Tom Delay suggests that Iraq is just as safe as Houston, Texas:
“You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is held to, nobody’d go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out of the local press in Houston is violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways,” DeLay said. (Houston Chronicle, via Raw Story)
I can just see the headline now!
I wonder how those good ol’boy Texas oilmen feel about being told they have insurgents living in their home town?
They pretty much agree, Sally. Houston’s an .. interesting … sort of place. Hell, all of TEXAS is an interesting sort of place, which makes no sense to anyone not from here and not a lot more to many who ARE.
well, the lightrail is pretty crazy. that must be the most poorly designed lightrail ever.
NY Times has a story here.
It supposedly was on an Afghanistan mission, but crashed in a country in southwest Asia (which apparently also includes the Middle East) that could not be disclosed because of “host-nation sensitivities”. Any other ideas of where it might have ended up?
Probably Pakistan. I rather doubt the Iranians would be quiet about it if it had happened in their territory.
Houston, we have a problem.
It’s all about statistics: There are plenty of ways to spin the numbers. If all you count is Iraqi-on-Iraqi civilian criminal activity, he’s probably right.
DeLay if he’d like to take a walk through downtown Baghdad to prove how safe it is.
And bring his pals Bush and Cheney along to see the “progress”, the marching freedom, the last throes of the insurgency, and all the other rosy horseshit they’ve been spewing. Jesus.
Last I saw there haven’t been any reports of car bombs in the Houston’s green zone.
Hmmm… for that matter I don’t recall hearing anything about green zones in Houston… last I heard Houston was the most polluted city in the country.
Great job you’re doing there Tom. Perhaps the good people of Houston would be better off with a different representative taking care of them.
right on the money (as Libertarians are wont to be)
Of course we all saw through these lies. To us, the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was a transparent and brutal exercise of empire. It was evidence of the moral rot in the Kremlin. In the end, the Soviets controlled only the ground underneath their tank treads. It was the last hurrah of an evil empire.
Americans need to face the reality that most of the world sees our nation as the new evil empire, and many people in the Gulf region are dedicated to making sure that the Iraq War is the last hurrah for American militarism. How tragic to admit that the analogy is not entirely implausible.
every single day!”
“I think about Iraq every day, every single day!”
said President Bush over and over again.
(He was lampooned on The Daily Show for it too.)
Think about this Mr. Bush!
Here’s what is happening in Iraq today.
When I heard him say that I was stunned. Someone who caused a catastrophe of these proportions ought to be thinking about it constantly.
It’s his version of ‘thinking?’
Does he reach any conclusions? That’s what people want
to hear. Regrets? Exit plans?
“I think about Iraq every day, every single day.”
Big blood deal!
No. No and no.
but we can all rest assured because he will “continue to think about it”
He does not think about the same things that we do when we think about Iraq and he never will.
Oh…. our little girl. I feel like she’s ours. Show us her photo often, Sybil.
Silence greets Rice speech:
W’s freedom and democracy train isn’t playing well even to screened audiences…the “townhall” style apparantly doesn’t travel well.townhall
Maybe Condi needs to revert to her “doMATRIX” mode.
Complete article by Tyler Marshall/LA Times here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-rice21jun21,0.1677783.story?page=1&track=tot
html
were from bad Chili. Thanks to DeLay I know it is really IEDs
According to the FBI, there were 278 murders in Houston in 2003 and in 2004 there were 272. (PDF file – click on map of Texas for excel spreadsheet)
Now on to Iraq.
Iraq Coalition Casualties has total Coalition deaths at 1914
Iraqi Police and Guardsman fatalities for only this year – 2418.
Deaths Since April 28th
(Shiite-led government announced):
Police/Mil: 533
Civilians: 943
Total: 1476
The IRAQ BODY COUNT Database has reported civilian deaths resulting from the US-led military intervention in Iraq a reported 22434 to 25426. We all know this is probably higher (much higher)
I won’t even go into injuries due to violence, death from malnutrition. What about violence and murders not reported because it is not related to the War?
DeLay is an unbelievable slime ball. His statement shows his true respect for life, doesn’t it?
Right now, I am wondering how to stop myself from reading posts/exchanges that just want to make me scream: “PLEASE, for the sake of my dwindling sanity and my fingernail hold on hope for a better future, make it/them STOP!!”
I see people talking past each other, over each other, AT each other, I see people refusing to accept that they will NOT change others’ minds on certain points, people rushing to judgement, misappropiating others’ words, being unkind to one another and slinging accusations around.
Then there are others who are doing none of these things, but are dragged into these exchanges any way, they try to make peace, smooth things over, change the subject, anything to keep the self-destructive energy from feeding on itself.
Most other days, I would just read witha detached sort of interest, or choose not to read at all, but I’m having a bad day and have been engaging in the worst sort of rubbernecking. I blame myself.
Go read this, and laugh — and feel better! Hugs!
Giant Popsicle Melts, Floods New York Park
LOL, that is a great story. Invasion of the Giant Popsicles!
Just think if that had happened in CA… the “special interests” police and firefighters could have taken a break… and we could have called out The Terminator to fight the giant popsicle! Instant photo op.
(Thanks for the laugh)
My husband is a BIG popsicle fan — he eats at least one before bed every evening — I will be forwarding this to him immediately.
Thanks you! And hugs right back!
Exactly why their basketball team is called the Houston Rockets (and because the Houston Rocket Propelled Grenades or Houston Improvised Explosive Devices is too long to fit on a jersey).
The rest of the story,
Hal C.
I have a question as to why I have no boxes such as rate all after my comments. I would think it is due to my being inept about how I set up my account , but as it took me a minute to type this that would not be strange. Help
It is so that you can’t rate yourself. It is there, I can see it.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3078 I read this several days ago and MM now has link also on his site.
A man in Utah has in his front yard a sign with postage size pictures of all troops who have died in Iraq and next to it the American flag. He was told by city officials this was ok about 6 months ago. Now they have changed their mind and said they ‘misread’ the zoning ordinances and he must take down his tribute to our dead troops. He has also been harrassed with anonymous phones and other harrassing actions for having his sign/tribute up.
He has hired a lawyer and said he will not take down his sign…just when I think some of the public can’t get anymore stupid about the whole Iraq war something like this comes up. So we’re just supposed to pretend no one is dying and everything is going swell with the war yet our troops(dead or alive) are to be hidden away and not discussed..? This is so goddam backwards I could scream.
Just last week I was having a conversation with a wingnut (who happens to have a PhD), and he pulled almost the same argument out of his ass. I think he used Washington DC instead of Houston. This must be a talking point in the Limbaugh/O’Reily/Hannity/ echo chamber.
Admittedly, I was so caught off guard by his comparison that I was momentarily speechless. I mean, I don’t carry around comparative statistics about the violence in American cities and Iraqi cities.
Does the state of Texas hire mercenaries to escort trucks across the state to minimize the risk of being blown up by terrorists? Why did I even try to discuss this guy’s point?
Great wingnut weapon: false arguments based on incorrect information that shift the discussion away from relevance.