Politics, Everyday, All day... morning, noon and night....

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:02 am

nope, that isn't c1 or how to become c1 rated.

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 4:05 am

and as i scan the prepared comments.
it isn't discussing the the Iraqi Army, the prepared comments discuss the US Army's budget.

nice try, no cigar.

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 9:56 am

DVD, here you go... SORTS is the reporting mechanism for military readiness used by the USA DOD, and Iraq.
see underlined items to see what is reported and what each level means.

Iraq has one C-1 unit... the remainder of units are at c-2 or lower levels as explained below.

More information than you ever wanted to know about SORTS reporting

DOD'S UNIT READINESS
ASSESSMENTS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1:1

The readiness of individual military units has long been the focus of
DOD's readiness assessment process. The foundation for assessing
unit readiness is SORTS, an automated reporting system that functions
as the central listing of more than 9,000 operational units.\2 SORTS
indicates, at a selected point in time, the status of personnel;
equipment and supplies on hand; equipment condition; and training, as
reported by each unit. In their reports, each unit commander also
assess the unit's ability to execute its wartime mission, indicated
by one of five "C" levels.\3 Units are required to submit their SORTS
reports on a regular basis or when there is a change in their C level
or location.

\3 A C-1 unit can undertake the full wartime mission for which it is
organized and designed; a C-2 unit can undertake the bulk of its
wartime mission; a C-3 unit can undertake major portions of its
wartime mission; a C-4 unit requires additional resources or training
to undertake its wartime mission but, if the situation dictates, may
be required to undertake portions of the mission with resources on
hand; and a C-5 unit is undergoing a service-directed resource change
and is not prepared to undertake its wartime mission.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:35 pm

Thank you Joel for the enlightenment.

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:45 pm

one down, 300 million to go.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 2:02 pm

any new news about Kenny Lay?

I have'nt heard much these days.

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:19 pm

don't worry dv, kenny's goin down.......

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 1:35 pm

I just found out that Kenny boys trial starts next year.

ABOUT TIME.

helitack · Post by **helitack** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 2:51 pm

http://www.ronwade.freeservers.com/AnnR ... _small.jpg

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 5:07 am

So ummm....

what is supposed to happen after these next elections in Iraq and what are these elections supposed to be for in Iraq on the 15th of this month?

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:13 am

National Strategy for Victory in Iraq

the elections are established by the new constitution.
15 Dec 05 is to be the first general election of the government under the new constitution.

what is "supposed" to happen is a relentless campaign to eliminate the "insurgency" and continue working towards a democratic Iraq.

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:03 am

joel the ornery wrote:National Strategy for Victory in Iraq

the elections are established by the new constitution.
15 Dec 05 is to be the first general election of the government under the new constitution.

what is "supposed" to happen is a relentless campaign to eliminate the "insurgency" and continue working towards a democratic Iraq.

you're dreaming buddy if you think the insugency is ever gonna be eliminated, at least by the US.

joel the ornery · Post by **joel the ornery** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:03 am

cowboyangel wrote:
joel the ornery wrote:National Strategy for Victory in Iraq

the elections are established by the new constitution.
15 Dec 05 is to be the first general election of the government under the new constitution.

what is "supposed" to happen is a relentless campaign to eliminate the "insurgency" and continue working towards a democratic Iraq.

you're dreaming buddy if you think the insugency is ever gonna be eliminated, at least by the US.

i am optimistic that "insurgency" will decline.
i am optimistic that Iraqi Security Forces will continue to improve.
i am optmistic that US Forces will leave, however a US footprint will be in Iraq for a long time to ensure stabilization (refer to Bosnia for a model)

the "insurgency" has nothing to offer.
the Iraqi people have everything gain by establishing a working democracy with the assistance of the free world (which includes the US)

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 3:02 pm

reality can be a bitch.

Especially for those that get lied to.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:30 am

I bet that Saddam does not live to see the end of his trial.

Any takers?

cowboyangel · Post by **cowboyangel** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 4:11 pm

I'm sure the US would want that because Saddam knows too much.....

can't sit still · Post by **can't sit still** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:54 pm

[quote="DVD Burner"]I bet that Saddam does not live to see the end of his trial.

Any takers?[/quote]
Take a look here. You might find some takers. I haven't read much here.
http://www.strategypage.com/prediction_ ... efault.asp

It's called "prediction market" There's some other interesting stuff around the site.
Dan

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:25 pm

DAMN! I could have made a killing on that site on finding the WMD's.

Thanks for the site. I'm really not much of a betting man but I have to say, I enjoy taking peoples money from them.

Especially when they are wrong.

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:56 am

Romney's Decision Fuels 2008 Speculation

"successful in closing a $3 billion budget deficit without raising taxes; presiding over public schools that recently scored first in national math and science tests; and reaching the cusp of a comprehensive overhaul of health insurance in Massachusetts."

Yeah Baby... come on '08!

Kinetic IV · Post by **Kinetic IV** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 8:53 am

Mitt Romney? Mr. I singlehandedly resurrected the SLC Winter Games?
Did someone spike my morning OJ with ambien? I'm getting sleepy...very sleepy. I see nothing exciting here to keep me awake....wait...here comes Hillary! I'm awake now...and wow a possible run for the presidency has my attention.

The last thing we need is another ho-hum Democratic candidate, ie: Kerry. And whomever gets the nod, would someone please do a meticulous screening so we don't see more Swift Boat type debacles?

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 8:58 am

its beginning to look alot like Christmas...

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 3:38 am

So ummm,

If an Iranian style Sunni parliment majority gets put into office in Iraq, where will that leave the U.S.?

I know what I will be doing.

LMFAO!

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:52 am

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:33 am

An important press conference was not held in Washington last week.

Kinetic IV · Post by **Kinetic IV** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:39 am

After reading that Joel, your sig line is certainly valid.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 5:47 pm

Seems like this statement will come back to bite Bush in the butt:

"To say 'unchecked power' basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the president, which I strongly reject,"

What an idiot. No Dem or Rep about it.

EvilDustBooger · Post by **EvilDustBooger** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 2:02 pm

Don`t want to be a humbug,
but this weeks politics are leaving a certain taste in my mouth,..
..just something I wanted to pass along.....

Memo to America: GIVE A SHIT.

Sometimes, it becomes necessary to ask of you the impossible. But once again, you are going to be put to the test. It's the week before Christmas. You're tied up in the holiday. Your travel plans, your presents, your lawsuit against the ACLU. Maybe even a church service, if your suburban megachurch isn't planning to take Sunday off. You're busy, dammit, and complicated questions of liberty are way outside your comfort zone right now.

Of course, the question isn't terribly complicated, much like the man responsible for it. But even so, Dubya is counting on your holiday torpor, the national tryptophan of lights and furry fat men, to let him get away with what I do not lightly call the most brazen pile of bullshit in the past five years.

You see, a year ago, the President got caught authorizing the NSA to spy on Americans without warrants. The NSA can't spy on Americans without warrants. I can't put it any plainer than that. CAN'T. It's against the law. It's in violation of the Constitution. PERIOD. Inarguable. You know why? Because if it were legal, if it were constitutional, it wouldn't have taken a secret executive order issued shortly after 9/11 to make it happen, that's why. They'd have just done it. And it's incredibly easy to get warrants. There's a whole secret court that's existed for almost 30 years. All it does is issue warrants, even retroactively, for what Bush wanted to do. But for some reason they didn't want to do that, so Dubya said they could go ahead anyway, even though they can't. And he got caught.

He got caught about a year ago. By the New York Times. The reason you didn't hear about it then is because the government talked the New York Times into not telling us all what they'd caught the President doing. Which is a whole other can of perfidious worms I can't even open more than a crack because of all the rest of the obscenity. But I'll tell you this, the NYT isn't saying whether "a year ago" means before or after the 2004 elections. Which means it was before.

So the New York Times puts this out just in time to help scuttle the extension of the Patriot Act, which is a law full of a bunch of OTHER shit they probably shouldn't be doing, but doesn't begin to cover the shit they were doing anyway. So stop cheering the filibuster. It's nice, but since it obviously doesn't matter whether this stuff is legal or not, one law ain't gonna make much difference either way, is it? It is not.

Caught. Red-handed. Hand in the tyranny jar. So what's the defense? What possible defense could there be for bypassing every check, balance, and safeguard we've had here for two hundred and twenty nine years? ACTUAL QUOTE TIME!

"This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. I intend to [continue] for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al-Qaida and related groups. - President George W. Bush, lover of democracy, leader of the free world.

That's really fucking comforting. Not just al-Qaida, but "related groups". Basically, as long as anyone, anywhere, is pissed off at the US, the man causing most of them to be pissed off in the first place can do whatever he wants.

They say the program is narrowly targeted. They say the program is periodically reviewed and painstakingly monitored. They say it's only the people who would otherwise have blown us up who have anything to fear from this. They always say that, and it is NEVER EVER TRUE.

After all, they said the same things about the Pentagon's TALON database, and now they are shocked, SHOCKED, to find a bunch of tiny college anti-war groups identified in it as threats to America.

The reason this shit is illegal, the reason this shit is expressly forbidden by our founding document, is that we CANNOT BELIEVE THEM when they say "we can be trusted to do this, and it's in your best interests that we do so". The fuck it is. The honest truth is, it's MORE in my best interest to get my ass blown up on the bus than it is to believe that Dubya's super-double-secret surveillance will keep it from happening.

And they are brazenly admitting it, because they know you won't care. They KNOW IT. And I know it too. It's Christmas. You don't wanna explode. You hate brown people. You don't think you're being spied on. So who gives a shit? Not you. Not ever. You are dumb.

EvilDustBooger · Post by **EvilDustBooger** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 7:08 am

Fuck. Here it comes. Don`t blink.
Are they leaning on judges?
I don`t know it but I suspect it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Reuters) - A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of U.S. President George W. Bush's authorization of a domestic spying program, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Citing two sources, the newspaper reported U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as FISA, sent his resignation to Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday.

The Post said the resignation letter gave no explanation for Robertson stepping down. Robertson declined comment when reached on Tuesday, the newspaper said.

Robertson is considered a liberal judge who has often ruled against the Bush administration's assertions of broad powers in the terrorism fight, the Post said.

Revelation that authorized domestic spying on Americans suspected of terrorists links without court approval spurred considerable debate among federal judges, including some on the FISA Court, The Washington Post said.

The Post said Robertson indicated privately to colleagues in recent conversations that he was concerned that information gained from warrantless National Security Agency surveillance could have then been used to obtain FISA warrants.

FISA court Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who had been briefed on the NSA spying program, raised the same concern in 2004 and insisted that the Justice Department certify in writing that it was not occurring, the Post said.

"They just don't know if the product of wiretaps were used for FISA warrants -- to kind of cleanse the information," one source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was quoted as saying.

Robertson was appointed to the federal bench in Washington by President Bill Clinton in 1994. He was later selected by then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist to serve on the FISA court, the Post said

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
well, god bless ya`ll
have yerself a merry little christmas,
and don`t worry
everything is gonna be just peachy.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:56 pm

This current administration just keeps getting themselves further and further into dumb stupid shit. In fact, I take back calling them a bunch of thuggs. It was totally insulting to the thuggs of the world. They cant even be thuggs right.

What a bunch of nitwits.

( I may take back calling them nitwits as that also is insulting to the nitwits of the world.)

I still say prison they should be, and not federal but state.

DVD Burner · Post by **DVD Burner** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 4:08 pm

When will they do this with Rummy and the boys?

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=15312

Dutchman jailed for aiding Iraq war crimes

Dutch court sentences Frans van Anraat to 15 years for selling chemicals Iraqi regime used on Kurdish villages.

THE HAGUE - A Dutch court on Friday sentenced former chemicals trader Frans van Anraat to 15 years in jail for aiding war crimes by selling chemicals the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein used for deadly gas attacks on Kurdish villages.

Earlier, the court said that although they felt it was proven that former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein committed genocide against Kurds in the 1980s, Van Anraat was acquitted of genocide charges because he did not know the Iraqi regime's genocidal intentions.

The move marks the first time a court has ruled that the Iraqi leaderr committed genocide in Iraq with the 1988 massacre of Kurds in the town of Halabja.

The attack, which killed more than 5,000 people in a single day, also features among the preliminary charges against the former Iraqi ruler who is currently on trial in Baghdad.