idrankwhat

Amen brotha. People seem to forget this fact. "Palestine" was where Israel was plopped. The Brits called it "Palestine". If you want to go earlier then you can take your pick. There's "Palestine", "Syria Palestinia", "Caanan", "Philistia", "Kingdom of Jerusalem", "Land of Israel", "Trans Jordan". And many many more names. Why is it that people only want to acknowledge a Zionist viewpoint? Personally I think they should just call it "The Southern Levant" or maybe "The Holy Land". That way it works for everyone. To try to deny the multi-cultural history in favor of one group or another is just plain ignorant and why we have this problem.

Ok, I just have to update the answer I gave you. I'm not sure that I'm going to let the kids watch it but I've actually found some worthwhile programming on TV. This is good stuff. Hilarious!! http://www.cbs.com/primetime/creature_comforts/

(channeling NCCLIMBER) What he did or what he was accused of. Show me For my next trick, I'll channel RUSHMC with "it's all about the charge".

I'll admit, I did start laughing out loud when I got to the part where he started boohooing and said he couldn't continue. The dude's a pathetic excuse for a life form. The real tragedy is that the shop owners have to hire a lawyer to deal with this jerk. I think the judge should hear the arguments, then fine him for all of the expenses incurred by the defendants less the cost of the pants and tack on some money for the inconvenience. Then take the guy out on the front steps, shove a pacifier in his mouth and give him a spanking. Then have him disbarred. Then have his name and picture posted on billboards so that businesses will know not to deal with him. I can't think of a reason that anyone would ever considering providing him any sort of service knowing that if his "biggie size" was a fry short of the next guy's that he'd take them to court.

I just had to check in on this idiot to see if the judge had decided to just take him out back and shoot him. Not yet, maybe later today. This jerk is a real peace of work. If he doesn't lose money on this there's no justice in this world. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/12/AR2007061201667.html?nav=hcmodule

So.. go join the Palistinians.. and fight the Jews if you feel so strongly that they are so good and in the right.. fair is fair. You're obviously letting your emotion do the typing so I'll ignore this part Perhaps some reading about WWII and who the Arabs supported...Perhaps some reading about the land of Palistine before 1948.... perhaps some reading about the arabs in Egypt and Syria and Jordan when the UN formed a small country based on where the Jews were in the majority. The Arabs attacked... and lost... in 1948. The attacked again in 1956... and lost more. They were preparing a massive attack in 1967 and the Isralis got in the first blow. Perhaps if they would have made peace at that time todays world would be a different one. BUT in 1973 the arabs attacked once again.. this time they almost got their fondest dream of destroying Israel.. at least for the first few days.... but the Israelis fought back and drove them out. Finally Egypt and Jordan decided enough was enough amd made peace. Has Israel ever attacked them since then??? Yep, that's half of the argument. And I know this because I HAVE done some reading I think there is a lesson to be learned there. but Syria and the other arabs in the region are not to bright when they prefer endless war to making peace with their neighbor. And honestly the right wing and the religious right do not want peace in that region.... they NEED for everyone to meet at Megiddo so their fucked up prophecy comes to be... trouble is its a self fullfilling prophecy that brings death and destruction on the world because THEY believe they will not be here for it. Now we're teetering on making some headway in this discussion. Who else may not want peace in the region for similar reasons?

Thank you. I agree 100% (except for the spelling). However I oppose both sides. I think that both sides bring it on themselves and I would prefer that the US take a neutral position. It's in OUR best interest.

When you continually attack a country.. and you keep losing.... guess what.. you lose territory... with such stellar performance on the battlefield SOME peoples tend to make peace with their neighbors and get on with life. I consider daily land grabbing a continual attack and Israel should expect a response. And what you're essentially supporting is the notion that might makes right. Unfortunately the might is not only from Israel but from the US who doesn't hold Israel accountable for their actions (despite the public lip service) and then does things like rush to illegally ship 1300 cluster bombs to Israel so they can litter the country side with bomblets during the 72 hours before the cease fire with Lebanon last year. But fair play and humananity issues aside, if we would quit doing crap like that and actually hold Israel accountable we could effectively remove one of the main reasons that terrorists want to attack us.

Should a civilian who is choosing to live in an illegal, land grabbing settlement be considered "innocent"? I'm by no way condoning the killing of anybody but some fairness needs to be brought into the dialog. Right now Israel is occupying land that is not theirs, actively expanding that occupation by continuing to build illegal settlements in spite of (insincere) official US requests to stop, controls all movement on roads that are not theirs, openly targets for assassination their neighboring, democratically elected leadership, and kidnaps and detains without charge or trial hundreds if not thousands of people. Like I said, I'm not condoning the Palestinian violence but I understand why they feel like they need to fight back. Their land is being stolen and Israel wants them forced on to what are basically small reservations.

This is PRECISELY the point I am trying to make.

allowed? It was built for the winners of WW1 - the influence is built into the design of the Security Council. True On the opposite end, the tyranny of the masses allows countries like China to be in the human rights committees. And I hate the fact that they can now point fingers and make similar statements about the US I'm with Israel when it shouts out a big Fuck You to the resolutions passed against it. You don't have to play nice with people that openly work to destroy you. You don't think that Israel is being open about their violations? I'll understand if you don't. The media has a tendency to filter out most of it over here.

...or steal their resources. That one pisses them off too. Um, yeah... find me some pics of those military supertankers carrying that Iraqi oil to our refineries, will ya? Who says that our military is supposed to be carrying away the oil? Hell, military supplies aren't necessarily carried by the military. We hire contractors to do that sort of stuff and we pay them five times the amount to drive the truck than we give to the enlisted guy doing the same job. But that's another thread. A war for oil does not mean that the US electorate will benefit. It means that those who paid to put our elected officials into office reap the rewards. But I'm not talking just about oil, I'm also referring to diamonds, fish, etc.

And regarding your request of proof of fraud from my post yesterday, here it is again with citations. Large contractors like Halliburton get the contracts, abuse them, get busted sometimes and pay a minimal fine. Then they get the next contract. The fine is a cost of doing business. Halliburton $8.3 billion LOGCAP contract, was supposed to supply American troops and support personnel with food, fuel, housing and logistical support. Yet performance has been plagued by cost overruns and shoddy results. • Inserting Halliburton as middleman for the operation of dining halls increased costs by more than 40%.25 • With the motivation of a cost-plus contract, Halliburton kept its own personnel at the deluxe Kuwait Hilton Hotel, where the excess costs ran in the range of $300,000 per month.26 • Examination of seven LOGCAP task orders with a combined value of $4.33 billion identified unsupported costs totaling $1.82 billion. Nearly half of every dollar spent (42 cents) could not be justified.27 And yet the Pentagon paid the costs anyway. But the trouble goes beyond mere money. Some of Halliburton's practices smack more of bad faith than poor performance. • Halliburton billed the government for 42,000 meals a day for our troops, but only served 14,000 meals a day.28 • Halliburton drove convoys of empty trucks through the desert, putting drivers and security personnel at risk. It was paid to run trips and it didn't matter if trucks ran empty.29 Some patriotic Americans who went to Iraq to earn a living and rebuild a country died in those convoys. • Halliburton charged the government $45 for cases of locally produced soda and $100 to wash bags of laundry.30 Halliburton paid local citizens 50 cents an hour for laundry work. • Rather than caring for its equipment, Halliburton bought new equipment and was reimbursed for the full cost, plus its additional 'cost-plus' percentage. With this incentive, Halliburton abandoned or destroyed $85,000 trucks if they got a flat tire or experienced mechanical problems, and never changed the oil.31 • Halliburton exposed troops and civilians to contaminated water from Iraq’s Euphrates River that they were contracted to purify before use.32 • Halliburton was contracted to feed 600 Turkish and Filipino workers meals according to their customs. Halliburton charged the government for the service but didn’t prepare the 8 meals. Instead, the Turkish and Filipino workers were given leftover food in boxes and garbage bags after the troops ate. Sometimes there were no leftovers to give them.33 25 United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), DOD’s Extensive Use of Logistics Support Contracts Requires Strengthened Oversight. July 2004. 26 Coalition Provisional Authority Inspector General, Federal Deployment Center Forward Operations at the Kuwait Hilton, 25 June 2004. The Inspector General stopped the practice when he noticed it. 27 Memorandum from Defense Contract Audit Agency to U.S. Army Field Support Command. 16 August 2004. 28 Senate Democratic Defense Subcommittee Hearing, “An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq.” 27 June 2005. 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. 29 See e.g. Seth Borenstein, “Drivers Contracted by Halliburton Firm Question Iraq Hauls.” Knight Ridder Newspapers. 23 May 2004. 30 Senate Democratic Defense Subcommittee Hearing “An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq.” Monday. 27 June 2005. 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. 31 Id. 32 “Whistleblowers’ Stomach-curdling Story: Halliburton Serves Contaminated Water to Troops.” 20 September 2005. http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/contamination.html. See also David Ivanovich, “Doctor Alleges Water Linked toInfections: Halliburton Contends It Met Army Standards.” 7 April 2006. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3780160.html 33 Senate Democratic Defense Subcommittee Hearing “An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq.” 27 June 2005. 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

I'll give a hint. It's not the one that advocating wiping the other one off the earth. Proving in yet another way that the UN is a sham. Agreed, it's not democratic enough to be able to function appropriately. It allows itself to be influenced to heavily by the more powerful nations.

If you want to see how it's done nowadays, Google any combination of "Congress" and "revolving door". It's good money if you can swing it. Big money organization (BMO) supports candidate "A", who gets elected because he's flush with cash now (ooops, I mean "free speech), writes legislation that benefits BMO at the expense of the taxpayer, then the elected official leaves his job and goes to work for BMO as a consultant or on K street and rakes in millions of dollars. What do you want to bet that members of this current administration have board and consulting positions in their future?

It's on both sides, especially if you're reading follow up posts on blogs. Where I have a problem is when it becomes a part of the national media dialog. In that dept, one side has cornered the market, no cultivated the market on hate filled, disrespectful, venomous language. Sadly though, it sells and that's the name of the game.

That sounds like sleaze... or absue of power. What's your definition of cowardice? IMO it's illustrated nicely by the Knights of the Round Table screaming "run away, run away" as they flee from catapulted livestock. Well, Bush WAS challenged to a duel. He could have solved this like an honorable gentleman As for the Knights, that was only a temporary retreat when they realized the inadequacy of their defense contractors product and the that the leadership had not thoroughly thought out the post invasion plan. Empty Trojan rabbit.....puhhhhleeeeese.

Speaking of ignored distinctions. Which country, Iran or Israel, is in violation of more UN resolutions than any other country in the world, has weapons of mass destruction and is continuing to steal land from its neighbors on a daily basis? As for "America-haters", which do you think is worse: people who openly demand that their country abide by the principals which they boast to subscribe to, or people who their turn a blind eye to their country's hypocritical shortcomings by covering their eyes with the flag and calling it "patriotism"?

...or steal their resources. That one pisses them off too.

What a lovely commentary by the leading Global Warning Chicken Little Hysteric a.k.a. CLH. What does it have to do with your claim of our system of government being based on cowardice? I get the feeling you think it means something different from what it actually means. The fear mongering is a given. It works. Look at how easily people are willing to sacrifice their freedoms, as well as their humanitarian convictions at the promise of some security; and the security promised is not from anything tangible, but from an intangible methodology based on a psychological response. Fear mongering was absolutely central to all of Bush's pre-war speeches and it gets ramped back up again every time he slips in the polls. I suppose that you could also call Gore's global warming speeches fear mongering as well. But then the difference would be that one speaker has verifiable data from multiple, publically available internationally peer reviewed sources to back up his claim, the other doesn't. As for cowardice, I think that's pretty obvious. Our current leadership has no problem sacrificing other people's lives and money in an effort to advance their personal agendas.

Money for the troops?!? Yea, right. Here's a short list dealing with our favorite contractor courtesy of the "Iraq for Sale" folks. Halliburton's Logistics Failures Halliburton $8.3 billion LOGCAP contract, was supposed to supply American troops and support personnel with food, fuel, housing and logistical support. Yet performance has been plagued by cost overruns and shoddy results. • Inserting Halliburton as middleman for the operation of dining halls increased costs by more than 40%.25 • With the motivation of a cost-plus contract, Halliburton kept its own personnel at the deluxe Kuwait Hilton Hotel, where the excess costs ran in the range of $300,000 per month.26 • Examination of seven LOGCAP task orders with a combined value of $4.33 billion identified unsupported costs totaling $1.82 billion. Nearly half of every dollar spent (42 cents) could not be justified.27 And yet the Pentagon paid the costs anyway. But the trouble goes beyond mere money. Some of Halliburton's practices smack more of bad faith than poor performance. • Halliburton billed the government for 42,000 meals a day for our troops, but only served 14,000 meals a day.28 • Halliburton drove convoys of empty trucks through the desert, putting drivers and security personnel at risk. It was paid to run trips and it didn't matter if trucks ran empty.29 Some patriotic Americans who went to Iraq to earn a living and rebuild a country died in those convoys. • Halliburton charged the government $45 for cases of locally produced soda and $100 to wash bags of laundry.30 Halliburton paid local citizens 50 cents an hour for laundry work. • Rather than caring for its equipment, Halliburton bought new equipment and was reimbursed for the full cost, plus its additional 'cost-plus' percentage. With this incentive, Halliburton abandoned or destroyed $85,000 trucks if they got a flat tire or experienced mechanical problems, and never changed the oil.31 • Halliburton exposed troops and civilians to contaminated water from Iraq’s Euphrates River that they were contracted to purify before use.32 • Halliburton was contracted to feed 600 Turkish and Filipino workers meals according to their customs. Halliburton charged the government for the service but didn’t prepare the 8 meals. Instead, the Turkish and Filipino workers were given leftover food in boxes and garbage bags after the troops ate. Sometimes there were no leftovers to give them.33

Alreadying happening... see DU, Huffpo, etc... As opposed to those critically thinking pontificators who call themselves "dittoheads"

I heard that the administration was planning to appeal to another institution or repeal the Constitution. I'm not sure which. Who knows, maybe both

Who's asking

I can't answer your question for sure, but I'm guessing that if Bush were to put his wars into the budget instead of paying for them as "emergencies" the numbers might be closer.