The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them. -- Lenny Bruce
I picked up a new digital camera today, and have already burned through a set of batteries trying to learn all about it. It has the fancy little USB cable that allows it to upload pictures from the camera directly onto my hard drive, and it’s going to be very helpful when it comes to the upcoming family holidays.
Second, I’ve got another election to work, on November 4th. This isn’t the state-wide kind of election, but one which all of the towns and county (and local bond issues) elections that had been scheduled long before the frantic campaign that put Arnold in the State House get held. But since there aren’t any state-wide issues that are on the ballot this month, it’s just the local issues. Which is going to cause a great deal of voter apathy, and many people didn’t even know that there was another election. The precinct where I’ll be working only has one question.
The gubernatorial recall only had four (three of which were “yes/no” issues), but this is freakin’ ridiculous.
Oh, well, I get paid the same whether we have a massive turnout or none at all. The Registrar’s Office is predicting an incredibly low turnout. I hope we have more than the Hospital Board recall election. (We were there for 13 hours, and only had 19 voters come through the door.)
I other news, I have (how do the professionals put it? Oh, yes...) “formed an exploratory committee to determine what steps would be necessary for my candidacy for the local city council. The members of the council are elected “at large”, rather than from specific districts, so I don’t have to go up against a specific candidate, but that also means that I have to make my presence known to more than just my immediate neighborhood.
I also have to start going to various businesses and local agencies to see if they would be willing to endorse my candidacy.
It’s just the first steps, but “every journey of a thousand miles...” and all that.
Wish me luck!
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David is suing Liza for $10million...no offense but can we sue the both of them for subjecting us to their mugs?
Now, I don’t know if it will indeed fetch $15billion, but when you read this and the fact that Amazon.com has reported positive earnings recently...things aren’t as bad as they seem. Or as bad as we’re told. I never bought the recession argument, maybe a downturn, but not recession.
I haven’t done anything in the markets since 2000, when I saw everything going down, but I think I’ll get back into the swing of things now.
Senator Jay Rockefeller-D-West Virginia
From the Oct 12, 2003 Fox News Sunday
TONY SNOW: OK, I want to get to that. But you’ve laid down a number of factual predicates, and I want to examine them.
Number one, you mentioned twice in your initial answer that the administration talked about an imminent threat. I want you to listen to what the president said in the State of the Union address in 2002 about imminent threat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words and all recriminations would come too late.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Senator, I misspoke. That was this year’s State of the Union address. But the president never argued there was an imminent threat.
ROCKEFELLER: Tony, if you listen to that as an average American person would, you and—at least myself included, that is talking about the danger of an immediate attack. And, in fact, the intelligence committee, the one thing they did not say was that there was—we were in danger of being attacked in this country.
SNOW: But, Senator…
ROCKEFELLER: They did not say that there was…
SNOW: I’m sorry, I just—I don’t—we’ve done a lot of research on this. And the president never said—and we’ve been looking for it because you and a lot of your colleagues have said that he’s proposed—he talked about imminent threat. And he never did. As a matter of fact, the key argument—was it not?—that you can’t wait for it to become an imminent threat because then it’s too late.
Later on....
SNOW: All right, Senator, let me read to you a quote from another speech you attended. As a matter of fact, you gave it a year and two days ago.
You said this: “There’s been some debate over how imminent a threat Iraq poses. I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat.” That’s what you said.
“But I also believe that after September 11th, the question is increasingly outdated. It is in the nature of these weapons and the way they are targeted against civilian populations, the documented capability and demonstrated intent may be the only warning we get. To insist on further evidence could put some of our fellow Americans at risk. Can we afford to take that chance? We cannot.”
What made you change your mind?
ROCKEFELLER: That’s correct. And that is what I felt at the time that I cast that vote, based upon the intelligence community’s analysis of the situation, particularly weapons of mass destruction, and what the president said in his speech.
But the situation turns out not to have been quite like either the intelligence community or the president indicated, and that would be a vote that I would probably not make today, based upon the revelations that there don’t appear, at least at this point, to be any weapons of mass destruction. I’ve heard David Kay a number of times now. He has not indicated that. He’s talking about, you know, perhaps they were all burned up or gotten rid of.
SNOW: OK, let me read another quote from that speech. You talk about Saddam Hussein. You say…
ROCKEFELLER: Which speech? My speech?
SNOW: This is your speech from October 10th, 2002.
ROCKEFELLER: Right.
SNOW: You said, “But this isn’t just a future threat. Saddam’s existing biological and chemical weapons capabilities pose a very real threat to America now. Saddam has used chemical weapons before. He is working to develop delivery systems like missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles that could bring these deadly weapons against U.S. forces and U.S. facilities in the Middle East.”
And that indeed is what David Kay reported to Congress last week, is it not?
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You see, Senator Rockefeller is basing everything on the “imminent threat” issue, which regardless if the President said it or not, should be something to consider. The President is damned if does anything and damned if he doesn’t. He can neither be proactive on the War on Terror in most Donks eyes, nor can he just sit back(like Bill Clinton) and let things happen. So which is it? Either we identify hotspots and take out those in charge(and yes, I advocate taking out foreign leaders without question, should they pose a threat to our national security) or we sit back and let those elements gather money and power and then act surprised when they attack us or our interests again.
I tend to side with the proactive camp and believe taking out Saddam and his regime to be a good thing, regardless of the WMD issue. It shows we’re not a paper tiger and it shows we’re NOT going to take crap from terrorists and terrorist funders like Saddam. The Middle East should also take note of how quickly we disposed of Saddam and his vaunted army, you know, just in case they want to pick a fight.
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