Folktruther, October 10 at 9:55 pm

You will find it easy, I promise, and rewarding as well. Imagine an error free post..well spelling errors at least...

Thanks, ardee, I’ll ask nancy about the Mozilla Firefox Brouser.  Frankly it sends a shiver of terror down my spine.  I’m not a high tech person.  Living in a world I never made.

ardee:

ardee, ardee, ardee- “...avoid the stupidities of a moron like fiddlercrab…”

After I busted on you for ratting me out to the webmarm, you said you were going to ignore my existence, yet, you felt the need to throw yet one more barb.

I think you have a crush on me you big lovable lug!

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate approved the largest military budget bill in the history of our nation: $626 billion.

Next, the bill will be sent to a conference committee and then back to the House and Senate for final passage.

There remains a short window of opportunity to stop this wasteful military madness.

Tell your members of Congress to vote NO on the 2010 defense appropriations bill.

http://bit.ly/stopfundingwar

By Folktruther, October 6 at 12:57

“Thanks for the speling tip, blockspire.  Are you suggesting Mussolini as an alternative to US imperialism?”

Whatever are you talking about?  Apparently my comment went right over your head.  I’m sure you did get A’s in school, but you should have stayed past the second grade!

War is bad, health is good, money is trouble.
House and Senate work for us, remind them of that.

Has anyone noticed the red underline of words while typing
their posts? right click and get spelling suggestions. It
takes no time at all.

Folktruther, October 6 at 6:07 pm

Download the Mozilla Firefox browser…its free and open source. It contains a spell checker…That’s why my posts are such models of erudition…..

Ouroborus, October 6 at 11:27 am

Ive been kidding FT about his spelling all along, in good fun. But there is a place for such if one wants his point of view considered fairly. An ordered mind is not such a bad thing…I think of the posts of a certain very smart poster here who fails to ever use paragraphs. I just cannot read his posts even though I know they will be worthy of my time…go figure.

I never could spel, Ardee, I don’t know why.  My dad never cared what grades I got in school as long as they were A’s and he made exceptions of art, writing, shop and that kind of thing.  but he was always puzzled by my getting C’s in speling.  Me too.  Scheer has the same problem but he considers himself dislexic.  Maybe I am too spelling-wise.

The problem is compounded because Nancy got me a bargain computer from China that she substituted for my other good one.  You can’t do spelchecker and most other stuff on it.  nancy edits my real stuff so it doesn’t matter.  Maybe its a good thing.  Look how Martha expanded when someone told her how to do bold letters.  Like the proveertial Terrorist with nuclear weapons.  Who knows, maybe I’d go wild too.

Virginia777, October 6 at 12:02 pm #

Oh, now isn’t that special.

You know, sometimes I think this website is for the
lost masses rather than informed people looking for
answers; based of course, on the quality of
interpersonal discourse and response evident in the
responses found within. I don’t much give a flying
f@#$k about spelling or grammar; only content and
respect.

Hey,Foulktoother Youze should uze a spelcheker soas to avoid the stupidities of a moron like fiddlercrab….

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/05-12

This may or may not be the place to introduce this but it is most undeniably one of the most important things to be directed towards our country and most likely has the potential to really bring this country to its knees or just flat out laid out on the ground and the best hope is that it may take until 2018 for it to totally transpire; the other major economies dumping the dollar in place of stronger currencies, and as Chalmers Johnson has said, ‘that if the arabs decided to start trading oil in some other currency besides dollars, the american economy would collapse before wall street closed the same day’.

Thanks for the speling tip, blockspire.  Are you suggesting Mussolini as an alternative to US imperialism?

I would say it all depends on what you mean by “reform”.  For E. J. Dionne, “reform” seems to mean “increasing Welfare and similar social programs”.  In this sense, overt warfare (and police action) should be seen as an alternative to Welfare, as hard cop is an alternative to soft cop.  Of course, both cops and both versions of the state rely ultimately on force, so in a sense they’re both hard.  They are not really antagonists, but different faces of the same beast carrying out the same purposes.

There are other kinds of reform besides Welfare, though.  Abraham Lincoln, a railroad lawyer, like Alexander Hamilton wanted to strengthen and centralize the United States into a European-style unitary state; he was, in a way, the American Bismarck.  He also wished to do away with embarrassing and inefficient anachronism of slavery.  The Civil War enabled him to do both: it completely subordinated the states to Federal power, and it enabled Lincoln to abolish slavery without compensation to the owners or, for the most part, doing anything to prepare the former slaves for lives as free persons in a competitive capitalist environment, which could have been rather expensive.  Neither of these reforms could have been effected so radically and so cheaply (from the government’s point of view) had the South stayed in the Union and thus avoided the Civil War.

There are many other examples of war enabling the rich and powerful, and those who work for them, to assemble resources, eradicate resistance, suppress dissidence, and move forward rapidly to whatever brink they’re headed for.  When they need to take a breather, it’s time for a depression and a few Welfare programs.  One kind of “reform” succeeds another, and the established order lurches on to its next exciting crisis.

Blackspeare:

One thing you should know about Folktruther: He’s functionally illiterate, so you’ll have to give him a pass on butchering names and the language in general.

What is worse to me? the eight dead Fort Carson soldiers or the almost daily drive-by shootings by our local unemployed youth? The war is a drag on everyone except the Military Industrial Complex. Obama needs to stop this madness and spend some rescources on our own people. Fuck the rest of the World for a few years, let us fix our own house first!!!

Folktruther…

The name is Blackspeare, like Shakespeare, not Blacksphere!  The USA has always been a republic and most of the history of the USA has been imperialistic; whether it be the westward migration (manifest destiny and all that) or adventures in the Far East.  So what else is new!  An interesting facet of history that I like to mention is that Mussolini in his hey day claimed that a nation had to go to war every 25 years to remain strong.  People thought him a war monger and deranged.  However, the USA goes to war about every 15 years both large and small——who’s crazy now?!

Afghanistan is strategic to US imperialism, Blacksphere; it isn’t strategic at all to a US republic.

In regards to the Afghan War, BHO wants to appear astute in contemplating further action as per McChrystal.  But in the end he really has no choice but to provide additional troops and with an all-volunteer military any resistance will be minimal.  Remember Afghanistan is currently in a strategic part of the world.

Another pretty good piece by Dionne.  It just shows you that even old hacks can transcend themselves.  It is especially fine that he points out the relation of war to domestic reform.  And this oncludes domestic dissent as well.  When Russia entered WW 2, the strikes by working were increasingly enormously and the war declaration stopped them flat.

War is the health of the State because it diverts energy and attention from attacking the power structure, to rallying around it.  A major function of the War on Terrorism is to prevent dissent and reform in the American population.

I believe that in order to win the so ‘called war in Afghanistan’, it will take a myriad of things.          Most important as the first priority, figure out how to stop our troops from getting killed, if that means temporarily pulling out of certain areas then so be it. I will let the Generals and Politicians’ who have the data-hopefully decide to add or plan how to change the military direction, one that makes sense and is not tied to any political benefit of anyone on either side. The next most important thing is to create meaningful jobs for the masses. Take a look at what skills these people have, like perhaps making “Oriental wool rugs” if they have these skills create the factories, hire the people and train others to create these beautiful works of art and functionality. Look at what else they do well, and build factories and hire people to do these jobs and actually create export markets for them to help them earn money. Anyone earning a DECENT wage is less inclined to wage war! Try to clear up the tribal conflicts, maybe form a coordinated unit were each votes and has a say, empower the people and great things will begin to happen. Find out how to get rid of corruption! Hardest of all that I have stated so far, but it must be done, let the populous bring the corrupt people to our attention, if it warrants and it adds up that they are corrupt, jail them. Train the Afghan farmers to produce sustainable and even exportable crops if possible. Give them the machinery and technology necessary for them to produce more food per acre. *Our great failure in helping that country has been our lack of providing meaningful JOBS. Rid their country of corruption, get the populous trained in things that they can be trained to do with the few resources they actually have. Develop and help them export their products. Make garments there; may be one thing they are good at? Try to train the children, develop better teaching methods and in most cases, they don’t even have schools and allow girls to get an education as well! **I believe everything relates to jobs, jobs, jobs!
I don’t see that we have done any of these things except create war! Definitely go after Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, hit them by covert means, get people to tell us who they are and where they are and then with a drone, take them out. Hit hard, hit many, create confusion and worry for the Taliban and with jobs we will create and foster better relations with the general Afghan population. We also have electronic equipment, so voting can be fair, but first they have to trust us and want this equipment and want to use it.  Why can’t the politicians figure this out, it isn’t difficult!  We spend so much money on weapons and bombs and get very little if anything back as a worthwhile payback.  The only ones receiving any type of payback are the Military Companies like Lockheed, Boeing and others!

ardee, October 5 at 5:55 am #

It would seem an all volunteer army has dovetailed into
the empires plans very well indeed.

Especially in a time of great unemployment war is a dumping ground for the jobless. Cruel words perhaps but imagine all those troops home and looking for a job that doesn’t exist….what a fertile ground for revolutionary demands.

Obama may very well be as sincere as his speeches indicate, or as smarmy as his actions indicate, I do not know for certain never having met the man. I do see a government unresponsive to the real needs of its citizenry, one that pursues a strategy in the Middle East that seems doomed to failure.

Ironically, the real way to thwarting the power of the terrorist and extremist, jobs, peace and security in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is a less expensive alternative to war but, I guess, a less profitable one.

The age old problem of “Guns or Butter” arises anew for each generation of Americans.  Guns always win because Wars are the darling of the rich, who almost never fight them.  The poor are the cannon fodder who are brainwashed into believing that they are dying for some great American ideal of freedom.  I wonder how many parents would allow their children to die for oil or a rich man’s bank account.  Not many, I predict.

So the great fabrication goes on and on.