Leading Off
1) Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Eighteen Chinese acrobats walk into a homeless shelter. No, seriously.
2) Unless I’m misreading it (always possible) this Fort Worth couple could face life in prison for — wait for it — trading commercial aircraft parts to companies in Iran without first obtaining a federal license. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if what they were doing was so intrinsically evil, why would the federal government offer a license to do it in the first place?
3) Dear 6-pound, 8-ounce baby Jesus, please wiggle your nose and fast forward us past March 4. (And add “None of the Above” as a legally binding ballot option for November while you’re at it.)
28 Comments to “Leading Off”
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Jeez Trev, you need to read the whole article before you turn them fingers loose on a keyboard. That Ft Worth couple was also accused of selling military parts to Iran.
The reason for the license might have something to do with having a method to track merchandise to insure there isn’t the trafficing in military hardware.
Oh, and Trev, put me down for Obama and my wife for Hillary.
Poor Trey…no one conservative enough for you running this time around? Tsk, tsk. I guess the battle for the center alienates some in the margins.
OK, Bobby, now you and Trey have to kiss on the mouth.
Don’t think this is a battle for the center. The leading Republican candidate is so old he can’t remember what he just finished doing, which shows in his voting record. The Democratic candidates? Well, they want to polarize the left. If there were anybody really in the middle, for more than five minutes, they would win this election in a landslide. Instead, we get the Republican version of John Kerry, the wife of a former president who is from wherever she is currently campaigning, and a charming - well spoken man who’s agenda will make Jimmy Carter proud. We all saw how that worked out. Yawn.
The most exciting part of this presidential campaign is wondering who will take out the incumbent four years from now.
This go-’round, it’s a battle for the disenfranchised from each side, plus, back for a return engagement, the independents.
Independents (like Trey; like me for that matter) are are a multifarious lot. The only thing they have in common is they’re impossible to please. Disenfranchised former party faithfuls will vote for their party in the end anyhow, or in Nancy Nichols’ case, anywhoo — either that or they won’t vote at all, petulant li’l buggers.
Or, to state it all more succinctly, “election cycle.” McCain will probably be our next president. Don’t stop thinkin’ about tomorrow.
If Obama overcomes Hillary, it is his election to win as his base of African-American voters will only grow between now and November. It will still be a struggle as he will have to overcome the racial bias of (estimating) 1/5 of all registered voters. It would have been a cakewalk had the Dems found a moderate white male as their candidate, but are there any left?
Yes, John, there is a moderate white male democratic candidate. His name is John McCain.
You’re right, John, Obama has a fightin’ chance. I’m hedging with a side bet.
Re: Chinese acrobats “I was thinking they would go downtown and there would be no way to find them.” Bill, you sweet, kind, generous man — nine 4′10″ Chinese boys wearing matching blue warms ups would not be that difficult to find in downtown Ft. Worth.
I mean downtown Dallas . . .
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. ” - Thomas Jefferson
Instead, we get the Republican version of John Kerry, the wife of a former president who is from wherever she is
Oh, you mean kinda like how Bushie is “from” Texas…by way of Connetteecut???
And Trey…OK, so don’t send your kids to public school, don’t drive on the public highways, don’t take advantage of all the medical advances gained through the NIH, don’t collect social security, don’t consider that the govt-funded military is protecting you, and don’t use the postal service or libraries. Or police force. Have a nice third-world life!!!!
I just wish W would find a way to extend his stay. I know I’m in the EXTREME minority but many decades from now, history will show him as being amoung the best POTUS’ ever.
Missing Dots…it’s time to take your medication. Again. Perhaps dots will connect at some point.
Julie - I’m not promoting “Bushie.” Last I checked, he isn’t on any ballot. I’m less concerned about the person we are getting out of office….more concerned with the lack of one we’re putting in. “Bushie” is history, let’s think about the future.
Yes, let’s forget about Bushie so we can make another huge mistake with Mr. “100-year War.”
5 years in Iraq, 4000+ US soldiers dead for nothing.
100 years in Iraq, 80,000 US soldiers dead for nothing.
Who wants to be the first to sign their kids up for that? Line starts at the polls on March 4.
Julie,
great site that shows the Clinton Machine at its finest. Still think “Bushie” is to blame? Those lives were lost for nothing? Any idea what freedom means? You spit on the graves of the fallen men and women when you say they are dead for nothing.
http://www.bercasio.com/movies.....e-iraq.wmv
I’ve been watching more and more - and talking to more and more people who are fairly politically astute - and the general consensus is that Obama has a better chance of beating McCain, and Clinton none at all. In fact, if Clinton wins, I kinda think that Clinton will need Obama as VP (although the likelihood of that ticket is well, as likely as Jim Schutze and Tom Leppert spooning) to have a snowball’s chance. Conversely, Obama doesn’t need Clinton at all to win. In fact, he’d probably do better without her.
Missing Dots,
I think the lives in Iraq were lost for nothing but the vainglorious chimera of a stubborn, arrogant manchild and his snarling, sinister uncle.
I also think Sharon Tate died for nothing but the schizophrenic delusuions of a group of drug-addled sociopaths. So I guess that means I’m spitting on Sharon Tate’s grave as well?
“Delusions.”
“Delusuions” is, I believe, a Cajun dish.
Daniel,
I didn’t realize Tate was an active member of the armed forces serving our country. Your analogy is so far off base you don’t warrant any more consideration.
Julie - You have convinced me not to vote for Bush in ‘08. You have succeeded.
You are in a strange place if your political compass is guided by what an outgoing president has done, and not what the incoming candidates will/can do.
“Vote Hillary in 2008, because Bush was bad!”
It’s not off-base at all — except, true, she didn’t serve in the forces. Maybe she made shoes for crippled children or something, though. She didn’t deserve to die owing to another human’s delusions, and by pointing that out, I don’t believe I invalidate her life.
The men who died in Iraq — or Vietnam, for that matter — are owed a debt of gratitude for serving their country, but in both cases, they died on a fool’s errand. That reflects poorly on their commander in chief, not them. A soldier’s valor is not in choosing wars, but in serving with courage.
According to your typical blowhard reasoning, any American who objects to an American military adventure is “unworthy of his freedom” or somesuch nonsense. It is in fact you and your ilk who are unworthy of further consideration, and I doubt you’ll be given any come November.
Danny boy,
I don’t think anybody is invalidating the life of Sharon Tate. Rather the point being made is they signed up for the military, therefore, they take an inherent risk that they may be called into duty and possibly make the ultimate sacrifice. You join the military to serve your country and death is an unfortunate possibility of doing so. I don’t know the complete history of Ms. Tate but I assume she was a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her death may have been a meaningless act, but our country men and women died for a reason, regardless of whether or not you agree with said reason. Nobody is questioning your freedom but to say that a soldier lost their life for nothing is absurd. Hope that helps enlighten you.
They lost their lives serving their country, a necessary and courageous choice on their part. Unfortunately, their commander in chief (and Congress) sent them on a fool’s errand, where they died pursuing no clearly defined objective.
Their lives were meaningful. Their deaths were senseless. What did they die for? George Bush’s hubris? Well, that’s something, I guess, technically.
As a soldier who just got back from Iraq a few weeks ago I feel the need to address a few things mentioned above. One, my close friends who died in combat did so while serving our country, yes, and also while keeping the world a safer place. To say they died while on a fool’s errand is a disgrace.
You are entitled to your opinion, Daniel, that is at the core of what me and my fellow soldiers long before me fight for. But the people of Iraq (and Vietnam) deserve that right as well. You think because you live in America you deserve more than somebody else who live halfway across the world? It’s that kind of superiority/entitlement attitude that the rest of the world finds so revolting.
Until you’ve heard the voices of hundreds of children thanking you for the freedom you’ve brought to their country, or heard the sobs of grown men who know their children will have freedom and rights they never experienced, you have no place to talk about a fool’s errand.
I lost 23 men that I consider close friends in Iraq and I take great exception to you sitting in the comfort of your cozy little office in Dallas, TX categorizing their deaths as senseless. Every single one of those men who gave their lives for the freedom of others would tell you that their deaths were not senseless. And I am telling you that same thing now. No matter what you think you know or believe, it gives you no right to betray the lives of those courageous soldiers with your ignorant words.
If you don’t have the ability to respect the lives of those who have fallen, then perhaps you need to keep your thoughts to yourself.
Huh:
Those who ignore history (even recent history) are doomed to repeat it. And I never mentioned Hillary.
Bushie and McCain both represent one ideal: endless war. Endless stream of our sons & daughters bodies fed into the Halliburton/Blackwater meat grinder.
FinallyBackHome’s words are eloquent. I don’t want one more–NOT ONE MORE–valuable person like him fed into the permanent civil war that is Iraq. That war is not worthy of his life, or any soldier’s.