Week In The News: GOP Debate, Greek Deal, Qurans Burned

TODAY IS THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

February 24, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Week In The News: GOP Debate, Greek Deal, Qurans Burned

With Mike Pesca in for Tom Ashbrook

Romney and Santorum go at it. Quran burning in Afghanistan. A debt deal for Greece. The weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Afghans shout anti-US slogans during a demonstration in Mehterlam, Laghman province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012. Afghan police on Thursday fired shots in the air to disperse hundreds of protesters who tried to break into an American military base in the country's east to vent their anger over this week's Quran burnings incident. (AP)

Gas prices are spiking; the burning of Korans leads to protests and deaths – but not all news is bad – Newt Gingrich is, in a word, cheerful. The states of Michigan and Arizona will hold their primaries on Tuesday, the race in both places is surprisingly close.

The governor of Virginia backs off a requirement that women seeking an abortion first get an invasive sonogram; the Supreme Court will take on the issue of affirmative action in colleges, just 8 years after issuing a ruling that was expected to last for decades.

This hour, On Point: our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

-Mike Pesca

Guests

David Shepardson, Washington bureau chief for the Detroit News.

David Ignatius is a columnist at The Washington Post. He has covered the Middle East and the CIA for more than 25 years.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

From The Reading List

New York Times “President Obama apologized on Thursday for the burning of Korans at the largest American base in Afghanistan earlier this week as furious protests raged for a third day and a man wearing Afghan Army uniform turned his weapon on coalition soldiers, killing two of them.”

Wall Street Journal “Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney sought Wednesday to portray Rick Santorum’s 16-year career in Congress as a betrayal of conservative principles, using a televised debate to try to define his top rival at a moment when many voters are paying new attention to the former senator.”

LA Times “Since the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, conservatives have looked forward to the day when the Supreme Court would take up a new challenge to the use of race-based affirmative action in the nation’s colleges and universities.”

Michiganjf

It’s just so damn funny…

… none of the “Four Clowns of the Apocalypse” yet satisfy enough rabid righties to clinch the nomination, so the Republican, [quote] “intelligencia,” are again talking about the appearance of a surprise candidate to save the party!

�
Ha!

I guess they’re hoping the party’s next savior will appear on October 25th… hopefully not enough time for him to stick his entire LEG in his mouth before November 2nd rolls around.

Gotta LOVE IT!

Americans are SO lucky Obama will be President for another four years, rather than another backward, hypocrite, clueless Republican!

I guess we’ll finally see the deficit and national debt reduced after all, and thankfully, we’ll continue to see job creation as well, so long as Republicans in Congress continue to be scorned by a majority of Americans and kept from further inhibiting our President’s proven successful policies!
- Anonymous
  
  For the good of the country, I hope your correct, but the Europeans are saying a Recession will (has) begin (begun) and gasoline prices are on the rise with predictions of $4.25/gallon by summer. If these events, plus what Republicans do to prevent further stimulus, slow the economy and increase unemployment roles, it is no certainty that Obama can win.
  
  If Romney should win, his presidency will be truly ironic with his HAVING to take actions he knows are wrong but are what he ran on. The only benefit will be that maybe the Independents will finally recognize the Republican economics ARE voodoo as the economy really tanks into the Greatest DEPRESSION in history. But that is cutting off your face so you can spit on an ant in the sandpile: not satisfying at all.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    Some of U.S. analysts predicted $5/gallon gas by June?
Newton Whale

ROMNEY:�
This is a president who should have instead communicated to Iran that we are prepared, that we are considering military options. They’re not just on the table. They are in our hand…Syria is their key ally. It’s their only ally in the Arab world.

It is also their route to the sea.

http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1202/22/se.05.html

Wrong, moose breath.

Iran is Iran’s route to the sea.�
It does not border Syria.

And I don’t think it’s too much to ask that someone who wants to be President and bomb either one of them should have noticed that we spent 9 years at war against the country that sits between them on a map.

Then again, neither Romney nor his five young sons have ever served in the military, so he might have missed it. Maybe that’s why he wrote this on April 25, 2011 in an op-ed in the NH Union Leader:

“Barack Obama is facing a financial emergency on a grander scale. Yet his approach has been to engage in one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history.”

When it was pointed out to him that the U.S. had been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan for most of a decade, and was then also involved in NATO air attacks over Libya, Romney and the Union Leader simply flushed the offending op-ed down the memory hole.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2743442/posts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0zoprbYVjY

And he’s supposed to be the sheriff of this insane clown posse.
- aj
  
  You nailed him. A delight to read your post. Well said (and documented). Superb.
- Michiganjf
  
  Nice! These clowns truly ARE clueless!
Terry Tree Tree

The United Nations could ask many countries to use drones, satellites, or other methods to remote-verify the government attacks in Syria? WHY don’t they?
- aj
  
  Sir, I heard a 2 reports on cnn that you might like to know. First, the U.S. has started drone surveillance 24/7 over Syrian airspace to gain evidence for Security Council presentation. And last night, an unnamed source, that Arab countries were arming Syrian defectors. (probably Qatar, Saudi, maybe C.I.A.?)
  - Hidan
    
    Funny how the U.S. media only cares about what arab countries say when it’s convenient to U.S. interest.
    
    Take libya for example does anyone remember what the Arab league said after the U.S. started supporting the Rebels with Air Strikes? On Israel at the same time?
    - aj
      
      I know exactly what your talking about. And you are absolutely right Hidan. 100%
      
      But what can you expect when Andrea Mitchell a.k.a. Mrs.Greenspan is considered an esteemed foreign affairs journalist in this HIDEOUS U.S. media landscape.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    Thanks! This type of verification could have been done weeks ago, saving how many lives?
Terry Tree Tree

A Catholic monsignor (sp?), assigned to investigate 22 pedophile priests, HELPED the pedophiles to go molest MORE VICTIMS?�
That’s how the Catholic clergy ‘minister to those in need’?
This pervert is on trial now? Will the Catholic clergy continue to protect these criminals? Will the clergy FINALLY, after decades, supply ALL secret Vatican information that might be pertinent to these and other crimes? Will 1 person win 4 major lotteries in the same week?
- Modavations
  
  You are absolutely psychotic.Your obsession is grotesque and endless.Do you post from an asylum?You’re like a wounded animal!!!
  - Modavations
    
    pEOPLE WHO OBSESS(WHO DREAM ABOUT THIS STUFF,YOUR QUOTE) ABOUT pREVERT PEDOPHILE PRIESS, ARE OFTEN PERPETRATORS,THEMSELVES
    - Hidan
      
      All Caps= Yelling. Calm down Moda-Troll.
      - Modavations
        
        Au contraire most gaseous one.I’m just too To lazy to correct
      - Hidan
        
        Your more than just lazy.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Moda WHINES about name-calling?
    - TFRX
      
      Way to call someone a pedophile, Foghorn.
      
      LET ME REPEAT THAT LOUDER AND SLOWER AND IT WILL MAKE MORE SENSE.
      - Modavations
        
        Jeffe has rabies and you’ve got tourettes(?)
      - Anonymous
        
        Rabies, that’s real funny coming from a rabid dog of a man.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        I MISSED the violence in your post? Some language and names that I have pointed out are not appropriate on a forum that children may read.
        Your analysis of Moda’s history of comments, I agree with.
      - Modavations
        
        Keep your shirt on Mr.Tourettes.I’m just a slug and way too lazy to correct.Believe it or not,you’re not worth the effort.
      - TFRX
        
        But suggesting someone here a pedophile–that was real classy.
        
        No wonder you always end up at the kiddie table.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        He’s not just suggesting it, he has repeatedly lied about it!
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      NOT my quote!
      Moda supports the pedophile priests and clergy molesting children? If NOT, why do you rage against me mentioning the news about it?
      - Modavations
        
        Yes it’s your quote(not verbatim) you Psycho
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Moda WHINES about name-calling?
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    Moda supports pedophile priests and clergy?�
       This monsignor trial is current news!
       YOU want people to forget the VICTIMS of these criminals, that claim to be ‘men of God’?
        Moda WHINES about name-calling?
    - Modavations
      
      Dude (‘m a jew.You’re the Pervert expert around here
Terry Tree Tree

ALL anti-abortion people have been taking care of severely-disabled, minority children, that are the results of rape, and avoiding abortion?
HYPOCRITES?
- Hidan
  
  They only care until the child is born than they don’t want to hear anything about them until there military age. The same mother they forced to have a baby will be the same mother who these people will than attack and tell to get lose.
Me

The battle between the people who care about people and people who care about money continues!!
Charles A. Bowsher

I understand the outrage Muslims must feel over the accidental burning of the Qurans. The tragic burning of the Qurans needs to be put into perspective though. How many Qurans have been destryed by suicide bombers? Don’t they themselves destroy a Quran each time one of their suicide bombers kill a Muslim? Muslims memorize the Quran so then don’t they become the Quran itself? Perhaps it is a simpletons argument or thought but couldn’t we start some kind of drive to donate Qurans to more than replace what was damaged or destroyed? I just can’t get my head around killing over a book being damaged or destroyed.
- Hidan
  
  Did the Taliban know what the U.S. response would have been and what the Afghan people would do after?Was the U.S. short sighted in burning those books?
  - Anonymous
    
    Burning or burying are accepted ways of disposing of damaged, etc. Qurans; it was that they were burned with the trash that is the problem. It is somewhat analogous to outrage over protest burning of our flag.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  With all the furor raised EACH time a Quran has been considered defiled, in the past, and the resultant promises of ‘never again’, repeatedly, WHY did this happen?
  It is considered an insult, or WORSE, for someone to destroy the holy book of ANY religion? If not, which?
  IF someone wanted to raise problems, and cause the U.S. to have to keep fighting in Afghanistan, this is the best way to do that?
- aj
  
  ” understand the outrage Muslims must feel over the accidental burning of the Qurans.”
  
  -ALLEGED accidental burning of the Qurans-
  
  Can we not take U.S. officials version of the story and regurgitate that as the ACTUAL TRUE version of events. In fact based on the U.S. military’s record, I would say it is more likely that the burning was intentional until a few afghan civilians noticed what was happening and THEN AND ONLY THEN did it become UN-intentional “according to U.S. officials”. Would you disagree?
  
  Furthermore, to suggest that these thousands of Pashtun Afghans protesting this deeply disrespectful act -this deeply resented occupying U.S. military invasion- are all potential suicide bombers or support suicide bombing is yet another example of U.S. superiority complex and culturally ignorant and insensitivity manifested.
  
  Also you speak of the killing over a book. I can only presume your talking about the two marines killed yesterday Thursday. But the fact is, it was during wednesday’s protests that 7 Afghan’s were killed for protesting PRIOR to Thursday’s protest’s when U.S. military fired on protestors and then AND ONLY THEN did a Afghan uniformed officer,enraged by his fellow countrymen being shot at by foreigners in their OWN country for defending their OWN faith, turn his weapon and killed two marines.
  
  These details matter in Afghanistan. As long as your tax dollars are funding U.S.military occupation IN AFGHANISTAN, these details are relevant when discussing the situation there.
- Anonymous
  
  I don’t think they see it as a book. To them it is a material manifestation of their deity, like a holy relic is viewed in western culture.
Hidan

It’s pretty dumb the republicans are complaining about higher gas prices since it’s both Congress and the White House fault for the price spiking. This is mainly the result of the sanction the U.S. imposed on Iran for there nonexistent WMD. One of the AIPAC bought congresswomen was asked this months ago in Haaretz and ask about how placing sanction on Iran would raise gas prices. The response was Iran can’t have WMD.

Wait until Americans realize that prices are going up due to Israel’s paranoid fears about Iran.

Since many Dem’s and Republicans are bought and paided for there lie. Republicans will claim if only the XL pipeline was made prices would magically shoot down and the White House will say because the ecomony is doing great the price is going up. In reaction it’s there actions against Iran that is the main driver and those speculators will make millions if no billion off it. It be intersting if any of congress are beating on Oil Futures.
Hidan

Not covered on week and the news

NYPD spying program aimed at Muslims

http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/

On Monday, AP detailed how the NYPD spied on numerous Muslim students and their campus organizations. In particular, “police trawled daily through student websites run by Muslim student groups at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers and 13 other colleges in the Northeast” and “talked with local authorities about professors in Buffalo and even sent an undercover agent on a whitewater rafting trip, where he recorded students’ names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed.” The dossiers noted the names of Muslim student leaders and even stored emails sent and received by some of them. All this, even though the “documents mention no wrongdoing by any students.”Today, AP released a newly obtained report by the NYPD from 2007 about the Muslim community in Newark, New Jersey — both Middle Eastern and African-American in origin — prompting one of the AP reporters, Matt Apuzzo, to ask on Twitter: “If NYPD can write docs like this outside its jurisdiction, where cant they go? Post-9/11, is NYPD a nat’l police force?”
Hidan

U.S. media takes the lead on Iran
http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/page/2/

Many have compared the coordinated propaganda campaign now being disseminated about The Iranian Threat to that which preceded the Iraq War, but there is one notable difference. Whereas the American media in 2002 followed the lead of the U.S. government in beating the war drums against Saddam, they now seem even more eager for war against Iran than the U.S. government itself, which actually appears somewhat reluctant. Consider this highly illustrative, one-minute report yesterday from the nightly broadcast of NBC News with Brian Williams, by the network’s Chief Pentagon Correspondent Jim “Mik” Miklaszewski, which packs multiple misleading narratives into one short package:
Diane Sawyer and Brian Ross belong in a fear-mongering museum

Erin Burnett: Worst of the worst
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/17/erin_burnett_worst_of_the_worst/singleton/

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/15/diane_sawyer_and_brian_ross_belong_in_a_fear_mongering_museum/singleton/
Hidan

The hypocrisy of the WH again with talking about the tragic deaths of two reporters. The White house has been on an rampage against whistle blowers.

The WH Loves Aggressive Journalism — Abroad — Today’s Q’s for O’s WH — 2/22/2012

(Note: White House press secretary Jay Carney began today’s briefing by praising journalists who have died covering the unrest in Syria: Marie Colvin and Rémi Ochlik as well as Anthony Shadid.)

TAPPER: The White House keeps praising these journalists who are — who’ve been killed –

CARNEY: I don’t know about “keep” — I think -

TAPPER: You’ve done it, Vice President Biden did it in a statement. How does that square with the fact that this administration has been so aggressively trying to stop aggressive journalism in the United States by using the Espionage Act to take whistleblowers to court?

You’re — currently I think that you’ve invoked it the sixth time, and before the Obama administration, it had only been used three times in history. You’re — this is the sixth time you’re suing a CIA officer for allegedly providing information in 2009 about CIA torture. Certainly that’s something that’s in the public interest of the United States. The administration is taking this person to court. There just seems to be disconnect here. You want aggressive journalism abroad; you just don’t want it in the United States.

CARNEY: Well, I would hesitate to speak to any particular case, for obvious reasons, and I would refer you to the Department of Justice for more on that.

I think we absolutely honor and praise the bravery of reporters who are placing themselves in extremely dangerous situations in order to bring a story of oppression and brutality to the world. I think that is commendable, and it’s certainly worth noting by us. And as somebody who knew both Anthony and Marie, I particularly appreciate what they did to bring that story to the American people.

I — as for other cases, again, without addressing any specific case, I think that there are issues here that involve highly sensitive classified information, and I think that, you know, those are — divulging or to — divulging that kind of information is a serious issue, and it always has been.

TAPPER: So the truth should come out abroad; it shouldn’t come out here?

CARNEY: Well, that’s not at all what I’m saying, Jake, and you know it’s not. Again, I can’t — specific –

TAPPER: That’s what the Justice Department’s doing.

CARNEY: Well, you’re making a judgment about a broad array of cases, and I can’t address those specifically.

TAPPER: It’s also the judgment that a lot of whistleblowers’ organizations and good government groups are making as well.

CARNEY: Not one that I’m going to make.

-Jake Tapper
- Hidan
  
  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/the-wh-loves-aggressive-journalism-abroad-todays-qs-for-os-wh-2222012/
Ed

It’s interesting that the president, secretary of state, and head of the Joint Chiefs has apologized for this Koran burning. Religious sensitivies, very good. But when the Catholics say it’s against our conscience to provide certain things – no religious sensitivity there. Hmm.
- Hidan
  
  Yep force those Catholic women who already use birth Control to have to pay for it themselves. Cause A bunch of males who mostly never had sex see’s it as wrong.
  
  Ill take the Catholics more seriously when many in the priesthood starts going to jail for failure to protect all those children. Even further Catholics should have even more doubt about there belief since the #1 guy (The Pope) wasn’t informed by God or JC about Priest touching little children.
  - Yar
    
    “A bunch of males who mostly never had sex see’s it as wrong.”
    Do you really believe that?
    The gap between belief and practice is the definition of hypocrite.
    We are sexual beings, that in itself limits our understanding of God. We can project our emotions onto another gender, but it is not the same as being the other gender.
    I believe accepting sexual expression of religious leaders will free up the church to focus on worship of God instead of making an idol of piety. It should also curb abuse caused by Priests. At least it should make the Church deal honestly with deviant sexual behavior among their staff.
    - Hidan
      
      Are not many of those Priest Virgins before entering? Giving themselves to God and such. Of course not all, but is it not interesting that males who have never experiences sexual relations are making rules and religious laws about Sexual relations?
      
      I do agree with the other stuff you said.
      
      The History Channel had a series on the Church and how a man of god wrote what was acceptable forms of sex and what was not though he never experienced any of it.
      - Yar
        
        I guess it depends on how you define virgin. In ancient times young boys chosen to serve were castrated, they were called Eunuchs.
        Religious meddling with sexuality is pervasive. I can’t fathom how the church came to advocate for circumcision. Maybe circumcision was considered the more humane alternative to castration. It is pretty crazy when you think about it.
- Modavations
  
  TAKE A BOW
- TFRX
  
  Catholics use birth control to the tune of 98%.
  
  Religious orgs who can’t discriminate while hiring (say) agnostics have no leg to stand on discriminating in insurance.
  
  You takes our tax monies, you compete in a marketplace for schools and hospitals, you play by the rules.
  
  And your dream of a theocracy calling itself a democracy? Funny how folks like you never consider themselves as being of the losing religion.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  It is against my religion for Child-Abusing and Child-Raping clergy to be protected from prosecution for these crimes!
     It is against my religion, for ANY organization to receive ANY tax-payer money, or tax-free status, that provides ANY support for Child-Rapers and Child-Abusers!
     It is against my religion for HYPOCRITES, that claim homosexuality is an abomination, to hide, or support in ANY way, pedophile clergy raping boys!
     WHAT does YOUR religion say about my issues, Ed?
- Anonymous
  
  Your opinion goes against that of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a devout Roman Catholic and one whose opinion probably carries more weight than yours. See:
  
  http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/how-scalia-helped-obama-defend-the-birth-control-rule.php
  
  You just can’t have things both ways, although Scalia might repeat a show of hypocrisy (re: Bush v. Gore, 2000) and reverse himself here.
Ed

The First Amendment was written not to protect the state from religion, but to protect religion from the encroachment of the State. And that’s what we see in the Healthcare Mandate. Their goal is to have Sibelius decide all questions of what insurance can and can not cover, and contraception is just the first item of many. (E.g. expensive cancer drugs might be denied – and she reports only to the President.)
- Anonymous
  
  Churches are still exempt. All institutions that accept government money, serve people outside their faith, and employ people outside their faith must follow the law.
- Anonymous
  
  The first amendment was intended to protect “the people” from any religion being given special advantage by the government action or inaction, whether those people were adherents or opponents of any religion. To put it in the context of another of today’s stories, how would you feel about a new law that makes it a crime to burn a Koran, but doesn’t address the burning of the Book of Mormon or Bible?
- Anonymous
  
  See my post above; like the fact that you can’t yell “Fire” in a crowded theater, the right to act on “all” religious dogma is not absolute.
Hidan

The ugly delusions of the educated conservative

Better-educated Republicans are more likely to doubt global warming and believe Obama’s a Muslim. Here’s why

The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science–and Reality
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-republican-brain-chris-mooney/1106038746?ean=9781118094518&cm_mmc=AFFILIATES-_-Linkshare-_-FYUtulI7nw4-_-10%3a1&

Let’s face it: We liberals and progressives are absolutely outraged by partisan misinformation. Lies about “death panels.” People seriously thinking that President Obama is a Muslim, not born in the United States. Climate-change denial. Debt ceiling denial. These things drive us crazy, in large part because we can’t comprehend how such intellectual abominations could possibly exist.And not only are we enraged by lies and misinformation; we want to refute them—to argue, argue, argue about why we’re right and Republicans are wrong. Indeed, we often act as though right-wing misinformation’s defeat is nigh, if we could only make people wiser and more educated (just like us) and get them the medicine that is correct information.

But the facts, the scientific data, say otherwise.Indeed, the rapidly growing social scientific literature on the resistance to global warming (see for examples here and here) says so pretty unequivocally. Again and again, Republicans or conservatives who say they know more about the topic, or are more educated, are shown to be more in denial, and often more sure of themselves as well—and are confident they don’t need any more information on the issue.Tea Party members appear to be the worst of all. In a recent survey by Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, they rejected the science of global warming even more strongly than average Republicans did. For instance, considerably more Tea Party members than Republicans incorrectly thought there was a lot of scientific disagreement about global warming (69 percent to 56 percent). Most strikingly, the Tea Party members were very sure of themselves—they considered themselves “very well-informed” about global warming and were more likely than other groups to say they “do not need any more information” to make up their minds on the issue.
- Gregg
  
  Thanks for the morning laugh! I love the repeated reference to “Global Warming”. Who doesn’t believe in that? It happens every morning when the sun comes up.
Still Here

Burning Korans so as to disassociate yourself from your not-so-secret religion and then apologizing for it is some kind of crazy way to win an election!
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
  
  The President did not burn the Koran. The soldiers did it by mistake.
  - Still Here
    
    You’re joking right? They were under orders, orders that came down from Barry himself. Now he’s in a pickle of his own making, caught between trying to convince American voters he’s not a Muslim because he burns Korans and between his troops who he’s put another target on, two of whom have already paid the ultimate price for his anything goes re-election strategy.
    - TFRX
      
      Where do you think you are, Fox Nation?
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Your ‘logic’ and ‘accuracy’ here, resembles a can of lively worms, with LOTS of moving ends?
    - Anonymous
      
      How many bridges over the East River have you bought lately?
    - judgejudy
      
      Wow! If he’s that smart and capable, guess his re-election is a foregone conclusion. Thank goodness.
      
      Back to the bunker, still here
  - aj
    
    ” by mistake ” according to U.S. officials. Come on people! Your almost as bad as Andrea Mitchell and the rest of the government lapdogs Mainstream Media.
    
    I thought you all were smarter than that. I’m starting to have my doubts
- Hidan
  
  That crazy Christian/Muslim in the White House we’re all on to him
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  U.S. soldiers are members of WHAT secret religion? Which offices are these soldiers and their officers running for?
- TFRX
  
  “Not so secret religion”
  
  Submitted without comment.
- Anonymous
  
  Having seen your posts before, it’s possible that you are actually serious. Which, of course, makes you the crazy one. And you get to vote. Ain’t democracy great.
  - Still Here
    
    You haven’t really seen anything have you. Live in ignorance, you won’t know any better.
Modavations

Yesterday the unions knocked off the Post Office
- Hidan
  
  How many stamps did the Unions get away with?
  - aj
    
    lol
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    GOOD Question! lol
- Anonymous
  
  No, it was the GOP. You need to do more reading on this.
  Oh wait, you don’t read anything more than a paragraph.
Modavations

10 years ago Herr Kerry,said it’s senseless to drill Anwar.It would take 10 years for the stuff to come on line
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

iOnePoint:
�
Gas prices are spiking for Wall Street again is to blame for skeptical bet to increase the price of fuel commodity in order to manipulate gas prices in America.
- Hidan
  
  This is the main cause,
  
  U.S. lawmakers to vote on new Iran sanctions targeting energy sector
  
  Package comes on the heels of tough new
  embargoes by European nations and new banking sanctions that U.S.
  President Barack Obama’s administration is beginning to implement.
  
  http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/obama-signs-into-law-bill-imposing-iran-banking-sanctions-1.404788
  
  http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/u-s-lawmakers-to-vote-on-new-iran-sanctions-targeting-energy-sector-1.410157
  
  Israel demands embargo on Iran oil, even without UN okay
  http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-demands-embargo-on-iran-oil-even-without-un-okay-1.266091
- Modavations
  
  I disagree.It’s all supply and demand.It’s the market.What up Fax?.How’s the “little one”?
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
    
    Actually the demand is low on gas for modern cars and cars nowadays are way better than before. so lesser people are going to the gas pump except for those driving V6 and above.
    - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
      
      she’s doing good
  - Anonymous
    
    I disagree slightly. Oil and other commodity prices are currently being caused by monitary debasement due to massive money printing around the world, sorry, we don’t even bother to print the funny money anymore, we now digitize it. LOL
Modavations

Today Pres.Obama will visit Gaia University.He will speak on the price of gasoline.He will announce that thanks to hiis Green Initiative, they have figured out how to Split the Granola Atom
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

iOnePoint:

Syrian President committed a crime against humanity but will the Arab nations armed the rebels in Homs to change the political wind in the middle east.
Terry Tree Tree

Death Panel insurance company executives have the ‘religious’ stirred up, after 12, and 34 YEARS of employer-paid contraceptives?
     ANOTHER NON-issue NOISE, to avoid real issues that need immediate attention?
     The U.S. spends 5 TIMES the amount on Health-Care, than the next highest developed nation?   1/3 of U.S. Citizens are NOT covered by Health Insurance?
     That makes it more like 8 TIMES the next country?
Modavations

All you guys who are spouting,”but the oil will be sold to China,should stop taking Talking Points, from “Move On”..It’s an international market.I don’t pay less for gold in Joburg,I don’t pay less for Copper in H.Kong,I don’t pay less for Pork Bellies in London.Introduce product(XL Oil) any where in the food chain and prices drop.
- aj
  
  So then you must support ending the oil embargo on Iran, correct??
- Obi Wan Cory
  
  Why do I want to dig up and drill all over North America to lower oil prices in China?
Newton Whale

To boldly go where no nominee has gone before‏

Romney’s favorability numbers are lower – much lower – than any other frontrunner candidate of either party at this point in the race in recent presidential elections.“His favorable ratings are just atrocious,” Doug Usher, a managing partner at Purple Strategies and a veteran of the Kerry Campaign and other Democratic efforts said. “You can’t be sitting on 27 percent favorability in the general,” the level Romney is at in their new numbers.“The best thing that Mitt Romney could actually do is actually run a campaign that said something,” Bruce Haynes, one of the founding partners of Purples Strategies and a veteran of GOP campaigns, told TPM. “It’s a Seinfeld campaign. It’s a campaign about nothing.”

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/02/why-mitt-romney-might-be-even-weaker-than-you-think.php?ref=fpa
- Obi Wan Cory
  
  Star Wars and Star Trek in the post section on the same day. I must be in heaven.
  - Anonymous
    
    I’m seeing Shatner’s one man show tomorrow night.
    - TFRX
      
      If not familiar with the term, I suggest you search “Shatner comma”, simply to make the show more enjoyable.
- judgejudy
  
  Excellent quote!
  
  The only answer is for “true” Republicans, to continue to vote their consciences through all the primaries. Go Santorum! Go Paul! Go Gingrich!
  (Okay, I just threw up in my mouth a little)
Modavations

The Senate is about to drive a stake through the EPA Mercury edicts.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  So you can play with more of it, and become mad as a hatter?
- Anonymous
  
  What a ignorant comment.
- Gregg
  
  Gotta love Inhofe.
Modavations

30 Countries are revolting over Emission Standards on Jets landing in Europe.A Stake is about to be driven through that Vampire.The Fascisti are on the run.
TFRX

Rick Santorum: President Obama is an apostle of a “phony theology”.

Newt Gingrich, in Phoenix, made up some shite about President Obama supporting infanticide.

Remember this the next time–and it will be soon–that NPR or “our librul media” wails about “civility in politics”.
Modavations

So much for the CERN,Speed of Light Experiment!!!!There’s probably intelligent life all over the Cosmos,but if you can’t travel faster then light,we’ll never meet.
- Obi Wan Cory
  
  Sure ya can. You just need a generational ship.
Anonymous

Books should not be burned, but once again some Muslims are overreacting, rioting, and killing people. I’m not shedding any tears over the burned Korans as long as some Muslims recently prevented Salman Rushdie from participating in a literary festival in India. Killing people over perceived insults is not how civilized people express outrage.
- Gregg
  
  Bingo.
Gregg

Did Karzai apologize for the lunatic mob killing two Americans?

Why isn’t the context of this being reported? I checked CBS, BBC, The Washington Post and NPR but I had to go to Fox to read this:

“The backlash began after Korans were burned with garbage at a military base in Afghanistan. Officials said they were removed from the detention center library because the detainees were using them to pass secret and what were described as “extremist” messages to one another.”

I’ll give NPR credit for this nugget which is as close as they got:

“Writing inside a Quran is forbidden in the Islamic faith, although it was unclear whether the handwritten messages were found in the holy book or other reading materials.”

I somehow doubt this matters much to many but the information should be reported.

Prediction: If Santorum continues his rise, someone will burn a Bible in protest.
Hidan

Gregg
Did Karzai apologize for the lunatic mob killing two Americans?

–

Feel free to correct but wasn’t it an Afghan dressed in military gear that shoot the soldiers and fled into the crowd?

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan—
On a day when President Obama personally apologized for the burning of Korans at an American-run military base, violence over the incident escalated ominously with the killing of two American troops by an Afghan army soldier during a demonstration in eastern Afghanistan.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghanistan-shooting-20120224,0,947461.story

Gotta go past the U.S. Press there Gregg.
- Hidan
  
  exception often being the L.A. Times.
  
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/23/quran-burning-afghanistan-us-soldiers-dead
  
  BBC also reported this in the hourly news the prior day
- Gregg
  
  I don’t think it matters, Karzai should apologize. Neither of your links mention the reason the Qurans were burned, only that Obama said it was unintentional. It was intentional and there was a reason.
  - aj
    
    So if you were imprisoned in your own country, by a foreign occupier, you would not use Bibles to communicate with your fellow prisoners, is that correct??
    
    If not, how is that not hyppocritical for you to justify the burning of these books and therefore nullify the Afghan protestors right to be upset. Where is the self-monitoring of cultural bias in your conclusions?
    
    Or is it, just because we’re U.S.A., we’re right and their wrong?
    - Gregg
      
      I’ll start at the end. We ARE right and they ARE wrong. Civilized people don’t kill over books. So, there’s that… but it has nothing to do with being the USA.
      
      I didn’t justify anything, that’s projection. It may not be justified but I think the details should be reported. There is a huge disconnect between Obama’s apology and the facts on the ground as they appear. In the real world, that’s news. I find the biggest leap in your logic to be your implication I want to “nullify the Afghan protestors right to be upset”. They can be upset but I have a slight problem with the death and destruction you are tacitly condoning.
      
      Your first question is too silly to answer but I’ll try. I’m not a radical Islamic murdering terrorist so it’s unlikely I would be justly imprisoned in my own Country. Maybe if the terrorist win but not yet. I wouldn’t have a Bible, it’s a good read but been there done that.
      - aj
        
        Perhaps I jumped to conclusion, and your point about details being reported is a fair one.
        
        However the details you are concerned with are what US officials version of events are. Not both sides or better yet, what actually happened.
        
        And who got killed first? 7 afghans on Wed or 2 marines on Thurs? Therefore who’s death and destruction are you referencing?
      - Gregg
        
        I tried to couch my comments to allow for the details to develop. The problem is the conflict is between US officials and the President. I suppose we have to give the presumption to Obama but I smell a rat.
        
        Clearly I was referring to the 2 Marines as that is who I cited. They were killed over a book.
  - Anonymous
    
    The books were being intentionally destroyed, but in what was considered an unacceptable manner. Kind of like disposing of military remains in the trash dump instead of a grave of some sort, which I understand has happened here in the USA. But killing anyone over either is off-the-charts unacceptable.
  - Gregg
    
    Sarah agrees:
    
    http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/posts/10150641119623588
Anonymous

POLL: SPENDING CUTS BETTER THAN HIGHER TAXES…

56 percent embraced cuts in government services than higher taxes as the best medicine for the budget, while only 31 percent were opposed, according to the survey, which was conducted Feb. 16 to 20. That response has changed only modestly since it was first asked in the AP-GfK poll last March.
- Obi Wan Cory
  
  There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.- paraphrased from Mark Twain, I think.
- judgejudy
  
  Government by poll. Hmmm. I don’t think that, as a rightwinger, with your House gaining a single digit approval rating, while the President’s is more than five times higher, you want to go down that road.
aj

So when 7 afghans are killed by U.S. forces for protesting Wednesday, there’s no outrageous barbaric violence.

Only when U.S, military continue firing on Afghan protestors, righteously upset, and then an patriotic Afghan soldier see’s his countrymen being fired on by foreigners in their own country defending their own faith, is it when it becomes outrageous barbaric violence.

You all are incredibly culturally bias. Really people?? Really??
- Obi Wan Cory
  
  We just need to flat out get the hell out of there. Yesterday.
  - aj
    
    Truer words were never spoken. The force is strong with you, Obi Wan.
Anonymous

America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece!

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/chart-america-s-capita-government-debt-worse-greece_631797.html
- Anonymous
  
  Thank goodness our citizens have average NET (that’s after subtracting debt) assets of over $500,000 per household. Greeks certainly can’t say that.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    Well, mine is WAY below that average!
Anonymous

Obama’s Forrest Gump analysis of rising gas prices…

‘The American people aren’t stupid,” thundered President Obama yesterday in Miami, ridiculing Republicans who are blaming him for rising gasoline prices. Let’s hope he’s right, because not even Forrest Gump could believe the logic of what Mr. Obama is trying to sell.

To wit, that a) gasoline prices are beyond his control, but b) to the extent oil and gas production is rising in America, his energy policies deserve all the credit, and c) higher prices are one more reason to raise taxes on oil and gas drillers while handing even more subsidies to his friends in green energy. Where to begin?

It’s true enough that oil prices can’t be commanded from the Oval Office, so in that sense Mr. Obama’s disavowal of blame is a rare show of humility in the face of market forces. Would that he showed similar modesty in trying to command the tides of home prices, car sales (“cash for clunkers”), or the production of electric batteries.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577241623995642182.html?mod=opinion_newsreel
- JP
  
  This is just about the dumbest post I’ve seen you make, and THAT’S saying something!
  
  Gas prices rose to nearly $4.00/gal unser Bush years ago, and no one will claim that Bush didn’t want to drill or had an anti-oil energy policy!!
  
  You want Gump… and I don’t mean to insult Gump… take the Republican moron/liars who KNOW Republicans are gullible and stupid enough to believe they’ll ever get gas prices down to $2.00/galon again!!!
  
  Take a bow!
  - Anonymous
    
    Stupid is as stupid does.
Anonymous

If stimulus spending truely stimulates the economy, why not this….

A Modest Proposal To Boost US GDP By $852 Quadrillion: Build The Imperial Death Star

Since at this point US society is irrevocably split into two camps, on one hand those who believe Keynesian propaganda, where the only cure for unsustainable debt is more debt, and on the other those who believe that a return to a gold standard is the only way to prevent an epic socio-political collapse, also known in official US circles as “extremists”, and since we know that the status quo will never let the latter get their way without a fight (quite literally and quite violently), it is only logical that ‘if you can’t beat them you have to join them’. In which case we believe that instead of breaking windows, or starting wars, or even expecting a growth boosting alien invasion that would lead to a surge in GDP that may or may not come, one should not only go for broke, but do so in style. As such we propose that the US, already the world’s most expansionist and aggressive foreign policy power, not like there is anything wrong with that of course – it is all for the sake of liberating oppressed foreign oil, should one up itself and build the true symbol of its contemporary socio-historical status: the Imperial Death Star. Yet the real benefit in addition to blowing up various alien world that refuse to bail out the world’s central bank confederacy, is that the cost of construction of said Keynesian masterpiece, would be an epic $852 quadrillion, which in turn would go straight to US GDP.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/modest-proposal-boost-us-gdp-852-quadrillion-build-imperial-death-star
- Obi Wan Cory
  
  You get my approval, not because I agree with you, but because I am an enormous Star Wars nerd.
  - Terry Tree Tree
    
    Remember, the Death Stars ended badly?
    - Obi Wan Cory
      
      Tell that to the residents of Alderan!!!
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        I tried, ‘that line has been disconnected, or is no longer in service’.
Michiganjf

President Obama’s ONE MAIN GOAL in apologizing for the burned Korans is the safety of American military personnel… PERIOD!!

Newt Gingrich is a far-right pandering IDIOT!!!
- SoSorry!
  
  Perceived weakness and ability to be pushed around creates more danger than it prevents.
  - Michiganjf
    
    You would be the “far-right” I’m talking about then.
    - SoSorry!
      
      Why? Its true.
      
      You think apologizing and talking to theocratic nuts is going to make it all go away?
      - SoSorry!
        
        So now, even MORE riots will occur following the next “offense”, as we have justified the rage.
        
        It should have been ignored, and is a cost of the war we are in. Being against the whole war is a different issue. Once there, this is reality.
  - JP
    
    … and your statement makes no sense whatever.
    
    Apply it to a bully… “I go around and bully people, so that keeps me out of trouble.”
    
    … totally idiotic!!!
    - SoSorry!
      
      ?
      
      You apologize to the bully and he stops?
      
      Try working out a few months and give him a good one between the eyes.
      
      Real life.
      
      I didn’t see the U.N.anti-bully committee making much progress there.
Anonymous

First corporations claim to have free speech rights that can out shout the free speech of individual humans.

Now churches claim to have religious freedoms that trump individual humans’ religious rights.

These recent developments are a complete misreading of our country’s founders’ vision.
Anonymous

I wonder if their might be something linking the two S&P and Gas Prices? Could it be the $2Trillion of newly printed, sorry scratch that, digitized money governments have put into the banks?

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2012/02/20120221_ESGAS2_0.png
- SoSorry!
  
  Inflation is good for the good people.
AC

I don’t want to be insensitive, but here is why I mistrust & dislike all religions – why o why would the burning of any book spark this kind of ridiculous reaction? Aren’t all ‘bibles’ just mass-printed anyway? Aren’t they the most selling books of all time? Can’t you just print more?
& Before someone tries to explain using ‘God’, may I point out the ridiculousness of sports fanatics (another religion, I suppose..?) reactions? Here, if a team wins, people celebrate by burning cars – if their team loses, they burn cars. Wasn’t there just a massive fight in Turkey were 73 people died at a soccer match?
There’s something insane & weird with humans to obsess – throw religion in & you have the Afghanistan reaction.
& Now you have nervous soldiers with guns being surrounded by unreasonable anger. The whole thing is going to end badly, I just want to close my eyes………
- aj
  
  Egypt, not Turkey
  - AC
    
    whatever – i’ll never understand soccer hooligans….or religion. I give up.
    - aj
      
      Don’t give up. Ron Paul 2012.
      - SoSorry!
        
        No! He’s anti-war and anti-debt! Why on earth would we get behind that?
        
        You sound like that crazy leather guy.
    - Gregg
      
      Religion is a noble attempt to explain the unexplainable in an effort to give purpose to life and comfort to our mortality. There is no right answer, it can’t be known.
      
      There is nothing noble about these mobs. I agree with J_O_H_N, it’s not civilized.
      - Anonymous
        
        The unexplainable can remain unexplained without the need to make up nonsense.
      - Gregg
        
        True enough.
- JustSayin
  
  Is it a form of insanity, or a tool used for power. I would say about 20% insanity, and 80% power. I doubt that most of the rioters are concerned with deep spiritual thoughts of God and faith.
  
  Here is a silly thought experiment about holy text to match the inane reactions of extremists.. When does a holy text get imbued with (whatever it is?? Gods blessing).
  
  Is it a holy text when it is only half printed, one quarter, one page, one word, one letter, or just ink and paper with intentions of printing? Is a tree not yet harvested for the paper, or some oil not yet made into the holy ink, still under gods intent? Did we all burn some holy ink on the way to work?
  
  If I view the Quran online and then close the browser, I have destroyed it… should there be a jihad against everyone who did not leave the now Holy browser open and their computer on?
  
  If I download the Quran and delete the PDF, is there a difference, from burning except for speed. If I put the computer into a loop of creating Holy words and deleting them will the world explode? If I set up a printer and feed it into a shredder, what then? What does the printer of holy books do with all the misprinted pages?… Is there a titanic warehouse somewhere where all the millions of misprints are stored?
  
  Rational minds want to know the rules of insanity. This text was entirely composed of letters used in holy books. Here is a bible verse, so don’t commit a sin by closing your browser!
  
  Kings 2:23-24: “And he went up from thence unto Beth’el: and as he was going up by the
  way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him,
  and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he
  turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the
  LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty
  and two children of them.”
  - AC
    
    what about the sport hooligans? how is that power? Maybe a 10sec high on the accomplishment of getting the car to light? so weird……so so weird…..
    - JustSayin
      
      There is a commonality to all sports hooligans… Alcohol. I think that’s the bulk of the violence there.
      - AC
        
        you could be right….but wait, wasn’t one of Sadam’s sons responsible for beheading a player who missed a goal or something??? he couldn’t have been drunk. or maybe he was!
      - judgejudy
        
        You’d be wrong in that thought. Alcohol is forbidden in the Islamist-run countries.
aj

I’ll bet any of you 10,000$ that the host and guests go from the ALLEGEDLY ACCIDENTAL Holy Quran burning to the 2 dead Marines on Thursday without even a mention of 7 dead Afghan civilians on Wednesday.

And no mention of the 7 dead marines in Yuma,Arizona en route to Afghanistan in this perpetual foreign occupation.
Tina

President Obama has not been “allowed” to even suggest that he might have any particular interest in matters pertaining to African-Americans; yet Rick Santorum, et al, can press their personal religious beliefs and preferences on top of both our pre-existing laws and on those they would propose. Talk about an unlevel playing field… all done with words!
Obi Wan Cory

Gas went up fifteen cents from yesterday to today in my little hamlet. What a crock. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think gas prices are rigged.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68

There is no else to blame but Wall Street on rising gas prices.
Anonymous

GE is now forcing empoyees to drive Chevy Volts!

General Motors and General Electric are two companies that have been in the political crosshairs lately. GM stands accused of “crony capitalism,” while GE is under fire for paying no Federal income taxes in 2010. The two companies share more than that though, with GE placing an order for 12,000 Chevy Volts and other hybrid vehicles.

A memo leaked to Green Car Reports lays out GE’s plans for their new fleet of Volts, and as expected, it has some people crying foul.

The memo, sent to employees of GE Healthcare Americas team explains that all sedan, crossover, and minivan purchases in 2012 will be replaced by the Chevy Volt. Only field engineers are exempt from having to drive a company Volt.

GE will offer estimates for installation Level 2 Charging Stations, though all-gas use will be allowed when there is no electric option. Any employees who opt out of the Volt program will not be compensated for their expenses. Those who do choose to drive the Volt will be reimbursed for public charging and home charging costs, in addition to gas uses.

Source: Gas 2.0 (http://s.tt/15LON)
http://gas2.org/2012/02/20/ge-forcing-employees-into-chevy-volts/
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C2STBLZJK4VKQBV27DVQX3I6CU FAX68
  
  If I wrote that Article would you believe me?
- Anonymous
  
  So let me get this straight. You are complaining about a corporation making a mandate about cars and yet you were OK about companies making health care mandates on moral grounds the other day. My what a difference a day makes.
  - Anonymous
    
    The difference is GE is propping up a failed product to make a president’s pet project look successful and the Religious majority in America is fighting for freedom!
    - Worried for the country(MA)
      
      Don’t forget that GE pays $0 on $4B in profits by taking advantage of tax loopholes they’ve spent millions lobbying to get.
    - TFRX
      
      “Religious majority” being the 98% of Catholics who use contraception?
      
      Sounds like another wanna-be theocrat who can’t imagine “religious liberty” except as practiced the way he wants it: By the authority of a church (but not its members) who can’t bear to give up its taxpayer-funded programs.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Religious freedom to rape boys and girls, by ‘men of God’?
      Religious freedom to be a church of HYPOCRITES?
    - Anonymous
      
      So it’s about Obama, not GE.
      If GE was mandating that all of it’s employees had to be morally in line with the corporations ideology and mandated this as a means of having health insurance coverage you would be OK with that.
      - Gregg
        
        Bizarre.
- BHA in Vermont
  
  1st, why did you post the entire article?
  
  2nd. So what? If GE decides the car THEY provide to an employee is a Volt or a $14K subcompact, it is THEIR choice. The employees get FREE use of a car, with no fuel costs. I’m not a huge Volt fan, GM should have done better, but I’d be happy to drive it if I got to commute FOR FREE.
  
  3rd, what was the purpose of the post? Its title (which you did not change, not your fault) is inflammatory at the outset. GE is NOT forcing ALL employees to drive Chevy Volts as the title suggests, it is only saying that cars provided by the company FOR FREE to those employees that get company provided cars, will be Chevy Volts.
SoSorry!

Apologizing to the mobs was a mistake.

What should we do next time a US Flag is burned?

Firebomb the Afghan embassy and riot until the Tribal Leaders apologize?
- aj
  
  Who’s occupying who? In your hypo-thetical.
  - SoSorry!
    
    We ostensibly went to war with Taliban and supporters over 9/11. If one accepts that, then to begin to mix war and political correctness/religious correctness, seems completely surreal and naive and impossible.
    
    If war/action is just, go in, do it, leave. No apologies. People don’t expect collateral damage when they provoke war? (even against paper?)
    - Ray in VT
      
      How do you think that our allies in fairly moderate Muslim countries, such as Turkey, feel about this? We may have gone to war against militant Islamic terrorists, but when believers in the world’s second largest faith get word that U.S. troops have mistreated their holy book, how are we supposed to court the Muslims of the world whom we have tried to convince that the war on terror is not a war on Islam?
      
      This sort of action plays into the hands of Jihadists.
      - SoSorry!
        
        Sh-t burns in a war.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Go burn?
    - aj
      
      Taliban had nothing, REPEAT NOTHING, to do with 9/11.
      
      Those Afghans protesting are not Taliban. They are pious peasants sick and tired of being occupied for 10 years by miliatary force.
      
      What planet do you people live on?
      - SoSorry!
        
        You and I both know that “decent” people of any country would not violently protest the burning of a book.
        
        These are not broad anti-occupation protests.
        
        Your conflation of things is naive and dangerous.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Go to Cleveland, Tennessee, and publicly burn multiple Bibles? You bet there wouldn’t be any violent protests? If you made NO prior notice, and arrangements?
      - SoSorry!
        
        that would be fun… someone should do it.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        YOU mentioned it wouldn’t be a problem here?
        You think it would be fun?
        Who’s stopping you from having that fun?
      - Anonymous
        
        Throw in some copies of “Atlas Shrugged” too.
      - SoSorry!
        
        Watch out, those libertarians might commend you to death for exercising your civil liberties.
      - Ed-the-baker
        
        nothing excepting the terrorist training camps in their country
      - judgejudy
        
        You mean like the radical militia groups in the US west and midwest?
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Al Quieda! Bin Laden was Al Quieda! How quickly some forget?
- judgejudy
  
  Or provide a shining example of how a moral democracy acts in a crisis?
  - SoSorry!
    
    Was so nice of the Taliban to destroy those Buddhist Temples/icons.
    
    Bowing to them or their attitudes is pathetic. They should be treated like a mosquito. Maybe the buddhists won’t slap it, but most will.
    - Anonymous
      
      We’ll pitch in and buy you a ticket so you can go over and start doin’ some slappin’. Or are you all talk?
- AC
  
  my mother always told me ’2 wrongs don’t make a right’ though…….
  - SoSorry!
    
    Too bad they don’t live by that ethical compass.
    
    If they want to follow the Hammurabi code, we can play that way.
    
    When they want rule of law for all citizens and not theocratic rule for boys, we can treat differently.
    
    I wish turn the other cheek would work here. I really doubt it. You?
judge judy

On Romney’s new prevarication: If you believe that Detroit could make it without the bailout, you don’t say “Let Detroit go bankrupt” (duh – if they “make it” there is no bankruptcy). If you were an American rather than a partisan politician, you might say, “Detroit can make it without a bailout!”
Does he even TRY to be truthful anymore????
BHA in Vermont

I can believe contraception is still on the forefront of these debates. The candidates are pandering to the religious right. They, in general, are big on anti abortion and many are against contraception. Since they equate the “morning after pill” with abortion, contraception keeps coming up.
- Gregg
  
  I’d rather someone ask a question about “Fast and Furious”. No one wants to ban contraception, it’s a non-issue.
  - BkResident
    
    Lol, “Fast and Furious,” talk about a non-issue. Law enforcement is inept/corrupt, what else is ne. Every week somthing like that happens. Here in Bay Ridge the cops were running guns and illegal slot machines and NYC cops were illegaly tailing Muslims not only all over NY state but outside the state. In Philly and in Oakland they were just convicted of conspiracy to frame given ethnic groups and pretty much besige their communites. In LA there are allegations of torture in the county jails. It’s pretty much the policy of the media and standing politicians to support the police 100% no matter what they do. Why do you expect groups headed by the Department of Justice to be any different.
- Wwiegert
  
  The issue is not contraception or abortion, per se. The issue is the right of the government to dictate the terms of a private employment contract; in this case, whether an employer must offer a health benefits package which includes certain goods and services.
  - TFRX
    
    The EEOC settled it 12 years ago: If a plan covers Rx, it has to cover contraception.
    
    And nobody in the Bush DOJ, even John Ashcroft, said “Boo” about it at the time. And no Republican candidate worried about it in 2008. And some 26 states already have that on their books.
    
    But let one black Democrat get elected to the White House…
    - Wwiegert
      
      The EEOC is an arm of the government. While the courts have confirmed the power of the government to regulate private contracts in some respects, the question here is whether this particular requirement is in conflict with the first ammendment.
      - TFRX
        
        The first amendment’s religious liberty only goes one way to some people.
        
        The media have done a great job of forgetting the rights of a non-believer’s to get hired at a school or a church–a place subject to anti-discrimination laws–and settle for half-assed insurance, which is part of their total compensation.
        
        Notwithstanding that, this is about controlling womenfolk. That’s all it is.
      - SoSorry!
        
        Grow up. Who do you expect to really believe that for 95% of the people in this country.
        
        You live in a very cynical, very paranoid world, and I would shudder at the prospect of being governed by a President/Congress who reflected your level of fear and preemptive control.
      - TFRX
        
        When it comes to sheltered Libertarians who can’t imagine Republicans taking away rights, because they’re privileged and haven’t had to fight for them, cynicism is the normal respons.
        
        You really need to belong to the “losing religion” for once in your life.
      - SoSorry!
        
        I thought Atheist was the bottom of the barrel in this country?
        
        I do remember being at a Congressperson’s town meeting in North Carolina to protest his environmental stances, and having an older red faced man ask what kind of car I drove. When I said Saab (used and rusty), I did think I might have to take my pony tail out the door right quick!
      - judgejudy
        
        No, sweetie – we Americans believe in religious freedom. No one’s at the bottom of the barrel, except perhaps the wilfully uninformed.
        Are we supposed to be impressed you have a ponytail?
        Oohh
      - judgejudy
        
        He does – he’s a libertarian. Ron Paul is his savior and his wallet is his bible. And, boy, is he gonna lose!!!
- SoSorry!
  
  Who brought up this issue?
  
  1. Obama with provocative challenge of religious liberty.
  
  2. Debate moderators looking to make Santorum squirm, regardless of his clear professions of not wanting/planning to change access to contraception in this country.
  
  What a coincidence.
  - TFRX
    
    “Looking to make Santorum squirm”? “Change access to contraception?”
    
    Hahaha. If you’re interested in what denying someone’s liberty sounds like, Santorum sounds off about it pretty clearly:
    
    “To see the evils of contraception, one need look no further than the tragedy of unwed teen pregnancy.”
    
    Contraception is legal. The right is trying to fight this all over again. And he wants to be the morality police about it.
    - SoSorry!
      
      No, they’re not. The left media would like us to think so, and you might love to fight such an issue in perpetuity, but much as I don’t support Santorum, he has been pretty clear about policy regardless of personal beliefs.
      
      Lefties only like liberty when it defends their right to think/do what they want. When the scary people start to have scary thoughts, even if we are protected from them by the Constitution, they quickly reel them in.
      
      Actually, I bet they’re not scared, they just know its good for the campaign…..
      - TFRX
        
        “Left media” lies about Rick Santorum, puts words in his mouth about the evil, evil birth control leading to abortion.
        
        For a Libertarian, you got a friggin streak of right-wing authoritarism a mile wide.
      - judgejudy
        
        TRFX – right on!
        But forget about sosorry – he’s so in love with the poetry of his own words he doesn’t even know the beliefs and intentions of his own candidate. To him his pocketbook is sacrosanct and women’s rights is a footnote.
      - SoSorry!
        
        ?
        
        We’ll let you two be the judge of which liberties we can have.
      - judgejudy
        
        I thought “libertarians” believed in individual liberties. You have the liberty to control your own body and I have the liberty to control mine.
        
        But, that’s right, you don’t actually understand Ron Paul or libertarianism. We’ve already established that.
Ann Tiplady

Ack! Someone stop him, please. Instead of the usual calm, measured, thoughtful analysis we get a hard-driving, intense review of the weeks news. My adrenalin was spiking, so my radio is off.
- judgejudy
  
  If you’re talking about Mike Pesca – AGREED! He’s a bit intense, aina?
BHA in Vermont

The USA is exporting gasoline. If you want the *Fed* to push gas prices down, make it illegal to sell gasoline outside this country and mandate that they make as much gasoline in this country as they have refining capacity. We will be awash in cheap gas.

And no, I am NOT advocating that.
- SoSorry!
  
  Then you’d be agreeing with Bill O’Reilly. Good Heavens!
  
  I say do whatever hurts the game-rigging, Fed-backed, Financial Sector most, while bringing prices down.
- Anonymous
  
  The only free market way to stop exporting gasoline is to sell more SUVs since the only reason they are exporting is because US consumption of gasoline has declined considerably, as Obama had hoped.
  - BHA in Vermont
    
    Gasoline will be sold wherever they can get the most money for it.
    
    China added 10 million cars last year. They don’t run on rice wine. I don’t know if they have their own refineries (and if they do, if they can make as much gas as they need) but they have been ramping up their oil use a LOT in the last 10 years.
    
    ONE of the reasons gas was cheaper a decade ago was the USA has been the biggest user of oil products since almost forever. We are still using 19 million barrels a day but China and India are now BIG competition for those products. The price of oil based products WILL GO UP. Better to reduce your personal fuel cost by using less than wailing for cheap gas.
Bruce

How ironic that the 3-ring circus called the GOP Presidential Primary descends on Arizona and the Candidates Debate is held in a State where 1) the impudent Governor is lauded for disrespecting the Office of President and 2) the precedent was set for a rash of draconian anti-immigration laws that may ultimately undermine the GOP prospects in November by alienating over 8% of the voters, who happen to be Hispanic.
�
And make no mistake, it is a 3-ring circus consisting of Mitt, Rick, and Newt—the consummate clowns whose most noteworthy contribution heretofore has been the endless fodder they have provided late night TV comedians and SNL.
�
Conspicuously absent from this 3-ring circus club is Ron Paul because nobody takes his campaign seriously enough to elevate him to even clown status. For that matter, Ron Paul doesn’t take Ron Paul seriously. When he was interviewed by ABC reporter, Terry Moran, and was asked “whether he could see himself in the White House,” Ron replied “No, not really.” Should it surprise anyone with a modicum of intelligence that the vast majority of voters agree with him that he does not belong in the Oval Office?
�
Apparently, Grandpa Ron has made the calculation that it pays to rail against crony capitalism while at the same time conducting a campaign that is kept afloat by the largesse of one super-PAC sugar daddy donor or another. Although Mitt, Rick and Newt are similarly beholden to eccentric millionaires or billionaires, at least they don’t sanctimoniously hold themselves up as some kind of messianic guardian against the twin evils of cronyism and elitism.
�
Speaking of super-PAC men, was it Adelson or Friess who described the current crop of GOP contenders as a “national treasure?” In my opinion, this not-so-awesome foursome is more like a national joke that their delusional supporters just don’t get. For example, remember Mitt’s ludicrous advocacy of “self-deportation?” This utterance should have prompted a lot of skepticism and laughter in the audience. The term “self-deportation” was invented by satirist/cartoonist, Lalo Alcaraz, who created the Republican Hispanic activist Daniel D. Portado. In 1994 responding to California’s anti-immigration law, this purely fictitious character called for “reverse immigration” and sought to outlaw the Macarena. What will Mitt’s brain trust come up with next: self-incarceration for career criminals?
�
Yes, it’s true; the GOP frontrunners have adopted the anti-immigration platform of a cartoon character. How fitting now that the primary is being contested in the State that gave us the darling of the Nativist-Chauvinist, Neanderthal-Right, none other than Mr. Ultra-Conservative — Barry Goldwater, another Reactionary who appealed to those who yearn for restoration of an older, and fortunately for most of us, bygone order.
- SoSorry!
  
  Your unsubstantiated and ignorant slams of Ron Paul are enough to ignore the rest of your clearly DNC supporting rant.
  
  If you want to pick apart Paul’s principled positions, how they relate mechanistically to our economy and foreign policy, and how they represent a real threat to the un-democratic power elite, please go ahead.
  
  I’m sure we’ll get cute one-liners and the usual knee-jerk laundry list against him with no real depth.
  
  I’ll let your Leatherdave friend take it from here….
  - judgejudy
    
    Okay, I’ll bite. How can a principled “libertarian” support government invasion of a woman’s body?
    - SoSorry!
      
      They don’t. Ron Paul doesn’t. He is Personally, not Federally, pro-life.
      
      Slowly people will see the difference and give up trying to be thought police.
      - judgejudy
        
        Really? I thought his website stated his anti-abortion stance. Since the website is a political entity, I may have made an incorrect assumption. Would you please direct me to the spot where he states without qualification that he is opposed to government intervention in pregnancy?
        I’m not baiting you – I think libertarianism is a bit naive, but I like Paul, and we certainly don’t have a perfect government now.�
        If you can give me information, I’m interested. I’m really kind of the opposite of “thought police”, so I’d appreciate it if you would refrain from name-calling
        Thanks!
      - SoSorry!
        
        I’m not going to have/defend a wedge issue, no answer because its how one wishes to define life issue, but if you really care about the big issues that are in play, you will leave the wedge issues out this cycle and stick to the big picture problems like War and Debt. Then when we are solvent and not in WWIII, we can get back to defining the undefinable and deciding whether the people have a right to legislate that question.
        
        http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2012/02/24/cnn-3-of-4-gop-candidates-would-add-to-deficits/
      - judgejudy
        
        So you finally went to your candidate’s own website and found out that your statement that he is not “federally” anti-choice is completely and utterly wrong, and now it’s a wedge issue? How interesting.
        By the way, I find your insistence that your pocketbook is a “big picture problem”, while women’s control over their own bodies is apparently small potatoes, absolutely reprehensible.
        I like Dr. Paul because he’s honest. Obviously, it’s not a characteristic common to all libertarians.
      - Bruce
        
        At the risk of sounding glib, I guess you could say SoSorry! of Many Handles is not dishing out wedgies today!
      - TFRX
        
        RP’s idea of civil rights seems to depend on the whim of your gender, race, creed, preference. Oh, and geography.
        
        As such, I figure most of his acolytes have never had to get past a “Christian pharmacist” to get the medication their doctor prescribed, in a state full of people whose religion is not theirs.
        
        I can’t for the life of me determine what makes so many of them unable to imagine those rights and dignities being denied to someone they care about.
      - nj_v2
        
        You’re wasting your time. SoSorry! is the resident Ron Paul genuflector, who is here almost daily with a new handle (he had at least a dozen) shilling for his Libertarian cult fantasies and defending R.P. against any and all critics.
  - Bruce
    
    I’m just using Ron Paul’s words. If you noticed, these “ignorant…unsubstantiated slams” were based on a direct quote, but you RNC types rarely care to respond when your favorite candidate puts both feet in his mouth.�
    �
    How about Grandpa Ron’s other self-indictment aired last night? He said “immorality creates the problem of wanting to use the [birth control] pill.” I suppose in your lexicon that sentiment reflects genuine “libertarian” principles. Most authentic libertarians I know would say “live and let live.”
    �
    The implication is unmistakable: premarital sex, sex outside of marriage, sex for any purpose other than procreation is viewed by Paul as immoral. This does not comport with the norm in an open and free society. And those Paul supporters, who look with favor at his anti-war and pro-drug legalization positions, should also be aware of the havoc his limited government views, if implemented, would create.�
    �
    Whether it’s Barry Goldwater, George Wallace or Ron Paul (or any of the other GOP pretenders), if given the opportunity, they would wipe out over a century of progress securing civil rights, collective bargaining rights, women’s rights and reproductive freedom, gay rights and marriage equality. They would do this using the pretext of the Tenth Amendment and States’ Rights as well as a blind faith in a laissez-faire, free market economy.
    �
    Last night Paul accused Santorum of being a fake, but he is no less disingenuous as a fake libertarian, whose super-PAC, “Endorse Liberty,” is more dependent than any of the other PACs on the largesse of one mega donor—a hedge fund manager who, I’m sure, would like to collect some day on his investment.
- William
  
  Please comment on Obama’s record these last 3 years.
  - TFRX
    
    An anonymous hold has been put on your comment and it will not appear until 60% of the board approves.
AC

if that caller is right, Ahmadinejad must be working for them….
SoSorry!

Mike, you haven’t fully embrace political correctness. Get with it!
AndyF

Of all the civilizations that have ever existed on this Earth, ours is without doubt the stupidest. We NEVER learn from the very history we botch time and time and time again.

You would have thought Korea would have taught us something, but instead we gave away 53,000 American lives in Vietnam for nothing. That didnt teach us as we went right ahead and spent another 5 Trillion and 6,000 American lives in Iraq – for what? Nothing – those bozo’s are right back to the in-fighting we were never going to manage, because they couldnt to begin with.

Now, we have Iran. Again, we never learn. Whatever happened to MAD (mutually assured destruction) that kept us and the Soviet Union from killing each other off. Instead we now have Romney and his pals drooling at the mouth for another war, this time with Iran – who by the way might get 1 or 2 weapons, but we have thousands. They want to nuke someone? Fine, go for it. We’ll turn their entire country into a sand pit. But does anyone talk about this? No – better (like George Bush) to instill needless fears, get the soccer Moms going your way, and whoo-hoo – we can finally have another war where rich people get richer and the trailer trash in America go to die in a foreign country.

Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Too bad we have tried it a few times and it NEVER works. We always end up worse off than when we began – only with decent hard working Americans dead, trillions spent and wasted, and no result.

Why not strap on a set of balls and just tell Iran – sure, build a nuke or two – if you ever think about using one, be assured, THAT will be the day Iran ceases to exist.

But no, we’d rather be stupid. In fact, as the Republicans, the experts at stupidity and short-sightedness know well, you get much more rich with stupidity.

Who was it who said “A Democracy with an uninformed electorate and candidates who lie – is a Democracy in name only.” And this is the very thing these war-mongering Republicans want. In short, an Idiocracy. Or better said, rich idiots leading poor idiots.
- BHA in Vermont
  
  “Why not strap on a set of balls and just tell Iran – sure, build a nuke
  or two – if you ever think about using one, be assured, THAT will be the
  day Iran ceases to exist.”
  
  Yep. I have NO DOUBT that if Iran got a nuke, and the ability to strap it on a missile to Israel, they are NOT stupid enough to do so.
  
  AND tell Israel that if they attack Iran without full UN approval, they got NO ONE covering their back, especially not the USA.
  
  BTW, Israel won’t say if they have nukes or not but it is pretty well
  known that they do. Bet your bottom dollar that some are already trained
  on Tehran. And bet the dollar above that one that WE have nukes trained
  on Iran as well.
  - SoSorry!
    
    So are we for nuclear proliferation for total “balance of power”?
    
    It is only fair.
    
    But its scary.
    
    The idea of forcefully preventing proliferation is not an easy question to dismiss.
    
    Have fanatics used all weapons available so far to make their points?
    
    Are they limited by self-preservation?
    
    A country might be. But a band of extremists who get a chance at the button in an unstable country? A portable device?
    
    It sucks.
- Anonymous
  
  Our interventions in Korea and Viet Nam were not a waste of men or treasure. They were battlefields in the so-called cold war — our effort to thwart Russian expansion and domination of the world. It worked, AndyF; it worked because the Russians finally recognized that they could not out do our technology; they scaled back on their world domination ambitions, allowed the people to dismantle the Wall, and settled into cooperating with the rest of the world (sometimes), as they relaxed their domination on the countries of Eastern Europe. And we have had no worldwide conflagration with atomic weapons, as we came within an eyelash of having with the Cuban Missile crisis. Contrast that to the end of WWI — over in 1919; renewed again 20 years later in 1939 and a hundred times more destructive the second time around. Europe has been peaceful — at least not shooting at each other — for 67 years. That didn’t just happen, AndyF — the people whom you charge with being stupid and shortsighted brought it about. If you know anything about the history of Europe, you know that is a substantial achievement and one about which you should be proud. It was a national policy carried on by the leaders of both parties, from HST to Ike, JFK to Reagan. Because they, having seen the destruction wrought by WWII, had no wish to see it replicated on an unimaginably more vast a scale with the use of atomic weapons. And because of their wisdom and the informed support of a majority of the American people, we — all of us — everyone in the world, not just the USA, are the better for it.
- judgejudy
  
  Andy – you should probably read a little history. The Roman Empire spent way more lives proportionately than America ever has, for a way less benevolent cause, and it lasted for a thousand years. “The sun never set on the English empire”, they fought everywhere, usually wrongheadedly, but got out of the empire business finally and are now doing just fine, and are immensely powerful for their size.
  Greece squandered their ideals rather more quickly and less profitably, they certainly would have more claim to your “stupidest” label than we. Then there were (and are) the many tinpot dictators who rose by violent means, ruled violently and were (or will be) brought down by violence. Among all these, America doesn’t even rank in the top 50 or 60%. Of “all the civilizations that have ever existed on this earth”, the United States is a newborn. To make such a statment is not very smart.
  
  Andy, you may have some valid points, but who’s going to take you seriously after your opening paragraph. (But from someone who slogged through a bit further, have you ever heard of World War I or World War II? It was in all the papers.)
  
  By the way, I am a liberal, think we should never have gone into either Iraq or Afghanistan the way we did, and am generally opposed to war. But we need intelligent discourse on our side.
  
  And wait, who’s dying in the foreign countries, “trailer trash” (your paragraph 3) or “decent hardworking Americans” (your paragraph 4)?
  
  You need to dial it WAY back, son.
Jackacme

“buggers my mind” !!!

Paging Dr. Freud, Paging Dr. Freud . . .
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  Probably meant ‘boggles my mind’?
SoSorry!

Holy Books are like US Dollars……

Just print more!
- http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
  
  These so called “holy books” are no more holy than the phone book. It is all BS.
JP

“They have a SUSPICION that we don’t respect their religion?!”

… when Republicans call it the great Satan, et.al. again and again, well, I’d say the suspicion can rise to certainty!
- SoSorry!
  
  ?
  
  You are blaming Republicans for radical islam now?
  
  Do you respect it?
  
  Is this a joke?
- aj
  
  lol
SoSorry!

Recognizing bands of religious nuts and apologizing, simply justifies and emboldens them to feel that they should expect such ridiculous sensitivity in what is after all WAR, and creates even MORE risk of riots and injuries.
- BHA in Vermont
  
  Islam is the second largest religion in the world. MOST of them are not “religious nuts”. And MOST of them do not live in Afghanistan.
  - SoSorry!
    
    Are MOST of them violently rioting in the streets? Are we apologizing to reasonable, understanding people?
    
    It seems we are apologizing to the irrational minority.
  - notafeminista
    
    Oh c’mon…they believe an invisible man in the sky handed rules for living and morality to an individual during a fever dream.
    - Anonymous
      
      Don’t most religions?
      - notafeminista
        
        To Ray and J_o_h_n…it’ll come to you.
      - Ray in VT
        
        Please define the it to which you are referring.
    - Ray in VT
      
      That doesn’t sound any crazier to me than Joseph Smith finding some gold tablets or the son of God getting nailed up by the Romans 2,000 years ago.
    - judgejudy
      
      I believe in a supreme being (not a “man” – get your facts straight) and I’m smarter than you.
  - http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
    
    I disagree. Virtually all are religious nuts.
    - Still Here
      
      The unreligious ones are Democrats.
      - Ray in VT
        
        I disagree. A lot of them seem to be libertarians or independents.
judgejudy

“Extravagant and unpromising.” What a wise evaluation!
Ed

The Koran for a Muslim is like the Eucharist for a Catholic: it is coeternal with God. To destroy it is the highest sacrilege.
- Gregg
  
  We can agree on that.
  - SoSorry!
    
    I still throw out stale crackers.
- nj_v2
  
  Conflating paper and cardboard, and wafers of grain with real morality is the height of fanaticism.
BHA in Vermont

I am an atheist.
I also respect peoples’ rights to believe what ever religion they like and if they have a book they consider to be holy, then I believe that said book should be treated with respect. It does not matter to me that TO ME, they are nothing more than any other compilation of written words.
- Anonymous
  
  That doesn’t excuse killing because one is offended.
  - aj
    
    Who got killed first? Afghan protestors or U.S.Marines?
  - BHA in Vermont
    
    Never said it did
    
    My point is that whether you follow a specific religion or not, it is incumbent upon you to respect their institution (but not the actions of their wing nut fringes).
    
    I personally can’t get all wound up about such things. You want to burn an American flag? It is disrespectful but I’m not going to go nuts over it. It is just a symbol. To ME, any given Bible, Torah, Book of Mormon or Qur’an is nothing more than a copy of a copy of a copy of …. but I wouldn’t intentionally desecrate one.
    - Anonymous
      
      While I would never burn a flag or a religious text, I have no duty to treat any religion with respect. People are free to believe whatever they want but have no right to require me to respect those beliefs.
      - SoSorry!
        
        Someone should make a political cartoon of someone burning qur’ans as we apologize while they burn our flags……
        
        We could show our inanity and spark yet MORE protest at infidel imagery at the same time!
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Go ahead! Who’s stopping you? Be sure to sign it legibly, so someone else doesn’t pay needlessly?
      - Ray in VT
        
        You do not have a duty to respect the beliefs of others necessarily, but do you expect others to respect your beliefs if you don’t respect theirs. Of course, some will never respect the beliefs of others no matter how much respect they are given. There is also a difference between not respecting one’s beliefs and openly disrespecting and offending one’s beliefs.
    - Ray in VT
      
      What amazes me is that still, after all of these years, this mistake would even be made. Have we not yet learned?
- SoSorry!
  
  Mosquitos aren’t swatted by Buddhists. Are they rioting around the world against all of us infidels who do?
  You can only bend over so far before you’re……
  - Anonymous
    
    Changing your name does not mean that you change the inanity of your comments.
    - SoSorry!
      
      Your wrong jeffe, there are more than a handful of people that don’t agree with the echo chamber views here.
      - Anonymous
        
        Having a different point of view is one thing. Posting inane comments based on absurd analogies is another.
        You’re not presenting a different point of view, are you aware of that?
        What you posted amounted to a diatribe against Muslims and you use Buddhists as a wedge issue.
        If you had an intelligent response to the rioting that was caused by the burning of Koran’s in Afghanistan I would see no reason to respond.
        The problem is you don’t have the ability or are to lazy to come up with anything meaningful to say on the subject. The US military has an awful record in this regard of understanding the traditions of Islam.
        Given that they are attempting to win the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan (US doctrine) one would think the burning of Koran’s would be something that all solders would be told was off limits. It would stand to reason that the people in charge of prisoners would or should know this.
        
        Of course this is of no concern to you, or so it would seem.
      - SoSorry!
        
        “The US military has an awful record in this regard of understanding the traditions of Islam.”
        
        My apologies, I thought the military was about War. Death, suffering, even stuff on fire.
        
        It’s the mixing of our military mission with our latte sensibilities that is just too much.
        
        It buggers the mind!
      - Hidan
        
        No Honorm,Pride,Duty and Commitment?
      - Anonymous
        
        … What a maroon.
Steve

Please investigate Mario Draghi and WSJ interview with respect to European Union
Amanda Buonopane

I think it is also important to note that for Muslims the Qu’ran is very literally the word of God. This is not the case for most other holy books.
- SoSorry!
  
  Tough.
  
  Mosquitos aren’t swatted by Buddhists. Are they rioting around the world against all of us infidels who do?
aj

You go girl.
aj

Beth just dropped the bomb on em’. Love and respect Beth.
aj

More Beth! More Beth! More Beth!
mark

I love it when Mike Pesca hosts this show. He’s playful, clever, funny, and maintains overall balance without being afraid to interject his own views.
- BHA in Vermont
  
  And he calls the guests on the carpet when they spew lies.
  - mark
    
    yeah, like yesterday with the birth control/”abortion” pill, and today with the content of the SATs.
    - mark
      
      oops, i mean tuesday about the pill
SoSorry!

Jack making a libertarian case? For this one narrow issue?
Terry Tree Tree

4 times the drilling from 2007, twice the oil supplies, net exporter of oil?   Record PROFITS for oil executives? We STILL subsidize oil, coal, and gas?
   Look at ALL the equipment,pollution, transportation, and other costs and negatives of EACH form of energy?
   Wind and solar HAVE to be less costly!
- William
  
  The oil companies are just taking legal tax deductions like any other company.
  - TFRX
    
    Agreed, we need to fix those loopholes. After all, right-wingers want a government that isn’t a sucker, don’t they?
Tncanoeguy

Men have always tried to control women’s reproduction. After all, women are the conduit by which men’s genes are passed on. Men are hard-wired to do this. Doesn’t justify what legislators are attempting to do, but…
- Ray in VT
  
  Have people seen this?
  
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/georgia-vasectomy-ban_n_1293369.html?ref=mostpopular
  
  Some might call it a modest proposal from women seeking to turn the tables.
- Gregg
  
  And just what do you think the legislators are trying to do?
SD

Mike Pesca would do well to pause briefly before making extemporaneous comments. Surely he did not mean to say that a notion ‘buggers’ his mind, a characterization that would make many listeners blush. As a former SAT coach, he should certainly be aware that the test no longer includes analogies, to which he alluded in defense of the test’s cultural neutrality. A lively and well-informed discussion is undercut by such avoidable blunders.
denis

it seems that one of the basic questions about the Koran burning is how was this mistake found out? How do we know the books were burned and who told the world after the mistake was detected?
Ian

Tom Ashbrooke is irreplaceable, but good job Mike Pesca filling in this week-
- Hidan
  
  Far better than Jane Clayson for sure.
U.S. Vet.

I.A.E.A. Chief praises Iran as a peace seeking country.
http://217.218.67.228/classic/detail.aspx?id=226080&sectionid=351020101

But that’s not good enough for the war-mongers President Obama and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton who are determined to start a U.S. war with Iran.
- Hidan
  
  Hey now, Sec. of State only cares about human rights and democracy. You can tell when she said this
  
  “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family”
  
  ABC’s Kirit Radia reports: During a March 2, 2009 interview with the Arab television network Al Arabiya in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about the State Deparment’s annual human rights report, which is perennially critical of Egypt’s record, and whether it was tied to an invitation for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to visit the United States.
  
  She replied, in part:
  
  “No. It’s an annual report. It is not in any way connected. We look forward to President Mubarak coming as soon as his schedule would permit. I had a wonderful time with him this morning. I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family. So I hope to see him often here in Egypt and in the United States.”
  
  QUESTION: On another issue, the State Department issued a report about criticizing the human rights record of Egypt. And what kind of – in order for Egypt to enhance its record, what do you recommend or ask Egypt to do?
  
  SECRETARY CLINTON: We issue these reports on every country. We consider Egypt to be a friend and we engage in very forthright conversations with our friends. And so we hope that it will be taken in the spirit in which it is offered, that we all have room for improvement. The United States, as you have seen under our new President, is moving to remedy some of the problems that we have had. We view human rights as very important. It’s central to our value system and to our foreign policy, and so we want to enlist others to make progress.
  
  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/01/secretary-clinton-in-2009-i-really-consider-president-and-mrs-mubarak-to-be-friends-of-my-family/
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA

This event underscores the entire nonsense of religion in general. It should be banned as the vestige of the Dark Ages it is.
- SoSorry!
  
  Good Benevolent Dictator. Good Boy.
  
  It’s DNC types like you who I might agree with personally but shudder with fear from politically/economically.
  - Anonymous
    
    Moda, you can’t hide.
    - http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
      
      Sorry, wrong number!
  - http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
    
    You ASSume a lot based on a few words. I have been a life long INDEPENDENT. Never hobbled by dogma…political, racial or religious. You should give it a try….some critical thinking would be of great benefit to you/!
    - SoSorry!
      
      You know I refer to your flippant use of banning this, shutting up those people etc etc…..
      
      You should try libertarianism- you can be as self-righteous as you want, but to be consistent, you need to pretty much keep it to yourself in the legislative sphere.
      - http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
        
        You should concentrate on making clear and concise statements.
        What you have typed is nonsense. Like I said I am not encumbered by dogma…. Do you know what that means?
Boudreaux

Mike Pesca: good grasp of the topics, great energy, enthusiasm but please STOP SHOUTING. It’s not necessary!
Dee

I was glad to hear the Army’s chief of staff Martin Dempsey�
put his foot down to Israeli fear mongering on Iran.�
�
imagine, he is aware while some Americans may be prepared to line up with Israel–many on the Left in the US and around the world will be in the streets opposing an Israeli/ US strike (see below) And I should add there –while the demonstrations�
recorded below are but a tip of the iceberg they should be con-sidered a sign of the moral and public outraged towards Israel’s�
lawlessness and war mongering today in the region…

Let’s face it the world has moved beyond the Holocaust Industry�
of Israel and their apologists in the US and around and see no�
need for such a state today –in today’s human rights world.�
(The former Israeli AG of Israel–Michael Ben Yair spoke to this also in his 2002 Haaretz , Op-ed URL below)

In addition, if one reads the Israeli Lobby by John Mearsheim & Stephen Walt (below) and their apologists warning of “next” to Syria following Iraq is will realize how out of control those Zionists bullies have become and need a kick in the pants out of American politics, the region and the UN. Dee

Demonstrations in over 80 cities and six countries say: No War, No Sanctions, No Intervention, No Assassinations on Iran……
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29108
The Courage to Refuse, Michael Ben Yair ,Former AG of Israel.
http://www.seruv.org.il/english/article.asp?msgid=77&type=article

Targeting Iran, Ghali Haasan, Cross currents�
http://www.countercurrents.org/hassan100212.htm

Accusing Iran, ignoring history
//www.zcommunications.org/accusing-iran-ignoring-history-by-ted-snider

The Israeli Lobby Mearsheim & Walt (Note the Zionists “next” )
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/john-mearsheimer/the-israel-lobby

Syria, Nato’s Next “Humanitarian” War (Mossad & CIA pulling the trigger) http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29234
- judgejudy
  
  Are you kidding me? You are completely unaware of the insistence of the Arab world that Israel does not exist? You have never heard the unrepudiated threats to push “the zionists” into the sea? You have never heard anyone in the Arab world state unapologetically that there will never be mideast peace while Israel is recognized? You do not know that so-called Palestine is the property of Israel by right of a war waged, and lost, by the Arabs?
  
  Israel would be foolish to let a nearby hostile neighbor acquire nuclear capability (as would we). I hope they plan to crush Iran’s nuclear facilities, and soon.
  
  As for your sources, no credible bona fides on any of them. One cites “Zionist monsters” and threatens “Holocast II” (at least they’re not denying the holocaust – for now.) Writers for your “seruv” are a Who’s Who of America baiters, communists and self-avowed “anti-capiltalist activists”, up to and including Hugo Chavez!!
  Courage to Refuse is the only entity which has any actual Israeli representation, and it is the work of 626 Israeli conscientious objectors. They have a right to their opinions, but they are a pretty small force, compared to the rest of the Israeli military.
  
  You also have a right to your opinion, but if you want to publicly display it, you need to think a little first, and not quote anti-Semitic propaganda as your source.
  - Plushkin
    
    Well put Judge!
    As to the quoting antisemitic propaganda mouthpieces of all sorts: this dotard is a known racist on these and other boards. Here is what she said just a few short days ago, practically calling for genocide of Jews here in US in the event of attack on Iran
    
    I imagine the protests will be massive in scope if anyone touches iran. Indeed, I would question the general safety of the Zionist apologists /
    institutions and indeed Jews in general in a climate of public outrage.
    It will be very nasty. Dee
    
    un-freaking-believable!
    - Plushkin
      
      http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/02/20/syria-2#comment-445030917
    - judgejudy
      
      My, my, such a lot of hatred for one person. I am a virtual stranger to these boards, didn’t know. I guess it’s fortunate that those who run their mouths to excess rarely follow through, huh?
      Have a good one, Plushkin – keep fighting for the good guys!
      - Hidan
        
        lol,
        
        If Good Guys consist of people stalking other posters? Quoting Hate Groups listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center. Vehemently attacking others, Such Hatred for arabs is only matched by his hatred for blacks and minorities.
        
        FYI
        
        http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/10/25/353008/abrams-thinkprogress-gharib-shark-food/
    - Anonymous
      
      This Dee person is using threats on forums.
      Not a very smart thing to do these days.
      
      Whoever this person is they post this kind of rhetoric all the time. Just wait for the backlash.
      - Hidan
        
        Jeffe you should know better than listening to Plushkin. The guy quotes Daniel Pipes, Promotes Rachel Abrams (who called btw to feed Palestinians to the sharks.) And people who either works with Hate Groups or are listed as one.
        
        I agree the Jews in general was over the top. But if you read what wasn’t posted the Zinoist apolotist is in regards to the Neo-Cons.
        
        Remember now you got knocked for your comment on what Unions should do to Governor W. I doubt Dee would advocate violences against Jews. Just as I doubted you advocate violence against Governor Walker by unions.
        
        “I agree–the neocons along US special forces and the Zionist war mongers are eager to repeat the same disaster in Syria today..
        
        I saw John Mc Cain and Lindsey Graham urging the US to do this
        on CNN last night. Those lawmakers should be arrested for support-
        ing an insurgency and destabilization of another foreign power.
        �
        Of course,, the great hypocrisy there–they both supported a recent
        bill to arrest and detain Americans who aided or supported “terrorists groups” opposing such a criminal US policy in the Middle East while
        they want a free hand to arm such an insurgency in Syria and create
        a humanitarian disaster….
        
        Well, the good news today the Anti-War groups have already started
  - Hidan
    
    We all know Israeli neighbor snever offer peace or normal relations right?
    
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1844214.stm
    
    Text: Arab peace plan of 2002
    
    This is the official translation of the Saudi-proposed Arab peace initiative adopted at the annual Arab League Summit in Beirut in 2002.
    
    The Council of the League of Arab States at the Summit Level, at its 14th Ordinary Session,
    
    - Reaffirming the resolution taken in June 1996 at the Cairo Extra-Ordinary Arab Summit that a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East is the strategic option of the Arab Countries, to be achieved in accordance with International Legality, and which would require a comparable commitment on the part of the Israeli Government.
    
    - Having listened to the statement made by His Royal Highness Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in which his Highness presented his Initiative, calling for full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, in implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the land for peace principle, and Israel’s acceptance of an independent Palestinian State, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in return for the establishment of normal relations in the context of a comprehensive peace with Israel.
    
    - Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties, the council:
    
    1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.
    
    2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:
    
    a. Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights to the lines of June 4, 1967 as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.
    
    b. Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian Refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194.
    
    c. The acceptance of the establishment of a Sovereign Independent Palestinian State on the Palestinian territories occupied since the 4th of June 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
    
    3. Consequently, the Arab Countries affirm the following:
    
    a. Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.
    
    b. Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.
    
    4. Assures the rejection of all forms of Palestinian patriation which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries.
    
    5. Calls upon the Government of Israel and all Israelis to accept this initiative in order to safeguard the prospects for peace and stop the further shedding of blood, enabling the Arab Countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighborliness and provide future generations with security, stability, and prosperity.
    
    6. Invites the International Community and all countries and Organizations to support this initiative.
    
    7. Requests the Chairman of the Summit to form a special committee composed of some of its concerned member states and the Secretary General of the League of Arab States to pursue the necessary contacts to gain support for this initiative at all levels, particularly from the United Nations, the Security Council, the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the Muslim
    States and the European Union.
- aj
  
  I Liked you Dee
  - aj
    
    Zionists for Ron Paul UNITE!!!
    - Hidan
      
      lol
      - aj
Tom we miss you!

Where is Tom????
TFRX

South Carolina Commission: No Dead Voters

But I’ll reserve judgment until James O’Keefe files his report.
Gooddesign Brooklyn, NYC

I say no more wars! We have to start fixing the problems on American soil. Let’s use the money to fix education and our infrastructure.

http://gooddesign-bknyc.blogspot.com/view/magazine
- http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/3ETFGMQ3B7VD4AAMILBBEVMCWE JasonA
  
  Why do that? Isn’t it put to better use as CEO compensation, Congressional payoffs, and other forms of legally sanctioned larceny?
- SoSorry!
  
  Lets use the money to pay down our debt so we don’t self-destruct making all our well-intentioned desires impossible.
  - Alan in NH
    
    Just imagine what the trillions invested in those two stupid and criminal wars might have bought in infrastructure and education improvements, and in debt reduction.
    - Gregg
      
      The wars were going to be fought one way or another, sooner or later. That’s just the way it is. The infrastructure is fine and more money won’t help education.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Bridges falling, potholes, crumbling road shoulders, flooding roads, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure doesn’t bother you?
        Does your hover-craft come in a pick-up hauling model?
      - Anonymous
        
        What? So I guess that bridge falling down a few years ago in Saint Paul was a fluke. In Boston a few of the bridges crossing the Charles river are in pretty bad shape.
        We have a failing electrical grid and in most cities over a hundred years old the water main and sewer systems are failing apart.
        
        Yeah, everything is fine and dandy.
      - Gregg
        
        Please. The bridge in Minnesota collapsed because of a design flaw but that didn’t stop Democrats from taking advantage of a crises to feed the sheep. Besides, what the hell was the “stimulus” for?
      - nj_v2
        
        Greggg is as clueless the the GOP clown parade he champions.
      - Gregg
        
        Newt – President
        Clarence Thomas – Veep
        John Bolton – Secretary of State
        Sarah Palin – EPA
        Ted Nugent – Secretary of Interior
        Allen West -Secretary of Defense
        Ron Paul – Secretary of Treasury
        Rush Limbaugh – Poet Laureate
        
        That, my friend, is a parade of champions. One can hope.
      - Hidan
        
        Sounds like an SNL skit
Rezaclif

Hmmm, very disappointed that you all did not include a woman on today’s panel. What’s the difference between the congressional panel not including women and you folks not including a woman? Not too pleased.
- aj
  
  The caller Beth, represented!!!
aj

I Love Beth.
aj

Abortions are bad though Beth. Birth control is GRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEAAT!!!!!!!
david

The Afghanistan mess proves to me that these people may not be worth saving. I am sick of our soldiers blood being wasted on a people that screams to the world that they are a waste of time and resources. They have been around for centuries and have little to show for themselves.
Sad to say this, leave them alone and let nature take its course. Warn this region, if you mess with America again, it will be your last, no pity, no mercy!! That seems to be the only language they know are respect.
To think, we burn some Korans and all crap hits the fan, our government is forced into apology mode, they kill two of OURS and WE Americans go on about our business.
What if they had burned the true Holy book, the Bible????
Do we Americans stand for ANYTHING!
concerned american

once again the neo-cons will take us into a war on behalf of the zionist theocracy
- Jean0609
  
  Not if Obama gets a second term
Athar Murtuza

when are we going to be rid of the AIPAC stranglehold on US!
- aj
  
  Um… when we turn blue from asphyxiation, and are pronounced dead.
Zero

You know what this country really needs: more tax cuts on the rich and another war with a Muslim country based on speculation.
- aj
  
  I’m pretty sure that’s the Republican Party’s 2012 platform, word for word. Democrats are a little more subtle, but don’t be fooled, they basically want the same thing.
  - Zero
    
    Please un-fool me? The only war I see that is justifiable would be Syria–and hopefully we can do it like we did in Libya. Stopping a genocide in Syria seems like a better proposition than continuing in Afghanistan and attacking Iran.
    - aj
      
      I wasn’t suggesting you had been fooled. My apologies.
      - Zero
        
        I was actually being sincere…republicans and democrats are indeed both esoteric about foreign policy.
        
        The only language that I have found that is telling of foreign policy is geopolitical vs. theo-political point of views. What I mean by this is–when politicians use geopolitical reasoning for policy (in my opinion), the policy is more humane, effective, and productive.
        
        But when you hear Rick Santorum say that Iranians have a deep-seeded theology of violence–obviously, that way of thinking is fallacious. And I think this supernatural point of view causes politicians to put validity into speculation; whereas, there is no doubt coming from a materialist point of view.
- Gregg
  
  I must say your comment is built on false premises. No one has proposed tax cuts for the rich. Bush’s tax cuts favored the poor more. The war in Iraq was not based on speculation. Iraq was a threat and we’d be in a world of hurt if Hussein was still in charge.
  - Zero
    
    All the republicans running have proposed tax cuts for the rich. Where have you been? And 2/3s of the Bush Tax Cuts went to the top–and numbers after the tax cuts showed that the rich did get richer while average middle class income went down $2,000 before the recession.
    
    If Iraq was such a threat, why did it take 15 minutes to take control of the country and kill Hussein? Iraq was not a threat because they didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. The Iraq war was waged on false premises. This is pretty obvious stuff, Gregg. Not many people defend the Iraq war anymore.
    
    But okay, Bush ousted 1 dictator, but Obama ousted 3 dictators with less money and zero lives.
    
    I know it will be hard for you, but Michael Moore was one of the first people to be against the Iraq war–trust me, I know it is hard, I know…but you gotta say Michael Moore was right….
    - Zero
      
      Come on man, just say Michael Moore was right. I always wanted to get a republican to say Michael Moore was right.
      - Gregg
        
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4fQNZmefM4
      - Zero
        
        I actually don’t like Michael Moore. But I still always wanted to get a republican to say he was right.
        
        Moore was also correct when he said the richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the 50% of America.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        It was reported that 6 of the Walton (Wal-Mart) heirs, have more wealth than 30% of the people!
    - Gregg
      
      The 2/3 figure is bogus. Please research, the poor benefited more. The rich ended up paying more of the bill. The income gap has shrunk.
      
      I’m not going to argue about Iraq except to say an ally in the heart of a Middle East that is spinning out of control is better than a sworn enemy. Think what you want, I learned my lesson with Fredlinskip whose ideology would not let him say all the Democrats I quoted sounding the alarm about WMD lied.
      - Zero
        
        I got the 2/3 figure from John McCain. Please research this, when you lower taxes on the rich, fees on the poor and middle class go up. That is why average middle class income dropped during the Bush years, even though Bush lowered their taxes.
        
        And the last time the income gap shrunk was during the latter half of the Clinton years (and even those numbers are debatable).
  - Anonymous
    
    Bush’s tax cuts favored the poor more?
    Well I’ll be damned, I guess they did not get the memo.
    
    The truth is the wealthy made out with larger tax cuts than anyone else. It’s a clear as day, of course you only want to see what you want and I could bury you in the facts and it would not matter at all.
    You’re not interested in the facts.
    - Gregg
      
      Jeffe, I don’t understand the condescension. I would understand it if I was out to lunch and you were all knowing. I guess from your perspective that’s true. But you are wrong with such conviction, I don’t get it. I chalk it up to accepting lies if they are repeated often enough. Regarding Bush, have you ever heard the words “Tax cuts” without them being followed by “for the rich”? It’s a mantra and you fell for it. Based on what? I would love to be enlightened.
      
      Every tax rate was lowered, not just the top. The lowest rate (15%) was reduced to 10%, a 5% cut. The highest rate (39.6%) was reduced to 35%, a 4.6% cut. That’s less. The other 3 rates in between were lowered by 3%. In addition modifications to the EITC essentially transferred wealth from the top down. The result of all of this was 6 million of the poorest tax payers stopped paying taxes completely and those at the top paid a higher percentage of the overall bill. By any measure the poor benefited more. But I guess there could be a counter argument but you’d have to bring it.
      
      That’s the thing, you assume I have no basis but I do. You wrote: “The truth is the wealthy made out with larger tax cuts than anyone else”. What do you base that on? It’s a simple question. And I don’t mean some link from Media Matters, tell me like I told you.
      
      Why do I get the feeling you won’t respond?
Bin

We need to spend another 2-3 trillion, lose some more thousands of soldiers, and rile a billion muslims – just to protect the god-given right of few rednecks to burn the koran (and just so that defense contractors can further increase profit).
Gregg

A heartfelt apology to Karzai.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYEctbGSkkw&feature=player_embedded#!
- Zero
  
  You don’t think Obama should have apologized for the burning of the Qur’an? Is America suppose to be insensitive towards world religions? Are we trying to help Afghans or demoralize them?
  
  I don’t get it. What is incorrect about righting a wrong? Were we not wrong to burn the Qur’an? How are we suppose to be correcting moral injustices while not correcting our own moral injustices?
  
  I don’t mean to be overwhelming…but if we can’t apologize for a book burning, what can we apologize for?
  - david
    
    “What is incorrect about righting a wrong? Were we not wrong to burn the Qur’an?”
    We have bent over backwards to apologize to these misguided people.
    Where is the apology for the killing of OUR people or was this their means of correcting a moral injustice against burning their Qur’an????
    - Zero
      
      Why do we need an apology? What is with this quid pro quo attitude?
      
      “We have bent over backwards” …I don’t see what is wrong with issuing an apology for burning their holy book. A lot of the Middle East think America is on a Cursade, must we make them think they are right?
      
      If you think they are a misguided people, then do you support the war effort?
      
      I don’t. I wish we would get out, but my American ego isn’t crushed if we apologized for burning their holy book.
      - david
        
        We have apologized to these people, several times already!!!!
        How many times have they apologized for killing two of ours as vengence!!!!
        THEY never apologized for 9-11!!
        Do we have to kiss their butts!!
        I say, leave these misguided people and their so-called man-made religion to their own destruction!!
        Afghanistan is a moocher state anyway, their economy is running on 90+% foreign aid from US!!!
      - Zero
        
        Again, why do you feel that the world needs to be quid pro quo?
        
        I’m not saying kiss their butts. However, burning books is pretty heavy stuff.
        
        I really don’t even know what your point is? Are you hurt that Americans would piss on dead people and burn books, or are you hurt that Obama would apologize for it? Personally, the former pisses me off. I’m an American, and I am embarrassed that another American would piss on dead people and we don’t have the wherewithal to not burn the Qur’an. Bush was embarrassing, I could not and would not defend him, and I apologized for him many times abroad, and so has Obama.
        
        Sorry, but maybe if this cowboy stupidity coming from a right wing mentality would end, we wouldn’t have to apologize for it.
      - NVDMOST
        
        first of all Islam is NOT a man made religion there my friend. Islam is the #1 religion in the world and has been like that for a while. Islam like many other religion has basic gudielines that are similar. No sex before marriage. Treat others with the same respect you demand. Suicide is the BIGGEST sin in the Q’Ran. 75% of China is Is muslim.
      - david
        
        Study the history of Islam, it is a man-made religion!
      - Zero
        
        So is all of religion. You want to study something–start with this book: Edith Hamilton’s “Mythology.”
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Saudis, mostly were the hijackers of 9/11! You expect Afghanistan to apologize for Saudi terrorists?
        Then you think the U.S. should apologize for the Drug-Cartel murders of the innocent Mexican children and civillians?
  - Gregg
    
    He certainly didn’t apologize to Christians when the military burnt Bibles. The press barely reported it. Are you outraged?
    - Anonymous
      
      I’m not sure about this but I don’t see anything in the bible about the book not being burnt. You have to bury a Torah if it is desecrated. There is no clear rules about the Qur’an, but it should also be buried and not burned. I would imagine that a bible should be buried as well. Mind a lot of them were, in cheap motel and hotel draws.It’s funny how you right wingers are so up in arms over this. If Bush was President you all would be waving your flags and cheering.
      - Gregg
        
        We are not up in arms over the burning of the Quran, that’s the point. It’s a problem and should not be done but it’s all based on the PC world we live in. I am reminded of Lara Logan’s experience. She said when she screamed the result was the opposite of what she expected. It fed the frenzy and made it worse. I view the apology the same way. They sense weakness.
Chas

I found truly laughable that your panel this week was four MEN! Could you honestly not find a woman or two to help make sense of the absurdities going on in Virginia? Were you trying to recreate the scene in Congress with five male clergy pontificating on women’s reproductive rights? C’mon WBUR, you can do better than this.
Gregg

15 questions Obama would be asked if he were a Republican. Deny it.

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/jeffcarter/2012/02/22/15_questions_the_mainstream_media_would_ask_barack_obama_if_he_were_a_republican
SharleeThomas

Request for the informed OnPoint Blogger Community:
Can we keep this issue alive, so that the news media/radio/TV will not “ignore” it, as usual.

Remember the $6.00 Trillion Bonds that were discovered in a sting operation in Italy right after Lee Wanta case in a court room in Virginia…. just last week. There was also $9.00 trillion that surfaced two years ago.

Can we focus on ….Lee WantaLee Wanta Revelations and Court DocumentsFED, Reagan, Bush, Greenspan, Geitner and laundring money ($15-$27 Trillion) ….not in Billions, folks.
Bush’s multiple visits to Brunai …. and the bonds that were captured in Italy were issued against the non-existent Gold Reserves that were certified by the Sultan of Brunai. They were moving money around thru HSBC and Bank of Scotland, totally off the books of Fed and Government. The core money is actually belongs to Americans dating back to Reagan days, but we cannot see it, we cannot claim it, unless we “demand” it.

Let’s keep the issue alive.�
Whenever, you hear Ron Paul talking about “auditing the Fed” … remember the $15-$27 Trillion that they SWIFT’ed the hell out of the Fed.
Terry Tree Tree

INTERESTING analysis about some SERIOUS considerations about any action to, or in Syria!�
BEFORE you take ANY stance about Syria, it would be something to check out!
Gregg

Obama’s military burning Bibles? No problem.

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-05-20/world/us.military.bibles.burned_1_bibles-al-jazeera-english-military-personnel?_s=PM:WORLD
- Zero
  
  I read the article. What is your point? …That the Afghans are sensitive about religion? But certainly, a nice “return to sender” would have been better than burning Bibles.
  - Gregg
    
    That is a sensible response. I don’t get the impression you think the incident rises to the level of a Presidential apology.
    
    BTW, I happened to remember this story and went googling to find it. I wonder if news outlets will do the same. I think it’s fair game.
    - Zero
      
      I could not care less if Obama apologized to the conservative right for the burning of Bibles over seas.
      
      Listen, I think book burning is a serious thing–and they usually happen before a holocaust. Pissing on dead soldiers also warrants an apology in my opinion. After that, when Obama apologized to Iran back in 09, he wasn’t necessarily apologizing for America, he was apologizing for Bush. I guess that is why liberals don’t care if democrats apologize, because they are usually apologizing for republicans.
      - Gregg
        
        Why would he apologize to the “conservative right”? He should apologize to Christians which is not a partisan trait.
Anonymous

What sets On Point apart is Tom Ashbrook’s respectful, considerate acknowledgement of every viewpoint expressed on his show, no matter what. Mike Pesca seemed like a good host at first, but his violatations of this rule are becoming a major detraction from the show now. His flip dismissal of many of Jack Beaty’s points was shocking. You’d expect this kind of treatment of guests from an O’Reilly or Hannity type of show…not the island of civility that is On Point.

Pesca is well-informed, clever, and lively, but his tone seems more appropriate for a sports call-in show. His utterances can be arrogant, even condescending. Was he trying to make up to Jack with the extra long and overly-effusive “thanks” at the end? Was it to make up for not thanking Jack’s presence last time…?

Jane Clayson is the perfect substitute to Tom Ashbrook. It’s too bad she wasn’t available this time around.
- Anonymous
  
  I’m not a big fan of hers. She doesn’t ask good follow-up questions and doesn’t have a good grasp of politics or foreign affairs.
Zero

You want to know what really sucks, Gregg, as an atheist, I would love to tell all these religious people to get real, you are going to die and that is all we know…there is nothing more we could know, so shut up….

But the older I get, the more I realize that I have to live in a world where religious people fight it out to see whose God is greater. Even as a lover of literature, I am not offended by the book burnings. Nothing offends me. Why? Because I don’t have a religious identity. I don’t have a nationalist identity. And I don’t have a class identity. Sure, I’m a younger middle class white male from America, but I don’t value my identity. I don’t value my liberal identity, nor my atheist identity. And that is why nothing offends me. I do get embarrassed, but nothing ever offends me.

I actually seek out opportunities to be offended because when I am offended, I know there is something wrong with me, and once it happens, I can ruminate on what shakes me, and reevaluate my attitudes and beliefs. But I haven’t been offended in a long time.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where people double-down when they are offended. Remember the Scopes Monkey Trial movie, “Inherit the Wind” I think it is, anyway, evolution wasn’t much of an issue throughout most of the Bible belt until that film offended the Bible belt–so that is the reason why I try not to offend, but to persuade. Some times I argue religion, but I mostly argue for critical thinking instead. I don’t give a damn about all this symbolic crap, but other people do and sometimes they want revenge–if an apology mitigates anger and the desire for revenge on some level, then apologies and compassion is better than inciting more rage and more death. If apologies don’t work, what is the harm? …American nationalist get offended, so what? We are not any weaker of a nation if we apologize–our defense budget will still be bigger than the next 10 countries combined. I don’t see the big deal.
- Hidan
  
  You miss the fact that the republicans will use anything to attack obama with. Even stuff they would agree or do themselves. The leadership sets out the daily talking points and the lemmings run with it. But there attacks does show how the current batch of repbuclians are clueless on world affairs.
  
  For example,
  
  Notice no attacks on the Generals and military leadership who apologized.
  - Zero
    
    There was this Enlightenment philosopher named Lessing who said that there are three main identities: religious, nationalist, and classist. He said that the weaker those identities are, the better and stronger a society is. I agree.
    
    Unfortunately, the republican right is rather strong in all three of those identities and the politicians play to them. I think the clearest example of this recently was the contrast between the politicking in New Hampshire and South Carolina–obviously South Carolina got pretty muddy and I think we know why.
Modavations

Please note below………….
The mark of a real Zero,is someone posting at 3:06Am on Saturday(Sunday)Night.The first thing the Communist does is shutter the church.The Cult of Atheism is tied to the Socialist-Communist Party.A balanced person is Agnostic
- Hidan
  
  Please note below………
  
  Moda Troll said he only comments at work and today is Sunday.The first thing the Authoritarian right does is shutter the church after crying about others doing the same. The Cult of the Authoritarian right is tied to the fascist -Dictatorial leaders.
  
  A balanced person is wouldn’t believe in fairly tales.
  - Modavations
    
    I’m done working for toady,it’s off for a run.When you work for yourself everyday is a work day,or,everyday is a day to go fishing.
    - Modavations
      
      Toady,sorry all you of the “useful idiot persuasion”.Should read Today
    - Hidan
      
      The first thing the Authoritarian right does is shutter the church after crying about others doing the same.
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Moda is calling his boss a ‘toady’?
      Moda is calling his customer a ‘toady’?
  - Modavations
    
    Heroes of the Democrat Party
    A.Hitler(NaTIONAL wORKERS sOCIALIST pARTY)
    B.Stalin
    C.Pol Pot
    D.the B- team……Ceacesco(?),Tito,Honecker,Hoxha,Fidel,Noriega,Chavez and on and on and on
    - Hidan
      
      Nice try,
      
      all the dissidents who fought against these folks were what one would call liberals. Hilter was supported by those family values folks, you know the ones intolerant of other cultures and minorities views.
      
      Pol Pot
      
      In January 1962, the Cambodian government arrested most of the leadership of the far-left Pracheachon party
      
      You forget Republicans suports Dictators and Authoritarians as a whole far more than Democrats . Feel free to check the track record of Despot The Republican Party supported.
      
      Latin American is an great example to start with. Saudi Arabia is another.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  Moda DEMANDS to DICTATE when, and what you comment about?
Modavations

UAW Brown Shirts were out in force last night, chasing Romney.I believe 40% of unionists vote Republuican,yet the donations run almost exclusively to the Dems.The Unions killed Eastern Airline,the union killed American Airline,they killed GM,they killed the Post Office,thy killed the Public School.
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  You believe what guppy tells you to believe?
Modavations

I would never buy American.Why you ask?Because the Union leadership donates forced union dues ,almost exclusively to Democrats,who then cut my throat
- Hidan
  
  Yep cause we know buying from the Communist in china promotes free market and laissez faire. In China there’s no such thing as Unions and gets an 5 year jail time just for mentioning it.
  
  Why do you hate America?
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  ANOTHER weird delusion from Moda’s ‘chemicals’ ingested?�
  MOST products made in the U.S.A., are made by non-union employees!
  Bad excuse to NOT support the country Moda ‘claims’ to be from?
Modavations

As soon as Pres.Obama assumed the Presidency Code Pink flew the coop..Democrat wars good,republican wars bad!!!
Modavations

Unions,the largest of the Super Pacs,will donate 400 million to Democrats this cycle.
- Hidan
  
  Frustrated with Democrats, some large unions cut back on donations
  
  Some
  of the nation’s largest labor unions are dramatically cutting their
  donations to the Democratic Party, saying they are frustrated with the
  Democrats for failing to put up strong resistance to Republican
  proposals that are opposed by labor, such as the efforts to eliminate
  collective-bargaining rights for public-sector workers. Unions are
  shifting their funding to target political races at the state level. In
  the first quarter of this year, union political action committees cut
  funding for House Democrats by half compared with the first quarter of
  2009, from $5.8 million down to $3.1 million. Corporate PAC’s cut their
  contributions to House Democrats by 26% to $7.2 million. Union
  contributions to Republicans decreased as well, but by only 13 percent.
  
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/frustrated-with-democrats-some-large-unions-cut-back-on-donations/2011/05/16/AF0Hmh8G_story.html?hpid=z2
Modavations

Bring home the troops and have them assist in building the XL pipeline,Buford Bay,the reopening of the Gulf and Answar.Flood the markets with supply,crash the crude price and watch the Mideast crumble on it’s own volition.I’ll smile.
- Hidan
  
  Using troops to increase the bottom line of private corporation. Sure that’s in the constitution.
  
  Besides, all the Saudi’s have to do is cut back on it’s oil and prices would remain the same. To add most of that oil from the XL pipeline would go to the world market not to Americans.
  - Modavations
    
    The Sauds are our allies.They know the mobs will burn down their palaces.The Sauds are Mechievellian(?)like the rest of us,they’ll do what we tell them to do
    - Hidan
      
      What the U.S. would ally with a government that practices the most extreme form of Islam? Where protest are banned with threats of death,torture, and women can’t even walk by themselves. Even the Commies from the USSR had more rights than women in Saudi Arabia.
      
      Looks like we know how to pick.
      
      “like the rest of us,they’ll do what we tell them to do ”
      
      How many of the 9/11 hijacker were from Saudi Arabia?
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Good point about the 9/11 hijackers being mostly Saudis!�
        Were they just following our orders?
      - Modavations
        
        How many sects,tribes,off shoots,crime crews,etc,are found in any of the Middleeast countries.You need a score card to keep track of the players.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Quite like the U.S.? Diverse?
    - Terry Tree Tree
      
      Saudis have been following our orders so well for decades?
      - Modavations
        
        Terry is starring in a remake of the man from N.A.M.B.L.A.What’s up Freak Show.
      - Terry Tree Tree
        
        Moda has WHINED often about name-calling?
- Terry Tree Tree
  
  Moda’s delusions keep getting weirder and weirder? Unless he’s talking about using troops to FORCE the building of the XL pipeline?
  Moda’s proposed actions would just result in XL oil (DIRTY, THICK oil), to be sold to China, and others, like is happening with the increased drilled, and processed oil NOW?
Hidan

Not covered in Week in the News.(talk about an boot to the neck)

Spanish consular official applauds message of nonviolent resistance to occupation in Hebron

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/spanish-consular-official-applauds-message-of-nonviolent-resistance-to-occupation-in-hebron.html
Gregg

Here’s the latest Chevy Volt ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=avLKiWi71cE
Hidan

Speaking of thugs,

Look at these grown man attack young women displaying acts of non-violences at a University of New Mexico event last week.

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/02/unm-students-for-justice-in-palestine-issues-statement-on-assault.html
Hidan

The Gospel According to……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG4IjY52OHw&feature=channel_video_title
Hidan

Lefties

Tune into Obama’s State of the Union and see what socialist
America-haters he is channeling! This Kenyan Socialist is out to put
the free market on trial, clearly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6jeNp9IagQ

Super PAC Mad Libs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYlx7IcpqS4&feature=channel_video_title

The Super PACs are doing their best to educate you about the
presidential candidates. From Mitt to Newt, campaign cash is leading
the way in our democracy.
- Modavations
  
  I was quite impressed that you follow my work habits.I have a Groupie.
  - Hidan
    
    Naw you just repeat yourself on nearly every thread so it like reading the same thing over and over again.
Anonymous

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state are absolute,” he told ‘This Week’ host George Stephanopoulos. “The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country…to say that people of faith have no role in the
public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up.”

Mr. Santorum seems to be showing his true colors, that of a theocratic extremist.
The First Amendment and other portions of the Bill of Rights were designed to ensure that people of faith could be protected in their own beliefs, and this could be achieved only by ensuring the protection of all from all others. All of the freedoms in the Bill of Rights protect minorities from the tyranny of a majority, including a faith-based majority.
In short there is a reason for the Separation of Church and State, to keep men such as Santorum from using religion as basis for governing.

Santroum’s ideas about Church and State are the antithesis of the philosophy put forth in our Constitution. That the state cannot dictate a religion nor any religion be state sanctioned.
This seems pretty clear to me, why it’s not to Santroum is beyond me.

I guess Mr. Santorum is not aware of John Adams’ statement from the Treaty of Tripoli: As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
- Gregg
  
  Theocratic extremist? I see no contradiction between Santorum, the Constitution and John Adams.
  - Anonymous
    
    Yes Santroum is an extremist. The Separation of Church and State is the issue, and Santroum seems to not understand this or he’s just that arrogant to think his religious ideology trumps others. No contradiction indeed.
    - Gregg
      
      The phrase “separation of church and state” is abused. It is not mentioned in the Constitution, the closest it comes is: “Congress shall make no
      law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
      exercise thereof…”What law has Santorum proposed?
      - Anonymous
        
        “Congress shall make no
        law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
        exercise thereof…”
        
        So what part of this do you think means that the state shall sanction one religion over another.
        
        The Supreme Court has also weighed in on this. Also the idea of a the Federal government having the final word here is in the 14th Amendment.
        You know, the idea that a state cannot have the power to be greater than the Union.
        
        While Santroum has not said he would change any laws his rhetoric is pretty obvious in the idea of theological ideology. The man wants religion to be part and parcel of how the nation is run.
        
        Some Santorum chestnuts on religion and the state:
        
        Obama’s agenda is “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life.
        It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony
        theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology,” I was never aware that a President had to have a biblical theology to run the country. Why would one religious idea or lack there of be better than Santorums?
        
        What is also clear to me that Santroum has been advocating a more theocratic based government, one in which the laws of God, based on his ideas on this, should be more infused with how our nation is run.
        Funny how the only other countries I can think of that do this are Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan under Taliban, to name a few and the city state of the Vatican.
        
        I’m pretty sure that John Adams meant what he said: <i.As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…
        
        The operative word here is “not”.
      - Gregg
        
        Santorum is not a threat to your religious freedom. I have no idea how you draw the conclusions you do from his comments. They don’t bother me at all and I am not a Christian.
        
        Obama is the one “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion by forcing Catholic organizations to provide insurance providing contraception. No matter what you think of the issue itself, Obama is the one actually stomping on the Constitution. It’s going to the SCOTUS, that doesn’t happen for nothing.
      - Anonymous
        
        I view Santroum as a threat to a lot more than religious freedom. The man is a demagogue who has seemingly made up his own theology based on his weird beliefs. It’s not the Catholic Churches, they have no problem with evolution. Birth control, yes, but when you dig into Santorums ideology it’s as weird as a three dollar bill and is the very definition of hypocrisy.
        As Santroum is not the President how do you know what his ideology would bring to the office. He has made statements that are clearly a violation of Church and State. My original point, and one you seem to not understand. As to Obama wanting a Catholic origination to provide contraception to people via insurance, well being that about 95 to 98% of Catholics in the US are using it I’m not sure why you object. Of course it’s all about Obama and not the Constitution, which you seem to know little about.
      - Gregg
        
        If 98% of Catholics are already on the pill then where’s the problem? Why do they need insurance to cover it?
        
        Again, how is Obama’s edict not prohibiting the free exercise of religion?
      - Gregg
        
        Is the 95-98% number something you thought to question or was it fed to you like the “Tax cuts for the rich” thing you ignored below?
Hidan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17170609

Efforts are continuing to obtain the release of two British journalists who are being held by a group of former rebel fighters in Libya.

Reporter Nicholas Davies and cameraman Gareth Montgomery-Johnson were detained by members of the Misrata Brigade on Tuesday and are being held in Tripoli.

It is not clear if Mr Montgomery-Johnson, a cameraman from Carmarthen, and his colleague will face charges.

Human Rights Watch says it has been denied access to the journalists.

Where’s the White House or SOS Clinton on this one? No stories on NPR as of yet about these two reporters.
- Modavations
  
  The Boston Globe has an article today, saying 90% of the people killed in our drone strikes are terrorists.The other 10% are probably the hostages of your pals
  - Anonymous
    
    Funny how you go on about the “liberal” media and when it suits you you use them to back up your warped world view.
  - Hidan
    
    So far your off once again. One study involved over 2000, media reports, witnes and testimonies while the Boston global relied on on AP reporter questioning 80 villages.
    
    CIA 1st claimed that no civilians was ever killed.
    
    Drone War Exposed – the complete picture of CIA strikes in Pakistan
    
    http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/08/10/most-complete-picture-yet-of-cia-drone-strikes/
    
    The British report says that between 385 and 775 civilians died in 291 drone attacks.
    
    The study is based on close analysis of credible materials: some 2,000 media reports; witness testimonies; field reports of NGOs and lawyers; secret US government cables; leaked intelligence documents, and relevant accounts by journalists, politicians and former intelligence officers.
    
    The Bureau’s findings are published in a 22,000-word database which covers each individual strike in Pakistan in detail. A powerful search engine, an extensive timeline and searchable maps accompany the data.
    
    Here’s what Moda is talking about
    
    http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2012/02/25/ap_impact_new_light_on_drone_wars_death_toll/
    
    But an AP reporter who spoke to about 80 villagers at the sites of the 10 attacks in North Waziristan, the main sanctuary for militants in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region along the Afghan border, was told that a significant majority of the dead were combatants.
    
    Note this invesigation was done by AP
Hidan

Total reported killed: 2,413 – 3,058

Civilians reported killed: 464 – 818

Children reported killed: 175

Total reported injured: 1,158 -1,263

Total strikes: 316

Obama strikes: 264�
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/08/10/pakistan-drone-strikes-the-methodology2/Pakistan drone strikes – our methodology

This article breaks down our approach into two sections: our sources and our methodology.

Our Sources
The CIA does not officially acknowledge or comment on its drone campaign, and the Pakistani government does not publish a count of those killed and injured. Instead, the most comprehensive information on casualties lies in the thousands of press reports of drone strikes filed by reputable national and international media since 2004. Most reports are filed within a day or two of an attack. Sometimes relevant reports can be filed weeks – even years – after the initial strike. We identify our sources at all times, and provide a direct link to the material where possible.

Our media sources for this study include:

From Western media – CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, Fox News, Reuters, the BBC, Associated Press, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.

From Pakistani media – Dawn, Express Tribune, The Nation, Pajhwok and Geo TV.

From non-mainstream media – New America Foundation, Long War Journal, WikiLeaks and Amnesty International, amongst others.

Every strike covered in our database contains reference links to each news report that has been considered whilst researching that incident.

At present, the Bureau’s access to Urdu-language news resources on the strikes is limited. The main reason is that some Urdu material is not online and in remote parts of Pakistan. This is a situation we hope to remedy in the future.

Other sources include the fieldwork of credible researchers and lawyers who have been examining the drone attacks in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. For example, certain legal cases have been brought in Pakistan against the CIA on behalf of civilian victims of the attack.

A number of leaked US intelligence reports and diplomatic cables also deal directly with specific drone attacks, which the Bureau cites where relevant.

We have incorporated relevant material from research papers, books and articles by journalists, academics, politicians and former intelligence officers.
david

“The test of a true religion”
If a Muslim burns the Bible, a Christian will pray for him.
If a Christian burns the Quran, a Muslim will kill him!
Thus is the answer being played out before us now.
As of today Sunday, two more Americans had been murdered, a major and a Colonel, so much for their acceptance of our apology.
I would leave this land and let them continue down the road of decay that they are on. I would cut off all aid and let them take out their own garbage!
- aj
  
  “let them continue down the road of decay”?
  Down the road of perfection, more like it.
  
  Pashtun Warriors record by the numbers:
  Alexander”the Great” 0 PashtunWarriors 1
  BritishEmpire 0             PashtunWarriors 1
  SovietEmpire 0             PashtunWarriors 1
  U.S.ZionistEmpire 0       PashtunWarriors 1
  
  “If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.”
  -Sun Tzu, The Art Of War
  
  “Our foe is hunger and ignoranceBring ‘em home, bring ‘em homeYou can’t beat that with bombs and gunsBring ‘em home, bring ‘em home”-Bruce Springsteen
  Support the troops,’Bring ‘em home’
- Gregg
  
  Amen.
- Zero
  
  Congratulations, your god beats their god.
Zero

I have never seen a news report say, “Today, 200 Atheist rebels attacked the Agnostic stronghold of Nihi City. Many died for nothingness.”
- Gregg
  
  http://atheiststooges.wordpress.com/atheist-mass-murderer-worst-in-us-history/
  - Zero
    
    Of course, there are individual crazies. But there are never a mass of individual crazies–that was the point of my comment.
    
    Shall, I start listing the masses of crazy religious people, or can you read the history of Western Culture on your own?
- Tjblair62
  
  Stalin.
  - Zero
    
    You guys are just idiots.
    
    Has there ever been an army of atheists, agnostics?
    
    Do you think you can amass an army of atheist agnostics?
    
    There is only one true stereotype of atheists: you will never find one in a foxhole. Good luck trying to amass an army for war with a bunch of people who think this is the only life we get.
    
    Learn how to read.
    - Gregg
      
      What’s your point Zero? Just say it.
      - Zero
        
        What has caused most of the wars? Individuals who like power start wars…so atheism wouldn’t solve that. How do these individuals amass armies to fight for a cause? Well, there are lots of reasons to fight for a cause, but these “causes” don’t seem so important and worth fighting for when you don’t believe in an afterlife. Sure, there will be at times atheists fighting in wars for whatever reason–draft, G.I. Bill, etc.–but I hypothesis that if you poll atheists about what kind of wars they would fight in, I bet they would would be consistently less willing to fight than a Christian per se (especially a Christian Nationalist i.e. red necks).
        
        In short, belief in God makes you brave.
        
        The idea mainly derives from Shakespeare’s “Henry V.”
        
        Good enough?
      - Zero
        
        Also, value is determined by nihilism–e.g., the fewer of something we have, the more valuable it becomes. When you realize that we have a limited amount of time of being alive–life becomes more valuable. Yet, if you conceive that consciousness lives on in the from of a soul–i.e., there really is no such thing as “death”–one has devalued one’s life because one thinks he or she has an unlimited supply of consciousness.
        
        My terms are a little loose–sorry for that.
Jasoturner

I thought Mike did a very good job subbing for Tom. Hopefully Jack didn’t mind getting his name mangled. Anyway, Mike has the enthusiasm and interest of Tom without being like Tom, and he pushed back on some casual remarks that even Tom might have let slide. Good job, and I hope he’s a regular when Tom is off.
http://cheappendantscharms.com/antique-or-classic-charms-can-also-be-obtainable-from-on-line-sources/ dive

Golden Tours has reasonably not too long ago launched a new options for open top bus trips of London. You may want to try the London Panorama tour, which contains stops at the most renowned attractions of London, which includes the planet distinguished Shakespeare’s Globe, extravagant Westminster Abbey and extraordinary Buckingham Palace? You are going to also see this kind of vivacious areas based in london as Park Lane and Marble Arch.

ONPOINT

TODAY

Talking With The Taliban

Jun 20, 2013

1 Comment

Direct talks with the Taliban: Is this the key to peace in Afghanistan?

The Bossless Office

Jun 20, 2013

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We examine workplaces where worker bees are the leaders and how that really works.

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Sir Ken Robinson On Discovering Your Passions

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