Displaying 151 To 180 Of 2,270 Comments The Bush Legacy 2.0: The Dissolving of Iraq Into Warring Factions KT, these quotes always get trotted out by conservatives when there’s discussion around Iraq, The Snopes link I reference shows the full, unaltered quotes as well as the context in which they were given. I am not convinced that the War Resolution would have failed in Congress if they had been given the unaltered National Intelligence Estimate, but it sure as hell would have been a lot closer vote. Even with the altered and adjusted intelligence 150 Democrats voted against the war. » Posted By funksands On June 13, 2014 @ 6:12 pm Jack, for your reference, here are the actual full quotes including context. Anything after October 1, 2002 is based upon the altered National Intelligence Estimate provided to Congress by the Bush Administration. http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/wmdquotes.asp » Posted By funksands On June 13, 2014 @ 6:08 pm Jack, I think the author makes a few good points, but omits some context that could weaken his argument 1) I think that there is an argument that perhaps we should have done more to remove Saddam Hussein either in 1991 or later on, and while I would argue whether he was any kind of threat at all to the US, its very true he was a bad actor in the ME. What’s curious is why then? We were attacked by Saudis on 9-11, and Al-Queda was in Afghanistan and Pakistan? Why pivot in the middle of all of this to attack Iraq? It made no sense timing-wise Also, Saddam would never have been the threat he was if he hadn’t armed him to the teeth for years and encouraged his territorial ambitions throughout the 80’s. I think that’s an important piece of context that the author should have mentioned. I think it would have given his argument more credibility, such as we were simply cleaning up the mess we created in the first place. 2) See above. If the best reason to invade Iraq is that Afghanistan was going much easier than we thought it would, that doesn’t seem a very compelling reason to launch an invasion 3) Over 100 Democrats did indeed vote for the war resolution. I think the resolution would have failed if the Administration had not deleted nearly every single dissenting piece of intelligence offered by German intelligence, the State Department, the Air Force and the UN from the National Intelligence Estimate White Paper provided to Congress. (later de-classified) Each of the intelligence arms of the above agencies cast serious doubt on the claims the CIA was providing. The administration simply deleted those reports. 4) See #3 5) This actually seems like the most credible point the author has made. The administration saw an opportunity with an angry and fearful Congress and public to engage in regime change to turn Iraq into a US-friendly nation smack dab in the middle of the ME. I think it was lunacy, but at least the author is being honest about the REAL motive of the administration. » Posted By funksands On June 13, 2014 @ 5:48 pm Ad, a very good, succinct piece re: the P.O.S’s that shattered this country for no reason other than their own hubris. What I’ve found fascinating is the right-wing response to the events unfolding in Iraq. The common theme is one of outrage (its always outrage) that Obama is giving up all of the “gains” that our soldiers fought and died for and he should be ashamed of himself for losing the war, losing Iraq, and wasting our soldiers lives. “Gains”? WTF ❓ Are they referring to the 3 million Iraqi refugees scattered around the world? Are they referring to the 1 million Iraqi refugees who have been rotting on the Syrian border for 10 years, providing ripe recruiting for extremists? Are they referring to the out-of-control pandemic of birth defects in cities like Fallajuah from depleted uranium rounds? Are they referring to Iraq becoming a protectorate of Iran? Are they referring to the 100K+ Iraqi dead? I’d like to know exactly what f-ing “gains” they are so outraged that we are losing so I can be outraged too! Surreal » Posted By funksands On June 13, 2014 @ 5:14 pm Silly, thanks so much for your reply. You have a lot of interesting ideas, each of them workable. I think you’ll like my next installment about taxes and their relation to MMT. Its a little counter-intuitive, but I’ll give you a preview: If we don’t “need” tax revenue to fund government programs, then why do we have them? There are some very good reasons why we do….stay tuned! The overseas/outsourcing/offshoring issue is a particular madness that I deplore. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to move operations overseas. Your main customers might be over there for one! But our tax code shouldn’t be the reason companies move. We PAY companies to leave via the tax code. No other industrialized nation does this. As a matter of fact, most of these nations levy additional tax on those earnings in order to protect their domestic industries. If I am a US corporation I shouldn’t be able to make more money simply by leaving the nation that I am domiciled in. I like your thoughts and look forward to hearing more. » Posted By funksands On June 15, 2014 @ 8:44 pm Murph, glad you read it and I will gladly read Cullen’s piece and give you my take on it. At a glance I note that he makes claims about what MMT’ers believe that I haven’t heard before, but I’ll suspend any judgement until I get to the end. » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 9:42 pm Jack, you CAN have unlimited deficit spending. However it doesn’t mean we SHOULD. At some point there will be too many dollars chasing too few goods and inflation will indeed kick in. » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 8:58 pm Kes, very similar, the WPA’s goal wasn’t full employment. It simply tried to get a job into the hands of the family breadwinner during the Depression » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 8:56 pm God knows America could use some new splatter-painters… 😉 » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 7:51 pm Thanks Kes, don’t worry because policy direction is the hardest to pin down. Many people read about MMT and think that it somehow means that we can print our way to prosperity. That isn’t the case. There are real-life consequences of all of the decisions our government makes with its fiscal and monetary power. Right now with our government embracing austerity, the effect is that we have an output gap between what the private sector is able to generate in economic activity and what is needed. Too much government spending will trigger inflation, too little triggers flat economic activity like we see now. The Job Guarantee simple establishes the government as the employer of last resort. It is intended simply to employ those that the private sector cannot or will not employ at a nominal wage with (perhaps) a nominal benefit or two. The public purpose of the government should be to render the Job Guarantee obsolete because the private sector is humming on all cylinders, but natural economic cycles and bubbles often interfere with the private sector being able to do all the lifting. I can think of no greater emergency than 10 million Americans unable to find work of any kind. According to many economists, this output gap between what our economy is able to produce and what it is producing has cost us $6 trillion in lost economic production. » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 7:49 pm *Best stimulus in the last few years* is a better description of the FICA repeal » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 6:49 pm Actually that’s exactly what modern money is. That’s kind of the point. Neither SS nor Medicare rely on FICA taxes to “pay” for anything. Now when we were on the gold standard that was absolutely the case, but not anymore under a fiat monetary system. Every cent of our national debt is accounted for as a private surplus. Basic accounting. Don’t get me wrong, I was right where you were about a year ago. My initial reaction was “yeah right” or “that sounds like total bullshit”. A year of open-mindedness and study has convinced me otherwise. Best stimulus our economy ever had was the temporary reduction of the FICA tax. People had more actual money to spend and the economy did very well. Now that tax relief has been allowed to expire and now people are having their disposable income disappear as taxes to fund something that doesn’t need their taxes to operate. Now can we give SS recipients a 200% raise tomorrow? Probably not, because now you’d have twice as much money in the system chasing the same amount of goods. This would/could trigger inflation, but only due to the lack of real resources those dollars were chasing, not lack of affordability. » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 6:48 pm Nirek, I’m really glad you enjoyed it! » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 5:18 pm Jack, thanks for your response. Why do you think that we’ll have inflation? Isn’t inflation too much money chasing too few goods? Right now we are awash in goods and people don’t have money to buy them. 10 million people unemployed tells me that we don’t have a problem with inflation right now. I find it interesting that people are worried about inflation that isn’t occurring when we have unemployment destroying lives and communities as we speak. Once we have full employment and real competition for limited natural and labor resources, THEN the government will have to ease up on the money it puts into the economy. Until then inflation is just a pipe dream. The exchange rate can become an issue if the rest of the world decides that it wants other stuff to invest its ultra-safe money needs in. What are they going to choose? The Euro? A floating exchange rate also provides protection even in this unlikely scenario. The exchange rate is a bogeyman that is far less important than inflation. Besides, SS and Medicare don’t actually rely on contributions to make payments. SS sends you your check by crediting your checking account. They don’t wait for more money to come in before they pay you do they? They don’t have to sell more treasury bills to pay grandma do they? Medicare credits your doctor’s bank account. It doesn’t sell t-bills to China and THEN pay your doctor does it? Again, the only constraints that SS and Medicare faces are political and the constraints of real resources that people are going to buy with their money. Thanks again for reading! » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 5:17 pm ST, thanks so much for writing this. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts laid out at length, rather than the sound bite I have become accustomed to over the years. The Military Intelligence Complex is the same creature as the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned us about so many years ago. It is so pervasive, so embedded that it has taken on a life of its own that does not depend on, nor fear the Presidents and Congresses that come and go. That said, it is also tangible foe, and one that can be constrained, electorally and politically. Americans may not feel the impact of building a $5 billion plane, or paying the Taliban not to attack our supply lines, or building a $2 billion dollar submarine or handing out no-bid contracts to cronies, but they ARE aware of their loss of liberties from the Intelligence Complex because it is in their face. It will take citizens shaking off their cynicism and apathy and elected officials brave enough to oversee and clamp down on the worst abuses to solve this problem, but it can be solved. » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 9:08 pm An Open Letter To Any And All “Conservatives” Democratic Presidents (FDR not included) since WW2 have presided over: 1. Better job growth Obviously this is why most conservatives vote for Republicans, and obviously why Nirek asked the question in the first place. » Posted By funksands On June 10, 2014 @ 4:53 pm Incidentally this is the #1 reason why moderates and young people are abandoning the GOP in droves. » Posted By funksands On June 9, 2014 @ 5:08 pm Nirek, unfortunately too much of what passes for conservatives believe have become an issue of faith rather than ideology. Facts, figures, charts, historical examples do not matter to someone who is strong in their faith. You cannot shake their faith and the more you try to do so, the tighter they cling to it. Ideas and positions that in years past a conservative might have typically disagreed with, depending on the situation, are now blasphemy. If you are candidate for office, you MUST repeat the holy words in order to have any hope of being elected. Your actions have much less import. Most conservatives I know ( and I know a whole bunch of them) are for the most part good people. They love their families, their country, they are good neighbors and generally mind their own business. That said, they seem to be very susceptible to the wrong kind of sermons. » Posted By funksands On June 9, 2014 @ 5:07 pm Jack, the United State cannot, at any point, go bankrupt. Unless it chooses to. Also, you’ve been living in a socialist system since the day you were born. I hope this helps you. » Posted By funksands On June 9, 2014 @ 4:56 pm Jack, I don’t think the GOP wants to take health care away from people, but I do think they want to take away health insurance from people. The evidence of 894 votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act is evidence enough. Unfortunately the GOP hasn’t come up with a better strategy to deliver health insurance or health care than their original idea of RomneyCare. When they do, I look forward to debating the merits of that plan. » Posted By funksands On June 9, 2014 @ 4:54 pm The Once and Future Impeachment of Barack Obama Murph, the GOP’s goal is not to “run” the government or “govern” the country using the government apparatus. It is to feed on the commons. The easiest way to weaken he host so it is more easily fed on is to break the public trust in its government So it is easier to feed on the commons. Because why would anyone care about something broken? » Posted By funksands On June 5, 2014 @ 8:15 pm The Death of “A Good Guy With A Gun” Monica, my sad theory about the nature of Americans is that we shine when things break. Until they are broken we seem not to care very much. » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 9:48 pm I would call them because they are my city’s legal crime-prevention and response unit. » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 9:45 pm ST, I’ve “known” you for years and I never knew that. That’s a book I’d like to read someday. » Posted By funksands On June 5, 2014 @ 8:18 pm See? You get it. » Posted By funksands On June 5, 2014 @ 8:13 pm Kes kes kes, you know that the simple solution to this is more good guys with more guns. If EVERYONE has a gun, then the bad guys will be too scared to do anything! » Posted By funksands On June 5, 2014 @ 8:08 pm Ad, the good news is that once a state passes a law mandating that good guys wear white hats and bad guys wear black ones, all of this will be a thing of the past. » Posted By funksands On June 5, 2014 @ 10:44 am One Veteran’s Opinion About the POW Swap “As part of ongoing efforts to urge the Department of Defense to do all it can to find Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl and bring him home safely, Senator Ayotte worked successfully to include a provision in the bill that presses Pakistan to fully cooperate in the search for SGT Bergdahl.” – Press Release from Sen Ayotte’s Office 5/22/2013 From CNN: 2/18/2004 COOPER: Would you oppose the idea of some form of negotiations or prisoner exchange? I know back in 2012 you called the idea of even negotiating with the Taliban bizarre, highly questionable. McCAIN: Well, at that time the proposal was that they would release — Taliban, some of them really hard-core, particularly five really hard-core Taliban leaders, as a confidence-building measure. Now this idea is for an exchange of prisoners for our American fighting man. » Posted By funksands On June 3, 2014 @ 1:24 pm Nirek, thanks for posting this. It’s an interesting situation for sure. Couple of thoughts: 1) Each of the 5 people that we released from Camp X-ray had “served” over 10 years of solitary confinement, force-feedings, and torture without ever being accused of a crime. Looking at the list of those we released, no doubt that most if not all of them were scumbags with some degree of complicity in Taliban atrocities. That said, perhaps they’ve paid their fine to the US. 2) Bergdahl was promoted twice first to specialist, then to Sgt. AFTER he left/was kidnapped from his base. Why would the military do this? Guilty conscience? Cover-up? I just don’t hear of too many promotions given to soldiers who are suspected of being awol, let alone two of them. Regardless of how this turns out, whether he comes home a hero or to a military trial, its never a bad thing to bring a soldier home. I’m glad he’s back regardless of the political narrative being spun about him. » Posted By funksands On June 2, 2014 @ 6:25 pm Huffington Post Finalizes Its Divorce From Its Bloggers Weak » Posted By funksands On June 12, 2014 @ 9:43 pmComments Posted By funksands
Government spending needs to grow to fill that gap.
2. Lower deficits
3. Less national debt (these matter to conservatives)
4. Better stock market performance
5. Faster GDP growth
6. Less inequality
I would be inclined to support such a thing depending on a lot of the details. […]
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