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."
Wonder what event Laura was watching?
ReplyDeleteAt least there is SOMETHING I can relate to Regarding W(USS.)
ReplyDelete- Russian jets targeted major oil pipeline-Georgia -
ReplyDelete- Russian fighter jets targeted the the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline which carries oil to the West from Asia but missed, Georgia's Economic Development Minister Ekaterina Sharashidze said on Saturday. "This clearly shows that Russia has not just targeted Georgian economic outlets but international economic outlets in Georgia," she said at a news briefing. There have been no independent verifications of Russian jets targeting the BTC pipeline.
Georgia and Russia Nearing All-Out War
Moscow Broadens Its Air Campaign; Bush Calls for Halt
Russia and Georgia veered closer to war in clashes that appeared to be Moscow’s worst since the ’80s. Russia said 1,500 civilians were killed in South Ossetia.
Checkin' George checkin' that tat in the small of Ms May's back.
ReplyDeleteWonder what Vald saw, when he looked in George's eyes?
PRESIDENT BUSH: ... I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country. And I appreciated so very much the frank dialogue.
We always looked at the change of Administration here in the US and wondered how it would effect the efforts in Iraq, Middle East and Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteRest assurred that Prime Minister Putin understands lameduck politics, too. They may have been planning this schedule of events for quite a while.
As the Election, then the transition, draw ever closer, how many other flash points will erupt?
ReplyDeleteIf there is a world-wide antiUS conspiracy, now is the time to strike, across the board.
How does thie Georgia scenario effect the Czechs and the radar system deployment?
DR: Wonder what event Laura was watching?
ReplyDeleteI dunno, but I betcha Condi was watching this event.
Next time you hear the story that America is uninsured remember this:
ReplyDeleteFLORIDA KIDCARE INCREASES ENROLLMENT
Gov. Crist and the Florida Legislature this year approved more funding for Florida KidCare, which will enable 38,000 more uninsured children to join the federally subsidized program and obtain healthcare coverage. Florida Realtors may want to investigate KidCare, now that the program is open to all families regardless of income. Officials note that the program is free for those eligible for Medicaid. Monthly premiums depend on your household's size and income. Most families pay $15 or $20 a month. If you need to pay more, Florida KidCare will let you know. The full monthly premium to enroll in KidCare is about $128 - less expensive than most private insurance. More than 1.4 million children are enrolled in Florida KidCare, which gives them access to preventive care such as regular doctor visits, immunizations, dental check-ups and prescriptions. For more information or to apply for Florida KidCare, go to www.floridakidcare.org. You can also call 1-888-540-5437 to receive an application by mail.
I'm sure programs like this are widely available across the states. Notice it said most people pay only $15 or $20 per month?
With the Federals and the State subsidizing the balance of the $128 market rate.
ReplyDeleteFor all the children.
So that if $128 or less is lower than JQ Public employeers rate, they opt the kids out and let the government make the payment.
Just a step away from requiring all children to be covered by KidCare, to assure fairness.
Ms Walsh is familar with a stray hand be placed on her ass
ReplyDeleteCan't make out the tat, in this shot either.
I am glad W went, glad he is mixing with the athletes (of course no pics of him riding mountain bikes all day with a bunch of guys), and I am glad he blistered the Chinese with retoric before he went.
ReplyDeleteNice scratch on his arm, probably from the bike ride.
Ms. T
ReplyDeletesurely your not suggesting....?
Suggesting what?
ReplyDeleteShe's just reporting the fact in a humorous manner.
Edwards Fan
ReplyDeleteJohn Edwards' False Assertion During The ABC Interview
WOODRUFF: When you hired Ms. Hunter, that was back in 2006, the committee hired in July 2006, paid her $114,000 to make films for you... Uh was the affair going on when you hired her?
EDWARDS: No. No. And again, I always said this to you, I don't think I'm going to go through the details of this, I already did it with Elizabeth-- uh, she was hired to come in and produce films and that's the reason she was hired.
WOODRUFF: But this had nothing to do with the fact that you were having an affair with her?
EDWARDS: Same answer. Same answer -- no I did not.
WOODRUFF: So you hired her before it even started?
EDWARDS: That is correct.
---
A review of political action committee payments, contemporaneous reporting, and emails obtained by the Huffington Post reveal this statement to be false.
Edwards and Hunter initially met each other sometime during the winter of 2006 (either late December 2005 or early January) in a hotel restaurant in midtown Manhattan. It would be another seven months before Edwards would first pay her for the documentary work. As Woodruff rightfully noted, the initial check cut to Hunter's film company was written on July 5, 2006, for the cost of $12,500.
What happened in between that winter meeting and the start of filming? Emails sent by Hunter suggest that her romance with Edwards was in full bloom that spring. In early April, Hunter wrote about a trip she had taken to North Carolina to see the man whom she affectionately referred to as "my love lips."
A week later she wrote another email...
---
PatCroft
Who cares? Really! What does it matter?
You know Edwards photo was plastered on every major newspaper in the country today with head lines such as liar, and cheater. What the hell is wrong with us.
Bush took us to war and lied to us regularly and he is not mentioned for any of his public demons. What the hell is going on.
I like Edwards and think of him still as a great statesman.
I don't like Bush and think of him as a scoundrel.
Too bad she's not a patriotic Lesbo like Tammy Bruce.
ReplyDeleteShoulda stayed w/her coeds at Stanford.
Man, that Walsh Skank is a piece of work!
ReplyDeleteIn Georgia Clash, a Lesson on U.S. Need for Russia
ReplyDeleteNy Time's view:
While America considers Georgia an ally, it needs Russia too much on issues like Iran to risk it all to back Georgia.
Candidates’ Reactions Offer Hints at Style on World Stage
Belmont Club is quite detailed in gleaning the sad facts now taking place in Georgia.
ReplyDeleteWe have become a genuine Paper Tiger.
Think how powerful Russia will be if they end up with all the Petro resources of places like Turkmenistan, et al.
Well, it's become quite clear the provocateur in this situation has been the regime in Tbilisi. Unfortunately for the Georgians, they badly miscalculated Russia's mood and patience for these shenanigans. Israel will most likely stop all military business with the Georgians. That would be correct decision.
ReplyDeleteFred said,
ReplyDelete" I feel badly for the Georgians. They took a risk in becoming allies of ours.
They sent troops to Iraq and they believed in us"
---
And look what it got them.
I feel sorry for the whole damned World.
Have the Georgians really shot down 10 Russian planes?
ReplyDeleteFrom previous thread, T said,
ReplyDelete"The Iraq War was sold to us as a self-financing operation, paid for by Iraqi oil.
We can't even get a discount for our military forces in theater."
---
Think how far we've come in a single generation in the same family!
From Desert Storm being fairly financed to a typical "Conservative" W/Schwarzenegger Style Financial Debacle.
You're alot closer to Georgia than me, Rufus, you tell me!
ReplyDeleteThat would be ^the correct decision.
ReplyDelete==
Doug,
All the Georgians will be left with is rubble. Want to help them, don't help them.
buddy larsen said:
ReplyDeleteI don’t know what to make of this. i think the linlk came from a comment here, not sure, been all over the web today. But this is hair-raising in the extreme. Note he announced the Georgian move a day before it began. The naval order of battle –is this true? Is this combined fleet described here, on the high seas tonight, and heading for a blockade of Iran? Who is this guy, the blogger –?
"FURTHER UPDATE ~ Russian military forces in active combat; now total of four Russian fighter jets reported downed. ADDITIONAL UPDATE ~ Georgia calls for US help; Russian Air Force bombs Georgian air bases. DEBKA, the Israeli strategy and military site, states that Israeli military officers are advising the Georgian armed forces in combat operations and that 1,000 Israelis are in-combat on the side of Georgia at this time. "
ReplyDelete---
Wish Debka was right instead of you, Mat, but wishing don't make it so, do it?
"DEBKA, the Israeli strategy and military site, states that Israeli military officers are advising the Georgian armed forces in combat operations and that 1,000 Israelis are in-combat on the side of Georgia at this time."
ReplyDeleteIt could be true. But these would be former Georgian nationals that moved to Israel acting on their own private initiative.
Btw,
ReplyDeleteIf true, I think these people should be hauled to court and indicted for divulging military secrets.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think we done "cut a deal" with Putin. Sorry Georgia.
ReplyDeleteThe "Great Game" continues.
The days of prosecuting anyone, for damned near anything, (other than allies like Libby, or patriots like the border guards) are long gone under GWB.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget "Pants"
----
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy, saying that that agency had
conducted no telephone surveillance of Americans without obtaining a warrant in
advance since he became
Director of National Intelligence in February, 2007.[21]
McConnell called FISA a "foundational law" with "important legacy of protecting
the rights of Americans," which was passed in the era of Watergate and in the
aftermath of the Church and Pike investigations. He stressed that changes should
honor that legacy for privacy and against foreign threats.
[22]
This is what I MEANT to paste:
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday, August 14, 2007, McConnell visited Texas with House Intelligence
Committee chairman
Silvestre Reyes to review border security[9], and
granted a wide-ranging interview to the
El Paso Times
newspaper, which surprised many in the intelligence community for its candor on
sensitive topics such as the recent changes in the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the
NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. At the end of the interview,
McConnell cautioned reporter Chris Roberts that he should consider whether
enemies of the U.S. could gain from the information he just shared, leaving it
up to the paper to decide what to publish. The El Paso Times put the entire,
unexpurgated interview on their website on August 22nd, with executive editor
Dionicio Flores saying "I don't believe it damaged national security or
endangered any of our people."[10][11]
A resurgent Taliban is back
in charge over parts of
Afghanistan McConnell told CNN on
February 27,
2008 in an assessment that
differed from the one made January 2008 by
Defense Secretary
Robert Gates.[12]
38 dead after being bitten by vampire bats
ReplyDeleteCARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- At least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela, and medical experts suspect an outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats.
Laboratory investigations have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms point to rabies, according to two researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and other medical experts.
The two UC Berkeley researchers -- the husband-and-wife team of anthropologist Charles Briggs and public health specialist Dr. Clara Mantini-Briggs -- said the symptoms include fever, body pains, tingling in the feet followed by progressive paralysis, and an extreme fear of water. Victims tend to have convulsions and grow rigid before death.
Dr. Charles Rupprecht, chief of the rabies program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, agreed with their preliminary diagnosis.
Welcome to Peak Oil
ReplyDelete(and, in Ms Walsh's case - Peak "Ass.")
The longer you look, the more perfection you see.
ReplyDeleteThe proprietors should acquire some escorts like for the faithful EB patrons.
Captain Charles gets kudos at BC, wish I could believe.
ReplyDelete---
"So then, what can we do? Nothing…that would be a fatal mistake. NATO: don’t make me laugh. With the exception of France, the majority of the major players are prisoners to their pipelines…from the east. The UN? Bwahahahahahaha. You must kidding.
What would I do? 1.] Send Putin a message: cease all military activity, or else. 2.] If that doesn’t work (give it 6-12 hours), send 3 B-2s in the dark of the night. 2 to Kodori Gorge and JDAM the road going to Georgia, 1 to Roki Tunnel and leave a present: 6 GBU-28’s. Two into the tunnel and other 4 onto tunnel mouth. Now for the riskiest part: drop 1 brigade of the 82nd into Georgia athwart the Abkhazia border and double down on Putin. If you have to send a message, you might as well make it unmistakable.
Putin may ambitious, cunning and ruthless, but stupid he ain’t. He’ll stomp on little Georgia ’till the sun comes up, but going toe-to-toe with the US? Like I said, he ain’t stupid. Besides, it’s long past time to send a message to our friends, and our enemies. Might as well be now."
It's from C4, but have to say I agree.
ReplyDeleteKosovo has to be our biggest fuckup in modern history.
(other than open borders and turning our cities over to MS-13)
---
"Pretty true. Russia’s loss of status as Serbia’s protector over the invading Muslims in Kosovo still burns them mightily. The US would have likely found the Russians far more cooperative on pipelines, Iran, border disputes, Venezuela arms, and E Europe if we hadn’t disregarded G. H. Bush’s warning to remain away from kicking them when they were temporily weaken and down, to avoid rubbing Russian noses in it. We ignored Bush I’s advice, even Reagan’s desires that we treat Russia with respect and friendship - beginning in the mid-90s, when Republican neocons and some Clintonistas with lips planted on China’s ass - went for every way to screw Russia they could…
Now with the 3rd strongest support of it’s people of any major nation (54%), China is tops at 86% approval…(US only has 18% approval of it’s government policies) - A resurgent, energy-exporting Russia has a the confidence, the money, and firm backing of it’s people to seek little payback for the Origarchs, neocons, and USA Cold War hawks in mind.
"
Anybody know what these rockets are, or link to info?
ReplyDeleteReader's Digest Condensed Offering of 106 comment thread at BC "Who's Winning in Georgia?"
ReplyDeleteCPT. Charles:
My summation:
1.] The initial thrust through the Roki Tunnel was a crap-shoot. By the terrain maps provided, sending an armored column down a narrow valley only works if a.) one has sufficient space to redeploy to line of battle [a standard Soviet action…advance in column (speed), reconfigure to battalions-in-line (max firepower); or b.) your opponents are too busy shitting in their pants to take effective action. Based on reports, the Georgians chose c.) allow your enemies’ column to fully enter a preregistered ‘kill box’ and ‘fire for effect’. As to the commander of the 58th getting wacked, that’s easy: I was taught…kill anything with more than 2 radio antennas, they’re the leaders. Unless things have changed dramatically, an organized Russian attack force is death on treads. A leaderless Russian force is a mob going forward on inertia alone.
As to the tunnel being open or not, that’s irrelevant. It’s a choke point; if the Georgians have indirect fire weapons within effective range, it’s a death trap. In either case the Georgians most likely have the GPS coordinates for the area in question. Without effective Air Defense assets [my No. 2 priority of things to kill…] the tunnel is still a death trap.
2.] The Kodori Gorge. This is a secondary axis of attack. After looking at the Google map, this a second crap shoot. Will it work? Yes if, a.) the Georgians are stretched too thin to effectively block a thrust out of the gorge. b.)The Russians have sufficient air assets to break any defensive line the Georgians put up. Without a.) AND b.), it’s a bigger death trap than the Roki tunnel mouth. I sincerely hope the Georgians have GPS coords on key points of the gorge.
3.] The Black Sea gambit. Purpose: economic isolation. The Georgian navy isn’t much look at, but they do have Exocet and C802 anti-ship missiles at their disposal. The Russians ignore the fact at their peril. Secondary effect: further dispersal of their defensive elements; the Georgian army can’t be everywhere at once. Besides, if the Russians do an amphibious assault, their pretense of ‘defense of Russian nationals’ will be laid bare. Besides, activating that option means 1.] & 2.] above are a total bust.
4.] Strategic bombers and Scuds? If true, this Russia over-playing it’s hand. Bringing that level of weapons systems to bear will change the geopolitical dynamic, considerably.
So then, what can we do? Nothing…that would be a fatal mistake. NATO: don’t make me laugh. With the exception of France, the majority of the major players are prisoners to their pipelines…from the east. The UN? Bwahahahahahaha. You must kidding.
What would I do? 1.] Send Putin a message: cease all military activity, or else. 2.] If that doesn’t work (give it 6-12 hours), send 3 B-2s in the dark of the night. 2 to Kodori Gorge and JDAM the road going to Georgia, 1 to Roki Tunnel and leave a present: 6 GBU-28’s. Two into the tunnel and other 4 onto tunnel mouth. Now for the riskiest part: drop 1 brigade of the 82nd into Georgia athwart the Abkhazia border and double down on Putin. If you have to send a message, you might as well make it unmistakable.
Putin may ambitious, cunning and ruthless, but stupid he ain’t. He’ll stomp on little Georgia ’till the sun comes up, but going toe-to-toe with the US? Like I said, he ain’t stupid. Besides, it’s long past time to send a message to our friends, and our enemies. Might as well be now.
Aug 9, 2008 - 11:14 pm
[Apologies if I've done a redundancy...I'm just dropping by on my way to bed.]
Linear, move that to the next thread.
ReplyDelete"May-Treanor then appeared to offer Mr Bush, who later went on to make a statement about the developing situation in Georgia,
ReplyDeleteto spank her bottom as a symbol of encouragement.
He took a more restrained view, tapping her lightly on the lower back instead. "
The most perfect ass.
ReplyDeleteWhat would Clinton have done or Edwards for that matter?
ReplyDeleteThey would'a "Hit that Ass!"
ReplyDeleteOh, wait . . . . No. They weren't into perfect asses.
They would'a got all excited, and gone found a fat "groupie" to grope. Then, got her pregnant, or something.
LEONARDO DA VINCI
ReplyDeleteVendesi completa ricerca su Leonardo Da Vinci
Urgente
liubafinessa@yahoo.it
THANKS