Ted LPD's Comments (1026)

“and his marbles”

“HP did me that way too, this morning. Welcome to the club.”

“Our Poor Class was made larger through the f00lish institution of Welfare. We now have a Welfare Society and New Orleans is a prime example of that society. They have lost their will to work but rather work the system of welfare payouts and continue to demand more as they now think it is their right to receive their living from the government rather than the temporary assistance it should have been.

We need blame only ourselves for allowing this failure of our system.”

“Ted, I have read some of the best morons in the world. Gentlemen and Ladies without a single clue, filling up pages with specious nonsense. But thank you, now between you and the Sarah Lady I have met the best. I can ignore the rest. Thank you very much.”

“Bullshit.

Clean Water Act started out well and got eroded. The Clean Air act has a slightly better history. The Organic labeling acts have been mixed, but they were begun to take power away from the people to monitor their own food supply and give it to the food industry. Combined with protections sought and achieved by the meat processors and chemical and pharmaceutical industries, health and safety are in jeopardy every day from our food supply.

You will point to Social Security and how it was expanded or Medicare as your examples, no?

Let's look at the Drug Benefits history to find a counter example. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/1003325561.html?dids=1003325561:1003325561&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+15%2C+2006&author=Michael+A.+Fletcher&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Medicare+Drug+Benefit+Works%2C+Bush+Says&pqatl=google

You say that was a Bush debacle? OK, so what happens when this Health Care Reform in name Bill gets through and signed and the R's take over?

Think it through man.”

“Ted,

GREAT POINT - women had to wait for the right to vote, blacks had to wait to be acknowledged as 100% human”

“Social security, Equal Rights Amendment, Medicare, What do you want. These were born as is. Minor changes to keep them current,. Bush tried to privatise social security, got fried for it, had to back away, not that it did his party any good. Your point is not historically correct no matter how many times you state it.”

“Ted, most of us here are not children so we don't need you to lecture us on politics.

Many of us predicted the outcome of the hc bill long ago. I'm not certain but you don't seem to understand that the administration got all they wanted from this bill. Obama did not fight for more.

They let the hc industry and big pharna continue to rip off the public!”

“I doubt very much that he watched it at all. Just like that the Rethugs don't read the bills that they are going to vote against because a black man who is smarter than they won the last election and this confuses them and makes them angry.”

“The democratic party is getting a little Karma for how they treated Joe in Connecticut.”

“Who said it was important? Does every new article have to be ''important''. Gesh get a grip !”

“The NPP is not going to have any political consequences on the war in Afghanistan. The fact that Obama announced his surge after receiving it is a confirmation of that.

What will have REAL consequences is the public opinion in countries that aren't as easily brainwashable by a corporate-controlled media as the US: 71% of Britons oppose the war, 65% of Canadians, 65% of Germans, 62% of Australians etc. In 2011, the US will be alone in Afghanistan and Iraq. They will NEVER pull out. At least not until Americans start voting for REAL change and not just a pretty package that talks well but at the same time perpetrates each and every one of the immoral Bu$h policies...”

“Yeah, and Obama made sure their strategy didn't work!”

“They learned the strategy from the Repbs, the experts”

“A conservative's wet dream is America BEFORE FDR implemented almost all of the more impactful social programs we have today. They fought viciously and with all their might against the implementation of public education, of the 1938 labor law act that forced employers to give workers a weekend off, that made them pay time and a half for work over 40 hours, and of the creation of social security, among other programs. Why? Well how in god's name can you fool an individual into signing a risky home mortgage if he/she can figure out that all the money they put down and the next few years payments will all end up in the banker's name if they have an education and can figure it out themselves and not sign or at least hold out for a better deal? If you have an old goober who's 65 and receives a stipend every month, how can you force that old man to work for meager wages if he can buy bread with his SS money and not work for you until you pay him his worth? Left up to the conservatives, Pell Grants, Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, public clinics, bus tranportation for school kids, for city denizens, and for retired folk would all go away. You can't compare the two.”

“The only reliable data we have for Afghanistan is historical evidence. Granted, not all "invading armies" over the centuries have used the same tactics, but the results, regardless of approach have all been the same. That isn't to say it is not doable, but if we want any chance of success, we need to have the majority of Afghans marching to the same tune. Unfortunately, as Friedman pointed out, this is not "about us". The more we attempt to steer the process to our preferences and ways of thinking, the more natives we lose, for example when it comes to women's rights. Meanwhile the more we give up in terms of things we'd like to see, the more we are maintaining the status quo, which brings into question the very purpose of our presence. As I said, it is doable, but we should have started with more effective (and "innovative") policies 8 years ago, rather than hope to see any change in a matter of mere months. Even the Romans eventually gave up on Scotland, and settled for "containment" with Hadrian's wall.”

“who are those specialists? Where were they during the last 8 years in Afghanistan? Everybody is a specialist and although we should each have our own opinion on the subject I believe that CNN's Amanpour interview today with Karzai demonstrates clearly that he thinks that the Western world should want to pursue the war for him and that he wants a doubling of financial aid. He smacked of arrogance and indulgence. I believe that under the current circumstances Karzai and his team want it to be our war and let it be our war as long as he can.”

“Exactly which part of Friedman is liberal? he is a neocon.”

“I'm not a policy analyst or military strategist either, but I knew, for instance, that the Iraq war would be a debacle before it occurred. There is something to be said for common sense. Despite our portrayal of the Taliban as some kind of alien force, they are nevertheless Afghans. Which means that - unlike Iraq, which had a large influx of FOREIGN extremists taking advantage of their destabilized infrastructure (an infrastructure which, by comparison, Afghanistan lacks) - this is strictly an internal conflict. I'd say that based on our track record in regard to inserting ourselves into foreign internal conflicts, this a very OPTIMISTIC, if not "Rumsfeldian," policy.

As a side note, it's worth mentioning that creating uprisings is different than stoking popular uprisings that are already occurring, such as the Sunni uprising 2 years ago. If there were some sign of a movement gaining traction against the Taliban, then we probably COULD be effective in expanding those efforts, but the idea of kindling one ourselves in such a short amount of time (and with only 30,000 troops) is, to say the least, a gamble.

Oh, and by the way, the terrorists are in Pakistan...”

“You'd have a lot more credibility if you didn't call everyone you disagree with a communist.”

“Sorry if Friedman analysis seem quite logical and the outcome probable. As long it is our war Karzai and his team will let it be our war. This is not too difficult to understand and this has nothing to do with liberalism. It is just plain critical thinking and also not letting Obama pull the wool over our eyes with his constant and recurrent double-talk that need recalibration from his secretaries of defense and state.”

“apparently YOU aren't. who told you that? you shouldn't believe everything you hear... even unintelligent people know that”

“Some Northerners share the same problem.”

“Terrible generalization.”

“Seriously, you should write speeches for the White House. Have no idea what on earth you are talking about, but it sounds nice. One can even cue the violins. Enabler.”

“Nice Hollywood Academy of Military Strategy speech.”