunch of children distracted by a shinny toy the Conservative conversation turned back to bashing Liberals.
Wm. F. Buckley was an intellectual who challenged the Liberal concept that government had all of he answers to any problem. Limbaugh found out the bashing Liberals made money. Rove found out that he could get away with anything by bringing out the “liberal bauble“ and turn Conservatism into a Liberal bashing cult that would allow him to make the Republicans the “permanent governing party” . But this permanent party had only one goal, staying in power, Conservative values on abortion, personal freedom, guns, and deficit spending were concepts that could easily be dropped to win elections so long as you controlled the “liberal bashing bauble” to keep Conservatives preoccupied with Liberals.
So Conservatism is going to reform? I’ll believe that when Limbaugh and company are called out for what they are and Conservatives drop the Liberal bashing start talking about the real problem, how they will go about selling their solutions to today’s problems as an alternative to the Liberal “government has all the answers” theme. That Liberals are a bunch of loonies is a given, but bashing them does not constitute a political philosophy. Good luck with reform, it would take someone with the stature of Buckley to take on the well entrenched Limbaugh brand of Conservatism and I just don’t see it happening regardless of who wins the election.
Comment Posted By grognard On 17.09.2008 @ 16:18
If I wanted to tear this country apart I would knock off a right wing radio god make a claim for “Lefties for Justice” or some other loony organization. Then I would knock off some leftie like Michael Moore and claim that “Righties for God “ did it for retribution. Them I’d sit back, pop open a beer, and watch the kool aid drinker beat each other senseless in the streets and do my tearing apart the country work for me.
Comment Posted By grognard On 13.09.2008 @ 11:21
Why AQ hasn’t figured this out by now only shows how pathetically stupid our enemy is.
THE LEFT WILTS IN THE FACE OF AGGRESSION
Who cares what liberals think, they are not the ones in power. This situation has nothing to do with liberals, other than it is easy to bash them instead of confronting the reality of what the Russians have done and how a supposedly Conservative government let them get away with it.
Problem one is that Bush looked into Putin's eyes and was charmed into believing that Russia would be a wonderful, peaceful partner in Europe and be satisfied with the new reality of the post cold war world. How anyone could believe this ex KGB officer was a partner in peace is beyond me, and Putin quickly showed his true colors when he jailed or assassinated dissidents and sized control of the media. We should have pushed for an international peacekeeping force to replace the Russians from the very beginning, Russians occupying Georgian territory was a disaster waiting to happen.
Problem two was that we realized that we were not getting out of Iraq any time soon and Russian-American relations were deteriorating. We warned the Georgian government not to provoke the Russians, knowing full well that we could not do anything if the Russians reacted. The recent events show we were absolutely right. The scale and swiftness of he operation was something planned well in advance. Putin only need an excuse and the Georgians provided it on a silver platter. Yes Georgia sent troops to Iraq and has been a good ally, but that does not let them off the hook for not heeding our warnings about Russia.
You can bash liberals all you want , but for Conservatism to survive there needs to be a understanding in the movement that denouncing he other side for every ill known to mankind is a Kool Aid drinking cult, not a political philosophy on a better way to run the government.
Comment Posted By grognard On 16.08.2008 @ 09:56
OIL AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION CAN REDEFINE THE RACE
Just some thoughts
1, The cheap easy to pump and easy to refine oil has already been found. The offshore and Arctic oil is more costly to drill and pump Tar sand and shale oil extraction is even more expensive, but there is a vast supply. Bottom line is that gas prices go up because refining and extraction costs are up
2, Oil is a world commodity, even if we find more in the US that does not necessarily mean we get a special deal on price. The booming Asian economies are demanding more oil, even if you can extract more oil the demand keeps up with supply. The total oil reserves offshore are a drop in the bucket if you consider world demand. Prices might stagnate at best, or rise at a more gradual rate as tar sand and other sources come on line.
Liberals and Conservatives can scream and yell and call each other Hitler all they want but the whole situation is basic economics, not politics.
Enough thinking, back to name calling!
Comment Posted By grognard On 29.07.2008 @ 21:32
