fletch

They arent laughing now. Here is Schiff on CNBC a couple of days ago.

Sounds great, but last I heard, the place was crawling with Orcs. Funny how you left that part out.

Leave it to the Obama camp to import a European idea to "give people a sense of what it means to be an American."

If the automakers do come up with a plan for viability, let them propose it to the banks. If no bank would be willing to loan them the money, why should we?

I think the idea that the Iraq war was totally unnecessary comes mainly from the view of hindsight. Viewed within the context of 9/11 and the unanimity of global intelligence agencies as to the stockpiles of WMD and Saddam's pursuit of nuclear capabilities, the US was justified in taking him out. Once we had done so, leaving was not an option, at least not a very good one. Had we left after ousting Saddam, God knows what would have filled the power vacuum. Al qaeda simply would have moved its operations from Afghanistan to Iraq and we would have had to go back in there anyway. This is not to say that I support Bush's handling of the first few years of the war. It took the Democrats taking control of congress to get that blockhead to change from a strategy that was clearly not working. Had he done so sooner, many of those 4000+ American lives might have been spared. For that, he deserves whatever criticism he gets.

I like it alot. I do have one minor criticism, however. In the very beginning, you have two sentences that are not sentences: "Especially at night, with only the faint bluish glow of Lesser Big Moon." "And a good place in which to meet someone unobserved, even had The Woods been crawling with Lianastran’s enjoying a mild evening." I think you can get away with that sort of thing if you do it occasionally or if you are trying to emphasize something, but I had to re-read the first part to make sure I understood what you were saying. Other than that, I thought it was great.

Why not? I strikes me that we did both. How can turning a nation with the worlds largest reserves of oil from a belligerent anti-western dictatorship into a pro-western democracy be seen as anything other than victory? If one looks at the situation in Iraq exactly two years ago, the US was not only on the verge of a humiliating defeat, but a civil or even regional war in the Middle East. We did, indeed, snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Bush, Gen. David Petraeus, and the thousands of soldiers who risked their lives there have earned and deserve the term 'victory.' Today as VI Day sounds good to me.

As if any of those politicians are qualified to judge the merits of any "plan" put forward by the auto makers anyway. I suspect what will happen is that the auto makers will put forth a plan that will "convice" the Democratic members of the panel to approve a bailout. The viability plan will be nothing more than 'business as usual.'

You can hear that here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5p3OB6roAg...feature=related

Oh, the irony.

Damn it. I knew that D- I got in college German class would come back to haunt me!

Well, you cleared that up. Now, if you could work that nonsensical statement into a rhyme you could write for Dr Seuss. I wasnt trying to impress you, but I will put that on my 'to do' list.

Good thing it wasnt a bratwurst. You know how those Germans get when they are agitated.

They dont object to two men entering into a legally binding contract with one another, they object to labeling that contract a marriage. Now that California has defined marriage as one man and one woman, whose rights have been violated? A gay man has the exact same rights as a straight man--they can marry anyone of the opposite sex who is willing to have them. There is nothing to stop a gay man from getting married, so long as he marries a woman. How is a faith based initiative more egregious than a non faith based initiative? Is a government handout in the name of religion any worse than any other government handout done in the name of the common good? Who said that? I dont think he broke any real ground with that accusation.

CONGRESS You have two cows. The state passes a law requiring you to double your output of meat to feed the poor. Then blames you for the shortage of milk.

What you are suggesting is that God makes no distinction between the man who reaps a monetary reward for his virtues--hard work, productivity, ingenuity--and the man who reaps a monetary reward for his vices--theft and fraud. He condemns both men equally to eternal damnation. I am not sure what value a god is that cannot make simple moral distinctions. Explain to me again why such a creature is worthy of my worship.

You got that right. What a dick He turned out to be.

I dont think it is much of a mystery, mammon.

Well, he is giving 5 guys from ARI exclusive access to his entire 3 hour show, so they will have ample opportunity to present their views on a range of subjects. Liddy is not Ingram, and this is not some 5-minute interview where the host can just shout them down. He doesnt operate that way. I suspect that many people here will have an entirely different view of Liddy after the show airs. He is a very interesting and thoughtful guy.

There are two things we know for certain about Obama: 1) He hangs around some unsavory characters. 2) He will oppose any effort to expand domestic oil production. Everything else is a question mark. What that means is that after 4 or (God forbid) 8 years of Obama we can expect that the US will have an even greater dependency on foreign oil, there will be less of it to go around and we will be paying alot more for it. The global economic slowdown has given us a respite from the high price of gas and an opportunity to increase our own production. Doing so would mean a greater supply of oil when the world economy recovers and the demand for oil and the price begins to rise. Obama, however, will only hamstring the industry guaranteeing that one legacy of the his administration is $200 per barrel oil.

Why should such a contract be limited to two people? Who decides what the definition of marriage is? If it is not one man and one woman, what is it?

I think people like Rudy Giuliani fit the"fiscally conservative, socially liberal" profile. He ran such a poor campaign that it is still unknown as to whether such a candidate can win nationally. But regionally the answer is yes. Republicans need a regional strategy: the fiscally conservative, socially liberal style that wins on the east and west coast like Giuliani, Ptaki, Romney that might carry traditional blue states in a general election. A Republican that can win in places like New York or California can afford to lose the Christians in Alabama. But they need to develope these type of candidates first.

What was the context for that quote you pulled from Jensen's book? Did he comment on her quote or did he just leave it hang there? I think if we knew what the next paragraph was, it might be easier to decide if he was intentionally misrepresenting what she said.

I think the problem is that we dont have any idea of what Obama will do. He may not either. But we know his principles--bigger government, more regulation, more spending, higher taxes. We can hope that the facts of reality constrain him, but since he has no real record, there is no way to know for sure. He can do a lot of damage beneath the surface through increased regulation and environmental policies. (Who he picks to head the EPA will give us a clue) Small, unknown,and seemingly insignificant laws can cause untold damage. Look how much damage the CRA did. We also know that he will not expand oil drilling and exploration, which means that when and if the economy does recover, look for gas prices to to $5+. He has said many things, promised even more, and has been vague about just about everything. Since his entire adult life has been about aligning himself with the most radical elements of the left, I dont hold out much hope that he will moderate now that he has the power to enact much of what he claims to believe. But, we shall see.

I think the difference is that Carter was considered to be the cause of the economic maliase of the late 70's. Obama, on the other hand, can always lay the blame on others even if his Rx makes the problem even worse. FDR managed to get re-elected 3 times while pursuing policies that made things worse, so it can be done.