COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“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."

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Obama's Pastor's Farrakhan



Twenty years is a long time. You get to know someone in twenty years. Rev. Wright praised Farrakhan at his recent Press Club speech. We know that Reverend Wright and Barack Obama have known and heard Louis Farrakhan for at least ten years. Reverend Wright, along with Barack Obama went to the Farrakhan "Million Man March" ten years ago.

Reverend Wright, at his Press Club rant, talked about the US government complicity in creating AIDS. Where did he get that idea and how prevalent an idea is that in the black community? Should we believe that Monday was the first time Barack Obama heard the Reverend's theories?

Listen to what Farrakhan has to say and what he preaches.

146 comments:

  1. Jive-Talk Express

    At first, Obama downplayed Wright’s public appearances. But Obama now tells us he had to wait 24 hours to convene a press conference to denounce Wright’s National Press Club speech because he “hadn’t seen it.”
    After all this time on the campaign trail, we’re back to the Obama-as-clueless-naif narrative again. When he finally did view the Washington speech, Obama explained, he was “shocked” and “outraged” and “saddened” because “the person I saw was not the person that I’d come to know over 20 years.”

    What a load of pure unadulterated horse manure. Anyone with eyes can see that Wright’s performances are finely honed, time-tested acts. His anti-white, anti-American, “imperialist”-bashing shtick was not developed overnight or over the past few years.
    He’s been peddling AIDS conspiracies for decades.
    He’s been grievance-mongering about slavery for decades. He’s been flirting with the Nation of Islam, which provided security for his speeches, for decades. He’s been a shouting left-wing radical for decades.

    Obama’s best-selling Audacity of Hope is named after the first sermon of Wright’s that he heard — decades ago — in which the pastor of racial resentment inveighed against an environment “where white folks’ greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere.”
    Yet, only now has Obama concluded that Wright’s sermons are “a bunch of rants that aren’t grounded in truth.”

    Welcome to the Jive-Talk Express.
    As those of us with non-European brains might put it:
    You be trippin’, Barry.

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  2. Preaching Hate in America
    ******************************
    The wise scientists of death are devising means to "Cull the population" targeting the poor and ignorant specifically black and brown peoples using depleted uranium and Agent Orange.

    Why? To kill off the indigenous people and get the oil.

    Biological weapons such as ebola and "race targeting weapons."

    Crops contaminated with altered DNA that sterilizes the consumer delivered through fast food stores in the black community.

    Forced sterilization programs which are ongoing with new birth control devices.

    The bastards are just the "illegitimate child of the creator."
    ********************************

    If we don't beat back the left there will be no end to the chaos.

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  3. The REAL perpetrators of death in the black community are Planned Parenthood.
    Their "clinics" are predominately located in the hood, and the numbers eliminated are staggering.

    Some group at UCLA did some test calls asking if their donations could specifically be used for black folk.
    No Problem!

    Sure hasn't made the headlines, I'll have to dig it up.

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  4. "Solar has promise, but is not commercially viable, as yet, in an centralized supply system."

    Solar has already achieved grid parity when you take all costs into account. You can google it.

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  5. 2164th wrote:

    "Reverend Wright, at his Press Club rant, talked about the US government complicity in creating AIDS. Where did he get that idea..."

    ummmm, maybe based on past US behavior?

    "1932: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. The U.S. Public Health Service in Tuskegee, Ala. diagnoses 400 poor, black sharecroppers with syphilis but never tells them of their illness nor treats them; instead researchers use the men as human guinea pigs to follow the symptoms and progression of the disease. They all eventually die from syphilis and their families are never told that they could have been treated (Goliszek, University of Virginia Health System Health Sciences Library). (The government office supervising the study was the predecessor to today's Centers for Disease Control (CDC))."

    http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/biowar.html

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  6. Ash: ummmm, maybe based on past US behavior?...(Tuskegee)...

    Wright, Jefferson and the Wrath of God

    Jefferson in 1781's Notes on the State of Virginia... "(Can) the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep forever."

    The wrath of God brought down on a country that permits slavery? A nation damned by its original sin? God damn America?

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  7. Btw,

    The coincidence is extremely unlikely, that 4 years after the reported exodus of Saddam's WoMD material and related personnel to Syria, we have Syria on the verge of producing atomic weapons.

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  8. Sorry Ash, as usual you get your facts twisted with your knickers. The only treatment that ever worked for syphilis was penicillin. Everything else was never proven to do anything, with or without treatment.

    It was not discovered until 1928 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. It was not available to the public in 1932. That did not happen until It became available in large quantities in 1941. It was inducted into the army in 1942 to prevent and cure infections in wounded American troops.

    That was then. To compare the United States in 1932 with United States of 2008 is at its kindest, silly.

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  9. Deuce,

    What about ashley's argument which by implication states, that if we do not treat her for her Mad Cow disease, we're in fact culpable for introducing that Mad Cow pathogen into her brain in the first place? Perhaps a little dose of medication is in order after all, even if it might prove ineffective?

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  10. Just tryin' to give some historical context to where Wright might be coming from since you asked. I don't really wish to defend the man and his thoughts.

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  11. Not true in the Gila AZ, case, the most current and modern proposal to build a centralized solar plant in the US, mat.

    It is not cost competitive with Palo Verde, our 300+megawatt powerplant.

    Fact of the matter, the solar system needs massive State and Federal subsidies to even come on line.

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  12. here's a specific reference, in an abstract, to the relationship of the Syphilis study and the current HIV/Black community fears:

    "Thomas SB, Quinn SC.

    Department of Health Education, University of Maryland, College Park 20742.

    The Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the Negro male is the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history. The strategies used to recruit and retain participants were quite similar to those being advocated for HIV/AIDS prevention programs today. Almost 60 years after the study began, there remains a trail of distrust and suspicion that hampers HIV education efforts in Black communities. The AIDS epidemic has exposed the Tuskegee study as a historical marker for the legitimate discontent of Blacks with the public health system. The belief that AIDS is a form of genocide is rooted in a social context in which Black Americans, faced with persistent inequality, believe in conspiracy theories about Whites against Blacks. These theories range from the belief that the government promotes drug abuse in Black communities to the belief that HIV is a manmade weapon of racial warfare. An open and honest discussion of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study can facilitate the process of rebuilding trust between the Black community and public health authorities. This dialogue can contribute to the development of HIV education programs that are scientifically sound, culturally sensitive, and ethnically acceptable."

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1951814

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  13. "Not true in the Gila AZ, case, the most current and modern proposal to build a centralized solar plant in the US, mat."

    Are we taking into account insurance costs, litigation costs, waste disposal costs, security costs, new construction costs, inflation costs, etc?

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  14. and deuce, you are being disingenuous by stating that Penicillin was not in use yet as a reasonable excuse for not treating the Negroes. There were treatments in use, albeit not very effective, but still treatments available. Should be study cancer, or HIV, by not treating Negroes because our cancer treatments are not very effective?

    "As the disease became better understood, more effective treatments were found. The first antibiotic to be used for treating disease was the arsenic-containing drug Salvarsan, developed in 1908 by Sahachiro Hata while working in the laboratory of Nobel prize winner Paul Ehrlich. This was later modified into Neosalvarsan. Unfortunately, these drugs were not 100% effective, especially in late disease. It had been observed that some who develop high fevers could be cured of syphilis. Thus, for a brief time malaria was used as treatment for tertiary syphilis because it produced prolonged and high fevers. This was considered an acceptable risk because the malaria could later be treated with quinine which was available at that time. This discovery was championed by Julius Wagner-Jauregg, who won the 1927 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work in this area. Malaria as a treatment for syphilis was usually reserved for late disease, especially neurosyphilis, and then followed by either Salvarsan or Neosalvarsan as adjuvant therapy. These treatments were finally rendered obsolete by the discovery of penicillin, and its widespread manufacture after World War II allowed syphilis to be effectively and reliably cured.[26]"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syphilis

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  15. Ash, let me write the headline for you:

    Negroes, Suffering from Syphilis, Given Malaria by US Government.

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  16. Let the good times roll. Economy grows 0.06%

    I didn't think things were so darn bad. When people are bitching about gas prices, that's one thing, when bitching about jobs, that's another.

    Potlatch Corp. which makes ass-wipe, paperboard, etc here, had a 500% increase in sales to Europe last quarter due to the lower dollar.

    Potlach has a lot of timber land around here, and in the south. Also makes paper products. They are splitting the company into two separate entities. Never have owned a share in my life. Everybody around here thinks they are a great company. I have some reservations.

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  17. You'd think they'd give the locals some free ass-wipe in exchange for polluting the air, but no....

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  18. "4 years after the reported exodus of Saddam's WoMD material and related personnel to Syria"

    - mat

    Who reported that?

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  19. As a downwinder, I can understand some mistrust of the government. The AIDS business is crap of course. But they were releasing radiation from Hanford after the war for quite a long time. Took forever to get some truth out.

    Downwinders

    No selectivity in this little fiasco. Just wipe em all out.

    Downwinder Case I don't know what has happened to this case. A judge made some ruling that through some wrench into it, but I'm not sure how big a wrench. It's still being worked on, I think.

    I do know the government sent officers to area airports for years taking air samples.

    A little distrust of the government is a good thing.

    I doubt Wright believes that AIDS crap himself. There is no targeting with AIDS, except sexual promiscuity.

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  20. The Freedom of Information Act, and the Tort Claims Act, and the class action lawsuit, have done wonders to keep unca sam in line. And lawyers with time on their hands. But deuce is right, it's not the 1930's anymore, or even the 1960's. Got to keep things in perspective, or the horse slips the barn.

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  21. What are you saying Bobal? Ignore history?

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  22. "Who reported that?"

    It was widely reported in Israeli and international papers. It was often talked about in our discussions. I don't know how you could have missed it.

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  23. from the discussion at B.C.--

    Old Neocon said...
    I am a white pastor, and have visited dozens of Black churches, have even spoken at a few.

    NONE of them were anything like Jeremiah's church. Without exception, every one of them was kindly, very courteous, very welcoming and non-hostile in any way to whites.

    That's not all: their Christianity was Biblically conservative. That is to say, the focus was on love, not hatred, on forgiving, not vengeance or resentment.

    Wright and his followers claim Black churches are like his. No way! Go visit a few - see for yourself.

    4/30/2008 12:03:00 AM

    "The Fighting Temptations" was a good movie. And I'm being a little sappy, but I like happy movies.

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  24. Ah come one, Ash, by posting all that stuff about downwinders I am reminding of history, not ignoring it. Learn from it rather, be on guard, but be reasonable. Arm oneself legally against the government, as has been done to a great extent. Recognize that was then, this is now.

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  25. Sure are, mat.

    That's the point.
    Solar's upfront costs are extremely prohibitive, as bob has told us many times, the downstream costs of nuclear are exaggerated by its' detractors.

    Palo Verde is a wonder to behold. Cheap electrical power for generations to come.

    Now, I'm all for solar technologies being improved and a decentralized infrastructure developed, but it is not a panacea.

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  26. I'd be more distrustful of Business than the government these days.

    The damage the government does these days is more through stupidity, than malice.

    Never let your guard down concerning Congress, both sides of the aisle.

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  27. The Pentagon just completed a year and a half long study that concluded there were none.

    Al Kibar is reported to have been Syrian/NORK collusion.

    Just endeavoring to keep us all on the straight and narrow, mat.

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  28. Dr. Bill has mentioned Palo Verde many times. Lights up much of Southern California, if I remember what he said.

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  29. It was reported by habu, trish, and debka, I do believe

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  30. Well, if we are not to believe it was a NorK operation, we cannot believe it actually existed, that Syrian reactor.

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  31. "The damage the government does these days is more through stupidity, than malice."

    You're going to have to keep this firmly in mind in the coming years of Democrat governance, bob.

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  32. Dr. Bill thinks the entire Department of Environmental Quality, and everybody in Sacramento ought to be fired. It's not that they have malice aforethought exactly, it's that they have no forethought at all, and love those plush government jobs.

    Fire em all, Dr. Bill says. Fire all your legislators, too. Bring in a whole new bunch.

    Kind of the same outlook as my lawyer.

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  33. Do away with the Civil Service, as well.
    Back to a spoils system, instead of the current one of enduring buerocratic empires.

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  34. and bobal, don't forget about the revolving door - the government and business are very tightly intertwined.

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  35. I won't forget it Ash. I agree it's pretty bad. But don't think the nature of man can be changed overnight. I think your heroes on the left may have a little problem here too.

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  36. That's right, ash.
    Almost all the doormen at my new local Wal-Mart are retired Postal workers.

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  37. Plus, Dr. Bill never ceases to remind, you can't light up LA and Vegas at night with solar. You'd have to store the energy. How you going to do that?

    His outlook is the environmentalists are the cause of all this hearthache, by stopping the nuclear industry years ago. Turning to coal fired plants. The environfrauds, as he calls them, are the very ones who have done the most to cause man made warming, if there is any; the very ones who are bitching now about the problem if there is one, they themselves have done the most to create.

    He's a level headed guy. There is a slight warming, he thinks, but warming has been going on anyway, and if there is an added amount, it's the envirowackos that have mostly caused it.

    We've never had a death from a nuclear power plant. Take a look at the coal industry, though it's gotten better.

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  38. DR,

    LOL, from Cheney to the Postal workers

    Bobal, I thought it was here I got referred to a storage scheme for solar. Basically the guy used solar to pump water uphill and then release the water through turbines at night. I don't know how practical it would be but it sounds like a creative solution.

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  39. :)Some guy called in last night--why don't we build our nuclear power plants in Mexico, he says.

    Because they are a sovereign country, he says, and you want to build the plants near as you can get to the end users. A lot is lost in those power lines, in transit. Bill is a very patient man.

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  40. It was reported by habu, trish, and debka, I do believe

    Wed Apr 30, 11:27:00 AM EDT

    Whoever thought I'd rank up there with habu and DEBKA. If I could get half their numbers nodding in solemn agreement, I'd go back to work.

    "It occurred to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day."

    Karl Rove (WSJ) knows how to hook an audience.

    His efforts are useless with this crowd, however.

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  41. "The Pentagon just completed a year and a half long study that concluded there were none.

    Al Kibar is reported to have been Syrian/NORK collusion.

    Just endeavoring to keep us all on the straight and narrow, mat."



    Right. So what's this:

    'Report on Sept. 6 strike to show Saddam transferred WMDs to Syria'

    THE JERUSALEM POST
    Apr. 7, 2008

    An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday.
    .
    .
    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207486215610&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

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  42. That might have been my meandering lame brain, there, Ash. I remember suggesting it, and saying, there's got to be something wrong with this picture. Where you going to put the water? How much energy would be lost in all this pumping etc. Maybe we could put some solar here, and pump water up to Dworshak, run it through the turbines at night. I don't know it would be practical. And as Dr. Bill says, it always comes back to that. You can do lots of stuff, but is it practical.

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  43. Well I'm sorry, mat, but channel 2 was in error. It was not so reported.

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  44. "Sure are, mat.
    That's the point."

    I don't think so. You're just being argumentative. Until you show me that these costs that I've outlined above have been factored in, I'll just leave it at that.

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  45. That pumping idea occured to me when I was having dinner with the Gabor girls, Ash.

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  46. It was not my intent to include you in the list of sources, trish. But to direct the answer to you. On a second reading, it is easy to see how that intent could be lost.

    "It was habu and debka that told us, trish."

    Would have been a better choice of phrasing, on my part

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  47. It's not for me to prove, nor to try to change your mind.

    You should show us the costs of the solar systems, per mega-watt of production. After you finish, I'll do the nuclear.

    Report back, when you're ready.

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  48. "Well I'm sorry, mat, but channel 2 was in error. It was not so reported."

    Until I understand who exactly is reporting this and see exactly what report we're talking about, I'm keeping to my position.

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  49. d'Rat

    http://seekingalpha.com/author/jack-yetiv

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  50. Here you go. We're Screwed Each candidates proposal will make things worse, in it's own way.

    Though I'm not in the class that golfs, I'm thinking of buying a golf cart. I live close enough to a grocery store to make it there and back, and can charge it up at night in the garage. If the coppers don't ticket me on the street. Or sidewalk.

    I might be able to figure a route through some alleys, or work it at night.
    ---
    Beware the pitfalls of language, Rat:)

    I'm drafted to plant a cherry tree, while it's cool.

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  51. "It was not my intent to include you in the list of sources, trish."

    S'okay. My batting average probably isn't any better.

    But, but...I know where the cafeteria is at The Ministry of Truth! And...the gym!

    I know the secret handshake, man!

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  52. Until I understand who exactly is reporting this and see exactly what report we're talking about, I'm keeping to my position.

    Wed Apr 30, 12:10:00 PM EDT

    Good to go.

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  53. That was a nonsensical to the conversation link, mat.
    A stock picker touting small Canadian comapies.

    Like "Canadian Solar" which has not even reached $1 Billion USD in annual sales.
    Their entire annual cash flow is matched by 12 hours of Saudi production.

    Mega-watts of power production of centralized solar plants, mat, that's your mission.
    To include the pumps and the dams, if we're goin' that route.

    I'll use the numbers for Palo Verde, my hometown nuke.

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  54. (The Ministry of Truth, NOT to be confused with The Ministry of Dark Subversion of Same.)

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  55. Your man admits he does not know the numbers, mat.

    The best evidence that utilities are starting to make apples-to-apples comparisons in deciding what kind of power "plant" to build is the decision last month by Southern California Edison to go "solar" for its recent needs for 250 megawatts (see yesterday's article for more details). Although I have no inside knowledge, it certainly seems likely that SCE compared solar to conventional sources of power and decided to go solar.

    The chances of another nuclear plant being built in CA is zilch, politically. Has nothing to do with the economics of nuclear vs solar, but for the fact the nuke would never get built. Tied up in legal battles for decades, where the solar experiment will be a PR bonaza, regardless of costs.

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  56. "That was a nonsensical to the conversation link, mat."

    Are you totally daft, or just pretending to be just to annoy me? There are at least 2 articles there talking about grid parity. It's there right in their title.

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  57. The costs, plus a "reasonable" return, guarenteed by the monoply operating agreements PG&E has with the State.

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  58. Read beyond the titles, to the economics and accounting, which is what you said you wanted, for proof.

    Not opinion pieces that lack reference or numbers.

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  59. Parity, mat, is not found in the economic effeciencies, but political ones.

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  60. "Has nothing to do with the economics of nuclear vs solar, but for the fact the nuke would never get built. Tied up in legal battles for decades, where the solar experiment will be a PR bonaza, regardless of costs."

    There you go.

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  61. The Gila, AZ solar plant, mat, for example.

    The one under consideration now, if the government subsidies are provides, the output will be four times as costly as from Palo Verde.

    Apples to Apples.

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  62. There you are, Solar is just a politcal PR game, at this point, with the technoligies available.

    Costs are not the issue, economics and sustainabilities are not the issue, but propaganda is.

    Wrong course to take, in my opinion.

    Decentralized solar has a future, but the centralized projects are a long way from economic parity.

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  63. "Costs are not the issue, economics and sustainabilities are not the issue, but propaganda is."

    That's not true. Read those articles to conclusion. Read the comments related. I think you'll come to recognize that economics and sustainability are very much the issue.

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  64. "The Gila, AZ solar plant, mat, for example.

The one under consideration now, if the government subsidies are provides, the output will be four times as costly as from Palo Verde.

Apples to Apples."

    Again, not true. Factor in today's and 10 years from now construction costs and inflation. Factor in 10 years of producing zero electricity while under construction, factor in insurance costs, litigation costs, waste disposal costs, security costs, then compare them apples.

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  65. Jason Somebody from the N Y Observer:

    [...]

    And it’s fair to wonder how the Democrats’ current plans—little debated in front of a solidly antiwar primary electorate and rarely examined, thanks to a never-ending supply of Geraldine Ferraros and Jeremiah Wrights and Sinbads—will hold up. (For the record: Mrs. Clinton advocates an open-ended withdrawal process starting in 60 days; Mr. Obama has called for a troop reduction effort starting immediately and ending in roughly 16 months.)

    As unappealing as Mr. McCain’s Iraq plan may be—a long-term commitment of troops in the pursuit of an unrealistically defined “victory”—his strategy does have the advantage of being easy to explain: Succeed at all costs.

    The Democratic nominee, by contrast, will be able to talk about bringing the troops home, but will also have to explain why Iraqi political progress will be facilitated by less security; why the prospect of a greater number of Iraqi civilian deaths is acceptable; and why, at least if the candidates are to be taken at their word, the realities on the ground in Baghdad, Basra and Sadr City will have little bearing on their withdrawal policies.

    “In 2006, Democrats were able to say we need to get out of Iraq, and it was a seemingly self-evident proposition to a lot of people,” said Andrei Cherny, editor of the foreign policy journal Democracy. “The situation right now is more murky, which means that whoever the nominee is is actually going to have to make an argument about why it’s in America’s interests and in the interests of Iraq for us to leave.”

    That argument has the potential to become more complicated, and not less, over the next six months.

    [...]





    All McCain really has to do is point to the shining example of Colombia, which has been battling an insurgency for 40 years through a succession of government administrations and strategies. And in the past ten of those, began winning. Five more and the FARC may be attritted down to three guys and 400 hostages. These things take time. It helps to have a functioning government. Maybe add 20 years in the absence of that.

    Regardless, whoever is CinC will keep on Petraeus and Odierno (and Gates, I think) and Petraeus and Odierno, politically worth their weight in gold, will determine who's leaving where, when, and whether.

    We could dispense with the pretense to debating strategy altogether and turn those energies to other issues that might actually benefit.

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  66. Apologies for the interjection. Subsidized alternative energies are not my thing.

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  67. "Apologies for the interjection. Subsidized alternative energies are not my thing."

    That is why you spend your time in a 400 sq ft toilet instead of a 4000 sq ft toilet.

    http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=FSLR&p=W&yr=1&mn=6&dy=0&id=p95140510041

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  68. I don't need a larger bath, mat, I need a fucking back yard.

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  69. What do you plan on doing in the back yard that you can't do in the toilet?

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  70. There's a smiley there, in case you didn't see it, Trish. :)

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  71. I hope your recovery goes well, cutler.

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  72. From today's Dennis Perrin post:

    "Another popular liberal tactic of late has been to equate Wright with the likes of John Hagee and Pat Robertson. Why won't the Democratic-hating media grill John McCain for his ties to outspoken religious cranks! they squeal, pale fists banging their laptops. I can't speak for the MSM, but the last time I looked, Wright denounces American terror and imperialism, while Hagee and Robertson excuse and defend the same. Indeed, for all of his theatrical flourishes, Wright attacks what is actually going on, while cataloguing what actually happened. Hagee and Robertson spin the violence and bigotry into something they consider beautiful and holy. On this front, American liberals are much closer to Hagee and Robertson's view of America than they are to Wright's, which explains much of their frenzied assaults on the man. When pushed, liberals sing the National Anthem faster and with more gusto than their reactionary cousins. Don't ever question their patriotism!

    Listening to black talk radio yesterday was like entering a parallel universe. Rev. Wright's comments were not controversial, nor were any of the hosts and callers surprised by white people's reactions. Some actually pitied whites for being so deluded about the country they dominate. And nearly everyone predicted that Obama would denounce and distance himself from Wright, as that was the only political choice he could make. They weren't happy about that, but they accepted it as part of the American deal, and nearly all whom I heard intend to vote for Obama in the general election (assuming Hillary finally sinks). I don't know if Wright's concept of white brains versus black brains has any scientific merit, but the difference was sparkling clear to me yesterday. Then again, I'm extremely solipsistic."

    http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/

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  73. (And if you're gonna be at the mother ship, tell 'em trish needs a back yard.)

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  74. George Bush stands by his friends when they step in it (Harriet Miers, Alberto Gonzales, Scooter Libby) so if this trait is admirable, then Barack Obama is to be admired. In his Philadelphia speech he refused to throw Wright under the wheels of the bus, even as he disavowed some of the things he said. But lately he realized that Reverend Wright had captured the news cycle for four days in a row, and was milking the publicity by making ever more outrageous statements that threatened to throw the Obama campaign totally off the rails. Obama expressed a lot of anger---not at his Pastor, but at the doo doo Wright was making on the red carpet Obama was supposed to stroll on into the White House.

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  75. "I don't know if Wright's concept of white brains versus black brains has any scientific merit..."

    Didn't Charles Murray and Richard Herrenstein argue that black brains are different from white brains (the former less capable than the latter) in The Bell Curve? I believe they also made the case therein for providing places for these apt human beings in local community work. Keep 'em in sight and outta trouble.

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  76. Lotta math in that book. Guess that made it kosher for a lot folks.

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  77. "And if the West only attempts monumental feats any more at the behest of despots, it is simply because tyrants can infuse the last flicker of human passion in a bosom grown numb and cold."

    - Wretchard

    I'm gonna vomit.

    (So would Ayn Rand.)

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  78. Science Equals Murder [John Derbyshire]

    In an interview with the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Ben Stein said the following amazing thing in an interview with Paul Crouch, Jr.

    Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.
    Crouch: That’s right.

    Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.
    Crouch: Good word, good word.

    You can see the whole shameful thing here. It's a pity Crouch didn't invite the Rev. Jeremiah Wright into the studio for a three-way conversation. It would have elevated the tone.

    Meanwhile, the Blood Libel character of what Stein is saying is beginning to dawn on thoughtful Jews. The Anti-Defamation League has issued a statement deploring Stein's Darwin-inspired-the Holocaust thesis.
    And there are NRO readers who are on board with this dreck? I need a drink.

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  79. Death on an industrialized scale, doug.

    Brought to you by engineers and scientists.

    Another inconvienent truth

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  80. Doing Time [John Derbyshire]

    The competition for Worst Idea of the Later Twentieth Century is certainly very fierce, but mass immigration of Muslims into Western societies is surely a strong contender.

    Let X be the proportion of Muslims in a European country's population. Let Y be the proportion of Muslims among the prisoners in that country's jails. What do X and Y look like for particular countries? The Washington Post tells us.

    Country-----X-----Y
    France-----12-----60
    Britain-----3-----11
    Netherlands-5.5---20
    Belgium-----2-----16

    Why is this a problem? Well, for one thing, says the Post:

    The prison system has only 100 Muslim clerics for [France]'s 200 prisons, compared with about 480 Catholic, 250 Protestant and 50 Jewish chaplains, even though Muslim inmates vastly outnumber prisoners of all other religions. "It is true that we haven't attained full equality among religions in prisons yet," said Sautière, the national prison official. "It is a matter of time."

    A matter of time. Right.

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  81. I've mentioned before one of my favorite professors in undergraduate, 75 years old and extraordinarily proper. To the point where he was flustered I saw him without a tie outside of class.

    After every test he'd go up to the front of the board, point out the recent "booboos," and lecture us about how we were all a bunch of illiterates who needed to learn how to write like William F. Buckley. After one test, he explained, visibly trying to hold back laughter, he explained that he had a real gem this time, perhaps the greatest he'd ever seen. By the time he'd finished writing "c-i-p-h-a-l-u-s" on the board, the entire class was hysterical.

    "The damage the government does these days is more through stupidity, than malice."

    For the record, the Tuskegee experiments began as the work of good-minded progressives, looking for a way to improve the health of African-Americans, at the expense of an unlucky few. It was also done with the full knowledge and participation of black medical professionals and research institutes.

    tagged
    enlightened; experts; good-intentions; hell

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  82. Actually, damn, I just remembered, it was "c-i-f-f-a-l-us."

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  83. Derb's vehemently anti-creation and pro-science. Apparently, one could almost call him a Darwinist. He admits that he hasn't seen the "stupid money" but then goes on to label it as creationist porn.

    I like Derb but on this issue, his is a closed mind.

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  84. Presumably someone in class was really, really trying to look in on the joke.

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  85. trish: Didn't Charles Murray and Richard Herrenstein argue that black brains are different from white brains (the former less capable than the latter) in The Bell Curve?

    Well, all brains are gray and white.

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  86. The problem isn't science, it's Darwinists pushing an atheistic agenda under the banner of science.

    Of course, it doesn't help that the backlash wants to put philosophy and theology into the science classroom.

    Why can't we all just get along?

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  87. Derb admits he hasn't seen the "stupid movie".

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  88. I'm a creationist. Creation happens all the time, always has, always will, cool water from an everflowing, always overflowing spring, always something more.

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  89. I can't get over that steelhead making it back to Troy, Idaho, for the first time in maybe 60 years.

    Map

    Directions

    Head up the Columbia from the coast past the Coumbia River dams, take a right at the Snake River and go over the Snake River dams to Leiston, hang a left up the Clearwater River and then another left up the Potlatch River past Julietta and Kendrick, then take a left up the Troy drainage, the hard paart, to the city park there. Spawn.

    I know the Nez Perce had done some work along the Potlatch, and the soil conservation and stream bank work by the government and farmers. I wonder from what hatchery the fish came, when it was planted there.


    There's something heartening and reassuring about this.

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  90. Just the other day I was reading a book about the history of salmon and steelhead, mostly in the Northwest and Canada.

    There was some restoration work going on, I think in British Columbia. Time was running out for the year, and so the guys dumped a big dump truck load of gravel in a little stream, thinking to come back the next spring, to smooth it over the river bottom, for spawning.

    When they got back, the fish had done it for them. Not water current, which was minimal, but the fish; they had worked the gravel along the bottom, making a perfect spawning bed there, just the way they wanted it. That's what the book said, written by a fisheries biologist and salmon and steelhead lover.

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  91. Darwin was not a "Darwinist" in the way it is defined by those equating Darwin with Hitler.

    Whether Derb has seen the movie or not, Stein's utterances there are abysmally stupid.
    ---
    I guess none of Stein's family was cruelly exposed to the deadly vaccine produced by the Evil Joo, Dr Jonas Salk.

    Personally, I'm never taking any medicine produced by evil scientists, ever again.

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  92. (since science = the gulags!)

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  93. Dawkins is an atheist huckster, not in Darwin's league.

    If people call him a Darwinist, it's not Darwin's fault!

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  94. An exhibit at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) celebrating Charles Darwin almost failed to open until an unlikely donor came through: the United Church Observer, the independent magazine of the United Church of Canada.

    Before the Observer and the only other donor, the Humanist Association of Canada, came forward, the ROM had approached between 40 to 50 companies and patrons but none wanted to support the show, entitled The Evolution Revolution, because it was deemed too controversial.

    Mr. Darwin’s theories of evolution and natural selection have outraged various religious groups but the Observer’s editor and publisher, David Wilson, said he saw no conflict in sponsoring the exhibit. “There is an inherent beauty in the theory of natural selection that illuminates the inherent beauty and wonder of creation,” he told the Toronto Star.


    Evolution Exhibit

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  95. The steelhead have returned to
    Troy, Sam, first stop on the Boville beer run!:)

    Pop one of those aussie brews.

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  96. Will do! Neat! How long since they've been there?

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  97. I never knew they'd ever been there. About 50-60 years is my best quess.

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  98. Wwell, second stop, Moscow being the first.

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  99. Or third if you're from Pullman:)

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  100. France's top diplomat sought help from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday to press for the liberation of rebel-held hostages in Colombia.

    Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is aiming to kick-start talks to free hostages who include French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.
    «We spoke about the liberation of the hostages, all of the hostages _ of course Ingrid, but also all of the others,» Kouchner said after emerging from the presidential palace.

    He revealed few details of their talks.


    Hostages in Colombia

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  101. Pity I can't vote-in a little girl for President.

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  102. Trish: Didn't Charles Murray and Richard Herrenstein argue that black brains are different from white brains (the former less capable than the latter) in The Bell Curve?

    One of the criticisms of that book is that it tosses out evidence that white kids from the Appalachian country did just as poorly as blacks in the tests that tried to narrow intelligence down to a single quantity. So the conclusion is that IQ is not about race, but is about the little bits of data you pick up every day in the circles you run with. Me, I don't know squat about cars or fishing.

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  103. To be honest, T, I found the very premise of the book...revolting and depressing. But, yes, I read it. Skipping over most of the inferential statistics and whatnot, having an organic aversion to anything more demanding than advanced addition and subtraction, though the daughter of a math genius. I am mathematically retarded. (There you go, Charles Murray.)

    I also cannot change a tire, bake a pie, speak French (though I can speak English with a French accent, which talent nobody in Brussels or Paris truly appreciates), eat BBQ, or drive and chew gum at the same time.

    (Trish doesn't fish because the fish die. Ditto, hunt.)

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  104. “Senator McCain has been very critical of the current administration in terms of the out-of-control federal spending,” his adviser notes. “He means it when he says he’ll veto every one of these pork-laden bills that come before his desk as president.

    He’s sick of borrowing money from China to pay for wasteful products. Senator Clinton has asked for $2.3 billion in pork-barrel earmark projects.

    It’s outrageous, and Senator McCain is going to do something about it.”


    McCain Critical

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  105. Sam, I tried making the argument for McCain such that tax cuts have probably gone as far as they're going for awhile and it's time to concentrate on runaway spending, which McCain does well and which is a desperately neglected conservative tenet.

    His supporters are still in the minority, or mightily sour, here at the (ahem) Elephant Bar.

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  106. Obama has asserted his personal judgment, free will, and right to speak for himself. This assertion was made against those who believe people are automatons programmed by others around them, whether directly or through 17 years of osmosis. Individualism used to be a conservative value. But this year Righties have bought into the "society made me what I am" argument when it comes to Obama and his church.

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  107. Oprah cut herself free. Obama could have done the same. So either he is weak willed and mesmerized, or he liked the church and its outlook.

    Oprah for Prez.

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  108. Or he joined up out of political expediency in the first place, and hung around too long.

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  109. "Individualism used to be a conservative value."

    Kinda-sorta. Conservatives have a long love/hate relationship with individualism.

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  110. What does the Assclown call the President?
    (can't catch the word)

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  111. I respect Senator Obama for sending his young girls to a racist, hate-filled church, al-Bob, you hush up!

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  112. The DEMOCRATS hurt YOU at the pump. The DEMOCRATS stall energy production.

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  113. Granted, nuclear power plants are expensive -- about $3 billion each.

    Drop in the bucket.

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  114. Obama opposes secret ballots for unions!

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  115. What will they think of next?

    A But-They-All-Really-Want-Peace Update -- details at Israel Matzav:

    Jewish leaders planned the Holocaust to kill "disabled and handicapped" Jews to avoid having to care for them, according to a Hamas TV educational program. As much of the world prepared to commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hamas TV presented its latest sinister twist on Holocaust denial.
    The Hamas TV educational program, broadcast last week, taught that the murder of Jews in the Holocaust was a Zionist plot with two goals:

    1- To eliminate "disabled and handicapped" Jews by sending them to death camps, so they would not be a burden on the future state of Israel.

    2- At the same time, the Holocaust served to make "the Jews seem persecuted" so they could "benefit from international sympathy."


    That second goal -- making a group seem persecuted in order to benefit from international sympathy -- is one that Islamic groups in the U.S. and elsewhere have adopted for themselves, and they pursue it quite skillfully.

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  116. Is that right, Doug? Hadn't heard that one. That says a hell of a lot.

    See you in the re-education camp.

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  117. Normal EB'rs are from Mars,
    'Rat and T, Venus.

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  118. Bobal: The DEMOCRATS stall energy production.

    Maybe. I'm not sure how much of a relief drilling the ANWR would provide. Oil futures is where the party went with their money after cashing out their bad mortgage paper, which in turn was the landing spot for people getting out of dot coms back in the day. Every day about thirty times more oil is traded on paper than is shipped by boat. And the dropping US dollar doesn't help. All people know is that gas was about a buck forty when Bush took office, and now it's four bucks.

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  119. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig is still around for a few more months. He has the 'right stance' on this.(if true) He says:

    China is actively exploring oil fields 50 miles from Key West, Florida. U.S. companies are barred from working in this area because of U.S. policy . So, instead of allowing the most environmentally responsible companies to operate there and increase our domestic supply, China, who has a dismal environmental record, is sucking close, lucrative oil reserves dry.

    He will be missed, won't he?

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  120. I condemn them for the nuclear policy, mainly, T. Over the years it's been the dems in bed with the envirowackos, mostly.

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  121. Bob posted Kagan from the Atlantic online:

    "Colombia is what Iraq should eventually look like, in our best dreams. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has fought -- and is winning -- a counterinsurgency war even as he has liberalized the economy, strengthened institutions, and improved human rights. Nuri al Maliki and Hamid Karzai could learn from him."

    The differences are SO vast, the advantages of this country SO much the greater.

    And being here makes me feel truly sorry for those endeavoring to do the same in the sand box.

    Ain't no comparison, even walking decades back in time.

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  122. FRANKENSTEIN GIVES THE WES SNIPES DEFENSE--MY ACCOUNTANT MADE ME DO IT

    Franken Owes $70K
    Posted by REID WILSON | E-Mail This | Permalink | Email Author
    After building his name recognition, campaign war chest and overall credibility and all but securing the Democratic nomination for Senate in Minnesota, satirist Al Franken has stumbled in recent weeks as repeated revelations about his business dealings have made for splashy headlines. Now, Franken has paid $70,000 in back taxes and fines in 17 states where he earned money in recent years, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported today.

    Franken blamed his accountant, with whom he has done business for eighteen years, of making fundamental errors that caused the oversights. Those oversights led to overpayments in Franken's two home states, Minnesota and New York, and non-payment in the more than a dozen other states where Franken earned money, usually through appearance and speaking fees. Franken maintained that, after the overpayment, he owed just $4,000 more in taxes, according to an early estimation by his new financial handlers.

    The disclosure comes a month and a half after Franken's company, Alan Franken Inc., was charged a $25,000 penalty by the New York State Workers' Compensation Board for not buying workers' comp insurance, as the Star-Tribune reported in mid-March. After an internal investigation, Franken admitted the mistake and paid the fine.

    Franken's candidacy was initially greeted with some skepticism from Minnesota Democrats, who wondered whether putting a comedian with a long history of raunchy jokes up against a sitting Senator was a good idea. But Franken raised a significant amount of money, outpacing -- and outspending -- Republican Norm Coleman several quarters in a row. Recent polls have shown the race close, with Coleman leading but near the margin of error.

    But Franken's follies could bring a renewed sense of angst to the state's Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party, which since Coleman's election in 2002 has been itching for the opportunity to oust the Republican from office. Coleman won election after the death of incumbent Senator Paul Wellstone, whom Coleman had been trailing in polls.

    While Franken retains a good chance at knocking off Coleman -- Minnesota is one of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's top targets -- he has seen his poll numbers slip in recent weeks. A rebound of some sort sooner, rather than later, is hugely important to Franken. Too, his research team, which might have caught the mistake before it was discovered by Republicans and the media, might want to go back and take a look at their candidate's record one more time to avoid future missteps.

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  123. Yeah, I was wondering what your view of that would be, Trish.

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  124. Bobal: He will be missed, won't he?

    Maybe you can buy him a parting gift.

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  125. On the other hand, if we are determined to elect a real zoo this time around, Al Franken might fit right in. But which cage? Oh, that's right, there will be no cages, no fences.

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  126. I thought I might buy him a life time pass to some fancy pay toilet somewhere, T. But I'm not that big a spender.

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  127. How are you gonna sell nuclear, bob, to a populace that deeply imbibes nightly news programs with teasers like, "IS YOUR TOOTHPASTE SAFE?"

    For that matter, how will McCain?

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  128. I think the attitudes are changing a bit, Trish. In their minds, the question arises, would I rather die of radiation or heat stroke. This focuses the mind a bit, and at least narrows the options. And if, in their minds, they get it figured out that heat stroke is a certainty unless the chance of radiation is run, why, we're in like Flint.

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  129. The exploration was conducted by a team of scientists of Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), Hyderabad, comprising K Jagannadha Rao, AV Subramanyam, Abhinab Kumar, TC Sushil and AK Chaturvedi and published in the latest issue of ‘Current Science’ journal.

    The discovery assumes immense significance as all the minerals have valuable industrial uses. Ilmenite and rutile are ores of titanium and have important utility as base in paint, paper, plastic applications.

    Rutile is widely used as welding electrode covering too. Zircon is used for abrasive and insulatory purposes while larger specimens are considered gemstones.


    Heavy with Minerals

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  130. It's 3am, and a call comes into the White House. Who do want to Answer The Call?

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  131. Things are looking up for Clinton in North Carolina

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  132. Ain't no comparison, even walking decades back in time.

    Wed Apr 30, 11:16:00 PM EDT

    Let me revise and extend.

    It CAN be done in Afghanistan, so long as there is consistency of strategy and effort, which there has not been.

    Iraq is a tougher nut, but the same approach can only improve things, if not bring about a miraculous cure.

    Is Petraeus smart enough to recognize this? Why, yes, he is.

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  133. I don't have a sweet tooth and so, unlike my brother, never bothered to learn to bake.

    I do a wicked lasagna, though.

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  134. This is kind of neat. From a guy who does not believe in crop circles,(a pre-emptive defense against Doug) I present Israel At Sixty

    Farmers around here don't do field art much. Most land is too steep or undulating, making it difficult. If you move in crop circle circles as I do listening to C2C, you'll notice they are invariably on pretty flat land. The boys with the 2x4's on their feet find the going tough uphill, in the night. We do have(had, deceased) a farmer, Sig Jorstad, who had a huge shop sort of in the style of the Kibbie Sports Dome at the U of I, so old Sig painted on there 'Siggie Dome', in real nice letters, that you can see from the highway.

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  135. How flat was the land you farmed, Albob?

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  136. Some pretty flat, some so step make you pee your pants combining it.

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  137. "Obama has asserted his personal judgment, free will, and right to speak for himself. This assertion was made against those who believe people are automatons programmed by others around them, whether directly or through 17 years of osmosis. Individualism used to be a conservative value. But this year Righties have bought into the "society made me what I am" argument when it comes to Obama and his church."

    Bullshit.

    Society didn't make Obama actively seek out a racist church.

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