The DMV is so insidious. They are allowed to tax used property sales.

But it seems like we didn't have any such problem waiting to
organize against the threat in Afghanistan. American forces have provided
less than half of the occupying force there since at least May 2002,
according to CENTCOM. We took the time to build a convincing case and
enlist the economic and military support of our allies, and it's worked
out pretty well.
In Iraq, we rushed in essentially on our own, and now we're stuck
there essentially on our own (we have, what, about 125,000 troops there,
while the Brits have maybe 12-14K . . . the Dutch and Polish presence is
even smaller, and it sounds like the Japanese are all in Qatar & Kuwait).
I think back to late 2002 when polls showed that about 25-30% of
the American public disapproved of invading Iraq. Bush dismissed this
minority as insignificant. At the same time, however, his international
coalition only constituted about 25-30% of the members of the UN, and this
somehow represented a mandate. (Yes, I realize that support from Britain
is different from support from Slovenia, but I think it's still an
interesting point to consider.)
Anyway, I think we can all agree that we want our boys home as
soon as possible. I'm from San Diego and have family friends (in the Navy
or Marines) who were sent to Iraq at one time or another in the past 18
months. Just want everyone back safe.

 

<snip>

Nope. His name was actually Tytler, but he never wrote this or
anything like it. This quote appears to have been made up -- probably
some time in the 1970's -- and has been circulating ever since. See:
http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/faqs/parqs.shtml#Aftytler1

Whether the subject quote has meaning, of course, depends on your
political disposition to some extent. The quote loses some of its
credibility when attributed, more appropriately, to "Anonymous," but
I'm sure it resonates with many people -- principally conservatives.

They should be wary, though, of these thoughts and ideas that are just
a little too politically convenient. Much of the alleged Tytler quote
is just plain wrong. First of all, the average age of the world's
great civilizations is more in the range of 1000+ years -- not 200
years. Second, the sequence of bondage to spiritual faith to courage,
etc. is not supported by any particular historical analysis -- it's
just "feel good" history, not fact. Third, the "collapse" of
historical democracies (e.g., the Athenian Republic, which is often
what this quote supposedly refers to) have *not* been due principally
to "loose fiscal policy" and people voting themselves "largesse" from
the public treasury. If you read Tytler's _Universal History..._,
you'll see he discusses the Athenian Republic and the reasons for its
decline. The reasons weren't "loose fiscal policy" and government
handouts -- instead, according to Tytler, it was corrupt government
officials, complacency, and getting into a war for which they were
woefully unprepared.

So my point is that even though the alleged Tytler quote fits in quite
nicely with the ideology of many conservatives, they do themselves a
disservice by using it because it's more historical fiction than
historical fact.

Again, another big NOPE. Joseph Olson had nothing whatever to do with
these statistics or the quotes attributed to him. Someone just made
this stuff up and added his name to it.

These are actually right, more or less, with the exception that the
final state-counts were Gore = 20, Bush = 30. Of course it's only the
electoral college numbers that mean anything... dirt doesn't vote.

These numbers are just plain wrong. Someone made them up. If
you actually take the trouble to gather the data and calculate the
rates, you find:

Gore counties = 6.5
Bush counties = 4.1

Not such a big difference. See:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp

Further, it's possible to recalculate the averages and compare only
the high-population-density counties won by Bush to the
high-population-density counties won by Gore -- doing so makes
the difference essentially disappear (Bush = 7.0, Gore = 7.5). So
in other words, the observed difference in murder rates is largely
due to the fact Gore won more of the urban counties while Bush won
more of the rural and suburban areas.

None of this says ANYTHING AT ALL about whether Gore voters are more
crime-prone than Bush voters. Based on exit-poll demographics, I'd
say it's likely there's not much difference (if any) in crime rates
between these two voter groups. By and large, criminals don't vote
all that much (along with about half of all potential voters...).

Again, Olson had nothing to do with this. Further, you should
consider the demonstrable fact that Bush won most of the states that
*get* more money from the federal government than they pay in taxes
while Gore won most of the states that pay more than they get. That
doesn't seem consistent with this idea that the people in the Gore
territory are living off the hard-working folks in the Bush territory.
See:
http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/hweisberg/conference/Lacy-OSUConf.PDF

-Mike P.

 

That is because France, Germany and Russia weren't getting special oil
deals and kickbacks from the Afghans as there were from the Iraqis.

We had not choice as the other major members of the UN security council
were getting deals and kickbacks from Hussein. This has been pretty
well documented.

On this last paragraph we agree.

Matt

 

How we gonna do that . . . screw 'em? -Dave

 

If Clinton had only ENFORCED THE LAW passed by the Congress
and signed by him in 1998 to rid Iraq of the weapon of mass
destruction by any means, that Iraq SAID they had as part of
the first Gulf War's ceasefire, we would not be having this
discussion. The good news is, no matter how much they bash Bush
with all the half truths and rewrites of history, Bush
will be re-elected and we will intimately win the war on the
worlds terrorist.


mike hunt

 

It's just like paying for your credit card payments with your other
cards. Eventually something gives and the whole house of cards falls
apart.

People wonder why California is bankrupt. Maybe the 2-3 billion
a year in interest payments for our past initiatives has something
to do with it(all bonds, no less). That's a heavy burden for
things that we didn't have the foresight to save for and buy
outright - but wanted NOW - and on credit, no less.

 

Another idiot liberal spews forth that which his media tells him is
the truth....

More than 80 nations joined forces against Iraq. That's half the
world. Of course to liberals with an IQ around 3, if france and
germany say no we shouldn't do it.