rwcole @ 46

I have no idea if Obama would make a good president- but what he needs now is name recognition- and if he can get it without being associated with a “platform of policies” that’s a wise choice politically.

I agree mostly. African Americans (and other ethnic minorities) know who he is in much larger numbers than European Americans. In addition, everyone thinks he’s African American, so they all assume he’s against the war.

What? What’s un-African or un-American about Obama?
Do you need a bread machine to make one of those?

There is something odd there. A national oil company is mentioned in the description part (as a possibility put forward by senior members of the Iraqi oil industry not the ISG). It is not mentioned in the recommendations part of the document which is, of course, the sole product of the ISG.

The rationale for a national oil company is that it would be necessary in any deal with the oil poor Sunnis to guarantee that whatever share of oil revenues they were to receive they actually would receive.

In the recommendations, this language changes into turning the national oil industry into a commercial enterprise. That is not necessarily the same thing as a national oil company. Indeed the recommendations do not refer back to the issue of oil in a national political settlement. Instead the emphasis is getting oil production up and encouraging foreign investment, none of which is likely to happen in the absence of a political settlement and a secure environment.

In passing, a member of the Economy and Reconstruction ISG working group was Amy Myers Jaffe who is the Associate Director for Energy Studies at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. So something tells me that yes, James Baker might well have had a voice or at least a spokesperson on that panel.

again
and
again

In this land
Right now
Some are insane
And they’re in charge

oh, and the man IS a sociopath
that is the best explanation for his early and current behavior and attitudes
he is utterly convinced of his rightousness in an irrational and anti-social manner
too bad there are enough citizens who are more worried about same sex marriage and fetal pain than having a cabal of dangerous sociopaths at the helm.
GSD @ 118

Ozzy Osbourne said it best:

War Pigs

Politicians hide themselves away.
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah.

Time will tell on their power minds,
making war just for fun.
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
wait till their judgement day comes, yeah.

-GSD

If one of my patients frequently said one thing and did another, I would want to know why. If I found that he often used words that hid their true meaning, and affected a persona that obscured the nature of his actions, I would grow more concerned. If he presented an inflexible worldview characterized by an oversimplified distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, allies and enemies, I would question his ability to grasp reality. And if his actions revealed an unacknowledged – even sadistic – indifference to human suffering, wrapped in pious claims of compassion, I would worry about the safety of the people whose lives he touched.

For the last three years, I have observed with increasing alarm the inconsistencies and denials of such an individual. But he is not one of my patients.

He is our President.

About his alcoholism

It is true that blame and denial are arguably as typical of politicians as of alcoholics, though the latter are generally more likely to involve family members in the process. But blame is also a reminder of one’s destructive impulse; the individual who hasn’t resolved his anxieties surrounding that impulse is particularly motivated to avoid confronting those anxieties, which he can accomplish by shifting responsibility to someone else, or denying it outright. Drinkers turn to alcohol to suppress anxiety.

Trust me. Bush is an substance abuser, when you have family members who are substance abusers, you can see it a mile away

Bush is an alcoholic

War Pigs

Politicians hide themselves away.
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah.

Time will tell on their power minds,
making war just for fun.
Treating people just like pawns in chess,
wait till their judgement day comes, yeah.

-GSD