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Summer is officially here. The heat, the humidity, the picnics, the beach,the pool, the kids out of school!
FIRST!
Couldn’t help it. Just finished 101 on the last open thread. Go read it. Its….biggish. Don’t want all that work to go to waste.
Just got back from my daughter’s day care. First swim party of the summer. Brought my bacon candy which was a hit!
Cargo, have to say in following the discussion the last couple of days, nice Situational Analysis…great application of military training for sure 😉
By the way, in my years in the saddle, the worst for me was Jimmy Carter. I forgave him many years later when he rolled along with Habitat for Humanity.
But Cargo, I would watch out..Moon put a shark up. It’s only the Marines sharks do not find a delicacy! LOL!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water!!!!
Here’s some good news regarding insidenova.com!! Starting next week you will need log in via FB to comment on insidenova.com. It’s my sincere hope that this will curb some of the nastiness on insidenova.com
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2011/jun/24/facebook-only-commenting-coming-insidenovacom-ar-1131751/
My comments on their wall…
This is great news!! I NEVER comment on insidenova.com, because of the rude, hateful and nasty comments. It’s always the same “posters” harrassing each other. It’s like a bunch of middle schoolers are commenting. I know high school students that always post intelligent comments on my insidenova FB links.
I also am curious to see if they then create FB accounts with their screen names. I’ve been able to peg a couple of people, because they’ll comment on FB and then go comment on insidenova.com almost word for word. “Citizen of Manassas” comes to mind, only using yet another name on insidenova.com. Funny thing is they’ve NOT commented on this thread. hmm..
@Raymond Beverage
Sharks don’t eat Marines. But Squids eat shark. mmmmMMM! Good.
http://youtu.be/FFOEZh1Lbbg
(Yes, I know. But Octopus is close enough to squid for gov’t work.)
Btw, credit where credit is due.
President Obama has quickly apologized to the family of Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti.
On his Facebook page this evening, Monti’s father, Paul, posted: “FYI- President Barack Obama telephoned me personally this afternoon to apologize for his error in his speech to the 10th mountain division re: Jared’s medal ceremony. Apology accepted.”
Well done.
Now, he needs to find a better research team.
Moon, you asked me where I got my info. Here’s some links about Obama and Taliban negotiations.
http://kissrichmond.com/national/wkjs/obama-says-he-will-negotiate-with-the-taliban/
and http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=43937
the Taliban humiliated Obama and Cameron during their European summit on Afghanistan. Despite our over- the-top concessions, upper-level Taliban leaders refused to show up at highly publicized “peace” talks in Germany after deciding they didn’t want to, well, talk. (Talks thus far have been with mid-level leaders.) News that the Taliban jilted Obama at the negotiating table filled European papers just as Obama’s entourage hit the continent.
The way the Taliban leaders see it, the Telegraph reports, “They can simply sit it out and wait for victory in 2014,” when troops are scheduled to exit.
Taliban leaders have been openly baffled by the Obama administration’s determination to negotiate peace with them from the beginning.
An aide to Taliban leader Mullah Omar explained the group’s position in November: “All of these reports of peace talks are nonsense,” Mullah Aminullah told NBC News. “This is just propaganda by the U.S. and its NATO allies to hide their defeat on the battlefield. We are winning, why should we negotiate?”
The Taliban has been laughing since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton first proposed negotiating with the “moderate” members of the Taliban in 2009.
So I guess we believe the Taliban. They are such an honest group with such a good track record. [sarcasm button activated.]
Believe the Taliban?
About what? I’m not saying that the Taliban are right. I’m saying that OUR government is negotiating with the Taliban while telling EVERYONE that we are leaving regardless of the situation, telling everyone HOW we are leaving, and that we are leaving because its “too expensive.”
If you leave a field of battle to the enemy, they win. Simple as that. They don’t even have to do anything.
Now, I’m actually ok with leaving Afghanistan to the Taliban. They will take power again. We completed the mission to find Osama. But we are NOT declaring victory by that definition. We have a vague mission and we are leaving due to arbitrary reasons. Well, not arbitrary. Domestic reasons….so that Obama can state, “Look what I did.” during his reelection campaign.
The sad part? It won’t help him. He’s doing it wrong because he does not understand the American people.
I’ve decided to spend my summer combining my coupon hobby with donating items SERVE has on their wish list. Already this week I managed to get 15 tubes of Colgate, 15 Sure deodorants, and 10 packs of feminine products, 10 bottles of shampoo and a variety of food for free or less than $1. Filling my donation boxes for my first drop off this coming week. I also got some free pet food for the animal shelter.
What a neat thing to do, DB. Where do you get most of your coupons?
Soooooo….
Howsa about a change in subject? Anyone else following the ATF Project Gunwalker scandal?
Personally I think its worse than Watergate.
No one was killed because of Watergate.
@Cargo
That we know of.
http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/4195/rightwing-hypocrisy-alert-john-stirrup-version
@Moon-howler
So….no comment about the ATF actually forcing gun dealers to sell to questionable characters and then allowing said guns to cross the border, all so they could have a PR statement demonstrating that more gun control was needed to prevent guns from reaching the bad guys?
No, I don’t know much about it. You seem to know what you think about it already.
What about Virginia’s uranium-gate? Free trips to hear a one pony show? Would you want a uranium mine in your town? Is there just a little too much corporation courting being done by our Virginia legislators?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/health/policy/27docs.html?_r=1&hp
Comical.
I think the administration has finally figured out that we may have a shortage of doctors already and adding 30 million people might tip the scales a bit – in a bad way.
Not sure how but got into a conversation here with a nurse and she said that the problem as she sees it was that ‘back in the day’ people didn’t go to a doctor for a ‘wellness’ check. You went when you were sick. So, we just don’t have a system that can support the amount of people and the services they want without taking control over how healthcare professionals are compensated (nationalization? viva la Venezuela!).
Anyways, interesting conversation.
Cargo, ATF should be a convenience store not a Federal agency. Number of legally armed people in the US has skyrocketed and violent crime rates are down.. Things that make you go Hmm..
@marinm
If I were business minded…and the county was more amendable to gun stores and the state to private liquour, I would open a strip mall with a gun store at one end, tobacco products in the middle, and a liquor store at the other.
Alcohol Tobacco Firearms.
Michele Bachmann’s Holy WarThe Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter
By Matt Taibbi
June 22, 2011 8:00 AM ET
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and, as you consider the career and future presidential prospects of an incredible American phenomenon named Michele Bachmann, do one more thing. Don’t laugh.
It may be the hardest thing you ever do, for Michele Bachmann is almost certainly the funniest thing that has ever happened to American presidential politics. Fans of obscure 1970s television may remember a short-lived children’s show called Far Out Space Nuts, in which a pair of dimwitted NASA repairmen, one of whom is played by Bob (Gilligan) Denver, accidentally send themselves into space by pressing “launch” instead of “lunch” inside a capsule they were fixing at Cape Canaveral. This plot device roughly approximates the political and cultural mechanism that is sending Michele Bachmann hurtling in the direction of the Oval Office.
Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution. “It’s your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world!” she gushed. “You are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard.”
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/michele-bachmanns-holy-war-20110622
@Starry, I agree she is frightening. I wish I could say I can’t imagine her having much of a following but I know better.
@Cargosquid
I want to recall that on a trip up to (rural) Delaware I passed by this store that sold
Pizza
Marriages
Video Rentals
…that there was genius.
God Bless America
Palin/Bachmann 2012
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Why would you want to destroy the country?
Destroy the country? Why…I just want to fundamentally transform the nation. We are the ones that we are waiting for. I just HOPE that such a CHANGE will save the nation. For the first time in my life, I could be proud of my country for electing a woman as President… (snark) 😉
Actually, of the declared candidates, I want Cain. And if Perry gets in, I’ll take a look at him.
Cain strikes me as hollow. Paul is my first choice with Bachmann as my fallback.
I’d rather vote for Obama than vote for Romney.
@marinm
I’d rather vote for Obama than vote for Romney.
DOOOOOOOOOODE! WHAT!
That’s like shooting yourself to save yourself from slow poison.
Just don’t vote for anyone, instead, or a third party. You may not want to vote for Romney but, at the least, don’t help the enemy.
Found a misleading heavy glossy perforated paper campaign mailer in the mail box this afternoon. I’ve NEVER once seen a candidate RUNNING for an open seat send out a mailer like this. The return corner logo reads as follows
2011
CANDLAND
Gainesville Supervisor
I could see the mailer reading that if he were our current supervisor, but this simply is NOT the truth. Does he have a campaign staff to review stuff before it goes out to the public? This after a campaign announcement email stating concern for Gainesville & Haymarket to be a great place for our kids to grow up. He completely IGNORED the Manassas area of the Gainesville District. It would be nice if his campaign staff would learn do the right thing with such campaign material.
Obama is “frightening.”
Not as frightening as Bachmann and Palin. Shudder.
Lafayette sent a message to Cargo. She says to ask her if SHE is biased against Cuccinelli and why. I would stand back when I asked.
I knew she wasn’t fond of certain Frenchmen, but I didn’t know she hated Italians that much.
Not all, just one in particular. I can at least stomach(barely) giving the Frenchman credit when it’s due. I can NOT when it comes to that Italian. I know, never say, never, but I think it applies here. 👿
Hah, Moon. You’ve got a quarterback who gives a good pre-game pep talk in the locker room. But when you get out on the field, you find that he has a minimal personal understanding of the economic/fiscal playbook and continually calls the wrong play or misses his receivers. Moreover, his economic advisors, proving not be geniuses themselves, are bailing out on him like rats abandoning the proverbial sinking ship. And when he has his own political partisans on the Hill openly wondering why he is not personally involved in critical budget and debt negotiations, we should be worrying.
And I never thought I would ever say this; but I think the fellow has been bailed out in foreign affairs more than once by a lady named Hillary. Did you not notice during the runup to the Libyan venture that it was Hillary Clinton and not Obama who was doing the heavy public lifting with the big boys in NATO? That guy Obama seemed almost to be detached somehow. Only C-in-C I’ve ever seen who seems to think that giving a speech on TV is the same as achieving a policy goal.
BTW, after a brief glimmer of hope in May, the unemployment rate in my suffering Michigan hometown is starting to climb again. Locker room pep talks aren’t solving any problems.
Ok, I’ll bite.
Layfayette, are you biased against Cuccinelli and, if so, why?
Also, is it relevant to the idea that Cuccinelli is a) seeking proof that Mann defrauded the state b) you would believe an unknown over our elected AG c) that if Cuccinelli believed in AGW, you would then decide that its not happening
@Wolverine
I get the feeling that he’s not involved in the day to day decisions. Its as if he is not verifying what his people are telling him and he’s letting them do all the work.
Kinda like a ………. community organizer….yeah…that’s it.
@Cargosquid
I was joking about voting for the O. My vote would be a write-in if my ideal candidates aren’t chosen by the GOP.
I’m actually more interested in the Senate races. If the Senate tips to the Rs with 60~ votes even if the Intern-in-Chief keeps his job he can be marginalized by a united legislature. A 60~ senate would also be able to block his SCOUTS appointments if something bad were to happen.
My concern with Bachmann running is that she’s a female. The -D’s have shown what they think of a female executive. That would be an UGLY campaign fight.
On an upside. The SCOTUS ruled 7-2 that CA’s video game law was unconstitutional. YAY!!!
I really need a good zombie FPS (First Person Shooter) game to celebrate.
Wolverine, I was always a Hillary supporter. However, she isn’t the president.
As for MY quarterback, I guess I have to say that perhaps you all should have put up a better slate of folks to run last time. Why on earth should an independent thing that the Republicans have the answers when I have had 8 years of George Bush and then you offer up O’Cain/Palin to follow that act?
Pardon me, but your party hasn’t shown me jack. O’Cain with a strong VP was one thing. O’Cain/Palin was just not going to happen. I would rather take my chances with what I have. I have seen worse. In fact, things turned out better than I thought they would. If I had to do it again, I would do the same thing.
Independents swing elections, not the party faithful. Americans will not support someone as far away from the center as Palin (or Bachmann).
Marin, if that is all that scares you about Bachmann, you are in big trouble
Cargo, not even close. It has to do with personal experience.
If you have 4 dollar gasoline and 9% unemployment on election day 2012, Elmer Fudd could win and it wouldn’t even be that close. If you don’t want to call her “Madame President,” better get out and vote in the Republican primary.
@Cato, I have every intention of voting in the Republican primary. I always do. That primary is light years away at this point. I am not too worried.
“Why on earth should an independent thing that the Republicans have the answers when I have had 8 years of George Bush and then you offer up O’Cain/Palin to follow that act?”
And these last few years have been peaches and creme?
The independents will swing away from the Anointed One because they are unemployed, lost their homes and will get hit with more taxes to pay for more government.
I think you are seriously misreading the mood of this country if you don’t think that someone right of center (or very right of center) has a shot at the title. I think our chances are pretty good. 😉
@marin, so far I haven’t seen anyone a little right of center on the horizon to run for president. You got him or her, let’s see them. Christie Todd Whitman is running? I could vote for her easily.
marin, I love how you all are basking in your own sense of rightness. You read all your conservative materials and everyone agrees with you. Any idea how the rest of the world lives or thinks? What about the people who have taken reductions in pay because of union busting? You think that doesn’t resonate in other areas? How about the yahoos trying to defund Planned Parenthood? Those are often concepts that get voted behind closed curtains.
None of the ones that I know have lost their homes or are unemployed. And most would rather pay a small increase in taxes (or…er..”revenue ” as the Republicans weasel it) than see the debt continue to rise. Offer up a non-looney moderate candidate with a fiscally viable plan and you might see a bit of desertion within the ranks, but that savior doesn’t seem to be on the horizon.
@Censored, I am reading backwards. It seems we both had the same response for Wolverine and I hadn’t even seen yours.
Some folks are forgetting that the union busting going around the country isn’t going to do their ‘side’ any favors.
I know which party I will vote for because of the supreme court appointments. It is that simple. Those conservative judges are just as activist as any liberal I have ever seen and that includes Thurgood Marshall.
@Cargosquid
Just consider me that snappin’ turtle on steroids or Moon’s swimming shark at the top of the thread. In fact, you’ve made me a hybrid of both. 🙂 He’s so insignificant in my mind, that I don’t pay attention to what he does. I do hate to admit this being an engaged citizen. However, I would explode if I did follow what he does. Moon’s right, it’s personal. However, it does involve his professional career prior to finally being elected for something. That’s all I will say here. I try not mix personal things with politics, but there are somethings I simply can not overlook.
There are a series of maps making the rounds on the internet showing comparative unemployment stats county by county all across the U.S. beginning in about 2007 and going up to the present day. Counties with from 7-10% unemployment and above are in varying shades of darker blue. The most recent map is absolutely shocking. From the northern tip of Michigan to the southern tip of Florida, from Kansas City to the Atlantic Coast, the whole country is in shades of dark blue. One of the few exceptions with lighter colors is right here in Northern Virginia, which should show why Censored and all the rest of us are not meeting so many people in economic distress. There is another swath of brighter colors from Kansas to North Dakota in the Great Plains farming belt where people are doing better. But move west from Colorado to California, Oregon, and Washington and you are once more in a sea of dark blue. We are in trouble, and so is the “quarterback.” This keeps up, and I predict that there will be a growing number of people ready to put that quarterback on the waiver wire or the trading block.
@Wolverine, then the opposing team needs to make sure their quarterback and second string have a lot more to offer than most of what I have seen now and back in 2008.
Strange that FDR survived as quarterback.
Well, Moon, it couldn’t possibly be any worse than that inexperienced and untested rookie we signed in 2008 based only on his hoked up PR to replace a tired old veteran with a case of fumblitis. This whole country is beginning to remind me of the Redskins.
@Moon-howler
And the liberals don’t bask in their sense of rightness and superiority?
Apparently we don’t all read our conservative materials because we are hanging out here. As someone who has lived in California, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, Okinawa, and deployed to the Middle East, working with Muslims for over a year, and visited 26 countries, and pay attention to what is going on in other states and countries,…..yeah.. I think that I have an idea how the rest of the world thinks and lives. It may not be perfect, but I have an idea.
Marin and I have an idea how liberals think. We just don’t agree with them. It seems to be the liberals that don’t have a clue how conservatives think.
What about the people that have lost their jobs completely because of this down turn or because a state can’t afford their jobs? What about those services that have to get cut to keep the pensions and benefits oh so high in places like California?
Apparently, what you call “union busting” is resonating across the country. Its happening in state after state, regardless of party.
As for your “little right of center,” Romney? Huntsman? How freaking centrist or even left of center do you want?
A little right of center….Pawlenty. He even supported cap and trade.
Ron Paul? Where would you put him? He’s pro-choice, pro-drugs, and isolationist.
Interesting article on Bachmann from Mark McKinnon at the Daily Beast 27 June 2011.
“Bachmann is not crazy, but the media are if they continue to view her as such…..She is not my kind of candidate. And no one I know supports her. But I know enough to know I shouldn’t judge American voters and candidates by my own distorted circle. She is a rock star with the Tea Party and social conservatives. And I also know enough to know that Michelle Bachmann has been underestimated and treated unfairly by the mainstream press.
She is now a frontrunner in Iowa. And will likely do well in South Carolina.
She is gonna be a playah.”
Bachmann Benefitted from Government Funding
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/2chambers/post/report-bachmann-benefited-from-government-funding/2011/06/27/AGDVoOnH_blog.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost
I wonder how come Bachmann is willing to benefit from government funding if she is so against govrenment spending?
It sounds like a lot of white-washing to me. Bachmann’s hypocrisy is showing.
Cargo, we liberals know how conservatives think as well. Fear can be a great motivator, but it can also be a big turn off. Your base can become overwhelmed by it to the point where they don’t bother to vote. The assault on unions, government workers, the elderly, immigrants, etc. doesn’t cause those groups to rush in to replace the bigots and xenophobes who may have turned out in higher numbers during the last presidential election. Just because people may be mad at Obama doesn’t mean that they’re thinking “Republicans are the answer!” Far from it. I expect a large number to sit it out.
@Moon-howler
Precisely.
Fear……ok…..
Conservatives become overwhelmed by so much fear that we don’t bother to vote…….BUT, fear is why we vote? Doesn’t make sense and its not true. Conservatives don’t bother to vote if they see no real difference between the candidates, unlike Democrats, for who the end always justifies the means.
The assault on unions, government workers, the elderly, immigrants, etc. doesn’t cause those groups to rush in to replace the bigots and xenophobes who may have turned out in higher numbers during the last presidential election.
Um…not following you. But let’s examine this. Here, again, is proof that you don’t see how conservatives think. You state that along with attacking these groups we are also bigots and xenophobes.
We’re attacking unions because we hate unions……? Or because unions are just another arm of the Democrat party that have seized way too much power.
And I see that we attack “government workers”. Well, they have to be unionized first.
The elderly….oh,yeah…we’re attacking the elderly because we hate our parents…..No…we are trying to save a budget that out of control….but you can call that attacking the elderly. The only problem with that is the Democrats always use that one, over and over again. When we first brought up entitlement reform, today’s elderly were middle aged.
Immigrants….yep…hate us some immigrants….well except for all those immigrants that we support….LEGAL immigrants. Not wanting an amnesty for ILLEGAL immigrants is supposed to make us xenophobes.
And since we there…. Xenophobes and bigots….really? THAT’S how you explain the last election. America is just chock full of xenophobes and bigots……Can’t be because Americans rejected the policies of the those not re-elected or of Obama.
I’m glad to know what you think of me is out in the open…I must be a bigoted xenophobe.
Now, here’s the funny part. I knew that this description was going to come out from somebody. Because we know that is how liberals see conservatives. We hate everybody, want to see old people, women, and children, starving in the street, especially if they are unionized,illegal immigrants working for the government. Again, in one paragraph, you have dehumanized your political opponents, discarded all thought that their political ideas have any value, and insulted millions of Americans.
This is what I said: Marin and I have an idea how liberals think. We just don’t agree with them. It seems to be the liberals that don’t have a clue how conservatives think.
How liberals THINK. Not feel. Not emote. And I didn’t try to describe their motivation or value. I just said how they think and that we don’t agree with them.
But you still demonstrate that your prejudice blinds you to how conservatives think. You ascribe base motivation to us instead of looking at reality. But you go right ahead doing that. It’s working so well for the Democrats. Keep calling us names while we talk about policy. Maybe we can get a veto proof majority in the Senate then.
Well, gotta go. Got’s me some unionized, illegal immigrant, old women and children to go attack…. oh, forgot gay and handicapped….. Sorry, I’ll get to them later.