They got Al-Zawahiri?!

[mussa]

exactly, oh you forgot the 60 some virgins waiting for him in never never land. 

Its not about money or poverty, its about religous fundamentalism.  You don't see people in Africa, China, Russia, or South America blowing themselves up.

it most certainly is.  if these people had money and lived like americans, then there would be no need for killing themselves.  they could farg all the hookers they want, get fat, become a born-again christian and be forgiven at the gates.  farg them.

[Butchers Bill]

exactly, oh you forgot the 60 some virgins waiting for him in never never land. 

Its not about money or poverty, its about religous fundamentalism.  You don't see people in Africa, China, Russia, or South America blowing themselves up.

that's because they are perfect. we should all hope to be so lucky.

What?

[phillymic2000]

The best solution is to remove the majority of people from their situation, where these lunkheads can influence them.

Another double edged sword, The world has dumped tons and tons of cash into Africa, yet the powers that be are corrupt and take most of the cash and spend it on weapons. Saddam was the same, instead of spending it on his country he put it into his military and his lavish mansions, same with the little prick in N.Korea. So we are damned if we take them out or not. 

[rjs246]

I think the solution is to either leave them alone entirely or nuke the everloving shtein out of them. None of this half-stepping, Hoyda-footing bullshtein.

[Geowhizzer]

Admittedly extremely simplistic solution (I'm in a bad mood tonight):

1.  Dedicate fully to developing an alternative fuel on a commercial scale.
2.  Fully implement that fuel.
3.  Tell the Middle East, Europe, and the rest of the world to kiss our hindquarters.
4.  Pull our military out of every foreign nation, use them to patrol our own borders.  We can also cut our forces 25-50% (perhaps keeping the rest in reserve- Sarge and SD know more than I do in this area.)
5.  Announce that our new policy is isolationalism.  We'll stay out of the world's affairs totally, but if we're attacked, we'll nuke the crap out of you.
6.  Nuke Iran and North Korea as an example for the world.  They're annoying.***


*** Yes, I'm kidding about this.  Mostly.

[Seabiscuit36]

I like your thinking Geo 

[Sgt PSN]

Admittedly extremely simplistic solution (I'm in a bad mood tonight):

1. Dedicate fully to developing an alternative fuel on a commercial scale.
2. Fully implement that fuel.
3. Tell the Middle East, Europe, and the rest of the world to kiss our hindquarters.
4. Pull our military out of every foreign nation, use them to patrol our own borders. We can also cut our forces 25-50% (perhaps keeping the rest in reserve- Sarge and SD know more than I do in this area.)
5. Announce that our new policy is isolationalism. We'll stay out of the world's affairs totally, but if we're attacked, we'll nuke the crap out of you.
6. Nuke Iran and North Korea as an example for the world. They're annoying.***


*** Yes, I'm kidding about this. Mostly.

Can we keep a few Marines in Germany?  I'm trying to stationed over there when I'm done recruiting.  Everything else looks good though. 

[MadMarchHare]

Damn, Geo.  Watch the SotU?

[Geowhizzer]

Damn, Geo.  Watch the SotU?

Had it on.  Half paid attention to it.  Bush has lost much of his moral authority, even with many conservatives in the past year, and may already be in lame duck mode with two years to go.

Also, I tire of all the "personal stories" that the politicians try to put into the speech to pull the heartstrings.  Get to your point, dang it!

On a more general note:

The spying on American citizens is scary to me.  Don't use terrorism as an excuse.  That's unconstitutional.  Problem is, if it was Clinton doing it, the roles would be reversed, with Republicans crying foul and Democrats claiming it is "necessary to protect the nation."  And yes, I realize that some has been going on for years, but to me this seems unprecedented.

And the democrats will apparently blow a golden opportunity to claim the White House by trying to run Hillary.  She's the one that will galvanize enough conservatives and turn off enough in the middle to throw the election back to the Republicans, especially if McLean or Giulianni can win the nomination (which I still think is possible, especially since the Republicans will want desperately to distance themselves from GWB.  Obama would be a good candidate for the democrats, but he's still young and may wisely choose to bide his time.

The guy from Virginia (Tim Kaine) seems interesting.  Don't know much about him other than the death sentence case that came up recently.  Apparently he has aspirations of running as well.  He'd be a dark horse at best, and the liberal wing of the Dempcrats seems to favor Hillary at this point.  To me, the only person that would be a worse choice for the Democrats than Hillary would be Howard Dean.  He's just nutty.

Of course, all this is two years away.  In 1994, I thought Bill Clinton had zero chance of winning a second term.  Of course, a more inspired choice than Dole may have given him more of a run for his money as well.

What I would like to see is a choice between two strong, qualified, relatively "pure" candidates that would allow Americans to choose what they believe is the best course for the nation.  But that's a pipe dream, I'm afraid.

BTW, the first two points I firmly believe in.  We need to get a new fuel source and get rid of our drug-like need for OPEC, the Middle East and the oil politics that have poisoned our foreign policy for basically a century.  Whether it's fuel cells, electric cars, or whatever, put the funds into developing the technology needed to tell OPEC and the oil-drug-dealers to stick it.

[MadMarchHare]

Don't look at Kaine.  Look at his boss.  He's the one with the political capital, after getting Kaine elected in largely Republican, tobacco growing VA.  I'll have a hard time supporting Hillary, being in the pharmaceutical industry.  I just hope that if she runs, it's McCain or Guiliani, and not some nutjob idealogue like Hatch or Lott.

And I'm all over giving the big FU to OPEC.  Fuel cells rule.

[Butchers Bill]

I agree about Obama...that dude is brilliant and should (will?) be President someday, but 2008 is too early.  If the Dems run Hillary in '08 (which I agree will be a huge mistake) look for Obama in 2012.

[MadMarchHare]

I think Hillary is all but a lock.  The thinking will be that she'll sway a lot of centrist women, because she doesn't have a penis.  And having her husband barnstorm the South will win back a few of those states, pushing her over the edge.  I'm not sure that reasoning is sound, but there aren't any other Dems in the wings who aren't career assclowns like Herman Munster.  Maybe Mark Warner, as I stated above.  He's not exactly a household name, though, but I lived in VA when he was Governer, and he was able to get bipartisan support done, and didn't always drive on traditional party lines.  I'd prefer him to Hillary, a lot.

Speaking of Hillary, did anyone else notice her smarmy, sarcastic glares at Bush during the SotU?  I know I was doing that at home, but I'm not an elected official.  It really kinda turned me off, even though I agreed with the sentiment.

[Geowhizzer]

Speaking of Hillary, did anyone else notice her smarmy, sarcastic glares at Bush during the SotU?  I know I was doing that at home, but I'm not an elected official.  It really kinda turned me off, even though I agreed with the sentiment.

My wife kept pointing that out last night.  It was driving her crazy.

I agree that the Democratic nomination is Hillary's to lose.  I'm doubtful that she would carry enough of the middle to win a general election.

But I've been wrong before!

[rjs246]

If Hillary is the next deomcratic candidate and she's running against an idealogue republican I'm farging leaving.

My house. To get drunk.

[stillupfront]

Sitting Senators don't win. The last was Kennedy.