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Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

September 23, 2005 02:50 PM Forum: Politics

Bush Blames Terrorism on Carter/ Reagan/Clinton

Posted By Rod Kaufman
In today's (9-23) LA Times, a total reality disconnect by Bush is described in detail: :"Bush said Thursday that mistakes made by three of his predecessors, including the Reagan administration's restraint after the 1983 bombing of the marine barracks in Lebanon, had emboldened terrorists and helped ste the stage for the September 11 attacks."
Bush listed each case from the aforementioned administrations tand stated each president chose not to retaliate with large-scale military offensives.
"The terrorists concluded that we lacked the courage and character to defend ourselves and so they attacked us."
The Times noted Bush did not mention his father's decision to end the first gulf war without sending coalition troops to topple Saddam.
The senior democrat on the homeland security committeee( Edward Markey statyed, " Significant terrorist attacks tracked by the state department had reached its highest level and that most had occurred in Iraq." He also noted, "there are nine times as many terrorists attacks in Iraq than last year, what kind of progress is that?"

September 24, 2005 06:49 PM Forum: Politics

The Antiwar Protests: A Success!

Posted By Rod Kaufman
The antiwar protesters hoped for a turnout of at least 100,000 people. The police chief in Washington stated they achieved that number. Prowar activists hoped for 10,000 but had about 150 or so.
10,000 antiwar protesters marched in Britain as well.
Even in pro-Bush/prowar Santa Clarita, Ca, antiwar protesters were active in Valencia. This astounded me given that this place is the mecca of Bushland. I mean the place is packed solid with trans-fat sucking, nicotine puffing, bible thumping, gasoline guzzling Bush voters!!!
It really does appear Bush's job approval rating of 39% in the polls does translate into a measure of reality, given the turnout at these rallies.
Bush, of course, was too busy blaming Reagan for terrorism to concern himself with such outcries from the public.
As an aside, the LA Times carried an opinion article noting a general claimed 50,000 insurgents killed or captured while US sources estimated the number of insurgents between 15,000-20,000. The article noted the US military would have had to kill or capture the insurgents more than twice over if the numbers are correct. Remember to take solace in the statements from Rumsfeld that we have the insurgents on the run and from VP Dick that "the insurgency is in it's last throes"...

September 25, 2005 05:03 PM Forum: Politics

The Prowar Protests: A Failure

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Organizers for the prowar rally had hoped for thousands to express their support for George Bush and the war in Iraq but got 400 or so protesters.
Do you know who the focus of their ire was? It wasn't the folks Herb and Patrick placed their spotlight on, it was Cindy Sheehan, period. Do you know where the folks Herb and Patrick have been representing as the type of people at the event came from? They came from a group protesting the world monetary fund and joined the antiwar protest after it began. The groups comprising the majority of the 100,000 protesters were ordinary families, nuns who had formerly protested the war in Vietnam and disillusioned republicans, that's who they were. You can thank Herb and Patrick and the other cons who don't have a clue about what they are talking about for misrepresenting the vast majority of the anti-war protesters at yesterday's event. Got it?!!!

October 2, 2005 06:39 PM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

Monster Objects in Cetus

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Two ojects in Cetus were stunning in my 16" F4.5 dob: NGC 247 is impressively large as it filled almost the entire field of my pentax xl 10.5 mm eyepiece. It reminded me of the core of m-31 at higher powers. NGC 246 is an awesome planetary that looks very large with a soap bubble appearance.
Also, check-out NGC 157 which is fairly large in the eyepiece with some mottling at higher power.

October 5, 2005 04:19 PM Forum: Politics

Bush Brain on Terrorism/Iraq

Posted By Rod Kaufman
We will soon be subjected to another Bush speech on Iraq and terrorism with emphesis on the latter. Bush, of course, will omit the facts that Al Queda is in Iraq as a result of our invasion and there never was a link between Saddam and Al Queda but what's reality got to do with it?
He will also omit the fact that Al Queda et al are sending their followers to Iraq for on the job training.
He will also omit the fact that various countries continue to believe in reality and acknowledge that the war in Iraq has made us less safe.
It's the fear tactic and terrorism that will be peddled again to enhance his approval ratings which have been floating in the toilet for many moons.
Will his tactic succeed?

October 24, 2005 10:11 AM Forum: Politics

Fried Rice

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Secretary of state Rice attempted to defend the administration's policy in Iraq on October 19 in Washington and got it with both barrels from each side of the aisle.
From the republican side: Chairman Richard Luger,"the American peolple need to more to fully understand the basis which our troops are likely to come home." Rice refused to negate the probability that our troops will be in Iraq for another 10 years.
From the democratic side: Senator Barbara Boxer accused Rice of attempting to rewrite history: " The Bush adminstration's war on terror was suppposed to be about going after the terrorists that threatened the US after the September 11 attacks, NOT REBUILDING THE MIDDLE EAST".
Senator Biden to Ms Rice: "What's the plan, Stan?"
Unfortunately, theonly thing we got from the Bush administration was, as you guessed, more of the same...

October 26, 2005 06:14 PM Forum: Politics

Kerry on Troop Withdrawl

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Kerry stated publicly what various military officers have said privately,"the presence of 159,000 US troops in Iraq is deterring peace efforts."
Kerry noted,"to undermine the insurgency, we must instead simultaneously pursue both a political settlement and the withdrawl of American combat forces linked to specific, responsible benchmarks." "At the first benchmark,, the completion of the December elections, we can start the process of reducing our forces by 20,000 troops over the course of the holidays."
Of course, until that happens two factors will, according to recent news reports, continue to place our troops in jeopardy. First, the large number of troops present and second, the increased duration of deployments, thereby increasing exposure of our troops to a hostile force will result in increasing US fatalities.
Unfortunately, the only thing we will see from Bush is more of the same...

October 28, 2005 05:09 PM Forum: Politics

US Increases Troop Levels

Posted By Rod Kaufman
US troops in Iraq have been increased by 23,000 to 161,000, the highest total, thus far, in the war.
To hear Bush tell it, the Iraqi army is making all sorts of progress and is is right up there at the front of things, whatever and wherever that front may be. It appears they just need a little more poking from the additional 23,000 US troops.
I am sure the locals in Iraq appreciate the additional US presence. How could it be any other way? So what if a senator on CNN last night stated he was just over there and witnessed the locals coming out of nowhere and attacking at will. He must be mistaken when he said the US isn't liked the way Bush says we are. Hasn't that senator learned it's "stay the course" and when the "Iraqis stand up, the US will stand down"? Sounds simple enough for anyone to understand, doesn't it? And it comes from our commander-in-chief...

November 1, 2005 12:52 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

Mass Produced Truss Dobs

Posted By Rod Kaufman
Well, I have been waiting for it to happen and now it has: the first mass-produced truss-dobs are reportedly on their way to market from Meade. I was suspecting truss dobs might be mass produced from Synta or GSO but Meade has beaten them to it.
The first units are supposed to be available in December but Meade's track record of having it's new product line available when they say it's supposed to be available is equivocal, at best.
I'd like to see an independent review of these scopes along with independent testing of the primary optics above and beyond the usual amateur reviews that lack any independent professional analysis of the optics but appear regularly in review forums...

November 1, 2005 05:26 PM Forum: Politics

Democrats on the Attack

Posted By Rod Kaufman
The democrats "stunned"(from the news accounts) the republicans in the senate today by using an obscure rule to hold a closed meeting of the senators. The democrats got what they wanted: forced compliance of the republican investigation on whether or not the Bush adminstration manipulated intelligence data to justify the war in Iraq. The Bush administration will, like any adminstration, be held accountable if it's determined they manipluated the data.
The republicans didn't know what hit them today and the democrats just turned-up the political heat. The democrats told their republican counterparts to: Throw down, boy!
LOCK AND LOAD!
In Bush's own words after September 11: "Bring it on!"
Hector "Macho" Commacho! That's Huevos!

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