Rumsfeld Tag Page
Sick of Party Politics
Am I the only person sick of Party politics?
Yes, I think one party is better than the other, and I probably agree with 70 - 80% of their platform. But the rhetoric and bashing is driving me crazy. It seems nothing is about what people want anymore, it’s about which …
Life at the Kilbirnie Post Shop, two days on
After the local post office was done over two days ago, by two men, both armed (yes, the MSM got it wrong by saying three men, one armed) there are now some changes. A security guard is now posted at the door and the entrance to the postbox lobby is now permanently locked, with a display stand in the way. But statistically, lightning does not strike twice at the same place. I hate to use this example but a nutter wanting to repeat “a 9-11” would find it awfully hard to have done so on
A Tear in the NATO Bulwark
By Walter Mayr How should NATO approach Russia? Contrary to Germany, the Baltic countries and Poland want to enlarge the alliance to include Georgia and Ukraine. With NATO foreign ministers meeting this week, the alliance has hardly ever been so at odds. The road from “new” to “old” Europe passes through Russia. The 1,795-kilometer (1,115-mile) drive from the Estonian city of Narva through the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and on to Berlin passes through six countries and a divided politi
Just a few questions
Dashiell I watched the unveiling of Barack Obama’s “national security team,” and I have some questions for him. Why is there not a single person on the team who opposed the invasion of Iraq in 2003? I’m not suggesting that every person you appoint should have been right about the war, but I think it’s reasonable to expect at least one non-hawk appointee. One of your main selling points in the campaign was that you were opposed to this war. I don’t see why your appointments shouldn’t reflect that
How does the Cabinet look now?
As I said earlier, I liked Obama’s first pick, Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff. I am not crazy about most of the rest of his picks. It looks more like a rerun of the Bubba Clinton years with the Hill getting a little more official power. Are we better off with this group than the group they will be replacing? The best that can be said for the crop he is assembling is that they do not seem to be overly hard core liberals. After that, it is hard to come up with much positive on most of them.
Obama’s National Security Team: Minions of the New World Order
President elect Barack Obama made choices today for “a broad and diverse team” in Chicago, reports the Associated Press. Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, former Gen. James Jones, Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, and Susan Rice “round” out this “change” team which is, of course, not change but a seamless transition between the Bush neocons and Obama’s decidedly neoliberal choices. Obama announces Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State. Consider the following uncomfor
Book Review: Never Surrender
Back in July I was contacted by a book publishing company asking if I would be interested in doing a book review. They told me that I would be sent the book for free and all I had to do was read it and write a review on my blog. I have to say that I was very flattered and honored. The book is titled Never Surrender: A Soldier’s Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom and was written by LTG (Ret) Jerry Boykin. The name sounded familiar, and after seeing that LTG Boykin spent most of his
Crashing The Gates
Continuing my semi-regular look at some of Obama's cabinet appointments, let's peek at maybe the most controversial, Bush holdover for Secertary of Defense Robert Gates. I would say that Gates has done a competent job during his tenure under pretty hazardous circumstances, and I can see the desire for continuity during two wars. So there's a case to be made for his reappointment, and Brian Katulis, someone I deeply respect, makes it here.The case for Gates goes beyond the obvious question of a
Dep. SECDEF Out
From Defense Link: Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England said today that he will not be staying with Secretary Gates in the Obama Administration. “I congratulate President-Elect Obama for retaining Bob Gates as secretary, and I salute Bob Gates for his continued commitment,” England said. “However, it’s time for me to leave. When I came into government in early 2001, I anticipated serving for two to four years. After almost eight years, it’s now time for me to turn over the reins to a
Finding God And Iraqi Weapons Of Mass Destruction? Easy. Getting Answers From A Library? That’s Hard.
Secular Right points to the case of one Richard Sills, computer scientist, “educator of the decade,” and Republican party stalwart, who is suing the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for an accounting of his donations: Richard Sills — an eccentric educator/scientist/poet who has run for president — has filed suit against the Great Communicator’s foundation for allegedly keeping him in the dark about what it’s doing with his money … Sills, a computer scientist, offers up his scientific proof
Obama’s Naming Hillary a PLOY?
OBAMA-HILLARY COALITION By DICK MORRIS Published on TheHill.com on December 2, 2008 To understand the central dynamic behind Obama’s unorthodox selection of Hillary Clinton as his secretary of State, one must look abroad to parliamentary political systems where the most powerful opposition figure routinely becomes prime minister when his party wins a majority, while the second most potent politician is usually named the foreign minister. That’s the model. Obama’s selection of Hillary is by
My Office on Wednesday…
My Office on Wednesday…, originally uploaded by Chris Abraham. I was visiting a friend in hospital all day today so my make-shift office ended up being in a lunch room in a hospital ward, perched on a hard chair where I could reach the plug because my lovely Nokia N95 8GB can’t keep a charge. So, here I was in the corner, trying to pay attention to our weekly Business Development (BD) call and I couldn’t, so I put my laptop between my feet and focused on the call with my partner
In the Context of an American Empire [Empire or Humanity]
I SEEM TO HAVE A HABIT of getting overwhelmed by blogging and disappearing just as, or the day after, a link from a larger site brings in a huge influx of readers, at least for a day. I don’t think this is an entirely accidental habit of mine. Sometimes I feel it’s a good way to directly counter that impulse that gets you compulsively or needlessly checking stats and writing to a number, rather than to your heart and mind’s impulses. But I’m also busy right now with a few different things, so I
Still Hope For Progressives
By Ben Cohen Robert Scheer is still hopeful that Obama will provide the change he promised: Yet, it all does hang on him. Yes, Obama. The superstar, and not that supporting cast of retreads from a failed past that have popped up in his administration in the making. Now that we have the list of his top economic and foreign policy picks--mostly a collection of folks who wouldn't know change if it slapped them upside the head--we've got to hope that it's Obama who is using them, and not the other
Is our presidents learning?
I suppose everyone has a punch-the-wall-with-your-face moment in this interview. Here's mine:GIBSON: You said you were not going to be in the business of nation-building. And so much of what you had to do was nation-building.BUSH: Well, what I said was, in the course of a debate, I said the military shouldn't be used to build nations. In this case, it turns out the military, in my judgment, was needed to remove threats to our security, and after that removal, the military, as well as our diplom
Olbermann: Bill O’Reilly ‘disagrees with Bill O’Reilly’ about ‘mistreatment’ at Guantanamo Bay.
On Monday, ThinkProgress caught Bill O’Reilly claiming that there is “no proof” that detainees were ever abused at Guantanamo Bay, despite the fact that both the FBI and the Red Cross have documented abuse at the prison. On MSNBC’s Countdown last night, Keith Olbermann pointed out that O’Reilly is also contradicting himself when he says that there is no proof of abuse at Gitmo: OLBERMANN: That kind of contradicts this is quote from somebody who visited Gitmo in June of 2005. “There have been
Palin Power: Denying It
Donald Rumsfeld’s much-maligned but actually rather insightful quote about known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns should be considered a great deal more often than it is. And when shilling for a candidate that you like, taking advantage of people’s ignorance (assuming that you aren’t the ignorant one yourself, of course) can be a mighty fine tool in boosting said candidate. Kristofer should probably consider a job in spin tactics for the Palin 2012 campaign, if he’s not already angl
Gates has much to navigate in new administration
New administration, old problem for Gates. WASHINGTON (CNN) – Since 2006, he has garnered an image of fixing problems at the Pentagon — he was the anti-Rumsfeld, and his time was to be short. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates now faces a host of issues he thought he would be leaving behind as the [...]
Reluctant defense secretary ‘impressed’ with Obama
WASHINGTON (CNN) — President-elect Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates may have policy differences, but Gates said Tuesday he was “impressed” by statements Obama has already made on issues such as the Iraq War. A day after reluctantly agreeing to remain as secretary of defense in the incoming administration, Gates, 65, said he looked forward to taking an active stance on several key issues. “I spent a long time hoping the question would never be popped … and then yesterday, it
Surprise: Nixon was a crook and a liar...
The National Archive has released new Nixon tapes that continue to underscore why our "national nightmare" never ended, not that we need any additional confirmation given the number of Nixon officials installed into the Bush White House. Here is what NBC has transcribed thus far: Here are some examples, both previously released and from today's new batch. (The last two are new today.): -- On July 1, 1971, Nixon instructs Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman to have someone break into the Brookings Insti
Pakistan- mumbai attacks!
Cut and paste job yes...but interesting read nonetheless!!! Last Wednesday evening, a group of Islamist operatives carried out a complex terror operation in the Indian city of Mumbai. The attack was not complex because of the weapons used or its size, but in the apparent training, multiple methods of approaching the city and excellent operational security and discipline in the final phases of the operation, when the last remaining attackers held out in the Taj Mahal hotel for several days. Th
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