Redstate

Posted at 2:17pm on Nov. 15, 2006 Coalition of the acceptable

By CynicalGeek

I'm compiling a list of countries that would be acceptable to the world (including the Muslim world) to send into Iraq (for peacekeeping, military operations) or any other Muslim nation in the future for any reason for that matter. While I have been supportive of the Iraq war, I recognize for the next century, leaders around the world will use a government's involvement in Iraq as a reason for not allowing them to be part of any coalition that they are building for any worldly problem. Here are the 113 that have made my first list. There are some obvious ones that should be removed (yes, the most obvious one starts with "S.")

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Posted at 12:33am on Aug. 4, 2006 Dirty Politics In The Media Age

By CynicalGeek

Intentionally cross-posted at the AJC in Atlanta.

Intentionally not-posted at DK.

Here we are in the middle of a runoff election in Georgia between Cynthia McKinney and Hank Johnson for the 4th District house seat.  Three years ago, CynthiaForCongress.com was registered to Citizens for Conservative Values - seemingly a republican group of some fashion.  This information is public, and has been offered up to the media for informal investigation to explain what this means.

After sitting and thinking about it for a few days I have decided that the simplest explanation must be true.  Nobody will bite on this story and a republican group did buy up a whole bunch of domain names in recent years.  I assume all groups of all kinds buy domain names no matter if politics is the arena or not.  Go ask somebody what a WHOIS DNS lookup is if you don't know.  Anyway, Citizens for Conservative Values probably did buy the domain name, and Cynthia McKinney and her camp couldn't come up with a better domain name so they bought the domain for some amount of money, assuming that the republicans (if they are - again I do not know and nobody that has investigated further is talking) did not donate to McKinney's cause.

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Posted at 8:37am on Jul. 31, 2006 Kidnapped By Baby Bottle And Media Warfare At 4AM

By CynicalGeek

If it weren't for any seven-week old baby's appetite, I would have missed some of the most of the most memorable moments on television. You know the points in time that you remember vividly, sometimes not in the most detail, but you remember where you were. The Beirut U.S. Marine barracks, the space shuttle Challenger, Discovery, Oliver North on Trial, David Koresh and The Branch Davidians in Waco, TX, the first Gulf War, Clinton/Lewinsky (he admitted what he did on my birthday - haha,) Apple announce they will use Intel processors! (lol,) and the rest of the recent stuff and all the rest. As I was watching CNNInternational, Shahib (sp? - CNNI correspondent) was able to land some air time with Ibrahim Moussawi of Al-Manar TV (Hizbullah state-run television - PBS for terrorists.) While all news media will have bias as long as journalists have hearts in their chests and brains in there head, Moussawi's testimonial is predictable. There is no objectivity and his story is almost as annoying as the latest HEAD-ON! commercial running on TV that even Brian Williams of NBC Nightly news reported on. Anyway, Al-Manar only reports on the aggression of the Israeli people and the killing of Lebanese civilians. When Shahib inquired about reports of Hizbullah rocket fire coming from the area in Qana, Lebanon today, Moussawi would only reply "Prove it." Trying to negotiate with these types of people is like trying to get a seven-week old baby to cooperate at 4AM. They will do as they please on their own time.

While the message from Al-Manar works against force in this war on terrorism it is completely representative of how warfare is fought in the 21st century. If we were to allow more airtime to terrorist organizations during the war then it would be just like giving airtime to Tokyo Rose in WWII. Sooner or later, the world will learn a lesson one way or another about propoganda and the media at fiber optic speed. I only hope Israel is not in the storyline. I have said many times to friends that the media warfare aspect has been a difficult part of the current American campaign in the Middle East and Afghanistan. I actually groaned when the first reports that embedded journalists were going to be used on a large scale. Attaching journalists to American forces is one thing, but what is going on around Israel and Lebanon right now is a display of over-reporting and gross negligence on all parts. The terrorists will not change their ways, nor will Israel give up to the right of a Jewish state. I am aware of the history of the region and the methods by which Hizbullah and others use to wage war. I am reminded of the hundreds of U.S. Marines killed in Beirut when a water delivery truck leveled their building as the marines were positioned in Beirut as peace keepers with unloaded weapons. Osama bin Laden used that reference as well as the black hawk that went down in Somalia as examples of the U.S. cut and run because they don't have the stomachs for war mentality. What is happening right now in Israel and Lebanon is yet another generation of Hizbullah that Israel is having to deal with. As I close, I have to get back to the latest news that protestors are breaking into the U.N. building in Beirut. The last time I looked they were smashing what I assume to be bullet proof glass on a entryway with a covered walkway and garden area. Here we go. Let's get ready for another week of war. Just great.

"Whoever wishes for peace, let him prepare for war." -Vegetius

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Posted at 8:52am on Jul. 27, 2006 Can The Israel-Hezbollah Conflict Be Solved In Four Weeks?

By CynicalGeek

As my father grew older he hoped for peace in Israel and the Middle East. Once, his hopeswere that he would see peace by the time his children became adults. When my sister and I grew up, he hoped that his grandchildren might see peace in Israel. Last year, as he lay near death in the hospital on his birthday, Israel and Palestine declared a cease-fire. A few days later they were battling again. Another development was that Syria was pulling the last of it's troops out of Lebanon. These were yet more markers for future generations to view as small changes in the Middle East that will lead toward a paradigm shift in the daily lives of all who live in the Middle East.

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Posted at 2:45am on May 16, 2006 Immigration Reform Address & The Media Age

By CynicalGeek

Tonight, President Bush laid his cards on the table as best he could and spoke to the American people, telling them what he wanted to say.  Some tuned in and listened, and I'm sure a majority of America did not.  I watched the entire address, and have skimmed over the transcript since the broadcast, but unfortunately I missed the Democratic response from Durbin (D - IL.)  Brian  Williams of NBC assured me that I could catch the response at 8:30PM (12 minutes after Bush left the air) on NBC so when I was given the choice of watching Howie Mandell on "Deal Or No Deal" or channel surfing, I chose the latter.

I arrived back on NBC (all of them) at 8:29 and apparently missed the response.  I found the Democratic response transcript and began to incessantly ponder the use of my CAPSLOCK key.

After I listened to the CNN folks discussing the legality of having a National Guard militarization I arrived back to NBC somewhere in this transaction | http://newsbusters.org/node/5380 | and then I became frustrated  First, I tuned back in and the response had apparently already been given, and I was really trying to pay attention this time.  Second, all of a sudden I was listening to discussion of fairly substantial troop numbers.  While I understood Bush to say

One way to help during this transition is to use the National Guard. So, in coordination with governors, up to 6,000 Guard members will be deployed to our southern border. ...This initial commitment of Guard members would last for a period of one year.

NBC is arguing the number of 300,000 on the border.  This is where I became very lost, and maybe I am missing something, such as legislation that Durbin has read that I have not and legislation which the President did not describe.

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Posted at 11:10am on May 10, 2006 Dear President Bush...Sincerely, Iran

By CynicalGeek

Since 1979, the United States and Iran have not had "diplomatic relations."  Working in the IT world, I have been reminded of this numerous times when downloading software as the software maker warns me not to export this software to Iran.  In 1979, United States citizens were taken hostage in Iran and Jimmy Carter's approval rating was lower than that of even our current president (Carter was in office one term and Bush has been in for 1.5 terms.)  Immediately following President Reagan's inauguration, the hostages were released to spite former President Carter.

Here we are 27 years later and Iran wants to appear that they are working towards a diplomatic solution with the world.  This is just not the case, we have not had relations with them for such a long time and since Ahmadinejad has come to power he has railed against anyone who opposes Iran in any fashion, especially the United States.  Ahmadinejad knows what a powerhouse Iran is in the energy world, and I'm sure he loves to see that oil prices can fluctuate 2 dollars or more when he sends his messages to the world.  I think his 18 page letter could have been shortened to a couple paragraphs.



Dear President Bush,

Remember me?  I was at the hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.  We hated you then and we hate you now.  I just wanted to sent this letter to you in order to gauge the world opinion of myself.  I see that the United Nations is trying to decide what to do about our nuclear program that we hid from the world for 18 years.  I have gathered all sorts of Bush blasting ideas from the Internet and will list them below and explain to the world what a awful country you are.  I don't expect that you will respond to this letter, and that's OK, the world will think less of you for doing so and they will rail against you for not encouraging diplomacy with my country.  I will also have a colleague of mine send you a follow up letter with more rhetoric and fluff and we will continue to watch your oil prices.  I wish I had more time to write, but I have to go to the local gas station to watch people spill liters of gas on the ground since we only pay 10 cents per gallon.

Sincerely,

The Thorn In Your Side

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

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Posted at 8:58am on May 5, 2006 Senate Judiciary Committee: Supreme Court Nomination Hearings Born From Scandal

By CynicalGeek

With the topic of judicial appointments in the news again I thought it would be appropriate to post one of my old blog entries to my RS diary.  Enjoy!

Senator Joe Biden is expressing his frustration with the hearings of Samuel Alito and Newsweek is writing that Alito's nomination will be confirmed by ways of lowering expectations of Alito and infighting within the Senate. Looking back through the history of Supreme Court nominees appearances before the Senate Judiciary Committee sheds light on how we got to the unhappiness with the hearings themselves. Senator Biden is recommending that we revamp the nomination process and have the nomination go straight to the Senate floor for debate. He also suggest that the nominees should make their case in the media for their writings will make the nominees answer the questions that the Senators want to have answered. Would these nominees be responsible for paying for their own advertisements? Would Fox News be an acceptable place to air their views?

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Posted at 10:46am on Apr. 28, 2006 News Flash: Ahmadinejad Doesn't Care About U.N.

By CynicalGeek

"Those who want to prevent Iranians from obtaining their right, should know that we do not give a damn about such resolutions," Ahmadinejad said

Now why am I not surprised.  After hiding their nuclear program for two decades, Iran has a mover and a shaker in power who made waves during the time that the IAEA was counting down the days until the deadline.

Push those gas prices up there Mahmoud, thanks.

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Posted at 12:04am on Apr. 28, 2006 The Blogosphere And My TROLL Experience

By CynicalGeek

It is a shame to see that the political community that exists on the Internet is so unwelcoming.  I joined the DailyKos community as a form of friend-replacement since my favorite Democrat left me and went off to college.  Now I am not the average Kossack, but I thought that it would be a worthwhile journey to learn abot what goes on during the day on on of the most active blogs in existence.  One of the most enjoyable things about my dem friend was that we could both on some level, and on some topics, understand each other's point of view.  I though with so many Kossacks that there would be some sort of room for variety (although my friend is not a Kossack) and differences of opinion.  I was mistaken.  The only people welcome at DailyKos are anybody that want to tear us down as a country.  No one should even try to post a comment unless you hate all Republicans.

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