Phantom Stranger

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Posts by Phantom Stranger

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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

  Two of the things I hope for from Kerry as a leader are the ability to make reasoned decisions when he has time, and to make good snap decisions when he doesn't have time.

  For whatever reasons, Gore did not convince enough voters that he could make snap decisions.

  I think that Kerrys' record in the Senate speaks to the first hope, but I don't think anyone's record in government can speak to the second unless they have been in charge of something during a crisis - a wartime President, or Mayor of NYC in September of 2001, for example. Or in command during combat, as Kerry has. It may not be much to base an evaluation on, but I'm going with it... as I am very displeased with both Bush's reasoned and snap decisions, and would like to try someone else.
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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

  FYI - the commonly-referred to "93% of the time" figure refers either to the fact that Kerry voted the same as Ted Kennedy 93% of the 28% of the votes he attended in 2003, or to a "93" score assigned senators by a liberal group (see below).

  From the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22260-2004Feb7?language=printer

  Kerry's 19-year record in the Senate includes thousands of votes, floor statements and debates, committee hearings and news conferences. That long paper trail shows that, on most issues, Kerry built a solidly liberal record, including support for abortion rights, gun control and environmental protection, and opposition to costly weapons programs, tax cuts for wealthy Americans and a 1996 federal law designed to discourage same-sex marriages.

  But there are exceptions to that generally liberal voting record. Kerry voted for the welfare overhaul bill in 1996 that President Bill Clinton signed over the vociferous opposition of the party's liberal wing; supported free-trade pacts, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement that organized labor opposed; backed deficit-reduction efforts in the mid-1980s, which many other Democrats opposed; and was distinctly cool toward Clinton's health care proposal, which died after being pilloried as the embodiment of big government.

  From http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200401220835.asp

  For example, Kerry has earned a lifetime rating of 93 from the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, which selects key votes each year and rates lawmakers according to a perfect liberal score of 100.

  Viewed from the other side of the ideological divide, Kerry has a lifetime rating of six from the conservative American Conservative Union, which uses a similar methodology to rate lawmakers according to a perfect conservative score of 100. Kerry's rating is the same as Leahy's and New York's Charles Schumer's, although it is slightly less liberal than Kennedy's lifetime rating of three.
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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?????

  ?

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  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... :)
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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

  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.

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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?