Posts Made By: Tom Rodstrom

August 4, 2003 04:25 PM Forum: Religion

Re: Just for you

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

Not a reason for war, but a reason for concern:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/

As I recall the reason for going to war with Iraq in such a hurry without help from the UN was an imminent threat, not what might happen after the inspectors left.

I am looking forward to the David Kay report if it comes out in my lifetime. wink

August 6, 2003 12:40 PM Forum: Religion

Message to Jonathon

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

Jonathon,

I have no use, never have had any use and will probably never have any use for Bush or his father. On that we probably agree. I have a deep abiding anger about many of the actions that occurred during the election and after he took office. It appears that you are not very happy with him either.

I will do everything that I can to point out the error in his ways to others who probably don't want to hear it. You appear to want to do the same.

It is your methods that I disagree with. Most of your recent posts are childish, immature, tasteless, inflammatory and counter productive. In short, they are a mirror image of Rush Limbaugh, a man I don't respect enough to loathe. If you must sink to that level, please do it elsewhere. Your repetitive postings of this sort of trash make me and other liberal advocates look like idiots by association.

If you can sustain an intelligent argument, keep up the good work. If not, please keep quiet. In any case, don't forget to vote, that we will always need.

Best Wishes
Tom


August 6, 2003 12:54 PM Forum: Religion

How fragile is freedom?

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

I really don't think that the parallels described in this link are really that close, but there is certainly sobering food for thought.

http://www.newswithviews.com/history/history4.htm

August 6, 2003 01:14 PM Forum: Religion

Good idea or not?

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

I would like to see corporate money taken out of politics. This might be done by stripping corporations of their "corporate personhood". They could then be prohibited from donating to political campaigns. Contributions could be limited to $10K per person or so and all political committees could be required to report their funding. This would level the playing field and come closer to the one man, one vote ideal.

What do you think?

P.S. This book looks interesting to me:

http://www.thomhartmann.com/unequalprotection.shtml

August 14, 2003 06:48 AM Forum: Religion

Re: Freedom Car

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

Given the fact that Andrew H. Card Jr. was GM's chief lobbyist before he became the White House chief of staff, it is not surprising that GM got public funding. Now the taxpayers are paying him to lobby for GM. They probably would have gotten funding for a 40 foot SUV from this administration if they asked for it.

http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/cabinet/cabinet.card.asp

It's too bad that he had to use a credit card to do it, but with the Bush budget, a billion more deficit is not even a drop in the bucket.

August 14, 2003 05:33 PM Forum: Religion

There is hope in Iraq

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

It appears that the military is changing their tactics for the better.

We have won the battle of Iraq, but if we are going to win the war, we must win the hearts and minds to the Iraqi people. To date, it appears that we have been using the culture insensitive, heavy handed techniques that Israel has used for decades. That approach has been a total failure. I hope that our new tactics are successful.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=4&u=/ap/20030814/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

August 17, 2003 01:20 AM Forum: Religion

Re: National Democratic Institute Report on Iraq

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

Looks like good, level headed report to me. Jimmy Carter and Madeleine Albright support the NDI so I trust this report more than anything from Bush.

My take:

1. Rebuiling Iraq as a deomcracy is a tough job, but doable.

2. We'd better get the lights on in the south very soon.

August 17, 2003 04:55 AM Forum: Religion

Re: The Beeb and its disgrace

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

This report is unbalanced and it is not hard to find out why.

1. The report is in the Weekly Standard which is owned by News America Incorporated. News America is a huge media corporation which owns Fox News. Some feel that Fox News is biased for the war. Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive of News America, is strongly in favor of the war, see:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,897015,00.html

2. News America Incorporated owns British Sky Broadcasting, Ltd., which is a direct competitor of the BBC.

3. A quote from Douglas Davis, the London correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, and use of the Yiddish word "chutzpah" makes me suspect that the author may be strongly influenced by Jewish interests which are strongly in favor of the war due to Iraq's threat to Israel.

It does appear that the BBC was biased against the war, but probably no more that other news organizations were biased for the war. It also appears that a BBC reporter made a big mistake.

On the other hand BBC has done a lot of quality work. I believe, for instance, that it was BBC that exposed the shameful manipulation of the Florida presidential election by removing voters from the polls based on a list of felons from Texas of all places.

In the end, I think that the BBC is needed as an independent voice to provide a different viewpoint that the mega news outlets.

ON EDIT: Just finished cruising the moon at 700x with my Questar making me think that I should do more of that and less of this forum, the BBC will probably survive without my help.

August 25, 2003 02:00 PM Forum: Religion

Another spin bites the dust

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

I guess drones of mass destruction are out.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=9&u=/ap/20030825/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_aerial_weapons

August 28, 2003 12:14 AM Forum: Religion

Take a deep breath ...

Posted By Tom Rodstrom

While you can ...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=513&e=4&u=/ap/20030827/ap_on_go_ot/clean_air

Aren't we going backwards here?