The problem is, no matter what Obama suggests people do, the Republicans have become a party that treats every suggestion for the common good as a direct attack on their personal liberty. During the campaign, Obama suggested that an easy thing Americans could do to help with fuel efficiency was check the tire pressure on their car. Simple. Think of your tires like tits and keep them inflated.

But, that's asking Americans to DO something. "Inflate my tires? F**k you! Get me more oil!" "And don't even suggest you're going to screw with my ability to cheat on my taxes." Yes, this week, the president had the audacity to suggest that billion-dollar corporations with fake offices in the Bahamas be taxed at the higher rates of "not being allowed to steal anymore."

You've heard of "opposite marriage"? They're practicing "opposite patriotism." This last Earth Day, Rush Limbaugh celebrated by praising coal-fired power plants and the plastic bag, while Glenn Beck cheered a man on while he cut down trees. You know, not really an ideology here. Just being a d*ck.

You know, when the president suggests things that will help the greater good, that's not a slight against your fragile manhood. I know, I know, you're a rugged individualist. Except you're not. You're just a d*ck. And never called out on it.

Going back to Reagan, all of our leaders have told us, the people, that government is always the problem. Never YOU, my precious, perfect American citizen. You are always perfect just the way you are, like a precious, little snowflake.

A beautiful, precious, 350-pound, pig-ignorant snowflake.

TenuredVulture wrote:

drsmooth wrote:

CrashburnAlley wrote:Sean Hannity is such a clown.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch.v=isv8f_h_0jM[/youtube]

# of things wrong with what he and his guest said: everything.

Hannity - a face made for punching

there's tons of dead air on any tv network/channel, and fox clearly is no exception

Sometimes, I think about Jesus, and how he acted. And according to The Bible, he really didn't have much use for the Pharisees, and preferred the company of prostitutes and tax collectors and lepers and such. It just makes me think.

gr wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:

drsmooth wrote:

CrashburnAlley wrote:Sean Hannity is such a clown.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch.v=isv8f_h_0jM[/youtube]

# of things wrong with what he and his guest said: everything.

Hannity - a face made for punching

there's tons of dead air on any tv network/channel, and fox clearly is no exception

Sometimes, I think about Jesus, and how he acted. And according to The Bible, he really didn't have much use for the Pharisees, and preferred the company of prostitutes and tax collectors and lepers and such. It just makes me think.

tom waits is God?

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

One participant, Felix Arce, 16, said he liked “the discipline of the program,” which was something he said his life was lacking. “I want to be a lawyer, and this teaches you about how crimes are committed,” he said.

Cathy Noriega, also 16, said she was attracted by the guns. The group uses compressed-air guns — known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets — in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range.

“I like shooting them,” Cathy said. “I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”

Werthless wrote:

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Kent.) made quite a bit of news on his morning conference call with Kentucky reporters.

The 77-year-old former Big League fireballer started by saying that fellow Kentuckian Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, had told him “I was too old and I couldn’t win.”

Bunning went on to tell reporters that McConnell was a "control freak" and said he would be better off without the leader's endorsement back in the Bluegrass, according to Lexington-Herald Leader blogger/editor John Stamper. [McConnell has been mum on the endorsement issue.]

According to a person who was monitoring the call, Stamper followed up on the age quote by asking Bunning to release his medical records to show he was fit to serve.

This didn't sit well.

Bunning, who wasn't afraid to brush back hitters during his Hall of Fame career, quickly retorted by asking Stamper: "How big are you?"

Stamper, our source says, made light of it by asking Bunning if he was challenging him to arm wrestle.

So who is General Stanley McChrystal? He is the former leader of our most highly trained soldiers. He has an unmatched record of success in counterterrorism. He has, more than any other general in recent American history, brought together the military and intelligence communities to produce battlefield results. He is by all accounts acutely intelligent, in possession of both strategic and tactical vision, and manifestly capable of inspiring those under his command to achieve great things against long odds.

McChrystal is also ethically burdened by his ties to the torture of prisoners in Iraq. And in the military, ethical burdens can quickly become professional ones. (In light of this, it is worth noting the dates of McChrystal's appointment and President Obama's decision not to release more photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq: May 11 and 13, respectively.) Under McChrystal's command, JSOC soldiers have crossed international boundaries — violating international law in doing so — and killed innocent civilians. These actions may well be unavoidable given the circumstances of the wars in which the U.S. is engaged, but because they fall outside the traditional moral and political rules of war, their effects are much harder to predict and control. Who would have thought, on the morning of 9/11, that within the decade our own soldiers would be called terrorists by the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq?

Above all, however, is this fact: Stanley McChrystal is now the man in charge of winning the war in Afghanistan — or, more accurately, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is the belief of many exceptional people, including the president, General Petraeus, and Secretary Gates, that he is the person most likely to be able to do so. The question is how. Will he adopt and expand our current efforts at counterinsurgency? Or does his appointment signal that the war is shifting back toward its original goals — the hunting and killing of Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders? The latter seems likely: both groups have resurged in the region over the past three years. And if that is the case, there are few endorsements of the general more concrete yet ambiguous — alternately more encouraging and disturbing — than that of a former colleague who publishes under the pen-name Dalton Fury. The ex-Army Ranger recently wrote of his one-time boss:

From my perspective, our rules of land warfare, our respect for human life, and our strategic constraints handcuff us to the point that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable. But, with LTG McChrystal at the helm now all bets are off.

kruker wrote:This is the summary of an Esquire article on Gen. McChrystal, new boss in Afghanistan.

Link

From my perspective, our rules of land warfare, our respect for human life, and our strategic constraints handcuff us to the point that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable. But, with LTG McChrystal at the helm now all bets are off.

None of this sits very well with me, but I suppose that's not a realistic expectation for a solution at this point.

Werthless wrote:

kruker wrote:This is the summary of an Esquire article on Gen. McChrystal, new boss in Afghanistan.

Link

From my perspective, our rules of land warfare, our respect for human life, and our strategic constraints handcuff us to the point that the war in Afghanistan is unwinnable. But, with LTG McChrystal at the helm now all bets are off.

None of this sits very well with me, but I suppose that's not a realistic expectation for a solution at this point.

I certainly didn't think this was going to be the change in policies that the Obama administration would bring. I thought "win at all costs" was more of a Bush thing.

Werthless wrote:Also, though I vow to never actually link a Maureen Dowd column, I think the honeymoon is over. Her latest column is the closest thing to a criticism you can expect from her, as she composed a tired satire about this being Cheney's third term.

Harpua wrote:

Werthless wrote:Also, though I vow to never actually link a Maureen Dowd column, I think the honeymoon is over. Her latest column is the closest thing to a criticism you can expect from her, as she composed a tired satire about this being Cheney's third term.

I wonder if she also plagiarized in that column.