If we have clean air to breathe, it’s because some goddamn liberal didnt like breathing poison, and did something about it.

If we have child labor laws, it’s because some liberal stood up for the rights of children.

If we have freedom of religion, it’s because some liberal didn’t care for the bible-beaters telling him who and how to worship.

If we have laws that protect minorities, it’s because some liberal thought it’s not right to suppress, oppress, and torture those who are different from all us right white folk.

Go ahead, spread your poison, blame liberals for all your self-inflicted troubles. And when the Constitution is burned to ashes and YOU are the whacko the thought police come after today, you’ll wonder what ever happened to the people who cared about you.

In actuality 36% of the American people are behind the President…

Lets be factualy correct

My statement about the 10 linguists applied to the State Dept., for which you have admittedly failed to find data. The information was posted on this very site about a month ago. You should have complained then, if you had issues with it.
I looked at the website you listed above, and here is a quote from it:

“One result of the shortage, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think tank, is that analysts at the CIA, the FBI, the Defence Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency are ”awash in untranslated gleanings of intelligence” in Arabic. Heritage also said there are not enough interpreters to handle detainees in Iraq. ”

The fact , Tundra, which has been confirmed even by conservative think tanks is that the US is still sorely lacking in competent translators/interpreters of Arabic and other Middle East, Afghani languages.
Also, I don’t mean to belittle the linguistic skills of your battalion-mates, as I have never met them and am not in the position to judge ability in Arabic. However, from my experience as a professional translator of an Asian language, I can say that there are many people who can communicate adequately to quite well in normal conversatins but who are not capable of working as a translator/interpreter. I myself have flunked people on translation tests who speak the language fairly well. There are also a few I have passed who ended up doing terrible translation work more than once (I’m willing to admit that everyone has a bad day now and then) and had to be dismissed from future assignments. I wouldn’t doubt that a similar situation exists with Arabic.

Do you mean “Chappaquiddick” here?
Yeah, did the typical guess and plan on looking before I hit post thingie.

Senator Kennedy is responsible for exactly the same number of deaths (one) in a car accident as 17-yr. old Laura Welch (now Laura Bush),

Mine was in response to the Slam on Frists kids for being rowdy Drunks. From what I gathered from your link there was no Alcohol involved in Mrs Bush’s accident. I suppose one could argue that Ted had no Alcohol in his system either and that he just went home and had something to drink.

The lack of linguists fluent in Arabic and other languages spoken in Muslim countries in the State Department and other US intelligence agencies has been widely reported

The FBI says that since Sep. 11, the agency has processed 30,000 applicants for linguists in Arabic, Farsi, and other tongues. But it notes that ”out of 20 applicants, we’d be lucky to get one or two.”

The FBI now has more than 1,200 linguists, an increase of 50 percent since Sep. 11.

I don’t deny there is a shortage, but 10 for the entire stare department seemed really low to me. While I couldn’t find a figure the FBI has 1200 according to http://www.wbai.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=5325&Itemid=2

Comment by I-RIGHT-I —

To I-WRONG-I,

So you’re back to trying to change the thread by bringing up the so-called Liberal Supreme Court’s decision to allow a city government to confiscate people’s land again. First of all, seven of the nine judges currently sitting on the Supreme Court were appointed by Republicans. Secondly, one of the times you brought this land confiscation up, I cited George W. Bush’s involvement in a land deal in Arlington, Texas that allowed the Texas Rangers to confiscate citizens’ land to build a new stadium and make the team’s owners multi-millionaires. Below is a passage from just one article about it. You can find more information by Googling “George W. Bush and the Arlington land deal” if this one isn’t enough for you:
“Between the sales-tax revenue, state tax exemptions and other finantcial incentives, Texas taxpayers handed the privately owned Rangers more than $200 million in public subsidies. Taxpayers didn’t get a return from the stadium’s surging new revenues, either. The profits went almost exclusively to the team’s already wealthy owners.

The stadium’s lease is a case in point. Unlike an apartment tenant, the rent that the team’s owners pay is applied toward purchasing the stadium. The maximum yearly rent and maintenence fees for the Rangers are $5 million; the total purchase price for the Ballpark at Arlington is $60 million. Thus, after 12 years the owners will have bought the stadium for less than half of what taxpayers spent on it.

But Bush and his partners weren’t satisfied lining their pockets with average Texans’ hard-earned cash. They wanted land around the stadium to further boost its value. To that end, they orchestrated a land grab that shortchanged local landowners by several million dollars.

As part of the deal, the city created a separate corporation, the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority, to manage construction. Using authority granted to it by the city, the ASFDA seized several tracts of land around the stadium site for parking and future development.

Puppet for Bush, Partners

While on paper the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority was a public entity, in practice it was merely a puppet for Bush and his partners. According to documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity, the owners would identify the land they wanted to acquire. A Rangers owner, Mike Reilly, a Realtor, would then offer to buy the parcels for prices he set, which in several cases were well below what the owners believed their property was worth. If the landowners refused to sell to the Rangers at the offered price, the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority could take possession of their land and leave the price to be determined in court.

Several of the landowners took the authority to court over the seizures and won settlements totaling $11 million. In a final insult to taxpayers, the Rangers resisted paying the settlements, trying to pass off yet another cost to Arlington residents.”

#125 Chappediack
I guess it’s better their offspring than them

#124 I just kind of find it hard to believe that the whole State Department has only 10 (people fluent in Arabic)

Comments by Tundra —

Do you mean “Chappaquiddick” here? As for “it’s better their offspring than them,” Senator Kennedy is responsible for exactly the same number of deaths (one) in a car accident as 17-yr. old Laura Welch (now Laura Bush), who ran through a stop sign and ended up killing one of her classmates (rumored to be her ex-boyfriend). You can find out more about this on http://www.nndb.com or wikipedia, among others.

The lack of linguists fluent in Arabic and other languages spoken in Muslim countries in the State Department and other US intelligence agencies has been widely reported, including on this very thinkprogress site. I also read a very good article about this problem in the conservative “Weekly Standard,” to which one of my cousins subscribes.

#117 – We’re not losing the Constitution – we are protecting ourselves from 7th century barbarians who wish to kill us – period. The only people who have to worry about eavesdropping are those in bed with the enemy. But if it will make you feel better, we’ll let them destroy YOUR town…

Comment by The Witch

I have no idea what you’re talking about.

I am rather fond of the way they deal with homosexuals and mouthy women.

I thought you might sympathize with the terrorists a tad. Oh, sorry, was that hysterical hyperbolae?

I don’t sympathize with terrorists I just appreciate that at least in some respects they refuse to defend the indefensible.

Really. But as Liberals go…..there is no rhyme nor reason to what they do. The fact is there are no classical liberals on this board. I come closer to that than anyone here.

That’s funny! The liberals on this board don’t match your vision so all of a sudden we’re not real liberals?

Don’t blame me because you got to the party after it had been taken over by communists.

I guess we should disregard everything you’ve ever said about liberals here before. Phew. Here I thought you were talking about US.

You heard it here first, folks!

Nope, you neo-liberals are still ratbastardcommiemofos. That hasn’t changed.

Comment by Bear Witness

Ghostbusters for sure.

Comment by TerrytheTurtle

It just shows to go you that you don’t know what a liberal is comrade.

I hope Iran is watching this censure movement.

The POTUS is not the rule of law. Our consitution is. Period.

Comment by Bear Witness

Always with the excuses….if you feel froggy jump.

Comment by I-RIGHT-I — March 13, 2006 @ 3:14 pm

No excuses just action…I’ve made my calls, have you?

Oh, so that doesn’t happen? In that case, why are we killing our kids to change them?

I am rather fond of the way they deal with homosexuals and mouthy women.

I thought you might sympathize with the terrorists a tad. Oh, sorry, was that hysterical hyperbolae?

Really. But as Liberals go…..there is no rhyme nor reason to what they do. The fact is there are no classical liberals on this board. I come closer to that than anyone here.

That’s funny! The liberals on this board don’t match your vision so all of a sudden we’re not real liberals? I guess we should disregard everything you’ve ever said about liberals here before. Phew. Here I thought you were talking about US.

You heard it here first, folks!