gubermintcheez

Politics and other nonsense

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Location: Ohio

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

firefox rules

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Monday, December 20, 2004

He won but he lost the people

Less than 50% approve of this trainwreck , running the country. Dont blame me. I voted for Kerry. The rest of you idiots can just wallow in your failures. Fuck yall

Bush going down hard

Poll: Most Americans Think Iraq War Not Worth Fighting
Over Half Think Rumsfeld Should be Replaced
By Christopher MusteWashington Post Staff WriterMonday, December 20, 2004; 5:01 PM
Most Americans now believe the war with Iraq was not worth fighting and more than half want to fire embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the chief architect of that conflict, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The survey found that 56 percent of the country now believes that the cost of the conflict in Iraq outweighs the benefits, while 42 percent disagreed. It marked the first time since the war began that a clear majority of Americans have judged the war to have been a mistake.

Barely a third of the country approves of the job that Rumsfeld is doing as defense secretary, and 52 percent said President Bush should sack Rumsfeld, a view shared by a big majority of Democrats and political independents.
Still, nearly six in 10 -- 58 percent -- said the United States should keep its military forces in Iraq rather than withdraw them, a proportion that has not changed in seven months.
The political fallout over the continuing bloody chaos in Iraq clearly is taking its toll on President Bush, who today strongly defended Rumsfeld in a press conference. Bush's overall job approval stood at 48 percent while 49 percent disapproved of his performance as president. Nearly six in 10 -- 57 percent -- say they disapprove of the way the president has handled the situation in Iraq.
Six in 10 Americans also say they believe that next month's presidential elections in Iraq should be held as scheduled but expressed broad pessimism about the outcome. A 54 percent majority said they doubted that the elections will be honest and the votes counted accurately. And an identical proportion said they were not confident that the voting will produce a stable government that will rule Iraq effectively.
A total of 1,004 randomly selected Americans were interviewed Dec. 16 to 19. Margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Saturday, December 11, 2004

armor needed . also new President. Apply in DC

There is an armor shortage in Iraq. It's about as controversial a statement as saying that there are bad Tim Allen movies, or that epistemological relativity often leads to imprecise resolutions of moral conflict.
The most secure are factory-armored Humvees, and the Pentagon has received only 5,910 of the 8,105 that commanders say they need. But only 10 percent of the 4,814 medium-weight transport trucks have armor, and only 15 percent of the 4,314 heavy transport vehicles.
The uproar has exposed some of the most crucial challenges facing the Pentagon: how to equip and train troops for a war whose very nature has changed.
A resourceful insurgency has seized on an American vulnerability - the shortage of armored vehicles - and attacked supply lines with roadside bombs. These trucks are driven primarily by reservists, while a much greater percentage of active-duty soldiers are deployed in direct combat, and disparities between these troops have already prompted the Defense Department to begin sweeping changes in the way soldiers are trained and equipped.
What mystifies me about this more than anything else is that one of the stated rationales for going to war was to fight terrorists "where they breed". Now, terrorists tend to like using small, targeted attacks against important and meaningful targets - like, say, transport trucks. It's not really a difficult thing to predict. We allegedly went to war with terrorists...unprepared to fight terrorists. And we're still unprepared to do so.
Oh, but the question was prompted by a reporter's query. And the cheering of the soldiers after it was asked only occured after this man showed up at the event:
Can we trust nothing anymore

Sunday, December 05, 2004

witchhunts

Ever notice how quickly people will jump onboard a certain side when its the majority ?

Saturday, December 04, 2004

great .

November Job Growth Slowed as Income Fell
Gain Was Smallest Posted in 4 Months
By Nell Henderson and Amy JoyceWashington Post Staff WritersSaturday, December 4, 2004; Page E01
U.S. job growth slowed sharply last month, and many workers' incomes fell, as automakers, airlines and retailers trimmed their payrolls, reducing consumers' buying power just as the holiday season was beginning.
Employers added 112,000 jobs in November, the smallest gain in four months, and below the roughly 150,000 per month that economists think are needed to keep up with population growth, the Labor Department reported yesterday. The department also shaved 54,000 jobs off its previous estimates of October and September gains in non-farm payrolls.



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The unemployment rate slipped to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent, which the department called "about unchanged," noting that it has been at either of those two levels every month since July.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

US Death Toll at Record Level

News

US death toll in Iraq at record level
By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad
02 December 2004
A further 135 American soldiers died in Iraq in November, equalling the number killed in April, previously the worst single month for US casualties. Seventy-one died in the assault on Fallujah and 600 were wounded, according to the US military in Baghdad.
The casualty rate is more than 10 per cent of the 5,000 to 6,000-strong US force sent into the city. General John Sattler, the commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, which is in charge of western Iraq, said yesterday that 62 of those killed in Fallujah were marines.
US soldiers now hold all parts of the city, but house-to-house searches continue. Sometimes houses already searched are reoccupied. Insurgents wait for the soldiers to enter before opening fire at close range. The marines try to avoid ambushes by blasting holes in side walls instead of coming in by the front door. They throw grenades into every room before entering.
Most of the 300,000 people who lived in Fallujah before the battle have fled to Sunni Muslim areas of Baghdad and are staying with relatives and friends. Many of the fighters have also moved into the capital. Much of the city they left is in ruins, and the electricity and water systems have been wrecked. The poorest of the refugees are living in tents.
In the Jadriyah area of Baghdad, more than 100 families have sought shelter around the light blue al-Mustafa mosque on the campus of al-Nahrain University. "Even if I have to rebuild my house brick by brick I will go back," said one man, standing by the gate.
In a nearby building sat Sheikh Hussein, the imam of the mosque, who expresses deep suspicion of all foreigners. He said that giving an interview "was like giving away all your secrets and seeing them in a newspaper." He added that he had read on the internet that Margaret Hassan, the Irish aid worker kidnapped and probably murdered, was "a spy for 30 years."
The battle for Fallujah brings the number of Americans killed in Iraq since the invasion to at least 1,250, with 9,300 wounded. The number of insurgents killed in Fallujah is not known, but was put by the interim Iraqi government at more than 2,000.
The US military commanders had 2,000 Iraqi troops with them. Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and 43 wounded, according to General Sattler.
The US, and the Iraqi interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, hopethey have eliminated the headquarters of the Sunni Muslim uprising by capturing Fallujah. The discovery of workshops to fill the side panels of vehicles with explosives for suicide bombings, and large amounts of small arms and mortars proves Fallujah was the logistics centre for the rebellion in western Iraq.
But the willingness of so many insurgents to fight and die in the face of overwhelming US superiority shows their level of determination. The visit of Mr Allawi to Jordan today to talk to Sunni tribal, religious and political leaders, mostly from Ramadi near Fallujah, is unlikely to influence fighters.
* The 138,00-strong US force in Iraq is being expanded by 12,000 troops to its highest level since at least May 2003, to strengthen security ahead of the elections scheduled for January, the Pentagon said yesterday. Under the plan, some 1,500 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division will be sent this month, while the combat tours of about 10,400 servicemen already in Iraq will be lengthened.

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