hollybork's Comments (3256)

“Too bad Lindsay Graham doesn't come over to our side. He is a good man and I have liked him for many years. I think he is a solid Senator. We could use another vote in the Senate on the dems side.”

“You say it was "a special grand sponsored by the Saudi government'?? There is evidence that the Saudi participants who came to the US to be trained as pilots and later participated in 9/11 were granted visas out of Riyadh at the direct intervention of the CIA. What do you make of that?”

“Yes, I am very well aware of the connection between the Saudi royals in their rise to power and their "deal" with the Wahabi leadership. However, King Saud's decendents are gravely threatened by jihadist islam. That family has much to fear from the jihadist element, and not least because it originally sprang from Wahabism and was refined and then turned violent through the Muslim Brotherhood. A philosophy that takes the principle of jihad as a right to wage relentless and unprincipled warfare against anyone imaged to be less than pure than some other group is perverted islam. It is not true to the principles of the Koran and is a violent aberration of the universality and peacefulness in Prophet Mohammad's message.

On a more political level, the vigorous growth of such jihadist fanaticism not only risks undermining the royal families of the middle east, but also threatens the few muslim majority democracies such as Indonesia, Egypt and Turkey. There are many reasons the Saudi's should watch their neighbor and move in to put it back on a sound political footing before it fails utterly like Somalia and Afghanistan have done.”

“Where are the Saudi's in fighting al Quaeda? Are they not willing to spend any of their oil riches to insure their closest neighbor is peaceful and not a threat? After all, Yemen is on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is closer to Saudia Arabian territory than Cuba is to Florida. Why should the US interest in routing out terrorist elements there outrun the interests of the oil rich Saudi royals? Why are they not deep into the fight against al Quaeda along with the rest of the civilized world? Something stinks about this.”

“You are correct. They also pulled security off the Dealy Plaza. Check out the new book written by the first black man to serve in the SS under Kennedy - ABraham Bolden - who complained to authorities about the lax attitude of the agents watching Kennedy and eventually quit in disgust. His new book is listed on Amazon.


According to the review:
"Bolden offers a new one, concerning discrimination and evidence suppression. Becoming, in JFK's words, the Jackie Robinson of the Secret Service, Bolden joined the White House detail in 1961. Already beset by racism (he once found a noose suspended over his desk), his idealism is further shattered by the drinking and carousing of other agents. Soon after the assassination, he receives orders that hint at an effort to withhold, or at least to the color, the truth. He discovers that evidence is being kept from the Warren Commission and when he takes action, finds himself charged with conspiracy to sell a secret government file and sentenced to six years in prison, where both solitary confinement and the psychiatric ward await. That there was a conspiracy to silence him seems unarguable, but Bolden's prose is flat; so is his dialogue. This story is more enthralling than Bolden's telling of it, but the reader who sticks with it will enter a world of duplicitous charges and disappearing documents fit for a movie thriller."”

“Yes, if they can figure out what to charge them with. The people that need to pay the price are the ones who failed their duty to prevent this from happening, all of them, including Desiree Golden Rear.”

“I am concerned the Secret Service is cutting corners in protecting the president. They did this during the JFK Presidency also, and it got Kennedy killed. This is one area where the security of America cannot tolerate any mistakes because the President must be completely safe at all times. That the danger took place in his own backyard, under a tent crawling with security people, is unacceptable and a gross dereliction of duty.”

“Before we spend billions of dollars and thousands of casualties in a ground assault on Yemen and Somalia, we should engage in a cyber war and shut down their internet recruiting tools. Then target the leaders of these training camps and take them out one by one.”

“Taxes I would like to see:
1) on bullets;
2) on breast implants, face lift & cosmetic surgery, botox injections, and penile implants;
3) on viagara;
4) on private school tuition;
5) on sale of furs, yachts and private jets;
6) on credit card companes and banks for profits arising from interest exceeding 12% per annum;
7) on sale of derivates of all kinds;
8) on hedge funds profits for short term asset and derivative trading;
9) on cutting down trees;
10) on cable television service.”

“Maybe the person was an unusual form of hoarder, picking up carcasses along the road and bringing them home to dissect or study?”

“For the sake of the President's political future, if not for my personal need for accountability, three or more people should be fired. Looking at the broken chain of vital information, there was a failure to pay attention and to run a search to accumulate together all info. Five hundred billion spend each year on the intelligence budget, and we are this stupid? Let's start with accountability at the person who received the tip from CIA at the National Counterterrorism Center and work up from there.”

“You are de.lu.sion.al if you think people dying in war is brave and noble. That is why we keep going to war is because the people think it is so exciting and need the violence fix. The more vicarious that death and destruction is, the more it involved the beautiful, young and able, the more people like you get a thrill of emotion out of it.”

“Correction - first waterboard him (since he insists it is necessary to investigate the truth, and it is not torture.) Then put him in prison.”

“Ain't it the truth! Great post.”

“Call me names all you want for not toeing the "politically correct" line. This death was avoidable and a dreadful shame.

That a correspondent wants to cover war is all for glory and is no benefit to society. The information in war zones is still strictly controlled. Those who go into a active war zones to cover wars are thrill seekers. If they want to get their glory and their thrills, make more money, then their publishers should require that they have all the background, protective gear and training of warriors. This young lady had everything to live for, but she died for nothing. She died for an illusion and a lie of greatness or of public service. Service to whom for what? The Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns are aimless exercises in saber rattling. They kill people and those people dying for nothing. To volunteer to go into a war zone for a civilian is tantamount to a psychotic death wish. The only thing that makes it remotely sane is people who cheer such deaths as valiant and brave and encourage other young vibrant and talented people to go and make themselves "great". What crap.”

“Great comments and funny as hell. Keep it up.”

“Why are beautiful young women being placed in harms way, going into a dangerous war zone? Our society has gone insane.”

“Merry Christmas. CB”

“I have not read the whole bill and await more elucidation by the press than we have so far had. But it appears there are some good things. More people will get subsidies for coverage. I don't know if that will work or not.

Also, the federal government increased funding for medical education, for preventive care, for public health clinics, plus strengthened consumer protections for the buyers of insurance. There is also money for something akin to a public option in the form of non profits which each state can chose to put into place. As taxpayers we can press our various state legislatures to implement the non profit option and build on that.”

“Yes, yes, Sub libertate quitetum: This is the way I remember it. I think Obama's explanation to liberals is disingenuous at best and a false distinction at worst. It is offensive to me and insulting. Perhaps he does not know what he stands for anymore as long as he rolls the thing along a bit more in the same direction.

Unfortunately, the President could get the job done if he wanted to. There is a procedural avenue available. Congress can adopt the Senate bill with the mandate eliminated, the House tax method included, the consumer protections strengthened and the anti trust exemption stripped out. Then they could reconcile the public option as a sidecar on a vote of 51 giving everyone the right to buy into Medicare for a competitive premium. That could be done on a simple majority because there was $700 billion put into the budget in the spring for healthcare and so the money is there.”

“Unfortunately, the merger of corporate interests with the power of government brings us to facism. That is where we are headed.”

“This is an excellent, if heartbreaking, analysis of where we are. I have though since before Obama was elected that he was more conservative than people knew and would try to govern from the middle. What I did not understand was that he has no appetite for the hard knocks that comes from principled leadership. He might be a lot done as President, but until he gets rid of his corporatist advisers and has the tenacity to follow his own moral instincts about doing what is best for our people, he will continue along the path Miles has outlined here.

Furthermore, I believe the sell out of our national leadership is not hopeless. But as long as we have privately financed elections we will continue to sell power to the highest bidder. There is an area where we could bring reform by passing laws for public financing and regain a more vibrant and responsive democracy.”

“Yes, yes, you are right. My heart is breaking.”

“Gosh, that is exactly right. Obviously it is a myth that men go into medicine because of their compassion and desire to alleviate the suffering of others. But look on the bright side, Left, Sen Coburn is probably following the hypocratic oath; by becoming a US Republican Senator, he is probably doing less harm than if he were practicing his peculiar form of medicine.”

“Well said. I have to agree with you on all counts. Pres. Clinton brought us NAFTA, deconstruction of welfare, and financial deregulation. From where we are now, his Presidency brought on 10 years of the worst stock market ever, high unemployment from jobs shipped overseas, and a financial sector risking its way into meltdown.”