Osama's Message to America!

[AgingYoung]

Ken,

After the "flawed" intelligence we used to justify an invasion of Iraq, who would believe us?

The intel that we used wasn't only produced by America. Of the intel that we did produce it was collected and presented by former clinton appointees well into the Bush administration.

Congress used that intel to decide to give the president the authority to invade iraq. The security council (the only real authority of the un since their decisions are binding) voted to invade Iraq.

Who would believe 'our' intel? It wasn't only ours. Prior to the iraqi invasion most world leaders believed that sadamn had weapons of mass destruction.

When I hear the charge that 'there were no weapons found' I never hear the possibility that some were moved out of iraq before the conflict. When Clinton bombed iraq during his impeachment hearings he insisted that it happen real fast. Time was of the essence. I think the time frame was 3 days. When President Bush was gearing up for military action congress (the democrats) dragged their feet and insisted the matter be talked about first. Then they insisted that the un have a say in the matter. sadamn had plenty of time to move any weapons.

Another matter that is often not mentioned is the fact of dual use plants that sadamn had. They could make insecticides or toxic weapons. sadamn is the only world leader (that I'm aware of) that has used chemical agents on his own population. For all the right reasons he's been disposed and the world's better off for it.

Gene

[Dave]

Ken
President Bush's numbers are not the lowest of any President. President Lincoln would have been lower. Nobody in the South liked him and only half the North liked him because of the Civil War.
I think that leaves 25%.

[ken_behrendt]

Gene wrote:

Congress used that intel to decide to give the president the authority to invade iraq.

That's the problem. That "intel" was what the White House wanted Congress to see. Accusations have been made that the intel Congress saw had been "cherry picked" so that it would present a distorted picture of exactly how dangerous Saddam Hussein really was to the region around Iraq.

Just yesterday, I saw an interesting story on BBC. Apparently, someone over in London leaked a confidential memo that was written after Bush visited Blair in January of 2003 to discuss the Iraq problem. That memo states that Bush told Blair that he (Bush) did not really know if there were weapons of mass destruction (WMD's) in Iraq and that he (Bush) intended to invade Iraq whether or not Saddam had such weapons! Of course, it's possible that this leaked memo could be a fabrication...but, then again, it could be genuine and reveals a interesting insight into the planning for the Iraq invasion.

Only a few days after the Bush/Blair meeting, then Secretary of State Colin Powell (a man I much respect) showed up at the United Nations and delivered the Bush administration's doomsday scenario of what would happen unless Iraq was invaded and Saddam's weapons of mass destruction where found and destroyed. It was primarily on the basis of that presentation that the UN gave its blessing to such a military intervention.



Meanwhile, Bush's continuously sinking poll numbers have caused him to dismiss his former White House Chief of Staff and replace him with a new guy. I think he is hoping that, as was the case with Reagan, this maneuver will help prevent his second "legacy" term from turning into a complete disaster.

Will it work? I doubt it...the American people are starting to wake up and realize that this whole Iraq mess was an unnecessary and very expensive foreign "adventure" for which they will be paying dearly for years to come...


ken

[terry5732]

Ken, you seem to have a fixation on poll numbers. Congress' poll numbers are consistantly lower than the Presidents yet they are never reported on the news. You watch too much news. You will not find news in a ratings (poll) driven entertainment media.
This is a representative democracy. Any president who would take actions based on getting higher poll ratings (Clinton) should be summarilly executed. The best interest of the people is not poll rating driven.
Now he has taken your advice and is trying to boost his poll numbers with latino votes......

[racer270]

his poll #'s..........LOL...... :)

with latinos...........!

check out how he is doing with the people of mexican descent.....in my town......



http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/8323174 ... d=10101561

[Dave]

Ha Ha Poll numbers with illegal aliens don't mean s---.
Let them sign up, become US citizens, learn to read and write English, pay taxes, then we will count their poll numbers.

[Dave]

Ken
The facts have escaped you.

[AgingYoung]

95 out of a 100 palestinian terrorists (pardon the redundancy) think that President Bush is doing a horrible job also. I'm sure he wouldn't get their votes.

Gene

[terry5732]

If we sent the CNN/Gallup number lovers to the nether reaches of Pakistan to poll the ragtag remnants of ubl's boys as to what they think of Bush, would any of them return alive?

[Dave]

I used to think that if we let the illegal aliens have California it would take a decade to turn it into a ghetto. I was wrong. After looking at the aftermath of Katrina it would take only 3 months.

[ken_behrendt]

The "debate" on illegal aliens in the USA is getting interesting. On the surface, the Republicans want to look "tough" on the issue, but the reality is that the Republican Party can not take the chance of "alienating" its Hispanic base (small as it is) with the November elections coming up.

No, the 12 million illegal aliens are here to stay.

Actually, I tend to feel somewhat sympathetic to them. Most are not criminals and came to America to escape grinding poverty in their homelands. They work hard and often are taken advantage of by the capitalists here. For example, they have supposedly paid about $6 billion USD into our Social Security system which they will never be able to collect back.

Most are taking jobs that Americans do not want because they are considered to be laborious or "dirty". Yes, they get medical services and their children are in local schools. However, whether they are legal or not, most are paying their fair share of taxes and some are even serving in the armed forces and risking their lives to defend our country.

I think there is still room in the USA for them. It's time the government recognized them and gave them some sort of legal status.


ken

[terry5732]

It is far easier for aliens to get Social Security benefits than it is for people who were born here. There are many people who come to the US only for Medicaid and then return home. There are books published in foreign countries telling them how to work the US system on this.
If they were good people, they would change what's wrong in THEIR country. The country isn't bad because of it's geography. It's bad because of it's populace.
I don't particularily like the current government here. I have never seriously entertained going somewhere else. Decent people don't flee their home and beg for handouts afterwards. You should work for change where you are whether by carrying signs, chanting, voting, teaching or throwing molatov cocktails or with guns.
All the bad areas of the world are caused by a dearth of good people. Adding the problem people here will cause this place to be like where they came from when they are in sufficient numbers.

[AgingYoung]

Approximately 29% of prisoners in the federal prison system are non-citizens(there are 160,193 prisoners). According to May 2002 BOP statistics:

- 16% of all Federal prisoners from Mexico
- 2.4% are from Colombia
- 1.7% are from Cuba
- 2% are from the Dominican Republic
- 7.3% other/unknown

I have heard (but I can't find a source) that california's deficit can be attributed to social security dollars gone to mexico.

date line: Thursday, December 19, 2002
U.S. Social Security May Reach To Mexico
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer

Pushed by the Mexican government, the Bush administration is working on a Social Security accord that would put tens of thousands of Mexicans onto the Social Security roster and send hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits south of the border.

White House and Mexican government officials say discussions on an agreement to align the Social Security systems of the two countries are informal and preliminary. But excerpts from an internal Social Security Administration memo obtained this month say the agreement "is expected to move forward at an accelerated pace," with the support of both governments, and could be in force by next October. ...etc.

[ken_behrendt]

Yes, yes...trying to economically integrate 12 million people into our economy is no easy task. The towns that border the US/Mexican border feel the problem the most acutely and something needs to be done to finanicially assist them while we try to assimilate the hordes of "undocumented" aliens that are seeking a better life in the USA.

The Republican Party is in a real bind over this issue. A large part of their base wants all of the illegals kicked out of the country while another part (the Hispanic part) will probably start voting Democratic if too harsh measures are inflicted upon them.

Obviously, the USA does not have the resources to absorb every impoverished alien on this planet because, the tell the truth, we do have a lot of economic problems ourselves despite the appearance of unlimited wealth that we project to the rest of the world.

However, the poorest people of Mexico and Central America are our hemispheric neighbors and Jesus did say that we were supposed to love our neighbors as we do ourselves. This is an excellent opportunity to put those words into action.


Actually, I think it is a good idea that the US government legitimize the status of these undocumented aliens in our country. That way, their true numbers and locations will be known. Additional people who want to enter the USA will not have to risk their lives doing so and would be able to enter at points where their identity can be verified. This will greatly reduce the possibility of terrorists trying to sneak into the USA to stage another 9/11 type attack. Of course, that assumes that we finally make a serious attempt to set up an electronic wall along our borders to prevent such potentially disasterous entries into our country.

I think I saw a story on the news about how the Catholic Church will not be cooperating in any way with the government if it makes an attempt to harrass the undocumented aliens now here. I tend to support this intention and not just because most of the aliens are Roman Catholics.

Like most of the "hot topic" issues we see on the news, about a decade from now, no one will probably even remember it or care...



ken

[AgingYoung]

yes, yes, yes, yes, words, words, words, words, and more words...

The Republican Party is in a real bind over this issue.

I don't see it as a partisan issue because both democrats and republicans will be paying for the social security that is heading below the boarder. Social security benefits are based on your last 3 years of wages prior to retiring. If you come up from mexico and work 3 years (illegally) before you're 65 the American taxpayer will pay you benefits for the rest of your life. Although $400-600 a month doesn't seem like too much in America with the exchange rate between the peso and the dollar it's comfortable.

There is the small matter of illegal aliens breaking the law also. I hate to nitpick but they're breaking the law being here and they're also taking quite a booty home with them.

Gene