Since our media ignores any positive reports from Iraq (But but but we SWEAR it isn't biased!! Really!!!! *puts on tinfoil cap*) I thought I would provide Lieberman's speech for you.

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I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood--unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.
Progress is visible and practical. In the Kurdish North, there is continuing security and growing prosperity. The primarily Shiite South remains largely free of terrorism, receives much more electric power and other public services than it did under Saddam, and is experiencing greater economic activity. The Sunni triangle, geographically defined by Baghdad to the east, Tikrit to the north and Ramadi to the west, is where most of the terrorist enemy attacks occur. And yet here, too, there is progress.

There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.

It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al Qaeda foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern. The terrorists are intent on stopping this by instigating a civil war to produce the chaos that will allow Iraq to replace Afghanistan as the base for their fanatical war-making. We are fighting on the side of the 27 million because the outcome of this war is critically important to the security and freedom of America. If the terrorists win, they will be emboldened to strike us directly again and to further undermine the growing stability and progress in the Middle East, which has long been a major American national and economic security priority.

Before going to Iraq last week, I visited Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel has been the only genuine democracy in the region, but it is now getting some welcome company from the Iraqis and Palestinians who are in the midst of robust national legislative election campaigns, the Lebanese who have risen up in proud self-determination after the Hariri assassination to eject their Syrian occupiers (the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militias should be next), and the Kuwaitis, Egyptians and Saudis who have taken steps to open up their governments more broadly to their people. In my meeting with the thoughtful prime minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, he declared with justifiable pride that his country now has the most open, democratic political system in the Arab world. He is right.
In the face of terrorist threats and escalating violence, eight million Iraqis voted for their interim national government in January, almost 10 million participated in the referendum on their new constitution in October, and even more than that are expected to vote in the elections for a full-term government on Dec. 15. Every time the 27 million Iraqis have been given the chance since Saddam was overthrown, they have voted for self-government and hope over the violence and hatred the 10,000 terrorists offer them. Most encouraging has been the behavior of the Sunni community, which, when disappointed by the proposed constitution, registered to vote and went to the polls instead of taking up arms and going to the streets. Last week, I was thrilled to see a vigorous political campaign, and a large number of independent television stations and newspapers covering it.

None of these remarkable changes would have happened without the coalition forces led by the U.S. And, I am convinced, almost all of the progress in Iraq and throughout the Middle East will be lost if those forces are withdrawn faster than the Iraqi military is capable of securing the country.

The leaders of Iraq's duly elected government understand this, and they asked me for reassurance about America's commitment. The question is whether the American people and enough of their representatives in Congress from both parties understand this. I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November's elections, than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead.

Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.

The leaders of America's military and diplomatic forces in Iraq, Gen. George Casey and Ambassador Zal Khalilzad, have a clear and compelling vision of our mission there. It is to create the environment in which Iraqi democracy, security and prosperity can take hold and the Iraqis themselves can defend their political progress against those 10,000 terrorists who would take it from them.

Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. And it is important to make it clear to the American people that the plan has not remained stubbornly still but has changed over the years. Mistakes, some of them big, were made after Saddam was removed, and no one who supports the war should hesitate to admit that; but we have learned from those mistakes and, in characteristic American fashion, from what has worked and not worked on the ground. The administration's recent use of the banner "clear, hold and build" accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week.
We are now embedding a core of coalition forces in every Iraqi fighting unit, which makes each unit more effective and acts as a multiplier of our forces. Progress in "clearing" and "holding" is being made. The Sixth Infantry Division of the Iraqi Security Forces now controls and polices more than one-third of Baghdad on its own. Coalition and Iraqi forces have together cleared the previously terrorist-controlled cities of Fallujah, Mosul and Tal Afar, and most of the border with Syria. Those areas are now being "held" secure by the Iraqi military themselves. Iraqi and coalition forces are jointly carrying out a mission to clear Ramadi, now the most dangerous city in Al-Anbar province at the west end of the Sunni Triangle.

Nationwide, American military leaders estimate that about one-third of the approximately 100,000 members of the Iraqi military are able to "lead the fight" themselves with logistical support from the U.S., and that that number should double by next year. If that happens, American military forces could begin a drawdown in numbers proportional to the increasing self-sufficiency of the Iraqi forces in 2006. If all goes well, I believe we can have a much smaller American military presence there by the end of 2006 or in 2007, but it is also likely that our presence will need to be significant in Iraq or nearby for years to come.

The economic reconstruction of Iraq has gone slower than it should have, and too much money has been wasted or stolen. Ambassador Khalilzad is now implementing reform that has worked in Afghanistan--Provincial Reconstruction Teams, composed of American economic and political experts, working in partnership in each of Iraq's 18 provinces with its elected leadership, civil service and the private sector. That is the "build" part of the "clear, hold and build" strategy, and so is the work American and international teams are doing to professionalize national and provincial governmental agencies in Iraq.

These are new ideas that are working and changing the reality on the ground, which is undoubtedly why the Iraqi people are optimistic about their future--and why the American people should be, too.

I cannot say enough about the U.S. Army and Marines who are carrying most of the fight for us in Iraq. They are courageous, smart, effective, innovative, very honorable and very proud. After a Thanksgiving meal with a great group of Marines at Camp Fallujah in western Iraq, I asked their commander whether the morale of his troops had been hurt by the growing public dissent in America over the war in Iraq. His answer was insightful, instructive and inspirational: "I would guess that if the opposition and division at home go on a lot longer and get a lot deeper it might have some effect, but, Senator, my Marines are motivated by their devotion to each other and the cause, not by political debates."

Thank you, General. That is a powerful, needed message for the rest of America and its political leadership at this critical moment in our nation's history. Semper Fi.

There is a sign on the window saying that it is no longer in business, and also thanking the customers for many years of support.

Oh no!

I can't help but think about how much time I wasted by doing absolutely nothing about my secret crush. Will I see her again? I recall one day in spring I walked across the street to get to my apartment, and there she was - but something was different. It was her hair - she had long, wavy brunette locks. As I got across the street she looked up at me and smiled. I was too enchanted to say anything, or to even have a go at forming words. I just felt good, and I did not want to taint the moment by saying or doing something stupid.

I have a picture burned into memory of this beautiful girl with long, wavy brunette locks smiling sweetly at me. What a memory. Any time I want to I can close my eyes and bring up that picture, and it still feels good. I wonder what was on her mind. I wonder if I ever had a chance. I wonder what would have happened if I told her how lovely I thought she was. Bah, maybe some things are better left unsaid.

A man with his newly minted trophy wife go to the jewelry shop to look at some trinkets. A friend of hers notices her, and her new ring, and approaches her asking "Where did you find that?"

The guy turns to her and says, "Chippewa. They're all over!"

It's good to see so many peeps in love. It makes my blackened, shriveled up heart pulse a little. Anyway since I read (e:Robin)'s post that mentioned the Beach Boys song, I found one of my favorite Beach Boys tracks and decided to share. Brian Wilson could write the hell out of some pop songs!

You're So Good To Me

You're kinda small
And you're such a doll
I'm glad you're mine
You're so good to me
How come you are

You take my hand
And you understand
When I get in a bad mood
You're so good to me
And I love it, love it

You're my baby
Oh yeah
Don't mean maybe
Oh yeah

I know your eyes
Are not on the guys
When we're apart
You're so true to me
How come you are

And every night
You hold me so tight
When I kiss you goodbye
You're so good to me
And I love it, love it

You're my baby
Oh yeah
Don't mean maybe
Oh yeah

You're my baby
Oh yeah
Don't mean maybe
Oh yeah

You're my baby
Oh yeah
Don't mean maybe
Oh yeah

You're my baby

The perfect something is out there. It could be the perfect job, the perfect relationship, the perfect whatever.....it is all out there for you to capture.

However....it may not be what you previously thought. Don't be the person who has a specific thing in mind, expecting THAT is what you are looking for. The perfect something could creep up on you at any moment, and it could catch you completely off guard. What is perfect for you, no matter what it is, could be something that you never would think could be so right. Keep your eyes and ears open.

Finally, don't be afraid to get into a situation you aren't comfortable with. Don't let something like fear to get between you and that perfect something. Anything that is worth attaining will require you to give more of yourself, to become someone different and better.

Good luck!

PS - Pet therapy or BJ's needed. Help!

PPS - (e:Ajay) was right. I was trying to get a rise out of you all. =D

Here is a story our beloved liberal press will never give us. THIS IS FUCKING SHAMEFUL. Liberals love terror! =D



US author lauds suicide bombers
David Nason, New York correspondent
November 19, 2005

ONE of the greatest living US writers has praised terrorists as "very brave people" and used drug culture slang to describe the "amazing high" suicide bombers must feel before blowing themselves up.

Kurt Vonnegut, author of the 1969 anti-war classic Slaughterhouse Five, made the provocative remarks during an interview in New York for his new book, Man Without a Country, a collection of writings critical of US President George W. Bush.

Vonnegut, 83, has been a strong opponent of Mr Bush and the US-led war in Iraq, but until now has stopped short of defending terrorism.

But in discussing his views with The Weekend Australian, Vonnegut said it was "sweet and honourable" to die for what you believe in, and rejected the idea that terrorists were motivated by twisted religious beliefs.

"They are dying for their own self-respect," he said. "It's a terrible thing to deprive someone of their self-respect. It's like your culture is nothing, your race is nothing, you're nothing."

Asked if he thought of terrorists as soldiers, Vonnegut, a decorated World War II veteran, said: "I regard them as very brave people, yes."

He equated the actions of suicide bombers with US president Harry Truman's 1945 decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

On the Iraq war, he said: "What George Bush and his gang did not realise was that people fight back."

Vonnegut suggested suicide bombers must feel an "amazing high". He said: "You would know death is going to be painless, so the anticipation - it must be an amazing high."

Vonnegut's comments are sharply at odds with his reputation as a peace activist and his distinguished war service. He served in the US 106th Division and was captured by German forces at the Battle of the Bulge.

Taken to Dresden and held with other POWs in a disused abattoir, Vonnegut witnessed the appalling events of February 13-14, 1945, when 800 RAF Lancaster bombers firebombed the city, killing an estimated 100,000 civilians.

The experience inspired his book Slaughterhouse Five - the title of the novel coming from the barracks he was assigned in the POW camp. The book became an international bestseller and made Vonnegut a luminary of the US literary left.

But since Mr Bush was elected, Vonnegut's criticisms of US policy have become more and more impassioned.

In 2002, he was widely criticised for saying there was too much talk about the 9/11 attacks and not enough about "the crooks on Wall Street and in big corporations", whose conduct had been more destructive.

The following year he wrote that the US was hated around the world "because our corporations have been the principal deliverers and imposers of new technologies and economic schemes that have wrecked the self-respect, the cultures of men, women and children in so many other societies".

But Vonnegut's latest comments are likely to make many people wonder if old age has finally caught up with a grand old man of American letters.

In a 1998 interview with ABC's John Miller, Osama bin Laden said that America's withdrawal from Somalia had emboldened his burgeoning al Qaida force and encouraged him to plan new attacks:

"Our people realized more than before that the American soldier is a paper tiger that runs in defeat after a few blows," the terror chief recalled. "America forgot all about the hoopla and media propaganda and left dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat."

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Yes, let's follow the liberal strategy again and run away. Given the obvious emboldened nature of the terrorist after they see US forces pulled out of Somalia, WHAT DO YOU THINK THEIR RESPONSE WILL BE IF WE LEAVE IRAQ?

But...then again...who cares about the terrorists - they can't do us any harm! We don't need to pay attention to global terrorism, and we don't need to fight it! Halliburton!!!! Wal*Mart!!! Republican oligarchy!!! Yes those are the true enemies we need to face!!

Silly silly silly silly...I pray that for the safety of us and our families we never have a liberal President again.

While many of you libs are hopelessly clinging to the lies and propaganda spewed by your media and politicians (yes, let's call Fox "Faux News" while posting articles from the rabidly anti-american Independent) ....here is Zarqawi in his own words, banking on your spinelessness and unwillingness to fight back against his merry band of Islamofascists.

"The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam-and how they ran and left their agents-is noteworthy. Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overtake us, and before we are surprised by the conspiracies of the Americans and the United Nations and their plans to fill the void behind them. We must take the initiative and impose a fait accompli upon our enemies, instead of the enemy imposing one on us, wherein our lot would be to merely resist their schemes."

I got my paycheck recently, and you know what it said? $115. That's right, that's all they paid me for TWO WEEKS of work (I wasn't in every day, but still). Not only that, but they haven't been giving me my copy of the sent timesheet, so I do not have the (FACTUAL) information that will get me my money. I am shaking I am so pissed off. I am a very dangerous man today. God help the poor asshole who dares to argue with me about this shit.

Jason

I'll stealth ninja post like (e:Joshua) did. He's away from home for the first time in a while, which gives me precious alone time. Sometimes I like to be alone and enjoy the blissful silence, pondering various things without having to be interrupted to speak. I'll write briefly about what is on my wicked mind:

1) My profession - I think I'm not doing what I'm meant to do.

2) I'm not living up to my potential. I can and will do better someday soon.

3) I look at the world around me and I see so many people who just don't give a shit, and that is horribly bothersome. I know I don't agree with everyone here politically, and that's fine - but I'm thinking of "giving a shit" in more broad terms.

4) I'm thinking of tits and ass - a whole locker full of women and myself.

5) Rhonda - I had a dream about her recently. I regret ever being so nasty to her when I de-friended her. That wasn't like me at all. I never thought anything I could say to her would get a reaction - I thought she didn't care about me at all, which is why I felt our friendship was so hopeless. I wish I could tell her that I'm sorry and that of course I cared about her being sick. God if only she knew how much I cared. I felt hurt, and I bited back....HARD. If there is one re-do I want in life, it is that situation. The rest of it I can live with.

6) I love dogs, very much. If I could handle it I would love to be a dog owner one day. Owner doesn't even sound right to me - I've known dogs who were better friends than most humans. So, I wish I could be a friend to a dog. I'll never forget when I was in Philly and my soul was destroyed, 2 dogs came and sat next to me. They knew how bad I felt and they consoled me, laying their heads on my lap and refusing to leave. I then realized how dogs care as much about us as we care about them. Dogs are awesome!

7) I'm thinking about how I like to make people happy, but I have been a self absorbed asshole, an utter failure in that respect. I've been soaking it all in, like those crusty Floridians when they go to the beach.

8) We have another Democrat mayor. Yay. We also have more Democrat county legistlators. This area will continue to fuck itself over until we stop taxing and spending our way to oblivion. Decades of Democrat fiscal and social policy has left this area in utter ruin, and we just float along demanding our social. Tell me this - how many more people have to leave the area, how many jobs have to fly the coop, how many older folks have to be squeezed out of their homes for people to understand something has to change? Do you want your family and friends to stay here? Do you want to be able to get a decent job? Based on the way people voted I think they embrace the idea of Buffalo becoming a ghost town. More taxes, please!

Jason