Rex Kickass

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 23, 2009 -> 11:50 AM) Yeah. For about 5 years there after they both tested their bombs, they were at each other's throats and probably the only thing that stopped them from actually having another war was international intervention. But especially now with the government instability in Pakistan...that situation has perhaps the highest potential for absolute disaster of anywhere in the world. Edit: And that doesn't take in to account the increased possibility of a mistake. I don't disagree that a nuclear Pakistan is a bad thing. I do, however, feel that mutual nuclear proliferation has led to a more stable relationship between India and Pakistan over the last 15 years, and I feel it exclusive to that relationship only.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 23, 2009 -> 12:39 PM) I knew someone would say this. With that said, NOTHING done after the election was done without direct knowledge and approval from Obama's staff. That's a load of horsecrap kap. Things were done without direct knowledge and approval frequently - that's done with every administration. Is it possible that Obama knew about this? Yes. Is it possible that Bush knew about this? Yes. Is it possible that it was a snap decision from Paulson? Very yes. I understand wanting to forget about the last 8 years, but moving the goalposts back to November 2008 is just ridiculous.

It's a scary situation, and it could be the very reason why we need to get combat forces out of Iraq, unfortunately.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 23, 2009 -> 10:40 AM) According to the BAC CEO, the Obama administration forced his company to choose between breaking the disclosure to shareholders law, and keeping quiet about the problems at Merrill. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124045610029046349.html Paulson was Bush's Secretary of Treasury, not Obama's. And this testimony was given in February - although its entirely possible that in the five full days of the Obama administration that this conversation happened where Geithner was not yet sworn in - I'm guessing that wasn't the case.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 22, 2009 -> 07:47 PM) There are zero situations which are made better by the presence of additional nuclear armed countries. Ummm, India-Pakistan was actually made more stable, not less by nuclear proliferation.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 22, 2009 -> 10:05 AM) Gotcha. Europe has a wonderful system. Speaking of which, airfare to Germany from Dallas ROUND TRIP is $360. If I were working, I would be there next weekend for a weekend trip with that kind of price. Virgin Atlantic and British Airways both have had NYC-London fares that when you take away taxes and fees are $76-99 roundtrip in the last month.

She looks tired.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 21, 2009 -> 10:38 PM) I love the hard on you get every time Rush Limbaugh gets brought up. OOOHHHHH.. HEHEHE LOOKIE! The whole argument about the "de facto" leader is preposterous. It's even more preposterous that every time a Republican "leader" mentions him as anything less than that, he seems forced to apologize within 24 hours.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 04:59 PM) Re point #1 - the problem is, sir, NO ONE in the world will play by the rules but us, so what's the point? Do you think Mr. Chicomm gives a s*** about an American and his "rights" if we ever got into a war with them? GMAFB. And the world is full of roses. I guess that's my point. None of our enemies play by the rules. I'm not for 285 times or whatever it was, if that's really true. But if there are lives to be saved, then you have to do some things that you don't want to do as a government. I have a feeling that some of this stuff was cherry-picked to make it look like something else. If you're going to cherry pick s*** to release, release it all. Re point 2 and 3 - these people seize on this stuff as weakness, not strength. I'll get more into that later. Re point #1: When you are the big dog, you have to set an example. If you play rough the smaller dogs play rougher to get your attention. Re point 2 and 3 - the stuff we are doing is as much for our more squeamish allies to get back on our side than it is for the people we are fighting against. Every action has a reaction and consequences. The message might be directed at Head of State X, but it might really be meant to be heard by States L,M and N and the people of Y and Z. We need to find a balance between being too soft and too hard. I think a part of what you're seeing is the pendulum swinging back to something more reasonable than what we've seen. Given that we've had a rather extremist policy in the last six years (and the truth is, if our policy was matched by a country we aren't friendly with, it would indeed be considered extreme,) its not surprising that seeing a more rational face in politics seems a bit shocking.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 03:02 PM) Tens of thousands of signs posted for a span of several miles? Did you check out the video? I did, we would regularly put up 250-500 signs in a single traffic circle. Every night - as stress relief. It wasn't that ridiculous, but it was a lawn sign every five to ten feet for about a quarter mile.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Apr 20, 2009 -> 10:42 AM) Excellent use of campaign funds. I used to do stuff like that a lot when I worked on campaigns. Lawn signs were always the worst.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 19, 2009 -> 04:13 PM) Well, we'll go back to this... what's "torture"? And no one ever said that this guy got "beat senseless", your words, not mine. What are the negative consequences you speak of? That they recruit terrorists? Oh, wait, 3,000 people dead isn't enough - oh, now I'm "fear mongering"... and "we're supposed to be better then that". I've said it before, I'll say it again - Mr. Dickhead Zubaydah lost his "rights" when he wanted to kill more, and he beheaded Americans for the world to see. I'm supposed to cry about this guy getting waterboarded? Hell no. Let me take a different tact. What does waterboarding a handful of known leadership of terrorist networks do to our country? What good does it do to release memos about "supposed" questionaire techniques? What good does it do to go to foreign soil and say "I am Barack Hussein Obama and not Beorge W Bush"? What does our country do if attacked again? I'll start with these questions and try to be a good boy and debate the issues without Kaperbole ™. 1. What does waterboarding do? It helps set a precedent of what is acceptable to do. If we use what we would consider to be torture to our own soldiers on foreign prisoners, we have to be willing to accept it performed on our soldiers when captured in battle. When we view something of this nature as acceptable, we give cover to other states who torture equally or worse. As one of the leaders on this planet, we have an obligation to play better than the other, lesser players - because our behavior does help many other states stay in check. Not waterboarding KSM may not have an effect on Al-Qaeda, but it might on how the Chinese may treat us if we ever fight them, or on how another state might treat our soldiers when they get in harm's way. 2. What good does it do to release memos? Transparency is important for own peace of mind domestically. If all it does is confirm the suspicions of critics of our past actions, it takes steps to atone for the missteps that we have made and also to help lessen tensions - in a "turning over a new leaf" kind of sense. 3. What good does it do to differentiate administrations on foreign soil? A lot actually. Our path to combatting transglobal terrorism becomes easier when two things happen - some degree of goodwill is generated between other countries and us, and also when anger and hatred on the streets that foment terror is lessened. Hard to convert hearts and minds, when they are much more ambivalent on the US then they have been in recent years. It's not a total solution by any means towards ending terrorism as a serious threat, its an extremely complex situation that requires a number of avenues to fight it. What Obama has done in the last couple months abroad has the potential to be very good for the foreign relations of the US down the line, but only if its followed by the right steps afterwords. Will those happen? Frankly, nobody on this board knows for sure, but Obama seems to be heading in the direction of having a level headed foreign policy. Less anger tossed indiscriminately, more focus on the places that need it. In the end, I think Obama is a bigger hawk than anyone here gives him credit for - and frankly, I'd be surprised if there aren't US soldiers doing major operations in Northwest Pakistan before the next Presidential election.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 17, 2009 -> 12:08 PM) I was hoping a Lennon fan would come along Imagine that. Well, I was Watching The Wheels spin by and decided to spout off some Instant Karma. Anyway, time for lunch. Today I'm Giving Peas A Chance.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 17, 2009 -> 12:03 PM) At least he isn't bigger than Jesus... Only the Beatles can claim that.

You can make the argument that the area along the CT and VT state lines could easily be described as New England - much of Westchester county for example feels like New England.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 17, 2009 -> 08:04 AM) Sounds exactly like the immigration rallies that were played up to be so noble and patriotic to me. Most political theater is useless and sponsored by people who's views are really at its base pretty radical and tasteless. This is no exception to that rule.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Apr 17, 2009 -> 01:16 AM) Well, maybe she wouldn't have gotten insulted so much if she didn't go around asking people their opinion and then insult them by calling them practically stupid because they have different views than her. Two minutes on YouTube doesn't describe her whole day. Again, I'm not excusing her actions. They were unprofessional at best - but I wouldn't go so far as to call her a fraud of a journalist. It's no different than asides and comments I have a tendency to have heard from other anchors and reporters on other networks (from both sides of the aisle).

I'm kinda feeling the new Peter Bjorn and John... and way excited for the new Phoenix album after their SNL performance the other week.

Chicagoist.com may also be a good resource.

Vermont is fun in the summertime, lots of easy hiking - and the ability to basically get a ski lodge all to yourself for something like 50 dollars a night make it worth visiting. I used to head up that way around Labor Day every year for some hiking and relaxing.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 16, 2009 -> 07:49 PM) she's a fraud of a journalist, no doubt. CNN has been a Democrat party mouth peice for a long time. Or she might have had a s***ty day with an assignment she didn't want and people insulting her very presence - I wouldn't go so far as saying that she's a fraud. Given that so many of these teabag affairs were actually hosted by Fox personalities, I'd be willing to wager that she encountered a pretty hostile crowd - not that this is any excuse. Still pretty unprofessional, and if I was her boss, I'd suspend her for what she said - at least. Just not right.

QUOTE (DanksFan @ Apr 16, 2009 -> 05:51 PM) A lot of the Tea parties were affiliated with the Campaign for Liberty and also about how lame the Fed is. I am totally down with any rally against the Federal Reserve. Some may have misconstrued the points, but even if it was 250,000 nationwide... thats a LOT of people going out of their way to express their distaste with the way things are run. Originally I thought it was a bunch of Republicans complaining about Democrats, but this is the real deal. These are real people who are just sick of phony politics... cheers to them! I'm sure that many of these people who have chosen to protest have valid reasons to do it. But to say it was full of phony politics when the organizers are talking about how decentralized it was and yet there seemed to be a prominent Fox News personality at every major one seems a bit disingenous to say that phony politics aren't in play. And the truth is, the organizers do matter for me. I wanted to go protest the war in Iraq in 2003. Til I found out who was behind the protests - and I couldn't get behind the extremists that are behind it. And given who was behind so many of these protests and the things they represent, its hard for me to take those views terribly seriously anyway.

Actually the line from Chicago to Detroit would be the most cost effective area to do it as Amtrak already owns a good chunk of the line. It seems that the bulk of the costs would come from electrifying the line as well as building over and underpasses to eliminate grade crossings. 150 mph trains are a great idea, just not when they are having truck traffic crossing it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 16, 2009 -> 11:48 AM) I'm from Indiana, I can't look down on anyone! You know Indiana is bad when I considered moving to New Jersey to be a step up.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 15, 2009 -> 04:49 PM) I'll take your side. How about Bosnia in 1998? How about a few lobbed missles at Iraq during the same time? Wag the Dog... You're right. But, I think the stakes are a lot different. Actually during the Clinton administration, the US bombed Iraqi targets on an average of once every five days.