I don’t mean to raise a big stink,
but i think that most liberals are
prone to be vegans.
The conservatives know where’s the beef.....

pete

Flatus contains methane which is very explosive!
Be careful lighing up while passing flatus!
Good thing that cows dont smoke ;)

That should read.. Be careful LIGHTING up.

>Since studies indicate the flatulence of
>bovines create a substantial portion of
>the gasses credited to global
>warming,the blame for the warming must
>be placed upon the vegeterians .Kill
>more animals and decrease global
>warming!  Everytime a cow passes
>gas,another polar bears falls into the
>sea

To paraphrase Howling Wolf, I eats more meat than any man ever seen. So I do my part.

> Maybe even our philosopher Ojars the
>Blind can hold only the tail of a
>cow(not elephant) and get a dose of
>reality.

Now that’s a mental image none of us need.

>Actually everyone is pro-wealth provided
>they have wealth “distributed”
>to them instead of being required to
>follow the process to earn it.They only
>become anti-wealth when the
>"haves" decline to distribute
>to the “have-nots”.

As I wrote earlier, this is where the silly part begins. Most people I know follow the process. They go to their jobs, put in their hours and collect their paychecks. They only start becoming anti-wealth when their paychecks continue to shrink, while the profits of the companies for which they put in those hours and the paychecks of their superiors continue to grow.

>The risk takers do not wrap themselves
>in red flags ,the red flags keep warm
>the ones demanding
>"distribution" of others’
>wealth.

I take risks everyday and only demand that others stop distributing my wealth. Thankfully, due to global warming I don’t have to worry about getting cold.

>Wrong Dennis Andrej, I was referring to
>Dennis Kucinich(D-Ohio).

And I was refering to the last two Republican speakers. I’ll take Dennis with a K over them too.

Andrejs, taker of risks

Edigu ~ The only wise policy post 9/11 would have been a band of well trained commandos to take out Osama bin laden within a couple years and put all our resources behind those efforts.  But because the bin ladens have been Bush business buddies for many years - he got a free pass.

How blind you right wing guys are. We spend billions on foreign intelligence and have sattelites that can spot a gnat on a mules ass from the sky but can’t find one guy in 6 years.  Give me a break.

How blind you right wing guys are. We spend billions on foreign intelligence and have sattelites that can spot a gnat on a mules ass from the sky but can’t find one guy in 6 years. Give me a break.

jvc

/////////////////////////////////////
We have the best intel we can buy,
or do we.............
Imagine this, our new SecDef, the same guy
who oversaw Iran-Contra affair, says that
a failure in Iraq would constitute a
calamity.
We have already failed three years ago.
What’s this guy been smoking?

pete

PS.  I’d be just as critical of democrats.
Let’s suppose Clinton would have pulled a boner…

Hmmm… looks like Latvia doesn’t lack for risk takers.

Andrejs

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=11592&sectionID=74

Love from Latvia for Bush

by Christopher Fons; December 08, 2006

When George Bush finds himself isolated from all others as a last resort he can always call Vika Vira Freiberga, the President of Latvia, for “love.” Most recently this was done on November 28, 2006 where George Bush used the NATO meeting in “new Europe” in Riga, Latvia as the stage for the last act of his tragedy being played out in Iraq. The venue was the University of Latvia where Bush invoked the history of freedom and occupation in the 20th century.  The choice of Latvia is instructive and ironic.  On the surface the country appears to be prosperous and free.  Fueled by Russian offshore oil money at $60-$70 plus a barrel and ill-gotten gains seeking safe tax-free offshore outlets from the East, Latvia’s economy since 2003 has surged forward.  Moreover, recent EU membership in 2004 brought speculative capital flooding in from the West, where the Maastricht criteria creating an overvalued Euro have sent Western capital racing East to speculative markets over investment in the real economy, thus depressing West European growth.  Further, as anyone who has visited Riga can attest, the city boasts one of the largest concentrations of beautiful art nouveau buildings in Europe, thus helping to create a vibrant tourist industry. Yet, for all these advantages, not all glitters in Latvia, or even Riga. 

Latvia’s neoliberal theme park for foreign investors fashioned by Washington Consensus policies has a dark side.  The country has the lowest labor productivity of all 25 EU nations.  Moreover, it has poorest labor safety record in the EU. Labor union rates are among the lowest in the EU.  This is matched by towering rates of alcoholism, with men dying at 60, thus having returned to 19th century mortality levels.  Drug resistant drug-resistant TB also thrives in a population where the population is collapsing as deaths far outpace births—a pattern reversed from the Soviet period.  Pensioners live in abject poverty.  Also, more Latvians have fled Latvian poverty to “old Europe” since independence than Stalin ever deported. 

Furthermore, as any one who has visited Riga knows, its women sparkle. Yet, this has created a raging sex stag tourist trade fueled by cheap Ryanair flights.  One UNDP report cites over 15 thousand women a year from the former USSR are being trafficked West through Riga each year to points West.  Additionally, only Soviet levels of distortion could permit its government to be characterized as a democracy.  Its elected government functions as an electoral oligarchy (or grabocracy) in which shifting constellations of interests form parties in order to get more than their share--to be fair, many unelected officials in the bureaucracy are honest and talented.  These rarely rise to the top.

This is the democracy George Bush celebrated and hailed in Latvia for his NATO visit.  Its economy is open to foreign penetration and it supports the US mission in Iraq.  There are many good things in Latvia to highlight, but to be sure the only two the Bush administration is really interested in are the two cited above, in addition to the obvious point of seeking legitimacy for his war.  Reflecting the opinions of their public, many in Western EU nations (“old Europe”) continue resisting Bush’s neoliberal program and the Iraqi adventure.  Latvia and Estonia where Bush just stopped are part of the new improved Europe, where its electoral oligarchies reject public opinion on the economy and Iraq.  Indeed, some 70% of Latvians have consistently opposed the Iraq war.

Just as Latvia superficially appears well, so does Bush’s use of history appear sound, until one looks more closely.  Invoking Yalta, Bush used the cover of Europe’s post-war division to justify democracy promotion in the Middle East.  Yet, in the case of the Middle East the US has been a major source of instability in at least two ways.  First, in its cooperation with Britain to overthrow the Middle East’s first democracy in 1953 in Iran, and second, with is support of Israel since 1967 with the failure of the latter to return the occupied West Bank to Palestinians. 

Since then the US has relied on Britain, with Blair serving as the loyal butler to Bush, while the Latvian government (not its people) has thrown their support to the Bush administration.  Reasonable observers recognize that Iraq has fallen, perhaps irretrievably, into civil war.  Act I of this tragedy began with the current President’s father invading Iraq after years of US support for Saddam Hussein during the Reagan/Bush years.  Hussein erred in misreading the limits of US tolerance when he occupied another compliant US ally, Kuwait.  Threatening to destabilize the region, and thus interfering with global oil supplies, President Bush senior moved to mobilize American public opinion to rollback Iraq.  President Bush first tried honesty in moving the public toward war--citing reliable, cheap, oil as the reason to invade.  Perplexed at the failure of this message to resonate with the public, he switched tactics and pulled out another truth: Hussein was a tyrant.  Albeit, this was done with a bit of hyperbole as he was said to be the second incarnation of Hitler.  This worked, and the US caged Hussein in Iraq.

The second act played out in the intervening years.  Hussein was contained.  He disarmed, as confirmed by the United Nations Special Commission at one time led by the US Marine Scott Ritter.  During this time, as throughout American history, the US supported democracy movements when convenient, just as it supported dictators when they supported its interests.  Donald Rumsfeld could be shaking Saddam Hussein’s hand in 1984 and ensuring the supply of chemical and biological agents to fight Iran and later remove him when he acted against American interests.  His status as dictator affected neither the policy to support or remove him, but instead US interests dictated which course America would take.

In 2001 the US was perceived to be invincible due to its military power.  Moreover, in the wake of 9/11 the world, from Cuba, to France, to Russia, to Iran all expressed their sympathy and support for America.  More than at anytime, prospects for world peace appeared within, with only a group of dissenting marginal fundamentalist terrorists existing outside what could have been the beginnings of an emerging global solidarity.  Instead the US lashed out at all enemies real and perceived.

Instead, the US rejected its allies, went to war to secure control over Mideast oil, and thus strategic advantage over anyone needing it.  Britain loyally followed, and Latvia took its 15 minutes of fame that in the spotlight by supporting Bush. 

In the end the whole matter promises a sordid finish.  Bush will have destabilized the Middle East.  Iran will have gained further ground and its emerging youth dissent against the clerics stifled.  Meanwhile the Baltic states will be seen as reactionary supporters of imperial power.  Bush’s shameful use of Latvia’s history with its post WW II loss of independence to support his imperial project in Iraq is far more offensive than any Brit sporting a spandex superman outfit just off a budget Ryanair flight for a night on the town in Riga at the expense of Riga’s girls.  Just as Latvia’s young woman are beginning to run when they see the Ryanair boys, I suspect Latvians will too learn to run from Bush too.  However, while Latvians have consistently fled from support of Bush’s war, its politicians seem only too happy to service him in this dubious imperial project.  History will not judge them kindly.

P.S.

Sorry. That should read:

Hmmm… looks like Latvia doesn’t lack for pro-wealth risk takers.

Andrejs

>P.S.
>
>Sorry. That should read:
>
>Hmmm… looks like Latvia doesn’t lack
>for pro-wealth risk takers.
>
>Andrejs

On the contrary-"they go to their jobs,put in their hours and collect their paychecks"-then they whine because someone else earns the “real’ money. The only risk they take is whether the lunchbucket contains wheat or rye.

Then Christopher suggests that wrapping in the red flag will bring back the “good old days” when it wasn’t even necessary to “go to their jobs” to share equally in the nothing.

Thats what we really want to promote!

Andrejs:
>
>I blame the Democrat party’s
>brain-trust’s stupidity on the
>Democrats. I blame the White House’s
>stupidity on the wicked sort evil genius
>Karl Rove.

Be careful where you tread, young Jedi.  Blaming the Democrats woes on Democrats is leading you down a path to the Dark Side.  We wouldn’t want mentor Darth Rove’s newewst trainee be Darth Scourge now, would we.

on kilts, and the etymology of drape:
>>
>Maybe so. Still looks like a mini-skirt
>to me. Ceremonial or not. I didn’t read
>it anywhere, but do you think that the
>English word “skirt” has
>anything in common with the Latvian word
>"skirt"? I think its what
>leads to the high rate of divorces in
>Latvia. Latvian men in kilts (skirts)
>probably would lead to skirt marriages?

You may have a point there, my friend.

Via the Associated Press

http://tinyurl.com/ybr3xq

Posted AT 1:50 PM EST ON 18/12/06
Shortage forces Scottish soldiers to share kilts

Edinburgh, Scotland — More than 5,000 Scottish soldiers are having to share ceremonial kilts because defence chiefs have yet to finalize a contract to buy enough to go around, military officials said Monday.

The men, who face regular tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, have just 320 kilts among them, or one for every 15 soldiers.

Combat troops wore the traditional Highland skirt in battle as late as the First World War, but now the plaid kilts are used as part of ceremonial uniform.

New kilts are needed for all Scottish soldiers following the August merger of centuries-old regiments into a single Royal Regiment of Scotland.

+ + +

Sissy Americans worry about crap like body armor.  But the sight of a Royal Fusillier marching in the Sunni triangle sans kilt is well… disturbing.

/Edigu

According to Celms:

> The only wise policy post 9/11
>would have been a band of well trained
>commandos to take out Osama bin laden
>within a couple years and put all our
>resources behind those efforts.

So you are for a military response, sending Cindy Sheehan’s kid into the Mideast Hotspot to hunt down the terrorists.  But on the other hand you are against a nation-building that would bring some semblance of hope to the people in the area.

You are for the war before you are against it.  If your latest business ventures don’t pan out, you have a future working in a Waffle House there, old son.

More Celms:

>How blind you right wing guys are. We
>spend billions on foreign intelligence
>and have sattelites that can spot a gnat
>on a mules ass from the sky but can’t
>find one guy in 6 years.  Give me a
>break.

With those same sattelites (which can obviously spot a mule’s ass from the sky), you lefties did such a bang-up job hunting down Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.  My guess is that you loony lefties are the blind leading the blind.  It was nice to see the Dutch boys get medals for standing by helplessly as the Muzzies got overrun by the Serbs.  Such a nice illegal war (with no end in sight) that YOUR president got us into.

/Edigu

>According to Edigu:

>So you are for a military response,
>sending Cindy Sheehan’s kid into the
>Mideast Hotspot to hunt down the
>terrorists.  But on the other hand you
>are against a nation-building that would
>bring some semblance of hope to the
>people in the area.
>
>You are for the war before you are
>against it.  If your latest business
>ventures don’t pan out, you have a
>future working in a Waffle House there,
>old son.

Correct - the response to the terrrorist should not have been military but tactical.  I have never been for this war or Afghanistan - the bombing of innocents.  I am for the use of American ingenuity, and am convinced that we could have easliy gotten Bin Laden if he was not a protected personality by the Bush Crime Family.  Papa Bush is watching TV with Pappa Ben Laden the day of 9/11 and then whilst all of America is grounded, the only people flying out of America are the Bin Laden’s.  Are you not even curious Edigu?

Yes, I think Pat Tildon and/or Cindy Sheenan’s son would have been better served to go after the AlQueda with commando tactics and nailed the son of a bitch who was truly responsible for 9-11.  Not Suddam and 150,000 plus innocent Iraqis.

>>Edigu is still considered a
>>national hero of the Kazakh and Tatar
>>people.

Well, I wonder if that will hold true after they see the 21st Century Edigu cut and paste Hebrew prayers of thanks and writing longingly about Scotsmen in mini skirts.

>
>This Witold sounds like a crafty guy to
>me.
>

hehe, this is way too funny… In the modern neocon context Vytautas was just trying to free the Muslim enslaved lands from the terrorist reign of the Islamofascist terrorist Edigu and his murderous insurgent militia. The Tatars and Kazakhs may see Edigu the Islamofascist terrorist to be a hero - but I bet they see bin Laden as a hero also.

Witold managed to escape and regroup. You could dress Bush up as Jessica Simpson in a revealing “come jump me” outfit and it still wont be enough to save his arse.

Vidas