scatter629

ESCORT MUBARAK TO CAIRO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT NOW! in International JoeUser Forums

Here's the thing: How can you really expect an 82-year old , 30-year dictator to make a good decision? Clearly, the generous Egyptian souls out there (and there are many) should take heed and do everything possible to keep him out of harm's way for the rest of his dictatorial days. The only safe place for him is out of Egypt. There's Dubai, Doha, Bahamas, (Hawaii?) and a lot of other dictator-friendly islands that could use the cash and take him. Take an ambulanc

Let’s Go To Plan B(or C) : in The Environment JoeUser Forums

Okay, so we gave BP’s TopKill a chance and it is most plausible that the apprehensions I previously mentioned ( see “I Hope Not…But BP’s TopKill Could Be A Disaster”) played out as I feared. Rising critical pressure levels were detected which caused an 18 hour pause in mud pumping and a subsequent failure in the jumpshot (where we would’ve had all those golf balls )that caused the whole plan to be aborted. Plan B would

I Hope not But…BP’s Top Kill Could Lead to a Disaster in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

People, I hate pouring cold water on somebody’s frenzied efforts , specially if those efforts are aimed at stopping the Gulf of Mexico blowout oil spill which is turning out to be our worst nightmare, but really you have to examine closely what BP is attempting to do. What exactly is topkill? It’s supposed to be a proven method used for land-based oil wells in Kuwait that needed to be shut down. It’s applying counter-pressure on the blowout t

Boycott JP Morgan/Chase in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

The Wall Street maniacs behind the US economic downturn of 2008 are at it again. Orchestrating a scam by playing off their pro-investment underlings (or "advisers") against another group of underlings (the"bettors") who worked for the failure of the investment, they managed to hoodwink another trusting group of businessmen out of their hard-earned millions. If you think that the impending lawsuits JP Morgan now face are scaring the hell out of them, you've got another think coming - what with

Reply to An Unconventional Strategy in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

"Where did you get the idea that there are only conventional troops in either Iraq or Afghanistan? Last I checked there are Special Forces, SEAL, Force Recon, Delta Force and Air Force PJs in both Areas of Operations. All of which are unconventional warfare units." - Parated2k Just to get clarified on this, technically speaking, the units you all mentioned are part of conventional forces since they're all under the chain of command. (The Spec

Reply to An Unconventional Strategy in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

First off, the issue can't be trivialized to partisan politics (i.e which party has the most face to lose,etc). We're talking about close to 4,000 lost US lives to date, for crying out loud, not to mention the thousands more of Iraqis who deserve just as much of a future as we do and whose future now can't be ascertained because the US just happened to use the "sitting duck"strategy on their country for the most part of this war. Secondly,the reason

Reply to An Unconventional Strategy in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

My take is really on relying on the conventional troops alone to do the work, just like what happened in Afghanistan when we had the upper hand, then created a vacuum there by concentrating our forces elsewhere instead of developing a strategy applicable to unconventional warfare. The "mass base" on which Al Qaeda preys is a very important part of this strategy. Direct contact with Iraqis and more engagement towards organizational work and community-bu

An Unconventional Strategy in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

The Sitting Duck Strategy One doesn’t have to be a Dick Cheney on a hunting trip to know that the target is the mallard sitting in the water and not your fellow hunter . For all the “lessons learned” in this “war on terror”, this real-life accident in all of its VP dimension could not have depicted the prevailing force (farce?) that swayed the cours

Scenes Behind A Coup in Politics JoeUser Forums

This report is a little more than a year old and was written some 18 flight hours from the US continent. I guess this can be safely filed away for historical reference. The Bay of this Mindoro Island which was around 2 hours ferry ride from the southern tip of the Philippines’ largest northern island (Luzon), had actually 5 other interesting beaches,

Reply to Tornadoes Now Hitting Hurricane Country? in Current Events JoeUser Forums

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the highest for any January on record, according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The most unusually warm conditions were in the mid- and high-latitude land areas of the Northern Hemisphere. Sure, both hurricanes and tornadoes get initiated by warm air; for hurricanes, the initiating event would be the warm air built over large bodies of water like the

Tornadoes Now Hitting Hurricane Country? in Current Events JoeUser Forums

In a surprising timing reminiscent of a terrorist 9/11 attack, Mother Nature threw a brickbrat of bizarre weather patterns sending seven (yes,7) tornadoes creating a large swath of devastation to include overturned trucks, trailers,and buses destroyed properties and 19 confirmed fatalities in the wee hours of the morning (3am) today to where? No, not Miss

This "Song-and-Dance" Before the Exit in Politics JoeUser Forums

Twenty-thousand troops to increase US forces for Baghdad - ? What will that achieve against an unconventional enemy that just has to wait outside of the Green Zone and other parts of Iraq waiting for a lull moment before pouncing back and begin decimating American soldiers in their unguarded moments? What do these 20,000 US forces do against several centuries of

The Spark of Humanity in "Lost" Causes in Personal Relationships JoeUser Forums

A friend emailed me this story which I'm sharing in full. "At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: ** When not interfere

Reply to Are Politicians Leaders or Servants? in US Domestic JoeUser Forums

I think leaders aren't born as such but made by the situation they find themselves in. In fact, the genuine leader doesn't really start off by thinking of him/herself as such but by positively reacting to confront a problem that faces him/her out of disgust for lack of apparent solutions. One trait of a genuine leader is discerning the most effective solution from amongst the cacophony of ideas that will be thrown his way in trying to search out for so

Reply to Correcting The Course in Current Events JoeUser Forums

" We shouldn't use change against the generals on the ground, the troops or the President. We should welcome it! Of coure, that would take courage on the part of the voters to, which sadly, we are all too often more interested in punishing leadership than welcoming it ." - Parated2K I don't think I advocated using the issue of change in Strategy and Tactics as something against the generals or troops on the ground, or even the Commander

Reply to Correcting The Course in Current Events JoeUser Forums

" Strategy is less fluid than tactics, I'll agree. However, the root of the problem doesn't lie with either Strategy or Tactics. The root of the problem lies in the rigidity of the politics of the whole thing. Strategy and Tactics SHOULD change as the needs on the ground change. After Action Reports should reveal what works and what doesn't, then new tactics should be formed, and new orders cut. As the overall action is evaluated, strategy shoul

Correcting The Course in Current Events JoeUser Forums

Tactics are something you can turn on a dime,” said Richard L. Armitage, the former deputy secretary of state, and an Army veteran with close ties to the military. “Strategy takes time, and that’s the question. Do we have time for a new strategy?” Any thoughts evaluating the formation of a new strategy cannot ignore reevaluation of the old one. The reevalua

Reply to People are afraid of what they dont know in Health & Medicine JoeUser Forums

Hi Ethel1040, You mentioned being afraid of what you don't know and that you had MS (apparently stable at present). I don't know if you had already discussed the disease with your doctor(neurologist) or what you already know about it, but I'm going to share with you what I know about the disease because I sense from the title of your post that you do want to know more about it. While it may be true that there is nothing conclusive known about how MS is caused at present and therefor

Reply to War in Iraq - What should we do? in War on Terror JoeUser Forums

I think this Post is significant for proposing a solution to the problem of Iraq rather than brow-beating the obvious - that mistakes in tactics and even strategy have taken place. Some of my own proposals such as involvement of surrounding moderate Arab nations and retention of US military presence confined in the stable areas (Kurdistan) in fact overlap with your ideas. For the rest of my other proposals, I would first have to wrestle as to how to p

Reply to To Be Gay and Republican in Politics JoeUser Forums

"First we're told that it's "homophobic" to care about a person's sexual orientation, then the same people say it's hypocritical for a republican to be gay" - ParaTed2k I think the more accurate statement would be that it's hypocritical to be a closet gay,regardless of whichever Party, specially when aspiring for public office, since social issues involving gays and non-gays are inevitably affected by legislation. It's just th

Reply to To Be Gay and Republican in Politics JoeUser Forums

" Are you really so naive to think that had the Republicans purged themselves of Foley they wouldn't have made that about homophobia? You can bet the pages wouldn't have been "children" then. They would have been 'young adults' and while Dems would have agreed with punishing the sexual harassment the main point of fire would have been that they just drummed him out for being gay ." - Bakerstreet I think everyone will agree that Foley took

Reply to To Be Gay and Republican in Politics JoeUser Forums

"You are aware of the Log Cabin Republicans right?" - Bakerstreet Actually, no - not until I read the article and I had to write this post to my consternation. Is there a national Log Cabin Democrats organization ?

To Be Gay and Republican in Politics JoeUser Forums

I almost coughed out my breakfast cereals one Monday Morning when I started reading a St. Peterburg Times article on gay Republican staffers being accused of downplaying the Foley issue to protect a fellow gay Republican (?!) It was a recent article by Bill Adair & Web Allison and the nearest link I could find on the subject was this: <a href="http://www.freerepublic.

Reply to Why Has the US Dropped to 6th As Most Globally Competitive ? in Current Events JoeUser Forums

" Statistics dont lie, but liars use statistics. Yes, one can take a peek at any numbers they want to prove their point. It is all in how you define the claim ." - Dr. Guy In this particular case (WEF Global Competitive Index), would you then say that their statistics "lied" too when they made the US the most (No. 1)globally competitive nation for more than a decade before their most recent official survey ? If the answer is "no", but we

Reply to Party or Country ? in Politics JoeUser Forums

" may the best man win my vote. They need me more than I need them ." - Charles.C Wise words. That's enough motivation to make elections work - whether sooner or (2008)later.