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."

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commanders Assassinated




Iranian commanders assassinated BBC


Several top commanders in Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard have been killed in a suicide bombing in the volatile south-east of the country.

Iranian state media say at least 20 people have died in the attack, in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan, and dozens more injured.

The commanders were in the region for a meeting with tribal leaders.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which was condemned by Iran's Parliamentary Speaker.

Iran has previously accused a Sunni resistance group, Jundallah, of terrorist activities in the province.

Sistan-Baluchistan is mainly made up of the Baluchi ethnic group who are Sunni Muslims, some of whom oppose Shia rule.
The deputy commander of the Guard's ground force, General Noor Ali Shooshtari, and the Guard's chief provincial commander, Rajab Ali Mohammadzadeh, were among the dead, Irna state news agency reported.

Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, speaking at an open session of parliament which was broadcast live of state radio, said: "We express our condolences for their martyrdom.

"The intention of the terrorists was definitely to disrupt security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province."



53 comments:

  1. Hawaii 23

    Idaho 35

    Heh!

    Told you so!

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  2. Pineapples, we eat 'em for dinner around here.

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  3. "The intention of the terrorists was definitely to disrupt security in Sistan-Baluchistan Province."

    They succeeded in this endevour.

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  4. Obama is kickin' some ass!

    Or having it happen.

    Finally a US President that gets er done!

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  5. Heh, I'm tellin' you Rat, we got a major football team this year.

    Kick ass team, this year.

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  6. obama aint doing ANYTHING about IRan except getting his asshole lube'd...

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  7. Romneycare is now nearly the most costly in the country, so Rufu touts that as utopia.
    What's he smokin?

    In Hawaii’s Health System, Lessons for Lawmakers

    30 cent/kw, electricity, yet the lowest insurance costs in the country.
    Go Figure!
    No doubt Harry, Nancy, and Hussein will come up with something much better.

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  8. No doubt if we had California's patriotic, hardworking, healthy lifestyle-living illegals, costs would be even lower.

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  9. Fascist motherfuckin commie:
    White House to Let Insurers Warn Medicare Recipients About Pending Health Bills (October 17, 2009)

    WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday backed away from an order that had prohibited insurance companies from warning Medicare recipients about the possible loss of benefits under pending legislation to overhaul the health care system.

    Medicare officials set off a political storm when they tried to stop such communications last month. Under new guidelines, insurance companies can communicate with Medicare beneficiaries on pending legislation, provided they do not use federal money to do so. In addition, insurers must get permission from beneficiaries before sending them information about legislation or asking them to join grass-roots advocacy efforts.

    Beneficiaries can provide consent in writing, by telephone or on a Web site, the guidelines say.

    At the same time, the Obama administration cited Humana on Friday for violation of Medicare rules, saying the company had misled beneficiaries by telling them they could lose valuable benefits under the legislation being pushed by President Obama and Democrats in Congress.

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  10. Admitting your prejudiced, now, allen?

    Have you opened your mind to some self-analysis, instead of always diagnosing hate and prejudice in others?

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  11. As that Oregon lawmaker has discovered, doug, Obama is just more of the same, no real change from the course that GW Bush charted.

    As predicted over a year ago, here, by me.

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  12. DR,

    ;-)

    While I am certain that you are the world's fastest reader, I doubt you have read a single chapter of the linked work. Give it a try. You can always resume throwing up or throwing stones afterward.

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  13. No need to read liberal psycho analysis BS, allen. No more than I need to do cocaine to know that Freud was full of it, too.

    No more than I need to read the ramblings of drunk Tratskyites for guidance.

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  14. But, again allen, when you ask question you say YOU expect answers, but fail to provide any, yourself.

    Your double standard is a part of your existence, ingrained and inbred, appears from here.

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  15. DR: the self-contained god...all hail DR..."Insects, bow before me!"

    ;-)

    You are a joke, in a sad, sad way.

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  16. I have never made claim to divinity, but it is true that GOD resides within me.

    To bad you do not have that joy as part of your belief system.

    Your GOD being a separate entity, from you. Must be lonely, where you live.

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  17. It covers 98% of citizens, and it's only "nearest" most costly?

    Sounds pretty good to me.

    They did the thing I warned against, Doug. They set the penalty for NOT carrying health insurance "Too Low." As a result, the "young and healthy" don't buy health insurance until they cease being the "young and healthy" (they get sick, or have an accident.) THEN, they buy health insurance.

    You can't run a "Large Group" that way.

    The Feds, of course, are getting ready to do the same thing.

    The good side is: 30 Million that don't have health coverage will, NOW, get treated. It's going to cost "Me and Thee" about $2,000.00/yr, and some inconvenience. It'll save some other people's lives.

    It'll be alright.

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  18. My health care plan would have been a little simpler.

    1) Everybody HAS to carry Health Insurance.

    2) The Companies HAVE TO sell it to them.

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  19. TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A man wearing an explosives-laden belt blew himself up during a conference between Shia and Sunni groups in southeastern Iran on Sunday, killing at least 29 people.

    Iranian parliament Speaker Ali Larijani calls a suicide bombing "the result of the U.S. actions."

    The blast in Sarbaz in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan wounded 28 others, the semiofficial Fars news agency said.

    While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Iran pointed the finger at the United States without disclosing its reasons.

    "We consider this recent terrorist act to be the result of the U.S. actions and this is a sign of their enmity," said parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.

    U.S. officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

    Five senior officers of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in the attack, Fars said. Among the officers was Nour-Ali Shoushtari, the deputy head of the Corps' ground forces, who was in the province to mediate between the two sides, Fars reported.

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  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  21. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  22. Yeah,
    Why try to learn from something that WORKS, when you can more easily blow smoke out your ass?

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  23. The whole affair smells of Chi-town tactics, to me.

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  24. It is the Chicago Way.

    But those that are blind to reality will refuse to see it.

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  25. Obama holds the Peace prize banner high, while the Thunder orders the hit.

    What in heavens' name is so hard to believe about that?

    Our two friends of Isreal do not acknowledge that a "Son of Isreal" is Chief of Staff in the White House and that Mr Obama's success is directly related to his association with Lester Crown.
    Well, that lack of acknowledgment does not change the facts of the matter on the ground.

    They are playing the game by Chi-town Standards.
    Better believe it.

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  26. I'd bet bob's next property tax bill that the F-22 was X'd to satisfy Mr Crown's need for revenge and his own perception of justice.

    Being squeezed out of that project just as the plane was going into production. Bet that was stuck in his craw for all this time.

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  27. The President's Honorary Degree at Notre Dame

    During Lent we had to hear Bill Daley lecturing the Cardinal and the Catholic Church about what belongs to Caesar. I have to agree with columnist John Kass, of the Chicago Tribune, who wrote on Saturday: “All that loud political anger was aimed at a priest who stood for his faith, as he prepared for Easter. Though I’m not a Roman Catholic [the columnist is Greek Orthodox], I was hurt and personally sickened by the attacks against Cardinal George" I agree with John Kass. We do not need the state telling the church what is right and wrong anymore than we need the church seeking control of the state.

    This is an instance where all Christians should stand as one for the defense of the lives of innocent unborn children. Who will defend these children if the church keeps its views silent? Surely not Catholics like the mayor and his brother, or governors like Mario Cuomo.

    4. I wrote last week that the real hero in this debacle was Mary Ann Glendon, who turned down Notre Dame’s highest award to be given to her at the same ceremony. She did it without mocking or ridiculing anyone. She wrote a reasoned and clear letter to the president of the university and simply said, "No."

    The university tried to find another Catholic who would accept this award and thankfully there were no takers. Maybe this says a lot more about the Catholic Church, and multitudes of faithful lay leaders who could have received this cherished award, than the press noticed. I feel quite sure that it does.

    One thing we do know. Christians who believe their faith teaches them to oppose abortion will continue to be depicted as intolerant extremists by most in the media, at least for the foreseeable future. This should not stop people who believe abortion is morally wrong from saying so and thus from being consistent in how they live their faith at this crucial point. On the Day of Judgment I have a distinct impression that this will matter a whole lot more than the approval of mankind.

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  28. Allen: DR: the self-contained god...all hail DR..."Insects, bow before me!"

    To Caliph, I am dirt; but to dirt I am Caliph.

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  29. Waterboarding babykilliers =
    Abhorent Outrage against humanity.

    Punching a hole in a baby's skull, and sucking out the baby's brain
    = cool!

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  30. Only complaint with John here is linking Issa with the rest of the sell-out Pubs.

    California lawmaker picking Rahmsian beef

    Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman from Southern California, has sent a stern letter to Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff of the Chicago Way White House.Issa's letter asks Emanuel to stop using Chicago-style ...

    Darrell Issa, a Republican congressman from Southern California, has sent a stern letter to Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff of the Chicago Way White House.

    Issa's letter asks Emanuel to stop using Chicago-style political rough stuff against Republican critics of President Barack Obama's gazillion-dollar economic stimulus program.

    This new Republican thriftiness is curious. When they ran Washington, they spent like drunken sailors, though now they've sobered up and cling numbly to their conservative fiscal roots. Meanwhile, Democrats are out-drunken-sailoring the Republicans, perhaps fueled by "weezy," which I learned the other day is a mixture of champagne and ecstasy.

    Either way, Issa is demanding to know who is behind a series of letters sent by several Obama Cabinet secretaries to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer that subtly threaten to withhold federal dollars from the state if Republican critics like Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona don't shut up. The letters are curiously Rahmsian in tone:

    "However, if you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state ... please let me know," wrote Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, a former Illinois congressman who is no stranger to how things work in Chicago.

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  31. In high school civics, Americans learn that public dissent is noble, a cornerstone of our system of checks and balances, a guarantor of the health of the republic. But in Chicago, dissent is not appreciated. Public criticism is called by another name:

    "Beefing."

    And those who engage in "beefing" are described, derisively, as "beefers." We even have a slogan about it: "Only losers beef."

    But nobody told Issa, the ranking Republican member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

    "These tactics have been characterized as a 'fist to the nose' and a message to 'back off,' " wrote Issa to Emanuel. "While this type of scare tactic might work in Chicago, it will not work to intimidate me or other members of the United States Congress."

    Oh, really?

    It's painfully clear that Republicans don't know much about the Chicago Way, where citizens, even Republicans, are expected to take what big government gives them. If the political boss suggests that you purchase some expensive wrought-iron fence to decorate your corporate headquarters, and the guy selling insurance to the wrought-iron boys is the boss' little brother, you write the check.

    Otherwise, government inspectors may arrive, demanding to know why your thing-a-ma-bob isn't coupled with the whoosy-whatsits, in the manner of the prescribed flibber-mcjibbits, as outlined in the appendix of the municipal code. Then you've got real problems.

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  32. No one knows this better than Emanuel, who was elected to Congress with the help of a gigantic illegal patronage army, run by City Hall's Water Department boss Don Tomczak, who is now in prison for taking bribes. Emanuel said he didn't know that Tomczak's tough guys were working his district. But I insisted on calling him U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Tomczak) anyway.

    The national media -- and the Republicans -- weren't all that interested in Chicago politics when Obama was campaigning. The pundits were too busy smoking their Hopium. National Republicans made one little commercial about the Chicago machine, but Mayor Daley said there wasn't any machine, and that was that.

    So I called Issa to find out what the heck he thought he was doing, beefing all over America.

    "I'm an old Army guy," said Issa over the phone. "If you can't see the target, sometimes you fire to keep their heads down, knowing they'll duck their heads. This letter was sent to Emanuel, but I know that President Obama will have seen it."

    What bothers Issa is all that Chicago-style muscle in the White House.

    "They're taking over the Census, and Cabinet officers threaten to cut funds to states of critics of the president," Issa said. "Rahm obviously still thinks he's running Chicago politics in Washington."

    Actually, the guy who runs Chicago is named Daley. Why didn't Issa just write to Daley, asking the mayor to order the president to get Rahm off his back?

    "If I wrote to Richard Daley, I'd likely get a horse's head in my bed, and I don't want a horse's head in my bed," Issa said, jokingly.

    "Chicago is run a certain way, and that's a decision made by the people of Chicago," Issa said. "But the United States of America is run with minorities having rights and active dissent. And now people are being silenced. We're not a country run on patronage, where if you do the right thing, a family member ends up with a political job. That's not the way the American people expect the country to be run."

    Really?

    Americans elected a man from Chicago who would transcend the old politics. But a bunch of guys from City Hall are now in the White House, running things.

    So what's the beef?

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  33. re. bob's business deal - the core issues in my view are a lucid evaluation of the costs involved in the deal drawn up against the possible gains - min. to max. Then one must evaluate how much risk one is willing to take for that potential gain. Given the current housing status in the US I'd be reluctant to wade into that game myself, especially creating new stock. Buying up distressed assets could be a winner though if one has capital, a long time frame, and a stomach for risk.




    I've seen a couple of headlines today regarding the cancellation of the planned deployment of 3500 US troops to Afghanistan. Interesting. Will 2164th be happy Obama seems to be following the path he seems to be advocating. Heck most here, aside from Trish, Allen, and WiO, seem keen on bugging out from the rocks of Afghanistan - will they now actually support Obama's war agenda? Somehow I doubt it...

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  34. Doug, what say your? Will you rally to Obama's side as the troops are not sent? Or, should we escalate and help out those poor needy Afghanis?

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  35. I pray for Obama and our troops.
    Have no Idea what should be done.
    ---
    ...although Pakis getting serious offers some hope.

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  36. 25. buddy larsen:

    Goodness, you folks do nice elegy. I loved the Reader’s Digest and never understood the snob compulsion to make light of it. The logic seemed to be, if it can’t be War and Peace then please, peasant, just sit still and don’t read nuthin’. But RD never pretended to be anything more than what it was, which was a reader’s digest, just like it said on the cover.

    Speaking of the message on the cover, the dearly departed sure sported a humdinger. When your name is a good definition of ‘truth’ –that is, something both frank and divine –and then you have managed to live up to it and have made it fitting, well that’s to have been a whole lot more than just not all that hard to shave.

    Walt, the muse never leaves your side –clearly she finds you interesting! or at least your mind anyway, which is almost as good. May i add to your most edifying peroration on time and life, that, while time does fly like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.

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  37. rat states: Our two friends of Isreal do not acknowledge that a "Son of Isreal" is Chief of Staff in the White House and that Mr Obama's success is directly related to his association with Lester Crown.


    1st.... It's Israel... Not Isreal, spelling this way, while spelling property every other nation in the world proves that your either an idiot or a bigot.. I think you are both.

    2nd. No one doubts that the 2 top guys in the Obama admin are Jews and that Emanuel's father was an Israeli..

    But your connect the dots plot that everything is the "joos" control is about as credible as a koolaid dispenser in Jonestown..

    Once again, your posts are paranoid & full of Jew Hatred....

    Nice going for so early on a Sunday morning...

    You state that you do not follow any form of "abrahamic g-d" and have absolutely no respect for the Jewish faith and yet you claim that "GOD" resides in you...

    I would suspect what you take for your god is really a knot fecal matter.....

    Rat, go take a dump, flush your god down the toilet where it belongs...

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  38. New rules being developed to protect "sexile's rights" on campus. There is speculation that the new rules will collectively be called the Bob Petersen Principles.

    Sexile's Rights

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  39. WiO,

    He wrote: "Our two friends of Isreal do not acknowledge that a "Son of Isreal" is Chief of Staff in the White House..."

    Wow! WiO, Who knew!? Man, we are gonna rule the world!!!

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  40. Ash said...
    re. bob's business deal - the core issues in my view are a lucid evaluation of the costs involved


    No kidding Ash, I'm not trying to put you down this morning, that is exactly what I need, a lucid analysis. I know I will be hearing from my Lady Lawyer soon.

    I think my first question to her must be, what are going to be the TOTAL costs of all these fees from the City? We are just starting the process. And what assurance do I have from the City that I am actually going to get some APPROVALS out of this process?

    These are real questions that real aspiring developers need real answers to.

    I also have a real wife, who has a real interest in her real home here who will really be coming back in a day or two, with some real questions on her mind.

    While I have a real legal right (I think) to sign a real check from our joint checking accout, she is going to be real pissed if I blow this.

    I really want to live out the rest of my life with an un-pissed wife, the heat is really on here.

    In short, I think I must get some really reliable figures from the City on the costs all the way through, then talk it over with the wife.

    If she has a major input into this little decision, then if it goes tits up, she can't turn around and totally blame me.

    There are more squares to this cube than you might imagine.

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