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."

Monday, July 26, 2010

The Lockerbie Bomber, Obama and other African Leaders

At the time, why would African leaders be so pleased that the UK released the Lockerbie bomber? Did our Afro-centric president, Barack Hussein Obama, criticize the recipients of so much US aid? Not that I can find.

Obama said he was ''surprised, disappointed and angry'. No doubt with great passion.

George Bush tripled direct humanitarian and development aid to Africa to nearly $9 billion. What did that buy us? It looks like it bought us African leaders cheering a mass murderer of Americans.

Why did our special cousins, the Brits, release Abdelbaset al-Megrahi?

Where is the outrage?

According to the Guardian, Barack Obama is under growing pressure to release a letter that reveals the US grudgingly supported freeing the Lockerbie bomber on compassionate grounds.

The letter was sent to Scottish ministers by a senior diplomat at the US embassy in London last August, eight days before Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released from prison because he was dying from inoperable prostate cancer.

Obama's administration has refused to allow publication of the letter, in which the US says allowing Megrahi to live at home in Scotland would be "far preferable" to sending him back to Libya under the prisoner transfer deal brokered by former prime minister Tony Blair in 2007.

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US 'preferred' compassionate release of Lockerbie bomber, says Alex Salmond
The US Government told Scottish officials that the Lockerbie bomber's release on compassionate grounds was ''far preferable'' to his transfer back to a Libyan jail, it was revealed today.

Published: 4:17PM BST 25 Jul 2010 Telegraph

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said today that while America ''didn't want'' Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to be released, they would rather see him freed on account of his terminal cancer, than under the prisoner transfer agreement between the UK and Libya.

Megrahi is the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing in which 270 people were killed.

He was released in August last year after doctors said he was dying of prostate cancer and had three months to live - prompting fury in the US.

Last week, President Barack Obama told a White House press conference that the US had been ''surprised, disappointed and angry'' about Megrahi being released.

Speaking to Sky News today, Mr Salmond said: ''I think a fair description of the American Government's position is that they didn't want al-Megrahi to be released.

''However, if he was to be released, they thought it was far preferable for compassionate release as opposed to the prisoner transfer agreement.''

He also said this opposition was probably because the so-called ''deal in the desert'', signed by ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, which paved the way for the prisoner transfer agreement, was signed at the same time as an oil deal with Libya.

But the American Ambassador to the UK Louis Susman said the US had ''strongly objected'' to any type of release.
He said the US was examining whether its correspondence over the issue could be released but refused to be drawn on the reported memo.

''What you saw in the (Sunday) Times was supposedly a leaked memo or letter which did not state the facts of the letter and we don't comment on correspondence between two governments until both governments agree to release it,'' he told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

He added: ''It is quite clear that the US government was strongly against the release of Megrahi. We had a mutual understanding with the British Government that if he was tried and convicted he would serve his entire sentence in Scotland.

''The fact that the justice minister made a decision on compassionate grounds to release him was something we were not in favour of.

''We obviously had conversations with them in which we strongly objected to any type of release.''

Calls for the decision to release Megrahi to be re-examined grew in volume in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill, and reports that BP had lobbied for the bomber to be freed.

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee announced plans for an inquiry into the bomber's release, but Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill and former foreign secretary Jack Straw have both rejected calls to give evidence in person.

And Mr Salmond today repeated that the Scottish Government had no contact with BP in the build up to Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds.

Megrahi's release on compassionate grounds was on the basis of a medical report which indicated he had three months to live - but next month will mark a year since he was freed. Megrahi is still alive after being allowed to go home to Tripoli.

Mr Salmond today insisted that estimating life expectancy for terminal cancer sufferers is not an ''exact science''.
He said the report compiled by Scottish Prison Service director of health Andrew Fraser was done in consultation with experts from the NHS in Scotland.

Ministers have published the report which concluded a three-month prognosis was reasonable.



55 comments:

  1. Mr Salmond today insisted that estimating life expectancy for terminal cancer sufferers is not an ''exact science"

    heh

    Well of course it isn't, though under the British National Health plan, three months might be reasonable.

    But prostate cancer? I'd wager some radiation or surgery he'll be around a long time. Probably outlive me.

    The UK wanted some oil deal and O, well, what's the big deal about a 747 blown out of the air?

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  2. osted by: AdinaF,Israel
    Jul 26, 02:46 AM
    The question becomes - why in the world would Obama agree to this, knowing full well that he is a mass murderer of the highest order of US citizens? The main answer may very well end up being the most simplistic one, Obama is 'in sympathy' with his Muslim 'brother'. Further, since BP was the one gaining from this sordid affair, one also has to wonder why Obama would help them enrich themselves on the backs of dead Americans. Could it be that Obama has some lucrative 'side' dealings with BP, all the while he literally shuts the doors to US drilling?
    Suffice it to say, Obama did not approve of this deal for nothing in return. It is this quid pro quo, plus his Muslim leanings which must be explored.

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  3. Quirk,

    Yawn...

    Off to work, allowing the unemployed to resume their "pecker licking".

    ReplyDelete
  4. There is only one poster that returns, incessantly, to the subject of peckers.

    It is the center of allen's on line existence, his concern for the peckers, of others.

    A homophobic self loathing?

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  5. President Obama, he gave the Africans NOTHING.

    He does not dispense cash, nor foreign aid.

    It is the CONGRESS that controls the purse strings. It is the CONGRESS that sets the dollar amounts, not the President.

    A Civics class, that's what's needed, here at the Elephant Bar and Bait Shop.

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  6. It is not just Pakistan, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Libya or any of the others. It is one and the same. It is the Middle East.

    All of it, Afghanistan, Lockerbie, 911, Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and thousands of other disasters and atrocities all have three things in common, oil, Islam and our participation in the politics of the Middle East.

    It has only cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of deaths. We have nothing really tangible to show for it that we could not have had by minding our own business and let the antagonists sorting things out themselves.

    Convince me otherwise. I am open to a logical argument. If the Middle East is hell bent to kill each other and themselves, so be it. If they reach out to kill us, well we can settle that promptly enough.

    If Israel has to do what they have to do in order to survive, let them, if they cannot or do not want to then they have to fold.

    Given the religious climate and tribal affiliations of the Middle East there is no externally imposed solution that is sustainable. Blinded by religious and historic hatred they do not want to see or can't.

    Regardless, it is time to leave.

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  7. Sure, Congress does what they want and the president flies around in his 747. There is no connection?

    Where did you learn your civics?

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  8. Each Branch of the Federals has their own field of responsibilities, Deuce.

    To conflate them, gives rise to ineffective remedies.

    Personalizing, personifying the Federal Government, in the person of the President, it will not help the situation.

    It takes the eyes off the prize.

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  9. Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil, Oil

    ReplyDelete
  10. You cannot argue that the president is a titular head. He has vast powers over a congress especially one dominated by his own party.

    Presidents take us in and out of wars.

    Presidents pick cabinet officers and presidents have the bully pulpit. Presidents gain power or lose it by how they handle the argument.

    Presidents set and lead foreign policy. They are hardly innocent bystanders to congressional actions.

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  11. Did I miss anything?

    ReplyDelete
  12. $5,000,000.00 X Prize.

    Must be 100 mpg.

    Must carry 5

    Must be capable of actually ramping up to manufacture and sale in U.S.

    Must meet Safety, and Road requirements.

    Only One Car Qualified.

    It Ran on E85.


    No hybrids qualified. No electric vehicles qualified. No natural gas vehicles qualified. No gasoline vehicles qualified. No diesel vehicles qualified.

    The Only car that qualified ran on 85% Ethanol.

    Such that can be produced from Switch Grass.

    In Your County.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Must seat 4, not 5

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  14. The Al-Jazeera TV's Gaza Strip correspondent, revealed that the Gazans responsible for the ministry of health of the de facto Hamas administration were resentful because 70% of the medicines which arrived in the Gaza Strip from the aid convoys from various countries, especially Arab countries, could not be used. They were either unfit for use or their expiry dates had passed by months and sometimes years. They said that one of the convoys had brought dialysis machines which could not be used. The report was also quoted by a daily paper affiliated with the de facto Hamas administration (Al-Jazeera TV, July 20, 2010).

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  15. desert rat said...
    Each Branch of the Federals has their own field of responsibilities, Deuce.



    Ah our Holiday Inn Express guy speaks....

    Having stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, the Rodent proclaims that Obama is innocent and Lester Crown (the Jews) are evil...

    Joyous angels now sing that his truth have been revealed....


    /sarc off

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  16. Time to use the death penalty for Islamic terrorists..

    Then there is no revolving cell door...

    But that's my reality..

    America's under Obama?

    Talks with Hamas, releasing terrorists, cant say "jidadists", the PLO flies it's flag in Washington DC, the New Black Panther Party is mainstream, Abbas is a peace partner and of course Jews have no rights to build homes in Jerusalem....

    And you wonder why I think the world has gone LOCO?

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  17. DR,

    No, my little midget. Others are forever talking about my "ass" and "anus".

    By the way, DR, the average anus is only about 3/4" in length, while diameter is flexible. For those who have said, "you have a stick up your ass (anus), I can only say, "You poor baby". Additionally, such ignorance does call into question the veracity of those multiple university degrees (unless the boy was talking about the Masons or Mormons).

    O, and DR, the "pecker" part was a quote you will have to take up with Messrs. Carville and Clinton. The point being made had to do with why a dog "licks his pecker" and others are bigoted: because they can.

    I believe my use of the quote "pecker/peckers" with reference exclusively to Quirk is recent. Therefore, you are again a LIAR, but we knew that.

    ReplyDelete
  18. ...back to work...Those of us not on the dole must be about our business.

    ReplyDelete
  19. allen said...
    ...back to work...Those of us not on the dole must be about our business.


    Looters verses the Producers...

    Atlas Shrugged comes alive in 2010

    ReplyDelete
  20. Sarah's Mama Grizz Ad

    I'm thinkin' with Sarah the Lockerbie bomber wouldn't be in Libya.

    ReplyDelete
  21. We're not needin' all those g's on the endin's of all those words anyway.

    What an authentic American voice, at least out this way.

    I'm votin' for Palin.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Just heard something interesting on CNBC: The Mexican Drug Cartels get 70% of their Income from Marijuana.

    If that Pot law passes in Ca it would do them more damage than all the "Drug Enforcement" ever done.

    ReplyDelete
  23. "cause there's a whole lot of pink elephants crossin' the line and the EPA..."

    "and the EPA"

    heh, she snuck that in there, if I heard aright.

    ReplyDelete
  24. That is kind of hard to believe, Guvnor, cause everybody but everybody is into growing maryjane. heh, my next door apartment house owner, for instance.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Well here it is after 9am here in CdA and I've been up for hours, waitin' around, should I wake my daughter up? I'd
    kinda like to get the show on the road but I'll let her sleep.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I know, I'll drive downtown and buy the paper, that's it.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Legalize pot...

    Tax it...

    Offer investment tax credits for specifically exports to the islamic world

    Let's take a page from the Brits and Chinese war..

    Time to drug the muzzies...

    ReplyDelete
  28. I wish I were on the "dole." This work stuff sucks.

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  29. Agony, only about ten more minutes she'll have her hair done and everything just right this is the Cross of Domestic Life I have to bear then it's off to the transmission shop, North Idaho
    College, where trod the divine feet of Sarah Palin, she's taking horse back riding this fall and the Nez Perce language she'll graduate with a perfectly economically worthless degree but pappy will provide then the post office, then fill her car with gas, and I'm outta here, heading south, alone, with the obligatory stop at the Coeur d'Alene Casino o the blessed solitude of a crowded casino and I can have a couple drinks and play roulette red and even, then south home again home again rubadedub and then it's Boise Ho! and Basque dancing, Shakespeare in the Park, niece Emily who is now thirty something and living with a man and best of all the Boise River and solitude again right in downtown Boise I've never seen anyone fishing there I'll try a floating line first with a Royal Coachman and if that don't work a sinking with some kind of nymph but I'll get 'em damn it's nice to be competent at something then maybe the dotter and I are heading on to Vegas Ho!

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  30. bless me that was ETA not EPA, forgive me I have a skin grafted ear drum on one side I'd didn't think it made any sense we're outta here

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  31. That's what retired Federal Socialists call Capitalism:
    "The Dole"...

    ... and Capitalists, well they are spun into "Welfare Recipients"

    Life is Grand!

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  32. when it comes to peckers, me thinks rat doth protest too much.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Why, anon, I do not protest, at all.

    I just made comment that allen continually trends the conversation towards the sexual, usually the homosexual or bestial.

    Just commentin' on what's easily observable.

    ReplyDelete
  34. you took the bait and exposed yourself. no worries its the 21st centuary man!

    ReplyDelete
  35. No, anon, I kept it in my pants.

    No public exposure, on my part, amigo.

    It's just that some folk are not happy, if it is not lewd and crude.

    I am happy to count myself apart from that crowd, thank you.

    As for yourself, who's to know, let alone care.

    ReplyDelete
  36. So, I usually float into work by9:30 or so not for any other reason except that a) I can and b) the less time I spend with a certain someone the better. That certain someone is on vacation this week and while I’m in awe I have to be in by 8 am. I never realize the impact of not getting my hour of solitude before work would have on my mindset until I got there this morning and thought there was something wrong with my car when the power door locks would not lock. I realized then that 8 am is way too early for me to start work as I was pushing the wrong button for five minutes.

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  37. Let's go Quirk. As my ascendant is Leo, I want to know what you have to say.

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  38. DR,

    More often than not, my sexual references have to do with you, your Arab buds and your EB peanut gallery. As I recall, I have presented the fact that you dudes have no problem with the gang rape of little girls prior to execution, although you go all creamy if some wiki-fascist creates an anti-Semetic myth.

    Nite all...the day begins at 05:00...

    PS: DR, you continually forget that the web has a vast memory. Your lies are too easy to catch to make the effort entertaining.

    ReplyDelete
  39. i certainly did not mean expose in that way (get the mind out of the gutter) but rather in the way one exposes their hidden feelings.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Good night Allen.

    The peanut gallery thanks you for keeping us advised of your itinerary.

    Also, thanks for the anatomy lesson. In all my years, in conversations with friends and family, that little factoid has never surfaced. It's probably not something I would have had an occasion to Google either. But now, with that knowledge in hand, I will at least have something to say at the next proctologist convention. I'm sure it goes over big at your parties too.

    In this instance, I must admit I am impressed by your intimate knowledge of the anus, its size and flexibility. Since this is a family bar I won’t question further on where you gained the knowledge.

    Since you tried to explain your "pecker" comment by attempting to translate lingua Carville into English, let me help you with the term "a stick up his ass". Here in the north it’s simply a phrase used to designate a person who is "up tight". As such, you really needn’t worry about the mechanics

    .

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  41. By the way, I see that you have maintained your record.

    Less than five posts before resorting to the reductio ad fascist meme.



    .

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  42. "Let's go Quirk"

    Sorry, Mel.

    I know I'm running late. Been trying to get my wife's new computer set up on a wireless network. My son-in-laws usually handle this stuff for me and they are both on vacation.

    Will try to rush Leo through.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  43. "PS: DR, you continually forget that the web has a vast memory..."

    Heck, another good one.

    Damn, they just keep coming.

    Where do you get this stuff?

    You don't mind if I use this at my next coctail party do you?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  44. The "web" has no memory.

    It is merely a collection of bytes, that can be accessed over and again.

    But it remembers nothing, it is not a living thing, allen.

    You give computers the attributes and abilities of people.

    another example of your, well, immature thinking, really.

    Spent 20 years doing the same thing as a Federal Socialist, aye?

    I see that you obtained your one year of experience, twenty times.

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  45. Gee rat, that's pretty heavy stuff too.

    You don't mind if I use some of that at that cocktail party I mentioned do you?

    I figure a couple drinks, that line about one year of experience twenty times over, and I expect I'd have the chicks all over me.


    :)


    .

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  46. I am a tad off, Q.

    Well, there are few things sadder then when a retired Federal gives advice on working and capitalism.

    Subjects that were just far, far and away from any relevancy to their career path, and subsequent life skills.

    Dutiful public servants, but not folk that should be emulated by intelligent children.

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  47. "I am a tad off, Q."


    Not at all, rat.

    Just kidding around.

    I started a little early on that cocktail party.

    Damn computers drive me nuts. Maybe starting early on the cocktail party contributed to that.

    At any rate, I'll talk to you later. I'm being pressured to draw up some star signs.


    .

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  48. Dutiful public servants, but not folk that should be emulated by intelligent children...

    Saw an interesting speech by George Will to Cato. Some interesting observations on the growth of the federal bureaucracy.

    In another decade, all we will have will be government jobs.

    I'll have to dig it up and post it.

    .

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  49. "I'm being pressured to draw up some star signs."

    Melody's a true slave-driver.



    I've been meaning to say something about this:

    "Frankly, I worry about Deuce exploding at some point over Obama."

    It is the sad lot of millions to suffer through the tenure of absolutely loathed and feared Chief Executives.

    Blue could consult my mother on how to cope.

    She barely made it, but made it she did, through GWB's eight, bless her heart.

    And I was going slightly mad myself until packed and out of the country.

    I sympathize.

    I really do.

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  50. But since you're ganging up on the poor, pitiful Federal Socialists this late night, I'm going to cruise my favorite liberal websites.

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  51. "Melody's a true slave-driver."

    I believe it's because of Leo ascendant.


    .

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