Disqus - Latest Comments for Porkopolis

Re: Is Waterboarding Torture Or Necessity? Yes

Porkopolis — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:46:40 -0000

In the hopes of contributing to the "National Debate" on waterboarding, the following argument is offered:

Immune Systems Provide a Framework for Developing Principles on the Use of Interrogation Techniques

Re: Displaced New Orleans Community Demands Action, Accountability and Initiates A People’s Hurricane Fund

Porkopolis — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 17:21:19 -0000

Considering the informaiton in White House shifts blame where:

"Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat. Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday."

Could the President's remark on "unacceptable" be referring to Governor Blanco?

I've been searching for a direct quote (not an assumption by the media) of the President saying the federal response was unacceptable. I have yet to find it and am starting to wonder if he instead was referring to Governor Blanco actions/inactions.

This is a serious question not in the mode of "depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is". I'm willing to accept the characterization once I hear Bush attribute 'unacceptable' directly to the federal response. However, considering the information that's coming out about Governor Blanco's dereliction of duty it's a fair question.

Re: Putting Words In People's Mouths

Porkopolis — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 15:07:28 -0000

Rob:

The Times' Public Editor has an 'explanation' in today's times: 'When an Explanation Doesn't Explain Enough'. A fisking of the 'explanation' can be found at Oh, what a tangled web we weave...'

Porkopolis

Re: Wells Fargo Apparently Sponsoring Identification For Illegal Immigrants

Porkopolis — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:08:00 -0000

Rob:

In case you missed it, there was a page 1, Wall Street Journal article on this trend. See: July 8, 2005: Fight against illegal immigration into U.S. officially lost

Re: Wells Fargo Apparently Sponsoring Identification For Illegal Immigrants

Porkopolis — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 11:08:13 -0000

Ralph:

I've been monitoring this thread and have a question for you? It all centers around what appears to be a convenient use of rhetorical (your word) juxtaposition.

Your comment, in verbatim, was:
It's good to see US businesses finally realizing that these people are people. More and more it seems that the paranoid radical anti-immigration movement is merely a group of annoying gnats, their hateful rhetoric virtually harmless.
First, I would strongly agree with your truism, "these people are people". That's not in question. However, their legal immigration status is; the point upon which Rob's post is based on (as is the one I refer to in July 8, 2005: Fight against illegal immigration into U.S. officially lost).

Individuals like Rob and I are not upset that US businesses are "finally realizing that these people are people". We're upset (actually, I'm enraged) because US businesses are accomodating individuals that have not established a legal status (citizenship, green card, visa, etc.) to be in the U.S. to conduct any business; especially in light of 9/11 and the Global War on Terror.

Having supported the actions of Wells Fargo in your first sentence, you then immediately juxtapose the following sentence: More and more it seems that the paranoid radical anti-immigration movement is merely a group of annoying gnats, their hateful rhetoric virtually harmless.
Why would you expect that any reader of that comment and sentiment not have it applied to the individuals, like myself, that are against the very position you support - Specifically that, "US businesses finally realizing that these people [illegal immigrants] are people" worthy of being sponsored for identification; identification that our own FBI has characterized as a security threat?

Do you just have an automatic comment response search engine that posts your 'rhetoric' whenever it finds a blog entry with the word 'immigrants' in it and have yet to fine tune it for posts on 'illegal immigrants'?

You're being too cute by half if you expect me to believe that your sentiment is solely directed to anti-immigrants as opposed to anti-illegal immigrants. The very title of Rob's post is "Wells Fargo Apparently Sponsoring Identification For Illegal Immigrants".

Re: Wells Fargo Apparently Sponsoring Identification For Illegal Immigrants

Porkopolis — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 12:08:31 -0000

Drudge has a link today (08/08/2005) to this CNN story:
Banking on illegal immigrants.

Re: Feinstein Talks Sense About Islam And Terrorism

Porkopolis — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 13:07:33 -0000

The Muslim American Society had a press conference this morning (covered by C-SPAN) on their new proactive efforts to combat islamofacist terrorism.

Hopefully, C-SPAN will re-air it (I was looking for a video archive link on their site but couldn't find one). The speakers sounded sincere, even to this self-described skeptic. The main message I heard was that condemnation was not enough; proactive action is now called for. From their press release:

"...Given the intricacies of such phenomena, MAS Freedom believes that strengthening intelligence and security measures, while vital and crucial, will not solve the problem, especially since we are dealing with groups and individuals who are religiously misguided, erroneous, and socio-politically desperate.

Thus we are committed to the intensification of our effort to proactively combat terrorism."

Journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.

Re: Sheehan Soon To Be Single

Porkopolis — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 20:08:37 -0000

Read Thank You Ms. Maupin to see how MIA Matt Maupin's mother is handling her son's situation with dignity and grace.

Re: Don't Just Blame The Feds

Porkopolis — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 20:10:29 -0000

Rob:

The whole federal response is being scapegoated as documented here: Looking for holes in this thesis on the so-called lack of federal response in New Orleans

Re: Mobilizing The Blogosphere Against Pork

Porkopolis — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 14:10:30 -0000

I've contributed Ohio's 100% Pork projects (totaling at least $16 million) from the recent Highway Bill are documented at:

Analyzing the earmarks in Section 1702 of H.R. 3 SAFETEA-LU Highway Bill

That will allow for 10 days of FEMA's overpriced Cruise Ship Operations.

Re: The Earth Is Melting!!!

Porkopolis — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 08:09:48 -0000

THE BIG CHILL Solved: the mystery of the first ice age is a very interesting read on a theory about the cause of the last ice age. It basically claims too little C02 was the cause.

Yet another question; is global warming the natural order of things? Everyone knows the Earth has gone through several ice ages; which by definition means that there have been warming periods after the ice age. Can these be blamed on human activity?

At a minimum, a case can be made to have cleaner fossil fuel burning technology. China uses a lot of coal which does have know health effects. See Bad air drifts across Pacific as an example.

In my judgement, the case for minimizing pollution from fossil fuels is a much stronger scientific case than the one that says burning fossil fuels causes global warming.

Many have proposed that nuclear energy use be increased. It helps address C02 and pollution emissions; but with its own problems as well. There's no free lunch.

Bottom-line...human activity is not going to go away and we are integral to life on the Earth. The first cave man to use a fire pit to cook a meal started changing the 'natural order' of things. We know that human activity is a two-edge sword with some unintended consequences. We have to use technology and 'brain' power to develop cost/benefit analyses and continually adjust as we gather more information.

Re: Milky Way To Collide With Andromeda Galaxy!!!

Porkopolis — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 22:09:48 -0000

I'd hate to see the traffic jam trying to escape that disaster.

Re: Iowa's Indoor Rain Forest

Porkopolis — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 21:10:10 -0000

You can see an artist's rendition of the rain forrest at:

Field of Dreams Update

Re: Iowa's Indoor Rain Forest

Porkopolis — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 22:10:09 -0000

LoadTheMule:

In response to "Now, how do you propose we do that?", I have one quick suggestion.

We can start by contacting each of the 39 Senators that did not support Tom Coburn's Amendment this week to have earmarks included in a conference report and have them explain their position.

I'll be doing my part with Senator DeWine of Ohio...the journey of a thousand mile starts with one step.

If your Senator is on the list it would carry a lot of weight to call his/her office directly and refer to the Amendment directly. This carries a lot of weight because it shows that a constituent is really tracking issues closely and differentiates against the average call into the office that says, "Why don't you stop voting for pork?"

Another specific; you can contact your Congressman/woman and ask if he/she will be supporting the Republican Study Committee's recommendations to cut 1 trillion from the budget.

I'm all 'ears' (pun intended) for any other ideas.

Re: Rebuild The 9th Ward?

Porkopolis — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:10:14 -0000

Don't rebuild a city that's sinking ever deeper below seal level: Discussions on alternatives to rebuilding New Orleans

Re: The Great Shell Game - State Run Lotteries

Porkopolis — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:10:29 -0000

Somehow a perpetual motion machine comes to mind.

Re: <em>USA Today</em> Takes Down Doctored Condi Photo

Porkopolis — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:10:31 -0000

It would be simple enough to ask the USA Today photo editor to provide the step-by-step enhancement process he/she used to reproduce the 'effects'.

Re: Bite Sized Wisdom: Theodore Roosevelt

Porkopolis — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 18:10:58 -0000

And to that end, The Unhyphenated American: Just respond 'human' to any 'race' question in the next census and starve the bureaucratic beast of the misinformation if feeds on.

Re: North Dakota Has $1.45 Billion In Deferred Highway Maintenance

Porkopolis — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:02:14 -0000

When federal legislators redirect gasoline tax dollars to pet projects that have nothing to do with infrastructure, one can make the argument that [url=http://porkopolis.blogspot.com/2007/08/porkbusters-pork-barrel-politics-kill.html]Pork Barrel Politics Kill[/url].