So let's see: Dems in power for three days and now we've got ...

Arguing politics with Tony is like having an argument about who's the best hockey player ever: Orr, Gretzky, Howe or Lemieux?"

All of a sudden someone in a looserfanboy Leafs jersey chimes in with "Wendel Clark!"

Not only are you totally gobsmacked but you're kinda embarrassed for the guy

 

So I take it you also go around spitting on cars if they have bumper stickers you don't like? Save your embarrassment for your friend who claims to do that.

 

Lofting greenies on someone's car is childish and indefensible, regardless of what side of the aisle you find yourself on. I can't believe this is even a discussion...

 

Oh, boo hoo hoo. Why should anyone waste time bringing a civil argument to someone like you, tony, when it's been clear from the start that you've never been interested in one? Really, you jump to a "Democrats => terrorists" connection in your clearly limited mind ... and you're expecting a mature and reasonable response in return? This is what your president and his men also expect after they get caught throwing rocks at someone's window.

 

LJB, the Democrat party has just stolen power away from the GOP, apparently in a palace coup and the terrorists have won!

 

tony whines an awful lot, easily wounded by things said in passing or half-jokingly, a lot like The Epidermal One (mlb2005).

I just can't believe that the tonys have the nerve to request intelligent debate after years of "discussing" politics on this board, during which people have been told in no uncertain terms to drop dead or been challenged to fights over personal message. Your request is denied, tony. At least on my end. Reeducating you on things you're wrong about require more than patience or adult maturity, they require a modest fee. So now you either get feet or you get balls, and there's no alternative.

 

Joe, I've tried to explain this to some people - Folks like Tony, D_B, Lyman, etc., don't think/post logically. Logic means nothing to them.

Your intro about the Dems not being in power the last three days is 100 percent accurate.

And by the way, I hate America. I voted for a Democratic governor, a Dem Attorney General, a Republican representative ... oops, I guess I sort of love America! Better take down that Osama poster I have in my room and tell my wife she doesn't have to take the kids to I Hate America school tonight.

 

I think you're completely misreading the situation. The CIA consensus (from the passage I cited) was that bin Laden's message was designed to drive voters TOWARD Bush. I don't think bin Laden is terribly afraid of Bush (he's survived, as the world's most wanted man, on the lam for five years), and I think he's entirely pleased with how Bush's actions (the wars -- especially Iraq) have inadvertently infused the jihadi movement with new inspiration and new recruits.

In terms of the "treating it as a criminal matter instead of a war" argument, the problem is that the standard definition of "war" doesn't fit here. (Bush tried to make it fit in Iraq, with devastating results.) Bombs and invasions aren't going to solve the problem -- not when the jihadists are so spread out all over the world. You're not planning to bomb a couple of neighborhoods in Hamburg or London, right? And no one (not even the biggest hawk) seems to think that we should launch a full-scale assault on the Afghan-Pakistani border area, which has become the epicenter of al-Qaeda since the Afghanistan invasion of '01.

Waging conventional war isn't going to help win the war on terror. It's a matter of intelligence, old-fashioned police work, deft diplomacy (i.e., convincing nations to cooperate with us), effective propaganda, and selective, under-the-radar military incursions (Special Forces, etc.).

It's a tremendously difficult task -- it was always going to be. Unfortunately, Bush and friends copped out, opting for a conventional war that wasn't needed rather than fully devoting themselves to an unconventional war different than anything we've ever had to fight. And, yes, we have to fight it.

 

You mean a Democrat governor.

 

This might be the most intelligent, analytical and concise argument I've read on the war on terror in quite some time.

Unfortunately, George W. Bush doesn't get it. It's why Colin Powell is long gone from the administration.

In the case of Old Tony and his ilk, they couldn't get it at gunpoint. Which is pretty much how they want to settle anything.

Dopes.

 

Let's see.
A Democratic governor. Two Democratic senators. And both houses of the state legislature with Democratic majorities?
Massachusetts?
No.
How's MONTANA working out for you, beeyotches?
Heeheeehheeeeeee!

 

Yeah, whatever. I still obviously hate America somewhat. That was the point.