“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Ann Coulter is a Tedious Embarassment
"The Democrats have no actual policy proposals of their own unless constant carping counts as a policy."- Ann Coulter in one of her inane yabbers.
I do not find much appealing in listening to Ann Coulter. She is the smug political Paris Hilton of the Republican Party. Any day I expect her to do a Huffington flip to sell her Transpaarent brand of Coulter. Ann Coulter, conservative, said that if Sen. John McCain wins the Republican Party's presidential nomination, she will campaign for Sen. Hillary Clinton. If that is the case she is no conservative and never was.
A 'giant elephant shrew' has been discovered on Sumatra, I think the blurb said. Looking desperately for a pic, which I will post if I find.
Lots of people are sharing Coulter's disgust, some going so far as to think there's no difference even between the parties. Here's a handy dandy candidates chart making the rounds. From the looks of it you'd think she has a good point. There are other issues to consider however. Hillary's folk all across the judiciary for instance. What Hillary would do in foreign affairs is hard to divine. I doubt she'd go on an apology tour however as I'm sorry doesn't seem to be in her vocabulary. I think Mitt would have had the nomination by now if he'd had the advantage of being a Baptist or Methodist, etc.
Ann's got some good reflexes. I saw her dodge a pie, or a pitcher of water, thrown at her at an event. Totally avoided it, went on talking:)
Will the recent killing in Pakistan of “senior” Al Qaeda leader, Abu Laith al-Libi, have any tangible affects on the “war on terror”? Considering the headline news coverage, one might assume so. In fact, whenever any major Al Qaeda operative or leader is slain, the media is abuzz with it, implying that we are one step closer to eradicating Al Qaeda’s terror. But will the death of al-Libi—or any other Islamist leader—make any difference at all?
There was, for instance, all the hubbub surrounding the killing of the head-chopping Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, nearly two years ago. Then, almost every major politician, including President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki gave some sort of victory speech, some highly triumphant, others more cautious.
But if Zarqawi’s death did not diminish Al Qaeda’s highly influential presence in Iraq—it took the “surge” to make a dent—will al-Libi’s death affect Al Qaeda’s position in Afghanistan? Indeed, would the deaths of Ayman al-Zawahiri or Osama bin Laden himself have any long term affects on the growth, spread, and goals of radical Islam?
Recent history provides a lucid answer to these questions.
Consider the progress of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and oldest Islamic fundamentalist organization today. Founded in Egypt by Hasan al-Banna in 1928, it originally boasted only six members. In the following decades, in part thanks to the radical writings of one of its premiere ideologues, Sayyid Qutb—whom Al Qaeda quotes liberally in their many writings—the Brotherhood, though constantly clashing with Egypt’s government, grew steadily.
As leaders, both Banna and Qutb were eventually targeted and killed by Egypt’s government—the former assassinated, the latter executed. The Brotherhood however, continued thriving underground for many more decades. Then, to the world’s surprise, the partially-banned, constantly-harassed Brotherhood managed to win 88 out of 454 seats in Egypt’s 2005 parliamentary elections—making them the largest opposition bloc in the government.
After two of its most prominent leaders were killed, after thousands of its members have been harassed, jailed, and sometimes tortured, today the Brotherhood is stronger, more influential, and more secure than at any other time in its turbulent history.
The Palestinian Hamas, itself an offshoot of the Brotherhood, is another case in point. Founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas has since been labeled a terrorist organization by several governments, including the United States, most notably for its many suicide operations against Israel. Due to Yassin’s figurehead status in Hamas, the Israeli government targeted him for assassination in March 2004. (While the quadriplegic Yassin was being wheeled out of a mosque after morning prayers, an Israeli helicopter launched two Hellfire missiles into him, killing him instantly.)
The result? Hamas, like the Brotherhood, did not decline or lose morale. To the contrary, it went on to win a major landslide election in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, allowing it to claim to represent the Palestinian people.
There are countless of other examples from both past and present history where popular Islamist leaders were either killed (or died naturally), and the only thing that changed is that the movement they led grew and consolidated more power.
Ayman al-Zawahiri summarizes this phenomenon well. Asked in one of his more recent interviews about the status of bin Laden and the Taliban’s one-eyed Mullah Omar, he confidently replied:
Jihad in the path of Allah is greater than any individual or organization. It is a struggle between Truth and Falsehood, until Allah Almighty inherits the earth and those who live in it. Mullah Muhammad Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden—may Allah protect them from all evil—are merely two soldiers of Islam in the journey of jihad, while the struggle between Truth and Falsehood transcends time (from The Al Qaeda Reader, 182).
According to this statement, which itself is grounded in Islamic theology, Islamic militants are not the cause of the war. They are but a symptom of a much greater cause—the “struggle between Truth [Islam] and Falsehood [non-Islam] that transcends time.” The problem, then, is not men like Banna, Qutb, and Yassin—nor is it even bin Laden, Zawahiri, or al-Libi. Individually killing them off is only treating the symptom—a good thing, to be sure—but it does not cure the malady. The root cause is the violent and fascist ideology that motivates them.
"Cancer is a reaction trying to mitigate biological injury. In this case, the original injury being that of Rome. Cancer growth, is the body's way of telling you it doesn't know how to proceed forward. Of interest, skeletal tissue is immune to cancerous metastases."
If you impose the meme analogy, there's an interesting correlation, that might lend itself to a solution.
Do you think it's possible to judge a work apart from its subject?
Yes, although I have to admit it regretfully.
What do you mean?
That, for example, Leni Riefenstahl was a great director who is still studied and imitated--think of Star Wars--but her subject was abominable. Think also of D.W. Griffith; no one doubts that Birth of a Nation is a milestone, but it's also an exaltation of a violent and visceral racism, and the film was used as a recruiting tool for the K.K.K. Or even John Ford, a great filmmaker I can't love. In his films the only good Indian is a dead Indian. ------
Riefenstahl was Hitler's filmmaker and made The Triumph of the Will, among other offerings. Toyed around Hollywood after the war a bit, I think, and was mostly blacklisted. She created many new dramatic techniques.
I can't stand any of those shows when the whole time they are talking over each other. --- Ann should stick to writing, sometimes she does a good job of that. That voice is in the same league as Hillary's.
A Viking boy is left behind after his clan battles a Native American tribe. Raised within the tribe, he ultimately becomes their savior in a fight against the Norsemen.
I can't get it to work Mat, if that's the one, but I'll have my daughter work on it for me.
See, I don't know what that means, but she'll get it going.
Got any good cold remedy? Haven't had one for years but got a bad one now. Sleep half the day stay up at night then fall asleep. Loaded up on AlkaSeltzer Plus, not getting any better.
CNN Dem Debate Most Watched in Cable History Breaking: Last night's Democratic debate on CNN drew 8,324,000 million total viewers, making it the most-watched primary debate in cable news history, and the second-most watched on TV this election cycle (ABC's Democratic debate on Jan. 5 drew 9,360,000)
That's not many viewers really. People don't seem to pay much attention to politics. Which may be a healthy sign. Or not. Like Rat would say.
"Whether use or abuse of labels for abusive purposes on the hustings or TV serves any honorable purpose must be a matter of opinion.
Goldberg quotes a TV exchange on ABC in 1968 in which Gore Vidal goaded William F. Buckley Jr. by calling him a “crypto-Nazi.”
Buckley replied: “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in the goddam face and you’ll stay plastered.” Buckley instantly regretted this rare departure from civility.
But most people will think Vidal, a notably unscrupulous controversialist, had it coming to him, even if the threatened sock had been delivered. "
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- While President George W. Bush has maintained neutrality among contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, he privately expresses to friends his exasperation with Mitt Romney's hard-line stance on immigration.
Bush is upset that Romney changed his position on the issue, compared to what it had been when he was governor of Massachusetts, at the expense of the president's immigration reform. Bush and Sen. John McCain are not close, but the president is grateful for McCain's support on Iraq and immigration.
A footnote: The president's younger brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has not endorsed any presidential candidate. But he and his political allies were behind Romney's losing effort in last Tuesday's Florida primary.
The hyperliberal editors of the New York Times liked McCain’s illegal immigration bill so much, they mentioned it twice in the endorsement, praising him for being, “…a staunch advocate of campaign reform working with Senator Russ Feingold, among the most liberal of Democrats, on groundbreaking legislation just as he worked with Senator Edward Kennedy on immigration reform.”
McCain says he understands that the borders must be secured before anything else is done. But last Sunday, when Tim Russert asked him if he’d sign the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill, he said, “Yeah,” and then caught himself and went on to avoid a straight answer because the bill wasn’t going to pass. He ducked the question again in the Wednesday California debate. Who believes a President McCain would veto an amnesty bill that Congress passed?
McCain has swallowed the global warming baloney and has introduced legislation to create a “cap and trade” system for American industry. Also in its endorsement of him the New York Times praised his, “…recognizing the threat of global warming early.”
Ann Coulter is good looking, vain, conservative woman who has found a way to make a very good living by making "outrageous" statements when most people are too timid or politically correct to say in print or in public what they think everyday in private.
Ann Coulter...has found a way to make a very good living by making "outrageous" statements when most people are too timid or politically correct to say in print or in public what they think everyday in private.
- whit
It used to be called decorum.
Setting aside decorousness, Coulter's a clown and a cunt. In that order.
Some years ago - let's say six - I would have read Coulter with some favor (and mental editing).
Now I'd rather catch bowling balls with my teeth.
And I won't shed a tear when the Coulters and Limbaughs, through their arch sanctimony, help secure the WH for the Democrats - throwing a fool's fit at the relative disfavor shown their preferred cipher.
Either a Hillabama, or McCain Presidency will be a disaster. Those old Liberal Judges will be replace with Young Libera Judges in both cases.
We will have mass amnesty, and truly idiotic GHG legislation no matter who wins. Both sides would rather have Americans dead than have a little water up a terrorist's nose.
If we have to have an administration like this, I'd rather the Democrats get the blame for it.
"...current Limbaugh and Coulter and schticks are designed..."
was going to include Rufus...decided he could speak for himself.
Michael Barone, writing at RCP says that the tables have turned and McCain is looking like a shoe-in while Clinton and Obama are going to have to duke it out.
I think people are tired of settling for a candidate who can beat the other side. That's what we got with W. Some people want to stand on principle...
The way I see it, conservatism is on the wane. It's too hard and after 16 years of government largesse, we've become more European than we would like to admit.
Guys, history has shown us that there will be Democratic administration, and Republican administrations.
I just don't want to waste a Republican administration on a man that is
1) Almost surely, Completely fucking Looney-tunes, and
2) is going to pursue, for all practical considerations, a DEMOCRATIC Agenda.
Bush has left us in pretty good shape, National Security/Defense-wise, and, the Republican Adminstration that would, almost definitely, follow a hillabama presidency should be able to fit the pieces back together pretty quickly.
The REAL Disaster would be a McCain Debacle, followed by 8 years of Democratic rule.
NO! I'm NOT posturing. I'll be voting Democratic in the fall.
I couldn't in good conscience vote for Billary. I don't want Bill Clinton back in the White House. He left an awfull smell. It's like once in a while I have a really bad tenant, the dog eats the carpet. Got to fumigate the place. Since I'm in Idaho which will go for the republican anyway maybe I'll take a look at a third party. Whole thing is a bummer but there is life after politics.
"I think people are tired of settling for a candidate who can beat the other side. That's what we got with W."
Hell, whit, that's what we're going to get with anyone who makes it to the WH. Would you have preferred Gore and a candidate who couldn't win?
Here at the EB, there is NO AGREEMENT among any two people as to what "conservative" means or the ideal nature of a Republican Party. (And in this way it's only a, ahem, livelier version of The Corner.)
Cats in a bag we've all been over the brief life of this blog.
What "purity," as Rat would ask, can we demand or expect?
Max Romero, 41, proprietor of John's Olde Barber Shop -- a Hispanic-oriented business with "peluqueria" stenciled on the front window -- says that most of his customers are more focused on the Super Bowl than on Super Tuesday. But he makes a prediction about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.):
"I think that light-skinned brother's going to win. Because Oprah backs him up. The senator for us, McCain, he just seems so senile. He don't make no sense. Homeboy's young."
It seems to me, Whit, that ALL politicians love "Socialism;" It increases their power.
We did manage to put the "fear of God" into our Pub politicians a couple of months, ago; but, if they see McCain get elected all is, surely, lost.
If they see their base sit on it's collective hands, and refuse to support the Shamnestiac, they just might decide it's in their best interests to stand up to the worst of the idiocies.
Remember, we just need 41 Senators to stand firm; and, we have a chance.
I read, somewhere, that some figure that that Arizona, anti-illegal immigrant law is going to cost the state $29 Billion. It's called, "the other side of the coin."
Obama boomed into Boise this morining to the cheers of 10,000 ior so at Boise State University, then boomed out again as fast as he boomed in. Only candidate that I know of that gave us the time of day.
Here is a really great comment from commenter, Robert, at Ace o Spades. I stole it in it's entirety. I hope he doesn't mind.
We have all seen the similarities of McCain and Nixon, one of the worst of Republican Presidents.
But there is another, even worse President who reminds me of McCain. One so bad he would send the Republican Party into oblivion for a generation.
And those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.
Eighty years ago, after a brief flirtation with becoming a Democrat, the country elected Herbert Hoover on the strength of peace and good times, but mostly because his opponent was a Catholic - then a distrusted religion.
Hoover was progressive and a reformer - what we would call a moderate today. (His views moved to the right after office and during FDR). He presided over what was then the largest tax increase in American history. The top rate on the rich was raised from 25% to 63% and the business tax went up by 15%. Hoover was a loyal American and a humanitarian, who clearly would not have disagreed with “patriotism over profit.”
Most remembered during his time in office was the onset of the Great Depression, thought to be caused by the tightening of the money supply. Hoover took quick action and signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff Act although it was against the advice of economists and his own beliefs. He just couldn’t resist extending the olive branch and “bringing everyone together” on both sides of the isle. Smoot-Hawley set off a worldwide trade war, cost many more jobs, and roughly doubled the depth of the depression.
Hoover was more than just a Dam, along the way he brought immediate citizenship to Indians (both in and out of the United States), the unemployment relief system, large public works projects (yes, even before FDR), increased agricultural subsidies and installed a system of government controls over business and the financial system.
Hoover was an economic basket case like Nixon and McCain after him. Tax increases, tariffs, and business controls remind one of Nixon’s Wage and Price controls. All of these are items on the idiot’s economic menu, from which McCain, Obama and Hillary are preparing to order.
How can we be so confident that McCain will fight like hell to renew the tax cuts he fought so hard against, and which he believes “reward the rich”? Similarly, it cannot be argued that Global Warming caps and trades, a gas tax increase, and energy controls will do other than act as a huge tax increase and a wet regulation blanket on industry. McCain not only supports this, he wrote the damn Bill.
But that’s not what I came to talk about; I came to talk about the credit.
Just as an economic populist cannot resist the urge to tax the rich and to stick it to those nasty old big businesses (like oil), it would also be irresistable for McCain to cross the isle and buddy up with some liberal on interest rate freezes, now so popular among Democrats. This is just the kind of thing this guy is known for, and just the kind of thing that would appeal to him.
If a Democrat does it, fine, let them take the blame.
An interest rate freeze would restrict credit, reduce loans, reduce the multiplier effect, and thus reduce the money supply – just like good old Hoover. We could easily repeat Hoover’s perfect storm of economic idiocy, and McCain already has two legs up on it.
Hoover reduced the Republican Party to dust for a generation bringing in Democratic Presidents for twenty years and a tsunami of Democrats at all levels. Some effects have been made permanent for a lifetime. Nixon would have done the same except for the extraordinary luck of finding Carter, even a bigger idiot.
So, ask me if there is a worse thing than Hillary and I will answer: “Yes, there is."
"I think there are far more important things than than liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
A great national endeavor that engages us all, for instance."
You'd sacrifice liberty and the ability to pursue happiness for a great national endeavor?
---
Anyone think that McCain would nominate anybody who might nullify CFR? Where does that leave his choices?
---
Since I'm in D.C., it'd be easy to punt the issue altogether. Nonetheless, I'd never vote for the Democrats, but not at all certain I'd vote for McCain either.
"The way I see it, conservatism is on the wane. It's too hard and after 16 years of government largesse, we've become more European than we would like to admit."
"36 Cynic here. I'm afraid what we have here is a failure to communicate. The country is more socialist that we want it to be and the modern voter too disinterested/detached/invested/bought/stupid/short-sighted/whatever to change that. The politicians reflect us, the DecidersTM champion liberalism, and the collective "we" want more from our neighbors (via government intervention) than we're willing to admit.
There's not that much pioneering, self-supporting spirit left even though we like to think we still retain it. Look at the elections and the inevitable shifting to the "electable" because politician A is an almost imperceptibly more "right" (read conservative) than politician B - aka the slow boiling frog effect toward socialism. Look at the never ending expansion of government. Look at tax-freedom day. Look at unfunded mandates and kicking of cans. Look at equal protection precedents dumping on States. Look at how we insist on pork because that politician is "our guy" nevermind that the other guy's guy is feeding from the same, growing trough.
Sound bites won't turn the tide and our instant gratification persona won't permit the absorption of any concept longer than a commercial. That's quite a conundrum. Complementing that conundrum, as has been expressed already, is that a vote cast by those thoughtful in the democratic enterprise and actually, monetarily (capitally, as it were) invested in the nation, are outnumbered by the ignorant, outnumbered by some who couldn't find the U.S. on a globe or name the Secretary of State, or outnumbered by some who couldn't rub two nickels together (that last charge made not against the poor per se but against the principle that a mob underclass can vote themselves economically catastrophic handouts from the coffers of those with "wealth").
Dark days, my friends. Sure, the idea of trying something new is appealing, so the optimist in me says, "hey, anything's better than nothing." The sad, and I think ultimate, truth is that we are pretty far removed from what we think we are and we proceed to the Left at varying rates depending on the whole of the political machine. But let's not kid ourselves. We are moving, and continue to move, toward nannystatism. We really can't handle the truth and many don't have the attention span to want to understand it.
But at least we have "missing blonde," "baby fell in the well," and "drug-addicted actor did something stupid" news stories to fill the time toward oblivion."
William F Buckley is an Elitist asshole. He's always been an elitist asshole. He will be an elitist asshole until the day he dies.
Give me one hard-working businessman, and I'll let you have William Buckley, VDH, and every scum-sucking politician, and elite do-gooder on the face of the earth.
And, as for "Noble Causes:" You can bet your sweet bippy that when those catastrophic words are uttered by a politician in power, Mass Death, and Destruction, will ensue.
I differentiate from the industrialists and the money guys. The industrialists and manufacturers, guys that produce something are my type. They actually do something. You can have your dealmaking lawyers and big money arbitraging types that make money wrecking things.
btw, Ann Coulter based her comments on her belief that Hillary is More Conservative than McCrazy. That may be a "close" call; but, one thing is damn sure. She's more Stable, and, almost certainly, Smarter.
So we have the prospect of a Socialist openly in favor of licenses for illegals, vs McKennedy. --- This after mobilizing and Shoving Shamnesty down their throats.
They won't link any state where Romney is close, or winning.
None of the MSM whores will publish that McCrazier's Batshit took "Public Financing," and is about out of money: Thus will have to "Go Dark" for six or seven months while Obahillary spends millions beating his ass into the dirt. I wonder how often we will hear about the Keating 5, AFTER he wraps up the nomination?
"Hell, whit, that's what we're going to get with anyone who makes it to the WH. Would you have preferred Gore and a candidate who couldn't win?" --- I think the Country and the Pubs would be in better shape, esp the Pubs fighting Gore and winning in a landslide in '04 or '08. I believe the border would be more secure and there would have been millions fewer illegals, cause the Pubs AND THE PEOPLE wouldn't have rolled over, and Gore would be scared shitless about an event related to his border policy.
To put things in perspective, in 1968 at the Democratic convention, when all the twenty somethings were rioting in the streets, a 72 year old candidate would have been a WWI vet. Absurd?
Or, how about this; How is it that a candidate that hasn't received a plurality of self-identified Republican votes in any primary is getting ready to be anointed NOMINEE?
If the Republicans go with Romney, at least they have a chance of focusing on who the Democrats really are. The last debate,showed the worst of McCain. No way.
And it's legal, to spend his campaign cash, I think, cause he's going to and coming from Congress. United Fruit and Vegetable Political Action Committee continues to contribute--got to keep a supply of Mexican pickers you know--Anybody want to contribute to the fund?--
Sen. Craig still spending for defense Erika Bolstad - MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Larry Craig continues to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers to clear his name of a misdemeanor conviction, according to reports filed Thursday with the Federal Elections Commission.
The Idaho Republican spent nearly $175,000 on lawyers in the final months of 2007. That includes $53,608 for Stan Brand, the Washington, D.C., lawyer who is handling the Senate Ethics Committee investigation into Craig's conduct last summer when he was arrested in a sex sting at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.
In the final three months of the year, Craig spent $99,095 of his campaign money with Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan, the Washington, D.C., law firm that's home to Billy Martin, the lead lawyer in Craig's effort to overturn his guilty plea to disorderly conduct in connection with the sting.
Craig also spent another $22,032 with Kelly and Jacobson, the Minneapolis law firm that is assisting Martin with the appeal.
Martin's spokeswoman, Judy Smith, wouldn't comment on the FEC filing, but did point out that appeals are "very, very expensive." Brand did not return a phone call to the Idaho Statesman. Craig's office has refused since Sept. 19 to answer questions from the newspaper.
The FEC generally allows lawmakers to use money from their campaign accounts to pay their legal expenses, as long as the bills stem from actions they took as an officeholder.
Craig's overall legal tab in connection with his arrest and its fallout totals $201,420, according to his two most recent FEC filings. Most of that money has gone toward his longshot appeal of his guilty plea, which is pending in the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
In June, an undercover officer arrested Craig in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport as part of an investigation into complaints of sex acts in the restrooms. The investigator said that Craig tapped his feet and ran his hand under the stall -- signals the officer interpreted as expressing interest in sex. Craig mailed in his guilty plea Aug. 1, without ever consulting a lawyer.
The news of Craig's arrest didn't break until Aug. 27. Less than a week later, Craig called a news conference to say he would resign. But he changed his mind and said he would stay in the Senate through the end of his term, saying he wanted to clear his name by appealing his guilty plea and fighting the ethics investigation.
It's less apparent what sort of legal work Brand has done for Craig on the ethics investigation. The Senate Ethics Committee will not disclose the status of Craig's case.
The committee's members did release an end-of-the-year report Thursday, though, and in it said that it had five ethics investigations from 2007 that the they were carrying over into 2008. The committee's report doesn't disclose which senators remain under investigation, however, and there's no indication other than Brand's legal bills that they've made any progress on Craig's investigation.
Craig's FEC report shows that with just under a year left to go in office, he still has $289,505 remaining in his campaign account.
It also shows he took in three donations the last three months of 2007: $500 from businessman Robert Karr of Arco, $2,500 from the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Political Action Committee, and $11,645 from a fundraising committee that was set up to help GOP senators who face reelection this year. That money was pledged to Craig at a Republican fundraising event in April, although he and other senators did not receive it until this fall.
William F Buckley is an Elitist asshole. He's always been an elitist asshole. He will be an elitist asshole until the day he dies.
Them is my sentiments exactly. They were my dad's sentiments too. I remember one time, we were watching the program, kind of half paying attention, and Buckley is leaned back like always, and dad comes up with--
"You know, Robert, that guy is most self satisfied son of a bitch I've ever seen."
Which I have remembered all these years. And to say s o b was swearing to dad, which he hardly ever did.
I agree WFB is arrogant and an elitist. Nevertheless, I think to buck the establishment thinking in the manner that W.F.B. did in the 1950s and 1960s, required just that sort of self-satisfied arrogance.
I wish he'd write more substantive collumns nowadays, though. He did take shots at Iraq around the edges. Nonetheless, I think he's afraid he'll blow his legacy if he said what he really thought about a number of issues.
On Wednesday, we launched the Presidential exploratory web site.
On Thursday, Ralph Nader was on Democracy Now with our good friend Amy Goodman. You can watch the video of the interview here.
On Friday, Ralph did radio around the country.
And this Sunday February 3, 2008, Ralph will be on CNN’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer (11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST.)
Hope you get a chance to watch.
We had a huge response to the launch.
And next week, on Super Tuesday, the corporate Republicans and corporate Democrats will let us know where they stand.
We’re keeping a close eye on both races.
In the meantime, in anticipation of the usual – corporate control of the country – we’re moving forward.
We are exploring whether we can get 1,000 active, committed citizens in each and every Congressional district.
And enough funding to launch a 50 state effort to challenge the corporate powers that be.
Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to standing up to corporate power.
Please spread the word.
And give whatever you can.
If the corporate duopoly shakes out as we think it will, there will be only one place to turn this election year for active, vibrant, engaged citizen energy.
We probably would be better off if McCain had won in 2000.
Not that I'm endorsing him today, but considering what we got. A nice guy, but someone not ready to make the decision put in front of him. McCain would have fucked up a number of things too, but I don't think nearly as much. And not like Bush has been a shepherd of Conservative principles either.
I've been wondering about vp picks. I don't have a clue on the republican side, but if I was Hillary I'd very publically and graciously offer it to Obama as an absolute certainty. Whether he'd take it is hard to say.
"A nice guy, but someone not ready to make the decision put in front of him. " --- I won't give him nice guy, since he's more than willing to throw the Constitution under the Bus, forget his Oath for his business buddies and globalist agenda. Corrupt Tranzi.
When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!
But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit! . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o
I've been reading around about this Bernie Ward case. The upshot is, he's got one hell of a problem. The delay in charging was caused cause the S.Fran DA dropped out and they moved it else where which took some time. This journalistic excuse has been tried many times before. The images are said to be gruesome, and Bernie has screwed himself. He's already admitted to sending them, and receiving them over the internet. And the law says, 5 years, mandatory. If someone sends you child porn you should contact the police, immediately, like, right now. He'll try to plea, I'm betting. His only other chance is a merciful jury. It just sounds pretty open and shut.
It's an odd thing. I listened to his Godtalk a number of times. When he was on religion, he really made a lot of sense, when he was on politics, he was a lying conniving twisting bullying s o b. Yet, also, he really did help a lot with certain charities and such, and a good father, as far as is know.
So Rudy gets a full outing, and Mac gets a pass. ...until Hillary's crew goes to work. --- "A former Arizona rodeo beauty queen and daughter of a millionaire Phoenix businessman, Cindy McCain was 25 when she met her future husband at a cocktail party in Hawaii. John McCain was a 43-year-old naval liaison officer travelling with a congressional delegation, his sights already set on a political career.
He was also still married to his first wife Carol, although the couple had recently separated. Carol later attributed the breakdown of the marriage to “John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again”. McCain fell like a brick for Cindy, who was the heir to a brewery distribution business worth millions. For several years afterwards the McCains endured Washington gossip that he had dumped his first wife - who had been crippled in a car accident - in favour of a trophy bride to enhance his political ambitions. "
Bennett took his wife’s church minister hostage and attempted to lure her to the church to kill her.
Margo turned up with bullet-proof vest and revolver. When she saw the masked kidnapper and heard his voice she realised it was her husband, dived behind a desk and opened fire as if she had been Jodie Foster playing Agent Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. Unlike Foster, she missed her target but hit a door frame.
It was back to jail for her husband and out of the closet for Cornwell, who was subjected to a barrage of tabloid exposés, most of them featuring the words lust, seduction, blame, betrayal and boudoir.
Whenever I drink beer and relax, thots like these intrude incessantly: --- "This would not be the case if we all behaved in an ethically optimal way, but the collapse of a unitary ethic in Western society, and the rise of existential randomization, has led to a situation where error rates in human-human interactions are much too high for the social organism to deal with."
Course, unlike what Alex Jones is trying to imply, he's talking about Communist secret societies and insurgency, not the "Bilderberg Group" or whatever else that nut's on lately.
A 'giant elephant shrew' has been discovered on Sumatra, I think the blurb said. Looking desperately for a pic, which I will post if I find.
ReplyDeleteLots of people are sharing Coulter's disgust, some going so far as to think there's no difference even between the parties. Here's a handy dandy candidates chart making the rounds. From the looks of it you'd think she has a good point. There are other issues to consider however. Hillary's folk all across the judiciary for instance. What Hillary would do in foreign affairs is hard to divine. I doubt she'd go on an apology tour however as I'm sorry doesn't seem to be in her vocabulary. I think Mitt would have had the nomination by now if he'd had the advantage of being a Baptist or Methodist, etc.
Ann's got some good reflexes. I saw her dodge a pie, or a pitcher of water, thrown at her at an event. Totally avoided it, went on talking:)
Scratch Sumatra, it's Tanzania, where the critter was found. Captured on film by a hidden camera. Giant Shrew
ReplyDeleteAll 1 and 1/2 pounds of him.
hehe:) My giant shrew link took you back to Hillary, gotta be a message there!
ReplyDeleteHere Is The Shrew
Hillary The Shrew
ReplyDeleteWhat does Romney bring to the table in terms of an economic plan?
ReplyDeleteScienceDaily:
ReplyDeleteE. Coli Bacteria: A Future Source Of Energy?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080129170709.htm
The Biology of Energy:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/193
Romney would be more inclined to keep his hand out of our wallets.
ReplyDeleteHow does he intend to pay for that? :)
ReplyDeleteIf the election were between Ann Coulter and Hillary Clinton, for whom would you vote?
ReplyDeleteYou need to ask, Bob?
ReplyDeleteI'd never vote for a woman. Ever.
ReplyDelete:D
What do we do, Mat, to put an end to this crap?--
ReplyDeleteFrom Raymond Ibrahim
Will the recent killing in Pakistan of “senior” Al Qaeda leader, Abu Laith al-Libi, have any tangible affects on the “war on terror”? Considering the headline news coverage, one might assume so. In fact, whenever any major Al Qaeda operative or leader is slain, the media is abuzz with it, implying that we are one step closer to eradicating Al Qaeda’s terror. But will the death of al-Libi—or any other Islamist leader—make any difference at all?
There was, for instance, all the hubbub surrounding the killing of the head-chopping Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, nearly two years ago. Then, almost every major politician, including President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki gave some sort of victory speech, some highly triumphant, others more cautious.
But if Zarqawi’s death did not diminish Al Qaeda’s highly influential presence in Iraq—it took the “surge” to make a dent—will al-Libi’s death affect Al Qaeda’s position in Afghanistan? Indeed, would the deaths of Ayman al-Zawahiri or Osama bin Laden himself have any long term affects on the growth, spread, and goals of radical Islam?
Recent history provides a lucid answer to these questions.
Consider the progress of the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest and oldest Islamic fundamentalist organization today. Founded in Egypt by Hasan al-Banna in 1928, it originally boasted only six members. In the following decades, in part thanks to the radical writings of one of its premiere ideologues, Sayyid Qutb—whom Al Qaeda quotes liberally in their many writings—the Brotherhood, though constantly clashing with Egypt’s government, grew steadily.
As leaders, both Banna and Qutb were eventually targeted and killed by Egypt’s government—the former assassinated, the latter executed. The Brotherhood however, continued thriving underground for many more decades. Then, to the world’s surprise, the partially-banned, constantly-harassed Brotherhood managed to win 88 out of 454 seats in Egypt’s 2005 parliamentary elections—making them the largest opposition bloc in the government.
After two of its most prominent leaders were killed, after thousands of its members have been harassed, jailed, and sometimes tortured, today the Brotherhood is stronger, more influential, and more secure than at any other time in its turbulent history.
The Palestinian Hamas, itself an offshoot of the Brotherhood, is another case in point. Founded in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas has since been labeled a terrorist organization by several governments, including the United States, most notably for its many suicide operations against Israel. Due to Yassin’s figurehead status in Hamas, the Israeli government targeted him for assassination in March 2004. (While the quadriplegic Yassin was being wheeled out of a mosque after morning prayers, an Israeli helicopter launched two Hellfire missiles into him, killing him instantly.)
The result? Hamas, like the Brotherhood, did not decline or lose morale. To the contrary, it went on to win a major landslide election in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, allowing it to claim to represent the Palestinian people.
There are countless of other examples from both past and present history where popular Islamist leaders were either killed (or died naturally), and the only thing that changed is that the movement they led grew and consolidated more power.
Ayman al-Zawahiri summarizes this phenomenon well. Asked in one of his more recent interviews about the status of bin Laden and the Taliban’s one-eyed Mullah Omar, he confidently replied:
Jihad in the path of Allah is greater than any individual or organization. It is a struggle between Truth and Falsehood, until Allah Almighty inherits the earth and those who live in it. Mullah Muhammad Omar and Sheikh Osama bin Laden—may Allah protect them from all evil—are merely two soldiers of Islam in the journey of jihad, while the struggle between Truth and Falsehood transcends time (from The Al Qaeda Reader, 182).
According to this statement, which itself is grounded in Islamic theology, Islamic militants are not the cause of the war. They are but a symptom of a much greater cause—the “struggle between Truth [Islam] and Falsehood [non-Islam] that transcends time.” The problem, then, is not men like Banna, Qutb, and Yassin—nor is it even bin Laden, Zawahiri, or al-Libi. Individually killing them off is only treating the symptom—a good thing, to be sure—but it does not cure the malady. The root cause is the violent and fascist ideology that motivates them.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteNewt says, focus should be on inflation:
The government's focus, Gingrich said, should be on stopping inflation, not worrying about a recession.
"If we stopped inflation and the world thought we were for a strong dollar, the price of oil would come down dramatically."
As for the viral Islamic meme, recognize it for what it is.
ReplyDeleteI've posted this at Belmont:
ReplyDelete"Cancer is a reaction trying to mitigate biological injury. In this case, the original injury being that of Rome. Cancer growth, is the body's way of telling you it doesn't know how to proceed forward. Of interest, skeletal tissue is immune to cancerous metastases."
If you impose the meme analogy, there's an interesting correlation, that might lend itself to a solution.
Pathfinder
ReplyDeletehttp://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=25592
from an interview with Spike Lee--
ReplyDeleteDo you think it's possible to judge a work apart from its subject?
Yes, although I have to admit it regretfully.
What do you mean?
That, for example, Leni Riefenstahl was a great director who is still studied and imitated--think of Star Wars--but her subject was abominable. Think also of D.W. Griffith; no one doubts that Birth of a Nation is a milestone, but it's also an exaltation of a violent and visceral racism, and the film was used as a recruiting tool for the K.K.K. Or even John Ford, a great filmmaker I can't love. In his films the only good Indian is a dead Indian.
------
Riefenstahl was Hitler's filmmaker and made The Triumph of the Will, among other offerings. Toyed around Hollywood after the war a bit, I think, and was mostly blacklisted. She created many new dramatic techniques.
I can't stand any of those shows when the whole time they are talking over each other.
ReplyDelete---
Ann should stick to writing, sometimes she does a good job of that.
That voice is in the same league as Hillary's.
Dropping a car on a Senior Citizen is not that different from dropping a car on a Skeleton.
ReplyDeleteA Viking boy is left behind after his clan battles a Native American tribe. Raised within the tribe, he ultimately becomes their savior in a fight against the Norsemen.
ReplyDeleteI can't get it to work Mat, if that's the one, but I'll have my daughter work on it for me.
Bob,
ReplyDeleted/l the divx plugin
See, I don't know what that means, but she'll get it going.
ReplyDeleteGot any good cold remedy? Haven't had one for years but got a bad one now. Sleep half the day stay up at night then fall asleep. Loaded up on AlkaSeltzer Plus, not getting any better.
CNN Dem Debate Most Watched in Cable History
ReplyDeleteBreaking: Last night's Democratic debate on CNN drew 8,324,000 million total viewers, making it the most-watched primary debate in cable news history, and the second-most watched on TV this election cycle (ABC's Democratic debate on Jan. 5 drew 9,360,000)
That's not many viewers really. People don't seem to pay much attention to politics. Which may be a healthy sign. Or not. Like Rat would say.
Bob,
ReplyDeleteA cold shower and a walk in the fresh cold air. :)
d/l = download
ReplyDeletehttp://www.divx.com/divx/windows
Right. And a Polar Bear dive in the river, which has ice on it now.
ReplyDeleteWe are having a hell of a hard winter.
g'nite.
ReplyDeletekeep well.
I'm gonna try and get some more sleep. Nite, Mat.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't expect me to prescribe chicken soup to a viking, did ya? :)
ReplyDeleteProbly the flu.
ReplyDeleteHow do you give last rites in Yiddish?
Blasts from the past:
ReplyDelete"Whether use or abuse of labels for abusive purposes on the hustings or TV serves any honorable purpose must be a matter of opinion.
Goldberg quotes a TV exchange on ABC in 1968 in which Gore Vidal goaded William F. Buckley Jr. by calling him a “crypto-Nazi.”
Buckley replied: “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in the goddam face and you’ll stay plastered.” Buckley instantly regretted this rare departure from civility.
But most people will think Vidal, a notably unscrupulous controversialist, had it coming to him, even if the threatened sock had been delivered. "
Viva Bush!
ReplyDeleteViva McCain!
Bush Against Romney
By Robert D. Novak
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- While President George W. Bush has maintained neutrality among contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, he privately expresses to friends his exasperation with Mitt Romney's hard-line stance on immigration.
Bush is upset that Romney changed his position on the issue, compared to what it had been when he was governor of Massachusetts, at the expense of the president's immigration reform. Bush and Sen. John McCain are not close, but the president is grateful for McCain's support on Iraq and immigration.
A footnote: The president's younger brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has not endorsed any presidential candidate. But he and his political allies were behind Romney's losing effort in last Tuesday's Florida primary.
By GWB's standards, Jeb must be a racist.
ReplyDeleteProbly hates his wife.
Jed Babbin...
ReplyDeleteThe hyperliberal editors of the New York Times liked McCain’s illegal immigration bill so much, they mentioned it twice in the endorsement, praising him for being, “…a staunch advocate of campaign reform working with Senator Russ Feingold, among the most liberal of Democrats, on groundbreaking legislation just as he worked with Senator Edward Kennedy on immigration reform.”
McCain says he understands that the borders must be secured before anything else is done. But last Sunday, when Tim Russert asked him if he’d sign the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill, he said, “Yeah,” and then caught himself and went on to avoid a straight answer because the bill wasn’t going to pass. He ducked the question again in the Wednesday California debate. Who believes a President McCain would veto an amnesty bill that Congress passed?
McCain has swallowed the global warming baloney and has introduced legislation to create a “cap and trade” system for American industry. Also in its endorsement of him the New York Times praised his, “…recognizing the threat of global warming early.”
Ann Coulter is good looking, vain, conservative woman who has found a way to make a very good living by making "outrageous" statements when most people are too timid or politically correct to say in print or in public what they think everyday in private.
ReplyDeleteNaturally, she will be a lighting rod.
Ann Coulter...has found a way to make a very good living by making "outrageous" statements when most people are too timid or politically correct to say in print or in public what they think everyday in private.
ReplyDelete- whit
It used to be called decorum.
Setting aside decorousness, Coulter's a clown and a cunt. In that order.
...Putting her one-up, I contend, on Hillary.
ReplyDeleteYeah, well there used to be a lot more decorum. Nowadays, in a coarsened culture people will say or write just about anything.
ReplyDeleteWho are you calling "people," bub?
ReplyDelete; )
Some years ago - let's say six - I would have read Coulter with some favor (and mental editing).
Now I'd rather catch bowling balls with my teeth.
And I won't shed a tear when the Coulters and Limbaughs, through their arch sanctimony, help secure the WH for the Democrats - throwing a fool's fit at the relative disfavor shown their preferred cipher.
Not one goddamned tear.
I am glad I did not do a puff piece on Coulter. It does appear that the Republican Party has ceased to have a meaning anyway.
ReplyDeleteThanks Whit, for the video.
ReplyDeleteI saw the floppy ear and expression on the giraffe and thought of Coulter immediately.or for those in Latin America is it a girafficunt?
ReplyDeleteEither a Hillabama, or McCain Presidency will be a disaster. Those old Liberal Judges will be replace with Young Libera Judges in both cases.
ReplyDeleteWe will have mass amnesty, and truly idiotic GHG legislation no matter who wins. Both sides would rather have Americans dead than have a little water up a terrorist's nose.
If we have to have an administration like this, I'd rather the Democrats get the blame for it.
I'll be voting for Hillary (or Obama.)
'at least the Clintons know when they've been caught lying, McCain's so dumb he doesn't even know when he's been caught lying'...
ReplyDeleteIn the video, she did say that she didn't really mean the campaigning for Hillary part.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot posing going on right now. I suspect that a large part of the current Limbaugh and Coulter and schticks are designed to defeat McCain.
I'll let Rufus speak for himself after the election.
On the other side, I think Democrats are doing the same thing.
Some of the lib friends/coworkers really like McCain. Why do you suppose that is?
"...current Limbaugh and Coulter and schticks are designed..."
ReplyDeletewas going to include Rufus...decided he could speak for himself.
Michael Barone, writing at RCP says that the tables have turned and McCain is looking like a shoe-in while Clinton and Obama are going to have to duke it out.
I think people are tired of settling for a candidate who can beat the other side. That's what we got with W. Some people want to stand on principle...
The way I see it, conservatism is on the wane. It's too hard and after 16 years of government largesse, we've become more European than we would like to admit.
"...McCain Presidency will be a disaster. Those old Liberal Judges will be replace with Young Libera Judges in both cases."
ReplyDeleteBullshit on stilts.
Guys, history has shown us that there will be Democratic administration, and Republican administrations.
ReplyDeleteI just don't want to waste a Republican administration on a man that is
1) Almost surely, Completely fucking Looney-tunes, and
2) is going to pursue, for all practical considerations, a DEMOCRATIC Agenda.
Bush has left us in pretty good shape, National Security/Defense-wise, and, the Republican Adminstration that would, almost definitely, follow a hillabama presidency should be able to fit the pieces back together pretty quickly.
The REAL Disaster would be a McCain Debacle, followed by 8 years of Democratic rule.
NO! I'm NOT posturing. I'll be voting Democratic in the fall.
O/T, but I found this kind of amazin.
ReplyDeleteExxon Mobil paid as much Income Taxes as The Bottom 50% of all Income Tax Filers!
I couldn't in good conscience vote for Billary. I don't want Bill Clinton back in the White House. He left an awfull smell. It's like once in a while I have a really bad tenant, the dog eats the carpet. Got to fumigate the place. Since I'm in Idaho which will go for the republican anyway maybe I'll take a look at a third party. Whole thing is a bummer but there is life after politics.
ReplyDeleteDamn gas companies make too much money, I suppose Exxon will be getting a $600 tax rebate check too:)
ReplyDeleteFour or eight years of the Democrats will seal the deal on socialism in America.
ReplyDeleteGot one Coming your way, Rat.
ReplyDelete"I think people are tired of settling for a candidate who can beat the other side. That's what we got with W."
ReplyDeleteHell, whit, that's what we're going to get with anyone who makes it to the WH. Would you have preferred Gore and a candidate who couldn't win?
Here at the EB, there is NO AGREEMENT among any two people as to what "conservative" means or the ideal nature of a Republican Party. (And in this way it's only a, ahem, livelier version of The Corner.)
Cats in a bag we've all been over the brief life of this blog.
What "purity," as Rat would ask, can we demand or expect?
The Exxon stock holders will be paying tax on their dividends or capital gains as well.
ReplyDeleteWhit, long ago, Robert Frost said, he have an income tax, we're socialist now. We're just in the stage of fine tuning the regulations.
Max Romero, 41, proprietor of John's Olde Barber Shop -- a Hispanic-oriented business with "peluqueria" stenciled on the front window -- says that most of his customers are more focused on the Super Bowl than on Super Tuesday. But he makes a prediction about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.):
ReplyDelete"I think that light-skinned brother's going to win. Because Oprah backs him up. The senator for us, McCain, he just seems so senile. He don't make no sense. Homeboy's young."
Meow.
ReplyDeleteAnn Coulter is a perfected truth teller. I particularly like the way she circumcised Donny Deutsch.
Immigration Divides Arizona I'm surprised there hasn't been more bloodshed.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Rat, did he go to Panama?
ReplyDeleteA real conservative is a Libertarian, Trish.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me, Whit, that ALL politicians love "Socialism;" It increases their power.
ReplyDeleteWe did manage to put the "fear of God" into our Pub politicians a couple of months, ago; but, if they see McCain get elected all is, surely, lost.
If they see their base sit on it's collective hands, and refuse to support the Shamnestiac, they just might decide it's in their best interests to stand up to the worst of the idiocies.
Remember, we just need 41 Senators to stand firm; and, we have a chance.
I read, somewhere, that some figure that that Arizona, anti-illegal immigrant law is going to cost the state $29 Billion. It's called, "the other side of the coin."
ReplyDeleteObama boomed into Boise this morining to the cheers of 10,000 ior so at Boise State University, then boomed out again as fast as he boomed in. Only candidate that I know of that gave us the time of day.
ReplyDeleteWhy not enact a special tax for the businesses that hire illegal workers?
ReplyDeleteIt's not a lack of laws, Mat, it's a lack of enforcement.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a lack of laws, Mat, it's a lack of enforcement.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, Bob.
ReplyDeleteThe words IRS and lack of enforcement, somehow don't think would jive together in the public's mind. Perhaps they need to learn the truth.
Well, Snipes walked, at least on the major charges.:)
ReplyDeleteA most interesting little Good News Comment on Free Markets over at Ace o Spades.
ReplyDeleteGood, so we have a precedent.
ReplyDeleteHere is a really great comment from commenter, Robert, at Ace o Spades. I stole it in it's entirety. I hope he doesn't mind.
ReplyDeleteWe have all seen the similarities of McCain and Nixon, one of the worst of Republican Presidents.
But there is another, even worse President who reminds me of McCain. One so bad he would send the Republican Party into oblivion for a generation.
And those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.
Eighty years ago, after a brief flirtation with becoming a Democrat, the country elected Herbert Hoover on the strength of peace and good times, but mostly because his opponent was a Catholic - then a distrusted religion.
Hoover was progressive and a reformer - what we would call a moderate today. (His views moved to the right after office and during FDR). He presided over what was then the largest tax increase in American history. The top rate on the rich was raised from 25% to 63% and the business tax went up by 15%. Hoover was a loyal American and a humanitarian, who clearly would not have disagreed with “patriotism over profit.”
Most remembered during his time in office was the onset of the Great Depression, thought to be caused by the tightening of the money supply. Hoover took quick action and signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff Act although it was against the advice of economists and his own beliefs. He just couldn’t resist extending the olive branch and “bringing everyone together” on both sides of the isle. Smoot-Hawley set off a worldwide trade war, cost many more jobs, and roughly doubled the depth of the depression.
Hoover was more than just a Dam, along the way he brought immediate citizenship to Indians (both in and out of the United States), the unemployment relief system, large public works projects (yes, even before FDR), increased agricultural subsidies and installed a system of government controls over business and the financial system.
Hoover was an economic basket case like Nixon and McCain after him. Tax increases, tariffs, and business controls remind one of Nixon’s Wage and Price controls. All of these are items on the idiot’s economic menu, from which McCain, Obama and Hillary are preparing to order.
How can we be so confident that McCain will fight like hell to renew the tax cuts he fought so hard against, and which he believes “reward the rich”? Similarly, it cannot be argued that Global Warming caps and trades, a gas tax increase, and energy controls will do other than act as a huge tax increase and a wet regulation blanket on industry. McCain not only supports this, he wrote the damn Bill.
But that’s not what I came to talk about; I came to talk about the credit.
Just as an economic populist cannot resist the urge to tax the rich and to stick it to those nasty old big businesses (like oil), it would also be irresistable for McCain to cross the isle and buddy up with some liberal on interest rate freezes, now so popular among Democrats. This is just the kind of thing this guy is known for, and just the kind of thing that would appeal to him.
If a Democrat does it, fine, let them take the blame.
An interest rate freeze would restrict credit, reduce loans, reduce the multiplier effect, and thus reduce the money supply – just like good old Hoover. We could easily repeat Hoover’s perfect storm of economic idiocy, and McCain already has two legs up on it.
Hoover reduced the Republican Party to dust for a generation bringing in Democratic Presidents for twenty years and a tsunami of Democrats at all levels. Some effects have been made permanent for a lifetime. Nixon would have done the same except for the extraordinary luck of finding Carter, even a bigger idiot.
So, ask me if there is a worse thing than Hillary and I will answer: “Yes, there is."
That's good Rufus.
ReplyDeleteI've read about the 'Irish Miracle' other places too. My Unca Jerry was an Irishman, told us all about the potato famine.
Sorry about the quadruple spacing, there. I have no idea how that happened.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I have no idea how ANY of this inter-tubie stuff works. :)
ReplyDeleteSenas draugas, you'll notice that Pathfinder was dubbed in the old tongue.
ReplyDeleteA real conservative is a libertarian..."
ReplyDeleteDepends on what you're trying to conserve.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLiberty and the pursuit of happiness. How about you?
ReplyDelete"Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. How about you?"
ReplyDeleteI think there are far more important things than than liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
A great national endeavor that engages us all, for instance.
Wm. F. Buckley once remarked that "the money maker is not the most savory human being."
I believe we need more than mere capitalism to understand, appreciate, and reinforce our place in the world.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThat's what you get when you put gays in the military:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/33
Few things:
ReplyDelete"I think there are far more important things than than liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
A great national endeavor that engages us all, for instance."
You'd sacrifice liberty and the ability to pursue happiness for a great national endeavor?
---
Anyone think that McCain would nominate anybody who might nullify CFR? Where does that leave his choices?
---
Since I'm in D.C., it'd be easy to punt the issue altogether. Nonetheless, I'd never vote for the Democrats, but not at all certain I'd vote for McCain either.
"The way I see it, conservatism is on the wane. It's too hard and after 16 years of government largesse, we've become more European than we would like to admit."
ReplyDeleteSince we're in the habit of posting comments from Ace of Spades...
"36 Cynic here. I'm afraid what we have here is a failure to communicate. The country is more socialist that we want it to be and the modern voter too disinterested/detached/invested/bought/stupid/short-sighted/whatever to change that. The politicians reflect us, the DecidersTM champion liberalism, and the collective "we" want more from our neighbors (via government intervention) than we're willing to admit.
There's not that much pioneering, self-supporting spirit left even though we like to think we still retain it. Look at the elections and the inevitable shifting to the "electable" because politician A is an almost imperceptibly more "right" (read conservative) than politician B - aka the slow boiling frog effect toward socialism. Look at the never ending expansion of government. Look at tax-freedom day. Look at unfunded mandates and kicking of cans. Look at equal protection precedents dumping on States. Look at how we insist on pork because that politician is "our guy" nevermind that the other guy's guy is feeding from the same, growing trough.
Sound bites won't turn the tide and our instant gratification persona won't permit the absorption of any concept longer than a commercial. That's quite a conundrum. Complementing that conundrum, as has been expressed already, is that a vote cast by those thoughtful in the democratic enterprise and actually, monetarily (capitally, as it were) invested in the nation, are outnumbered by the ignorant, outnumbered by some who couldn't find the U.S. on a globe or name the Secretary of State, or outnumbered by some who couldn't rub two nickels together (that last charge made not against the poor per se but against the principle that a mob underclass can vote themselves economically catastrophic handouts from the coffers of those with "wealth").
Dark days, my friends. Sure, the idea of trying something new is appealing, so the optimist in me says, "hey, anything's better than nothing." The sad, and I think ultimate, truth is that we are pretty far removed from what we think we are and we proceed to the Left at varying rates depending on the whole of the political machine. But let's not kid ourselves. We are moving, and continue to move, toward nannystatism. We really can't handle the truth and many don't have the attention span to want to understand it.
But at least we have "missing blonde," "baby fell in the well," and "drug-addicted actor did something stupid" news stories to fill the time toward oblivion."
Patterico explains Why I won't be voting for John McCain.
ReplyDeleteWm. F. Buckley once remarked that "the money maker is not the most savory human being."
ReplyDeleteI believe we need more than mere capitalism to understand, appreciate, and reinforce our place in the world.
Rodger that.
What's your place in the world? The champion of world Empire?
ReplyDeleteCause that fsckn gay, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteWilliam F Buckley is an Elitist asshole. He's always been an elitist asshole. He will be an elitist asshole until the day he dies.
ReplyDeleteGive me one hard-working businessman, and I'll let you have William Buckley, VDH, and every scum-sucking politician, and elite do-gooder on the face of the earth.
And, as for "Noble Causes:" You can bet your sweet bippy that when those catastrophic words are uttered by a politician in power, Mass Death, and Destruction, will ensue.
ReplyDeleteHitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Osama Bin Laden
I differentiate from the industrialists and the money guys. The industrialists and manufacturers, guys that produce something are my type. They actually do something. You can have your dealmaking lawyers and big money arbitraging types that make money wrecking things.
ReplyDeletebtw, Ann Coulter based her comments on her belief that Hillary is More Conservative than McCrazy. That may be a "close" call; but, one thing is damn sure. She's more Stable, and, almost certainly, Smarter.
ReplyDeleteThe location of the Battery was Rebbeca's Jaguar.
ReplyDeleteHuckster for Veep!
ReplyDeleteGilchrist for Homeland Defense.
(assuming he's got Huck's signature on a plan)
"Remember, we just need 41 Senators to stand firm; and, we have a chance."
ReplyDelete---
Support Dems that are genuinely antishamnesty.
This is for Trish.:)
ReplyDelete"It used to be called decorum.
ReplyDeleteSetting aside decorousness, Coulter's a clown and a cunt. In that order."
---
Yeah, things would be SO much better if NOBODY ever told the truth!
She may be a Cunt, but it's still the truth.
ReplyDeleteArgumentu ad Cuntum, Trish?
"Argumentum"
ReplyDeleteShe just wants more 15yr olds to stand firm.
ReplyDeleteWho are you talking about? Ann, Trish or Rebecca?
ReplyDeletePatterico left one off his list:
ReplyDeleteMcCain, like Obama, wants to reimport drugs from Canada.
Q. What’s the difference between Hillary Clinton and John McCain?
ReplyDeleteA. One has a grating, disagreeable personality; has a history of financial scandal; has spoken of setting benchmarks for withdrawal from Iraq; has said the Bush tax cuts benefitted the wealthy at the expense of the middle class; has derided Sam Alito as too openly conservative; has supported amnesty for illegal immigrants (and then lied about it); has said that we shouldn’t drill in ANWR because it’s “pristine”; has misrepresented the positions of Republican candidates; wants to close Guantanamo; has spoken of sending “greedy people on Wall Street” to jail for their roles in giving subprime loans; has been endorsed by the New York Times; supports blatantly unconstitutional limits on free speech; and is hated by Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Michelle Malkin . . .
. . . and the other one’s a Democrat.
It’s not too late, Republicans. This is why I am supporting Mitt Romney for President. I even have an inspiring slogan; see what you think of it:
Mitt Romney: He’s not John McCain!
(unfortunately the TV Trolls seem to be programmed to follow the Mo)
Rebbeca,
ReplyDeleteThe one with the Bedroom Eyes.
So we have the prospect of a Socialist openly in favor of licenses for illegals, vs McKennedy.
ReplyDelete---
This after mobilizing and Shoving Shamnesty down their throats.
Tell me the MSM has no power.
Real Clear Whores runs a 43 - 20 McCaine Link on the top of the front page.
ReplyDeleteJust like the MSM.
Contribute to the Frenzy.
‘Surprisingly Liberal’: New Ad Spot Compares McCain’s Record to Hillary’s
ReplyDeleteThey won't link any state where Romney is close, or winning.
ReplyDeleteNone of the MSM whores will publish that McCrazier's Batshit took "Public Financing," and is about out of money: Thus will have to "Go Dark" for six or seven months while Obahillary spends millions beating his ass into the dirt. I wonder how often we will hear about the Keating 5, AFTER he wraps up the nomination?
"Hell, whit, that's what we're going to get with anyone who makes it to the WH. Would you have preferred Gore and a candidate who couldn't win?"
ReplyDelete---
I think the Country and the Pubs would be in better shape, esp the Pubs fighting Gore and winning in a landslide in '04 or '08.
I believe the border would be more secure and there would have been millions fewer illegals, cause the Pubs AND THE PEOPLE wouldn't have rolled over, and Gore would be scared shitless about an event related to his border policy.
the New French First Lady
ReplyDeleteDayyum!
ReplyDeleteI want one'a Those.
With regard to six months ago, this thread seems to have fallen through the looking glass.
ReplyDeleteThe question you have to ask yourself is how did the Republican party get reduced to a 72 year old McCain being the lead?
ReplyDeleteAnd Romney as the Conservative savior.
ReplyDeleteTo put things in perspective, in 1968 at the Democratic convention, when all the twenty somethings were rioting in the streets, a 72 year old candidate would have been a WWI vet. Absurd?
ReplyDeleteHe's a Helluva lot better than McShamnesty, Cutler!
ReplyDelete"With regard to six months ago, this thread seems to have fallen through the looking glass."
ReplyDelete---
Reality's fallen through the looking glass!
Or, how about this; How is it that a candidate that hasn't received a plurality of self-identified Republican votes in any primary is getting ready to be anointed NOMINEE?
ReplyDeleteIf the Republicans go with Romney, at least they have a chance of focusing on who the Democrats really are. The last debate,showed the worst of McCain. No way.
ReplyDeleteRufus,
ReplyDeleteTo address that, somebody suggested having them all at once!
And it's legal, to spend his campaign cash, I think, cause he's going to and coming from Congress. United Fruit and Vegetable Political Action Committee continues to contribute--got to keep a supply of Mexican pickers you know--Anybody want to contribute to the fund?--
ReplyDeleteSen. Craig still spending for defense
Erika Bolstad - MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Larry Craig continues to spend thousands of dollars on lawyers to clear his name of a misdemeanor conviction, according to reports filed Thursday with the Federal Elections Commission.
The Idaho Republican spent nearly $175,000 on lawyers in the final months of 2007. That includes $53,608 for Stan Brand, the Washington, D.C., lawyer who is handling the Senate Ethics Committee investigation into Craig's conduct last summer when he was arrested in a sex sting at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport.
In the final three months of the year, Craig spent $99,095 of his campaign money with Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan, the Washington, D.C., law firm that's home to Billy Martin, the lead lawyer in Craig's effort to overturn his guilty plea to disorderly conduct in connection with the sting.
Craig also spent another $22,032 with Kelly and Jacobson, the Minneapolis law firm that is assisting Martin with the appeal.
Martin's spokeswoman, Judy Smith, wouldn't comment on the FEC filing, but did point out that appeals are "very, very expensive." Brand did not return a phone call to the Idaho Statesman. Craig's office has refused since Sept. 19 to answer questions from the newspaper.
The FEC generally allows lawmakers to use money from their campaign accounts to pay their legal expenses, as long as the bills stem from actions they took as an officeholder.
Craig's overall legal tab in connection with his arrest and its fallout totals $201,420, according to his two most recent FEC filings. Most of that money has gone toward his longshot appeal of his guilty plea, which is pending in the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
In June, an undercover officer arrested Craig in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport as part of an investigation into complaints of sex acts in the restrooms. The investigator said that Craig tapped his feet and ran his hand under the stall -- signals the officer interpreted as expressing interest in sex. Craig mailed in his guilty plea Aug. 1, without ever consulting a lawyer.
The news of Craig's arrest didn't break until Aug. 27. Less than a week later, Craig called a news conference to say he would resign. But he changed his mind and said he would stay in the Senate through the end of his term, saying he wanted to clear his name by appealing his guilty plea and fighting the ethics investigation.
It's less apparent what sort of legal work Brand has done for Craig on the ethics investigation. The Senate Ethics Committee will not disclose the status of Craig's case.
The committee's members did release an end-of-the-year report Thursday, though, and in it said that it had five ethics investigations from 2007 that the they were carrying over into 2008. The committee's report doesn't disclose which senators remain under investigation, however, and there's no indication other than Brand's legal bills that they've made any progress on Craig's investigation.
Craig's FEC report shows that with just under a year left to go in office, he still has $289,505 remaining in his campaign account.
It also shows he took in three donations the last three months of 2007: $500 from businessman Robert Karr of Arco, $2,500 from the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Political Action Committee, and $11,645 from a fundraising committee that was set up to help GOP senators who face reelection this year. That money was pledged to Craig at a Republican fundraising event in April, although he and other senators did not receive it until this fall.
Not good, but how to avoid MSM/Pub Elite Railroading like they are now?
ReplyDeleteYou make me realize how much I'm hated by so many for my spam comments, Albob!
ReplyDeleteI really don't see any good outcomes coming out of this. As I told someone the other day, no matter who wins, we're going to get fucked.
ReplyDelete"Jenna Jameson '08: If we're going to be fucked, we might as well have fun."
doug, home is where when you have to go there, they have to take you in. welcome home. fuck em if they can't take a joke.
ReplyDeleteThat's what McCain will be saying from here on out!
ReplyDeleteWilliam F Buckley is an Elitist asshole. He's always been an elitist asshole. He will be an elitist asshole until the day he dies.
ReplyDeleteThem is my sentiments exactly. They were my dad's sentiments too. I remember one time, we were watching the program, kind of half paying attention, and Buckley is leaned back like always, and dad comes up with--
"You know, Robert, that guy is most self satisfied son of a bitch I've ever seen."
Which I have remembered all these years. And to say s o b was swearing to dad, which he hardly ever did.
Cutler may be on to something. Love a woman with an attitude.
ReplyDeleteGiven the circumstances, a good outcome would be Mitt.
ReplyDeleteSnowball in Hell, tho.
you know that is a wild ride.
ReplyDeleteSeems to go with the territory up there in the Northeast, Al-Bob.
ReplyDeleteSome of it rubbed off on Mitt, which really puts people off.
I agree WFB is arrogant and an elitist. Nevertheless, I think to buck the establishment thinking in the manner that W.F.B. did in the 1950s and 1960s, required just that sort of self-satisfied arrogance.
ReplyDeleteI wish he'd write more substantive collumns nowadays, though. He did take shots at Iraq around the edges. Nonetheless, I think he's afraid he'll blow his legacy if he said what he really thought about a number of issues.
WFB don't know anything about mythology and religion, I can tell you that.
ReplyDeleteWell, bob, neither do I.
ReplyDeleteWell, other than secular religion, I know plenty 'bout that.
ReplyDeleteI wish someone would explain to me just how McCain made this comeback. We had him dead and buried earlier.
ReplyDeleteI know, I know, people voted for him.
But you're a good guy, Cutler. You don't twist shit around.
I put myself on various mailing lists--
ReplyDeleteIt’s been a great week.
On Wednesday, we launched the Presidential exploratory web site.
On Thursday, Ralph Nader was on Democracy Now with our good friend Amy Goodman. You can watch the video of the interview here.
On Friday, Ralph did radio around the country.
And this Sunday February 3, 2008, Ralph will be on CNN’s Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer (11 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST.)
Hope you get a chance to watch.
We had a huge response to the launch.
And next week, on Super Tuesday, the corporate Republicans and corporate Democrats will let us know where they stand.
We’re keeping a close eye on both races.
In the meantime, in anticipation of the usual – corporate control of the country – we’re moving forward.
We are exploring whether we can get 1,000 active, committed citizens in each and every Congressional district.
And enough funding to launch a 50 state effort to challenge the corporate powers that be.
Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to standing up to corporate power.
Please spread the word.
And give whatever you can.
If the corporate duopoly shakes out as we think it will, there will be only one place to turn this election year for active, vibrant, engaged citizen energy.
Check it out at www.naderexplore08.org.
It should be an exciting year.
Onward
The Nader Team
Mitt's jumped out to an early lead in the Maine caucuses. Mitt Leads
ReplyDeleteI'm still on the Ron Paul mailing list. Thompson one's dead, of course.
ReplyDeleteSigh.
"Thompson one's dead, of course."
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between an asshole and a son of a bitch?
I'm probably going to regret this.
ReplyDeleteWhat?
I'm asking.
ReplyDeleteHere's a clue:
ReplyDeleteMcCain picks up Thompson endorsement
August 18, 1999
Web posted at: 1:38 p.m. EDT (1738 GMT)
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CNN) -- Sen. John McCain's bid for the Republican 2000
Fucking Sellout
ReplyDeleteI've never watched his damn TV show, so there!
Somehow the Machine always wins.
ReplyDeleteKeeping in mind I wouldn't have damned him for helping a person friend... Surprise: Thompson Not Willing To Endorse Anyone.
ReplyDeleteRAGE RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!
ReplyDeleteWell, the Senate's a small club. They endorse one another. Look at it this way, he didn't endorse Bush.:)
Maybe Fred thinks he's still got a chance in a brokered comvention? nah...
ReplyDeleteWe probably would be better off if McCain had won in 2000.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm endorsing him today, but considering what we got. A nice guy, but someone not ready to make the decision put in front of him. McCain would have fucked up a number of things too, but I don't think nearly as much. And not like Bush has been a shepherd of Conservative principles either.
I've been wondering about vp picks. I don't have a clue on the republican side, but if I was Hillary I'd very publically and graciously offer it to Obama as an absolute certainty. Whether he'd take it is hard to say.
ReplyDelete"A nice guy, but someone not ready to make the decision put in front of him. "
ReplyDelete---
I won't give him nice guy, since he's more than willing to throw the Constitution under the Bus, forget his Oath for his business buddies and globalist agenda.
Corrupt Tranzi.
Proof is his criticism of Romney for saying he'd enforce the law.
ReplyDeleteMaine Republican Caucus Results
ReplyDeleteCandidate Votes %
Mitt Romney 1,985 52%
John McCain 829 22%
Ron Paul 734 19%
Mike Huckabee 209 5%
Undecided 64 2%
Fred Thompson 3 0%
Total Write-ins 3 0%
Rudy Giuliani 2 0%
Alan Keyes 1 0%
Duncan Hunter 0 0%
Tom Tancredo 0 0%
John Cox 0 0%
Ron Paul 734 19%
ReplyDeleteKKK Members don't count.
ReplyDeleteCristina Scabbia '08.
ReplyDeleteI'm running for French President!
ReplyDeleteGeorge Carlin On Religion
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!
But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!
.
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o
..
Now, sub government for religion.
There's a nice Heil! pic of Hillary on Drudge right now, but I don't know how to move it over here.
ReplyDeleteZeitgeist
ReplyDeletehttp://zeitgeistmovie.com
Hugh Hewitt says it's not over yet. Cheer Up!
ReplyDeleteHey, Doug, Bernie Ward has not been able to plea deal out yet. Trial date set for June 9. Facing 5 years fixed. heheheh
ReplyDeleteGodtalk is off the air.
ReplyDeleteWhat a Shame.
Hmm, Now this is a whole new can of worms. 3rd internet cable is Cut in the MidEast.
ReplyDeleteHe can do a prison ministry.
ReplyDeleteHitllary
ReplyDeleteThanks, Doug, I was hoping you'd do that.
ReplyDeleteHey!
ReplyDeleteYour daughter's sposed to teach you how to do it.
Now I'm an enabler and you're co-dependent.
BC had a thread on that before, Rufus, don't know if he updated it.
ReplyDeleteThink if a terror group built a little navy of cable snipping robots!
ReplyDelete...or had the Pakis make them, that is, since they can't do shit.
ReplyDeleteNot co-dependent:( Not an enabler:( Nooooooooo...
ReplyDeleteRomney got a little over 50% McCain around 20%, in Maine.
Did you ever ride Becky in that Jaguar, Rufus?
ReplyDeleteWe'll need an undersea special forces group--maybe, CRABS
ReplyDeleteI mean take a ride IN her Jaguar!
ReplyDeleteer, what I meant to say was...
ReplyDeleteah, fergit it.
Jaguar Crabs.
ReplyDeleteOh, Romney's landslide will be all over the headlines and TV for days.
ReplyDelete...bet on it!
...her Jaguar, which bore the license plate "GRRRRR."
ReplyDelete!
Don't she look Angelic, Albob?
ReplyDeleteWrong end of the state, Doug. All the Jaguar-driving nymphos are in the Southern part.
ReplyDeleteWe did get our share of the Crabs, though.
Speakin of such, however; I glanced, again, at the top of the post, and decided I'd hit it (the camel, not Ann,) Things aren't That tough up here.
Yet :)
Maybe McCain will choose Lott for the Nympho vote.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading around about this Bernie Ward case. The upshot is, he's got one hell of a problem. The delay in charging was caused cause the S.Fran DA dropped out and they moved it else where which took some time. This journalistic excuse has been tried many times before. The images are said to be gruesome, and Bernie has screwed himself. He's already admitted to sending them, and receiving them over the internet. And the law says, 5 years, mandatory. If someone sends you child porn you should contact the police, immediately, like, right now. He'll try to plea, I'm betting. His only other chance is a merciful jury. It just sounds pretty open and shut.
ReplyDeleteIt's an odd thing. I listened to his Godtalk a number of times. When he was on religion, he really made a lot of sense, when he was on politics, he was a lying conniving twisting bullying s o b. Yet, also, he really did help a lot with certain charities and such, and a good father, as far as is know.
ReplyDeleteA man can be many things.....
If I were Bernie, thinking about prison,with that charge, his age, and his reputation, I'd seriously consider fleeing, if I had the money.
ReplyDeleteYeah and that cute Mug.
ReplyDelete...and fat ass.
ReplyDeleteGodSquawk
ReplyDeleteSo Rudy gets a full outing, and Mac gets a pass.
ReplyDelete...until Hillary's crew goes to work.
---
"A former Arizona rodeo beauty queen and daughter of a millionaire Phoenix businessman, Cindy McCain was 25 when she met her future husband at a cocktail party in Hawaii. John McCain was a 43-year-old naval liaison officer travelling with a congressional delegation, his sights already set on a political career.
He was also still married to his first wife Carol, although the couple had recently separated. Carol later attributed the breakdown of the marriage to “John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again”. McCain fell like a brick for Cindy, who was the heir to a brewery distribution business worth millions. For several years afterwards the McCains endured Washington gossip that he had dumped his first wife - who had been crippled in a car accident - in favour of a trophy bride to enhance his political ambitions.
"
Kay Scarpetta knifed by Agent Lesbian
ReplyDeleteBennett took his wife’s church minister hostage and attempted to lure her to the church to kill her.
ReplyDeleteMargo turned up with bullet-proof vest and revolver. When she saw the masked kidnapper and heard his voice she realised it was her husband, dived behind a desk and opened fire as if she had been Jodie Foster playing Agent Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. Unlike Foster, she missed her target but hit a door frame.
It was back to jail for her husband and out of the closet for Cornwell, who was subjected to a barrage of tabloid exposés, most of them featuring the words lust, seduction, blame, betrayal and boudoir.
Whenever I drink beer and relax, thots like these intrude incessantly:
ReplyDelete---
"This would not be the case if we all behaved in an ethically optimal way, but the collapse of a unitary ethic in Western society, and the rise of existential randomization, has led to a situation where error rates in human-human interactions are much too high for the social organism to deal with."
3 guesses
Hint,
ReplyDeleteThe Govt pays him for that kind of shit!
Get that beer out of your hand, get up, and do something. Save yourself.
ReplyDeleteOK, who?
Light Echoes from V 838 Mon
ReplyDeleteJFK speech on the machinations of the machine.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS7l6i4w11U
"William F Buckley is..."
ReplyDeletethough sometimes wrong, a guy who can rub two words together.
Twas Buckley who (On the Firing Line; a book that was a Xmas gift) led me down the road to conservatism.
I shall eternally thank him - and him.
My dad.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good JFK speech.
ReplyDeleteCourse, unlike what Alex Jones is trying to imply, he's talking about Communist secret societies and insurgency, not the "Bilderberg Group" or whatever else that nut's on lately.
ReplyDelete