TheAnvil

- You misinterpret my remarks on ETA - I was using sarcasm. The ETA assumption was quite logical. - Your link doesn't work for me. - the timing of this withdrawal given the public demand from Al Quaeda is absolutely unconscionable. Does it mean the Spaniards are chickens, as you say? Not at all. Does it mean that the Spanish government is making a dumb move in foreign policy - YES. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Think that if you like. Regardless, a terrorist organization has now both influenced national elections of a sovereign nation AND the foreign policy of the same nation. Tsk tsk tsk. Pathetic. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Why don't we find all the folks who served in the National Guard/Air Guard during the Vietnam War, gather them all together, and let sKerry and friends tell them how they feel about them. A nice big ceremony. Bubba Clinton could give the opening remarks. Ted Kennedy could drive their wives to a shopping mall on a school bus (breathalyzer required). Don't think that'd go over too well. "We're not really talking about YOU. We're talking about President Bush. You see, he was in the guard because he's a coward. YOU, on the other hand, were in the guard because you're patriots and wanted to live to vote for sKerry in '04. Yes, we know, it sounds far-fetched, but we're Democrats. You can trust us. We'll cut the deficit, raise taxes, socialize medicine, AND get all of our troops home soon!" don't think they'd get a standing ovation at all. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Nope. You found MY baseball! GFD has yours. Give it back immediately or suffer the consequences! Don't make me open another bottle of patron! Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

So the majority of Spaniards agreed with Zapatero's policy, yet he was trailing in the polls...hmmm....that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Aznar's government initially suspecting ETA influenced voters to go the other way? Baloney. Rajoy was going to win handily until the bombings. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Note to PK: Aznar said he was pulling out? really? odd - I don't recall that. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

This is true. They've been inculcating their children with hatred for at least three generations now. hard to counter that. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

No. What's going on right now isn't really all that chaotic. Leaving the country right now given its ability to defend itself would be a very very very bad move from an external perspective. Iran would likely invade, and possibly Syria as well. the temptation would just be too great. Then add into that the internal fighting that would be going on and you have a humanitarian disaster for the avg. Iraqi, whose lot has risen exponentially since the US invasion. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

I agree dude. It was pretty amazing that Arafat walked out on what Barak offered him. I truly believe that if the average so-called Palestinian knew what Arafat turned down, they would have been protesting in the streets - against him. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

I think chaos would ensue in short order. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Peggy Noonan thinks so. Nice article from her. The portion about FDR warrants special attention. Hostile press puts public in Bush's corner By PEGGY NOONAN It is a modern political cliché that how the public perceives an event is everything. People who say this forget that reality is important too, and only in part because public opinion tends in its rough way to follow it. But as regards President Bush's news conference Tuesday night, only his third on prime time television, public perception will decide all. (Not press perception, which has been negative and will grow more so with time.) President Bush walks away after finishing Tuesday's solo news conference, the 12th since he took office. What do I think public opinion of the president's news conference will be? Generally positive. Here's why: The president spoke uninterrupted for the first 17 minutes, when most people were tuning in to see what he had to say. His speech/announcement hit every point that had to be covered, crisply and yet somberly. Yes, things are tough in Iraq now; yes, we are going to stick to the plan to turn sovereignty over to the Iraqis; yes, we will stay as long as our presence makes the difference between success and failure, stability and chaos. Yes, we will increase troop strength if needed; yes, we have faith that Iraq will ultimately choose democracy and civic health. It was a measured and logical layout of U.S. plans and positions. It will have made a positive impression while people were watching with wide-awake eyes. It was after the statement that things got more awkward. The president rambled and repeated talking points, playing for time as he tried to remember what he'd decided he was going to say in response to this question or that. Sometimes he remembered and became energized; sometimes he didn't. But here the press came to his rescue, and God bless them. They are so clearly carrying water for the left-liberal establishment, and for the preening and partisan hacks who dominate the 9/11 Commission, that the media nullified their hostility. They also seemed to be teeing up Bob Woodward's next book, which is out this week. They could have done some damage to the president with a grave and honest spirit of inquiry. Instead, they played left-wing Snidely Whiplash. They almost twirled their mustaches, and I don't mean only the women: Will you apologize, Mr. President? Do you feel personally responsible for Sept. 11? Do you think you're a loser as a communicator? What was your worst mistake? Do you really like that tie? Do you ever consider hanging yourself from a cornice in the East Room with your tie? When you look in the mirror do you feel mild disgust or just that feeling of shame where you sort of want to tear your face off and run screaming from the room? History offers perspective Imagine it is April 1943 and FDR is meeting with the press. Mr. President, why did you fail us on Dec. 7? You call it a day of infamy, but didn't it reveal your leadership style to be infamous? Why did you let the U.S. fleet sit sleepy and exposed at Pearl Harbor? Do you think your physical infirmity, sir, has an impact on your ability to think about strategic concerns, and will you instruct your doctors to make public your medical records? But of course they wouldn't have asked these questions. Our press corps in those days was more like Americans than our press corps is today. They were both less self-hating and more appropriately anxious: Don't be killing our leaders in the middle of a war, don't be disheartening the people. Win and do the commentary later. I noticed once again at the news conference that Bush has turned garrulous. He has taken to speaking at great length in venues of his choosing, and more and more he chooses. A week ago I took part in a seminar on book writing at a gathering of Republicans in Georgia. The president spoke to the gathering later that night, at an informal dinner for a few hundred, and I stayed on to watch. Everyone knew his remarks would be brief, but they were not. After an hour the governor of Florida, sitting behind him on the small stage, shifted like someone who knew big brother was going on too long, and finally threw a dinner roll at his back to make the point. I made the last part up, but Jeb Bush looked like someone trying to throw his voice: Wrap it up, buddy. Eventually the president did, with what seemed reluctance, after an hour and 20 minutes of a tour of his horizons, a personal and at times startlingly blunt appraisal of other leaders and the realities they face. Stick to tried and true When I mentioned to a friend that I'd never heard of Bush speaking so long, the friend, who sees him often, said the president had recently spoken for more than an hour at a lunch, to the startlement of listeners who wound up furtively checking their watches. Another Washington denizen shared a similar story. This is unlike our president. I don't know what it means. I suspect it means his staff, having seen his effectiveness in small groups with this style, is telling him to do it for large groups, as he did at the news conference. This should be re-examined. The president at the news conference did not seem unprepared or uninformed. He looked to me like someone who had been coached within an inch of his life and who insisted on yet more coaching late in the day, and who began the news conference with the kind of tiredness that first expresses itself not physically but intellectually. A subject is introduced and the smooth ivory dominoes do not begin to click into place one after another, as they do when one is fresh, or lucky. (I hereby retract that unfortunate image.) Instead one furrows his brow and shakes his head. Overstimulated and wanting to yawn is a bad place to be. Should a president under crisis go into any venue that does not call on his strengths? No. Get him out there doing speeches, meeting with citizens, taking a few shouted questions, again and again. That's how Bush best communicates his convictions, logic and plans, and that is the purpose of presidential communication. More and more it seems to me Bush is not only Bill Clinton's successor but also his exact opposite: Clinton perfectly poised and hollow inside, a man whose lack of compass left him unable to lead within the Oval Office but who gave a compelling public presentation of the presidency, and Bush a strong president with an obvious soul, decisive at the desk, but with no dazzling edifice. It's actually amazing that two such different men came so close together. Lucky for us, considering the history, that Bush was the one who came now. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

I'd love to see Cheney step aside in lieu of Rice or Watts as a VP. Don't think Cheney's a good candidate in '08 and would like someone conservative to start stepping up (slowly). Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/2511697 Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

The fact that Aznar was ahead prior to these attacks doesn't comport well with your statements here. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

I'm not playing this reindeer game in an effort to not piss off billvon, as I've apparently done already for reasons unbeknownst / unfathomable to me. Vinny will write no more in this thread. PM me if you want to chat about it. I stand by all I've written. Vinny the Anvil Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

He doesn't like the answer. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Bodyflight, Anvil, cut it out. Two deletions/edits so far. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

These guys are pretty cool: http://stirlingtech.com/applications/offgrid_residential.shtml Can't speak about their residential units, but their space unit has got well in excess of 70K hours maintenance free! Are those solar cells single junction? Dual? Triple? Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

What sort of cells are you using? Ever think about a stirling power generation system? Stirling engines rock. Vinny

Rice/JC Watts '08.

fI do know a bit about NBC. The possibility that they have been hidden is real. The possibility of manufacturing them en masse in a hidden manner is real. You don't know what you're talking about. With regards to Halliburton: The executive branch's role in contract awards is....what, exactly? If you're just spouting off at the mouth and don't have a clue what you're talking about, you won't answer. If you know what you're talking about, you will. Looking SOOO forward to your response. Truly. I happen to know and ask the question for pedagogical purposes. Lefties never answer. They don't like what the answer tells them about the attacks levied against the Bush administration by their leaders [sic]. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Ahhhh....another pro-abortionist with a post. Good for you. Always good to stir this pot up around election time. I always chuckle at these posts on abortion, as nobody seems to share my own opinions with regards to the subject. Well, very few anyway. In the future, for the purpose of conservative stomachs everywhere, please refrain from using 'pro-choice' and go with 'pro-abortion' instead. Given the anti-choice sentiments of the left with regards to schools, it just doesn't comport with the party of abortion's platform as a whole. With regards to the murder of unborn children, a few comments from TheAnvil. My position: mixed. While I have absolutely no doubt that abortion is murder, part of that is based upon faith. I believe that life begins at conception, but I cannot factually prove this until a certain point in the pregnancy. That being said, I cannot support a complete ban on abortions prior to this VERY SUBJECTIVE point, because I would be basing such a decision upon faith, and thereby imposing my faith upon others. I believe preventing such an imposition is the true intent of the first ammendment (which doesn't state 'separation of church and state' anywhere, ACLU clowns). However, an even cursory glance at the pregnancy process reveals that there IS a point where that zygote is alive. You can operate on it, sense its heartbeat, sense its brainwaves, see it forming, etc. At that very subjective point, it is simply inconceivable that a human life has not been created - a life with inalienable rights. Are there times when the health of the mother takes precedence? Absolutely. Are such times few, far between, and none-of-the-business-of-the government? Absolutely. Banning the procedure from a legal standpoint inserts the government into what should be a family matter. Now banning the procedure except when the health of the mother is in question is perfectly acceptable from an Anvil point of view. My main problem with the left-wingers on this issue is their inability to show a video of what they support. Just like they'll NEVER proudly proclaim their support of racial discriminatory programs, they lack the courage to show the public what they support. Conservatives have it wrong too, trying to impose their faith on others, but obviously less so than the lefties because conservatives WILL show you a video. They WILL defend their argument with scientific fact - most of them anyway. It's just when they go overboard when they get it wrong. Touchy issue. As usual, the left fails to impress me with its efforts here. Claiming to be 'pro-choice' given their school vouchers position helps redefine hypocrisy - but then again, they seem to specialize in earning the 'hyocrite' label. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Benny and Botellines - Al Quaeda tells Spain to get out of Iraq. Spain gets out of Iraq. Hmm...you claim Spain hasn't succumbed... Odd definition of succumb you have there. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Knowing a bit about the Naval service, I've got a couple of comments on this article. 1) Never question somebody else's awards. If they mean something to that person, then the award was well given. Granted, some people are very shallow and small, but if having that ribbon on their chest motivates them to do a better job, so be it. It's up to the awarding authority to maintain the standard for giving the award. If it was determined that this scratch qualified somebody for a purple heart, then it degrades the meaning of the award, but that's the call that was made. 2) Nobody worth a shit EVER asks for an award. End of tour, meritorious, what have you. Never. Ever. Ever. Hey if you have a problem with Kerry's purple heart being given for a scratch - you aren't the awarding authority. Somebody did and that's that. Now if the man ASKED for the purple heart - well, that says a lot about the kind of guy running for office. He's unworthy of respect, shallow, and a real perception oriented sort of manager/leader who will be do scared to do the right thing if it might be unpopular. Vinny the Anvil Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

Al Quaeda members and supporters worldwide should be feeling rather smug right now. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040418/ap_on_re_mi_ea/spain_iraq_1 This withdrawal will encourage them more. Pray for our troops and country. Spain owes the world an apology. Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!!