The comments from readers are much more entertaining than even the stupid idea that the govt would try to take over Texas.

There are awesome comments everywhere like these on Joe the Plumber's fb page after he asks if people support the Jade Helm monitoring.

https://www.facebook.com/TheRealJoet...52959833964296

Such as this winner that has 88 likes and it's 2 replies:




It's all low hanging fruit, but really amusing low hanging fruit.

You would think the Feds would know better than start with Texas where gun ownership is (likely) 100%+ of the population.

Look at how 1 cop was able to take down 2 terrorists with assault weapons.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/05/us/tex...ero/index.html

BTW, I own weapons, not NRA card carrying type, believe in the right for law abiding citizens to own weapons and willing to undergo background checks etc. If the story is right, that cop deserve huge kudos for what he was able to do against armed assailants.

How about, instead of waiting for them to secede, we just go ahead and kick Texas out of the U.S.?

So are we invading Texas or not? I don't want to be involved in another quagmire in a 3rd world country :mad:

We should take the JiMG approach and nuke 'em into glass. ;)

That story sounds more like a trial run for when that Muslim loving military comes to take away the guns of the real Muricans in Texas. Just wanted to trial different ammo and armor that will be necessary. You think this is Obummer's first rodeo.

Welp, guess I'm done here.

Quit being a muzzie lovin libtard.

Well, it did turn out there were four SWAT team members that just happened to be nearby somehow who also returned fire.

Not to diminish in the least what the one armed officer was willing to face in the first place, just adding that additional detail to the picture fwiw.

Another one bites the dust. Not the #2 but seems like a #4-6 range?

Released from Guantanamo (there are other examples) that went/stayed bad. I think I'm okay with Guantanamo staying open for business for a select group, this is a war. Not sure about the enhanced interrogation techniques though.

Ironically, it probably better for them than some rendition program.


Senior AQAP leader Nasr Ibn Ali al-Ansi killed - CNN.com

No, but Bill Clinton is about to. :)

Lindsey Graham announced his bid. The Republican race is turning into a bad "a {descriptive noun} walks into a bar" joke.

No way... Graham?! You have got to be shitting me. Why does he think he has a chance?

I think its just to sell books.

There may be some inaccuracies in the official story (the 2 SEALs that wrote books contradict each other) but overall think that's how it went down. Why would Obama lie about this?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/11/opinio...lie/index.html

I'm finding this whole story very hard to believe. Why would we need to cover up how we got Bin Laden? To prevent a potential war with Pakistan over American incursions into their country?

I'm also finding the main source to be questionable here too-the former leader of Pakistan's intelligence unit. To me he was embarrassed that they didn't know anything about where Bin Laden was in their country or that the Americans got into their country virtually undetected and wanted to make their country look good and an active participant in the mission to get Bin Laden-something that has never come out in any of the books or congressional investigations into the raid that I can recall. Especially with a Republican party ready and willing to expose and humiliate Obama as often as possible.

Finally, so many people and countries would have to lie as well to keep the cover-up going that I find it hard to believe this is the first we are hearing about this.

Gotta be ego, just wants to say he "ran for President". Or maybe he aspires to "was another beaten comically lackluster nominee".

He's the successor to John McCain's role as a "War Hawk" He pretty much despises anything Obama does in foreign affairs and that he has made the country much weaker than anytime in our history. He'll be the "expert" CNN needs anytime they need to talk about enemies of the US, but no chance in hell of winning the nomination. I see Huckabee is going to run again-I really thought he might be the Rep nominee then-he's the one evangelical conservatives will want to vote for, but seems to have little staying power outside the South

Its common for politicians on talk shows to defer answering "I don't answer to hypotheticals" but Jeb obviously didn't do well. Think this is an opportunity for the Dems to continuing saying and stressing that Obama was cleaning up after Bush's mistake (and that the Reps agree it was a mistake).

To be fair, the next president will be cleaning up after Obama's foreign policy mess also.

George W. Bush's Iraq War Hawks Dismayed By Jeb's Dithering - BuzzFeed News

Jeb Bush doesn't know what the fuck he would've done. Obama didn't either. Nobody really does. I'll give credit to Obama, when he came into office and was briefed by military leaders, he changed his stance and tone pretty quickly, he stated...and I'm paraphrasing a bit, "I simply didn't have the information while running for office that I do now as President". The bottom line is that Presidents are like Quarterbacks, maybe they called their own shots back in the day, but now they have Offensive and Defensive Coordinators and are heavily consulted and guided (in many cases) to a decision. Jeb Bush says this, Obama says that, GWB says that...blah, blah, blah...sometimes it's all a bit more involved than a couple of sound-bites and some clickable word-smithing.


Depends what you mean. My end-state has always been to have no presence in the Middle East unless we need to protect ourselves or our interests...in which case I support our military 100% for being there. Unfortunately, "protect ourselves and interests" is left of to interpretation and the Iraqi's had made it all to easy to define "use of force required". It is very refreshing to see that Iraq is more ally than enemy after living a good portion of my life seeing the reverse. Who helped make that happen? George Bush, Bill Clinton, GWB, Obama? Probably a little of all, but the one guy we continually going back to for "fucking things up" was the guy who spearheaded change. Make no mistake about that.


In 1989, the US Military Presence in Iraq (and much of the middle east) was basically non-existent.
In 1990, the US Military Surge (Desert Shield/Desert Storm) on behalf of Iraq (for invading Iran and then Kuwait) was 543,000 troops.
From 1991-2003, the US security presence was roughly 10,000-30,000 troops on any given day.
In 2001, Al Qaeda bombed US civilian targets for having a sustained presence in Saudi Arabia with no plan to ever withdrawal from the Middle East.
In 2003, the Invasion of Iraq (which happened only after repeated failures of the US, international and regional attempts to resolve the "Iraq Problem") was around 250,000 troops.
In 2007, the 'surge' increase US troop presence in Iraq from 80,000 to 110,000 troops. Within 4 months, that surge was withdrawn.
In 2011, all major US security forces were removed.
In 2015, the US military only keeps a small contingent to very actively hunt and kill insurgents in the region.

On the flip-side.

In 1990, the Iraqi Army was a hostile force and it's strength was 1,000,000 strong (which is typical for a warring dictatorship's troop's strengths to be excessively high)
In 1991, Iraq lost a war to the US and surrendered Kuwait.
In 1992, US/UK/French military established "No-Fly Zones" to prevent the continued killing of Kurds and Shia's and give those people "safe zones" which was continually manned by tens of thousands of foreign soldiers until 2003 (that wasn't cheap and certainly wasn't free, btw)
By 2003, the Iraq Military was STILL a hostile force
In 2007, the Iraq Military did not exist on it's own, but the US Army trainers were working tirelessly and around the clock to professionalizing an army that would be accepted globally as a standard defense force.
In 2011, Iraqi Military units were conducting their own operations against Insurgents and the US Military security forces were becoming quite redundant.
In 2015, remnants of the Insurgency are all that's left and dealing with the terrorists in ISIS, are a joint US/Iraqi/Arab operation.

US Forces no longer are required to protect the Iraqi people that was necessary following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi military is responsible and fairly capable of it now.

Our presence has finally returned to pre-1990 levels. (Or at least more similarly to those levels than anytime between) Did the Iraq War make it possible to finally bring our boys home? I think it did. Was it a mistake to bring them home? No it wasn't.

How do people around here feel that the new Iraqi government is more closely aligned to Iran as opposed to hostile as Hussein's regime was?

Not a trick question, I'm interested in thoughts and really don't have an opinion on it either way.

Given the Shia majority in Iraq it is not all that surprising, not to mention that Iran is interested in fighting ISIS.

U.S. troops kill top ISIL commander in raid inside Syria




YOUR United States Army Delta Forces at work. Great job, boys.

I wonder why they took the wife?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/16/middle...aid/index.html

Great job. Hope we got a bunch of actionable intel.

The CBS or NBC article said she was also an ISIS operative...so I'm guessing Intel.

I think this raid was also done to show ISIS that America is not afraid of them and will go anywhere to capture them, no matter how deep in their territory. In response to the recent Texas incident with cartoon writers that was supposedly ISIS sponsored. Just glad none of our guys got hurt.

Russia's Putin plays with NHL veterans, scoring 8 goals

WHY CANT BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA PLAY HOCKEY LIKE THAT! THIS JUST SHOWS HOW MUCH BETTER A LEADER PUTIN IS!

what more fixed Putin hockey or Romney v Holyfield?

In a thread about Obama...you missed. :)

They don't have hockey rinks in Kenya.

Let's see Putin on a basketball court with Obama!

There it is! Nice work, Edward.

So Putin, Obama and Kim Jong Un walk onto a basketball court.......

Not to mention that the last man to make Putin look bad glowed in the dark before he died.

In Russia, hoops shoot you.

Putin, "Shit, let me invade Lithuania first so I can get some quality basketball players on my team."

Kim Jung Un, "Shit, I just shot my basketball team into outerspace on the back of a SCUD missile."

Obama, "Shit, the world is about to find out I really am from Hawaii..."

I don't really understand TPP and why its so secretive. However, if it helps counter China, I'm willing to give Obama some leeway.

Let the Public Read the Completed Parts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership*|*Dave Johnson

The fact that the US isn't allowed to put country of origin labels on meat packages anymore gives me pause in giving up any more sovereignty to trade pacts.

The big picture is that TPP is a way to help US stay economically relevant in Asia as China's influence inevitably increases (or at least slow down China's progression).

I really don't know if its too little, too late (which is what the article states) but at least its doing something vs status quo. TPP won't be perfect, it'll hurt (low skilled?) and help (big corporations?) different segments in the US.

China Liked TPP—Until U.S. Officials Opened Their Mouths | ChinaFile

Back to the top, so where did we get, Edward? I'm guessing the answer is "still more work to do" which is fair considering that truly is the answer to all political questions, but did we make good in-roads the last 8 years into your expectation? Does the reality line up with the expectations from 2008?

Based on that list, I actually think Obama did very well in most of it. Granted more work to do was always going to be part of the equation, but did plenty of good stuff there.

Oh, FWIW, I don't get the big deal about the TPP either. While I'm on the left, I think free trade is something that helps consumers and workers in other countries. I think NAFTA was a complete success and I believe the TPP will be as well. I'm not that pleased over some of the provisions (however, with all the bleating about the international tribunal overruling laws by some countries, US companies probably benefit more than not), but overall, it's a good thing.

I think #1 is taken care of. Is it perfect, no but better than old status quo.

On #2, I think Obama lucked out. He did not champion fracking but happened on his watch so I guess he gets some credit. There are more and more hybrids out there but don't know how much of that is attributable to him.

#3 Iraq - pretty much a failure.

#3 Afghanistan - still a chance to learn from Iraq so think its still tbd.

On #4, I do think its better but probably not by much

Obama can still pull it off but the global situation is a mess. Not all of it was under his control but it happened on his watch

-- China rising. I would have wanted to slow it
-- Middle-east. 'nuff said
-- Eastern Europe. Russia doesn't worry me on the world stage, only in Europe
-- Libya, Egypt etc.

Coming along but still not quite sure what it says or does. I am good with the up or down vote. Now to the House.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/22/politi...ity/index.html

Obama unfazed as toddler unleashes White House tantrum

I'm guessing from the headline that John Boehner visited the White House.

Little more info on TPP and Chinese reaction.

This makes me think the future/now will be economic and intelligence war with China. A real estate bubble crash would be nice.

China getting panicky over U.S.-led Pacific trade deal - MarketWatch

The amusing part of that is that the list of things China is worried about the TPP doing is the same stuff that the left is saying the TPP isn't doing (setting high bars for... labor rules and environmental protection). I guess how one defines 'high' is the sticking point ;).

I guess Obama is trying to shame and hold the Iraqi's military accountable. Interesting politics, effectively call the Iraqi military cowards.

Haven't heard much from the Kurds in the North.

Iraqi Military Vows to Recapture Ramadi After Carter Criticism - NBC News

Going to be a tough battle for the DACA (which I thought was the same/subset as the Dream Act but apparently not). I think likely to extend past Obama which means the supporters would be more likely to support a Dem than GOP.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/26/politi...urt/index.html