mmmbop1976

you can argue the why's and wherefore's all day long, but the bottom line is that President Bush was able to set the political climate to enable the ouster of a brutal dictator who understood nothing but force. brilliant mr president!

I'm trying to make sure I understand this statement correctly. Obviously Sadaam wasn't ousted by any political means, so if I read this right you are saying that had there not been a political climate here in the U.S for war (debatable that there was actually one BTW), we never would have felt compelled to go to war. But you take this a step further by saying that Bush SET that climate and Bush says that the climate was caused by 9/11, so are you saying that Bush caused 9/11? Yabasta, is this you?

no clue who yabasta is. no i don't think pres bush caused 9/11. events happen and pres bush was able to set a political climate based on those events to make the ouster of hussein possible.

let me clarify.....i believe osama bin laden caused 9/11. i'm not a conspiracy theorist

you make the assumption that the iraqi people want your lifestyle.They dont!!!! They hated sadam and they hate us too.The people of this region want theocracy its what there beliefs demand and throughout history theocracys are evil.Even in europe when a state is lead by religion it is always ready to take on evil,and by the way to radical islam we are evil.The bottom line is the taliban and osama were free to do as they pleased i dont think that is good for the usa.The people of this region have proven to me time and again that whan free to do as they please they choose any side that is against the usa.i understand your feelings about freedom and would fight and die to preserve your right to your opinion but i am not willing to die to give this right to someone who would use thier freedom to attack ours.

we'll have to disagree then. there is a democratically elected government in iraq, progress is being made in infrastructure, iraqi security forces are being trained, and the sectarian violence will end at some point, and hopefully soon. freedom is a very powerful desire to all humans. nobody want to be told what to think or how to act or what to believe. the people of this region have lived without it for so many centuries that it's foreign to them at this point. but as hope of a brighter future takes seed in iraq, the violence will subside and peace will reign.

LET FREEDOM RING!

hmmm... a rather optimistic appraisal of the current situation.

yes, you might call me an optimist. unlike the pessimists on the left, i believe that people living in freedom will eventually get it right. in fact history pretty much bears that out.

Well thanks for the obligatory "liberal" dig - but it's not about being left, right, up or down - as much as it is about being realistic. 3+ years have gone and the insurgency is still as entrenched as it always was, same is true in Afghanistan. Going to take a long time before anything approaching political stability takes hold over there. Anyone who thinks our troops will be out of there in 5 or even 10 years is sadly deluding themselves.

and freedom is worth it! freedom for all, left, right, up, down, black, white, green, purple, male, female, everybody!....freedom! freedom! freedom!

you can argue the why's and wherefore's all day long, but the bottom line is that President Bush was able to set the political climate to enable the ouster of a brutal dictator who understood nothing but force. brilliant mr president!

I'm trying to make sure I understand this statement correctly. Obviously Sadaam wasn't ousted by any political means, so if I read this right you are saying that had there not been a political climate here in the U.S for war (debatable that there was actually one BTW), we never would have felt compelled to go to war. But you take this a step further by saying that Bush SET that climate and Bush says that the climate was caused by 9/11, so are you saying that Bush caused 9/11? Yabasta, is this you?

no clue who yabasta is. no i don't think pres bush caused 9/11. events happen and pres bush was able to set a political climate based on those events to make the ouster of hussein possible.

you make the assumption that the iraqi people want your lifestyle.They dont!!!! They hated sadam and they hate us too.The people of this region want theocracy its what there beliefs demand and throughout history theocracys are evil.Even in europe when a state is lead by religion it is always ready to take on evil,and by the way to radical islam we are evil.The bottom line is the taliban and osama were free to do as they pleased i dont think that is good for the usa.The people of this region have proven to me time and again that whan free to do as they please they choose any side that is against the usa.i understand your feelings about freedom and would fight and die to preserve your right to your opinion but i am not willing to die to give this right to someone who would use thier freedom to attack ours.

we'll have to disagree then. there is a democratically elected government in iraq, progress is being made in infrastructure, iraqi security forces are being trained, and the sectarian violence will end at some point, and hopefully soon. freedom is a very powerful desire to all humans. nobody want to be told what to think or how to act or what to believe. the people of this region have lived without it for so many centuries that it's foreign to them at this point. but as hope of a brighter future takes seed in iraq, the violence will subside and peace will reign.

LET FREEDOM RING!

hmmm... a rather optimistic appraisal of the current situation.

yes, you might call me an optimist. unlike the pessimists on the left, i believe that people living in freedom will eventually get it right. in fact history pretty much bears that out.

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct. 10, 2002.

The DIA document that warned that the connection between Al-Qaeda and Saddam was nothing but a misleading statement from an Al-Qaeda operative has been released to the Senate Intelligence Committee in Sept / Oct of 2005. The White House had that very document in February of 2002. The President harped on this ficticious link nonetheless just days before Sen Clinton made the above quoted remark and again just weeks before the invasion into Iraq. The President had information that would have been valuable to the Congress to make informed decisions but chose to withhold it. Can't blame the Congress for that.

you can argue the why's and wherefore's all day long, but the bottom line is that President Bush was able to set the political climate to enable the ouster of a brutal dictator who understood nothing but force. brilliant mr president! millions of iraqi people are living in freedom! is there violence there? yes, but now the people doing the violence can be hunted down and brought to justice. before, saddam hussein and his goons were doing the violence with impunity to innocent people that just wanted to be free.

LET FREEDOM RING!

you make the assumption that the iraqi people want your lifestyle.They dont!!!! They hated sadam and they hate us too.The people of this region want theocracy its what there beliefs demand and throughout history theocracys are evil.Even in europe when a state is lead by religion it is always ready to take on evil,and by the way to radical islam we are evil.The bottom line is the taliban and osama were free to do as they pleased i dont think that is good for the usa.The people of this region have proven to me time and again that whan free to do as they please they choose any side that is against the usa.i understand your feelings about freedom and would fight and die to preserve your right to your opinion but i am not willing to die to give this right to someone who would use thier freedom to attack ours.

i do not make that assumption. they don't want our lifestyle, they want to be free to choose their own. there is a democratically elected government in iraq, progress is being made in infrastructure, iraqi security forces are being trained, and the sectarian violence will end at some point, and hopefully soon. freedom is a very powerful desire to all humans. nobody want to be told what to think or how to act or what to believe. the people of this region have lived without it for so many centuries that it's foreign to them at this point. but as hope of a brighter future takes seed in iraq, the violence will subside and peace will reign.

LET FREEDOM RING!

been meaning to answer this and many other similar threads for awhile, but been so busy...so finally, here goes...

first of all, in my life i have seen these things with my own eyes...

-i have been in the streets of the philippines when marcos was the dictator there and saw his army soldiers on every corner with rifles. not to protect the citizenry from some impending invasion but to keep the populace inline.

-i have been in nightclubs in chile and have seen pinochet's goons bust in and take a whole tableful of patrons away, never to be heard or seen again. why? because they wanted freedom for their country and opposed pinochet's dictatorship.

-i have seen poor children on the streets of peru with little wooden stands selling gum, candy, cigarettes and the like, trying to earn a little money for their families to survive run for their lives when the federal police vehicles drove down the street, for how dare they try to compete with the government for funds.

i could give other examples, but you get the point. but in case you don't get the point yet, the point is freedom. freedom is the birthright of every human on earth. freedom was, is, and always will be worth fighting for. there is no more precious gift that could be given to any human other than freedom. thank God we have these brave young men and women of the united states military that realize this and are willing to die in the fight to give freedom to people of the world. these brave young men and women do not die in vain, rather for a noble and good cause, advancing freedom for humanity. now to some specific points here...

Yeah, Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, no great distinction in much of the world

wow, talk about minimizing to support your argument. Saddam Hussein was much more than a bad guy. He was a murderous, torturing thug that brutalized many people of his nation. Massacred thousands and thousands. brutally tortured his political enemies.

Whatever you think or thought of the war in Iraq, the American invasion has undoubtedly caused terrorism to flourish in Iraq. Prior to the invasion, there were neither daily suicide bombings nor road bombings nor kidnappings by random organizations interested in money, holy war, freedom, or all three.

Terrorism flourished in Iraq before we arrived, it was conducted by Saddam Hussein on the people of his country.

i could go on and on, but i'd like to make one other point. all you leftists and peaceniks get on these blogs and forums and spout your anti-bush drivel, and you go to bed at night with no fear of reprisal. you couldn't do that if you lived in saddam hussein's iraq, or any other dictatorial or communist regime, you would always have to worry about whether you would be found out and hauled off to the torture chamber. isn't it wonderful to live in this free society we have. it always amazes me, however, about how stingy with freedom people on the left can be. as long as they have theirs, the hell with everybody else.

i remember one time having a conversation with an anti-bush person about iraq. he made the statement.."sure saddam hussein was a thug, sure his sons were rapists and murderers, but he kept everybody in line there (iraq)." as if, as long as things were "peaceful", too bad about the people that were being tortured, murdered, and raped by hussein and his sons. unbelievable.

well, as long as i'm on a roll here, why do we need to be in iraq....because freedom will change the whole middle east. when people can live in freedom to pursue their dreams, raise their families, live in peace, then they will be much less likely to fall under the spell of the likes of osama bin laden and the like. but, the political climate must be right before military action can be used to advance freedom. we had bases in saudi arabia, but saudi arabia is not a free society either. the political climate however precluded us from using military force to effect change there because we needed those bases at the time. then the political climate came right to remove saddam hussein and establish a free society in iraq. and once that is complete, and it will be achieved no matter how bleak you may think it looks now, because humans do yearn for freedom and peace, then we have a true ally in the region from where to work to spread freedom throughout the region. and this is how the war on terror will be won, by depriving the terrorists of there most needed commodity....more terrorists.

so, in closing, i must say. nobody wants war, we are not warmongers on the right. war is ugly, war hell, but living without freedom is worse.

oh, and btw, remember, all saddam hussein had to do was let the weapons inspectors do their job, how easily you all forget that point, he would no longer allow them to do there u.n. mandated mission and that brought his demise.

Please tell me what you think danger signs would be in a relationship. I need some input.

1) Whenever the two of you are eating, she's constatnly staring at her steak knife.

2) She's watching "The Burning Bed" for the 20th time in a row.

3) All she listens to are Tina Turner records.

4) All of your T-Shirts have been painted with a giant bulls-eye.

5) Lately she seems overly zealous about obtaining her NRA membership.

mmmunphf argeldy frobgwa diligucveq zzqpyyrmv uvrwmkpooool sdwaaaiirtnbvcotyp gobbledygook blah blah blah whjvrdiiooiib

That's just windpower alone... It's not going to 'hit' our economy, but shift the economic power from one industry (oil) to more evenly distributed among other sources. This is why the Oil Companies fight against policy changes that invest in alternative energy because it means they would lose their monopoly on energy.

I'll find some info on geothermal and solar energy.

Oil? What about coal? Coal generates 54% of our electricity, and is the single biggest air polluter in the U.S., so why are we attacking oil? Replace all coal power plants with Solar panels and windmills. What happens to the tens of thousands of employees directly employed by the Coal Industry? Do you think there would be enough jobs created maintaining windmills and solar panels to replace that?

Yes, any fossil fuel burning industries need to dramatically be reduced or phased out. CO2 happens to be the biggest contributor to Global Warming and it is the automobile industry that we need to be targeting with higher fuel effeciency standards as well as zero emissions goals.

Our economy cannot be tethered by industries that no longer seem feasible for a sustainable future, nor is it necessary for economic strength. Our economic strength should be to built on pushing forward new technologies that improve the overall quality of life for us. If that means that we ween ourselves off of certain industries and shift to new ones, that's not doomsday. Did you worry about all those VHS employees when DVD players replaced them? Or when digital cameras took over the market over film cameras? You're being shortsighted to think we must hold onto industries just for fear of job loss. Job loss is bad, but not when we're replacing old jobs with new ones.

yes, and do you know why digital cams replaced film cameras, dvd's replaced vhs, etc etc...it's because there was a marketplace demand for it. somebody came along with a better product or a cheaper product or both, better and cheaper. and when you can convince the american public that wind or solar power is their best bet for cheap, reliable power, only then will it happen on a mass basis. as much as you want it to happen, it will only happen when the market dictates it, we are a free market economy. and that is a good thing, for only in a free market economy is there prosperity.

you did the right thing. if he were a decent man he would have waited til he found another man to help him.

put a computer in the trailer and put that mouse to work!

http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powe...tems/cleancoal/

http://www.careenergy.com/cleaner_environm...-technology.asp

an excerpt from that 2nd link...

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced a Presidential initiative to build "FutureGen," a $1 billion project that will lead to the world's first emission-free plant to produce electricity and hydrogen from coal while capturing greenhouse gases.

.....this is all being done without our economy being constrained by the social engineering goals of the kyoto treaty. president clinton was right not to sign kyoto. and btw steve, ur previous post taken in context with your whole topic here, ur carte blanche statement certainly gives the impression that u feel industry has that right now. i know there are different ways that statement could be intrepreted, but given the context of ur arguments, that was the impression i got.

time on VJ is not a waste!

u can join the obsessive/compulsive uscis website checkers group

m not sure u can do dcf. that is for when both petitioner and beneficiary reside abroad. with ur fiancee living here she will need 2 file w/ her designated service center

whew, u scared me, i thought u were calling for the ouster of santa!

industry does not have carte blanche to do what they please. we have epa, clean air act, clean water act, local regulations, yadda yadda yadda. you talk as if none of this existed. we did away with unleaded gasoline back in the 70's, china just stopped using it in 2000. we are the global leader when it comes to clean air technologies for industry and fossil fuels. did u know that a 2007 diesel tractor trailer driving in the city of houston will actually exhaust cleaner air than it takes in? was that because of kyoto? no way! it was because of our epa and our industry developing that technology. why? because we as a nation know that polluting our environment is not good. do we need kyoto to punish us when we are in fact the leader in clean environment technologies? open your eyes to facts my man. now i know ur original post was about co2 levels in the atmoshpere, but i took off on a tangent when u say that industry has carte blanche, that is just not true!

I agree with everything you just said except for one thing. Please don't use personal attacks. Steve is not an idiot, just someone with a different opinion. When it gets down to name calling all it does is galvanize the other persons view.

gary, i agree, and in fact i was trying to edit my post, but wasn't able to because you were already replying to it and at that point edits are not allowed, so i will change it here in this post....

So? It's good policy for the country. Kyoto is BS. Global Warming is BS. Capitalism is good for the country. What's the matter, don't you like capitalism?

But don't forget. Clinton didn't sign Kyoto!!!!

Why do make it into a 'for or against capitalism'? If you believe in having an unregulated free market then there's no point in arguing further. Setting standards and regulations for industry holds them accountable for their actions in terms of how it effects our environment and ultimately our quality of life. We as citizens have to abide by laws... you can't go squat in the middle of the street and take a dump - not without legal consequences. Is it an infringement on your freedoms to have such laws? Sure. But that's so I don't have to step in your sh!t. Industry should not have a carte blanche ability to do what they please with regard to our environment. You either agree with that premise or you don't.

industry does not have carte blanche to do what they please u idiot. we have epa, clean air act, clean water act, local regulations, yadda yadda yadda. you talk as if none of this existed. we did away with unleaded gasoline back in the 70's, china just stopped using it in 2000. we are the global leader when it comes to clean air technologies for industry and fossil fuels. did u know that a 2007 diesel tractor trailer driving in the city of houston will actually exhaust cleaner air than it takes in? was that because of kyoto? no way! it was because of our epa and our industry developing that technology. why? because we as a nation know that polluting our environment is not good. do we need kyoto to punish us when we are in fact the leader in clean environment technologies? open your eyes to facts my man. now i know ur original post was about co2 levels in the atmoshpere, but i took off on a tangent when u say that industry has carte blanche, that is just not true!

OMG is this 1936 or 2006.... I thought we had moved on from all that #######.....

Kezzie

this is 2006. now if that driver had been allowed to continue driving and making the black children go to the back of the bus you might say it was 1936. there will always be jerks and morons in this world, can't control that. it's how society reacts to these jerks and morons that defines us. that driver was indeed a moron and i'm sure has seen her last day of driving.

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.ph...othing/#more-32

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.ph...omises/#more-57

http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.ph...-downs/#more-83

an excerpt from the 3rd link...

future global warming can be predicted much more accurately then is generally realized…we predict additional warming in the next 50 years of 3/4ºC ± 1/4ºC, a warming rate of 0.15ºC ± 0.05ºC per decade.

in other words, don't throw out your snow shovels yet.

also, you will see that vegetation has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, and therefore, so has co2 uptake. so my apologies to the trees, it seems they are doing their part.

i guess that leaves the sailboat, eh steve? might want to get your honey enrolled in those sailing classes now.

hey steve, its the tree's fault carbon dioxide is on the rise! it's their job to remove it from the atmosphere! damn trees are screwing off on the job! i say a war on trees! well, maybe it is because of fossil fuels. maybe you should lead by example on this....when your fiancee has her visa have her travel to the usa by sailboat!

is ur fiance telling u that he is exempt from imbra? i would be very skeptical

mew, plz accept my sincerest apology. maybe having been previously married to a woman that would always ask me stuff and then never believe my answer i'm overly sensitive to it. in any case, i had no right to make assumptions or to answer you as i did. thank you everybody here for pointing out my failing here. i do try to live by the adage "if you have nothing good to say don't say anything". again mew, my sincerest apology. i hope you and your fiance have a very speedy visa process and a lifetime of happiness together.

mel gibson's dui arrest only shows that we are all subject to the human condition, we all fall short in the eyes of God

wow, ur fiance tells u one thing, but u don't know whether to believe him, so u come here and ask total strangers behind his back. trust him, or else research it online with him at the uscis website, they r very clear about what is acceptable and what is not. that way you don't need to go behind his back in a distrusting way.