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, June 09, 2010

Someone Did Not Pay-off Taliban Gang. Taliban Shows Who Owns the Night.

Taliban torch 50 Nato supply trucks on outskirts of Islamabad
At least seven killed in ambush near Pakistan capital on military supply convoy heading to Afghanistan

Declan Walsh in Islamabad
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 9 June 2010 09.15 BST

Suspected Taliban gunmen torched 50 Nato supply trucks on the outskirts of Islamabad last night , killing at least seven people, in the most audacious assault yet on the military supply chain in Afghanistan.

Militants have regularly ambushed western supply convoys near the Afghan border, but this was the first attack near the Pakistani capital.

Police said at least 10 gunmen struck just before midnight at a depot in Tarnol, on the Grand Trunk Road that links Rawalpindi with Peshawar. They opened fire on the trucks, killing drivers and security personnel, before setting them alight.

Police arrived, sparking an exchange of fire, and the attackers escaped to the west on motorbikes and in small pickup trucks. At first light, six hours later, flames were still licking through the hulks of charred military vehicles and fuel tankers. Plumes of thick black smoke rose into the sky near the capital.

The assault called into question security arrangements in the capital, whose streets have become clogged with police and military checkposts since the Taliban stepped up their assault last year.

Police officers combing the area said they had arrested 26 suspects. "We are still trying to find out what happened," said Shah Nawaz, the police chief at Tarnol station.

Pakistani police often indiscriminately arrest people after major incidents only to release them later. The interior minister, Rehman Malik, ordered an inquiry within three days.

The convoy originated in the port of Karachi, 700 miles to the south, and was due to climb over the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. Over 75% of military supplies for western troops in Afghanistan and 40% of fuel needs pass through Pakistan.

The supplies include food and vehicle but not usually weapons or ammunition, which are ferried by air.

Ambushes on Nato convoys in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, have declined in recent months following concerted army operations in the nearby Khyber and Orakzai tribal areas.

The last attack was in April when militants torched a dozen trucks and killed four police in northern Punjab, between Islamabad and Peshawar.

Many of the Nato supply runs are managed by trucking families from the tribal belt, particularly Waziristan and Khyber. A police source in Karachi said they ensured safe passage by paying protection money to militant groups on the 1,200-mile route.

However, it is impossible to pay off every group along the road. "When you reach here, it's a free for all," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a veteran journalist in Peshawar. "You can't pay everyone off; and some groups are ideologically committed and won't take money."

The attacks are a costly irritant to Nato and an embarrassment to Pakistani security forces, although they have a limited impact on western military supplies due to the high volume of traffic.

Still, the US has started to explore new trucking routes through Central Asia, although these may require compromise with Russia, the regional power.



116 comments:

  1. Some interesting observations on the Taliban by that great American philosopher, Jeff Foxworthy.
    "YOU MAY BE A TALIBAN IF..."
    1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to liquor.
    2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes.
    3. You have more wives than teeth.
    4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider bacon "unclean."
    5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.
    6. You can't think of anyone you haven't declared Jihad against.
    7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.
    8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.
    9. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four.
    10. You've always had a crush on your neighbor's goat.
    11. Your cousin is president of the United States.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I heard that there is no end to the corruption of the Mayor of Kabul and his family.

    They too, own a "security firm". The way security works over there is kinda like it works in New Jersey.

    I send my guys around to rough you up, knock you down and take your money. A few days later, I send some other guys around to offer
    "security services.


    Afghanis, being industrious men with stay-at-home wives will often work by day on security details escorting NATO or NGO shipments. At night they make even more money as "Taliban."

    It's a racket.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You can bet the tolls will be paid on time next time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Obama DOESNT want to win in Afghanistan, he wants to humiliate America..

    It's his way to have a teachable moment..

    The lesson learned? America should not stick it's nose in other's business..

    America needs to be cuckholded...

    That's our PRESIDENT....

    He has changed the rules of engagement so our boys cannot fire back...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Same Generals, same Rules of Engagement that Rumsfeld fielded, in Iraq.
    He blamed the DoD lawyers.

    Not himself, not the president.
    The President does not write the RoE, to even suggest it, proof of ignorance and a lack of understanding of how our armed forces operate.

    Typical of the ignorance of all things military, found in and amongst civilians.

    ReplyDelete
  6. To become upset about the RoE that the US military operates with, today, that's just being years behind on the learning curve.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The new round of sanctions on Iran is unlikely to have any more effect on Iranian policy than the first three.

    Only hours before the Security Council approved the latest measures, Western diplomats were saying that this sanctions resolution would not be the last.


    This suggests many more months of waiting to see what Iran does, more monitoring and reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and more negotiations over yet more sanctions.
    ...
    Oil and gas

    There is disappointment in Washington, London, Paris and Berlin that, in this resolution, Russia and China blocked any move to act against Iran's oil and gas industries.

    There was never any chance that they would agree. They both have oil and gas interests in Iran and do not see Iran as a strategic threat.

    Which is why the US Congress is now expected to pass its own legislation banning companies that invest signifcantly in Iranian oil and gas from operating in the US.


    Should have been operating independently to ban companies operating, at all, in Iran from operating in the US.

    But that would have taken real resolve, from the Bush Administration.

    The patten of US behavior is clear.
    We speak loudly, leaving the sticks at home.

    That pastern of behavior predates the Obama Administration. It is bi-partisan Federal policy.

    Back to when the US would not limit the funding available for that the water infrastructure project, financed by the World Bank, in Iran.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Iran has also managed to work round the systems already in place.

    In April, a Washington-based monitoring group, Iran Watch, reported that the Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) had undertaken "a large-scale re-labeling of its ships, giving them new names, new managers, new 'owners' - in short, new identities".

    "The US blacklist has not kept up with these changes, so it is being circumvented by Iran with relatively little effort," Iran Watch said.

    The New York Times followed this up with a detailed account of how it has been done.

    The result of all this is that Security Council sanctions have tended to be the lowest common denominator in which the important thing is to preserve the unity of the council.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just thought I'd mention that in a rare confluence, EB and Balloon Juice had Kylie Minogue posts within hours of one another. At the latter establishment, it was Annie Laurie who posted a safe for work version of Minogue's - how to put it? - potentially discombobulating Hanes underwear ad:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frv6FOt1BNI

    I've been listening to the song ever since.

    ReplyDelete
  10. este video es verdaderamente arte, es la nueva expresion del amor y la no discriminacion de preferencia sexual. gracias kylie, desde MEXICO. te amamos

    Gracis, trish!

    ReplyDelete
  11. We're in a heap of trouble, world of hurt, mountain of menacing misery, on Iran.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Lots of smoke, no fire at all.


    Advocates of the latest set of sanctions say the penalties will pressure Iran by limiting its ability sell oil, buy gasoline or expand its energy infrastructure. They say the new sanctions also are aimed at persuading world banks and companies to avoid business with Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the military branch that now has the upper hand in Iranian politics, business and foreign policy.

    But critics of the sanctions say they will accomplish little. China and Russia insist that the new stipulations on trade will not damage their considerable energy and military dealings with Iran, which has grown adept at evading sanctions by using shell companies and offshore middlemen.

    Sir Richard Dalton, the former British ambassador to Iran, dismissed the draft resolution as "incremental and not much increment."

    ReplyDelete
  13. That's not the only place we are hurting..

    KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan's former intelligence chief is warning that President Hamid Karzai's strategy of seeking reconciliation with the Taliban is dangerous for the country.

    Amrullah Saleh told The Associated Press on Wednesday that despite the president's conciliatory approach, insurgents were showing no sign of compromise and only responding with "violence, destruction and intimidation."

    Saleh was intelligence chief for six years. He and the interior minister resigned Sunday over a Taliban attack at last week's peace conference in Kabul.

    Saleh says they had arrested the facilitators and provided the president detailed evidence, which Karzai "pushed aside and did not pay attention to."

    ReplyDelete
  14. Now they are reporting a chopper down with 4 US KIA.

    ReplyDelete
  15. KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban insurgents shot down a NATO helicopter in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing four United States soldiers on board, according to Afghan and United States military officials.

    The helicopter was shot down while it was providing support to British ground troops during a clearing operation in Sangin District of Helmand Province, according to Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the governor’s office in Helmand.

    A spokesman for the United States military, Lt. Col. Joseph T. Breasseale, confirmed that all four victims on the helicopter were American soldiers, but he declined to identify them or give further details pending notification of next of kin. A spokesman for the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, reached by telephone, said the insurgents shot down the helicopter over the Sangin district bazaar using a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

    “We will keep shooting down these helicopters,” he said. “Even though we don’t have highly developed weapons, our mujahedeen have a lot of experience at it.”

    ReplyDelete
  16. The reality is that unless Iran is stopped militarily they are getting the bomb.

    Is it in the interest of the US to get involved with a third contemporaneous Middle Eastern war?

    Hardly. The cost could break the bank.

    Should the US follow Israel into the third war if they choose to go it alone? No.

    ReplyDelete
  17. "That's not the only place we are hurting."

    Yeah, if only we could neatly confine our troubles.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Maybe we look for trouble in the wrong places.

    I can think of a lot of places that I could find trouble if I looked.

    ReplyDelete
  19. You want trouble, it usually does not take much to find it.

    ReplyDelete
  20. The Chinese are in the same trouble spots and they are making money.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Interesting choice of verbiage, describing US soldiers as "victims".

    Have to wonder if that was the word choice of Lt. Col. Joseph T. Breasseale, or that of Rod Norland of the NYTimes?

    Regardless, really, the message has been sent. I do not recall reading, at the time, that the Marines killed or wounded at Khe Sanh were to be considered victims.

    It is indicative of a greater cultural shift here in the United States, over the past forty-three years, than many would like to admit to.

    ReplyDelete
  22. "The reality is that unless Iran is stopped militarily they are getting the bomb."

    It's not just about the bomb, though. There are other serious worries that attach to the matter of Iran.

    I'm certainly not shilling for a war and don't know anyone who is.

    I said years ago that we were going to have to find another way to skin that cat.

    And I've no idea what that way might be.



    Well, anon. You are most welcome.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Is it in the interest of the US to get involved with a third contemporaneous Middle Eastern war?

    Should the US follow Israel into the third war if they choose to go it alone? No.


    Yes on both counts. We, and the Israelis, together,should have bombed the blithers out of Iran at that time long ago, we wouldn't be having this problem, today. We might have even had a regime change, by now.

    But with the current shit in the White House, Israel is alone on it now.

    ReplyDelete
  24. We can't control our own borders, our spending, an oil leak in the gulf, our waist lines, our unemployment, our banks, our construction business, our domestic manufacturing and our trade and financial deficits with China. and a whole lot of other things that hit a lot closer to home than our endless foreign expeditionary forces.

    ReplyDelete
  25. When you own the best hammer, Deuce, every problem looks like a nail.

    To the point you first discount, then finally discard the saws.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Bob do you remember how much bombing we did to get Bin Laden in Tora Bora and Saddam in Iraq?

    A GI feel into a hole on top of Saddam and we never got Bin Laden.

    The Israelis have been relying on air power during their last few military campaigns to little affect.

    You have a lot more faith in air power than experience should encourage.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Ike's goodbye prophecy is coming home to roost, the Military Industrial Complex, has taken hold of the United States, root and branch.

    We were warned by a fella that knew the Federal System to its' very core.
    We followed on along that primrose path, regardless.


    Pivot hard left, Go Green.
    Strike the System from the "Populist Right" along with the suburban people that support the "Environmental Left".

    250 million acres of dispersed, decentralized energy production, doing what the US does best, growing things.

    It is a political and practical winner, one that the Elites will not promote, but would not be able to stop, either.

    There is a predisposition favoring a "Green Alternative" amongst the people. They just have not been educated, while the System is in active denial of the ethanol solution.

    Get the Federals on the wrong side of history, on the wrong side of the public's position.

    It could be done, the window of opportunity is open, today.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Air Power did not defeat the NAZIs.

    Troops were required in Berlin, to do that.

    ReplyDelete
  29. "...a whole lot of other things that hit a lot closer to home than our endless foreign expeditionary forces."

    It's an easy thing to say in the abstract - and I'm not an ardent fan of the Big portion of the Big Green Machine myself - but the to-hell-with-the-messy-world view of things is to my mind a badly a mistaken one.





    We already done gone stepping in the shit everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Enemy troops entered Moscow, it did not defeat the Soviets.

    We entered Baghdad, we did not defeat either the Shia nor Sunni militias.

    ReplyDelete
  31. "A GI feel into a hole on top of Saddam..."

    And, um, no.

    ReplyDelete
  32. was there a question...

    ...I guess. You came to mind as I read that editorial about the doctor involvement in, ummmmm, interrogation and I thought of your one time emphatic statement that the US. does. not. torture. coupled with your experience in interrogation and I wondered what you thought about how the previous administration employed doctors in such a way.

    ReplyDelete
  33. There's no 'there' there, Ash.

    I'm sure the physician's group is quite sincere in their view of things. And appalled at the clinical monitoring.

    There's just nothing to be got from it.

    ReplyDelete
  34. If it is, as the physician group claims, essentially human experimentation then there is a problem there.

    On the interrogation level, however, it does lend credence to the view that the US does torture, routinely, under clinical supervision. Hardly behavior one would attribute to a shining city on a hill.

    ReplyDelete
  35. The true power of economic sanctions was exemplified in South Africa.

    But those were sanctions that grew from public sentiment, of their own accord.

    Disinvestment from South Africa

    Public companies with South Africa (substitute Iranian) interests were thus confronted on two levels: First, shareholder resolutions were submitted by concerned stockholders who, admitted, posed more of a threat to the often-cherished corporate reputations than to the stock price. Second, the companies were presented with the significant financial threat where by one or more of their major institutional investors decides to withdraw their investments.

    If there was broad based public concern about the Iranian nuclear threat, in the United States, we could travel this well known political track to circumvent it.

    A proven, successful, grass roots sanctions regime. It was the "Market" that beat apartheid in South Africa, it could defeat the Iranian Mullahs, too.

    ReplyDelete
  36. "If it is, as the physician group claims..."

    There ya go, Ash.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Those redacted papers released by the government lend credence to the fact that there was clinical supervision of torture...errr, shall we say interrogation techniques, and those techniques were sufficiently dangerous to require physician modification of said techniques. Places the US in a nasty position. I guess one could claim that doctors were present when these procedures were applied. Not sure where that gets you, morally.

    ReplyDelete
  38. If there is no support for a grass roots economic sanctions regime against Iran, then there's even less real support for a military adventure, there, than there would appear to be, now.

    While there appears to be no sane argument for war with Iran, at this time.

    No real reason to put US troops in Iraq in the Iranian cross hairs.

    It certainly does not serve the interest of the United States:
    To remove Iranian oil production from the whirled market
    To close the Straits of Hormuz for any period of time
    To endanger general commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Which leads me to a couple of direct questions trish:

    In your professional experience as an interrogator did you ever have medical professionals advise you on application of certain techniques? If not, were you ever taught techniques where you thought medical advice would be handy?

    ReplyDelete
  40. "...a couple of direct questions..."

    : )

    No. And no.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Yet it appears some interrogators were trained in these ways.

    ReplyDelete
  42. South Africa didn't have something China had to have. Iran has the world by the short hairs. They will have "da bomb."

    Next.

    ReplyDelete
  43. The Nationals have acquired an awesome pitcher.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Haley/Jindal 2012
    All Indian Ticket!

    And Haley's a Sikh.
    ...not to mention, hot.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Blogger trish said...

    We're in a heap of trouble, world of hurt, mountain of menacing misery, on Iran.


    We should have bombed the fuckers, just like I said.

    ReplyDelete
  46. You can emote until the cows come home, but when that Chinese-flagged tanker pulls into the Gulf to pick up a load of Iranian oil, no one's going to stop it.

    And, that Chinese-flagged tanker will be there.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Should have more energetically supported the opposition/freedom insurgency, Just like Ledeen said.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Support bike lanes for the Chinee and Indians, Ruf!
    Get THEM to go green.

    ReplyDelete
  49. ...India now leads the World in traffic deaths!

    ReplyDelete
  50. Blogger MeLoDy said...

    This just says it all

    Wed Jun 09, 07:52:00 AM EDT


    Seems like a broken link, I can't get it.

    I hope its some song, bout fields and stuff, the stars and the moon, just two people, and those two folks, holding hands, watching God's display as the shooting stars come down, on a soft Nevada night, there in the Nevada hills.

    I hope, Harry Reid, is, finally, toast.

    ReplyDelete
  51. "Haley's dominant win marks a stunning turn of events for a candidate who was mired in fourth place just one month ago, but vaulted to the front of the race after a series of statewide television ads and a well-timed endorsement from Sarah Palin."

    ...just like Angle in Nevada.
    Not sure Palin endorsed, tho.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Other than the fact that they're competitors for Imported oil the Chinee, and Indians are of no concern to me, Doug.

    They're going to do exactly what they're going to do, and all the bitching, and moaning, and crying , and whining I can come up with ain't gonna change it.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Trish draws the line on torture, Ash.

    (but revels in torturing innocent civilians, nay, even fellow Bar patrons, by refusing to past in URL's for our convenience)

    ReplyDelete
  54. "Should have more energetically supported the opposition/freedom insurgency, Just like Ledeen said."

    That would be fine, if it were anything like popularly described.

    Ledeen is a rube. He always has been. He always will be.

    Sullivan fell into much the same thing.

    ReplyDelete
  55. "They're going to do exactly what they're going to do, and all the bitching, and moaning, and crying , and whining I can come up with ain't gonna change it."
    ---
    Correct,
    but the rhetorical skills of POTUS, plus a teleprompter, will git her done.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Wed Jun 09, 12:48:00 PM EDT

    Ledeen is a rube, and Turkey is our ally.

    CHECK!

    ReplyDelete
  57. I have not seen a single politician run on the platform of putting an ethanol plant in Tunica County. As a result, I'm not very interested in any of them.

    Not a single candidate has referenced the EIA's recent "short term energy forecast" that states, simply, and to the point, that the world will consume an extra 3.1 Million Barrels of Oil/Day in the 2010 - 2011 time period, and that the world will only increase its oil production by 0.81 Million Barrels.

    Considering that we're using slightly more than we're producing at present, it would have been interesting if they had told us how we were going to do that.

    ReplyDelete
  58. "but revels in torturing innocent civilians"

    I do try.

    ReplyDelete
  59. ...and the professional military is not a PC Hellhole.

    ReplyDelete
  60. No, Ledeen is actually a rube. Conveying all kinds of shit from his Iranian sources that is...all kinds of shit.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Chris Mathews claimed this nutbag would bring down Whitman/Fiorina.

    Problem is, she only won in Chris's alternate universe.

    Birther Queen Orly Taitz Goes Down In Fight For Republican Nomination For California Secretary Of State

    Orly Taitz, the Israeli émigré and California dentist who has made a name for herself by insisting in court that President Obama is not an American citizen, has lost her effort to become the Republican nominee for California's Secretary of State.

    The "birther queen" lost to establishment-backed GOP candidate Damon Dunn, a black Republican businessman and former NFL player who, up until the last presidential election, had never voted.

    With 98 percent of California precincts reporting, Dunn trounced Taitz by a margin of almost three to one, with Taitz still netting 365,684 votes.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Here is your video of Strasburg. 100 mph fastball, killer curve, control, and Stamina. This boy is definitely Special.

    Video

    ReplyDelete
  63. Sarah Palin has been on a roll. For those of us who love her, it's a delight to see. Almost all of the folk she endorsed, won.

    She is a force of nature itself, like the wind and the rain.

    She's made a couple of mistakes, in my view, but i love that woman, I want her in the White House.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Sorry, Bob, it was about how turkeys are packed into tiny dark sheds their whole lives and how their feather are burned off while they are still alive. And how they are killed by people who think it's fun to toss them around like footballs and stomp on their little turkey heads. And all the chemicals they are fed through this whole process right before a Thanksgiving feast.




    Enjoy your turkey.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Our Trish as interrogator?

    Hmm.

    One wonders if her verbal questioning mirrored her written style.

    If so, one can imagine an interrogation transcript filled with prisoner responses starting with the interrogatory “What?”

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  66. :)

    Yeah, I can hear it now.

    I'll tell you Anything. Anything! Just ask the damned question. Please, Missy, What do you want?

    Just tell me.

    Please. Please!

    ReplyDelete
  67. Wed Jun 09, 02:51:00 PM EDT

    Some of us would utter "HUH?"

    Some crude bastards would simply say,
    "F U, B....!"

    ReplyDelete
  68. Obama Pledges New Aid for Palestinians

    Obama Pledges New Aid for NAMBLA, National Socialists.

    Ho, hum,
    What's news?

    ReplyDelete
  69. Natural yeast can ferment three sugars: galactose, mannose and glucose. The original Ho yeast added xylose to that, and now the fifth, arabinose, has been added.

    —Dr. Nancy Ho

    The addition of new genes to the Ho yeast strain should increase the amount of ethanol that can be produced from cellulosic material. Arabinose makes up about 10% of the sugars contained in those plants.

    In addition to creating this new arabinose-fermenting yeast, Mosier, Sedlak and Ho also were able to develop strains that are more resistant to acetic acid. Acetic acid, the main ingredient in vinegar, is natural to plants and released with sugars before the fermentation process during ethanol production. Acetic acid gets into yeast cells and slows the fermentation process, adding to the cost of ethanol production.

    Mo Ethanol per Stalk

    The Century of Genetics, and growing things, continues. Advances in Plant Genetics, advances in enzymes, advances in yeasts –

    Or, we can pollute the earth, and fight wars over an ever-diminishing supply of oil. Our Choice.

    ReplyDelete
  70. No, really, on The Today Show this morning they were talking about favorite commercials and this one was mentioned. So, I thought, I would share it.

    ReplyDelete
  71. The god
    And his goddesses
    Are making love
    Yet again today
    In the Wallowas
    And I watch, from forty miles away
    (I'm not a voyeur you couldn't not watch this, if you tried)
    The lightning strikes and its
    Grumble rumble as he comes
    Yet again, and yet again
    And the goddess has infinite capacity
    To accept his yearnings
    These gods have more libido than I
    Even from forty miles away
    The wind is astir
    From their strivings
    And I just watch, and dream

    ReplyDelete
  72. Most excellent photo on the front sports page today in the WaPo, rufus.

    Unfortunately not available on the web so far as I can tell.

    They had to put out pregame traffic warnings last night for Strasburg's debut. Will continue indefinitely. We hope, anyway.

    George Will said this will always be a football town - football combining, in perfect Washingtonion fashion, violence and committee meetings.

    A great pitcher does not a great team make, but at the very least he provides incentive for hometown people to watch something other than Redskins Inc. And that's a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  73. The god
    And his goddesses
    Are making love
    Yet again today
    In the Wallowas
    And I watch, from forty miles away
    (I'm not a voyeur you couldn't not watch this, if you tried)
    They are unconcerned, naked
    And totally shameless
    They do as they wish to do
    The lightning strikes and its
    Grumble rumble as he comes
    Yet again, and yet again
    And the goddess has infinite capacity
    To accept his yearnings
    These gods have more libido than I
    Even from forty miles away
    The wind is astir
    From their strivings
    And I just watch, and dream

    ReplyDelete
  74. Hoo-ray, my son is going back to Ohio to fix the place up. That is the best answer to it. And the daughter and I will be heading south, to Vegas, and beyond, camera ready. She's taking Buddhism this summer, on the internet. And why not? The Buddha declined to give answers to the metaphysical questions of life, on the grounds such speculation didn't conduce to the reformation of the mind. The Buddha was a doctor, not a philosopher. First Noble Truth--all life---All LIFE--is pain---question is, how to overcome it.
    That's all. That's all he concentrated on.


    The gods have exhausted themselves, it seems, their daily rumblings have aquieted themselves anow. Exhausted, they are.

    ReplyDelete
  75. The god
    And his goddesses
    Are making love
    Yet again today
    In the Wallowas
    And I watch, from forty miles away
    (I'm not a voyeur you couldn't not watch this, if you tried)
    They are unconcerned, naked
    And totally shameless
    They do as they wish to do
    The lightning strikes and its
    Grumble rumble as he comes
    Yet again, and yet again
    And the goddess has infinite capacity
    To accept his yearnings
    These gods have more libido than I
    Even from forty miles away
    The wind is astir
    From their strivings
    And I just watch, and dream
    As his desire settles finally and
    Turns to mist and finally
    Evaporates to pure clean air

    ReplyDelete
  76. There's no excuse for this when we know plain 'ol hay will clean up much/most the oil.

    ReplyDelete
  77. The Germans never entered Moscow, DR.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Pretty amazing the ignorance and deceit that abounds, when newspapers clearly show how well hay worked in the Santa Barbara spill in 1969.

    But, of course, supertankers worked in the 90's in the Persian Gulf, and the Mexican Govt burned much of their massive spill.

    Gotta find some reason to put off Jindal until it's too late, though.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Wouldn't everyone expect a Ho to be a host to yeasts?

    ReplyDelete
  80. SAO PAULO, June 9 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday that U.N. Security Council powers had lost a "historic opportunity" to negotiate a solution by imposing new sanctions on Iran.

    ReplyDelete
  81. rufus said...
    Well, they're the smartest, most brilliantist people on the planet, I'm sure they can work it out without my tax money.

    Tue Jun 08, 09:36:00 PM EDT


    How otherwise would "they" come by your tax money?

    ReplyDelete
  82. "They" have links everywhere, you wouldn't believe. "They" control the whole deal. It's why my Jewish lawyer, the one time he ran for the Idaho legislature, got beat. It was all a plot, to put him into retirement in Phoenix, where he can manipulate puppets, behind the scenes, which he does, o so well.

    ReplyDelete
  83. The Enemy, allen, was the French.
    They did enter Moscow.

    They did not defeat the
    Soviets.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Buddha wants to take the pain in your ass away, Doug, but you, dear Sir, must co-operate, difficult for you to do, I realize.

    ReplyDelete
  85. "First Noble Truth--all life---All LIFE--is pain---question is, how to overcome it.
    That's all. That's all he concentrated on.
    "

    Great way to go thru life:
    Concentrating on avoiding pain, rather than pursuing joy and freedom.

    Wisdom of the East vs Dumb Fuck West.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Good philosophy for coping with life when freedom has been extinguished.

    ReplyDelete
  87. You've just been lucky, Doug. So far.

    I call thee "Mr Lucky".

    So far.

    ReplyDelete
  88. Trish the Interrogator

    Interrogation Transcript: 04Apr2008 (Field HQ Kandihar, Afghanistan)

    Interview of suspected Taliban agent Rufi Agarmartizara

    Interview conducted by American Special Ops agent Level 6, Codename: Trish

    6:00 am: Trish enters interrogation room B and begins interrogation of suspect

    Transcript: (Page 1 of 397)

    Trish: You are Rufi Agarmartizara?

    RA: What?

    Trish: You are Rufi Agarmartizara?

    RA: What?

    Trish: You are Rufi Agarmartizara?

    RA: What?

    Trish: Your name is Rufi Agarm…

    RA: (Interrupting) Oh, you mean Rufi Agarmartizari.

    Trish: What?

    RA: My name is Rufi Agarmartizari. You know, with an “i” at the end not an “a”.

    Trish: Note to SOFCOM. Verify suspects name is spelled Rufi Agarmartizari, with an “i”

    Trish: (addressing the suspect) All right you little faggot, now we are going to get down …

    RA: What?

    Trish: I said alright you little faggot, now we…

    RA: What is faggot?

    Trish: What?

    RA: Faggot? What is faggot?

    Trish: Faggot? What do you mean?

    RA: What is faggot?

    Trish: Everyone knows what faggot means.

    RA: I no know.

    Trish: Well never mind. Let’s move on. And why are you smiling?

    RA: It’s just. Well, you are women. And I have never seen women with red hair before.

    Trish: (slightly flustered, and brushing hair back on her brow) Well, yes I…

    RA: My manly parts are tingling.

    Trish: (turning red) You little prick…

    RA: What?

    Trish: Look, just answer the questions.

    RA: OK Trish.

    Trish: And don’t call me Trish. Call me sir. No, ma’m… No, no, call me Special Ops Officer Trish. No wait, call me your worst nightmare. Yeah, your worst nightmare. That’s it.

    RA: OK

    Trish: Now. Since here we are dealing merely in opinions, the very extent to which current goings-on - hardly a revolution but somewhat protracted turmoil, say - are not associated with us, with the Israelis, with the Sauds, is a very good thing. For this reason - along with the relative ease of abandoning any particular program, with no one the wiser, should it be headed south - covert operations were invented. We understand this and you understand this and we understand it together; but that being said we are interested in knowing any accomplices or enablers or financiers that may have aided you and/or been aided by you in either military or paramilitary operations in Kanidar or its vincins within the context of the ongoing aggression there.

    RA: What?

    Trish: So that’s the way it’s going to be, eh? Well we might as well settle in mister because I am going to be here all night, questioning, riding you, pounding on your little Taliban ass until your screaming like a little girl, begging to tell me everything I want to hear, looking towards the east and begging to Allah to free you from this red-headed jinn…

    RA: What?

    Trish: What?

    RA: I said what?

    Trish: I heard you say what. What do you mean what?

    RA: Jinn?

    Trish: What?

    RA: Jinn. I don’t understand what you…

    Trish: Jinn. Everyone knows what…

    RA: Shouldn’t that be Jinni? You know feminine?

    Trish: Feminine?

    RA: Yeah. It’s referring to you. It would be feminine.

    Trish: Look you little shit.

    Ra: What?

    (con’t on page 2 of 397)

    ReplyDelete
  89. The Alien in the White House

    “One of his first reforms was to rid the White House of the bust of Winston Churchill…”

    “…the United States is now, and has been throughout its history, the chief engine of injustice and oppression in the world. ..”

    ReplyDelete
  90. DR,

    You said "Soviet". You were in error about the Germans. You are now trying to hide behind the French (a real trick, that).

    ReplyDelete
  91. DR,

    The CCCP (Soviet) did not come into existence until the 20thC.

    Stick with what you know...Jew baiting...

    ReplyDelete
  92. Oh, it's gone much worse than that, Quirk.

    But far fewer pages in the TIR. Time limit, you know.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Did not have to be the CCCP, allen, for the "West" to invade Russia, march to and burn Moscow.

    The land and peoples remains the same. The historical political designations, unimportant.

    The Eurotrash of Eastern Europe providing hundreds of years of colonial desires, all wrapped up in an attempt to reach a warm water port.

    A cultural desire which has manifested itself in many political faces, around the globe, all authoritarian, all inherently Eurotrash.

    Bombing and burning, from afar, not enough to defeat the Eastern Eurotrash.

    Not enough to beat the English, Iraqi, Vietnamese, Iranians or Koreans either.

    The only folk to have ever been beaten, from the air, historically, the Japanese.

    They being a special case study, in and of themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  94. The current Eurotrash running Moscow now in bed with the true authoritarians of the Middle East.
    The Iranians, Israeli and Syrians.

    Quite the stud, that Putin.
    Keeping all those whores of Babylonian descent in line.

    ReplyDelete
  95. I mean, there are over 3 million citizens or decedents of CCCP citizens in Israel, today.

    A little ethnic Russian colony, on the Med.

    With all the ethnic animosities that Eastern Eurotrash carry with them, everywhere.

    Run straight into the return of Turkey to a leadership role within the Islamic Arc, those Russians have.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Damn interesting thread.

    I am now out of Central America. In the capital of Latin America, Miami Beach of course, a faded glory art deco hotel where they still have an amazing Latina selling cigars and and the bar, more types of rum than pages in Obama's health care bill.

    The AIA show is on in Miami and the place is lousy with architects and designers.

    Keep on keepin on.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Just a thought for a future thread:

    In their own clumsy way, did BP do us a favor?

    Are we smart enough to recognize it?

    Are we wise enough to take the lesson and run with it?

    ReplyDelete
  98. Thoughts drift to Miami, and the montage from the beginning of Miami Vice comes to mind.

    Damn.

    ReplyDelete
  99. US architects have emulated senior US military officers with more letters behind their names than vegetable gardens on their chest.

    The used to be AIA's but now are AIS, LEEDS, A/E, AAMA, ABRI, ACE, ADC, ASID, and that does not even finish up the "A's"

    WTF?

    ReplyDelete
  100. I came into the airport 6 ish, rented a Ford Edge, and came over the causeway, missed my turn going down Ocean drive. Fine looking city.

    ReplyDelete
  101. "In the capital of Latin America"

    And it really is.

    ReplyDelete
  102. Wife and I were in Miami once, pre-vice. We went to a horse race somewheres down thata way.

    Consider this, for a thought experiment--would it have been better if Germany had 'won' World War One?

    No World War Two.There might not have been a Hitler, an Auschwitz----on the other hand....

    I bring it up cause a Jewish lady on another site was talking about it. I think however it might have made things worse, the racist idiology already being firmly in place, juat waiting for the opportunity.

    ReplyDelete
  103. My alfalfa farmer calls up and says "Bob, you bin out an seen that alfalfy?"

    "No, not just lately" says I.

    "You best git out there, it's thick as hell."

    So I have and he's right, really wall to wall thick.

    We've had nothing but rain this spring. Day after day of it. Does wonders for the alfalfa. If this keeps up we'll be calling it the year without a summer.

    ReplyDelete
  104. On the economic front, studies by the United States government have cast doubt on the efficacy of sanctions, and the World Trade Organization’s Web site indicates that major buyers of Iranian exports include Japan, the European Union, China and India.

    “Not too shabby for an alleged pariah state,” said Steven E. Miller, the director of the International Security Program at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. “It does sort of raise the question of who exactly we are persuading with our relentless campaign to isolate Iran.”

    Restricting a few dozen additional companies “would seem like a thin reed on which to base a policy,” Mr. Miller added. “I think that by default we end up with sanctions because we don’t know what else to do.”


    Sanctions on Iran

    ReplyDelete
  105. It's the most amazing post, Myer.

    It is quiet. It is calming. It is serious.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Under the Dutch constitution, party leaders will next visit Queen Beatrix later today to inform her of their coalition preferences — the start of a long negotiating process.

    Neither of the top parties will be able to form a government without major comprises on ideology. The most likely outcome appears to be a centrist coalition with VVD and Labor combining with two smaller parties on the left, the Green-Left and Democrats-66.

    In theory Wilders and his Freedom Party could play a role, but his polarizing stances have made him unsavory to other parties.


    Victory in Elections

    ReplyDelete
  107. The Gulf Coast oil spill's Dr. Doom

    First of all, to the industry's credit, we went 41 years in the United States without an oil spill. In a minor sense, this is what happened to the Challenger. We had so many successful shuttle takeoffs that the space station got kind of casual about this. But this is worse.

    BP was so certain that there wasn't any risk that three years ago they thought the insurance industry was ripping them off, so they're self-insured on this. How stupid! It was the best thing that ever happened to the insurance industry.

    ReplyDelete
  108. By The CNN Wire Staff

    A video obtained by CNN casts doubt on a US Border Patrol agent's claim that he fatally shot a 14-year-old boy in Ciudad Juarez while he was surrounded by rock-throwing suspected illegal immigrants.

    ReplyDelete
  109. Oil spill halves value of BP's shares
    msnbc.com -

    LONDON/VENICE, La. - The shares of oil giant BP Plc continued falling on Thursday on concerns about the costs the British company will face in the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

    ReplyDelete
  110. Doug, I am posting your link as next post.

    ReplyDelete