Reason Morning Links: More Troops Likely in Afghanistan, Bill Clinton in North Korea, Cash for Clunkers Out of Money

- New assessment concludes thousands more troops may be necessary in Afghanistan.

- Obama sends Bill Clinton to North Korea to negotiate release of two captured U.S. journalists.

- Cash for Clunkers money could dry up by Friday.

- State attorneys general, public health activists want tighter regulation of alcohol-caffeine drinks.

- Obama finding it increasingly difficult to keep his pledge for no middle class tax hike.

Comments

[Rich]

"There is a lot that can happen over time," Summers said, adding that the administration believes "it is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out, no matter what."

IOW, we can rule *anything* in.

[Jim Stewert]

What exactly are we doing in Afghanistan again? I forgot.

RT
http://www.anon-web-tools.us.tc

[hamilton]

Cue the radio and newspaper sob stories about poor consumers who arrived too late to trade in their ancient gas guzzlers and desperately need federal assistance so they don't "lose" their $4500.

[kilroy]

This just in: Rum and Coke now illegal.

Seriously, WTF?

Time to start building a still of my own I guess. (PDF)

[John C. Randolph]

I think it's very telling, that when there's a tricky diplomatic task at hand, Obama doesn't send the broad that he tossed the state department to as a consolation prize, but instead chooses her husband for the real work.

So, are the lefties going to go ape shit over his obvious sexism? After all, if he thought she could do the job, he'd send Hillary, wouldn't he?

jcr

[John]

Clearly what the country needs is a war on Irish coffee.

[Xeones]

What if the Norks don't let Bill leave? That would be one hilarious international incident.

[SugarFree]

Xeones,

I'm sure he can fuck his way to freedom.

[Cabeza de Vaca]

"Some scientific research indicates that people who consume caffeine and alcohol may increase their risk of alcohol-related injuries or other problems. A Wake Forest University study published last year found that 24% of college students who drink reported mixing caffeinated beverages and alcohol-such as Red Bull with vodka-in the previous month. The study found that those who did were more likely than someone who drank noncaffeinated alcoholic beverages to experience negative consequences such as an alcohol-related injury, getting into a car with a drunken driver or being taken advantage of sexually."

The government must act swiftly to protect these people from their own actions. SOMEONE MIGHT GET HURT!!!!

[Rich]

What exactly are we doing in Afghanistan again? I forgot.

"We'll lock and load and go out there and ki-, ki-, ki- . . ." kick the Taliban's ass and get the farmers growing, um, something else and transform the warlord domains into a successful nation and leave without our tails between our legs like those stoopid Soviets!

[T]

"We'll lock and load and go out there and ki-, ki-, ki- . . ." kick the Taliban's ass and get the farmers growing, um, something else and transform the warlord domains into a successful nation and leave without our tails between our legs like those stoopid Soviets!

We're better at PR than the commies. We'll hold a couple photo ops with Karzai, smile, wave, declare a victory for freedom and justice and get the hell out of Dodge. As long as we can prop up some regime that pays lip service to democracy, it's all good.

[Canter]

"State attorneys general, public health activists want tighter regulation of alcohol-caffeine drinks."

Burn, burn, burn in a stench filled hell you cock sucking bastards.

[strike through]

Cash for Clunkers money could dry up by Friday

Those ever-so-empathetic Democrats, always on the lookout for ways to help "the poor," have created a scheme whereby perfectly good used cars--the ones "the poor" rely upon for transportation--will be taken off the used-car market permanently (thus skewing the market and making the remaining vehicles more expensive) so middle-class and wealthy citizens can get a welfare payment. This "wildly popular" program, what the left is calling The Best Program Ever, will become a textbook case in the Giant Book of Stupid Democrat Stunts. They really have outdone themselves this time. Please, a round of applause, averybody, for the Democrats and their obedient media enablers.

[Johnny Longtorso]

The program hurts the poor, but helps "labor" (i.e. "the working man"). Can we now please forever drop the phrase "the common good", given how even core Dem constituencies seem to have conflicting interests?

(And don't even get me started on environmentalist vs union factory workers).

[John C. Randolph]

regulation of alcohol-caffeine drinks

Does Teddy Kennedy know they're planning to crack down on Irish coffee?

-jcr

[R C Dean]

This "wildly popular" program, what the left is calling The Best Program Ever, will become a textbook case in the Giant Book of Stupid Democrat Stunts.

Sadly, I fear the vast majority of our fellows are too stupid to see past the Free Money! to understand that, in the long run, this will

(a) drive up the price of used cars, by shrinking the supply;

(b) drive up the price of parts, by shrinking the supply; and

(c) do nothing in the long run for new car sales, because it has advanced the purchase of new cars by a few months or possibly a year or two.

[John C. Randolph]

perfectly good used cars--the ones "the poor" rely upon for transportation--will be taken off the used-car market permanently

This serves several agendas. One of the more insidious ones is to keep poor people on public transportation as much as possible, so that they'll vote for more public transport waste, fraud and abuse. Can't have the proles just going wherever they care to, can they? After all, they might even drive into nice neighborhoods far from the bus routes.

-jcr

[kilroy]

Man I hope they keep Clinton. At least for a little while. The ensuing circus would be priceless.

One question, would Hillary want him back?

[P Brooks]

The change should save the typical consumer $700 to $1,000 annually in gasoline costs.

Awesome!

Now get your calculator out, and tell me how much it cost to achieve this "saving".
Fekkin' eejit.

Tell me again why I should give a fuck if newspapers go the way of the Dodo.

[Vehical Driver]

What exactly are we doing in Afghanistan again? I forgot.

Obama was supposedly against the war in Iraq. In order to shut down criticism that he was soft on terrorism because of that, he had find some other place to fight the war on terror.

[Canter]

"One question, would Hillary want him back?"

It's not as if they're together now anyway.

[P Brooks]

Mr. Brest, who runs a Los Angeles-based entertainment and lifestyle newsletter, says he and his friends who drink JETT know how to drink responsibly and see consuming such a beverage as similar to drinking Maker's Mark bourbon and Coca-Cola.

Does this pathetic twat put ketchup on his filet mignon, too?

[SugarFree]

P Brooks,

At its best, Maker's Mark is barely an overcooked flank steak.

[Mike M.]

I think it's very telling, that when there's a tricky diplomatic task at hand, Obama doesn't send the broad that he tossed the state department to as a consolation prize, but instead chooses her husband for the real work.

The way Obama has neutralized the Clintons and especially Hillary has been nothing short of masterful. Machiavelli probably couldn't have handled it this well. She's the most irrelevant and ineffectual Secretary of State we've had in memory.

[ChrisH]

Obama sends Bill Clinton to North Korea to negotiate release of two captured U.S. journalists.

'Cause when your goal is "get the women!", Bill Clinton is the man you send in.

Screenwriters: start working on this now. This is at least 3 movies: slapstick, surreal dramedy, romantic thriller... Try to work in a Schwarzenegger cameo.

[P Brooks]

I stopped drinking "distilled spirits" many, many years ago; I cannot recall ever having tasted Maker's Mark, but I know several people who claim it's quite good.

That guy's still a pathetic twat.

[SugarFree]

PB,

I was just trying to get a bourbon snob fight started. 🙂

[Warren Christopher]

The way Obama has neutralized the Clintons and especially Hillary has been nothing short of masterful. Machiavelli probably couldn't have handled it this well. She's the most irrelevant and ineffectual Secretary of State we've had in memory.

I would beg to differ. Remember me? Of course you don't.

[Meta4]

"That guy's still a pathetic twat."

No, twats are useful. Pick another metaphore

[P Brooks]

"Metaphor snob fight!"

[P Brooks]

Condisering the fact that when I *did* drink whiskey, more often than not it was Wild Turkey, I won't pretend to be a bourbon snob.

[P Brooks]

"Condisering"

stupid keyboard

[Nick]

Proponents of tougher regulation are calling for everything from outright bans to warning labels stating that mixing caffeine and alcohol could carry health or safety risks.

Wait, two things that already carry some risk get combined and there's still risk? Holy shit? How much did the study cost to figure this one out?

A primary concern of the groups is that caffeine and other stimulants may mask feelings of drunkenness, which could lead users to act recklessly, such as driving while intoxicated.

If the caffeine masks drunkenness, wouldn't that make it a feature, not a bug? Wouldn't it be easier to perform tasks if the effects of alcohol are muted? Or am I missing something?

[John C. Randolph]

The way Obama has neutralized the Clintons and especially Hillary has been nothing short of masterful.

Let's hope he damages her enough that running for office becomes impractical.

-jcr

[John C. Randolph]

Come to think of it, Hillary's on a trip to Africa, right? What's she doing there, writing new sniper stories?

-jcr

[R C Dean]

The way Obama has neutralized the Clintons and especially Hillary has been nothing short of masterful.

Too early to say, probably for another year or so. Hillary is quietly building a war chest, and given that 2012 wouldn't be her first run, probably doesn't need to actually hit the campaign trail for another year, year and a half. If the economy is still weak and Obama's administration continues to bumble, I think she's in good shape for a run. Best case scenario for her is a massive foreign policy blunder that gets hung on Obama, so she can resign in protest and run against him.

[Xeones]

Best case scenario for her is a massive foreign policy blunder

...which, if it involves something happening to Bill in North Korea, is really a two birds/one stone kind of thing.

[P Brooks]

If the North Koreans get uppity, we can bombard them with ruined clunker motors until they surrender.

[John C. Randolph]

Best case scenario for her is a massive foreign policy blunder that gets hung on Obama, so she can resign in protest and run against him.

I find it a little hard to imagine a foreign policy blunder that wouldn't be on the same side of.

-jcr

[T]

If the caffeine masks drunkenness, wouldn't that make it a feature, not a bug? Wouldn't it be easier to perform tasks if the effects of alcohol are muted? Or am I missing something?

From long painful experience, no. Basically, you're alert and doing the same dumb shit with the same piss-poor motor control. But because you're perky and alert, you don't realize you're just as hammered as you were twenty minutes ago.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

So, if Congress does vote the new money for "Cash for Clunkers", then what? What will they do when that money is gone? Just keep shoveling cash in, ad infinitum?

Let's see: the first billion lasted, what, a week? So, how long will two billion last?

[prolefeed]

Can't have the proles just going wherever they care to, can they?

Hey!

Perhaps if they renamed it "Cash for Bastiat's Broken Window Fallacy", people would get a fucking clue what an awful idea it is to use government coercion to steal money from, in order to pay others to crush useable cars that the poor rely on for transportation, in order to pander to unionized American autoworkers and enviro-whackos.

[Fluffy]

Basically, you're alert and doing the same dumb shit with the same piss-poor motor control. But because you're perky and alert, you don't realize you're just as hammered as you were twenty minutes ago.

That's ludicrous. If alcohol degrades performance so severely that your level of alertness has no impact on your results, then there would be no difference in your performance between driving drunk while awake and driving drunk while asleep.

[Tulpa]

So, how long will two billion last?

The administration is claiming it will last till September. No, I don't get it either.

[Mike M.]

Let's see: the first billion lasted, what, a week?

I swear, I think I can remember a time when a billion dollars still sounded like a lot of money.

[bigbigslacker]

Too early to say, probably for another year or so. Hillary is quietly building a war chest, and given that 2012 wouldn't be her first run, probably doesn't need to actually hit the campaign trail for another year, year and a half. If the economy is still weak and Obama's administration continues to bumble, I think she's in good shape for a run. Best case scenario for her is a massive foreign policy blunder that gets hung on Obama, so she can resign in protest and run against him.

I agree, and a I bet when she runs she will have a large list of Obamaisms to show just how incompetent he really was. The gaffes demonstrations of ignorance we see are only those that made it past his handlers.

[kilroy]

According to the AP Clinton got the girls.

[Chrystal K.]

I'm very happy the journalists were pardoned.

[John C. Randolph]

So, if Congress does vote the new money for "Cash for Clunkers", then what?

Probably the "cash for outdated single-pane windows" program.

The way this will work is, they'll get all the 18 year-old kids they draft into Rahm's "National Service Democratic Activist Pals" (NSDAP) to go around and smash all of the windows of the selfish bastards who won't get with the "save the planet" program and install energy-efficient replacements. The cash won't go to the evil single-pane holdouts, of course: it will be spent on green shirts for the "Nassdies".

-jcr

[Technology Slice]

Good on Bill Clinton for helping free those people.

[runescape gold]

This is just wonderful news. Who better to have gone to North Korea to potentially secure the release of those two journalist. Trust that everything goes well, and they are put on that plane when Bill is set to return.
runescape money