All Hank, all the time.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Someone bombs a bunch of Indians on 7/11?


*Poor taste I know, but you know someone is going to make this connection

It certainly isn't Islamic extremists. They haven't the brain capacity for that subtle a bit.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Someone bombs a bunch of Indians on 7/11?


*Poor taste I know, but you know someone is going to make this connection

I've missed you these past few weeks.

[i was penske]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
I've missed you these past few weeks.

ditto u.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Apparently we're waiting for Iraq's Interior Ministry to hire more dispatchers like this one so that we can withdraw our troops without a civil war:

• Saleh Muhammed, an Amiriyah resident, told a Post special correspondent that he dialed 130 into his cellphone, Baghdad's emergency number. "The Mahdi Army has attacked Amiriyah," he told the Interior Ministry dispatcher.
  
  "The Mahdi Army are not terrorists like you," said the dispatcher at the ministry, which is controlled by a Shiite party and operates closely with militias. "They are people doing their duty. And how could you know that they are the Mahdi Army? Is it written on their foreheads?" He hung up the phone.

WaPo

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Apparently we're waiting for Iraq's Interior Ministry to hire more dispatchers like this one so that we can withdraw our troops without a civil war:

• Saleh Muhammed, an Amiriyah resident, told a Post special correspondent that he dialed 130 into his cellphone, Baghdad's emergency number. "The Mahdi Army has attacked Amiriyah," he told the Interior Ministry dispatcher.
  
  "The Mahdi Army are not terrorists like you," said the dispatcher at the ministry, which is controlled by a Shiite party and operates closely with militias. "They are people doing their duty. And how could you know that they are the Mahdi Army? Is it written on their foreheads?" He hung up the phone.

WaPo

Maybe he wasjoking. Even if not, do we know if any negative consequence resulted? Did anyone die as a result?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by fair and balanced
Did anyone die as a result?

Nice twist on the "Baghdad is no worse than Detroit" meme.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Nice twist on the "Baghdad is no worse than Detroit" meme.

Did 100 people get killed in Detroit this weekend?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Sidd Finch
Did 100 people get killed in Detroit this weekend?

The MSM reports only the good news from blue states like Michigan, so we wouldn't know.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

What do Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and David Hasselhof all have in common?

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
That certainly is the way they have generally operated, but they just recognized and played the existing game.

We can't pin that one on Bush or the GOP. The polarization of America, and our political parties, is a trend that has been happening for a long time, as liberals/conservatives self-selected and sorted themselves out along party lines.

Politically, it has accelerated in the past 15 years or so, but the trend has its roots in the various social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s. Thus, you don't see the liberal R's or conservative D's much anymore.

S_A_M

eta: To me, the remarkable part about the Bush administration strong and persistent "Fuck Congress" (and/or "Fuck the Judiciary") approach to governance.

Politics in America have always been really partisan, and compared to the eighteenth and nineteenth century politics, today's partisan fighting is very tame.

However, I think a big sea change happened when the Southern conservatives moved to the Republican party. Before that changed the partys were much more mixed. There were very liberal Republicans and very conservative Democrats. During that time, for ideological soul mates to work with eachother, you needed "bipartisanship". But once that move was made the parties became much more ideoligical homogenized and now all the ideological "soul mates" are in the same party. Plus, since the partys are more homogenized they are a lot easier to lead. Therefore, when a party is in the majority it doesn't need votes from the other side very much. So the party in power doesn't really need much from the opposition, and the opposition doesn't want to help the party in power because they want to be in power. Therefore, no cooperation.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally posted by Spanky
Politics in America have always been really partisan, and compared to the eighteenth and nineteenth century politics, today's partisan fighting is very tame.

However, I think a big sea change happened when the Southern conservatives moved to the Republican party. Before that changed the partys were much more mixed. There were very liberal Republicans and very conservative Democrats. During that time, for ideological soul mates to work with eachother, you needed "bipartisanship". But once that move was made the parties became much more ideoligical homogenized and now all the ideological "soul mates" are in the same party. Plus, since the partys are more homogenized they are a lot easier to lead. Therefore, when a party is in the majority it doesn't need votes from the other side very much. So the party in power doesn't really need much from the opposition, and the opposition doesn't want to help the party in power because they want to be in power. Therefore, no cooperation.

This explains why Bill Clinton was so far to the left of LBJ.

[taxwonk]

Wow. Hezbollah kills 8 Israeli soldiers and captures two more. Israel bombs the beirut airport and twom Lebanese military bases, and nobody has anything to say about it? How very uncharacteristic. Is everybody too busy watching World Cup reruns?

Linky

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by taxwonk
Wow. Hezbollah kills 8 Israeli soldiers and captures two more. Israel bombs the beirut airport and twom Lebanese military bases, and nobody has anything to say about it? How very uncharacteristic. Is everybody too busy watching World Cup reruns?

Linky

Real Americans are busy today checking into signing up to go to Israel and join the IDF.

When they kick in your front door- how you going come?

[Oliver_Wendell_Ramone]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
Real Americans are busy today checking into signing up to go to Israel and join the IDF.

When they kick in your front door- how you going come?

When my second daughter was born, I found myself singing "Guns of Brixton" to her in the hospital. No idea why. I wonder if that will ultimately impact her personality?

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Originally posted by taxwonk
Wow. Hezbollah kills 8 Israeli soldiers and captures two more. Israel bombs the beirut airport and twom Lebanese military bases, and nobody has anything to say about it? How very uncharacteristic. Is everybody too busy watching World Cup reruns?

Linky

Everyone's response is too predictable. Slave, club, Hank and their socks will applaud Israel's measured response to the teeming masses of unwashed savages that threaten to push Israel into the sea, and it's their own damn fault that Arafat didn't take the deal. Ty, fringey and I will bemoan the brutish cruelty that typify the Israeli response to the slightest provocation, and wring our hands and wail about why there is so much coverage of the lost Israel soldiers and none of the mulititudes of civilians slaughtered by the rampaging Zionist hordes. Spanky will worry over the effect on the economies and check the trade agreements to see if they will be impacted. Sebby will file a profanity-laced tirade against the insanity on both sides.

Sure, it'll fill a couple of pages, but we could mail it in by now.