October 31, 2007
October 21, 2007
GOP Debate
Tonight's Republican presidential debate is the first we've watched pretty much all the way through. It was more interesting than expected.
The Fox News team did a decent job asking questions (although we're still intrigued by the idea posed elsewhere of Newt Gingrich running the show).
• Up: John McCain, Rudy Giuliani & Mike Huckabee
• Down: Mitt Romney
• Holding: Fred Thompson
• Irrelevant: Duncan Hunter & Tom Tancredo, who should both go ahead and drop out.
• Way Out There: Ron Paul, who's increasingly obvious as a stereotypical Libertarian crank, misreading the Founders' intent, our national history and the world today. Please go home.
Best line of the night: McCain on Hillary Clinton and her support for the proposed $1 million in federal funds for an inane Woodstock Festival museum: "I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time." McCain got a standing ovation from the GOP audience, and it was well-deserved.
October 20, 2007
Shocking, simply shocking
Hey, JKR, shut up already. Your book series is over and the more you yak about them, the more tedious and predictable your ideas are proving to be.
October 13, 2007
So true
Just as recently discussed with my daughter: the true nature lurking behind socialism's "ideals."
Via Investor's Business Daily.
Bozo
Well, the former commander of Coalition forces in Iraq says the war in Iraq is going tragically wrong and it's all because the U.S. "leadership" failed in war-planning, strategy and tactics.
The U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, cast a wide net of blame for both political and military shortcomings in Iraq that helped open the way for the insurgency - such as disbanding the Saddam-era military and failing to cement ties with tribal leaders and quickly establish civilian government after Saddam was toppled.
He called current strategies - including the deployment of 30,000 additional forces earlier this year - a "desperate attempt" to make up for years of misguided policies in Iraq.
"There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," Sanchez told a group of journalists covering military affairs.
Sanchez avoided singling out at any specific official. But he did criticize the State Department, the National Security Council, Congress and the senior military leadership during what appeared to be a broad indictment of White House policies and a lack of leadership to oppose them. [...]
Sanchez retired from the Army last year, two years after he completing a tumultuous year as commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq. As he stepped down, he called his career a casualty of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
He was never charged with anything but he was not promoted in the aftermath of the prisoner abuse reports. He was criticized by some for not doing more to avoid mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
So a forcibly "retired" key member of the DoD's senior leadership blames everyone else, while his successor is now seen applying a vastly different strategy to widely acknowledged success. Hmm.
Verdict: bozo.