Then, after a break, he (sort of) realizes his mistake:


It takes your breath away, doesn't it?

This might be worth a separate thread, since it's an issue that's come up in a few threads recently. If so, or if it's too offtopic, the greenies should feel free to split this off.


The whole 850 overseas military installations thing has always sounded way too high to me. I don't doubt that we've got a lot of bases, but the number seemed really strange, particularly since I've never seen it given with a primary source. This morning, I finally got a few minutes to do a bit of poking around. [...]

So, the deployment is hardly out of the blue, is not somehow anti-Christian in nature and does not seem likely to provide a Jimmy Carter moment for President Obama. However, Limbaugh did raise one other question that might be on Americans' minds: "Would somebody explain to me what you think our "national security interests" are in Uganda?"

It's a fair question and the answer is necessarily somewhat complex. Bluntly, though, the answer boils down to goodwill and international order. If the LRA truly could be "finished" via a slight bump in U.S. involvement, then that could have a great impact on many people's lives. Beyond that humanitarian perspective, however, is the idea that it would ease the plight of several energy-rich countries, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has enough problems as it is. Given the history of U.S. involvement that's probably enough to explain the deployment. Still, it probably doesn't hurt that northern Uganda, where the LRA originated, is also believed to have some rather large and rather untapped oil fields.

According to the 2010 report, there are 662 overseas sites, spread across 38 countries. That's not 850, but it's in the same order of magnitude, and adding US Embassies with Marine detachments to that would probably give us about 850, and many more countries.

Thanks for the legwork, Mike! I believe that US Embassies are now protected by Xe (nee Blackwater) rather than the US Marine Corps (probably at a higher cost and lower quality...) which may explain why the number went down (if it was 850 earlier...).

According to the Constitution, many are saying that they can under Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution which reserves for Congress alone the power to declare war, a restriction that has been sorely tested in recent years, including Obama’s authorization of military force in Libya; as well as sending troops to Africa to help hunt down Joseph Kony?

There has been a bill introduced to impeach President Obama on ‘high crime and misdemeanor’ charges should he send military troops for acts of war against other countries without approval of the Congress. Syria is the nation in focus this time.

According to an article by Drew Zahn in the World Net Daily publication there has been a bill introduced by Rep. Walter B. Jones, a Republican from North Carolina. The bill is declaring that should Obama use offensive military force without authorization of an act of Congress he would be violating the Constitution and his oath of the office. You can also see a timer on this site ticking off the ever increasing national debt.

It's always been that the decisions made by the few, with the money and the power, dictated the priorities of their government and the stories in the media. They determine the lives and the opportunities of their citizens. But now there is something bigger than that. The people of the world see each other and can protect each other. It's turning the system upside down, and it changes everything.

Nothing is more powerful than an idea. ... We are not just studying human history; we are shaping it.

I perceive this to be primarily an attempt to attack President Obama, without regard to the children of the region in which Kony operates and without regard to morality. However, it is also an attack upon the premise of the entire movement of the people to express their power, whether it is OWS or Invisible Children or the unions in Wisconsin.

Invisible Children "Kony 2012" Leader Suggests It's About Jesus and Evangelizing

March 8, 2012
"A lot of people fear Christians, they fear Liberty University, they fear Invisible Children - because they feel like we have an agenda. They see us and they go, "You want me to sign up for something, you want my money. You want, you want me to believe in your God." And it freaks them out." --- Jason Russell, speaking at Liberty University, November 7, 2011

Is Invisible Children a nonprofit devoted to human needs, or is it a ministry devoted to bringing souls to Jesus? Judging by a talk co-founder Jason Russell gave last November at Liberty University, it would seem to be a bit of both.

A few days ago, Russell's Invisible Children nonprofit began to blitz the Internet with posts on social media promoting the nonprofit's new KONY 2012 video, which by now has received over 36 million hits. The media campaign has already provoked a backlash of well informed criticism, from academics and other with expertise concerning Joseph Kony and the LRA, and the conflict in Northern Uganda and the surrounding region (see links and material, below transcript).
Foreign Affairs charges Invisible Children with misrepresenting the facts, and Foreign Affairs guest contributor Michael Wilkerson notes the deceptive nature of the KONY 2012 video, narrated by Jason Russell, which mentions only in passing that Joseph Kony is no longer in Northern Uganda (his LRA hasn't operated there for years).

Critiques of Invisible Children

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-d ... 27417.html

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/ ... ot-trouble

http://www.wrongingrights.com/2009/03/w ... ever.html/

http://chrisblattman.com/2009/03/04/visible-children/

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ ... ?page=show

http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/122/A ... 06-02.html ( "How Invisible Children Falsely Marketed The LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act" )

http://www.thegauntlet.com/article/1320 ... ation.html ( Invisible Children confirms pro-interventionist stance )

Russell: People are scared. Of Liberty University. [Addresses graduating students] You guys know this. They're scared because they see the power and potential in this room, the conviction you have, the connectivity you have. And they look at this arena and they go, "that's scary - if they realized what they could do, it would revolutionize the world." That's why you're here.

And so I think that it is that insecurity or that realizing, "I don't have what it takes" - but you DO. We DO. And, the trick is to not go out into the world and say, "I'm going to baptize you, I'm going to convict you, I have an agenda to win you over."

You agenda is to look into the eyes, as Jesus did, and say, "who are you? And will you be my friend?" - Like he did to the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the fisherman. The biggest mistake that we make is to saying, we make a line and we say, "black, white, are you in or are you out?"

I just, I have a hard time digesting that mentality. And I think that's why a lot of people fear Christians, they fear Liberty University, they fear Invisible Children because they feel like we have an agenda. They see us and they go, "You want me to sign up for something, you want my money. You want, you want me to believe in your God.

And it freaks them out.

Interestingly I was reading an article in the Irish times on saturday that said the LRA has been largely broken and driven out of Uganda, and may be down to as few as 250 men.

"It definitely oversimplifies the issue. This video is not the answer, it's just the gateway into the conversation. And we made it quick and oversimplified on purpose," he said. "We are proud that it is simple. We like that. And we want you to keep investigating, we want you to read the history."

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) says that he supports Kony 2012, the campaign to capture alleged Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony.

Louis Moreno Ocampo told the BBC Monday that the social media campaign by Invisible Children had "mobilized the world." The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Kony in 2005.

If there are hundreds or thousands of brutal warlords in Africa, why should we be interested in arresting just one of them?

/ridicule