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May 01, 2007 03:34 PM UTC

May Day Open Thread

  • 43 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Let’s not get all Che Guevara about it, though.

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43 thoughts on “May Day Open Thread”

  2. Last month, 104 American soldiers lost their lives so that George Bush’s feewings don’t get hurt. I’m livid. At George Tenet, David Broder and each and every enabler of the worst President in history who has plunged us into the most castastrophic foreign policy debacle in our history.

    This Debacle must be ended. By the Democratic Congress. If there are other options, please advise. Tell me how, again, we can win a civil war that has waged for 1400 years. Democracy in Iraq? The “government” of Maliki has announced it’s taking two months off. 1-2-3-4 What are we fighting for?

    1. “Iraq’s prime minister has created an entity within his government that U.S. and Iraqi military officials say is being used as a smokescreen to carry out an extreme Shiite agenda that is worsening the country’s sectarian divide. . . “

      http://www.cnn.com/2…

    2. This is wrong. Although conflict has occurred between Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims, they have spent an overwhelming amount of time living in peaceful coexistence. If the sectarian divide is so great, why are U.S. policy makers worried about Iran’s (a Shiite country) dominance in the Middle East (which is mostly Sunni)? This “ancient ethnic conflict” excuse is just that: an excuse for the Bush administration’s impotence in preventing sectarian violence. To say these two groups can’t coexist is like claiming Catholics and Protestants can’t coexist.

      Also, while I’m on my soapbox, the Arab-Israeli conflict is not an ancient ethnic conflict either.

      1. 1QD, I think Congress deliberately timed the delivery of the Iraq funding/timetable bill to W’s desk today to concide with that auspicious anniversary…

  3. Why aren’t they holding hearing or investigating the oil companies monopolies?  Gas prices are at $3 a gallon and May just started at this rate will be at $4.00 a gallon by summer. 

    I understood this last year cause the oil companies knew with Republican control they could get away with raping the public at the pump, but now there is no excuse.  As I’ve said before I’ll support whichever presidential candidate is the first to actually do something to lower gas prices, even if its Obama!

    1. will reduce our oil addiction and invigorate broader use of alternative renewable energy sources.  It may be painful for a while, but it is time that we embrace cleaner energy sources.

      1. Forget how this impacts millions of americans across the country who live in areas without light rail or public transportation, forget the small business owners getting squeezed screw um cause they arean’t green enough for you is that it?

        1. the soundest fiscal, foreign, and environmental policy regarding gas prices is to raise them by about 50% with a gas tax, the proceeds of which can then be used to invest in research of alternatives and in state-of-the-art public transportation systems. There should be gas tax exemptions (and possibly even subsidies) for commercial uses of gasoline (which doesn’t include commuting), to buffer (or completely eliminate) the most serious economic downside of such a tax.

          We remain the developed country with by far the lowest gasoline prices and highest gasoline consumption. Many public officials are aware of the fact that, if good public policy were the only consideration, we would be follwing the above-outlined path, but that also have learned that it is political suicide to even mention it.

          We are a wealthy, avaricious, irresponsible people, unwilling to compromise our comfort or convenience even when doing so is clearly the responsible course of action.

          1. is never sound policy!  In theroy you may be right, however no politican has the balls or is stupid enough to try it.  Instead we get pols who look the other way and claim marketforces at work when it is anything but. 

            I stand by my first statement I will vote for whichever candidate Obama even a republican who lowers my gas bill.

              1. The lower and middle class are the ones being squeezed by higher gas prices not the rich.  I’m not sure if you are aware of this or not, but millions of americans all over this country have no choice but to drive.  Most cities and communites don’t offer any alternatives like public transportation and most hybrids are still more expensive then a regular car. 

                1. trap started after WWII with the combined political forces of auto manufacturers, tire companies, highway contractors, and fat wallets of postwar America.  We are on the cusp of paying a HUGE price tag for subsidizing cheap oil, highways, and sprawl all these years.

                  For decades, the left wing “nuts” have been prophesizing that this day would come.  Public transit was always poo-poo’ed, to say nothing of CAFE standards. 

                  As we surf the peak oil tsunami, there will be no more old way of doing business.  It’s going to hurt.

            2. to subsidize cheap, efficient, and environmentally friendly public transportation systems would be a boon for the lower and middle classes, who wouldn’t need to own and maintain cars to get around the region they live in, or even to travel between regions. This isn’t a class issue: It’s a combination of a prisoner’s dilemma and a time horizin problem (We each want what’s good for us individually in the short run rather than what’s good for us collectively in the long run), which is the basic structure of the most daunting, important, and difficult challenges we, as a society, face. I say we begin, at least, to actually face them.

              But, alas, these problems, which few people even identify, are amplified rather than resolved through our political process, which rewards pandering to public caprice rather than acting in the analytically-informed public interest. That’s why we have so many incredibly stupid sacred cows, like low gasoline prices and insane accessibility of firearms, which are so counter-productive to our long-term collective welfare.

        3. If you pay more in gas tax then you can pay less in income tax.  Gas tax you can minimize by your choices, which are also good for the environment and for foreign policy.  Pay less in gas taxes by low gas taxes, pay for war and veteran’s services. 

        4. If you pay more in gas tax then you can pay less in income tax.  Gas tax you can minimize by your choices to use less gas, which are also good for the environment and for foreign policy.  Pay less in gas taxes by low gas tax rates, pay for war and veterans’ medical bills.

    2. Regardless of how one feels about the environmental and economic aspects of high gas prices, I believe our addiction to foreign oil must be addressed because it is a national security issue.  Until we wean ourselves off foreign oil, we’ll continue to be mired in the Middle East trying to sort out Old Testament tribal conflicts and on the receiving end of Islamic attacks.  Our kids will continue to come home in body bags so we can feed our oil monkey.  (Why do the Saudis and Kuwaitis not have troops in Iraq and/or assume responsibility for political stability in the region?)

      We have virtually no long-term friends in the foreign oil market or the Middle East.  I’m old enough to remember the OPEC oil embargo (and oil-fueled hyperinflation from the 70s) brought to us by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and others in the Middle East.  Saudi Arabia brought us Osama Bin Laden and many of the 9/11 terrorists as well as financing Islamic fundamentalists who hate us. Venezuela hates us.  Iran hates us.  Our “friends” in Israel can’t settle their Biblical dispute with the Palestinans and draw us into their conflict over who God gave the desert to and make it impossible for us to reverse our bad relations with oil producing nations.

      Oil prices will continue to climb as China, India and Malaysia become more affluent.  Adding a billion or two new drivers and cars to the world is bound to increase oil demand, raise prices and enrich Hugh Chavez and the Saudi royal family.  IMHO, rising oil/gas prices is not a big oil company conspiracy, it’s just the natural consequence of emerging affluence in China.

      The political problem is that our leaders don’t focus on oil and developing an energy independence plan, but are drawn like moths to high profile social issues with ultimately far less impact on our country — gay marriage, smoking bans, building fences on the Mexican border, AG Gonzales hearings, flag burning, Ward Churchill, etc.

      $5 gas.  That will probably be viewed as a bargain in two years.

    3. Regardless of how one feels about the environmental and economic aspects of high gas prices, I believe our addiction to foreign oil must be addressed because it is a national security issue.  Until we wean ourselves off foreign oil, we’ll continue to be mired in the Middle East trying to sort out Old Testament tribal conflicts and on the receiving end of Islamic attacks.  Our kids will continue to come home in body bags so we can feed our oil monkey.  (Why do the Saudis and Kuwaitis not have troops in Iraq and/or assume responsibility for political stability in the region?)

      We have virtually no long-term friends in the foreign oil market or the Middle East.  I’m old enough to remember the OPEC oil embargo (and oil-fueled hyperinflation from the 70s) brought to us by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and others in the Middle East.  Saudi Arabia brought us Osama Bin Laden and many of the 9/11 terrorists as well as financing Islamic fundamentalists who hate us. Venezuela hates us.  Iran hates us.  Our “friends” in Israel can’t settle their Biblical dispute with the Palestinans and draw us into their conflict over who God gave the desert to and make it impossible for us to reverse our bad relations with oil producing nations.

      Oil prices will continue to climb as China, India and Malaysia become more affluent.  Adding a billion or two new drivers and cars to the world is bound to increase oil demand, raise prices and enrich Hugh Chavez and the Saudi royal family.  IMHO, rising oil/gas prices is not a big oil company conspiracy, it’s just the natural consequence of emerging affluence in China.

      The political problem is that our leaders don’t focus on oil and developing an energy independence plan, but are drawn like moths to high profile social issues with ultimately far less impact on our country — gay marriage, smoking bans, building fences on the Mexican border, AG Gonzales hearings, flag burning, Ward Churchill, etc.

      $5 gas.  That will probably be viewed as a bargain in two years.

      1. What I don’t understand is why past proposals to increase gas taxes were dismissed without serious discussion.  It is much better to increase gas taxes and have the money go to the government than to have high taxes and have the money leave the country.  In 2000 when I lived in Steamboat Springs they were discussing a city property tax and I wrote a letter to the editor and suggested they pass a city gas tax instead, since the tourists would pay half of it, there could be rebates for certain categories of people, and it would encourage people to buy small vehicles etc.  The paper published the letter to the editor but I received negative feedback on the idea. Since then a lot of gas guzzlers were sold in Steamboat.  That is not because of the snow as shown by the fact that in the 70s and 80s there were a lot of small Subarus sold in Steamboat.  My husband bought and drove a VW Beetle there in 1970-71 and he said it was good in the snow.

  4. but I do support moving away from our dependency on oil for all the reasons you name bpilgrim. One thing that would likely have the same result (so I’m loathe to bring it up) is to eliminate tax breaks and subsidies for oil companies.  Why they need tax breaks today is beyond me. As I’ve said before, I don’t understand why the focus is always on the government developing and or investing in alternatives.  There are plenty of potential modern day “green”  Rockefellers who should be able to develop and sell these technologies to the public and plenty of eager buyers dying to live green and save the planet.  The George Soros’ of the world could invest in free market alternative energies and probably make a fortune doing it.

     

    1. So, here we are in 100% alignment, Lauren. 

      Subsidizing a company that makes $36 Billion in a year is absurd and certainly against convservative principles. 

      That Big Oil can’t get the effin’ needle out of its arm to see that they are energy, not oil companies is, well like the tankers they use that can’t turn but in 50 miles of open sea.

    2. From environment.about.com:

      January 19, 2007 – The U.S. House of Representatives, under new Democratic leadership, yesterday passed legislation that would end more than $14 billion in subsidies and tax breaks for oil companies and earmark that money to help develop renewable energy, alternative fuels and conservation technologies.

      The bill is awaiting action and is on the Senate General Calendar.  It is HR6.

      From Yahoo! Stock Picks From the Pros:

      Soros is also exploring plays that will benefit from exploration into alternative energy sources, as the world tries to dig its way out of its dependency on oil. With that in mind, his second largest holding is International Rectifier  (IRF), which is a new position in his latest filing. Soros is a believer in global warming. IRF makes products ranging from power systems to power components and integrated circuits that are used in power management devices.

  5. Yes, I know, I pick on all those poor Republican politicians, but they make it so easy! 

    I can’t link to this AP article, Page 27 in the Snooze today.  Seems that when the Corp of Engineers wanted to buy 34 pumps for New Orleans, they used the specs – complete with a typo – from a company in Florida. Every other pump company was hence locked out from bidding.

    Seems that company used have Jeb Bush on its payroll and is a major Republican contributor. 

    Seems that the pumps don’t work, either.

    When a party doesn’t believe in government except as a resource for enrichment, why would anyone vote for such a party? 

  6. Thanks to the open border policy, endless war debt, and unfair trade agreements suffered unto the Middle Class by the Bush Administration; our numbers are shrinking as we all sink into the abyss of poverty.  Therefore Congressman Kucinich, Americans are desperately looking for bargains and couldn’t you offer us a two-for-one deal on House Resolution 333.  Perhaps you could resubmit the revised document as House Resolution 666.

  7. Today, two retired Generals who led troops in Iraq expressed outrage at the President’s veto of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health, and Iraq Accountability Act.

    These two Generals actually commanded soldiers, in the field, in Iraq!

    The President vetoed our troops and the American people.  His stubborn commitment to a failed strategy in Iraq is incomprehensible.  He committed our great military to a failed strategy in violation of basic principles of war.  His failure to mobilize the nation to defeat world wide Islamic extremism is tragic.  We deserve more from our commander-in-chief and his administration.
    –Maj. Gen. John Batiste, USA, Ret.

    This administration and the previously Republican controlled legislature have been the most caustic agents against America’s Armed Forces in memory.  Less than a year ago, the Republicans imposed great hardship on the Army and Marine Corps by their failure to pass a necessary funding language.  This time, the President of the United States is holding our Soldiers hostage to his ego.  More than ever apparent, only the Army and the Marine Corps are at war – alone, without their President’s support.
    –Major General Paul Eaton

    1. Did General Petraeus really say that?  Or was it Admiral Fallon?

      Oh, damn, that’s right – the flag officers really commanding the war are still wanting to, you know, win the war, not set a timetable for retreat and submit to the same weakass ROEs that got them into the mess requiring the “Surge” operation.

      1. If someone in uniform questions the “Commander”…the “Decider”…they’re fired. Damn…that’s right…Uh, no wait…thats just damn wrong!

      2. What is your winning strategy? Why can we win in Iraq when the Soviets could not win in Afganistan…facing exactely the same kind of situation?….Tell me why we are not looking at the Colombian model?  More than sixty years of internal violence….opportunists exploiting the fight for their own gain…but the violence is institutionalized….and goes on….like those mine fires in PA..

        Flower children used to stand around, drunk and high, and say all you have to do is “believe”….it seems to me you are doing a variation on that…
        “will to win”…How?

        1. You could ask the current General, who actually wrote the book, quite literally, on how to win. 

          (and, much to your chagrin I’m sure, it’s not called “Hope,” it’s called the Counterinsurgency Field Manual)

          He would probably know.

          Though, it is ironic that the same people who rush to call this war a “failure” cling to the words of the Generals who were fired after bringing the war to its current point. 

          1. Short of tripling the occupying forces, it’s lost.  Doesn’t matter how much hope, will, or clapping hands you do.

            We’ve been hearing “six more months” for four years.  We’ve been hearing “things are turning around” as they actually have gotten worse, also for four years.

            No one wants to think that their work is meaningless.  That includes you and me.  Besides unassisted flying, admitting that is one of the hardest things humans can do.  That you don’t want to admit that your work is without value, I understand.  I know, I know, it has value….and that’s exactly my point.

            Tell ya what. I’ll bet you a $1 that this will end similar to Viet Nam, or the British occupation of Mesopotamia, or the Russian occupation of Afghanistan.  After the dust settles, might be one year, might be ten, I’ll give you my PayPal address.

            1. Literally “to the man,” an argument directed not at the counterpoint of one’s own argument, but rather directed at the person making the argument. 

              Now, that could mean my calling you a pompus ass (the general usage), or it could mean you discounting my points because of a 10,000 mile-away psychoanalysis.  It’s essentially the same argument.

              By definition, a fallacious one. 

              I see you making wild claims of defeat.  What do you have to back that up?  I’ve said it many times before – half of the provinces in Iraq are either under direct Iraqi control or are in the process of being so.  On top of that, Ramadi is actually calming down.  The sheiks are turning against AQIZ (Al Qaeda in Iraq) all over the country, especially in Anbar (see previous point re: Ramadi).  Hell, the reports are that it was one of the anti-AQIZ tribal groups that offed Al Masri (the successor to Zarqawi). 

              Or are you going to blame it on the Iraqis themselves?  Say they’re incapable of peace without a strongman like Saddam, and incapable of consentual democratic government, or something racist like that.  Of course, you’d have to ignore a history of Kurdish political maturity, and the fact that a majority-Muslim Turkey just had massive demonstrations on behalf of *maintaining a secular state.*  So there’s that.

              Generals have objectives for victory by which they can measure how close defeat is.  What objectives are you saying aren’t ever going to be accomplished, and what do you have to back that up?  Anything concrete?  Or just a general zeitgeist of defeatism and despair?

              I can tell you what the objective of the Al Qaeda ‘generals’ is – make the Americans run away in defeat.  That’s precisely what the bill that the President just vetoed would have done.  Coincidence?  Hardly. 

              Though you’re right, in that aspect – ignoring our own objectives, and letting the defeatists carry out the enemy’s – it may very well be like the Vietnam War.  The Left will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and destroy the country for decades yet again, and probably even longer.

              The sad thing is, most of them actually WANT a defeated America, meekly bowing at the feet of the “international community,” regardless of whether it’s a consentual and free Europe, or tin-pot dictators and petro-tyrants at the UN – so long as it’s not an American calling the shots, they don’t care who is.

              Real patriots, that lot.

              1. However you think things are going so well, have at it.  All I see is that the body counts of both American soldiers and Iraqi citizens is higher now than it’s ever.  Sure smells like victory, eh?

                Guess Viet Nam made most of my generation forever suspicious of bullshit and occupations. Call me defeatist, whatever makes your dick hard, I don’t care.  History is on my side.

                Is the bet on?

      3. Dear Mr. President,

        Today, in your veto message regarding the bipartisan legislation just passed on Operation Iraqi Freedom, you asserted that you so decided because you listen to your commanders on the ground.

        Respectfully, as your former commander on the ground, your administration did not listen to our best advice. In fact, a number of my fellow Generals were forced out of their jobs, because they did not tell you what you wanted to hear — most notably General Eric Shinseki, whose foresight regarding troop levels was advice you rejected, at our troops’ peril.

        Respectfully,

        Major General Paul D. Eaton, USA, Retired

        Gen. Eaton *was* a flag officer commanding the war.  In fact, we’ve had at least three turnovers of commanding officers since the war started, and one just before the war started.  The reason for the turnovers was the same in each and every case: President Bush didn’t listen to the Generals who were in the best position to know…

    2. the other day that he is at 28% approval.  I would have thought a lot lower, but what I realize is that there is a portion of our voter base that would support ANYbody in authority.

      If you wonder how Hitler came to power, part of the answer is that 28%. Only the nation and time is different.

      Heil Boosh! 

  8. Here’s this so telling and frightening:

    National Review columnist muses about military coup. The National Review is on a roll. Here’s columnist Thomas Sowell: “When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.”

    Kevin Drum writes, “in case you’re wondering, there’s no further context. That’s the whole quote. It’s one bullet point in a long series of dyspeptic observations about how liberals have ruined the country.”

    How liberals have ruined the country! Haven’t Republicans been in control for a dozen years in the House and Senate? Isn’t there a Republican “asleep at the wheel” in the WH? And the Supreme Court? And the press? Who’s ruining the country?

    1. Our Supreme LIberal Agenda was set in place when we outlawed prayer in school.  There was a letter in the News today where some idiot claimed that, despite forty years of prayer being allowed in schools, it just can’t be official. But as is so typical that fool doesn’t understand that, being fully brainwashed by Rush and Hannity.

      Let’s see, then we got birth control legal in Connecticut, and the BC pill.

      Then came the censors with their sweat stained copies of Howl claiming we needed protection from what they had read.  Thankfully, the courts said we had a right to decide what to read.

      Don’t let anyone see that sub-agenda, Gay.

      If you ever see someone riding a horse facing backward, you can be 100% sure it is a conservative. 

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