The Immigration Bill: Comprehensive or Incomprehensible?Read more,
By Fred Thompson
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Most Americans know that we have an illegal immigration problem in this country, with perhaps as many as 20 million people residing here unlawfully. And I think most Americans have a pretty good idea about how to at least start solving the problem – secure our nation’s borders.
But there’s an old saying in Washington that, in dealing with any tough issue, half the politicians hope that citizens don’t understand it while the other half fear that people actually do. This kind of thinking was apparent with the “comprehensive” immigration reform bill that the U.S. Senate and the White House negotiated yesterday. I’d tell you what was in the legislation, but 24 hours after the politicians agreed the bill looked good, the Senate lawyers were still writing what may turn out to be a one thousand page document. In fact, a final version of the bill most likely will not be made available to the public until after the legislation is passed. That may come five days from now.
That’s like trying to digest an eight-course meal on a fifteen-minute lunch break.
We’ve tried the “comprehensive” route before to solve the illegal immigration problem with a bit more care and deliberation, and the results haven’t been good. Back in May 1985, Congress promised us that it would come up with a comprehensive plan to solve the problem of illegal immigration and our porous borders. Eighteen months later, in November 1986, that comprehensive plan was signed into law.
Twenty-two years and millions of illegal immigrants later, that comprehensive plan hasn’t done what most Americans wanted it to do -- secure America’s borders. Now Washington says the new “comprehensive” plan will solve the problem that the last comprehensive plan didn’t.
The last proposed amnesty bill was set aside and George Bush made promises to secure the border. Sadly we see that these were empty promises. Congress has also played its part in this charade and we have come to learn that Washington has had no intention of following through on what the public declared as a prerequisite to comprehensive immigration reform; a secure border with controlled immigration. Sadly also, for the country, we have become aware that "higher powers" have a different agenda. Big business wishes to maintain a low wage work force and the political parties see potential voters. Other nefarious groups are pushing a shadowy agenda to implement a North American union.
America has reached a sad state of affairs. Republicans in Congress have joined the Democrats in profligate spending. George Bush has become the lamest of ducks and it appears rightly so. He can no longer protect his associates. Rumsfeld and now Wolfowitz have been "done in" by the relentless forces of opposition and his Attorney General is on the bubble. With his political capital at an all time low, Bush has once again turned to his "good friend and ally", Teddy Kennedy in an attempt to push through yet another ill-conceived bipartisan "Immigration reform" plan. We are at a cross roads in American politics and it appears that our elites would prefer a European system where we apathetically let our leaders decide what is best for us. We'll soon know whether the country has taken another wrong turn.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIf George Bush were serious about the war on terror, he would take no risks anywhere to insure victory.
ReplyDeleteNo tube of toothpaste over three ounces gets carried on a US airplane. No bottle of water carried by an eighty-year-old white woman with blue haired gets onto a US airplane. Both major dangers to US security are halted by forcing all American air travelers through a gauntlet composed of paid mercenaries of the federal government's feared TSA.
The US Army is depleted and burning out in Iraq making sure that we fight AQ there and not here.
The same man responsible for the WOT is worried about the tooth paste but not overly concerned about the security of the US borders, of which he has had responsibility for the past six years.
This same George Bush now is pushing for an amnesty program that will grandfather in any and all that are here now.
Can all these things be true and it can still be argued that the leadership of GWB is not suspect?
Unintended consequences continued. I'm reading a long article in our sunday paper about CCD-colony collapse disorder. A graph shows me that in 1945 there were 6 million hives(I think this means commercial) in the USA. By 1965 there were 4 million, then a slight uptick, then down to 2005 we were at 2.5 million.
ReplyDeleteOne local fellow, who takes hives to California each year, is quoted as saying, "We came back in January to get them ready to go into the almond orchards and, jeepers, they were dwindling away. Instead of basketball sized hives, we've got softball sized hives. We ended up with 200 hives instead of our 850 and our grower wanted more bees."
The story seems about the same in many parts of the USA and Europe too. What is causing this? No one seems to know for sure, and the theories abound, everything from mites, to cell phones, to terrorism, to pollution, to genetically engineered crops, to farm chemicals.
My hunch would be, since the decline seems to be spread over a half century or more, pollution or farm chemicals. All other causes that I have read about being of more recent origin.
While I wouldn't mind if all the bees around my house died,being allergic to the critters and having to pack a hypo needle where ever I go in the summer(they seem to be thriving here), it is kind of scary. Like Einstein said, four years without our friends the bees, we're goners.
Anybody have any insight on the causes of this, or what might be done about it?
Romney leaps to top in Iowa. Leads McCain 30 - 18%.
ReplyDeleteDid I mention that he put out an anti-immigration ad a couple of days, ago?
An odd thing is, where this guy raises his hives, I don't think there is much farm chemical use, and no pollution.
ReplyDeleteMcCain is toast. He might as well go easy on his shoe leather, and quit now.
Unless the Forest Service sprays the trees for some bug.
ReplyDeleteIf McCain gives up the lost cause, can he keep the money he raised for his campaign?
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if Bush has been advised that the Brits are going to start drawing down their forces within weeks of Blair leaving. So says The Telegraph:
ReplyDelete"Gordon Brown is prepared to risk the future of the "special relationship" with the United States by reversing Tony Blair's support for the Iraq war, President George W Bush has been warned.
Gordon Brown is expected to announce British troop withdrawals
He has been briefed by White House officials to expect an announcement on British troop withdrawals from Mr Brown during his first 100 days in power. It would be designed to boost the new prime minister's popularity in the opinion polls.
The President recently discussed with a senior White House adviser how to handle the fallout from the expected loss of Washington's main ally in Iraq, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.
Details of the talks came as a close ally of Mr Brown called for a quicker withdrawal of British troops. Nigel Griffiths, a former minister, said: "We should get out of Iraq as soon as is practicable. We should consult the Iraqi government - but they cannot have a veto. This cannot be delayed."
I have not been keeping the statistics, but surelly the KIAs in Iraq are more and more a result of IEDs. What percentage does it have to go to before someone says this is nuts? We would never have put up with this shit in occupied Germany or Japan. The Iraqis have to know about them and they are not talking. WTF
ReplyDeleteUS troops killed by Baghdad bomb
Six US soldiers and their translator have been killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, the US military has said.
The attack happened in the west of the Iraqi capital on Saturday, a statement released on Sunday announced.
The troops' identities have been withheld until their families can be informed, the statement said.
In a separate incident in Diwaniya, 130km (80 miles) south of Baghdad, one US soldier was killed and two injured when their vehicle was hit by a blast.
The BBC's James Shaw in Baghdad says roadside bombs remain the biggest threat for international forces operating in Iraq.
The troops in killed in Baghdad were part of a unit which had spent the last week searching for weapons caches and bomb-making equipment in insurgents' safe-houses around the city, the US statement said.
Interesting article on Fred Thompson
ReplyDeleteNow I feel like I kinda know the guy.
I'd trust Thompson on the border, but probably not Romney.
ReplyDeleteQuestion is which is more electable.
And whether it matters.
We've been on course for years now, as more and more folk see the shoals just ahead, the level of chatter rises amongst passengers and crew.
ReplyDeleteThe Captain shouts his orders from the bridge
" Move those deck chairs !!!
We're gonna have a meeting! "
Actually, I take back my previous comment. Way too early to pronounce faith in anyone.
ReplyDeleteStill, he was writing about our problems with Mexico even before the latest brouhaha. That's kinda important.
"The BBC's James Shaw in Baghdad says roadside bombs remain the biggest threat for international forces operating in Iraq."
ReplyDeleteI mentioned last night that the Army is running 51% below strength in experienced Captains.
Coincidentally, or not, it is captains and below that maintain the privilege, so to speak, of running the roads in Iraq.
I wonder about Romney and borders too. Doesn't matter to me that Mormon theology seems a little odd, but they are extremely proslytizing folk, and some I've talked to don't seem overly concerned about 'country' only Temple, celestial marriage and so forth. Maybe Romney deep down would be thinking, I'll let come here to the USA, Utah, make em Mormons, or some such deep unconscious thought. Who do you trust, and does it matter?
ReplyDelete"The same long war tactics that al-Qaeda have successfully used to persuade the liberals of defeat in Iraq are going to be used in Afghanistan/Pakistan."
ReplyDelete- Wretchard
I don't know what to say, at this point, about anyone who insists that defeat in Iraq is a liberal illusion - a matter of superficial appearance. I really don't.
I do wonder if Wretchard believes what he says.
Consider:
ReplyDeleteBaghdad Bob
(from Wikipedia)
Al-Sahaf is known for his daily press briefings in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War. His colorful appearances caused him to be nicknamed Baghdad Bob (in the style of previous propagandists with alliterative aliases such as "Hanoi Hannah" and "Seoul City Sue") by commentators in the United States and Comical Ali (an allusion to Chemical Ali, the nickname of former Iraqi Defence Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid) by commentators in the United Kingdom.
On April 7, 2003, Al-Sahaf claimed that there were no American troops in Baghdad, and that the Americans were committing suicide by the hundreds at the city's gates. At that time, American tanks were patrolling the streets only a few hundred meters from the location where the press conference was held. His last public appearance as Information Minister was on April 8, 2003, when he said that the Americans "are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks. They will surrender, it is they who will surrender".
He gained something of a cult following in the west, appearing on T-shirts, cartoons, and from internet phenomena came satirical websites. One such site featured sound bites of the minister, as well as photoshopped pictures of him on the Star Wars Death Star, at The Battle of Waterloo and at the D-Day landings, in all cases maintaining that "everything is just fine."[2] His image was also used by fans of the St Louis Blues hockey club who, after a win over their arch-rivals the Detroit Red Wings, played a message on the video monitor at Savvis Center of al-Sahaf dressed in a Red Wings sweater saying that "the Red Wings dynasty has not fallen! All is well!"[verification needed]
Although appearing as deceptions to the Western public, the descriptions uttered by al-Sahaf reflected what Saddam Hussein and his inner circle believed,[3] and were well received in parts of the Arab world most fiercely opposed to the war. Thus the quick fall of Baghdad was to some a total surprise; Syrian television did not broadcast images of the events. Many in Arab countries who were interviewed later were incredulous and were forced to conclude that Sahaf and their own media had been lying all along, comparable to a similar watershed event that came out of the Arab-Israeli wars several decades earlier. Another theory is that Al-Sahaf was part of a deliberate operation of deception against coalition forces and the people of Iraq, to provide senior Iraqi officers with time to hide and escape. Al-Sahaf's denials may have also contributed to the deaths of some Iraqi civilians during the Battle of Baghdad. The civilians, apparently believing official assurances that American forces were nowhere near the city, were killed after driving directly into intense firefights between American armored units and Iraqi forces.[4]
Well our media has us convinced many of us we've been defeated in Iraq when we are being snipped at. Where is the big battle we've lost? We can't impose sanity on a bunch of angry madmen, who are killing themselves much more than us. We've 'lost' if we think we have, and head on out of there at our own will, thinking it not worth it. If we'd follow the advice of a rat, or a doug or a habu things would rapidly look quit different, even to our own media.
ReplyDeleteSelf-Governing LumpenProletariat riot and throw rocks at Police. Muzzies on your left, self governing rioters on your right.
ReplyDelete"We can't impose sanity on a bunch of angry madmen"
ReplyDeleteWell if that's your fucking objective, bob, you've fucking well lost.
And we have.
"Where is the big battle we've lost?"
ReplyDeleteThe Battle of Iraq.
Go ahead, say it.
We lost the Battle of Iraq.
Bush needs to go back to drinking and whoring. Perhaps that will work.
ReplyDeleteThe born again messianic thing isn't working in the Executive Office and I think that's his problem.
Habu, I never did trust a man who didn't spend at least 90% of his non-work time drinking and whoring.
ReplyDeleteWould habu, Rat, or doug, have counseled us against going to war in Iraq?
ReplyDeleteHabu, I think you have hit a nail on the head there. He might make some irrational decision that would work.
ReplyDeleteTrish, was your father a sailor?
ReplyDeleteNo. Army 27 years.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what they would have counseled. I might have, thinking easy in, hard out. But to me, it's kind of like the mistake I made one time planting that spring wheat Larker--I kinda knew it was a mistake, but the market was high. Spring wheat doesn't do well here, and Larker isn't a great wheat to say the least, but it was all they had. Needless to say, things didn't go well, in fact went down hill from the git go--but I fertilized it, sprayed it for weeds, did the best I could and took it to harvest. The question needs to be answered, what if we totally leave?
ReplyDeleteOf late there has been some good news, if you can believe the reports, that the Iraqi shia are getting ticked at the meddling of their Iran counterparts. Maybe that invisible line in the sand between the shias will take hold. The Iraqi shia alone can't hold off the Iranians. If we are gone they're in there is the way it appears to me.
We could stay indefinitely if we wanted. Who's to stop us, other than opinion at home. I think those people are right who say, if we pull out altogether, we'll be back in four or five or so years, like it or not.
But then all this speculation may suddenly be moot, if as Habu thinks, the Israelis attack Iran, or something big happens here at home.
I sure don't have all or even any of the perfect answers.
I do thinks the democrats over the decades have made our problems worse. Can't drill off Martha's Vineyard, off California, off Florida, not much in Alaska(when's the last time you vacationed on the North Slope) the caribou might not like it(though if fact they do.) If we had any sense in my area we would take out the four lower Snake River dams as the greens desire, but then immediately replace them with nuclear generating plants. Help the fish and produce more power too. But no. It's hard to even transport nuclear waste to a central repository around the country, a repository that is named and located, but stymied by all sorts of blockads. We got to get our domestic act in order.
bob, you're wandering in Neverland.
ReplyDeleteWhich you're welcome to do.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there is any being right in an argument like this. There are too many unknowns. It's like a lab experiment never run before.
ReplyDeleteAs you are as well, Trish:)
ReplyDeleteThe only person around here who has the absolutely certain answer to the experiment is Habu. Just blow up the whole lab, before the virus escapes.
ReplyDeleteRESPONSIBLE IRRESPONSIBILTY
ReplyDeleteThe word in the world since Vietnam is that if you are engaged in a shooting situation with the USA all you need to do is wait, allow their leftests to gin up the anti-war rhetoric, wait just a bit longer and they'll leave, tail between their legs. It's more than just the word in the world , it's the fact. So what do you do?
Normally, we like our metaphors in football-speak but I'm a baseball guy so indulge me.
Back in the day pitchers would knock a heavy hitter off the plate with a high hard one, chin music it was called. Now with him back on his heels a bit, not dug in ,you could be more effective working the batter.
We should do the same thing on the world stage. We've had these nuclear weapons for a long time now. We have artillery shells, small nukes, big nukes,nukey nukes , but we don't use any of them. Well it's time for some chin music.
We pick out a target, lets say Somalia,poor, illiterate, a country of no value inhabited by people who once humiliated us. So we nuke them hard..kill 'em all. Like whose gonna miss 'em. Make it what use to be called a BOOB strike, Bolt Out Of the Blue.
Suddenly the US begins to look not quite so predictable...maybe the US holds a grudge? Maybe the US leadership is similar to Iranian leadership,except they already have a real big stack of boom-boom.
Betcha it would change the negotiating stances of some of these pip squeak countries that are tweaking us constantly. We don't make them pay, so they just keep on fu'k'n with us. Oh yeah economic sanctions right..hell the people of Somalia are starving as the warlords thugs live ok. What are sanctions gonna do to them, make them poor and skinny?
I say a bit of irrationality could go a long way to becoming a responsible world power.
habu is carrying on conversations with himself and doesn't know which way to turn one day to another. He's got himself coming and going.
ReplyDeleteI blame Tony Blair for my support, that dossier billshit. I never bought the nonsense of the mission to do for Muslims what they won't do for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI got a bad feeling when the Turks stabbed us in the ass by prohibiting the fourth ID passage. We were told it made no difference. That had to be a lie.
I knew we were fucked when we fired the Iraqi army and when we didn't fire on the looters. The arabs were ashamed and humiliated that we won so quickly and with so little resistance. We had them by the throat and let them go. Bush has no feel for the game. He has bad instincts. We knew that when he fell in love with that jackal Putin. Bush is a classic mommies boy. Always looking for love, intimidated by stronger men. That is why he is obsessed with working out.
He is the most dangerous type of leader. He will never admit a mistake and regroup. He will ask others to do things he will not do himself. There is no nobility or courage in a man that does not have the courage to admit a mistake. He is pathetic and he knows he is.
"We had them by the throat and let them go."
ReplyDeleteNo, we didn't have them by the throat. And we never will.
Once you understand that, you understand why the mission was wrong to begin with.
Robert Byrd, kkk/West Virginia, is against this Amnesty Plan
ReplyDeleteThe old man of the Senate, the authority on the founding fathers, knowledgeable on matters Roman and Greek,noted white haired orator, former KKK Grand Dragon, or whatever, has hit a single, at least.
I do not understand this. We had them beat in a military sense. We could have killed many more to make our point. Should have. The lesson should have been that you do not want to come into close contact withe the US military. It was not their idea that we were going to become their public works department. One of our new age geniuses thought that one up.
ReplyDeleteNow someone else will have to scare the living shit out of them next time. I get that part.
I was more for it than against it at the time, but thinking an occupation would be hard. I remember talking with a friend here, my lawyer, we ought to just bust it up in three parts, we both thought. I bought the administrations talk about WMD's thinking that was totally in character with Saddam. I think they may well have trucked some stuff out of there. They didn't seem to have much going on the nuclear front. I also thought you can't keep up a no fly zone forever.
ReplyDeleteIf we get out of Iraq, will those smaller states, under Iranian pressure, in the area where we have air and naval be asking us out too? Trish?
It has long been acknowleged by psychiatrists that it is true genius to be able to successfully argue both sides of any issue.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess that leaves you in the remedial sector. I'm guessing 110-115 range .. and that's being charitable.
If possible Trish try to grip this.
ReplyDeleteKicking the Puppy
Suppose we assume that in the wake of the attacks of September 11th, 2001 there was no pre-determined plan to attack Iraq in retaliation, as some have alleged. Were things to hold true to form, how would we have figured out who to target in a global counterterrorism strategy?
The normal process of assessing threats to US national security would surely have ground on, albeit at an accelerated pace. An august assembly of intelligence community experts would work through available information and leverage their collective wisdom to come up with a short list of targets. Despite the fact that Iraq fell squarely into that category in 2000 – per the State Department’s own Patterns of Global Terrorism report - we are to believe that at the end of a rigorous vetting, Iraq would not have made the cut.
caution trish semi-difficult concepts ahead.
ThreatsWatch
"We had them beat in a military sense."
ReplyDeleteNo, we didn't. Otherwise we'd not still be dicking around so.
That's what gets you, isn't it? The military failure.
It is a military failure.
"caution trish semi-difficult concepts ahead."
ReplyDeleteOK. We're still not winning.
I'd say it is more a political failure than a military failure, but it also depends on whether you think the mission was irretrievably flawed (I know you do). Political because it grew out of incorrect premises of (instant universalism) that lead to unlikely political goals (instant liberal democracy).
ReplyDeleteThis long-shot was made even more unlikely by poor planning and inferior resources (the latter exaggerated by Rumsfeld's program was supposed to be light and fast). This decision train was sped along by the fear of WMD after 9-11, and the realization that it wasn't over after Afghanistan. In particular, Al Qaeda hadn't been completely devastated, Pakistan was still extraordinarily shaky and scary (ISI +nukes), and Salafism was primarily an Arab. The failure of our Iraq policy (containment), supposed secularism and education of its people, supposedly lent the opportunity to address particularly the last.
All written out incredibly shortly, but just a quick overview.
and Salafism was primarily an Arab.
ReplyDelete*Arab problem*
Nothing that was going to be addressed by rebuilding Afghanistan, a country best described as fourth or fifth world.
In 2002 I was in favor of moving against anyone.
ReplyDeleteOnce the US did not destroy the Insurgent infrastructure, in '03, I knew the jig was up. Then the reports of segregating the Iraqi troops from the US trainers.
Kiss of Death.
I thought the US could win a war I thought we knew how to fight, against the WMD capacity of the Iraqi. I supported the "Debocracy Project" when I thought that it would be promoted, but if US government representitives will not give lessons in maintaining the floors we pay for. Those maintaince classes being culturally insensitive to the Iraqi's feelings of superiority, how can the US be expected to instruct them in democracy and effective governance.
Democracy demands some responsibility, which now one involved in the Project will except.
We had a big automatic weapons shoot out at Moscow, last nite, at about 10:30 pm. Just heard about. Actually I live south of Moscow. Guy(s) attacked the sheriff's department and courthouse, and a church across the street where I went to kindergarten. Mom used to be clerk of the court at the courthouse....this is my old neighborhood....high school same block. 3dead, 2 wounded, shooter dead....shell casings all over hell....they haven't released the identity of the shooter....jesus what a scene....bullet holes everywhere.
ReplyDeleteTrish,
ReplyDeleteIf you go to a Barnes & Nobles to find a magazine and you stand six inches from the magazine rack you can see just whats in front of you.
If you step back about two feet suddenly almost the entire magazine rack is within your vision.
You have been standing two inches from this entire engagement. Your cawing is irritating, your vitriol boring, your dogmatism sleep inducing,and your personality bland.
I know you're doing the very best you can but you're hitting way below the Mendoza line and should be traded to a less cerebral blog.
Allow me to save you a lookup on the Mendoza Line which I know you have absolutely NO clue of what it is.
Mendoza Line
Moscow,Idaho Shootout
ReplyDeleteThis is a first for something like this here.
I'm obviously hoping the shooter doesn't turn out to be a disgrunted swede upset about property taxes, or a zoning decision.
ReplyDeleteBobal,
ReplyDeleteIf we could just get Moscow to unilaterally disarm, the world would be a safer place.
No, we didn't have them by the throat. And we never will.
ReplyDeleteTrish,
VERY good phraseology. But you're wrong. You do have them by the throat. The sad part is, you do not realize it. And you do not have the instincts to realize it.
I can't figure this. They haven't released the name of the shooter. That might mean he's young. Attacking the sheriff's office and courthouse doesn't sound muslim, acting alone, they like malls and such. It wouldn't be an illegal alien, besides Moscow doesn't really have any, Lewiston does. Hell if I know...maybe a kid pissed about some court decision. On the weekend on a saturday nite. They say they are releasing the name tomorrow. We do have some muslim students around here at the U of I.
ReplyDeleteYears ago at McCall, Idaho a resort town up in the mountains out of Boise, the police chief went nuts and on a shooting spree. "The flat-landers are coming, the flat-landers are coming....bang bang bang. Shot a couple of people and was finally shot by his own officers. Flat-landers--the term at the time for folks from Boise. Didn't like em, I quess.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about disarming, but with the group we currently have running the city it's possible they could declare the place a 'sanctuary city' as far as the illegals go. It's the worst group running things we have ever had. The university influence you know.
ReplyDeleteShooter was 'a white male'.
ReplyDeleteA good portion of the initial insurgency could have been wiped out by dealing with Tikrit and environs properly after it's citizens greeted us by murdering our troops in cold blood.
ReplyDeleteInstead of keeping a heel on their neck, we REPEATEDLY disengaged just when we had them down.
...always for a good reason, to hear tell at BC.
Not relying on 20 20 hindsight, I was FOR Rubbling Tikrit at the time, AGAINST calling off the Marines in Fallujah I, AGAINST not picking off Sadr as he pranced around in public as his "troops" were killing ours in Mosques and Graveyards, FOR bringing in an Apache with a rocket when a LONE SNIPER in a minaret held off a Marine Platoon all day long, killing at least one Marine in the process.
(Trish argued I was wrong, still don't know why blowing a hole in a bomb-filled mosque to save our Marines is wrong)
I was FOR exacting SOME PUNISHMENT on Syria and Iran for harboring the enemy and providing them weapons and support.
When we went in, they were all back on their heels, and that was the time to press things home.
We did the opposite, giving them time to realize we were back in Paper Tiger mode.
Before any of this I was AGAINST having an entire Battalion Strung out Stopped on the road for over 8 hours as they waited for their little Tweety Bird Helicopter to deal with some Fighters hiding on the hill above the road.
Had the Iraqis had their IED Shit together at that time, or even mortar shit together, we would have lost multiple vehicles and troops, from Humvees to Abrahms while we sat there proving what a velvet glove "War" we could fight.
But of course they did NOT have their shit together, so we gave them the time they needed to do so.
Whata way to fight a "War!"
bobalharb said...
ReplyDelete" I'm obviously hoping the shooter doesn't turn out to be a disgrunted swede upset about property taxes, or a zoning decision."
---
You one of them Sleepwalking Type Swedes, Bobal?
Actually, it was MORE than a Marine Platoon that the Minaret Sniper held off.
ReplyDeleteThe news report said something I didn't quite catch, Doug, something about some shouting about 'Zsa Zsa, Zsa Zsa'.
ReplyDeleteWe rubbled fancy neighborhoods in Baghdad and got away with it at the outset, but whenever one of us called for rubbling a place like Tikrit, some good hearted soul was always there in our discussions to cast derision on our "unrealistic" supposedly undoable (insert generic reason Why Not Here)
ReplyDeletePoor Zsa Zsa,
ReplyDeletewonder how she's doin, after getting a bunch of her bones broken at her age.
Haven't heard anything since that incident 3 years ago, or so.
Bobal,
ReplyDeleteAnticipating the predictable gun control crowd's response, I just made a lame joke about Moscow (the Big One) unilaterally disarming.
:-)
********
OT, even though I'm born & bred Lone Star State, I feel sorry for Ron Paul and think that he should be given amnesty.
Poor man, he is a Texan without an Alamo.
Recent health
ReplyDeleteZsa Zsa was a passenger in an automobile accident that occurred November 27, 2002, that was initially reported as having sent her into a coma, but the report was in error. She was conscious by the time medical assistance arrived. She left the hospital in early January 2003, facing continued physical therapy. She sued and was awarded $2 million.
On July 7, 2005, Zsa Zsa suffered a massive stroke leaving her in critical condition at a local hospital. She underwent surgery to remove a blockage in her carotid artery. She returned home on the following July 15th and was said to be making a good recovery.
9 Lives.
ReplyDelete...in this case husbands:
---
Burhan Belge (1937 - 1941) (divorced)
Conrad Hilton (10 April 1942 - 1947) (divorced)
George Sanders (2 April 1949 - 2 April 1954) (divorced)
Herbert Hutner (5 November 1962 - 3 March 1966) (divorced)
Joshua S. Cosden, Jr. (9 March 1966 - 18 October 1967) (divorced)
Jack Ryan (21 January 1975 - 1976) (divorced)
Michael O'Hara (27 August 1976 - 1982) (divorced)
Felipe de Alba (13 April 1983 - 14 April 1983) (annulled)
Frédéric von Anhalt (1986 - present)
He Feels our Pains to the Bones
ReplyDeleteBoogie Chllen,
ReplyDeleteWay down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away
That's where my heart is turning ever
That's where the old folks stay
All up and down the whole creation,
Sadly I roam
Still longing for the old plantation
And for the old folks at home
Chorus:
All the world is sad and dreary everywhere I roam
Oh darkies, how my heart grows weary
Far from the old folks at home
Mo Boogie Chillen
ReplyDeleteCheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame,
Wake up the echoes cheering her name,
Send a volley cheer on high,
Shake down the thunder from the sky!
What though the odds be great or small,
Old Notre Dame will win over all,
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to victory!
U.S. Pays Pakistan to Fight Terror, but Patrols Ebb
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON, May 19 — The United States is continuing to make large payments of roughly $1 billion a year to Pakistan for what it calls reimbursements to the country’s military for conducting counterterrorism efforts along the border with Afghanistan, even though Pakistan’s president decided eight months ago to slash patrols through the area where Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are most active.
The monthly payments, called coalition support funds, are not widely advertised. Buried in public budget numbers, the payments are intended to reimburse Pakistan’s military for the cost of the operations. So far, Pakistan has received more than $5.6 billion under the program over five years, more than half of the total aid the United States has sent to the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, not counting covert funds.
The stated purpose of the American “surge” operation in Iraq is to dampen down violence in Iraq during the summer in order to allow Iraq’s political factions a chance to achieve political reconciliation. This reconciliation is supposed to arrive in the form of new laws governing the distribution of oil revenues, re-instatement of Sunnis into the government, revisions the Sunnis want to the constitution, and setting a date and procedure for provincial elections.
ReplyDeleteThese are highly contentious issues, requiring the strenuous attention during the summer of Iraq’s factional leaders like Messrs. Talabani and al-Hakim.
Instead of working on these issues, the Kurds and the Shi’ites are likely to instead spend the summer fighting over succession. Nor is it known whether Iraq’s parliament will be meeting many days during the summer to draft, debate, and pass legislation.
These illnesses, the incapacitation of Mr. al-Hakim and the downward trend of Mr. Talabani, could not have come at a worst time for either the Iraqis or the Americans. The necessity of “Plan B” in September, whatever that might be, seems more likely than ever.
posted by Westhawk at 5:41 PM
"According to a rumor posted on Islamist websites, the American forces have discovered the headless bodies of two of the kidnapped American soldiers. The reports stated that the bodies were found on May 18, after six days of searching, and that the search for the third soldier, whose fate remains unknown, is still continuing. Sources in the Mahmudiyya police force stated that the bodies were found near one of the parks in the city and bear signs of severe torture."
ReplyDeleteThe Frustrations of War
ReplyDeleteLt. Col. Yingling has been to the war and is understandably frustrated. He is correct when he states that America's generals did not prepare the military for the wars they are now fighting.
But the bigger frustration is that the U.S. military has been assigned a mission, creating a multi-sectarian democracy in Iraq, which no amount of U.S. infantrymen or 5.56 mm ammunition can achieve. It is America's elected civilian leadership that specified the mission and assigned it to the military. When he calls for "intelligent, creative and courageous general officers" Lt. Col. Yingling comes close to calling for a general officer corps that will oppose its civilian masters.
Westhawk @TCS
But the noble American forces in Iraq will "fight fair" so that future historians will say "the Americans fought fairly". That is...if there are future historians.
ReplyDeletePetraeus says "we know the guy who did this, we've dealt with him before". Well General, why the fuck wasn't he dead so this wouldn't happen?
Sweet Jesus in Heaven, we have no business fighting wars anymore.
Roggio reports that the Mahmudiyah - Yusifiyah "local population is either hostile to Coalition and Iraqi security forces, or is passive to the insurgency."
ReplyDeleteWell then, start shooting the bastards.
The Whole F-ing Story? [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
ReplyDeletePowerline has more has more on the McCain-Cornyn incident.
It seems pretty damned clear to me that the average Iraqi muck savage is never gonna love us. But he damn well better fear us.
ReplyDeleteNow we see why Saddam used wood chippers, rape rooms and chemical weapon attacks as instruments of governance. The average Abdul was terrified of Saddam.
We are as terrifying as a schoolgirl to the average Iraqi.
And that is why we're gonna lose this battle in the clash of civilizations.
Exclusive: Secret US plot to kill Al-Sadr
ReplyDeleteBy Patrick Cockburn In Baghdad
Published: 21 May 2007
The US Army tried to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr, the widely revered Shia cleric, after luring him to peace negotiations at a house in the holy city of Najaf, which it then attacked, according to a senior Iraqi government official.
The revelation of this extraordinary plot, which would probably have provoked an uprising by outraged Shia if it had succeeded, has left a legacy of bitter distrust in the mind of Mr Sadr for which the US and its allies in Iraq may still be paying. "I believe that particular incident made Muqtada lose any confidence or trust in the [US-led] coalition and made him really wild," the Iraqi National Security Adviser Dr Mowaffaq Rubai'e told The Independent in an interview. It is not known who gave the orders for the attempt on Mr Sadr but it is one of a series of ill-considered and politically explosive US actions in Iraq since the invasion. In January this year a US helicopter assault team tried to kidnap two senior Iranian security officials on an official visit to the Iraqi President. Earlier examples of highly provocative actions carried out by the US with
little thought for the consequences include the dissolution of the Iraqi army and the Baath party.
They called in the folks from across the state line. I didn't know we had this type of Equipment in our area. To keep those rowdies from the Seattle area attending Washington State University down, I quess:)
ReplyDeletelugh lampfhota said...
ReplyDeleteIt seems pretty damned clear to me that the average Iraqi muck savage is never gonna love us. But he damn well better fear us.
That's exactly what I was saying about the whole Muslim world immediately after 9/11. Word for word.
By Patrick Cockburn In Baghdad
ReplyDeletePublished: 21 May 2007
Was that a news story or an editorial?
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ReplyDelete