Political leanings

[pacman]

(Tomcat @ May 27 2009,16:42) Employing people is a nightmare now anywhere in Europe. Just try sacking someone...it is a problem even if you have good reason.

As an employer who has been taken to the Industrial Relations Court on spurious charges dug up by a drug addicted employee I know only too well what you are talking about.

Allowing the tail to wag the dog undermines the ability of private business to compete freely on world markets.

That is only one area where liberal intervention has had an undesirable outcome but nevertheless, that does not diminish the examples cited in Lefty's post.

I have to take the good with the bad, some days I am grateful for sensible intervention, other days I rage against the lack of vision by some on the loopy left.

On balance, I am prepared to tolerate what is the least worst form of regulation.

[Torurot]

"The behaviour of the shysters of the finance sector like S&P and the gangster banksters has completed discredited them, possibly for a generation." Still governments cowl to these "ratings" agencies instead of telling them to fck off!

Mean while over in La La land

Roberts is a healthy dose of "right" wing

Who Will Stand Up to America and Israel?
Doublespeak on North Korea
http://counterpunch.org/roberts05272009.html
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS May 27, 2009

[Lefty]

Great stuff. Roberts is right on.

[alan1chef]

Roberts must have alzheimers; his memory is so short. His quote "We are witnessing the Washington gangsters construct yet another threat" is wrong and short-sighted. Check out this article from the Washington Post...way back in 2004...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2004Feb3.html. It describes an Auschwitz in North Korea...from 2004!

"Construct another threat"?? Nobody is constructing anything...North Korea has been like that for decades.

Here's another article from a German doctor who was in North Korea in 2001...http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=9301. "Physician who spent months in nation tells of starvation, injustices..."

Sorry guys...Roberts is off the deep end and doesn't know how to swim.

[smuttleydfs]

(alan1chef @ May 29 2009,01:32) Sorry guys...Roberts is off the deep end and doesn't know how to swim.

"Off the deep end???"

As opposed to Oxycotin Rush, Sean Hannity, O'Smiley non-factor, Dickless Cheney etc etc??

Please...........

[pacman]

The day of reckoning moves ever closer. Enjoy this clip -

[alan1chef]

Yes, Roberts is off the deep end if he thinks that the US is simply constructing the threat from North Korea....as if North Korea is some nice country like Thailand and we are being especially mean to those poor North Koreans by calling them bad guys. Kim Jong-il is no boy scout...and we should not ignore him by "sticking our heads into the sand and just pretending that all is grand". Of course, his missiles would never hit the US and what do I care if he lobs one into BKK....

[alan1chef]

Pacman...the US economy is in the tank for sure and Obama better get his act together and fast. Baling out companies, states and banks is NOT the way to get us back on track. We've got to let some of these companies go under...and states have to fix their own problems by cutting expenses and if some banks go bankrupt...so be it. The US govt cannot and should not keep printing money to try to fix these issues.

[Torurot]

Another textbook case of "thanks for nothing"; "we are Americans and are here to help you". Always the case of in/unintended consequence. What with the Military/Industrial complex where the building of straw men bogeys like Nth Korea (who have they attacked in the last 50 years Al?) is necessary to keep the funds rolling in. A

The Main Result of the "War on Terror"
The Destabilization of Pakistan
http://counterpunch.org/leupp05292009.html
By GARY LEUPP Weekend Edition May 29-31, 2009

[geezer]

Yes I agree, after 9/11 the US should have done nothing at all, just said oh well we are really the international force of evil according to counterpunch.org so we must accept that every now and them people can fly planes in to building and kill office workers. Is that what they should have done?

Please tell us your alternate stragtergy for fighting Al-Queda? or do you believe they are fighting the good fight?

[smuttleydfs]

(alan1chef @ May 30 2009,02:30) Pacman...the US economy is in the tank for sure and Obama better get his act together and fast.

And the economy just went in the tank after January 20th...........right......

I really sincerely we are in much better shape with Barrack tryinng to fix things brought about by W's ignorance then we would be with McSame and McPalin.

But of course the right figures that the new administration should be able to fix 8 years of blatant ignorance in the first 100 days

[smuttleydfs]

(geezer @ May 30 2009,07:45)

Yes I agree, after 9/11 the US should have done nothing at all, just said oh well we are really the international force of evil according to counterpunch.org so we must accept that every now and them people can fly planes in to building and kill office workers. Is that what they should have done?

Please tell us your alternate stragtergy for fighting Al-Queda? or do you believe they are fighting the good fight?

Gee Geezer I guess you think pissing away trillions and over 3000 american service members lives to get revenge on a dictator that thumbed his nose at dumbass W's daddy was righteous response to 9/11 wasn't it?

Oh the naivete of the right

[Torurot]

Geezer,, Iraq did what to you? Afghanistan did what to you?

Did you know that the US CIA trained and supplied the fore runner of the Taliban, and Al Queda?

Did you know that the "hijackers" who happened to get REAL lucky where ALL Saudis. Now there is yet ANOTHER dictatorship propped up by the USA, remembering the the Bush family are PERSONAL friends and business associates of the dictators.

Here's a news flash. NONE of your current "strategies" in the M.E. are working!

Oh and "have a nice day".

[geezer]

I wasn't referring to Iraq. I was referring to Afghanistan/Pakistan which the article you quoted was referring too. I admit my tone was a bit sarcastic when it probably didn't need to be, but my question is, Ok the US can't go after Al-Quaeda in Afghanistan because they are being protected by the Taliban, what does the US do then, surely to sit back on do nothing only invites more attacks? I would like to know what the alternate stratery could have been.

And actually the CIA trained the MSI who trained the Mujahadeen. It is well recognised that the Taliban is largely made up of forces that sat out the Russian Invasion of Afghanistan, In fact most sucessful of the Mujahdeen were Panshiri not Pashtun.

You references to Saudi are also interesting. How much money have Saudi Wuhabi's pored into Pakistani Madrassas over the past 20 years. The current termoil in Pakistan has as much to do with this as it does event's accross the border. And yes the Faud Family is propped up by the US but again look at the alternative. Turning Billions of dollars over to Wuhabi extremeists is not a very good idea.

Lastly no need to get mad mate, yes we can disagree and I'm probably not going to change your opionion nor you mine, but we can atleast talk about it without being wound up. You have a nice day too.

[alan1chef]

Smuttley, the economy is in the tank now because of runaway growth during the two terms of good-ole-boy Bill, who stopped the Fed from putting on the brakes.

Torurot, I don't understand how you can say that Kim Jong-il is a "straw men bogey" when it is a fact that he tortures his own people into submission. I rate him up there with Idi Amin Dada and Adolf Hitler in that department. If you want to ignore Kim Jong-il like the Europeans ignored Hitler, that's your opinion. You talk about the innocent people killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, however that number pales in comparison to the millions killed by Hitler. FDR took action and got us out of the Great Depression but he failed to act in the international arena. Worse yet, the European leaders of the time ignored Hitler, even when they knew what he was doing. Stupid...simply stupid. I say better to act than to ignore.