I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

RetiredLibby

Kam, it is 74 calendar days -- June 1 is my official retirement dare. May 31 is my last day of work. It is an almost perfect day - end of the pay period, first day of the next month. The only more perfect day would be end of a pay period and end of a month on the same day. But this is good enough. I am ready, ready, ready, with no hesitation. It is funny -- my colleagues are shocked that I am so cheerful. But I haven't had any "nourishment" from this place for some time. It's time for me to go find other sources of nourishment!



Sunnyfleurs, so glad you're feeling better. The flu is always worse than we remember -- I always know when it's the flu because I feel like I've been dropped off a tall building and then run over by a Mack truck. I have been lucky for a couple years.



L

1Athena1

Pip, I am really sorry - what a frustrating process.

Filling up with all the snow being thrown my way...it's a actualy a nie sunny day for once in a long time.

The logical thing -and what would happen if this were Europe- would be for the republican party to split into two. One large, far right wing which could emulate France's National Front, or something, and another tiny wing of moderates that could help build coalitions or either uphold or sustain filibusters. The problem is that the politicos know that splitting would kill their power, which is the only thing cowards like Boehner and McConnell care about. Therefore, we have this ailing elephant slowing down the country and embarrassing us abroad with the stubborn-ness of a bull and all the purpose and ideological depth of a corpse.

In short, the GOP is moribund. I wish the flies would turn into maggots.

1Athena1

And this is the sort of thing we get as a result:

Fans of military-style assault weapons can stop worrying — their gun lobby has done its work, and all but assured that Congress will not pass a ban on their dangerous toys.

Senate Democratic leaders have decided not to include the ban, proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, in the official gun bill that will reach the floor in the next few weeks. It was always a long shot, but now Democrats have officially given the ban the cold shoulder.

Ms. Feinstein will probably manage to bring up the ban as a separate amendment, putting senators on record and letting the public know how they stand when given a chance to prohibit the kinds of guns used in so many massacres. As an independent measure, however, it’s guaranteed to fail. And it’s not even clear that an important piece of the ban, outlawing high-capacity ammunition magazines, will have enough support for a simple majority, let alone the 60 votes needed to get past a Republican filibuster.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/19/congress-abandons-the-assault-weapons-ban/?hp

bluedahlia

On days like today. I go to read on the net for shit$ and giggles and sometimes hope to find reason and logic, but nope, didn't find any of that.....they're still nuts and flinging insults.  They did not disappoint.  As Jed Clampet used to say.......juuuust hateful!

Did you girls know that we have no lives and we are a "cancer".  No silly gals, we are fighting it!  Jealous that this thread has taken off and the cutlets are happy, because our topics are diverse, our pics are cute and we have morals, and don't follow blindly.

Nose still aches, but I can wear my glasses.  I'm a tough broad!  Had quite a few laughs today!  That helped!  Along with the chocolates and 32" flat screen TV for our bedroom.  Ray brought those home for me yesterday.

1Athena1

As I predicted, the children of Connecticut have died in vein. Adults and their toys come first - courtesy mostly of a few contemptible democrat and the "family values" conservatives. The "right" to have the NRA shove a gun in your face and convince you it's about your rights trumps the most basic human right of all: life.

How can anyone take the right wing in this country seriously?

ETA: (((Blue))) we crossposted - glad to see you back online.

bluedahlia

Thank you Athena and everyone else!

crazy4carrots

((((Blue))))  Nose intact??  Chocolates and flat screen -- good medicine!  Just don't watch any horror movies before going to sleep.

IllinoisLady

IllinoisLady

Reminds me of the rt. wingers and nuts for sure:

IllinoisLady

Yes, the GOP is putting a different set of clothes on things, but it is the same old tired, worn out, used-up has been and was never going to be crap anyway.  The old buffoon brigade.  They don't get the damage that has already been done and will not be forgotten.  In fact, nearly every thing they do and a far more huge amt. of what they refuse to do just keeps stacking up against them while they totally refused to even look.  What you don't know won't hurt you --- but in this case what you think know is not going to do one bit of good either.  SSDD

Jackie

RetiredLibby

Here is a very moving letter from a dying Iraq war veteran. He says the same things we have thought and said dozens of times here among ourselves and out in the world. Except he is dying as a direct result of Dumbya and Satan Cheney's lies. I have always said I hold each of them personally responsible for every death in the Iraq war, every wound, every bit of the damage to that country that did nothing to us.



The letter is sad.



The Last Letter

A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran



To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney

From: Tomas Young



I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.



I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.



You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.



Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.



I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.



I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.



I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.



My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness. 



---------------------------

End.



I got it from here, but it is viral all over the internet.



http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/#.UUfVMvxb1rw.facebook

IllinoisLady

HL...it is a stunning and very moving letter.  I so glad you put it on here.  Un-fortunately I think little W and Cheney  are probably incapable of the confessions they should make.  I'm sure they saw it as ends justifying means or something of that ilk -- what's a few lives as long as its not mine.  I always thought ( though never said it till now ) and saw W as a power hungry little weasel.  I so well remember watching his inauguration and seeing him trying not to smile with the giddiness and glee of "putting" one over -- the big one.  He was so enamoured of his "new" title.  He not only sacrificed so very, very many, from the United States and in Iraq but gave us an enormous amount of disgrace to carry about all of it. 

I know there is karma....we may not see it, but it will happen.   I hope the GOP of today read that, hopefully, and more than once.  They might learn a lot about trust in regard to their party.

Jackie

IllinoisLady

From the Progress Report:

 

The Heavy Toll of the Iraq War

Today is one anniversary that is definitely not cause for celebration. Ten years ago today, President George W. Bush made the fateful decision to launch the unnecessary Iraq War.

The consequences of this decision have been overwhelming. A new report estimates that the Iraq War will end up costing American taxpayers at least $2.2 TRILLION, but perhaps as much as $4 TRILLION with interest since Bush put the war on the national credit card at the same he slashed taxes on the wealthy.

(Incidentally, $4 TRILLION is the total amount of deficit reduction that President Obama is seeking, including about $2 TRILLION in the current round of negotiations in order to replace the sequester and stabilize our long-term debt.)

The bill for the war may be large, but the human cost of the Iraq War is even more staggering. It’s estimated that 200,000 people, civilians and soldiers alike, were killed as a result of the war. A million other Iraqis were displaced by the conflict.

navygirl

I just wanted to pop in and say hello ladies...been thinking of you all since I popped back on the boards. I came to the thread thinking I'd get caught up, but I didn't realize it's been over a year and you all have racked up over 700 pages since I last stopped by! I'll fan through to fill in some blanks, because I know you all had some fabulously funny stories while I was gone...but 700 pages??? Oy Vey.

I see most of the familiar faces are still around..this is very good to see. Indeed. I hope you all have been well.

Enjoy your evening...I look forward to reading what you've been up to

IllinoisLady

CherrylH

HL, Jackie,

Obama started the lie about weapons of mass destruction. They were his  wars,don't you know. They were part of his plan to get elected and become a dictator and end capitalism as we know it!

crazy4carrots

Navygirl -- Welcome back!  I just noted that you are now on Femara.  Sure hope you're not experiencing any debilitating SEs.  In my experience, most of them wear off after a year or so....but YMMV.

I'm still wondering why Tony Blair was so anxious to hop into bed (figuratively speaking) with W.  The Brits aren't celebrating this anniversary either.....

Belinda44

Belinda44

Belinda44

Belinda44

Watching Anderson Cooper and he is totally calling out Michelle Bachmann and her most recent lies.  Wow, just wow.  She just makes things up.  WTH??  (And no, I'm not really shocked! ; ).

Belinda44

Belinda44

IllinoisLady

Belinda44

IllinoisLady

and a little relief from it all for  a moment:

Belinda44

Chickadee, hope you're having a better week.

Blue, Sunflowers, and Gardengumby, hope you all are feeling better.

Navygirl, welcome back.

And Pip, sorry about the house deal.  Hoping it all works out for you in the long run.

Wishing everyone a good night!

Belinda44

So happy and proud that Americans got it right this time around : )

Chickadee

Oh Belinda you tickled my funny bone! Today I emerged like a butterfly from the hellish week that was. I drugged myself into a sweet sleep last night and finally awoke with some energy.



So I'll hang onto that until they hit me again on April 1.



I just fell in love again with Joan Baez. Short special on PBS. Diamonds and Rust, how could I forget that gorgeous piece of musical art.

bluedahlia

hahahahahaha!  I'm so glad I took a peek here before bed.  You gals sure know how to lift the spirits!