Arkansas Blog

The vice president may have thought he was speaking to 130, but the way this visit was conducted spoke loudly to thousands: the VP is a cowardly jerk.

hidden under white sheets (what a surprise)

and not a very big tent either

is he here to interview for nutt's job ?

A thousand bucks for a photo with the devil incarnate. I hope the local frame shop sells frames with little bars across the front so the real life image of Cheney in prison for war crimes may be correctly portrayed in the near future.

Much less, raising a measly 100k for a VP fund raiser is laughable.

Little Rock should be proud only 130 people bought into the fascist, VP Cheney terror and anti tax show.

Don't you just know they served chicken.

Did anyone outside the purported group inside actually lay eyes on him? Makes me think of the movie Dave. Maybe the real Cheney is in a bunker in the White House and they are just scooting a stand-in around the country.

Bush raised $63,552,155 for the Republican Party and candidates through Nov. 2, compared with $62,415,000 at the same point in 2005, the start of the last election cycle, according to figures the Republican National Committee provided to Politico.

It's the big exception to the theory that Bush is unpopular and in the bunker: The party's donors still flock to events he headlines. And Republicans point out that Bush achieved that mark despite the record amounts being vacuumed up by GOP presidential campaigns.

... what they don't advertise is that W has done twice as many fundraisers this year, versus 2005.

$100,000?!!?!

Evil incarnate isn't worth what it used to be.

It probably cost the federal, state and local governments five times that amount to arrange, protect and transport The Evil One. Your tax dollars at work for you.

>>Bush raised $63,552,155 for the Republican Party and candidates through Nov. 2<<

He should. Think of the numerous federal contractors beholden to him. Think of the war contractors knocking down billions in Iraq. Hell, two or three of them could have written the check for $63.5 mill.
Consider the food companies making extra hundreds of millions because Bush's FDA turns its head on inspection. How many agri, contractors, retail food, food processors are raking in hundreds of millions due to Bush's open border policy pumping in low cost workers? Let's not forget the largest beneficiary of Bush's Medicare Drug Plan, BIG PHARMA, they alone would not miss coughing up $63.5 million due to the gravy train WPE concocted in their honor.

If I was a cop in LR I'd refuse the duty, even if it got me fired.
How long will it take the stink to clear out of our air???????????

If you think Darth Cheney is any different from his puppet:

>>..Bush has spoken at 29 political fundraisers so far this year.

Most of this work is done out of public sight: Of those 29, 21 have been closed to press coverage. Ten of the 29 were in the Washington area and the rest were out of town, according to Knoller.<<

from muleboy's link.

The darkside didn't just apply to Iraq-al Queda war. Their entire operation is from the dark side helping out the faithful, lining their pockets and paving their driveways with gold. Yet you will find a few so-called "values voters" on here and all across Arkyjesusland willing to praise him for stealing them blind, widening the income-wealth gap in this nation which has almost tripled since WPE was selected for office by a Republican Supreme Court. When the Bushchickens come home to roost it ain't gonna be nice, pleasant and many won't survive it. His THREE TRILLION DOLLAR hot check is going to bounce. Guess whose going to pay for it?
.

Jazzy, we're really proud of your principled approach......"even if it got me fired." What a martyr.

Quite honestly, I consider Darth Cheney to be a weak sister. Paul Tibbets would have a much more practical approach to Iraq.......

No, not a martyr, just a hard headed tough woman who sticks by her beliefs, till proven
wrong, so far that has not happened.
Yeah, we need another Paul Tibbets to nuke the hell out of the middle east, that will teach
the damn rag heads.
BTW,,,,,who is the *we're* really proud...........
I find that the majority on this blog are of one mind.....we hate monkeyboy, shit for brains,
idiotmoron, etc.

We go to war to win, not pussy foot around with gorilla warfare with our soldiers coming home maimed. Bush and Cheney should voluntarily become quadriplegics to emphasize with veterans. We could have easily (and could still) bombed them into submission. It worked for the Japanese, and look at their economy and political system now.

guerilla, sorry

Testing the limits of Japan's friendship
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Why the seemingly bulletproof Pacific alliance has frayed under the Bush administration.
By Michael Zielenziger
November 16, 2007
Today's meeting in Washington between President Bush and yet another new Japanese prime minister -- the third in five years, if you're counting -- is certain to underscore the peculiar tensions now burdening an alliance that once seemed so essential to long-term U.S. strategy in Asia.

Although it is tempting to blame the usual absence of strong Japanese leadership for the friction, another key factor should be recognized: the Bush foreign policy team's tendency to bully global allies. Finally, a Japan that for years felt it had no choice but to follow Washington's dictates is now chafing at the demands of a U.S. administration that fails to recognize the constraints facing a country still grappling with the task of becoming a "normal nation."

We Americans like to believe that Japan remains our closest of friends. The U.S. security treaty with Tokyo is, as former Ambassador to Japan Mike Mansfield said, the United States' "most important bilateral relationship in the world, bar none." We depend on Japan not only to buy our Treasury bills and supply us with Toyota hybrids but also to be our land base to contain the potential ambitions of China.

Yet if our alliance is so robust, why did the Japanese military earlier this month end its mission in the Indian Ocean refueling ships in the U.S.-led campaign to stabilize Afghanistan? And if the Japanese government is vital to the efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear production facilities, why do Washington and Tokyo disagree on whether Pyongyang ought to be dropped from the State Department's list of nations that sponsor terrorism? Finally, if Japan really is our closest ally in the Pacific, why have Tokyo and Washington argued for more than a decade on crucial financial and deployment issues regarding U.S. forces in Okinawa?

The Bush team came to Washington committed to reversing what it saw as the marginalization of Japan's importance under President Clinton. But just as the gamble in Iraq damaged Washington's relationship with Paris and Bonn, it has also soured the relationship with Tokyo. Although it's easy to blame Tokyo for dragging its feet when Washington needs a larger multinational commitment to battle terrorism, it is also clear that the administration bungled things by not investing the energy to understand how its actions would play out in Japan.

The Bush administration seemed to convince itself that Japan was like Tony Blair's Britain: an island nation with a booming economy, shared values and a defense force that could be easily deployed to help U.S. troops. Bush also seemed to feel that a close personal friendship with former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would somehow transform nagging policy differences.

Such faulty analogies obscure the fact that Japan is governed by a constitution written by the U.S. at the end of World War II, a document that forever renounces the right to wage war. And despite Japan's vast material wealth, its people see themselves as isolated residents of a small island nation nervous about being too deeply engaged in global politics.

For more than 50 years, the Japanese have been content to develop industrial muscle while leaving their defense in U.S. hands. That puts the Japanese woefully out of practice when it comes to strategic thinking about long-term foreign policy interests, and for decades Washington's geopolitical strategists liked it that way. So when Washington demanded "boots on the ground" by a "coalition of the willing" to support the Iraq invasion, Japan found itself in an uncomfortable spot. A vast majority of Japanese didn't want to be involved in armed conflict -- even in a limited role. The pacifist constitution was another barrier. And the Bush administration's failure to win U.N. backing for the war just as Tokyo was seeking a permanent seat on the Security Council mortally damaged that longtime Japanese goal -- Tokyo's most important foreign policy objective.

Despite its dependency on Middle Eastern oil, Japan never really felt the Iraq war was its fight. Instead, the domestic debate was framed indirectly: If Japan didn't support its closest ally in a time of war, who would defend Japan if North Korea launched more missiles over its territory?

But this is not exactly the moment for Japan to engage in some dramatic reconsideration of national strategy and purpose. It is snarled in a raft of domestic challenges, including a long-term deflationary spiral, the stalling of its economic engine, a rapidly aging population and uncertainty about how to deal with China's rise. The Bush team also hasn't recognized other aspects of Japan's consensus-bound culture. Strong leaders rarely dominate. Factional politics almost always trumps international policy. And at 71, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is unlikely to boldly remake Japanese politics.

Washington ought to recognize the limits to Japan's support. As long as its trade surplus continues to pile up, Japan prefers its splendid isolation and checkbook diplomacy to the task of genuinely participating in global leadership.

Michael Zielenziger, a former foreign correspondent based in Tokyo, is the author of "Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation."

When we dropped nukes on Japan, no one else had them. Today, that's not the case. So, here's my proposition: Everyone who wants to sling nukes around and thinks that is in some way sound foreign policy, go to Texas (I can't stand that state anyway). All Texans who think that's a really bad idea can head out of state. We'll put all our nukes in Texas and you freakshows can throw them at whoever you want, just as long as the rest of the world knows to only throw their nukes back into Texas and not the rest of the U.S. Seems to me that this would solve alot of the world's problems. Have a good day, Abeles. I pray that you find the strength to get off the drugs you're on.

devilsadvocate, unfortunately, drugs aren't the issue. Y por favor, no llore para mi.

Take a load off this weekend, smoke a cigar and have a scotch. You'll feel better Monday.

Nous sommes desoles que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui.

Mais, le majorite de les gen de Arkansas avant vote pour notre president.

Hey, we speak english here. Cut out that foreign stuff, cause we won't tolerate it!

"We could have easily (and could still) bombed them into submission. It worked for the Japanese, and look at their economy and political system now."

What a plan, Abeles, especially since the current goal is supposed to be "bringing democracy to the people of Iraq."

We attacked a country that had done nothing to us. If you bombed the entire country into oblivion, the people you are trying to kill (unless you really do just want to kill them all) will go into another country and hide until the bombing stops (unless your plan involves never stopping), then start the fight up again. Of course, you would want to prevent that by bombing the country in which they are hiding; then another country as they move on, until you're bombing the entire region; maybe then China because they're probably supplying arms. At least we would no longer have to worry about global warming, what with the entire planet being ablaze.

Haven't more lives been lost during this fiasco than were killed by Saddam Hussein? Do we just no longer care since we started calling them "collateral damage" rather than "human beings"?

"Cut out that foreign stuff, cause we won't tolerate it!"

Right you are, RYD. They're going to get the blog attacked by that border-watching group (whose name I forget). And anyway, isn't that French? Will that make the watchgroup more mad or less mad than if it was "messican"? Or are the French our friends again since they elected a conservative? Sigh. Being mad at the entire world gets confusing.

Abeles, you seem to have all the answers in French, English, and Spanish. Nice work Abeles.

Please Abeles, would you translate this meaningless English sentence that you posted at 3:04:

"Bush and Cheney should voluntarily become quadriplegics to EMPHASIZE [emphasis mine] with veterans."

Such empathy is rarely found these days! My learned friend, I'm very impressed, and I empathize with your feeling a need to lash out to bomb and turn others into quadriplegics.

I say emphatically that I empathize with you, but you deserve no sympathy.

abeles and jazzy,
if you're gonna live in this country, speak our language!
HAHAHAHA

Ecce! Spiro et Spero,
Sorry, should have self-corrected, but knew someone would catch it. You get a star.
Y, tamben, nao quero seu condolencia.

Like the baptist say, *If english was good enough for Jesus its good enough for me.*
I'm just an english speaking gal married to a frenchman who speaks four languages and
I'm jealous as hell.

This comment is not in regards to Cheney's stealth visit, but to a CBS news item on the Farm Subsidies.

It can be found here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/16/eveningnews/main3516149.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3516149

Relevent quotes:

Even New York billionaire Edgar Bronfman Sr. receives farm subsidies. Even the members of Congress who vote on farm subsidies and earn $165,200 government salaries can get payments. A dozen of them or their close family have gotten a total of $6.2 million dollars over 10 years.

One of them is Arkansas Rep. Marion Berry.

He's grown rice his whole life, and has collected subsidies from the start.

Today, he and his family members have interests in several farm corporations. Attkisson asked him: "You and your family's interests received almost $2.4 million in federal payments from 1999 to 2005 according to records?"

Berry said: "I don't have any idea. That sounds like an awful lot of money to me."

Whatever the amount, most Americans would hardly envision Berry as the disadvantaged farmer.

"Can you tell me what your net worth is?" Attkisson asked.

"My net worth? I don't have any idea," Barry replied. "Well, it's not very much I know."

"This range says $1.7 million to $6.6 million," Attkisson read to him.

"That's probably pretty close," Berry said.

The new farm bill working its way through Congress attempts to cut off some of the wealthy. Under one version, no one earning more than $1 million a year could get subsidies.

That wouldn't affect Berry. He's worth a lot, but says his yearly income falls below the million-dollar mark.

Poor disadvantaged Berry.

It's the logic of every aggressor, the aggressor never says "We're going there to benefit from your oil and expand our military bases and our geopolitical position." They go there and say "we're fighting for democracy and to liberate you." - Reese Erlich

Any good pilot could have flown the mission to drop the atomic bomb. It doesn't make them a hero or such. And, it's not the issue. The issue is whether such a horrible weapon ought to be used. It might do some of the chickenhawks here some good to learn that some very respected war leaders held a view far more realistic than the simplistic idea that dropping a nuclear weapon is sound military strategy or necessary.
Several prominent generals you might remember decried the use of the atomic bomb. Eisenhower said after the war that "the Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing." The most surprising of this bunch is General Curtis LeMay, architect of the fire-bombing campaign against Japan Even he publicly proclaimed afterward that the war would have been done within two weeks and that the bomb played no part in hastening its end.

Abeles' French and Spanish aren't very good, and we'll never know whether most Arkansans voted for Bush. We *know* the majority of the country didn't. TWICE.

"You [Rep. Berry] and your family's interests received almost $2.4 million in federal payments from 1999 to 2005 according to records?"
posted by Arkinsaw

At $980K per year a Fayetteville realtor (and staunch Rwingnut) receives will top Rep Berry's welfare.
Believe the Fayetteville-NWA realtor will top $6.8 mill in the same 7 year period in crop subsidies. Additionally, his two children will get about 1/3 that amount.

"Attendance: 130."

Just 11 days ago Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of 9,500. Without admissions, or photo ops he raised about $1.5 million. Should be an indicator of where politics are headed in '08.

I am reminded of Senator Pryors statement last Summer saying foks back home in AR don't want the US armed forces to leave Iraq because things would get so much worse...and or we have to fix what we messed up.

And now, today, central Arkansas wealthy folks and the Jr League supported THE #1 killer in Iraqs history, VP Dick Cheney.

Not only has Dick Cheney shamed America by lying us into this nightmare.. he works with all due diligence to spread this far into the future and far beyond the borders of Iraq.

I think the Jr league should consider supporting relief organizations in Iraq.. You folks want to help, want to fix what WE destroyed? Stop profiting off of innocent peoples death.. put that blood money where it belongs!

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Help the victims of war: make a donation to the ICRC today
"The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) relies on everyone's commitment to the humanitarian cause and its underlying values. The strongest possible support from individuals, companies and foundations is essential if we are to meet the challenges we are currently facing. Your support to ICRC is more than just a donation - it is a true act of humanity. Thank you". Jakob Kellenberger, President of the ICRC

<<<<<<<<<<

Link to ICRC Red Cross/Red Crescent, at my blue name.. Just click on the first drop down box and select Iraq.

Darth was actually in town to take out Houston. The fundraiser was just a front to throw all of us off track!

From our Man in Magnolia:

A swoop in on Air Force Two- limo service to a tent-protected entry into
an approved/cleared gathering of a flock already holding $250. checks - even
before the plate gets passed.

A political preacher's heaven!

Former State Senator Steven Leuelf gushes that Cheney' remarks were
"inspirational"-- and ASA! Hutchinson solemnly notices that without Arkansas's
vote, Bush would not be President! Which holds true for every red state in
the country.

And Magnolia Man adds, further:

Whistling by the graveyard and pissing in the wind take on new dimensions.

The GOP's chairman declaring that Arkansas will be a "battleground state"
in 2008--- if, as is likely, Senator Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee,
it will more resemble a political killing field. That GOP statement was probably
intended to dry the sweat on those checks that the faithful clutched as Air Force
Two dropped in.