A Conversion?

    Friedman has been a consistent source of disappointment in his response to the Iraq war, it's connections to terrorism in general, but he redeems himself a little today.  Check this out and let me know what you think.

Comments

[ap]

I don't know much about Friedman, but I saw an interview with Tim Russert where he used some of the same language he's using in this op piece. I liked it.

[zero]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/do-taxes-hurt-is-gove_b_67468.html

good article about taxes and government.

[Kate]

Should we have a roll call and have everyone check in? (Including whoever's blog this is?)

I'll give y'all an easy question and you just chime in with your answer.

Best TV ever:
CSpan or Dancing with the Stars (DWTS)?

[Kate]

DWTS

Sorry zero. ;@)

[zero]

well, katie bug. i have become so weary of watching stoopid democrats cave to bully repubs that i actually watched dwts last night!!!! but went to bed early so i didn't see it all. piggies!

[DB]

Guess I'll vote Republican, so I'll know what I vote for I'll get. There's a cleanse-ing hurricane a'blowing in tomorrow... if it's named "Democratic" it'll just be a fart.
(My "Eyore as political commentator" imitation, ya'll.)

[zero]

that eeyore, my fine friend.

i'm (as usual) voting for independent candidates. a dude has a vote independent campaign, trying to get voters to be independent so both (all) parties much earn our votes not just rely on party line and stoopid slogans.

[DB]

Can't even spell Eeyore right. Guess I'll vote for the Indies too.

[zero]

you go, david!

[zero]

hi everybody! hi! i'm still here! are you!?

[jerry]

Hi, zero.

I guess mr. chuch is too busy...or there's not much to talk about...or...

How have you been anyway :@)

[zero]

i've been just peachy, jerry! nice of you to ask. however, i'm still definitely ticked about the dems not taking care of bush, cheney and stopping the war(s). and how could anyone be prolife and vote against schip for kids? we really need rain here in southern illinois. thanks for the piggies and nice talkin' to ya!

[zero]

i've been just peachy, jerry! nice of you to ask. however, i'm still definitely ticked about the dems not taking care of bush, cheney and stopping the war(s). and how could anyone be prolife and vote against schip for kids? we really need rain here in southern illinois. thanks for the piggies and nice talkin' to ya!

[zero]

sorry about that double load. but it's more than most have said around here in awhile! haahahaahhhaaaahahahaaaaa.....
piggies!!!

[zero]

as i write i am watching the dalai lama receive the congressional gold medal. while it is moving to watch this ceremony, it is absolutely hypocritical of mitch mcconnel and john boehner speak words of "peace" and "freedom" for tibet. and it is downright obscene that unmitigated evil in the form of george bush sitting next to and speaking about the lama and his struggle against china on behalf of the tibetan people. obscene.

[DB]

Ironic:
maybe the Dali Lama is practising the values of Bush's stated faith system as he sits there loving what must actually be the diametrical opposite of his value system... "compasssion for all sentient beings" perhaps maybe "loving his enemy" so that Dali Lama has no enemy and can sit unperturbed next to the spirit that guides George W Bush. One hopes the light might penetrate the darkness.

[DB]

The Bush Doctrine of Pre-Emption

On September 20, the Administration unveiled its new National Security Strategy. This document addresses the new realities of our age, particularly the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terrorist networks armed with the agendas of fanatics. The Strategy claims that these new threats are so novel and so dangerous that we should "not hesitate to act alone, if necessary, to exercise our right of self-defense by acting pre-emptively."

But in the discussion over the past few months about Iraq, the Administration often uses the terms "pre-emptive" and "preventive" interchangeably. In the realm of international relations, these two terms have long had very different meanings.
…
Historically, the United States has condemned the idea of preventive war, because it violates basic international rules against aggression. But at times in our history, preventive war has been seriously advocated as a policy option.

In the early days of the Cold War, some U.S. military and civilian experts advocated a preventive war against the Soviet Union. They proposed a devastating first strike to prevent the Soviet Union from developing a threatening nuclear capability. At the time, they said the uniquely destructive power of nuclear weapons required us to rethink traditional international rules.

The first round of that debate ended in 1950, when President Truman ruled out a preventive strike, stating that such actions were not consistent with our American tradition. He said, "You don't 'prevent' anything by war...except peace." Instead of a surprise first strike, the nation dedicated itself to the strategy of deterrence and containment, which successfully kept the peace during the long and frequently difficult years of the Cold War.

Arguments for preventive war resurfaced again when the Eisenhower Administration took power in 1953, but President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles soon decided firmly against it. President Eisenhower emphasized that even if we were to win such a war, we would face the vast burdens of occupation and reconstruction that would come with it.
…
Obviously, this debate is only just beginning on the Administration's new strategy for national security. But the debate is solidly grounded in American values and history.(end quote)
…
Excerpted from:

t r u t h o u t | Statement
Senator Edward M. Kennedy
Delivered on the Floor of the US Senate

Monday, 7 October, 2002

[zero]

i certainly haven't attained the holiness of the dalai lama because when i see bush on tv, i mute the sound and look away. ironic, indeed. what penetrates bush is his own evilness. the prayer that ended the ceremony included this thought, "foolish men think only of themselves. wise men think of others before themselves". even in prayer we find the contrast between bush and the dalai lama.

[zero]

and today at his press conference bush uttered three dangerous words: world war three. why won't the dems impeach this world danger?

[DB]

Democracy in Iraq with self governing sovereign governing law? Bush and Gang makes it clear one more time... NOT:

Blackwater Likely to Be Out of Iraq
By ANNE GEARAN (AP Diplomatic Writer)
From Associated Press
October 17, 2007 6:03 PM EST
WASHINGTON - A State Department review of private security guards for diplomats in Iraq is unlikely to recommend firing Blackwater USA over the deaths of 17 Iraqis last month, but the company probably is on the way out of that job, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

Blackwater's work escorting U.S. diplomats outside the protected Green Zone in Baghdad expires in May, one official said, and other officials told The Associated Press they expect the North Carolina company will not continue to work for the embassy after that.

It is likely that Blackwater does not compete to keep the job, one official said. Blackwater probably will not be fired outright or even "eased out," the official added, but there is a mutual feeling that the Sept. 16 shooting deaths mean the company cannot continue in its current role.

State Department officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has not yet considered results of an internal review of Blackwater and the other two companies that protect diplomats in Iraq.

Department officials said no decisions have been made and that Rice has the final say.

[zero]

blackwater on the way out of iraq?
yea. after making a fortune for one of bush's buddies. he can "afford" to leave now. evil. evil. evil.

[Kate]

Whoops, I checked out for a couple of days. I'm looking into moving to South Carolina to vote for Colbert.

(Pssst) not really.

[zero]

why not,kate? my dog would do a better job as president or congress member than those losers in dc now.

[DB]

Being here as I am in SC I don't quite understand the Colbert thing, Kate... the funny guy Colbert and 100% Repub SC!
mental speed of cold molasses w lukewarm political morassness is my excuse today.

[Kate]

Colbert, much as I love him, is just a little too far to the right for me. ;@)

But at least he's up front about how rotten he is.