IamPhenom's Comments (61)

“Liz Sidoti was one of the members of the media who famously brought John McCain a box of donuts and hand-delivered it to him during his campaign. She even included sprinkles because they were McCain's favorite.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/04/15/media/print.html

She also has a long history of slanted stories against Democrats.

Here she is smearing Obama for a non-existant link to Rod Blagojevich.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/200812100001

Here she is spreading the GOP line that Obama is "palling around with terrorists".

http://mediamatters.org/research/200810050003

For countless other examples, check here:

http://mediamatters.org/search/index?qstring=sidoti&x=6&y=11”

“That strategy would be catastrophic. We would turn the ENTIRE population against us. The Taliban would have new recruits every day.

Carpet bombing and obliterating non-combatants is not the answer.”

“Straw man argument.

Obama has never said he is not confident about being in Afghanistan. Why the need to turn everything into an attack on the President, who was left a tough situation in Afghanistan that was mismanaged for many years?

The real question is, will more troops be beneficial, and can we even supply them. Russia has too much political power in the old Soviet states we need for air bases. Russia already pressured Uzbekistan to close the K2 Air Base. Now Kyrgyzstan is threatening to close the critical Manas Air Base because of Russian pressure. That is one of the main reasons we are trying to improve relations with Russia right now.

If you are truly a USAF vet, you should know all about logistical issues.

The larger strategic question is can we "go small", and utilize naval-based air power in the region, increased intelligence, predator drones, cruise missiles, etc. as an alternative to increasing ground troops, which may only grow the Taliban insurgency. Can we track down and kill Al Qaeda while having little impact on the general population?”

“Bad idea Arianna.

Joe Biden resigning would guarantee his voice would never be heard again. Is that really beneficial when he's one of the few questioning the Afghan escalation? If others do decide to escalate the Afghan War, I want Joe hammering them on a daily basis asking if the escalation has really improved our strategic interests.

I mean, this is like asking for General Shinseki to resign when he said Iraq initially needed a large amount of troops. Shinseki was pushed out for that suggestion, and his voice was never heard again in those high level meetings. The neo-con idealogues benefited, not Shinseki or the USA. Biden resigning would have the same negative impact on the Afghan War.”

“It's amazing how much group-think exists within the right-wing. The new meme is that Obama doesn't accomplish anything, and you all just repeat it like sheep.

Let's just ignore that we are close to health care reform for the first time ever. Let's ignore that Obama passed his fist major bill already (Stimulus). Let's ignore that the government is finally organizing/funding an electronic health database. Let's ignore thousands of new infrastructure projects.

A few other accomplishments include new tax credits for college tuition and "green" home improvements, restored funding for stem cell research, saving the US auto industry, saving the US banking system, initiating a withdrawal plan in Iraq, the USA moving from #7 most loved country in the world to #1, improvements in foreign relations throughout the world which has led to a new coalition to stop Iran's nuclear program, putting thousands of miles of forests under federal protection in order to preserve the environment, and even restoring efforts towards bipartisanship to the White House.

What exactly did Bush accomplish in his entire 8 years besides endless war and economic collapse?”

“Well said.

It seems clear Obama is setting the stage for the next issue he will be tackling. After the Stimulus passed, he immediately focused on health care reform. Now that it appears we are close to a health care bill, he's preparing for the next obstacle.

Our American culture demands instant gratification, but the real world does not always work that way. Yeah, Dems control Congress, but a large bloc of those Dems in the House and Senate are conservative Democrats who really do not want "change".”

“That's like saying the problems with Somalia are because of Libertarian policies (minimal government, lack of taxation, lack of government services, etc.).”

“Interesting. So the 2 million number came from Democrats? Then why was it spread throughout the right-wing blogosphere and promoted by the likes of Michele Malkin? Was she part of this secret plot by the left to inflate the number of right-wing tea-baggers???

By the way, I'm not making any assumption about the number of people at the event. You are the one making assumptions. I'm going by what the Fire Department and legitimate media reported. Even Fox News said the crowd was in the "tens of thousands" (hence, below 100,000).”

“The numbers matter because it shows the angry-right is a small fringe. The number also matters because right-wing media sources are clearly lying about their numbers. As usual, they are making up their "facts" without any supporting evidence, which once again shows why they can't be trusted as honest sources of information. When the Fire Department (who has to plan for an emergency, so they have no reason to lie) says the number is 70,000, and right-wing blogs make up a number of 2 million, it also shows the extent that they will go to in their lies. They couldn't just say 200,000, they went into full wingnut make-things-up mode and said the number was 2 million, which is just ridiculous.

Also, nobody has a problem with a "dose of skepticism". People have a problem when Beck rabble-rouses, makes up ridiculous conspiracy theories, says the President is out to euthanize grandma, says Obama is a "racist" who "hates white people", or that Obama is out to impose Stalinistic communism in the USA. It's fear-mongering in it's lowest form, not healthy skepticism.”

“Too bad you cannot see that the tea-bag Beck supporters are now the radicals trying to tear apart our great country and hurt others.”

“As a fellow white, blue-eyed male, I agree 100%. This has everything to do with race, whether the right-wing will admit it or not. We've had countless Presidents speak to schoolchildren and nobody has ever cared. We just had a President (Bush) who was usurping powers the Constitution did not grant him, and none of these people up in arms about Obama even cared. In fact, they cheered it. We've had other Presidents try to cover all Americans with health care, and you didn't see the amount of hatred and vitriol you see now towards Obama.

The only difference is that we now have a Black President.

I think the anger and fear over a Black man as our President is the reason why so many people are willing to believe this "government is your enemy and out to indoctrinate your children" meme.

The lunatic fringe have taken over the Republican Party. When you saw left-wing fringe groups like 9-11 "Truthers" during the Bush years for example, the mainstream Democrats all disavowed it. You had probably the most liberal person on television with their own show (Bill Maher) literally throw out 9-11 "Truthers" from his audience. THAT is how the Democrats treated THEIR fringe during the Bush years. Yet you see the current right-wing fringe against Obama supported by most Republican lawmakers and pundits. The Republicans pundits/lawmakers feed into the lunacy rather than try to ignore or disavow it.”

“The cats were secret ACORN operatives bent on imposing socialism!”

“Way to completely ignore the hateful and slanderous things he has said Beckbot, for example when he said President Obama is a "racist" who "hates white people".

It's also funny how you can't see that these are obviously partisan attacks. The TARP bank bailout happened under Bush. Bailouts of AIG began under Bush. Where was Beck ranting about Bush at the time? Where were his tears about the country being taken over then?

Where were Beck's whines about government when Bush was launching illegal wars, torturing people, and causing the entire world to turn against us, spying on Americans without a warrant, launching phony Justice Department investigations into Democrats and firing any US Attorney who wouldn't go along with it, etc.”

“Well, maybe if your party had a sizeable base of support these companies would be more afraid about losing your business.

Instead, they did a cost-benefit analysis and concluded we liberals have more buying power. They realized there was more risk running the ads compared to the possible new revenue they could bring in.”

“Fewer companies wanting to buy ad time on Beck's show means they cannot charge as much for selling ad time. It lessens demand for ad time. That impacts News Corp's bottom line.

Should be simple enough for someone with the screen name "Austrian School" to understand....”

“Sadly, I think you may be correct.”

“I see a future President...

Great job teaching us all what it means to be a good American Phoebe.”

“No. I'll concede that expert could have an agenda or bias. I don't think the large number of ex-Pentagon officials cited in the Reuters article have any such bias though, and they also say this weapon is not tactically useful (it basically only works against a nation with no air defense, and those types of nations are not the ones with nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles). There are better, cheaper alternatives to do the job.”

“Why are you ignoring the other link they posted?

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1616164120080417

>>
The former top U.S. weapons tester told Congress on Wednesday the Pentagon was wasting what may add up to hundreds of billions of dollars to build what he described as a largely useless anti-ballistic missile shield.

"Missile defense is the most difficult development the Pentagon has ever attempted," said Philip Coyle, who served from 1994 to 2001 as an assistant secretary of defense and the head of Pentagon arms testing.

The threat being used to justify the large sums being spent has been exaggerated, he said, "and if it were real the proposed missile defense systems couldn't deal with it anyway."

Coyle and other prominent critics testified the Pentagon and contractors such as Boeing Co, Lockheed Martin Corp and Northrop Grumman Corp had made scant progress toward being able to defeat ballistic missiles despite federal outlays of perhaps $150 billion since then-President Ronald Reagan made his famous "Star Wars" speech in 1983.”

“Interesting. Thanks for posting.”

“She was found in violation on two of the complaints. On others, there was no wrong-doing only because she agreed to reimburse the state for various expenses.”

“We (liberals) really don't care about Palin. We don't think she has any chance in a national election.

The real attacks on Palin come from her own Party. Did you forget during the campaign it was her own McCain campaign handlers leaking info on her (that she was a "diva", the $250,000 wardrobe, etc.). It was Wall Street conservative opinion writers who bashed her. That latest article that came out in the Vanity Fair quoted only fellow Republicans who worked with her. Mike Huckabee just blasted her. Karl Rove said the move was stupid. Republican Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski came out and said she abandoned her state. Palin's fellow Republican Governors (Sanford, Haley Barbour, etc.) refused to vote her into ANY position in the Republican Governor's Association. In Alaska. she is in a big political battle with Republican State Senators, not Democrats, who actually support most of her initiatives.

The most vicious attacks on Palin come from her own Party, but her supporters seem to only blame "liberals".”

“But she could have had the book deal, Fox News segments, or speaking engagements while remaining Governor. Her star power is greater if she remains an active Governor.

She is in serious debt, but I think she had to like her chances in 2012 for the Republican nomination. Sanford imploded. Jindal seemed to blow his chance. Ensign is out. Huntsman joined the Obama administration. Newt is old news. Recent polls showed Palin equal with Romney as the top Republican hopeful.

I think there is more information we are going to find out later. This move doesn't add up. I don't even get her having enough of the spotlight. I don't think people go from seeking out the spotlight at every chance to suddenly running away from it.”

“You're missing the point. Obama did not make a major, highly-anticipated speech directed at Europe like he did with the Muslim/Arab world.

Also, you're ignoring that even the right-wing European leaders are pro-American for the most part. It's not like Europeans voted in leaders who hate the USA and everything we stand for. You're ignoring that the Lebanese elections had a real clear choice between pro-American and anti-American candidates, unlike Europeans who essentially only have pro-American candidates.

Also, you are forgetting that even some of those left-wing European leaders, such as the UK's Labour Party, were very much in the BUSH/REPUBLICAN camp, so voting them out would not necessarily be about Obama at all.”

“As incompetent as they were at so many levels, the Bush administration at least could see the future political landscape, and were trying to modernize the Republican Party. The attempts by the Bush admin at Immigration Reform were really an effort to gain support from a growing Hispanic population. The problem was, the Bush admin could not control the far-right ideologues (mainly on TV and radio) who screamed about "amnesty" and killed the bill. The Bush administration saw the future, but the rest of the Party refused to join that future.

Even on the gay marriage issue, the smarter members of the Republican Party can see that issue hurting them in the longterm, but the ideologues refuse to moderate their anti-gay rhetoric.

In other words, the Republicans couldn't control their angry, radical fringe. That fringe became so powerful, it now runs their whole Party.”