Blue Texan!

Interesting that “Charlie Wilson’s War” just opened…

Debate on the FISA bill has begun.

Sorry for such and early OT, but Rockefeller is saying how PROUD he is of the Intelligence committee version of FISA reform. I feel sick.

Ooooh, it would be against the troops to say that!

THis Iowan called Obama and asked quite bluntly do you plan to support this filibuster in person and that my caucus vote was contingent on that support. They said to call back in an hour(10:14 CST) they would have a statement

Don’t ask, don’t tell. That’s the official Democratic party line on Afghanistan. Hard anyway to say much about anything, when your head is stuck so deep in sand.

Every American should find this outrageous. And every Democrat should be making it clear who’s responsible.

i think we’re about to find out some key info about our dems in the senate today.

Just finishing Halbertsam’s book on Korea. Crazy ass right wing Mac Arthur split his forces and sent them north. When the Chinese kicked our asses he blamed it on the lily-livered, appeasing Democrats.

Did you call Obama in Iowa or DC? I called the DC office and no one could tell me if he planned to come in to work today…

DC

i think we’re about to find out some key info about our dems in the senate today.

We’ve been finding out keyf info about our dems since they were elected.

But,but,but that wouldn’t be civil.

Just finishing Halbertsam’s book on Korea. Crazy ass right wing Mac Arthur split his forces and sent them north. When the Chinese kicked our asses he blamed it on the lily-livered, appeasing Democrats.

So, just wait, it’s only a matter of time before they pull the same shit.

i think we’re about to find out some key info about our dems in the senate today.

And what are we to do if they perform as so many of us fear they will?

And thanks for the heads up Jim, I will call again. Just got a message at Clintons office… ..anyone talk to them?

yep.

Well more than half the Democrats in congress and nearly ALL Republicans need to keep siphoning money from the taxpayers’ pockets and giving it to the rich — and war is the most efficient way to do that.

If we “win” a war, then the war ends and we have to drum up support for another, or turn off that money spigot. And nobody wants that*

*by “nobody” of course I mean everybody wants that except the top 1 percent of the world’s richest people, their enabling politicians and a bunch of suck-up wannabes in the press.

I have a feeling about today that its gonna be like British Fighter Command during the Blitz. Remember those odds?
Today we demand accountibility and justice for our Constitution. Let’s get em firepups!

B/T,
NPR reports this morning that NATO allies are becoming increasingly displeased with the current U.S. conduct in Afganistan. The lack of troops and equipment, and more importantly money are becoming a real issue with Europeans. I agree that it is imperative to beat the GOP with this. Because all the fools want to talk about is how 9-11 changed everything. The reality is the have failed to do ANYTHING about it.

Looks like the official FISA thread is gonna be upstairs!

Thank you for asking Blue Texan; and not forgetting. I would take exception to your characterization of the Taliban as a bunch of cave dwelling religious nuts, though. Nuts for sure, but they are a cancer with roots deep in Pakistan’s ISI; they seem to metastasize whenever there is a void, with branches that multiply whenever the poor are forced to rely on them for security vs. death. The US’ misguided funnelling of money to the great ally Musharref helped the Taliban grow, (just like the $40 million Colin Powell handed over just prior to 9/11) you can be sure.

Not to take away from this excellent post, but anyone here who didn’t read Scarecrow’s Post, Who Will Stand with Chris Dodd for the Constitution?, please go to the previous post to get names and numbers to push for support of Dodd’s filibuster and protection of the 4th amendment.
(wave to Biodun)

I think we have here in this little post the answer to “Why Aren’t Democrats Asking: Who Lost Afghanistan?”. They have something else to worry about. Maybe some other time. Nice try, Blue Texan.

Comic relief anyone?

“Being a Republican is important. Being a Democrat is important. But you know what’s more important than that? The interest and well-being of the United States of America,” the Democrat-turned Independent said in announcing his decision Monday morning in New Hampshire.

“Let’s put the United States first again, and John McCain is the man as president who will help us do that,” he said.

Lieberman, the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in 2000, said the next president needs to “break through the reflexive partisanship that is poisoning our politics today and stopping us from getting anything done in Washington.”

Heard on cnn that according to Liarman, “party is important but country is more important”. My first reaction was “Which country?”. I guess what won him over is the singing: “bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran”. Bastards want to disappear all of Afghanistan Iraq and Iran and make it empty space for gas and oil pipes.

The Afghanistan adventure is 6 years on now. Talk about a squandered opportunity.

The US had the whole world behind this and instead of turning Afhganistan into a regional gem, Bush pissed away all that in order to avenge his Pappy’s nemesis.

-G

Lieberman and McCain are going to have their Howard Dean moment. Except they’ll be talking about the countries they want to bomb.

“Then we’re going to Syria, then Somalia, and Iran, Pakistan, the Sudan….yeaeeeeeeeeaaaaaarrrrghhhhh!”

-G

The only thing I would quibble with is the notion that Bush, or anyone else, could “turn” Afhganistan into anything!

And why is the Taliban a threat to the USA?

He managed to turn Kabul into an insecure, overcrowded, expensive mess where only suicide bombers (previously unheard of) now flourish. Heckuva job Bush.

And why is the Taliban a threat to the USA?

Because they were harboring the perpetrator of teh 9/11, the very same perpetrator who the chimp later declared irrelevant.

Christy is upstairs with more on FISA

Trying to hang this as an albatross about Republican necks will fail because:

1) Most Americans think that the strike against the Taliban was just.
2) Americans can be reminded of the failure of the Soviet Union to subjugate the Afghans even though they had significant advantages over America and NATO in their effort.

Raven,

Let me check my heavy handed American exceptionalism. The US should have invested in Afghanistan in such a manner that change would be a result of heavily improved infrastructure, healthcare, education and international trade and cultural exchange.

Point taken.

-G

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/…..istan.html
Is a place to start.
The Taliban is rooted in Pakistan and if you care about stability in the region or Pak vs India (nuclearly for instance), US vs Russia, then you might care about Afghanistan and the Taliban.

Very nicely stated. We coulda been a contender.

Plus, they blew up the Buddha’s!

That still breaks my heart, but not as much as the ongoing suffering of the people; especially the little kids freezing while I banter with you.

the top U.S. commander in the region has launched a review of the American mission there with a major focus on counterterrorism efforts, a senior U.S. military official said Sunday.

Seven years into this and we’re going to focus on counterterrorism? Um. Duh.

This is such an atrocity. we actually did/do have a coalition working with us – people who didn’t go to Iraq with us – and we’re pissing it away. Blue Texan is absolutely right and this is a great post. The Dems gotta stop mentioning this in passing-when they mention it at all. It is a major issue. I noticed Boxer mentioned Usama bin Laden about 20 times in the first 3 minutes of her speech, so hopefully they’ll go this direction. Maybe this will deleted by the mods ….. better not say it.

I think there was a post on this. but did anybody see D’Souza’s tripe a few days ago, “The Unbelievable Tenacity of George W. Bush” ? Maybe the post was about some other D’Souza tripe. Hard to keep ‘em straight. He says – if things go as planned in Iraq (hahahhahahahaha. Iaq. as planned. that’s funny) the middle east will have its “first muslim democracy.” Didn’t Pakistan used to be Democratic for a while until Musharaff and his uniform took over? Isn’t Turkey Mulsim? Isn’t Turkey in the Middle East? Doesn’t Turkey have a democracy (albeit imperfect)? Sorta? I mean, Bush said so himself.

D’Souza is such a schmuck.

Afghanistan only serves two purposes for this criminal administration: protecting a possible pipeline for Caspian oil and ensuring that the production of opium poppies doesn’t stop. The money from the illicit heroin produced from the opium goes to shore up our increasingly fragile stock market along with generous infusions of cash from the fed.

We are being busted out as a nation just like any other crime family takeover. Our assets are being stripped and hidden away by a bunch of criminals while the rest of us are left holding the worthless skeleton of a once proud enterprise.

George Bush, commanding the most powerful military in the history of the world, has been unable to defeat the Taliban in a time period almost twice as long as World War II.
————-

Honey, you shrunk the War (1939 – 1945 = 6 years)

And why is the Taliban a threat to the USA?

As I understood it we were going after Al Qaeda and any government which stood in the way would be our enemy. So, the Taliban was an enemy. But, now, is Al Qaeda still in Afghanistan? If they’re not, then why bother with the Taliban?

I’ve heard most of Al Qaeda types are in Pakistan. That makes me wonder why we don’t say to Pakistan’s government, “Get rid of Al Qaeda or stand aside and let us get rid of them or you will be our enemy and we’ll get rid of both you AND Al Qaeda.”

Somehow I missed hearing that Bush speech.