Day: October 18, 2008

A “Surge” For Afghanistan?

Since all went so very well in Iraq, the surge strategy is being considered for Afghanistan.  May I suggest to rethink this or the US could quite possibly be the same victim as the USSR back in the day.

American officials have backed the view of General Sir David Richards, the new head of the British Army, that a “surge” is needed in Afghanistan to beat the Taliban.

Patrick Moon, the United States’ deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia, said that the extra troops were essential to carry out a security drive in the country.

General Richards would replace General Sir Richard Dannatt as the head of the Army – he will take over next summer – and disclosed that the new commander believed 30,000 more troops would be needed to fight the Taliban. He is seeking 5,000 extra British troops. Mr Moon said that security needed to be established before the Afghan elections next year, and also to break the “nexus” of drug barons and the Taliban who are cultivating opium to fund the insurgency. “The numbers in the Afghan army will be raised from 65,000 to 134,000 over a five-year period,” he added.

A rethink may be necessary.

Today In Labor History

18 October

The “Shoemakers of Boston” – the first labor organization in what would later become the United States – was authorized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony – 1648

New York City agrees to pay women school teachers a rate equal to that of men – 1911

IWW Colorado Mine strike; first time all coal fields are out – 1927

58,000 Chrysler Corp. workers strike for wage increases – 1939

The United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) was formed as a self-governing union, an outgrowth of the CIO’s Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee. UPWA merged with the Meatcutters union in 1968, which merged with the Retail Clerks in 1979 to form the United Food and Commerical Workers (UFCW) – 1943

McCain Hiccups

These are also notes that I took on the McCain campaign that I did not put into a post. Just wanted to put them out there for comment by my readers. Never fear I will also be posting on Obama’s Oops’.

1– McCain keeps harping on a small government, but yet some of his policies will entail spending billions. How will he do this, especially since he has promised the voter that there will bve a balanced budget by the end of his first term. Please explain.

2–McCain’s wife is blaming the vets for their PTSD. She said that they were not trained to handle it.

3–The campaign is blaming ACORN and the poor for the economic crisis.

4–His last mortgage bailout proposal will be very expensive and help only the mortgage holders. Will do little for the people suffering thru foreclosure.

5–The McCain/Palin campaign seems to be a bit schizophrenic –omni-directional with no rudder for guidance. They are throwing sh*t at the wall to see what will stick.

6–The campaign still cannot grasp the idea that the internet sees all and knows all……they still use crap and when it is found on the web they go about spinning it into something hopefully positive….and not doing very well at that.

“Read What He Said”

I was told by McCain during the last debate, when Rep. John Lewis remarks were mentioned, to “read what he said”. Good advice from the senator from Arizona. So I want to post Rep. Lewis’ comments and you can “read what he said” for yourself.

“What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history,” Lewis said in a statement issued today for Politico’s Arena forum. “Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.”

Lewis didn’t accuse McCain of imitating Wallace, but suggested there were similarities.

“George Wallace never threw a bomb,” Lewis noted. “He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.”

Maybe it is just me but he never said that McCain was responsible for any of the stuff, but rather that some of the words were hateful.

Fear And Loathing In The GOP

As I watched “Hardball with Chris Matthews” on MSNBC I was confronted with the most obnoxious little turd I have ever listened to.  She spent her time with the usual negativity of the GOP but then she went off into a direction at seen since the HUAC days.  She basically called all “Leftist” and liberals un-American or as she put it “anti-American”.  When Matthews questioned her about her statements she so far as to say that the media should do an investigative piece on the US Congress and members with “anti-American” leanings.

Geez, I had to be talked down by some friends; I was ready to post another one of my posts that I had to apologize for at the beginning.

First, I am a liberal and have fought for my country in several wars, even some that few people knew were wars.  To accuse me of “anti-American” activities just pisses me off.  I have spent a lifetime working to enpower the people and her statements is just the growing sentiment brought on by the, in my opinion, “anti-American” activity of partisanship, which does NOTHING for the country or the people.

This loathing seems to be a growing sentiment within the GOP, that somehow anyone who does not think like them is “Un-American”.  SHIT!  This type of bullsh*t has not been around since the days of tail-gunner Joe McCarthy.  This type of hatred was not acceptable then and it is even more so now.

The pin head making these statements was Congresswoman Michele Bachman (R-MN).  THe GOP is losing it and they need to STOP spreading the crap and the hate.  The party needs to move into the present and stop living in the past….or they will become just another worthless pack of morons with no direction; all they will have is the hate that will eventually consume them……..that may not be all bad.