eddhead

you must be very excited! Enjoy!

We visited Rome, Florence and a small village in the Tuscan Hills over a 2 week strecht last year.. probably the best vacation i ever had. enjoy!!

I would vote for him too. Here are the issues he was right about: 1. Global warming 2. The first war in Iraq, Dessert Storm whcih he was for as a senator 3. The second war in Iraq which he was against and strongly said so despite the political climate of the times. Not only that but for all the ridicule, the fact is he was also correct about the Internet. Of course he did not invent it, but he did sponser legislation that provided the funding for its development, and understood very early on about how the web could transform the global economy and enable e-commerce. He needs a personalty transplant, no doubt, and he comes off as patronizing, but he is a smart and capable man.

I think it is actually more than that. As a result of gerrymandering, and the power of incumbancy (along with the money it brings) that you commented on yesterday, very few people's vote actually count for anything anymore. Most local districts are now drawn along bery strict partisan boundries.. you pretty much know which districts will vote republican and democrat right out of the box, just by virtue of the demographics. This of course has signficant implications on congressional seats and perhaps even the electoral collage. That is why there is little room for predicatablity in elections over House Seats.. more so in the senate. So what happens is major national elections are controlled by the few battleground geographies that are niether liberal nor conservative in tems of their voting prefernces and demographics. The issues that are discussed are issues central to that relatively small demographic. That is how issues around gays and guns get prominance over issues national security and the economy, despite the fact that on a national level, those issues are really not as important to a majority of Americans. The system is rigged, and I find it demoralizing.

For the record, it was not just the mainstream media that critisized the release of the 9/11 docu-drama, other political pundits and social observers did as well from both the left and right. Conservative commenators such as Bill Bennet, Pat Buchanan, George Will, and a host of others all had similar observatation... the events themselves were dramatic enough... we do the historical record an injustice when we overlay fictional, and distorted facts against them. Other critics include Lee Hamilton and Tom Keane, co-chairmen of the 9/11 commission. The mistruths are notable including a scene in which President Bush called for action after reading the now famous intelligence breifing entittled "Bin-Laden determined to attack inside the US". According to the 9/11 commisssion, this never happened.. indeed, the commission was struck by just how little attention was paid to this report. In fact the 9/11 commission report also concluded that while the Clintion adminsitration made mistakes, they were certainly NOT distracted as the film suggests they were. This is the basis for most but not all of the criticism As for Cyrus Nowrasteh, depite his protests there are many reasons to believe this film was a politically motivated attempt to distort the Clinton record. Here are some interesting facts about Nowrasteh: In 2004 he spoke at an annuall Liberyt Fil Festivaleent whose stated purpose was to promote conservative films too out of the mainstream for holywood. The current 2006 LFF is identified as "A Program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center", and extreme right-wing activist group, boasting members including Rush Limbauh, Sean Hannerty and America's favorite voice of social tolerance, Ann Coulter In additon, the film itself was conceived by a right wing christian activist organization known as Youth With A Mission (YWAM) though thier adjunct The Film Institute. TFI's founder just happens to be the director of the 9/11 docu-drama, David Cunningham. There mission statement is "dedicated to a Godly transformation and revolution TO and THROUGH the Film and Televisionindustry" Is it any wonder that a right wing fundamenalist group is reluctant to point a finger a born again christian president who consistently panders to the religous right? Make no mistake about it.. Bush is their boy. So how did the film's producers get away with this? It seems that if you call something a docudrama as opposed to a documentary, you have free reign to intersperse fiction with fact and totally mislead your audience.

that was not a gap, it was a hanging appendage. I understand that when properly motivated, he can split an inseam

that wasn't a gap

Got it. I also work with some heavy spinners an unfortunate fact of life in large companies.. swim with sharks you know... While I agree that the Clintons are of this ilk, considering thier livlihood, my guess is this is less a rare personallty trait than you may think. For instance the current administration is constantly spinning about synergies between Iraq and the war on terror. You're either with us or against us, and if you are against us, you are a trairor. At the time of the last presidential election, more than 50% of the population believed that Saddam was involved in 9/11 planning. Why? because our president all but said so when he spoke about the axis of evil during the 2001 State of the Union address. Why would he say that? Was he pre-positioning for an Iraqie invastion? Probably. Did he have and evidence whatsoever that Iraq was involved? I think not. Did Geore H Busy set up Dan Rather the same way Clinton set up Chris Wallace. Yeah probably. Did candidate Bush slime McCain in the South Carolina primary while all the time bearing a convival grin? Yo You bet. It happens all the time.. misstatements, distortions and spin.. and it is not just politics. You do not get to the top without learing how to step on some heads and still smell like a rose. Reagan was a master at it as well but he let his staff do the heavy lifting so he could appear above the frey. What do you think Karl Rove gets paid to do? And it is not just politics... why would the producers of 9/11 produce an historically inaccurate account of the events leading up to the attack, when the historical account is sobering enough. What is their ulterior, unstated objective?

this is a very intellectually intimidating post... i think i liked it better when you were reviewing stephen stills

See this is why so many politcal pundits on both the left and right objected to the 9/11 film.. and yes I said the right too (Bill Bennett, Pat Buchanan) the film itself was filled with lies, half-truths, and events that never even occured including meetings that showed the president not engaged in meetings, and distracted by the lowinsky deal. All concerned including Bill Cohen who is a Republican but served in the Clinton cabinet agree that he was very involved and not at all distracted.. in fact the message to the white house staff was we are going to get nailed by the right wing press anyway, so you might as well do the righ thing. It shouls be noted that ABC's explanation was that it is a Docu-Drama and not an historical reenactment. As such it was not designed to be historically true to the events, and no one should ake it that way. Nevertheless, as substantiated in this post, people pick and choose what they want to hear.. you ar enot the only one who did not pay attention to or regard abc's 'disclaimer. BTW, It should be noted that the writer and directer of the film are righ wing activists who particpate in groups whose publicly stated goals are to use the media to promote the right wing agenda. It should also be noted that the original technical consultant, a former senior FBI agent who served and was involved during the adiministration resigned before the film was produced because he felt the film distorted the historical record. SO, if you want the tre historical perspective, read Richard Clarke's book. On the subject of setting poor chis wallace up, remind you of any other presidental flayings.. perhaps the way George H Bush set up Dan Rather...? Bottom line: Do I think Clinton had a 'comprehensive' strategy for containing the taliban? Actually no, i do not. Nevertheless, i do beleive the Clinton adminsitraion had the taliban and bin-laden on their radar screen, especially after the Cole bombing and was at least aware and connected to their activities and were doing their best to contain him. I also think they were clear with the transtion Bush team on the al-queda threat, however I do not believe the Bush admin took it a seriously as they should have. This is not just conjecture on my part, read the book...they did not follow up on al queda intelligence initiatives, they demoted the head counter terrorism operations because it was not the crowd they were interested in chasing... (can you say Iraq?)... In fact, that is why they tried so hard (and are still trying) to link Iraq to al-Queda. I still do not get that.

had a jewler do that to my 5513... it is not perfect but it is passable

i am pretty sure I saw Patrick Dempsey (Derek) wearing one on one of last season's episode's of Grey's Anatomy" (now don't make fun...)

I am a little late, but thanks for this. Informative as always.

that would help, but I am not sure it is enough. It could be my imagination but it seems to me the bezel and crown on the gen's have sharper cuts and are more reflective in bright lights and sunshine.

Look, I can understand the emotion in light of losing loved ones and friends, but obectively, i think sometimes americans (and i am one) lose a bit of perspective on the topic of the French and their role as our ally We are apt to keep reminding the French about WW2 but we sometimes forget about the role the French played during our own revolution. Post war relations with the US have been strained at times, but they certainly had a at least as much of a vested interest in the suprerpower struggle of the coldwar era.. clearly continental europe represented the great divide ... as for the freedom fry thing, let's face it... they were right about Iraq.. unless something drastic changes soon, we are destined to spend the next 40 years policing the place at a cost of multiple trillions of dollars. At legnth tthe US and France have been stratgic (if not unstrained) geopolitical allies for 250 years and will likely remain as such.

Agreed. It also reminds me of The Zigmeister's recent post concerning people not finding information in the Experts area.. in this case, the Tips area... or in others the Knowlege area...I guess he is right... areas outside of general discussion just do not get the traffic... this thread was bumped and looked at all day. Makes you wonder if there is someway to get more visiblity around the all the usefull information on the other threads...

this time it was me that spit my coffee out onto my laptop.

Nope, you are correct 28 days in Feb so they are arguing over 1 day and not even that... Cray's time is in PT and Neil's is in GMT.

oooo! just re-read the posts.. my bad (quietly backing out of the room)

I think what we may have here is a case of mistaken identity or record mapping... for sure the watch craytonic received on 2/28 is not the sale watch TTK send on 3/7... I am wondering if there is some confusion with respect to who purchased the 3/7 watch... perhaps that was the person who purpetrated the WU scam.

Great Post especially the comments around how community and familiarity breed courtesy and information sharing. I could not agree more.

Rob, the information in that thread, especially your stuff (and i an not patronizing) is tremendous.. I do not go there often but when I do i read the sections pretty throughly. This is great reference material the content should not be removed. But I do agree that it would be a great idea to make it easier to find... maybe the title is not intuitive.... could be that the reader thinks the content is FOR experts as opposed to FROM experts. How 'bout something like "must read information".. I don't know, I am kinda rambling.. but i do think the section should stay in.

Gotta love 'em!

I know it is pathetic, but for some reason I just cannot stop laughing when I look at this.....