tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352798832024-03-07T12:50:00.906-05:00Green Dog demA green-dog Democrat is a cross between a yellow-dog Democrat and a blue-dog Democrat --
a moderately progressive, thinking Democrat who is liberal on some issues, moderate on some, a little conservative on some, ambivalent on others.
This one is a Resident of The Lehigh Valley and Pretty pissed with the State partyGreendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.comBlogger95125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-82147655669368716532007-12-09T07:50:00.000-05:002007-12-09T08:38:43.494-05:00Bush adm resistance to alternative energy putting america's economic future at riskThe close to 6 year resistance by the Bush Adm and republican lead congress has put American is a bad future economic position. Instead spreading the cost of conversion to a fossil fuel alternative or alternative the republicans have fought tooth and nail against it. Now, we are in the max pain position of having to in short accord to make massive changes to our environmental situation or risk the same economic pain we sought to avoid by not doing them. <br /><br />While, the rest of the industrialized world has been creating it's alternative energy industries we are in the beginning stages. We are now starting to see the international costs, in our auto-industry. Ford and Gm are not simply being hurt by their labor situation they being hurt because they are being cut off from foreign markets because of their failure until recently and putting their market share at risk at home as fuel efficiency has become a bigger and bigger concern.<br /><br />We are now getting to this position with other industries as well. As, well we as we are rushing to deal the environmental problems the Republicans until recently have tried to explain away as unproven and in some cases are still trying to. We are being forced to import or have foreign companies build our alternative energy infrastructure,because the country has failed to invest in the technology or create the capacity to do it ourselves. This has created a secondary cost of us not even benfiting from our own attempt to shift to alteratives to fossil fuels.<br /><br />Our failure to take the pain of changing over while the europeans started to in the 80's and 90's and the first 6 year of this adm and we made fun of them for it. They are benefiting and we are paying the price, as we are now years behind them, and the costs of doing so now will be much more expensive for our leaderships lack of vision.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-30166424677718394612007-11-14T22:51:00.000-05:002007-11-14T23:42:43.773-05:00Lucky Dog of the 2007 ElectionIn an up and back vote count that wasn't settled till monday, Whitehall Twp Commissioner Thomas Slonaker seems to have eeked out win in the race for Lehigh county controller (and I mean eeked out) over the current Lehigh county controller Paul Shaffer by 23 votes. On election night it looked like Slonaker had originally won by 278 votes 22,280 to 22,002 then the next morning it had flipped to a 67 vote advantage for Shaffer 21,464 votes to 21,397. Finally today Slonaker 21,624 votes, compared with Shaffer 21,601. I honestly don't understand the vote total changes either.<br /><br />All I can say is Thomas Sloanker is one lucky dog and definally deserves the title of Lucky Dog of the 2007 ElectionGreendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-5976757951712988992007-09-03T10:32:00.000-04:002007-09-03T10:38:52.674-04:00Maliki and his achievements1. Maliki has achieved 3 racially Homogenious regions. <br /> More or less the precence of Kurds and Sunnis had been removed from Southern Iraq and most of Baghdad.<br /><br /> Al abar is now Homogenously Sunnis <br /><br /> the North or Now what is called Kurdistan is almost homogenously Kurd<br /><br />2. There are now 3 million or more Sunnis and Shites mostly sunnis that have fled the country. <br /><br />3. There is more or elss an automous southern Iraq regionGreendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-32542326867799470912007-08-31T21:09:00.000-04:002007-08-31T21:54:05.859-04:00Iraq visits by congressmen and Senators Staged eventsIt seems now that rather than a briefing on what is going on in Iraq congressmen and Senators have been receiving what amounts to Pr campaign orchastrated by the Miltary and the Bush adm to convince them that surge was working.<br /><br /> The congressmen and Senators were set up with pr officers. The senators and congressmen's bios were plastered all over the green zone. Spin City," Rep. Moran said of the incident. "The Iraqis and the Americans were all singing from the same song sheet, and it was deliberately manipulated." <br /><br />They are restrict from who they are meeting with and are only given access to what amounts to specfic officals and soilders that were prescreen to talk to them. On several occasion people that tried to talk to them were cut off, block as when they started trying to tell them what was really going on. <br /><br />This brings into question what is really going on in iraq and if we are really being given a the picture or this is simply another con game by this adm to keep the war going. Is the surge really working or not I now question if what the congress member are coming back with is the truth or is simply a well orchastraed fraud by the adm to convince them and us it is. I don't think the adm would be going to this level of restricted access if it was. They seem to be so desperate to keep the war going they will resort to even staged events for congress to convince them things are going well even if they aren't. <br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfXP5r19Hn6UFWUPGO944vMPKYijRfqXmqjKzyaF4vFHWdlWH-yqmNQLFemNsD8GU1pxeZWuClkttKFfeDEYe0YN2LdLno_6kfgiqrXLHSTK2osXxD7TefOnkwrCDejdr-aIqWDg/s1600-h/moranbig.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfXP5r19Hn6UFWUPGO944vMPKYijRfqXmqjKzyaF4vFHWdlWH-yqmNQLFemNsD8GU1pxeZWuClkttKFfeDEYe0YN2LdLno_6kfgiqrXLHSTK2osXxD7TefOnkwrCDejdr-aIqWDg/s400/moranbig.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5105041902513580850" /></a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk0Rpb7QGThi1VyDC4QMIJeNANqifIE4Bx_6n82GEiE3jOIa7NvTWFHAjTjR4BKz2WsPoVpn97LOm3F7VkiIK6gH56tM02ciHrWuYQHJBcXFhSuLtE6DX5YHKF5ILORm1-lH1Efg/s1600-h/tauscherbig.gif"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk0Rpb7QGThi1VyDC4QMIJeNANqifIE4Bx_6n82GEiE3jOIa7NvTWFHAjTjR4BKz2WsPoVpn97LOm3F7VkiIK6gH56tM02ciHrWuYQHJBcXFhSuLtE6DX5YHKF5ILORm1-lH1Efg/s400/tauscherbig.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5105042705672465218" /></a>Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-70368196102464136872007-08-29T08:36:00.000-04:002007-08-29T08:47:16.585-04:00Bush pushing towards invasion of IranIt's quite clear that George Bush intends to try to convince the American people that's a good idea to invade Iran. We are hearing the same language that lead up to his unilateralist invasion of Iraq, plus the increased craziness of a Nuclear Holocaust. It's quite clear that they have decided that the best way to deal with our problems in Iraq is to start a war with Iran. This is Bush's desperate last ditch effort to keep the Iraq war going,to distract the failure of Iraq with a New enemy a new war someething and i'm going to get attacked for this that is worthy of Nazis propagandist Joseph Goebbels. The idea that keeping people in fear will keep their support no matter how bad things are going. I honestly have now lost what little respect I had for this President that he would resort to this, and am will lose what respect I have for the American public if they fall for it.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-34910509430149980362007-08-26T18:23:00.000-04:002007-08-26T18:48:27.765-04:00Today proves we need to Pressure the Iraqi government So Mr Maliki Shut up.It seems that the only time that makes the Iraqi government do anything is the threat that the American troops will actually leave. Mr. Maliki spent the past 3 days cursing and screaming at US elected officials mostly Democrats. Who wanted him removed, that they were undemocratic. Telling us if we don't want to be their (his) friend he can find someone else. That this is their government that we should mind our own business, screaming and yelling and having a fit on Television like a lunatic. Telling us compromise takes time progress takes time. Well, Mr. Maliki it seems the only way we can get you and the Iraqi government to show progress in Iraq is a threaten your power. That someone actually lit a fire under you and your government. That have had months and years to do thing and only do them now that if you don't the troops will pull out. That all of a suddenly only today moved to meet the US benchmarks because Democrats and some republicans put pressure on you. <br /><br />This simply proves that the only thing that will speed up progress in Iraq is continued pressure and threats of leaving by American officials. That unless we put up a real threat of leaving or your removal nothing will happen. It proves Democrats were right to put the screws to the iraqi government. We will continue to spill our blood for nothing, infiniteum. So Mr. Maliki Shut up I'm almost as sick of listening to your bs as our President's rants about Vietnam.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-36719938177564913042007-08-22T08:57:00.000-04:002007-08-22T11:45:06.781-04:00How stupid does Bush think the American People are Vietnam,Japan,KoreaBush must really think the American People are stupid. Bush is goin to try and conflate Japan,Korea and Vietnam into the same frame work. <br /><br />We did not go into Japan and try to beat the people into submission, nor did we create a government before the war was over. We had already won there were no insurgence in Japan and there was a true leader to negotiate with. <br /><br />We won in Japan and were able to set up a democracy because we had nuked the country and destroyed their will to fight. <br /><br />Second Korea, exists and continues to exist in the way it does because of outside infulences between the Soviets, China and the Us and other allies. <br /><br />But again this was a fight between two groups and even though we standed thousands died and even though we were there South Korea had a coup d'etat lead by General Park Chung-hee 1961, and who was replace in a coup d'etat by General Chun Doo-hwan 1979 There was also a masacre in 1980 of Democracy groups and then a revolt in 1988.All this happened while we were there.<br /><br />In Vietnam we didn't lose because we left we lost because we destablize the rest of the region and didn't understand the culture of vietnam. We have incompitent allies and that no matter how much we trained them couldn't get anything done. The invation of Cambodia and the Kent State mascare in the us ended the war. Congress only cut off the Money because it had no choice, and it was the only way to end the war. Bush is continuing to point to Domino theory which didn't happen. The simple fact is that reguardless of what the Vietnam apologist say we could not have won in Vietnam no matter how long we stayed. The government was courpt and incomptient and based on the pentagon papers the Johnson and Nixon adm had been lying to the American people about what was going on in Vietnam for years. The simple fact is the Johnson adm tried to paint the tet offensive as a victory that it wasn't. Which is where the war started to go down hill. We simply couldn't control vietnam without ourselves and neither can we control Iraq. <br /><br />The simple fact is the comparison between Iraq and the other wars is a load of dung. Iraq is more closely related to Vietnam because there is some ethnic strugle and we are bogged down. We were told over and over again in Vietnam we were winning there is a light at the end of the tunnel unforuntaely the light at the end of the tunnel was the light from an on coming train. That is what is happening in Iraq we make a little progress to make it look like we are getting somewhere just enough to keep us there then all hell breaks loose again. This is what happened in Vietnam except by the end Congress had had it and cut it off. It doesn't matter how long we stay or if we stay there will be continued violence and in the end there will be a civil war if not this year next year or 10 years from now.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-3621698688712273952007-08-19T10:23:00.000-04:002007-08-19T11:04:15.887-04:00Has the Us Miltary Become an Evangelical CultIt seems there is a continued attempt to evangialize Miltary recruits still reguardless of what is going on. If you are wondering why the Us Miltary is having such a hard time recruiting to the numbers it sets and keeping people. On every level evangical chrisitans have invaded the us miltary and are using the insitution to harrass recruits into converting to Evangical christianity reguardless if they are any other type of Christianity. <br /><br />The Miltary has because so bad that the recruits are being commanded to go to Evangical events. The miltary is being run on faith based action what is going on in Iraq is no longer a war but a crusade, it believes that Iraq is a battle of Revelations. That is doesn't matter what the truth is they will lie, distort, and alter to keep the war going. This is part of why we are really not winning because the Us miltary and the people running it are just as intollerant as the people we are fighting. They blame those who are not evangical christians for their failures and most specifically non-christians. That we are losing not because of their actions but because they have lost the support of god because they haven't converted enough people. <br /><br />It is a highly disturbing situation and everything that comes out of the us miltary should be taken in the Light that they view this as a religious crusade and not what is in the Best interest of the american people.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-32242285128271105382007-08-13T21:22:00.000-04:002007-08-13T22:46:25.326-04:00Here we go again the National Press and American Public is Conned by the Bush adm again<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb-TZtUS9dbnwjaLNVosBPeFjyOUHDWoc7p7KTwZx2pRGVjtWWNYp7OWieFx_PQeNbKH2s7uZppT9Sl72_WurxsMHyB6eVHAvJ9ZwgEAO4O9IbwqdjKHqfgvAvyg7b77YY4XUkww/s1600-h/groundhog.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb-TZtUS9dbnwjaLNVosBPeFjyOUHDWoc7p7KTwZx2pRGVjtWWNYp7OWieFx_PQeNbKH2s7uZppT9Sl72_WurxsMHyB6eVHAvJ9ZwgEAO4O9IbwqdjKHqfgvAvyg7b77YY4XUkww/s400/groundhog.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5098360799751374914" /></a><br /><br /><br />It seems that the Much touted anti-war scholar Michael O'Hanlon aggressive critics of the Bush administration's handling of the war" or as "critics of the war by his own admission is not a war critic at all but a whole hearted supporter of the war from word one. <br /><br />It's quite clear from the quote below that what we have been hearing is alot of happy happy nonsense from a staged trip by the Dod. There is no real evidence what was reported with O'hanlon and Pollack was true nor that there is any real progress in Iraq at all or that what is being Shown as said by sen Webb was nothing more than a Horse and Pony show.<br /><br />Greenwald: OK, but once George Bush is primed to invade in March of 2003, the strategy is known, on balance did you believe that with the strategy that Bush was going to use, that the war on balance was a good idea rather than a bad idea? You favored it, right? <br /><br /> <br />O'Hanlon: Yes, yes I did. <br /><br /><br /><br />Greenwald: As far as the Surge is concerned, the policy that President Bush announced in January 2007, you were a supporter of that strategy on balance, right? <br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: Correct, yes. <br /><br /><br />Greenwald: OK. And in terms of the reasons that you favored it, you say that you obviously got Weapons of Mass Destruction wrong - you wrote a Washington Times February 2003 column where you said: “the President was still convincing on his central point that the time for war is near.” And then you went on to say that "It is now time for multilateralists to support the President." Weapons of Mass Destruction was a very significant part of the case that you made for invading Iraq. Would you agree with that? <br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: Yes, I would. <br /><br /><br />Greenwald: Why did you need the permission of the U.S. military in order to go? Why couldn't you just go yourself? <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: I suppose I could have, but I was hopeful that someone could help take care of my security, for one thing. <strong>I'm not going to try to sound more heroic than I am. And also I wanted to talk to a lot of military personnel and get their impressions. </strong><br /><br /><br />And also <strong>I'm not a long-standing enough specialist on Iraqi politics.</strong> I'm more of a defense scholar. So I don't have the kinds of contacts in Iraq that some of my friends who are first and foremost Iraq specialists have. And therefore in order to have a useful trip, I need to sort of tag along with somebody. So this was a great benefit to me that not only the U.S. military would help arrange the trip, but also that Ken Pollack and Tony Cordesman -- who were two long-standing Iraq experts, two of our nation's best Iraq experts -- would be on the trip as well. So for all these reasons, that was why I took the chance to go on that trip. <br /><br /><br />Greenwald: The first line of your Op-Ed said:"viewed from Iraq where we just spent the last eight days interviewing American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel..." <br /><br /><br /><br />How did you arrange the meetings with the Iraqi military and civilian personnel? <br /><br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: Well, a number of those -- and most of those were arranged by the U.S. military. So I'll be transparent about that as well. These were to some extent contacts of Ken and Tony, but that was a lesser number of people.<strong> The predominant majority were people who we came into contact with through the itinerary the D.O.D. developed.</strong><br /><br />Greenwald: Were you concerned that you were getting an unrepresentative view of the situation in Iraq because the Iraqis with whom you spoke were ones hand-picked by the U.S. military?<br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon:<strong> If someone wanted to argue that we were not getting a representative view of Iraqis because the ones we spoke with were provided by the military, I would agree that this would be a genuine concern. Certainly that might have influenced the impressions that we were presented, though by no means did all of the Iraqis agree with the view of progress in Iraq.</strong><br /><br />Greenwald: Given that some of the claims in your Op-Ed are based upon your conversations with Iraqis, and that the <strong>Iraqis with whom you spoke were largely if not exclusively ones provided to you by the U.S. military, shouldn't that fact have been included in your Op-Ed?</strong><br /><br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: If the suggestion is that in a 1,400 word Op-Ed, we ought to have mentioned that, <strong>I can understand that criticism, and if we should have included that, I apologize for not having done so. </strong><br /><br /><br />But <strong>I want to stress that the focus here was on the perspective of the U.S. military,</strong> and I did a lot of probing of what I was told, and remain confident in the conclusions that we reached about the military successes which we highlighted.<strong> But if you're suggesting that some of our impressions might have been shaped by the military's selection of Iraqis, and that we might have disclosed that, that is, I think, fair enough.</strong><br /><br /><br />Greenwald: So were all of the people with whom you spoke in Iraq ones you encountered as a result of planning by the U.S. military?<br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: <strong>Well, other than the ones we encountered in passing in the Green Zone or whatever. And I’m not going to claim that there was a huge amount of back-and-forth. There was a little bit. But for the most part, the conversations were ones arranged by D.O.D., yes</strong><br /><br />But I've often not been in agreement with them on how they interpreted things, I’ve often done thing to try to get details on the tactics.<br /><br />You know, there's always obviously a danger of being a little bit wowed by the group you're with, but I have been involved in this debate long enough and been involved critically long enough that I feel from the D.O.D. point of view, I have a very good interaction with our leadership and our personnel. <br /><br /><br /><br />We also saw C.I.A personnel, we saw A.I.D personnel, we met with people from senior CENTCOM positions who were not on General Petreus' staff. We had a lot of interaction with civilian officials there – including the ambassador, a number of people in his office. We had ample opportunity to probe at and assess the U.S. take - I am not worried about that. <br /><br /><br /><strong>However I will take your point and I would agree with your point that we were certainly not getting a representative view of Iraqi opinion. And nor would I claim that we got a representative view, or at least got a widespread sampling of, American enlisted military personnel thinking. We had a couple dozen of enlisted personnel we come in contact with, but as you can probably surmise -- unless you are totally out of earshot - which I was sometimes - the ability to get a totally independent take was difficult. I would go out of my way to get that independent take when I could, but I would admit to you that in the space of seven and a half days I only had probably a few independent opinions in private settings from enlisted personnel. So, that's a limited sampling. And that's part of why we said we felt morale was high, but we didn't go and use more superlatives. Frankly, the people we talked to I thought morale was outstanding, but I didn't want to get carried away in a situation where there was a limitation on our ability to do a full sampling. </strong><br /><br /><br /><br />So in regard to the military we had a lot of access, conversations with a lot of people we had professional relationships with for years, and I feel that I have an accurate sense of how they view the mission. <strong>I do not claim to have near as detailed a sense of how Iraqis think about our role there at the moment. </strong><br /><br /><br />Greenwald: But even in terms of what’s going on in the various cities, and how ready the Iraqi troops are, and whether their divisions really are as ready as the Op-Ed suggested – Isn’t it fair to say that the great bulk of your information about those matters came from statements made to you either by the U.S. military officials or the Iraqi officials selected for you by the U.S. military?<br /><br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: Yes. But I would actually challenge what you just said. We do not in the Op-Ed give an overall glowing assessment of the Iraqi security forces. We do say there has been progress with some of them. But we do not -- <br /><br /><br /><br />Greenwald: I understand. But with the ones where you said there was progress -- that was based largely on, if not exclusively on, the claims of the U.S. military and the Iraqi military officials they picked for you, right? <br /><br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: No, it's more than that because it's also looking at data on what they've been doing on the battlefield and who they're led by. And in fact Ken Pollack and I are now doing a longer trip report in which you'll see, I think, if you're interested in some of the detail in our thinking about the progress, but also the limitations on Iraqi security forces. And one thing I had decided to tell General Petreus and General Odierno and others in my visit and subsequently is that<strong> I don't think we have yet a very compelling transition strategy for how we can ultimately pass off security in some of the most tense, inter-ethnic neighborhoods to Iraqi forces, because I am not yet confident that we are seeing a large enough number of them become non-sectarian and dependable in their nature. </strong><br /><br /><br /><br />And this is a point I made repeatedly with Petreus and Odierno and a point that we are going to make in our trip report. The Op-Ed said -- listen, there is momentum at one level. There are some Iraqi security forces that are looking better, and on top of that there's a volunteer phenomenon -- where they want to work places like al Anbar Province and some other places to go against our common enemies -- that's also impressive. <strong>But it's by no means a resolution of the sectarian conflict. I remain quite concerned that we need an end-game for that. </strong><br /><br /><br /><br />In fact, if you'll permit me - one last thing I've done in the last two months is to write a paper on the “soft partition” option for Iraq, because I think that in the end it would be much easier to actually figure out a transition strategy out of Iraq for us if Iraqis would agree to essentially create three autonomous regions – with one of them being Kurdistan and the other two being predominantly Sunni and predominately Shia. I think it would be easier to build security forces around protecting those sorts of zones. <br /><br /><br /><br />So that has been an enduring concern of mine. And it's true that in this Op-Ed we tried to emphasize where we saw momentum;<strong> we focused more on some of the good news, and I suppose we could be criticized for that</strong>. But, we did acknowledge the sectarian problem is far from addressed, and that's something that's very much on our minds still today. <br /><br /><br /><br />Greenwald: Your partner in this Op-Ed, Ken Pollack, spoke with George Packer of The New Yorker, who afterwards wrote: <strong>Pollack "spoke with very few Iraqis and could independently confirm very little of what he heard from American officials." Is that your experience as well? Do you agree with that characterization? </strong><br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: Well, I just told you my fuller view on that, <strong>which is that I don't claim any great sense of what the Iraqi public or Iraqi leadership is thinking. We did actually have a number of meetings with some top Iraqi politicians, but a small enough number that I'm not going to make undue claims about it. </strong><br /><br /><br /><strong><br />Now you could say in one sense all this data ultimately, all this information ultimately is coming from the U.S. military</strong>. Yes, but there's an opportunity for a lot of probing, a lot of debate, a lot of conversations back and forth and so I think Packer is slightly too strong in his criticism on that point. <br /><br /><br /><br />Greenwald: Well, I think he's quoting, or purporting to describe, what Pollack told him. But I take your point and it is fair enough to say that just because you're getting your information from military sources doesn't mean you are just gullibly swallowing what they say, because you're a professional and you're making assessments about what their credibility is. That's fair enough and I understand that point. And I guess you've said in the past you felt like you had less faith than what they where telling you this time, and that's all fine. <br /><br /><br /><br />But what I'm trying to get at is if they told you, for instance, <strong>that there were certain army divisions in Mosul where the bad commanders were being weeded out and they were now capable of holding neighborhoods better, you wouldn't actually go to the neighborhoods and inspect whether or not what you were told was true. Your claims in that regard in the Op-Ed were based upon your belief that what the U.S. military commanders were telling you was accurate. Is that true? </strong><br /><br /><br />O'Hanlon: <strong>Yes, that’s true. Based on that example, on that type of example, you're right. </strong><br /><br /><br />quote from interview by Glenn Greenwald <br />http://utdocuments.blogspot.com/2007/08/interview-with-michael-ohanlon.htmlGreendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-64718208572822924252007-08-09T17:11:00.000-04:002007-08-09T17:30:47.772-04:00So Mr President Who are we going to invade Next Bush's Middle East JihadBush more or less said today that we need to invade countries all over the middle east and install democracies. So that we can remove the atmosphere that makes people hate us. Bush more or less said today that we need to go all over the middle east and Depose governments. So where are we going to invade Next Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, Barain,Kuwait most of our allies in the middle east are dicatorships or Monarchies.I mean there are only 3 true free democracies in the Middle east {i really can't called Iraq a Democracy) Israel, Iran and Turkey,. One of which we can't stand so how in the world can we say democracy works. The places were Democracy exists in Arab countries in the middle east they elect the head of their sects or tribal leaders or some religious leader that tells them to vote for them. They more or less elect the lunatic fringe in the country.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-77238435337166496432007-08-05T12:02:00.000-04:002007-08-06T10:09:46.255-04:0053 Lehigh valley still in use bridges found deficient or with ratings close to itIt was kinda disturbing looking at this list realizing that over the past yr I had driven over a number of these bridges sometimes several times a day. Especially the Highly Dangerous Gen Thos R Morgan brige in Slatington. A councilwoman in Slatington had told me how dangerous the bridge was but and the state kept refusing to fund replacing it but now I feel lucky the bride didn't fall out from under me looking at this rating. <br /><br />It seems that most of the deficient bridges are in Western and Northwestern Lehigh County mostly in the old industrial boros that have been left to rot by both the county and the state and the new suburbs build around aging and rotting infrastructure. This is a disaster waiting to happen, do not forget Lehigh county is geologically active as a result of mining and the Limestone base of our soil, that is being undercut by water insursion, sinkholes, etc. <br /><br /><br />Most of the problems in Northampton county simply seem to be the result of a population that is simply growing too fast for the infrastructure to keep up.<br />Lehigh county <br /><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20099121#LEHIGH">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20099121#LEHIGH</a><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20099121#NORTHAMPTON">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20099121#NORTHAMPTON</a><br />(was requested to remove the data and put up links)Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-36361788822825170982007-08-04T12:59:00.000-04:002007-08-04T15:16:35.223-04:00Finding the proper balance between: Taxation, Regulation and Business interest,the Free market,Personal WealthWe as a country seem to have a severe problem with moderation and balance,in general but most explictly in the area of taxation and regulation. Government in the Us tends to either do too much or do too little. This was most explictly shown this week in the collapse of the credit market for the second time in 7 years, and the collapse of the 35w bridge in minn and the realization that 13% of american bridges are on the same condition. As,well as the realization of a week by week erosion of civil liberties and privacy of Americans as came out in House hearings this week, and continued willingness to use tax dollars in ways that most americans don't agree with and are probally not in the countries best interest. <br /><br />The first credit crunch in 2000 happened because Allen Greenspan quickly lowered the us prime interest rates during the 90's and as a result numberous businesses incured enmorous amounts of debt that could only be prepetuated by more debt. So when the debt (loans) was cut off by increasing the prime interest rate. The whole house of cards collapsed under it. This was caused by a failure to regulate the credit industry so many non doc un-secured loans were created. Collapsing the stockmarket and send the economy into recession. I thought we had learned from this but it seems we have not. <br />In 2002 and several other times over the past 5 years the republicans cut taxes several times to excessly low levels while the interest rates were lowering interest rates to the point of almost zero by 2006, with no real increase in workers pay. Thereby creating an enviroment that both corporations and individual were living well beyond their means. Crediting the current situation were both corporations and individual are over leveraged, and the finanical institutions that made the loans and organization and investment firms that bought the paper on the loans are having them default on them. Thereby creating a credit crunch and making it hard for even good credit risk individuals and businesses to, great credit, and creating a 8 trillion dollar debt whose interest is hardly being covered by the addition revenues that were created from the cuts, so the increases are simply paying for the interest on the cuts.<br /><br />Beyond this to cut this the tax cut also resulted in funding cuts such as highway funding and unfunded mandates like no child left behind. Thereby shifting large amounts of extra expreses on the state and local governments. That has resulted in increases of property taxes to fill the gap and states to fill the road funding gap resulting in 13% of bridges and thousands of miles of roads in desperate need of repair and an event like the 35w bridge collapsing because the Minn governor refused to increase taxes to pay for the repairs to the bridge. <br /><br />As well while this was going on the money that inspite of this could have been shift to these projects was shifted to unnecessary activities like invading and then more or less dumping billions of dollars into iraq. That went to fund the people who were attack us. As well there is unneccary regulation of freedoms in this country as Ben Franklin said people who give up a little freedom for a little security will soon have neither and now we have neither. It is not his or any other government's responiblity to try and protect us from everything nor can they and the amount of freedom we have given up over the past years is much greater than the security we are reciving in return. <br /><br />We now are probally at more risk from the government than we are from the people who attacked us on 9/11. The point of the constitution and the laws that were created by the founders were not to make us 100% safe but to ensure that there was a balance between security and freedom which has now shift dangerously towards the prior.This is too much government interferance in our lives and much more than the founders would have allowed. <br /><br />But as i said we need balance too much taxation would not be good either, nor is too much spending nor is too little security. It was ok to cut corp taxes but not to continue the cuts once the economy was capable of funding itself. If you do that the only thing you do is overheat the economy and create a dependence by the corporation on the extra funding. This goes the same for lowering interest rates it's ok to stimulate the economy but if you keep them too low for too long it creates a money glut and bad loans to people and corporations that shouldn't have had them that can collapse the economy. As we are seeing today because there are too many bad loans that are drying up the credit market on it's own by in a much harsher way than if the central bank had raised rates back in feb and slowly raised them. It would have beena shock to the system it could have absorbed but this is now a meltdown. <br /><br />That is the problem the government doesn't seem to understand when to start and when to stop doing things. It either over does or under does thing that only it can do and simply can not be done by the private sector. The Free market is incapable of completely regulating itself, or has the willingness or ability to regulate, or handle certain thngs. Nor should the government so restrict it that it can't function. The governement always needs to be there to steady the scale but it should be with a light touch not a heavy hand. The Free market will take things to the extreme and the government needs to stop it from doing so, such as the enviroment or ensuring fair treament of workers. But the Government must also not go in the exstreme opposite direct. <br /><br />The basic point of this whole dicussion is that when there is a balance between the free market, the government, the rights and freedoms and protection of the governed, and security and the public good there is harmony, and no one knows if they are doing anything thing at all. When there is an inbalance between these forces the side that inbalanced is shifted towards fights tooth and nail to keep that inbalance and the other side fights to get it back to balance. Right now the imbalance is shifted towards the freemarket,the government, partually for and against the public good and against Freedoms and protection of the governed. That is why the country is in the state it is now and will be until either Bush is out of office or until congress reins him in. <br /><br /><br />When there is BalanceGreendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-83059858750419730392007-07-29T14:56:00.000-04:002007-08-13T16:53:32.466-04:00Fact Fact and damn Statistics why the July downturn in us deaths in iraq means nothingus causality stats avg from 2004-currect (i excluded 2003 because that was the year of the invasion and scews up the numbers)<br /><br />Jan 74.75 Jan 07 83 +11%<br />Feb 53.5 Feb 07 81 +34%<br />March 49.75 March 07 81 +39%<br />April 91.75 Apr 07 104 +13%<br />May 88.75 May 07 126 +42%<br />June 70.5 June 101 +43%<br />July 55 July 81 +47%<br />Aug 72 Aug 37<br />Sept 67<br />Oct 88.66<br />Nov 97<br />Dec 84<br /><br />The numbers as you see are statiscally higher than the avg deaths. There is a consistant build and break down period for this entire situation. With Feb,March,July and Sept are build up periods and major attack periods and death being and , April,May,Aug,Oct,Nov and dec. This year the cycle has speed up to one month of down attack lightly down attacks leading to 2 months of statisically higher attacks then one both of slightly elevated attacks. If the current pattern holds true Aug and Sept will have a higher number of attacks and more troops deaths if this pattern holds true there will be around 112 us troops deaths in Aug and 105 troops deaths in sept. <br /><br />I honestly don't know how they can say the surge is working when it seems the only reason the deaths are down is because of this cycle and because July is the hottest months of the year in Iraq and there are just less attacks in July because of this. <br /><br />I will believe this is there is an actual break in this cycle not the meaningless claims by the generals who are trying to keep this war going.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-58193944988524059432007-07-28T10:34:00.001-04:002007-07-28T11:06:35.615-04:00Part of America's perception problem around the World is the Bush era Military culture itself.The Culture that has seems to have develop during the Bush adm in US Military is one of an absolutist cult. That sees the rest of the world as inferiors needing to be "civilized" it seems to even been ingrained in the base live at home and abroad. This attitude of what could be akin to a new "white man’s Burden" idea even extends to the British our "allies". This is exemplified in a statement by a young woman in one of the documentaries who moved to a base in the Uk that going there would be good start to her Missionary work. <br /><br />This sort of exemplifies the evangelistic Disrespects for the local culture the Military is based in. The Military culture has be come ultra fundamentalist Christian in such a way that it really doesn't even understand American culture itself, living in what seems to be a 1950's black hole, that is transported from base to base. <br /><br />That even is upsetting the locals in the Uk where they see the Americans and their families based there as insulting and isolationist, with little concern what their activities have on the locals. This is sort of exemplified by instructions that are given to people who are new to the bases that there are just a few nut bags that will be rude to you. <br /><br />This level of disrespect for the local cultures is only adding to Growing Anti-Americanism overseas. As this is because members of the military and their families are usually the only contact that foreigners have with Americans. After watching them in action in several of these documentaries I wouldn't have a very good view of America either if I was a foreigner.<br /><br />Finally if this culture of disrespect is not fixed in the American military no amount of activity by the military or diplomats are going to fix America’s image around the world.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-62485632006811171182007-07-20T10:47:00.000-04:002007-07-20T11:07:48.198-04:00and we should do what Bush wants this time because???Every decision Bush has made from the decision to go into Iraq was the complete opposite of the decision that should have been made. Starting with going in then going in with too few troops, to letting the iraqi miltary be disbanded, to allowing rioting in the streets, to pushing election on the iraqis, to insisting on staying at every exit point we had, firing any General that suggested leaving Iraq was the best strategy, to sending in wave after waves of troops that have amounted in nothing. <br /><br />THe simple fact is when Bush is faced with two options. When it has come to Iraq he always picks the wrong one. Whatever Bush suggests we should be doing the exact opposite. That includes approving General professional son Petraeus I've looked at Petraeus's record it's not very impressive and the only reason it seems he was put forward is because it seems he's good at towing the line. If he wrote the counter insurgency strategy for the us which hasn't worked for years then it should have been good enough reason not to approve him. <br /><br />Very simply Bush's surge strategy deserves no more time beyond september if that long. The only point of what Bush is doing is so he can dump this on the next president so they can be blamed for the collapse of iraq and not him.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-81940464504102166332007-07-11T21:04:00.000-04:002007-07-11T21:12:13.515-04:00Well know we know what Jerkoff was talking aboutWell we know that Sec Chertoff was trying to avoid saying that Al Queada is stonger now than in 2001 because we F-cked up. After, 4 years of this nonsense in Iraq we are no safer now than we were 4 years ago. Al queada has reconstitued itself because we wasted all this f-cking time in Iraq,because we didn't go after them in pakistan and let things go in Afghanstan. We are no better off today because we invaded Iraq stupidly and the Bush adm is trying to cover it up.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-82004132173782230592007-07-10T20:19:00.000-04:002007-07-10T23:57:54.947-04:00Secreatary Homeland INsecurity needs to take an anti-acid and Shut up and stop fearmongeringToday Secretary Michael Chertoff said he had a "Gut Feeling" that AL queda was going to attack us this summer. I don't want to hear about his Gut Feelings about Al queada we are spending Billon of f-king dollars on the fbi,cia and other group. He should know if there is going to be an attack. If he doesn't and the best he can do is guess he should f-cking resign. He has no business being the head of homeland security if that's the best they can do is guess. I can only assume this is the Bush adm's latest attempt to scare the american public and distract from the Iraq disaster they have created. Like the Terror Alert system was used during the 2004 election to destract for the Democratic candidates. So Mr Chertoff find an actually Threat or Shut the F-ck up.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-90577352383937235382007-07-08T16:48:00.000-04:002007-07-09T08:40:33.000-04:00General or Propgandists? The Latest Desperate act to keep us in IraqWe seem to be watching what is the Latest campaign by the Bush adm to keep us in Iraq 'til he leaves office in 2009. As we saw with, the other generals Petras and Lynch seem less like comanding Generals, and more like they are running a propganda campaign. Trying in what seems to be an endless propganda campaign to con the America people yet again into supporting continuing our act of insanity in Iraq. Over the last four years plus we have been told over and over again by generals everything is fine everything is great and progressing until about a month before they either resign or are removed from command. They suddenly admit things aren't going as well as they claimed, and more or less admiting they had to say whatever the bush adminstration wanted them to no matter what the truth was. <br /><br />I have a hard time trusting anything the Generals are saying now to be honest, and looking at the two generals that are speaking for the Miltary I have even less trust. General David Petras is a professional Kiss ass, he was know a the Professional son in the miltary because he was the aid to camp of almost every general in the miltary. He has very limited experience and little if any success as a compander of operation the fact that he wrote the anti-insergence hand book for the miltary sort of speaks for it self showing how well things have gone so far. As to General Rick Lynch the guy is simply a mouth piece who you had and paper and he stand there and rattles it off trying to intimidate everyone. <br /><br />It's quite clear the surge isn't working and it isn't going to work and we are being lied to yet again. That Bush will keep whining and whining until he gets his way or congress stands up to him and cuts off the funds. We keep going down the same road over and over again doing the same thing and getting no returns. <br /><br />The Simple fact is it doesn't matter when we leave Iraq. How we leave it as soon as we leave the iraqis will turn on each other and start killing each other. The current government doesn't want us to leave because they know as soon as we do their all Dead and that's the only reason they want us to stay to protect their own skin and nothing else. They don't care how many americans die just that they survive. Well here we go again back down the rabbit hole maybe i'll find Alice this time.<br /><br />Update: I failed to mention something in my post: That I had also noticed and some of the Journalist mentioned. One of the greatest examples of this propganda is the labeling of everyone we are fighting as Al-queda, if they are sunni, and sometimes even if they are Shia. It seems to be the Bush adm and Miltaries fall back now to label anyone that is opposed to us in Iraq as Al-Qaeda. There is little evidence there were never more than a few hundred Al-Queada related fighters in Iraq most of which have probally been wiped out already. Most claims by either Al-Qaeda or Al-Qaeda related attack in Iraq have had little to do with the group and Al-Qaeda was simply claiming responiblity for them as a propganda campaign that the Bush adm has fallen into, and legitmized by supporting the claims.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-2600020493766854632007-07-03T08:53:00.000-04:002007-07-03T13:22:35.621-04:00The I Scooter Libby kick backTo, start off with I will not assert, that Bush did not have the right to Commute the sentence of I Scooter Libby. The constitution gives him that right and I will not dispute that. It is very clear thought that this was political kick back for Libby Keeping his mouth shut during the trial. That there it was obvious that a deal was made that Bush would commute or pardon Libby if he was convicted. It's clear that there was a there there. That this is a Cover my ass commutation,of the sentence that if they had left Libby in prison and he might speak. <br><br /><br />As to the assertion that this sentence was excessive, there are thousands of Americans in Jail for Committing Perjury. Whom have spend much longer than 30 months and prision and aren't getting out because they don't have friends in high places. I highly doubt the founders intended for this power to be used for political means. In the end this was simply a bald faced political kick back. Very simply, elected republicans are only the party of law and order when it applies to other people and not to themselves.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-11478741791174010872007-06-18T17:15:00.000-04:002007-06-18T17:18:22.495-04:00Bush amd new message stay in Iraq foreverThe Bush adm's new policy is to convince the American Public that they don't know what they want so they can convince us to stay in Iraq forever. The latest message is the american people want victory and if it takes 10 year or forever we have to stay there.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-82419652821323679752007-06-17T16:00:00.000-04:002007-06-17T16:48:07.369-04:00I'm about to say something you won't see on many other Democratic BlogsIf you are in the Us Illegally you should be arrested and Deported. No ifs, and, or buts. I don't care, why Millions of other People are here, that shouldn't be,the fact that are here makes them Criminals. No one is criminalizing them, they made themselves Criminals when they came accross the boarder without permission and stayed here without permission. I don't care that Businesses wants them here, if the business owners or hr depts are encouraging, people to come accross the boarder illegally they should be fine or arrested as accessories. <br><br /><br />The simply fact is they are not Americans and broke our laws to get here which makes our only responibity to them giving them swift justice and deport them. As, we would with any legal alien that committed a crime. Yes if you're a legal Alien and you commit a Crime you are deported. We seem to be willing to waste tons of money on what are fruitless efforts overseas that cost 10 or 20 times a year as it would to deport these Criminals but the Bush adm and the Republicans are unwilling to spend the money to do this. <br /><br />It's time to start enforcing the laws and throw the criminals out of the country. They have no right to be here and we shouldn't have to put up with their Criminal presense anylong. I don't care if your European, asian, African,or Hispanic or anything else if you are here illegally get out, or we should throw you out.<br /><br />DEPORT THE ILLEGAL ALIENS NOW!!!!!Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-58277961220399361472007-06-15T21:03:00.000-04:002007-06-15T21:56:51.787-04:00Palestine the New PakistanIt seems we are seeing a replay of the 1971 break up of West Pakistan (Bangladesh) and East Pakistan (current Pakistan). Hamas has now taken over Gaza and Fatah now only controls the West Bank. This was pretty much of an inevitability when you have a country (autonomous region) that is created on two side of another country will eventually split up. Especially when the majority of one group is so ideologically different than the other,i.e. West Pakistan was more or less at Peace with India and East Pakistan was at loggerheads with them. As, Fatah is interested in making Peace with Israel Hamas wants to burn Israel to the ground.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-14801506924400047282007-06-12T18:05:00.000-04:002007-06-12T18:40:29.512-04:00You better Damn well be sure this time!!!!!!!!! Before we start something we can't get out of.First of all Mr/Ms. Media pundit cut it out. This is serious stop spinning this We have gone in a week from: Karzai: Iran not backing Taliban,No evidence Iran moving weapons to Taliban: Gates,then suddenly we went to well Iran maybe helping the taliban, then suddenly Iran is helping the taliban. If anyone bothers to read the stories these statements are based on the improvement in the Taliban's techniques and armaments, and suppositions not any real documentation. What is failed to be mentioned in the story is the armaments aren't just of Iranian Origins but they are also of Chinese origins and no one is saying China is supporting the Talibian. <br /><br />The Claims in these stories are entirely based on suppositions and assumptions and are not even based on intelligence. There is little reason for the Shia Iranians to help the Sunni Taliban. We as a country can not be wrong again and before we get ourselves into a war we can't get out. If we bomb Iran we won't just be doing strategic bombing we will start a war. The Irans will attack us because unlike the Iraqis they do have the ability to come back after us. We have little credibility in the world left and if we attack Iran and start another war we will be all alone and if we are wrong it will make Iraq look like the cake walk Bush claimed it would be. <br /><br />We cannot invade another country on supposition and the idea of maybe they are doing it or maybe they did this or that. We can not be wrong again, we have to be right we can not simply attack a country because we don't like them we can neither afford to do so we don't have the troops or the money to do so. We have to be right everytime from here on out. We can not afford to screw up again. So before we invade another country we better be damn sure we are right and the media and the Bush admin making unproven calms is not helping the situation and is only making things worse for us.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-24478063521993576632007-06-06T23:15:00.000-04:002007-06-06T23:23:23.610-04:00I hope the Democratic party is paying attention the republican debatesAll the Republican candidates in Yesterday's Debate more or less said they'd prefer to have the terrorist attack us rather than have a gay Arabic Translator in the Military. That nuking Iran is a good Idea, as a response to them having a centrifuges not a a nuke a centrifuge. They want to deport Legal Aliens.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35279883.post-85048846667900917552007-05-31T09:16:00.000-04:002007-05-31T09:36:27.639-04:00Better way to deal with Property TaxesLower Pa Sales tax below the States around Pennsylvania then set up outlet malls near every major highway along the north at where between 81 and 29 in Susqueahana county, rt 15 in Tioga county,rt 219 in Mckean county 82 in warren county and 90 in Erie county and rt 220 in Bradford county. This as an example and do this at every major entry road along the Pa Board with Ny, Ohio and Maryland and New Jersey that is at least 70 miles from the Delaware Boarder. So more or less north of rt 276 and West of the Susquehanna River in Se pa. <br /><br />This would Bring People into Pennsylvania from New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio to avoid the taxes on large items in their state that they can bring home with them in their car. This would greatly outstrip any gain that would be had by raising Pa's state tax. Raising Pa's state tax will simply cut consumption in the state and encourage people to go to other states to Buy and live.Greendogdemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05117939876985715602noreply@blogger.com3