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And on and on it goes.
This won’t make President Obama’s anti-war base very happy: The White House sent word late last night that Obama is backing Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s goal of having Afghan forces lead security operations there — in 2014.
Karzai announced that goal last summer at the multi-national summit in July, and Secretary of State Clinton seemed to back his plan.
But Obama put his personal approval behind that timeline for the first time in a readout emailed by the White House around 11:30 p.m., after Obama and top officials held a half-hour video conference with Karzai.
“The two leaders agreed that they should continue routine engagements to refine a common vision and to align our efforts to support President Karzai’s goal of completing transition to Afghan lead security responsibility by 2014,” the White House said.
Awesome.
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Good morning BT & everyone.
Happy 9th anniversary of U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.
Morning all
Funny how the big O always sets the goal line till after he’s most likely out of office.
Health care, the unwinnable war and now the Pakistan unwar.
But he’s going to give the bankers a big O win in less than a week. Nice.
bush was right about the have’s and have more’s and O seconds that emotion, taking care of the have more’s more.
Competing crystal balls give different forecasts, such as the collapse of the U.S. economy long before that.
And by 2014 no doubt we will have cooked up an excuse to go to war with Iran. The military/industrial complex: Too Big To Fail™.
Good morning BT, eCAHN and all pups everywhere. (where ever you all are this morning)
2014. Only 4 more years. At a couple or 3 hundred billion a year and hundreds of U.S. lives, that is so far from acceptable it does not warrent further discussion.
Get. Out. Now.
Get out now. Yankee go home.
Sure. Why do you think that the Democrats pushed the DISCLOSE Act rather than attempting to overhaul the whole corrupt world of campaign finance after the reprehensible Citizen’s United ruling? It’s because Democrats wanted their piece of the pie! Show me a 2010 Democrat and I’ll show you a 2004 Republican.
NBC’s know-it-all Richard Engel:
Dude, no one except the gullible nerds inside the U.S. believes that crock about Osama bin Laden. Your credibility is zippo, so STFU!
Yes, comments in the morning these days seem sparse. Maybe the change of seasons is causing people to sleep in later.
democracynow is doing a segment on Rove’s groups after Citizens United. Now talking about U.S. CoC.
And the second phase of the great sellout to health insurers begins:
Heckuva job Obama.
Mornin’, BT, pups
War is peace.
1,321 US KIA
How many more, Obama?
R groups will outspend D groups 3:2 or maybe even double: democracynow.
We should have a brainstorming session to guess what O’s next specific sellout will be. Not that our imaginations will be rich enough to figure it out.
Now that I’m retired I’m not getting up until around 7:30, but a cup of tea and the Toobz (FDL) are my first order of business. But I don’t always comment because I don’t always have anything to say.
eCAHN, that sounds like quite a feast you put on for the neighbors last night. Was “traditional Thanksgiving feast” because of their guest from China?
And relative to the topic, I heard yesterday (NPR, I think) someone interviewed who commented that what’s going on in AfPak is NOT going to win hearts and minds. So true.
Yes, plus the fact that I had a turkey breast in my freezer, and having made a bunch of soups and frozen tomatoes & fruits, I needed the room.
Simple: Social Security. He’s sold us out on war, health care, DADT, DOMA, Mortgage cramdown, campaign finance, transparency, torture, Guantanimo Bay, Predator attacks, Net Neutrality,… what am I missing?
I hate when they try to make it out as if anti war is a fringe group, the democratic base” are in the majority, not a fringe group, he SHOULD have said this;
We already know about SS and the others you mention. I meant we should figure out all the secrud one he has up his sleeve that we haven’t figured out yet. There are probably dozens of them.
Leaders don’t make deals with the Devil.
Hear! Hear! My first thought was the same one I’ve had since the early Bush years: How can ANYBODY be PRO war? My only conclusion is that they have never seen it outside their televisions.
Had a nice chat with a TeaParty person last night over a beer. We were in complete agreement over the wars.
Get. Out. Now.
The others I mentioned are a done deal, the Social Security I mentioned because it hasn’t become official yet but will very shortly.
Did that T-party person feel the same way during the Bush administration?
Answer here: War is a force that gives us meaning. Book is very well done, as Hedges is both well educated and informed, having spent his prior life as a war correspondent. Also, he wrote it before he entered his rant-only stage of life.
Did the TPer have any good ideas on HOW to get the U.S. out of the wars?
That would have been my question. I notice people that I used to give service recruiters’ cards to because they were so pro war before are now vehemently anti war. There are even some progressive thinking people who are now saying stupid sh*t like “finish the job” in Afghanistan. I think the false dichotomy of Republican vs Democrat or Conservative vs Liberal should be changed to something more realistic like intellectually consistent vs not.
Off topic, but..
I strolled over to cnnfn.com, the Breaking news is:
“..Number of people filing for 1st-time jobless benefits dips 11,000 in latest week to 445,000, government says. Lowest since early July..”
Umm, “since early July”? How long ago was that? 3 months? What a huge turnaround! OMG! The economy is on the rebound?
Are you serious? How about looking at year over year statistics and make that sort of ludicrous claim. Wow OMG! We’re just as good as we were 3 months ago!! We’re all saved.
WTH…
Actually, she did.
Separate the batshit crazy ill-informed element out and they have a lot of the same concerns we do. Unfortunately the Kochs et al target the batshit crazy element.
So they fell off the UE rolls, gave up looking, or just croaked, then? Talk about a meaningless number…
Morning BT and Pups of Fire.
If you haven’t seen this (courtesy of Yves Smith) I invite you to read the whole thing:
Paul Street:
I see a lot of replay of the Bill Clinton presidency here: fake-progressive triangulation, superficial counter-cultural (he used cocaine) and insurgent imagery cloaking deeply conservative pro-business, neo-liberal policy…
Also, Team Obama and the media were very good at making The One seem antiwar even (as I show in great detail in both of my “Obama books”) he was no such thing. As you know, I use the brand metaphor more than once in the book. It’s all about advertising with these guys in charge of our political culture now; it’s been this way for a long time in fact. They sell candidates and parties and “movements” (like “the Tea Party”) like they sell cars and toothpaste. And the science of advertising is all about inducing us to make irrational, poorly informed choices.
http://www.correntewire.com/interview_paul_street_author_%E2%80%9C_empire%E2%80%99s_new_clothes%E2%80%9D_part_ii
The expected results that “effin’ with the wrong guy” might bring:
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan said Thursday it has not decided when to reopen a key border crossing NATO uses to ship supplies to Afghanistan despite a U.S. apology for a helicopter attack that killed two Pakistani soldiers. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101007/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
Geniuses in charge. “I ask unanimous consent to put all Pakistani restaurants on a watch list!” “Now watch this drive.”
I’m sure that will be a great comfort to me while I’m living under a bridge in January. At least I think I’ve arranged a home for Kuroneko.
CNN said this morning that today is the 10th anniversary of the War in Afghanistan. Nice.
Guest on democracynow sez the U.S. military has kicked out 250,000 soldiers for medical & mental conditions that the U.S. military claims were pre-existing. Can that number be accurate?
Of course. It’s much easier to convince a batsh*t crazy person of your self contradictory, batsh*t crazy point of view than a rational one. You and I would scoff, (at the least), if the Kochs tried to sell us their snake oil.
Over what time frame?
Street has been great on O. I really liked his first book; haven’t read his second yet. He’s been at FDL for book salons on both.
Just under a half million newly unemployed versus over a half million. Yep, that’s a great improvement.
Update from the Land of the Batshit Crazy.
Phelps (the lawyer) was on WJ this morning. Just goes to prove that you can be completely insane and still be allowed to practice before the bar.
Not sure, but I think it’s since the invasion of Afghanistan.
Baseball note. Phillies hurler tosses first post-season no-hitter since Don Larsen in 1956.
We had not the time or inclination to go that deep. It was however, alarming to me that she had become so outspoken. Known her for about 6 years but had not seen her for 1. Cancer, another grandchild and yes a black man in the White House were clearly parts of what had her worked up. The HCR bill drew particular ire because of her recent run in with cancer.
That was my experience.
I listened to the game. Halladay was awesome.
It’s the 9th anniversary. Beginning of 10th year.
That would make an average of 49,444 a year. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable number in light of the dramatically lowered standards for recruits that’s been in place. When I joined, the military was at a glut and the standards were much, much higher. I was nearly rejected for calcification of one of my teeth.
Many of the people I talk to about such matters are people I’ve talked to about them for years. Conversations get repetitive because they are stuck on “shouldas.” So to make the conversations more interesting, I’ve gone to asking “how?” No one yet has any good suggestions, but it’s worth asking. If you see her again, give it a try.
I’m still of the opinion that the next sellout will be Net Neutrality, but of course it won’t be phrased that way. It will be phrased “Securing America’s Children Against Terror”.
I find that an amazing number.
Yep, the end of NN is definitely on the list.
democracynow doing a segment on how Lou Dobbs employs undocumented immigrants on his various estates. I missed the link but apparently someone had done a juicy piece of reporting on it.
When you consider most enlistments last four years or less, that means that the military has turned over at least twice since the beginning of the war. 50,000 out of very roughly 5,000,000 (services wide) is one percent.
Isabel MacDonald in the Nation. I’ll look for the link.
Thanks for the perspective. The numbers are much bigger than I thought.
Watched a program on PBS the other night on the release of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg and couldn’t help but think there are today few if any people of conscious in the government. It’s all about advancing one’s career and going along to get along.
Lou Dobbs: American Hypocrite.
I’m off. Be well.
Military, particularly the Army, has a habit of discharging those with medical/mental issues claiming they were pre-existing. That makes them ineligible for VA/military disability benefits. Saw a lot of it at the VA in the years I worked there. DAV and other veterans groups spend a lot of their time assisting vets in fighting those designations.
They don’t want the public to see the forest so point to the tree.
Yes, that was the point of the segment.
And foreclosure fraud is going to be a spectacular meltdown….We’ll get to see all those powerful, glib bank executives explain themselves once again. But will we see them go to jail?
I agree. I think that they know they need to slow the pace down a bit of all liberties they are taking away from us or we may just rise up against them. If they go slowly, we’re less likely to get any momentum to rail against it.
Kinda like someone taking off your bandaid, if he does it slowly, it doesn’t hurt as bad and you probably won’t slap him for hurting you.
New post up top…
At war for nine years. Can’t imagine why the economy isn’t booming.
The Catfood Commission
Dioxin poisoning of Vietnam service members comes to mind. :(
Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.
US KIA Afghanistan: 1,321
US KIA Irak: 4,424
Iraki, Afghan and Pakistani casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M
US MBS 2010: 34,596 and counting
Fried Hockey Boogie
Be good to yourselves, and all other living things
Namaste
How have we gotten to this stage? The “enemy is us”.
Eisenhower tried to warn us
Yes, isn’t that remarkable. I’d love to hear what he may say now.
Good morning everyone. 9 years, this bums me out to no end.
“Only 4 more years.” Sound like it could be a campaign slogan for Dems, you think?/s. How many more Afghanis and Americans (and now Pakistanis)does our government have to kill? Wake up, goddamit.
Brings back bitter memories. Used to carry a full-size cardboard likeness of dubya to the protests, with a sign attached “By the end of my term I will have killed more Americans than 9/11.” After a while, I had to add “Mission Accomplished” and “2 Years Early.”
Guess maybe I should start making one of O, looks like he’s working towards the same goal.
The electorate are basically ill-informed morons but then that’s been the plan.
Saw an interesting talk given in Australia by an economist who disagrees with Krugman on Government spending and economic policy (I can’t recall his name, but he’s a Scotsman, if that helps ID him).
He said that the wars are “essential” but will lead to our economic implosion unless we begin reducing our military costs now. His point was on the failure of empires, and the military costs that typically lead to them as other discretionary spending is gradually eliminated to allow for increases in the military budget. He was saying that if we don’t begin reducing our spending (on all things, but especially on the military) we will essentially cause our empire to collapse because of our debt, and that the various countries around the globe that have depended on us for their security (and have cut their defense budgets because WE’RE covering their defense) should be aware of this and take steps to both help us reduce our military spending and to pressure us to cut spending in other areas so that we don’t drive ourselves off the cliff.
In truth I didn’t much like what he had to say, but much of it seemed to be well founded and supported. I do think that spending as much on military/defense as te rest of the world combined seems more than a little insane when the economy is in the toilet and the money could be spent on activities that would create jobs and opportunities instead of creating death, destruction & animosity towards us.
NPR: Harvard Prof with very interesting analysis of wealth equality/distribution. Too long to recreate; probably on line.
The truly depressing thing about all this is that Obama is about as good as we can get in the world of politics by advertising. Does anyone have any idea of a politician who would be better and electable? None of the ones we might support have a holy chance in hell, and the alternatives are so much worse one can lose a lot of sleep contemplating the consequences of their being elected.
We are so fucked.
No bridge, spare room still available! Curmudeon warning in effect-I’m not sure if it applies to my boxer or me. Othewise, your kitty would be welcome as well…
I have a nice high speed network & a great progressive library, among my few amenities.
If he said what you say he said, that economist is full of crap. This maundering about the fall of empires and the like is reminiscent of the farrago put out by German historians before (and after) World War One. Thinking this stuff through is not rocket science, but it seems to be well beyond the capacities of most so-called ‘trained’ economists, with the exception of guys like Joe Stiglitz, Paul Krugman and Jamie Galbraith. There are some very simple principles involved in thinking consistently about priorities. If you think ‘war’ is essential, you are obligated to explain why on the margin it is more essential than good education, decent health care, and reasonably safe environment, and economic fairness. To just spout that you think it is essential is simply to utter and opinion. Talk is cheap, and opinions like that are worth what they cost. Zip.
That’s a sweet offer and I thank you for it. :)
Bless your heart.
Margaret! Sorry I’m late. You’re correct, at least about me. I did sleep in a bit. Plus, there’s the I have to always borrow someone elses computer deal…so sometimes the timing is off for early morning swim.
Troops not out by 2011, Obama loses presidency in 2012. My prediction.
Obama is waiting for the midterms to be over so that he can use them for cover to be even more corporatist:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_42/b4199029119904.htm
No wonder the Obama admin has been bashing the base – they want to use the midterms as cover for the next two years being even worse than the first two.
I think that obamarahma signs the HR3808 bill to ruin all of the work people are doing to prevent the foreclosures. obamarahma has lost so much credibility for the majority of the electorate by his filling the coffers of his corporate friends that he can only win in 2012 by the repugs blowing their opportunity.
He’ll just get Maddow to fly to Afghanistan and then praise him effusively based upon a PR stunt.
eCAHN,
I was out stimulating the economy, visited the dentist and then dropped off my vehicle for repair work, bicycled home. At the dentist, chatted with the local American Legion commander, knowing his political persuasion, gave him a friendly ribbing saying someone told me he was voting for Feingold. I got the expected result and the complaint that he would never do that because Feingold and Kohl did NOT vote for criminal penalties for flag burning two years ago. I almost burst out laughing and asked whether he thought the $2-3 trillion we have/are wasting overseas might help the local school district (who are asking for funds to exceed state spending limits) and keep our district open for three more years in a Nov referendum. He had no answer to that, even though it will affect his property tax rate.
Yep. Pretty predictable. Never thought I’d loath a POTUS more than I despised Bush, but seriously: ORahma has jumped the shark and wins the “race” to the bottom of the barrel. Cannot. abide. Rahmbama.
Morning all. Sorry news all around. The more things change and all that clobber….
Catching on to strategy of the long war the oligarch’s are busting the nation over?
Send a few hopeful signals of getting out of our occupation du jour, then change plans, create more chaos, plant a few domestic attacks; however they gotta as an excuse to stay. By the end of our kids lives, we will be an occupying force in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Venezuela, and a multitude of other defenseless and impoverished nations around the world that corporate America has in their crosshairs. And one world bank will be calling the shots. The rest will have fallen like dominos.
“it’s been this way for a long time in fact”
Since the Kennedy-Nixon debate . . . ? Apparently, the number one criterion for becoming president is looking good on television.
TRULY Versaille on the Potomac. On the other hand that clarifies our jobs quite a bit.
Along these lines, you may like to read “American Theocracy” by Kevin Phillips, if you haven’t already. In particular it deals with what happens to empires when the reach the final finance stage of their development and spend money they don’t have on wars to maintain the empire. Anecdotally, during World War I—Great Britain’s initial decline as a world power—Lloyd’s of London was insuring German shipping that was being sunk by the Royal Navy.