Phantom Stranger

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Posts by Phantom Stranger

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  30

  What's The Best Way To Help A Witness Leave The Organization?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  any suggestions?????

  ?

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  Phantom Stranger

  So, min, you're talking about unwanted help?

  Because you are not being clear.
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  135

  Victory for Terrorism

  by Yerusalyim in

  1. social
  2. current

  the terrorists won a great victory in spain.

  mind you, i'm all for the democratic process...it's great...and had the spanish decided to part ways with the us of it's own volition, great!...however, the socialists were project to not win a majority in this weekends election...that is until the terrorist attack.

  now, with the socialist coming into power...and the promise to both withdraw the 1300 spanish soldiers from iraq and to part ways with the us on foriegn policy we can look for more such attacks in other countries.

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  Phantom Stranger

  avishai, I'd like to add some context for your discussion of Kerry's votes in the Senate there:

  That is for 2003 only... most of which was spent campaigning and in other pre-campaign work .Not stating the period measured could lead a reader to believe that it's a lifetime record, which it's not. As is the tradition with Senators, they make sure to be present for close votes when campaigning.
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  102

  Congratulations, Spain - first government to fall because of Iraq, Bush!

  by TheOldHippie in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  congratulations to the spanish people, who voted the socialists to power as a protest against the conservative government's supporting bush's war on iraq, and for claiming the madrid bombs were acts of the eta nationalists and not an al-qaida attack because of the war on iraq.. so one government has fallen, and there are many more to come, bush.. who says these days ain't fun?

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  Phantom Stranger

  But it wasn't "massive, overnight change"!

  Not "massive":

  Before the attacks, polls gave Rajoy's party a 3-5 percentage point lead over the Socialists in the race for the 350-seat Congress of Deputies.

  Not "overnight":

  MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- With opinion polls showing more than 90 percent of Spaniards are against the war, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar vowed his support of the war in Iraq would not lead to his ruling Popular Party being "cornered" by leftists and antiwar protesters.

  http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/03/29/sprj.irq.spain/

  And this was actually a restoration of the Socialist's lead that existed before this happened:

  The Socialist candidate for prime minister is the largely untested Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a 43-year-old lawyer who had hoped to capitalize on people's fury over Spain's fervent support for the Iraq war. The country contributed no combat troops, but has sent 1,300 peacekeepers and 11 have died.

  In late January, the sky came crashing down on Zapatero's party.The fiasco unfolded in the Catalonia region, where nationalist and separatist sentiment is strong. Independence advocate Josep Carod Rovira, whose party rules in coalition with the Socialists, admitted slipping across the border into France to meet with members of the armed Basque separatist group ETA. This violated an accord among major parties ruling out talks with ETA.

  Aznar's government said Carod sought a deal under which ETA, apparently out of solidarity with fellow state-seekers, would halt attacks in Catalonia but keep them up elsewhere in Spain. Carod denied this. Three weeks later, to the horror of Zapatero and his party, ETA declared a Catalonia-only truce. It enabled the party's foes to paint the Socialists as tolerating the notion that it's OK to kill Spaniards in some areas but not others.

  "Of all that has happened to Zapatero, the last thing he needed was what happened with Carod and the terrorists," said Elias, president of Instituto Opina, a Barcelona-based polling firm.

  Carme Chacon, a Socialist candidate in Barcelona, put it ruefully: "Carod gave Rajoy a present, his only campaign theme."

  http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/world/8151924.htm
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  30

  What's The Best Way To Help A Witness Leave The Organization?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  any suggestions?????

  ?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  So... do you mean talking someone out of it or being supportive to someone with doubts and questions?
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  10

  New Book: The Meaning of Wife

  by Scully in

  1. social
  2. relationships

  i saw this book yesterday at costco and i'm watching a discussion of it on a talk show right now.

  has anyone read it?

  any thoughts?

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  Phantom Stranger

  Jeez, Valis...people complain about the length of MY posts... :)
• 
  30

  What's The Best Way To Help A Witness Leave The Organization?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  any suggestions?????

  ?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  Bingo!

  min, are you asking how to help someone who wants help?
• 
  135

  Victory for Terrorism

  by Yerusalyim in

  1. social
  2. current

  the terrorists won a great victory in spain.

  mind you, i'm all for the democratic process...it's great...and had the spanish decided to part ways with the us of it's own volition, great!...however, the socialists were project to not win a majority in this weekends election...that is until the terrorist attack.

  now, with the socialist coming into power...and the promise to both withdraw the 1300 spanish soldiers from iraq and to part ways with the us on foriegn policy we can look for more such attacks in other countries.

  1. 
  2. 
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  Phantom Stranger

  Well, I don't know that I'd go there... I'd just remind all on this thread that Democratic liberals led the country through winning WWII...

  Enough with the name-calling and calling each other out...
• 
  135

  Victory for Terrorism

  by Yerusalyim in

  1. social
  2. current

  the terrorists won a great victory in spain.

  mind you, i'm all for the democratic process...it's great...and had the spanish decided to part ways with the us of it's own volition, great!...however, the socialists were project to not win a majority in this weekends election...that is until the terrorist attack.

  now, with the socialist coming into power...and the promise to both withdraw the 1300 spanish soldiers from iraq and to part ways with the us on foriegn policy we can look for more such attacks in other countries.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  Many of the posters here are ignoring a fact that the US media is also ignoring:
  

  Spanish voters have been against their involvement in Iraq without UN involvement since day one (according to some widely-published polling numbers, up to 90% were against Spain's involvement). To act as if Spain was "for" the war until terrorists hit them is absurd and incorrect. For a democratic government to pursue a course without securing enough support from the electorate is folly - and that folly, combined with that last-minute clumsy attampt at media spin, cost the PP the election.

  As far as Europe needing to experience modern terror to understand it, Farkel, that's laughable in light of history. Please recall how, immediately after 9/11, many articles discussed how the US had finally lived through a disaster reminiscent of events in WWI and WWII. The Dresden firestorm bombings (200K dead!), the blitzkrieg practice on Spain in Guernica, the use of gas in WWI, the blitz bombing of England - Europe has a much better handle on what mass killing is like than the US has ever had.

  As a reminder of how self-centered we in the US are, please note the following headlines:

  9/12/01: Le Monde, Paris: We are all New Yorkers

  3/12/04, Newsweek (came today): Europe's 9/11: A New Threat to America?

  That's the best we can do - make it about us?
• 
  30

  What's The Best Way To Help A Witness Leave The Organization?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  any suggestions?????

  ?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  The best way is to go out and be happy and successful, and to keep growing and progressing emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically...in other words, serve as an inspiration to them rather than being in resistance to them.
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  102

  Congratulations, Spain - first government to fall because of Iraq, Bush!

  by TheOldHippie in

  1. social
  2. current

  .

  congratulations to the spanish people, who voted the socialists to power as a protest against the conservative government's supporting bush's war on iraq, and for claiming the madrid bombs were acts of the eta nationalists and not an al-qaida attack because of the war on iraq.. so one government has fallen, and there are many more to come, bush.. who says these days ain't fun?

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  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Phantom Stranger

  shamus, would you mind illuminating us ... or do you just want to fly in and do the seagull thing on the thread and fly away?