• Alan and Oliver North debate patriotism and the presidential race.
• Conservatives are up in arms over Harry Reid’s statement that coal and oil “makes us sick.” Is their outrage justified?
• Can you survive the cut? It’s Sudden Death Radio!
Alan is fiesty tonight.
Epiphany~ based on Joe’s comment and your response, I was prompted to search for the actual benchmarks that are being used. My Firefox browser is malfunctioning, and for some reason it’s not giving me the proper url in the url window… I’m using the tabbed browsing feature. Anyway, here are the benchmarks from the about.com website:
The 18 benchmarks to gauge “success in Iraq” were drafted by Iraqi leaders, and inserted into Congressional bill H.R. 2206, U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007.
H.R. 2206 was passed by Congress in mid-May 2007, and signed into law by the President on May 25, 2007. (Also see Iraq War Statistics & Results, Updated.)
The 18 benchmarks were established to grade Iraqi government progress toward stability. Future U.S. funding of the Iraq War was to be contingent on Iraq’s political leaders satisfying a sigificant number of the benchmarks.
In early Sept 2007, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was “on track to conclude that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks set to judge the Iraqi government’s performance in the political and security arenas haven’t been met.” (For more info, read Petraeus Report is Irrelevant to Gauging Success in Iraq.)
LISTING OF THE 18 BENCHMARKS
The 18 benchmarks, which were included in Title I, Section 1314(b)(1)(a) of H.R. 2206, are as follows:
(A) The United States strategy in Iraq, hereafter, shall be conditioned on the Iraqi government meeting benchmarks, as told to members of Congress by the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and reflected in the Iraqi Government’s commitments to the United States, and to the international community, including:
(i) Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review.
(ii) Enacting and implementing legislation on de-Baathification.
(iii) Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources of the people of Iraq without regard to the sect or ethnicity of recipients, and enacting and implementing legislation to ensure that the energy resources of Iraq benefit Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Kurds, and other Iraqi citizens in an equitable manner.
(iv) Enacting and implementing legislation on procedures to form semi-autonomous regions.
(v) Enacting and implementing legislation establishing an Independent High Electoral Commission, provincial elections law, provincial council authorities, and a date for provincial elections.
(vi) Enacting and implementing legislation addressing amnesty.
(vii) Enacting and implementing legislation establishing a strong militia disarmament program to ensure that such security forces are accountable only to the central government and loyal to the Constitution of Iraq.
(viii) Establishing supporting political, media, economic, and services committees in support of the Baghdad Security Plan.
(ix) Providing three trained and ready Iraqi brigades to support Baghdad operations.
(x) Providing Iraqi commanders with all authorities to execute this plan and to make tactical and operational decisions, in consultation with U.S commanders, without political intervention, to include the authority to pursue all extremists, including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.
(xi) Ensuring that the Iraqi Security Forces are providing even handed enforcement of the law.
(xii) Ensuring that, according to President Bush, Prime Minister Maliki said `the Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation’.
(xiii) Reducing the level of sectarian violence in Iraq and eliminating militia control of local security.
(xiv) Establishing all of the planned joint security stations in neighborhoods across Baghdad.
(xv) Increasing the number of Iraqi security forces units capable of operating independently.
(xvi) Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected.
(xvii) Allocating and spending $10 billion in Iraqi revenues for reconstruction projects, including delivery of essential services, on an equitable basis.
(xviii) Ensuring that Iraq’s political authorities are not undermining or making false accusations against members of the Iraqi Security Forces.
RC~ I appreciate your defense of your fellow New Yorkers. However, from my years of experience listening to those from New York and New Jersey call me, I can tell you that their “greeting” was just a mechanical entrance into the conversation. They didn’t wait or care for a response. When you call a business and say “how ya doin’”, it’s polite to wait for a response.
Now, I loved my New Yorkers and Jersey’ers. They loved me, too! People in my department would often transfer me those calls, bc very few others had the patience to deal with them. :-) They’d also transfer me the calls from people who couldn’t speak English. lol. those were good times.
^ Joe you might want to click on your own link and re-read that article a second time. What you wrote was misleading.
The White House sees the progress in a particularly positive light, declaring in a new assessment to Congress that Iraq’s efforts on 15 of 18 benchmarks are “satisfactory” — almost twice of what it determined to be the case a year ago. The May 2008 report card, obtained by the Associated Press, determines that only two of the benchmarks — enacting and implementing laws to disarm militias and distribute oil revenues — are unsatisfactory.
Yes that is a report card coming from THE WHITE HOUSE. From the BUSH administration. How nice of them to put forth such a congratulatory assessment while others, including military experts say differently.
After all, the Bush administration is always objective, right?
So Alan says a majority of the benchmarks in Iraq haven’t been met. I guess he needs to do a little more research instead of relying on Dem talking points.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/01/national/w101144D24.DTL
“New Iraq report: 15 of 18 benchmarks satisfactory”
Only registered user allowed |
Rule: Anyone mentioning the olympics in a positive way must be cutoff, even when not during SDR.
Muahaha ha ha
July 1st, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Please ask Ollie if he would walk down the streets of Baghdad Now with no body armour?
Alen last time you didnt ask him,I was listening that night. And if he says yes..I want to see video of him taking the stroll.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Ollie North. Another disgraced political figure giving advice. Oh boy…
July 1st, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Hey Criminal North how ya been? You are one of the biggest disgraces ever to put on the uniform and don’t ever forget it.
Wes Clark was bang on about McCain’s service not being a qualification.
Go back and suck Rupert Murdoch’s dick you Republican piece of shit.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:21 pm
I like Ollie, and so does Alan. You can tell that he genuinely likes him. Whereas with Sean, I imagine Alan has always respected him, but has only grown to like him from 11 years of working together. I imagine he liked Ollie the day he met him.
July 1st, 2008 at 10:50 pm
THE CHURCH OF THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER
http://www.venganza.org/
they deserve charity dollars, too
July 1st, 2008 at 11:13 pm
is joel the producer single?
July 1st, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Ugh…flying spaghetti monster…
July 1st, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Sudden death radio is awesome, Alan. Hilarious stuff.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I like it bc it helps teach people about cell phone etiquette.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:28 pm
i like it because it just makes me laugh
July 1st, 2008 at 11:32 pm
let me tell you something i learned, from FIVE YEARS of talking to New Yorkers in an insurance call center here in Virginia- the first thing they say on a phone call is “hey how are you doing?” but then they BREEZE right through that WITHOUT WAITING FOR AN ANSWER. what is with these people? it’s a QUESTION. when you ask a question, you wait for an answer. it drives people down here CRAZY.
i can’t tell you how many times i heard “hey Cheryl how ya doin, listen I’m callin about…” and then me being me, i’d always interject and say “i’m fine. how are you?”. yeah. i made those damned new yorkers STOP for a minute.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:37 pm
lol pooh.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Alan~ my son woke up a few minutes ago, and he laughed right along with me when you started doing your girly voice. LOL
ok guys, i’ll be listenin but i gotta get this kid to bed
July 1st, 2008 at 11:43 pm
“Hey, how ya doing,” is a lot like the word “sh*t,” which can mean a great many things, or almost anything, depending. It might used as a substitute for “Good morning,” or “Hello,” or to set up a question vis-a-vis “Excuse me, buddy…where’s the gabagool?”
With the right delivery it could even mean, “I know what you were doing last night, you dog.”
On a call to an insurance company, the sub-text might read, “Hey, I care about you as a person, but where the heck is my claim check?”
July 2nd, 2008 at 2:48 am
So Alan says a majority of the benchmarks in Iraq haven’t been met. I guess he needs to do a little more research instead of relying on Dem talking points.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/01/national/w101144D24.DTL
“New Iraq report: 15 of 18 benchmarks satisfactory”
July 2nd, 2008 at 6:24 am
^ Joe you might want to click on your own link and re-read that article a second time. What you wrote was misleading.
The White House sees the progress in a particularly positive light, declaring in a new assessment to Congress that Iraq’s efforts on 15 of 18 benchmarks are “satisfactory” — almost twice of what it determined to be the case a year ago. The May 2008 report card, obtained by the Associated Press, determines that only two of the benchmarks — enacting and implementing laws to disarm militias and distribute oil revenues — are unsatisfactory.
Yes that is a report card coming from THE WHITE HOUSE. From the BUSH administration. How nice of them to put forth such a congratulatory assessment while others, including military experts say differently.
After all, the Bush administration is always objective, right?
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 am
RC~ I appreciate your defense of your fellow New Yorkers. However, from my years of experience listening to those from New York and New Jersey call me, I can tell you that their “greeting” was just a mechanical entrance into the conversation. They didn’t wait or care for a response. When you call a business and say “how ya doin’”, it’s polite to wait for a response.
Now, I loved my New Yorkers and Jersey’ers. They loved me, too! People in my department would often transfer me those calls, bc very few others had the patience to deal with them. :-) They’d also transfer me the calls from people who couldn’t speak English. lol. those were good times.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Epiphany~ based on Joe’s comment and your response, I was prompted to search for the actual benchmarks that are being used. My Firefox browser is malfunctioning, and for some reason it’s not giving me the proper url in the url window… I’m using the tabbed browsing feature. Anyway, here are the benchmarks from the about.com website:
The 18 benchmarks to gauge “success in Iraq” were drafted by Iraqi leaders, and inserted into Congressional bill H.R. 2206, U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007.
H.R. 2206 was passed by Congress in mid-May 2007, and signed into law by the President on May 25, 2007. (Also see Iraq War Statistics & Results, Updated.)
The 18 benchmarks were established to grade Iraqi government progress toward stability. Future U.S. funding of the Iraq War was to be contingent on Iraq’s political leaders satisfying a sigificant number of the benchmarks.
In early Sept 2007, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was “on track to conclude that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks set to judge the Iraqi government’s performance in the political and security arenas haven’t been met.” (For more info, read Petraeus Report is Irrelevant to Gauging Success in Iraq.)
LISTING OF THE 18 BENCHMARKS
The 18 benchmarks, which were included in Title I, Section 1314(b)(1)(a) of H.R. 2206, are as follows:
(A) The United States strategy in Iraq, hereafter, shall be conditioned on the Iraqi government meeting benchmarks, as told to members of Congress by the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and reflected in the Iraqi Government’s commitments to the United States, and to the international community, including:
(i) Forming a Constitutional Review Committee and then completing the constitutional review.
(ii) Enacting and implementing legislation on de-Baathification.
(iii) Enacting and implementing legislation to ensure the equitable distribution of hydrocarbon resources of the people of Iraq without regard to the sect or ethnicity of recipients, and enacting and implementing legislation to ensure that the energy resources of Iraq benefit Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Kurds, and other Iraqi citizens in an equitable manner.
(iv) Enacting and implementing legislation on procedures to form semi-autonomous regions.
(v) Enacting and implementing legislation establishing an Independent High Electoral Commission, provincial elections law, provincial council authorities, and a date for provincial elections.
(vi) Enacting and implementing legislation addressing amnesty.
(vii) Enacting and implementing legislation establishing a strong militia disarmament program to ensure that such security forces are accountable only to the central government and loyal to the Constitution of Iraq.
(viii) Establishing supporting political, media, economic, and services committees in support of the Baghdad Security Plan.
(ix) Providing three trained and ready Iraqi brigades to support Baghdad operations.
(x) Providing Iraqi commanders with all authorities to execute this plan and to make tactical and operational decisions, in consultation with U.S commanders, without political intervention, to include the authority to pursue all extremists, including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.
(xi) Ensuring that the Iraqi Security Forces are providing even handed enforcement of the law.
(xii) Ensuring that, according to President Bush, Prime Minister Maliki said `the Baghdad security plan will not provide a safe haven for any outlaws, regardless of [their] sectarian or political affiliation’.
(xiii) Reducing the level of sectarian violence in Iraq and eliminating militia control of local security.
(xiv) Establishing all of the planned joint security stations in neighborhoods across Baghdad.
(xv) Increasing the number of Iraqi security forces units capable of operating independently.
(xvi) Ensuring that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected.
(xvii) Allocating and spending $10 billion in Iraqi revenues for reconstruction projects, including delivery of essential services, on an equitable basis.
(xviii) Ensuring that Iraq’s political authorities are not undermining or making false accusations against members of the Iraqi Security Forces.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Alan is fiesty tonight.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:56 am