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."

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Fat Tuesday at the EB - How's it goin?




79 comments:

  1. HONOLULU — State officials in Hawaii on Monday said they have once again checked and confirmed that President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen, and therefore meets a key constitutional requirement for being president.

    They hoped to stem a recent surge in the number of inquiries about Obama's birthplace.

    "I ... have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen," Health Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said in a brief statement. "I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008 over eight months ago.
    "

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  2. Ahhh. The elusive Mountain Girl...

    ---

    ...have a cup of Rock 'n Rye
    Farewell to you old southern sky
    I'm on my waaaay!

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  3. I must say, lineman, that your musical selections more closely mirror my own. More so than rufus's old time Rockin' Blues.

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  4. 8 killed in $7-million Baghdad bank robbery.

    It was the second deadly robbery in a week in Baghdad's commercial Karradah district. Although violence has dropped dramatically over the past two years, the number of robberies in Iraq appears to be on the rise.


    A special committee made up of Iraqi army, police and bank officials was formed to investigate the robbery, which netted 8 billion Iraqi Dinars ($6.9 million), said an Interior Ministry official.

    The gunmen broke into the state-run Rafidain Bank about 4 a.m., killing three on-duty guards and five others on the premises, who were either on a break or asleep, said an Iraqi police official.

    Investigators believe that the gunmen used silencers on their weapons because witnesses and neighbors said they didn't hear any gunshots
    .

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  5. The stories we could tell...

    Must hit the hay.

    Nite, rat.

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  6. Jeezus! That nut with the surf board and parachute's been watchin' too many Road Runner cartoons.

    That's a keeper, Viktor! Gotta show it to my son.

    Well...maybe on second thought...

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  7. 'Birthers' Are Truly Certifiable.
    By Debra Saunders.

    The video features an angry woman in red, armed with a birth certificate and a small American flag, scolding Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., at a town meeting. She is angry, she said, because President Obama "is not an American citizen. He is a citizen of Kenya."

    Castle, a descendant of Benjamin Franklin, seemed to not know how to respond. He calmly replied that Obama is a citizen. Some audience members booed. "You can boo," Castle told them, "but he is a citizen of the United States."

    There's no good way to address a "birther" -- that's the term for conspiracy theorists who believe that Obama has produced a fake Hawaiian birth certificate to cover up the fact that he really was born in Kenya.

    Facts don't matter to these geniuses. They don't care that numerous major news organizations, the nonpartisan Factcheck.org and Hawaii's GOP Gov. Linda Lingle have vouched for the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate. Or that the Honolulu Advertiser ran a birth announcement in August 1961.
    ...
    Every time the "birthers" open their mouths, they hurt themselves and add polish to the image of Barack Obama, our American president.

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  8. Rat said...
    "Just rounding up the usual suspects, viktor.

    I wanted to use the oblisk reference. 2001 being all about the oblisks."

    Heh, heh. Not much gets by you, Rat. You're very sharp. So is Doug.

    And you both have grit. Real grit. That's hard to find.

    If we were friends we would get drunk and argue all the time.

    But, then, that's what friends are for.

    Thu Jul 23, 09:03:00 PM EDT

    I have to leave town for a couple of days but I want to clear something up before I go.

    I thought I paid you and Doug a helluva compliment last Thurs. However, the silence from the both of you is deafening.

    Therefore, I conclude that you thought I was being sarcastic.

    Not so, Rat. Not so, Doug. The compliment I paid you two is close to being as high a compliment as I have ever paid any man.

    The two essential qualities in a man are grit and intelligence. All the rest is detail.

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  9. I hope those robbers had a big truck to haul the money away. 1 US dollar equals 1170 Iraqi Dinars.

    Viktor- Rat and Doug are just too humble for their own good!

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  10. That's it Viktor!
    Pure humility.
    esp. 'Rat.

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  11. Cocaine bust of tiger attack victim

    Kulbir Dhaliwal recently split with his younger brother Amritpal "Paul" Dhaliwal what remained of a $900,000 settlement the zoo paid them in connection with the attack.

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  12. (Doug wanting no part of Desert Rat,
    Desert Rat wanting no part of Doug the Slug.)

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  13. Doug,

    did you see Jon Stewart and The Daily Show last night? Bill Kristol was on and Jon got him to admit that the Government can run a top notch, as in offering THE BEST health care. What led him there was Bill's admission that the military, get, and deserve, the best in health care. It is online if you want to see it.

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  14. Whatever Billy has to say Ash:
    The Military example bears no relationship to the atrocity that the Dems want to inflict on us.
    ...so I won't wast my time.

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  15. Did you spend YOUR time watching that video of the Cambridge Cops?

    ...if so, your reaction, please.

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  16. If the original long form birth certificate exists?

    show it...


    what does the ONE fear from releasing it?

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  17. We cut 2 of our part timers down by 70%!



    Just doing my part to help reduce my payroll taxes!

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  18. More US aid going to help the palios!

    This time...

    A museum to Yasser "i died of aids" arafat....

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  19. 15,000 palio's being resettled from iraq into LA


    thanks b hussein!




    in after thought?

    LA deserves the palios....

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  20. The Iranians in LA should run the Pals out before they spoil it for everyone.

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  21. b hussein is setting up regional conflicts...

    why?

    i think he strives towards having crisis..

    that way he gets his way...

    what is "his" way?

    dont know fur sure... but I doesnt sound good...

    minimum wages go up, middle class wages go down...

    the very poorest of the country get medical coverage equal to what those in the middle class struggle to pay for...

    can we say "redistribute the wealth"?

    I get the feeling of 1984/soylent green/atlas shrugged world is dawning on us...


    Today China lectured the USA on debt...

    When will the USA seek copyright infringement from China for stealing about 3 trillion dollars worth of property in the last 10 years?

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  22. Black man supports his white police comrade - whoopie shit. Still doesn't address the fact that the cops "acted stupidly". Man tries to get into his house and cops quiz him. He proves its his house and that's no longer the issue but the cops arrest him and book him on "disorderly conduct" and then release him later on $40 bond and then drop the case. Sounds pretty damn stoooopid to me. I'm sure you are keen on cops arresting folk for speaking, right doug?

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  23. You can say want you want, just not to the cops, right dougo?

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  24. You are a waste of time and oxygen.

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  25. So, Doug, how did the cops act intelligently in this situation? What was intelligent about the arrest?

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  26. Ask someone else, Ash.
    I honestly consider you a waste of time.

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  27. ...in your alternate Universe, all the cops are wrong, and two racist elites are right.
    Pathetic

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  28. Racist Hate Mongers, I should have added.

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  29. ...but you are entitled to your self-loathing.
    Would rather you not project it on others.

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  30. What was right about the arrest doug?

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  31. As I said, Ash, see if someone else is willing to waste their time.

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  32. You're the one who addressed your comments to me but then, when challenged, you run away like a little girl.

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  33. viktr is off on vacation and I missed one of the continuing responses of the to and fro compliments that he so gracisously applies.

    As is my wont.
    Another flaw in the character or a raging pathology, I'm sure it's one or the other.

    I'll have to ask Mr Clemens how he handled it.

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  34. They did not taser the Professor, ash.

    That was intelligent, considering the circumstance.

    One wonders where the other man who entered the house was and why the Professor was uncooperative in providing any details as to his where-abouts.

    But then, once the policemen had verified that the house was the Professors home, they should have beat a hasty retreat from his property.

    All things being equal.

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  35. Ash said...
    Black man supports his white police comrade - whoopie shit. Still doesn't address the fact that the cops "acted stupidly". Man tries to get into his house and cops quiz him. He proves its his house and that's no longer the issue but the cops arrest him and book him on "disorderly conduct" and then release him later on $40 bond and then drop the case. Sounds pretty damn stoooopid to me. I'm sure you are keen on cops arresting folk for speaking, right doug?


    What if?

    There were gunmen hiding in the house and had a gun to the head of the black man's wife?

    sounds like it couldnt happen?

    it does...

    ASKING the black man to step outside to be questioned is just fine by me...

    If the BLACK man was UNCO-OPERATIVE most law enforcement types would wonder WTF?


    If order to be fair, from now on, any time a black man's home or business is being broken into, cops have no right to inspect or question the people in the building...

    let them die....

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  36. There is no "original" long form birth certificate, wi"o".

    If someone deserving wants a copy, the State prints one. They destroyed all the originals, back in the last century, when they digitalized the files.

    The State officials look at the data, and can verify it.
    Or they look at the data and deny it.

    But there is no vault copy. The State does not pay to store documents that have been digitalized, unless requested to, by the Governor. Who made no such request for Barack Hussein Obama.

    We've gone over this multiple times. The State of Hawaii did produce a document that was published on the web, the "birthers' say the fonts and typeface are not vintage 1961.
    They are correct.

    Each copy is printed, anew, in Hawaii, when needed.

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  37. It is just bytes.
    That's all there is, like it or not.

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  38. desert rat said...
    There is no "original" long form birth certificate, wi"o".

    according to the state official in HI they say they saw it...

    does the so called President HAVE ONE?

    This whole load of crap can be cleared up in a nanosecond if b Hussien CHOOSES to clear it up...

    Not to worry, I hope he's impeached and thrown out of office for smoking in the Oval Office..

    A CLEAR violation of Federal anti-smoking laws...

    and HIS staff that are covering it up?

    To jail I say...

    It's the cover up not the crime...

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  39. The USA lifting sanctions on Syria today...

    Giving access to advanced IT technologies & aircraft parts...

    A reward/bribe to all to see that America bows to Syria and appeases her...

    Sanctions have been in place since 1984...

    Bush added additional after the murder of Hariri several years ago....

    Syria provided support, training, funding, logistics, safe haven to hezbollah, hamas, islamic jihad, fatah el islam (that was a funny 2 years ago in lebanon when the LAF flattened a camp to 60,000 palios), not to mention the suicide bombers and fighters into iraq...

    Syria also was big into creating fake 100 dollar bills, fake passports, transporting hit men all over europe...

    The list could go on for an hour...

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  40. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99NJ8R80&show_article=1#idc-ctools



    US revokes visas for Honduran officials

    WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department says it has revoked the diplomatic visas for four Honduran officials working in its interim government.
    The announcement comes as the United States has been pressing for Honduras to allow the return of exiled President Manuel Zelaya.

    State Department spokesman Ian Kelly did not specify Tuesday the names of the four officials, who he said are not in the United States. Kelly said that the department is reviewing the visas of all members of the interim government.

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  41. desert rat said...

    One wonders where the other man who entered the house was and why the Professor was uncooperative in providing any details as to his where-abouts....

    Face the facts...

    2 black men... healthy....

    one older, more wise, and yet so manly with that little blue pill coursing thru his body..

    he just came home from a trip and was GOING to do some buck RIDING...

    Ya know Bro's on the DOWN LOW...

    Oprah had a special on it so ya know it's true...

    The BRO's had a little afternoon delight going down....

    and wouldnt ya be pissed, just as a strapped a brother to a bench, the pigs pound on the door....

    All that viagra going to waste...

    lol

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  42. good point rat, not only didn't they taser him, they didn't shoot him either. Not every action was stupid.

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  43. The "down low." The 850 lb. gorilla sitting in the middle of the African American community no one wants to acknowledge.

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  44. Just to keep the controversy spinnin':

    Hawai'i's Health Department confirmed yesterday that it has President Obama's original Aug. 4, 1961, birth certificate in storage.

    "We don't destroy vital records," Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said. "That's our whole job, to maintain and retain vital records."

    http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090728/NEWS01/907280345/Hawaii+officials+confirm+Obama%E2%80%99s+original+birth+certificate+still+exists

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  45. "But then, once the policemen had verified that the house was the Professors home, they should have beat a hasty retreat from his property."
    ---
    Gates wasn't arrested until he followed Crowley outdoors, screaming at him.
    Crowley arrested him outside when he refused to quiet down in the presence of the Black Cop and the Hispanic Cop.

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  46. WIO,
    Now you've gone and ruined my fantasy about Gates being an all American A-hole.
    And it turns out he's a Gay A-hole poker.

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  47. What the State offical said, quoting, is that he has seen the records and the State maintains the records, and they do, in bytes.

    "I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawai'i State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawai's State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawai'i and is a natural-born American citizen,"

    No where does he say that the original form has been saved.
    The original are the unadulterated bytes.

    Dollars to doughnuts.

    But it still is a mute point. An official has testified before, using the exact same language. They have seen the records, the records match the State of Hawaii document that was released last year.


    Just read the first post, there is the quote, over and over we go.

    The record exists, it has been seen, it has been testified to.
    Hawaii State law prohibits you from seeing it, on a whim.

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  48. WiO:

    If the original long form birth certificate exists?

    show it...


    what does the ONE fear from releasing it
    ?

    I was about to say something referring to the "legend", i.e., no transcripts, no law journal articles, no Illinois legislative record,...

    The ONE is on a roll, it seems...

    But, I didn't get around to it before rat added:

    There is no "original" long form birth certificate, wi"o".

    If someone deserving wants a copy, the State prints one. They destroyed all the originals, back in the last century, when they digitalized the files.

    The State officials look at the data, and can verify it.
    Or they look at the data and deny it
    .

    Hmmm. Sounded reasonable. Also, given what appears to me to be his mom's scatterbrained life, it's not implausible that the family has no original document. Would a nice young man like Barry want to have to admit his mom was a scatterbrain, and Granny couldn't keep track of things that she didn't have? Maybe not. The days of tucking that kind of document into the family bible are gone, and I doubt Stanley Ann Dunham's family ever had a family bible to begin with.

    Now, chacha adds:

    Just to keep the controversy spinnin':

    Hawai'i's Health Department confirmed yesterday that it has President Obama's original Aug. 4, 1961, birth certificate in storage
    .

    -----

    Mom used to say, "oh what tangled webs we weave, when we practice to deceive." She still does, actually.

    This thing ain't goin' away soon.

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  49. ...Hawaii State law prohibits you from seeing it, on a whim.

    But probably not in response to a Federal subpoena.

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  50. There you go, then, doug. The police did what they should have done, beat a hasty retreat.

    The Professor should have hunkered down.

    All things being equal.

    That he did not, that he caused a rucus, that he disturbed the peace, all pretty stupid.

    If it was because he was ready for the Viagra to kick in, or not, is speculation. Maybe all the blood had already rushed to his little head, leaving him feeling lightheaded and out of sorts.

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  51. One would suppose a Federal Court could see a copy of the record.
    It would, most likely, remained sealed from the public, though.

    The would also have to be probable cause, though, for a Court to issue a subpoena.
    More than curiousit on a plaintiffs part. And who would fight the subpoena, but the State of Hawaii. With Obama watching and laughingas the farce goes on.

    Because, as Ms Sanders said:

    Every time the "birthers" open their mouths, they hurt themselves and add polish to the image of Barack Obama, our American president.

    Obama'll drag the farce along, until the primaries of 2012, when someone will pose a challenge to his birthright. Then the Hawaii State officials will testify and the Courts will side with him, again.

    Maybe they'll bring a portable printer, with them. To properly fulfill the requirements of any subpeana.

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  52. Maybe there is an embarassing matter of religious declaration on the original.

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  53. We must parse the meaning of "record".
    1. Information or data on a particular subject collected and preserved: the coldest day on record.
    Birth Records would qualify as data collected and perserved.

    2. An account, as of information or facts, set down especially in writing as a means of preserving knowledge.

    The State of Hawaii, singing the praises of digitalization, allowed that electronic records were the equivilent of paper records. Transfering those records, in their origanal data sets, to their data base.

    Hawaii Five-O's definition of "Records"

    Those digitilized data sets now being the State's original Record.

    Which the officials can see.


    "the original record"
    That easily means whatever the State of Hawaii wants it to mean.

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  54. "Maybe all the blood had already rushed to his little head, leaving him feeling lightheaded and out of sorts."
    ---
    I know the feeling, but under different circumstances.

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  55. The original record, not being 'the same' as a vault copy.

    Not in Hawaii.

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  56. October 31, 2008
    State law (Hawai‘i Revised Statutes §338-18) prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record," DOH Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said.

    Fukino said she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.

    "Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures," Fukino said.

    Fukino said that no state official, including Gov. Linda Lingle, ever instructed that Obama's certificate be handled differently from any other
    .

    Parse the language, carefully, the truth is there. The certificates that were not "handled differently" were destroyed.

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  57. Lingle DID instruct.
    Not to handle differently.

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  58. I've never read that claim, before, doug. About Ms Lingle.

    All I've ever read was the testimony of the State Officials.

    Another shortcoming of the character, seems as likely as not.

    The "Old Man and the Boy"
    Robert Raurk writing in character.

    Fabulous book, I suggest scrolling down, then reading the comments.

    Ruark was a favorite of mine as a youngster, the images of Africa in turmoil, compelling. This culmenated in his best "serious" work, "Something of Value". Which became a movie that I do not think I have ever seen.

    While today there are two different versions of the Emergency to choose from:

    1. Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya:

    by Caroline Elkins.

    Library Journal: By analyzing primary sources—including archival material and interviews with hundreds of Kikuyu survivors as well as British and African loyalists, Elkins (history, Harvard Univ.) has unearthed a chilling account of colonial British detention camps and villages during the Mau Mau insurrection between 1952 and 1960. ... . Further findings reveal that a large number of women and children were not detained in the official camps but in about 800 enclosed villages surrounded by "spiked trenches, barbed wire, watchtowers, and patrolled by armed guards" and that during the insurrection, the British imposed their "authority with a savagery that betrayed a perverse colonial logic."

    This compelling account of the British colonial government's atrocities can be compared to Adam Hochschild's "King Leopold's Ghost".
    Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.—Edward McCormack, Univ. of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Lib., Long Beach
    .

    Then there is the second version of the Emergency, the one I was raised with, and still believe is the most effective way to quell an insurrection.

    From October 1952 to December 1959, Kenya was under a state of emergency arising from the Mau Mau rebellion against British rule.

    The governor requested and obtained British and African troops, including the King's African Rifles. In January 1953, Major General Hinde was appointed as director of counter-insurgency operations. The situation did not improve for lack of intelligence, so General Sir George Erskine was appointed commander-in-chief of the colony's armed forces in May 1953, with the personal backing of Winston Churchill.

    The capture of Warũhiũ Itote (aka General China) on 15 January 1954, and the subsequent interrogation led to a better understanding of the Mau Mau command structure. Operation Anvil opened on 24 April 1954, after weeks of planning by the army with the approval of the War Council. The operation effectively placed Nairobi under military siege, and the occupants were screened and the Mau Mau supporters moved to detention camps.

    May 1953 also saw the Home Guard officially recognized as a branch of the Security Forces. The Home Guard formed the core of the government's anti-Mau Mau strategy as it was composed of loyalist Africans, not foreign forces like the British Army and King's African Rifles.

    By the end of the emergency the Home Guard had killed 4686 Mau Mau, amounting to 42% of the total insurgents. The capture of Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956, in Nyeri signified the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau and essentially ended the military offensive
    .

    If you cannot form up the loyal native troops, there is little chance of long term success.

    Proven time and again.

    But the Library Journal does not support that perspective to the Emergency

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  59. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  60. Now there are some that say that President Obama's father was one of those fellas that the Brits "roughed up", in the Gulag version of the Kenya story.

    Any bets which version of the Emergency the President views as "reality"?

    In any case it makes Ruark's "Something of Value" something to read.

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  61. Not sure if there's a miscommunication here or not:

    Lingle DID issue a directive, but if what you cite is correct, that directive merely re-iterrated the law.

    Can be looked up, no doubt.

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  62. whatreallyhappened.com Governor Lingle Story about sealing Obama records is false!

    Aloha,

    Thank you for emailing Governor Linda Lingle's office. A recent article in WorldNetDaily.com (October 26, 2008) claiming that Hawai‘i Governor Linda Lingle sealed Sen. Barack Obama's birth certificate is false.

    Mahalo,

    Office of Governor Lingle

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  63. ("Mahalo" means Ash is a worthless POS in Hawaiian)

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  64. The law, as I understood it, reading it last October, was that if the Governor did not request that a record be saved in paper form it would be destroyed.

    And that the Governor, at the time of the conversion, did not request any special treatment of Obama's record.

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  65. As the State Officials have testified to.

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  66. 1.1 million vacant homes in CA.

    1.7 million owned free and clear and owner ocupied.

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  67. This really is pretty good, the old man does do the work greater justice than did Ms Palin.

    Pure Poetry

    Shatner Performs Palin

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  68. Computer maker Hewlett-Packard was targeted on Tuesday by environmental campaigners including Star Trek actor William Shatner.

    ...

    In 2007 Hewlett-Packard said it would stop including brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride plastics (PVC) by the end of 2009. But earlier this year it postponed that transition for two years, saying the phase-out would be complete by 2011.

    A Hewlett-Packard spokesperson said that the delay was due to a “lack of acceptable alternatives”, and that rushing the phase-out would have caused disruptions to the computermaker’s supply chain.


    HP Targeted

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