Let me state up front that we can conquer and control Afghanistan. Only one little problem. We will need about 1 million men on the ground and should expect to spend 2 trillion dollars. So, let’s stop kidding ourselves and admit we are not willing or able to pay the price required to control Afghanistan. Our military mission in Afghanistan is coming to an end.

Which brings us to other options. We need to recognize that Afghanistan is a pre-medieval tennis court where Pakistan and Iran fight to ensure the other does not get an upper hand. Two events in the last month have decidedly shifted U.S. public opinion towards remaining in Afghanistan–the burning of the Korans and the crazy Sgt. massacre of 19 Afghans (mostly women and children). Want to understand how bizarre Afghanistan is? They went batshit crazy over the burning of the Koran. The murder of women and children? Just another day in their version of Paradise. Tells you all that you need to know about that backwater of religious extremism.

The United States has a decision to make going forward–which country poses the greatest threat to our interests in the region? Iran or Pakistan? I believe that Pakistan is more dangerous. Pakistan has nukes. Iran does not. Pakistan is arming and training extremist Sunnis; the very same people who attacked us on 9-11. Pakistan harbored and protected Bin Laden. Iran did not. Pakistan’s ISI played a direct role in the Mumbai terrorist attacks two years ago. Read the rest

I’ve suspected that Rick SaIntorum’s agenda is really about his extreme conservative social views far more than the U.S. economy and the millions of Americans without decent jobs, or any job. Yet I never dreamed he’d actually come right out and say it. But I’ll be damned if he didn’t — and is he ever backtracking now, as you’ll see below.

National Journal, MOLINE, Ill. – Rick Santorum is coming under fire for saying that the unemployment rate and economic growth are secondary issues to that of freedom in his campaign, a statement that rival Mitt Romney’s campaign quickly seized on as being tone-deaf to the plight of out-of-work Americans.

“We need a candidate who’s going to be a fighter for freedom. Who’s going to get up and make that the central theme in this race because it is the central theme in this race,” Santorum told a crowd of about 200 voters during a rally here on Monday. “I don’t care what the unemployment rate’s going to be. Doesn’t matter to me. My campaign doesn’t hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. It’s something more foundational that’s going on.” Read the rest

The wing-nuts have taken over both major political parties.  Moderates have been purged to make way for the most liberal and most conservative candidates from both parties.  Compromise with the “enemy” is punishable by expulsion nowadays.  No wonder they can’t get anything done anymore.  Any day now, I expect the word “bi-partisan” will be banned in Congress.

Is there anything more reprehensible?  This is what we’ve become as a nation?  What’s next?  Separate voting places for Democrats and Republicans?

Just look at what’s happened to the number of Moderates in the United State Senate in the course of 30 years.  I made this composite graphic from this video from CBS News.

Source: National Journal & CBS News 11-19-11

Read the rest

First things first: “Romney sweeps Puerto Rico primary contest,” Reuters:

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney swept to a big win in his party’s primary in Puerto Rico on Sunday, bolstering his position as front-runner in the race. … Romney had about 83 percent of the vote … Rick Santorum was in second place with just under 8 percent. [Romney] was poised to sweep all 20 delegates.

Hot Air reports that Romney holds leads over Santorum in two polls for the Illinois primary Tuesday (March 20)

In the meantime, St. Ricky is in a dither about pornography, alleging that the “Justice Department under President Obama ‘seems to favor pornographers over children and families’.” – “Obama Administration is Soft on Pornography,” WaPo. Hey, online porn is smarmy and should be kept from kids, but — here we go again — a rightwinger goes nuts about anything to do with sex and women. Most of the unemployed and under-employed can’t afford to watch porn anyway, so why make it a hot presidential campaign issue? It seems that men like Santorum have real hang-ups about sex and little understanding or support for women. Why else has the rightwing now ruled out abortions in cases of incest and rape, which I find an appalling disregard for a very personal decision that should be up to the victim, often a child herself.

Very smartly, the Romney campaign has put Ann Romney out front, talking directly to women about the issues that really matter right now. From CBS News: Read the rest

Desperation must be reaching epidemic levels at the White House if they are counting on a bogus threat and cheap smear of Joe Biden to save the political career of Barky Obama. How else to explain the White House leak to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius of the so-called bin Laden plot to kill President Obama:

Before his death, Osama bin Laden boldly commanded his network to organize special cells in Afghanistan and Pakistan to attack the aircraft of President Obama and Gen. David H. Petraeus. . . .

The scheme is described in one of the documents taken from bin Laden’s compound by U.S. forces on May 2, the night he was killed. I was given an exclusive look at some of these remarkable documents by a senior administration official. They have been declassified and will be available soon to the public in their original Arabic texts and translations.

The man bin Laden hoped would carry out the attacks on Obama and Petraeus was the Pakistani terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri. “Please ask brother Ilyas to send me the steps he has taken into that work,” bin Laden wrote to his top lieutenant, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. A month after bin Laden’s death, Kashmiri was killed in a U.S. drone attack. Read the rest

How refreshing! Men rushing to the aid of stranded dolphins. What an amamzing video.
Read the rest

Every time I stop in at Staples — although I didn’t know until recently — I have Mitt Romney to thank for its existence. I don’t know what I’d do without Staples in the small town where I live – from the array of printer cartridges to the choice of mice. My neighbor takes her computer in for a regular cleaning. The staff answer our questions, capably and politely.

Mitt Romney did far more than finance Staples. That multi-millionaire pitched in to stock shelves at the flagship store and for years worked hard on its board of directors, so intensely involved he’d soak through dress shirts.

It’d be hard to put the Staples story in a stump speech, although it exemplifies the executive qualities we need in a president. If every voter knew about these qualities, they’d know who to vote for.

• Mitt didn’t let others’ uneasiness deter him from taking his own look at the Staples concept
• He had the ability to see possibilities others missed
• He sold the concept to his own doubtful partners
• He conducted due diligence
• He personally followed through — at every step — to ensure the first Staples store lived up to his concept of a “supermarket” for office supplies

Read the rest

* Bumped up *

Op-ed today (Friday) by Max Boot illustrates why the neocons are an amazing group of dangerous buffoons. Not a one of these clowns have ever served in the military and none actually understand the process of assessing risk and military planning. Boot presents his madness in the Washington Post and makes his case of why we ought to be on the ground in Syria:

Today, in the case of Syria, any military action needs to be carefully thought through, but we should not refuse to act simply because of the worst-case scenarios being raised by the Pentagon.

Start with Syria’s supposedly formidable air defense. Given the ease with which Israel penetrated those defenses in 1982, during the Lebanon War, and in 2007, to take out the al-Kibar nuclear reactor, it is unlikely that the systems would pose that much of a challenge to the world’s most sophisticated and powerful air force.

The U.S. Air Force had no trouble taking out Saddam Hussein’s air defenses on two occasions, and those, like Syria’s, were constructed largely on the Russian model. Read the rest

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone.

I thought I’d share a little Irish music, some personal info and a little history of the day. There are so many things including jokes and traditions that this day brings to my mind. Do you have traditions for St. Patricks day?

To begin with I don’t actually believe that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. However anyone, Saint or Sinner that could drive snakes away (((shudder))) would be a hero to me.

To me St. Patrick’s Day wouldn’t be complete without hearing “Galway Bay.”  It was my Grandfather Milligan’s favorite song. So here it is in his memory.

Just FYI I am 1/2 Irish and was raised to think that  St. Patrick’s Day was the most important holiday of the year. Read the rest

I’m not fair, I’m not even-handed, I don’t give the benefit of the doubt, I don’t suffer fools gladly any longer – I’m way past that these days. I’m angry and outraged at the cowardice, venality and stupidity I see in the political sphere, I’m frustrated that bog-obvious solutions to our problems are gathering dust while the clown circus magic pony ride goes on and on and I’m especially furious when ignorant, self-righteous twits attempt to foist their narrow-minded bigotries on me (or anybody else), case in point:
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Larry Johnson wrote a description of Afghan men that I can’t get out of my head: They wipe their asses with a rock. Talk about living in the Stone Age! Sometimes I feel the same way about Republican men — or, more particularly, the battles that they choose to wage, which mostly center on controlling what women can and cannot do.

The GOP’s war against Planned Parenthood never ends, but now it’s on the front burner again. Astoundingly and stupidly, Republicans (thanks in large part to Rush Limbaugh and Rick SaIntorum) are picking this fight at the very time that the GOP has a RARE opportunity to seize the White House from an unpopular president who could be EASY to beat in November. Just in case the GOP has forgotten: To defeat Obama, they must smartly avoid alienating women and Independents, whose votes make or break an election.

As much as we want Obama out of the White House, it’s shocking how many GOP candidates have turned into bad jokes. Is the GOP base so rabid that these hard-headed ideologues are incapable of seeing the big picture — that they need a nominee who has appeal for women, Reagan Democrats and Independents? The sole remaining candidate with cross-over appeal is Mitt Romney, a hopelessly geeky brainiac with exceptional skills as a “fixer” of large businesses in crisis, which sounds exactly like what we need to fix our economy.

Obama was a great campaigner but a lousy manager; Romney may be the opposite, a lousy campaigner but a great manager in the Oval Office. But the GOP hard-heads suspect he’s not conservative enough. So they vote as if the presidential election is ALL about what THEY want, not what is best for the country.

Here’s an example of what the rightwing “base” has in mind for women. And, before you point fingers at the federal government, be sure to keep in mind that “federal government pays for nearly 90 percent of Texas’ $40 billion Women’s Health Program, and nearly half of the program’s providers in Texas are Planned Parenthood clinics. Read the rest

Just spotted this in a Tweet. Below the video is a short commentary by the videographer:

First, Santorum wanted to raise the retirement age. Then, in 2005 he said it had to be an option. In 2006, he came out against raising the retirement age. Read the rest

Groundhog Day for Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, in which Santorum scores best in Alabama and Mississippi but the other candidates gain delegates at the same pace as the winner.

Adding American Samoa and Hawaii, am told by Salena Zito that Romney will likely lead the evening in delegates. Romney started with 444, and needs 700 for success. In sum, this is an arranged marriage, and the party and the candidate will get together in Tampa.

Rick Santorum’s conduct is worthy of Frank Capra — the man who overstayed his fairy tale.

Newt Gingrich is pure dogged “All the King’s Men.” Ron Paul is a musical interlude. The puzzle is what this all comes to by October. Read the rest

The Obama team, especially his aloof, detached Secretary of Energy, are dropping the ball and failing to act decisively to produce more oil, improve oil refinery and lower the price of gas. Nope. The Obama policies are driving the price of gas up. What proof do we need? I’ve got the video:

Okay, so maybe that isn’t the Obama Administration. Actually, we shouldn’t insult the chimps. They are damned talented and able to do the “Irish” thing. The Obama gang? Not so much.

Check out the little brain on Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, (we’ve got the before and after): Read the rest

Congratulations are due Santorum for his surprising wins in Mississippi and Alabama. Waking up this morning, this victory is surely disappointing Santorum, and his erstwhile supporters, as he is now even further behind in delegates than he started out yesterday. Yes, one step forward and two backward.

Delegates are what count and, depending on whose scorecard you follow, Santorum lost ground by at least six delegates and now trails Romney by over 260 delegates. Romney increased his clear majority of delegates.

Read the rest