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."

Saturday, July 24, 2010

While Obama attacks Arizona, Juarez Drug Wars Increase



It is inexplicable that Obama attacks Arizona in a federal court for trying to do what Obama is sworn by oath to do, and that is border protection.

Obama, like his predecessor GWB, is conducting two wars in Asia. While this is ongoing, a border state of the United States, Mexico, is losing a war with Mexican drug gangs. The war is at our borders and has breeched them.


___________________________________________

Mexican authorities find 38 bodies hidden in mass graves
From Esprit Smith, CNN
July 24, 2010

  • State attorney general: Some bodies dumped within the past 15 days
  • Investigators are searching the area for graves
  • State media says investigators found charred remains in the area
  • Authorities have linked other similar grave sites to Mexico's drug war

(CNN) -- Authorities in the Mexican border state of Nuevo Leon are investigating after finding at least 38 bodies in nine hidden mass graves, the state's attorney general said.

Investigators believe some of the bodies had been dumped within the past 15 days, said Alejandro Garza y Garza, Nuevo Leon attorney general.

State-run news agency Notimex reported that investigators found charred remains, incinerated bone fragments and stains of fire on the ground where bodies were presumably burned in steel drums.

Garza said Friday that the bodies were in an area spanning 3 hectares (about 7 acres) in the municipality of Juarez outside the state capital of Monterrey. Investigators were still searching for additional graves Friday, he said, according to Notimex.

The bodies were mostly males between ages 20 and 50, Notimex said, and many of them had tattoos.
Forensic investigators are performing DNA tests to identify the victims, Notimex reported.
Similar graves sites have been discovered in the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Guerrero and Quintana Roo since late May. Authorities have linked them to Mexico's ongoing drug war.


_______________________________________________

Meanwhile our trillion dollar investment in Iraq democracy is going well:

Top Insurgents Escaped Prison Days After Iraq Took Over
NY Times

BAGHDAD — An outsize ceremonial skeleton key traded hands last week in the official transfer of Camp Cropper, the last jail in Iraq that had been under American control. The Iraqi government was, one American general said, “equipped, prepared and poised to take over.”




But it did not end the dark history of prisons in Iraq over the last seven years: Just five days later, four prisoners, at least three of them said to be high-ranking members in the nation’s most violent insurgent group, escaped. The warden and several guards are nowhere to be found.

“Leaders from the Islamic State of Iraq were able to escape from Cropper Prison,” read a statement that appeared Friday on a Web site that carries messages from the group, which is affiliated with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. “And no one from the apostates has been able to find them, 36 hours after their escape.”

Sunni extremists sometimes use the term “apostates” to describe the majority Shiites, who control Iraq’s government.

The July 15 transfer of Camp Cropper, which had held many of what the United States military considered “high value” inmates, was considered yet another milestone toward full Iraqi sovereignty, just over a month before America is scheduled to withdraw the last of its combat troops.

But institutions are being handed over to a political system in disarray. There is no new government nearly five months after parliamentary elections.

And while overall violence is relatively low, a deadly campaign of assassinations is under way against political figures, members of Awakening groups and people who had cooperated with Americans. The group to which the escaped prisoners belonged, the Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for one of the worst of these recent attacks: On Sunday, bombings killed at least 47 members of Awakening Councils, made up of former Sunni insurgents who switched sides.

The men escaped from the Camp Cropper prison complex, near Baghdad International Airport, on Tuesday, though Iraqi officials did not make the news public for 48 hours. The missing men include the group’s finance minister, its interior minister and its justice minister, the security officials said, without identifying them. The standing of a fourth escapee was unclear.

The men had been captured by American forces and had been held for about 15 months, the Iraqi police said Friday. On Friday, the United States military in Iraq declined to answer questions on the escape from the prison, where 1,500 inmates are held. In Washington, Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said: “U.S. forces are not involved in any aspect of running or securing the facility. The government of Iraq is investigating the circumstances surrounding the escape.” It is not known how the four men escaped the highly secured prison, but Iraq’s minister of justice, Dara Nurredin Dara, said Friday that the jail’s American-assigned warden, Omar Hamis Hamadi, was missing as well.

“We were told that he was trustworthy and had a good reputation,” Mr. Dara said.

Other security officials said that several guards had failed to report to work since the escape.

The prison system in Iraq has been consistently troubled since the United States military invaded Iraq in 2003. Seeking to tame an increasingly effective insurgency, American soldiers arrested thousands of suspects, many of them without proof, and held them for a year or longer.

The system began to change after the scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison, in which American jailers tortured and abused detainees. Experts say that many men became radicalized against Americans inside the prisons.

Experts also say that, as prisoners have been released and transferred to Iraqi authority, the system remains abusive. In April, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ordered the closing of a secret prison that held hundreds of detainees from northern Iraq. Dozens of prisoners had been tortured before the country’s human rights minister and the United States intervened.

High-level suspects have disappeared from Iraqi detention with maddening frequency. On Friday, the British Embassy in Baghdad said the British foreign secretary had raised concerns with Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, about the recent disappearance of the man convicted in the 2004 kidnapping and murder of a British-Iraqi aid worker, Margaret Hassan. The man, Ali Lutfi Jassar al-Rawi, was in custody and appealing his conviction when he disappeared.

At Camp Cropper, the American military continues to operate one of the prison’s blocks at the request of the Iraqi government, overseeing about 200 inmates, including members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni group, and officials who had been part of Saddam Hussein’s government. The Iraqi government asked the Americans to hold on to some of the prisoners while Iraqi law enforcement officials determine their legal status. The men escaped from the Iraqi-controlled part of the prison.

In recent months, American and Iraqi security forces have captured and killed dozens of members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, including its top leaders. American generals, however, caution that while the organization has been significantly weakened, it continues to be capable of launching attacks that lead to mass casualties.

Duraid Adnan and Zaid Thaker contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Elisabeth Bumiller from Washington.


232 comments:

  1. "The war is at our borders..."

    Well, super, NOW you tell us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hell, trish, I've been saying it for the past six years.

    That you discount the reality of the US populations' true security concerns, just another symptom of your DC centric whirled.

    That anyone would consider the situation in Afghanistan to be more dire or important than what is happening in Mexico and the rest of the Americas, to the long term security of the United States, just a sign of ignorance.

    Or willful denial.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This particular incident shows that the war is not only between rival gangs but between the narco traffickers, now terrorists, and law enforcement. It's been reported that this bomb was detonated by remote control at the opportune time to inflict casualties.

    For years we watched the violence ratchet up as Mexican civil institutions sink. If the narco/terrorists can succeed in gaining control of Mexican government agencies including law enforcement and the military, think of the implications.

    Oh, I'm sorry, I mustn't be a 'scared American.'

    ReplyDelete
  4. For years I've also wondered just what the Mexican Presidents tell our President when they make their State visits. Is it so hideous, so frightening that every President chooses to practically ignore the open border?

    Is Mexico like J.Edgar Hoover throwing a case file of dirty photos on every new President's desk.

    Do they come up here saying without immigration and remittances the two-class state of Mexico will collapse and take down North America with it?

    Spain (and the Catholic Church) was just about the worse of all colonizers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Hell, trish, I've been saying it for the past six years."

    Has your humor function been disabled?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, whit, you are swamped by the negativity of the life is going to hell storyline.

    Though one of my Mexican heritage friends told me of a sister that went down into Sinola, where all the "youth" are packing AK's and think that they are "hitmen".

    Shook her to the core of her "Mexican" soul, that there were death squads roaming the streets and the Policia steered clear of any confrontation with them.
    As she said the policia do not think it's worth dying, for the $350 a month that police work pays, in central Mexico.

    The police of Mexico have not yet been militarized, as the police in the US have been.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, whit, you are swamped by the negativity of the life is going to hell storyline.

    Should I not be?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes, whit, that is the storyline. That without US assistance, in a very REAL way, that North America will collapse.

    If a civil war in Mexico created the same refugee count as was created in Iraq's civil war, that'd be 15 million people, moving towards the security found north of their border, in the United States.

    Mexico is a key component of the North American economy, more so than many US citizens think is the case.

    But there are more, I think, Government Motors cars built in Mexico, than Detroit City.
    Truth be known.

    ReplyDelete
  9. No, you should not allow yourself to be swamped by negativity.

    There are many positive stories out there. That we tend to ignore them, well, that's partisanship for you.

    3% of the whirled population still consumes 23% of it's production and resources. That amigo, is cause for rejoicing, not consternation.

    That the US share may drop to 20%, cause for readjustment, but not despair.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mexico is our big blighted neighborhood on the southside. Everyone knows it's trouble but no one knows what to do (or can be bothered with the dirty work required to do something about it.) On top of the grinding poverty and ignorance, now we got freakin' drugs in the mix.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for the advice.

    >:(

    ReplyDelete
  12. We should not kid ourselves and think that this cannot happen here:

    In February of two thousand eight, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia. Now the top United Nations court says Kosovo's declaration was legal. Hisashi Owada, president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, read the opinion.
    HISASHI OWADA: "The court considers that general international law contains no applicable prohibition on declarations of independence."

    ReplyDelete
  13. It has already happened with "40 acres and a mule", phony Indian tribes and moves by the Hawaiians to seek separate status:

    " March 10, 2003 on official stationery of the State of Connecticut, Office of Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, signed by him, and bearing the state seal. Excerpts from Mr. Blumenthal's 3-page single-spaced letter to Senator Daniel Inouye, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
    [begin quotes]
    "I write to the Committee to express my serious concerns about S.297 ... Instead, I ask the Committee to support S.463, recently introduced by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and Senator Christopher Dodd, which more carefully balances the legitimate interests of tribes, states, local communities and the public. In addition, I continue to advocate that the tribal recognition decisions be made by an independent commission ... insulated from improper influences of money and politics, which so pervasively now drive these decisions.
    "I fear that S.297 would weaken the current standards for determining tribal recognition -- standards adopted to ensure that only groups that have continuously existed as tribes are accorded federal recognition. Under current acknowledgment regulations, a petitioning group must demonstrate that it has existed as a distinct social community and has exercised political authority and influence on a continuous basis from historical times to the present. ... 'Historic' is defined under current regulations as from the time of first sustained contact with non-Indians ...
    "...Given the immense, far-reaching significance of recognition decisions for affected states, municipalities and the public, the potential denial of the right to judicial review is fundamentally unfair. It deprives those affected parties -- particularly sovereign states -- of their rights to due process and other constitutional guarantees. ...
    "A decision by the federal government to recognize an Indian tribe has profound and irreversible effects on tribes, states, local communities, and the public. Tribes that receive federal recognition may be permitted to operate commercial casino gaming. They are exempt from most state and local laws and land use and environmental regulations. They enjoy immunity from suit. They may seek to expand their land base by pursuing land claims, or seeking to place land into trust under the Indian Reorganization Act. They may be insulated from many worker protection statutes relating, for example, to the minimum wage or collective bargaining as well as health and safety codes.

    ReplyDelete
  14. It does not have to happen statewide. Illegal settlements by Mexicans in the Southwest will make claims as being native American Indians and claim ancient land rights. You can bet the tribal farm on it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. While I'm here, I'd like to lodge a complaint regarding the insults tossed around last night: Yahoos and scurrilous scum.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Also, I was compared to a notoriously unlikeable Peanuts character.

    ReplyDelete
  17. That's redundant, BTW: notoriously unlikeable.







    I did it for emphasis.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Don't press your luck, Toots. :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. Plizz forgive me.

    But, we all Love Lucy.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Just doing my part to keep everything within the bounds of civility at the Elephant Bar, Bait and Tackle.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Mexico only collects some 9% of GDP in Federal Taxes. It's not enough to support a Civil Society.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I have to disagree, whit. We are "doing" something, every day, down Mexico Way.

    Walmart has a giant presence there. Huge.

    It is keystone to the Rockefeller program. To IBEC a culture,or a country.

    They did it in Italy after WWII and now the program is fully engaged, in Mexico.

    Using the tool that we all know work best, socialized capitalism. Raising the standard of living for everyone, like an incoming tide.

    When the Federals and the US military tried to "help", well, they trained the core of Los Zetas, to a professional level of military competency.

    ReplyDelete
  23. In short, Mexico is, basically, the end game of "Republicanism."

    ReplyDelete
  24. "But, we all Love Lucy."

    Ha ha!






    I'm taking my hungover ass back to bed.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Just like Venezuela is the end game of "Socialism."

    ReplyDelete
  26. Governing is hard.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Still not on the road for a four hour drive....

    We may leave before gas becomes too expensive or tar balls outnumber grains of sand on the beach or Mexico collapses.

    ReplyDelete
  28. We might leave...

    ReplyDelete
  29. "While I'm here, I'd like to lodge a complaint regarding the insults tossed around last night: Yahoos and scurrilous scum."

    Please excuse me for offending your delicate sensibilities with my unfortunate typo. What I had meant to type was you "yoo hoos".

    However, your complaint has been duly noted and will likely be revisited in response to one of your future posts.



    .

    ReplyDelete
  30. You called "MY" friends, "Yahoos?"

    You Scurrilous Scum.




    dick

    ReplyDelete
  31. desert rat said...
    Hell, trish, I've been saying it for the past six years.



    Rat stayed in a Holiday Inn last night and forgot the countless times he ridiculed the threat from the southern border...

    it's a shame we cant search the Bar's posts with ease to show the hundreds of times he stated that the problems were just in our minds..

    Rat flips more than a pancake....

    I guess those Holiday Inns are losing their effect...

    Rat needs to stay in a Super8

    ReplyDelete
  32. Can't wait for the Mexicans to start launching "crude homemade devices" over the border....

    ReplyDelete
  33. "dick"

    I've learned my lesson Ruf. In the future, I will try to constrain myself to mild chiding combined with just the right amount of condescension.

    Maybe something like this,

    "But, no. Instead of a flock of rabid lefties I've got every aging, malcontented, former lower-enlisted SOB with time on his hands.

    Rufus, stop being an ass."


    What does surprise me though is that a girl with her delicate sensibilities was still up at 7:30 or so.

    Of course, I guess the same could be said of the elderly gentleman that seconded her comments.


    .
    .

    ReplyDelete
  34. As the debate over illegal immigration from Mexico rages in Washington and across the country, and as the administration’s reform bill hangs by a thread, few Americans are aware that this problem will automatically decline and eventually become a vague memory.

    There has been a stunning decline in the fertility rate in Mexico, which means that, in a few years there will not be many teenagers in Mexico looking for work in the United States or anywhere else. If this trend in the fertility rate continues, Mexico will resemble Japan and Italy – rapidly aging populations with too few young workers to support the economy.

    According to the World Bank’s 2007 Annual Development Indicators, in 1990 Mexico had a fertility rate of 3.3 children per female, but by 2005, that number had fallen by 36 percent to 2.1, which is the Zero Population Growth rate. That is an enormous decline in the number of Mexican infants per female. The large number of women currently in their reproductive years means that there are still quite a few babies, but as this group ages, the number of infants will decline sharply. If this trend toward fewer children per female continues, there being no apparent reason for it to cease, the number of young people in the Mexican population will decline significantly just when the number of elderly is rising. As labor markets in Mexico tighten and wage rates rise, far fewer Mexican youngsters will be interested in coming to the United States. Since our baby boomers will be retiring at the same time, we could face a severe labor shortage.

    There have been significant declines in fertility rates across Latin America, but Mexico’s has been unusually sharp. In El Salvador, another country from which immigrants come, a 3.7 rate in 1990 became 2.5 by 2005. Guatemala is now at 4.3, but that is far lower than it was in 1990. Jamaica, another source of illegal U. S. immigrants, has fallen from 2.9 to 2.4 over the same period. Chile and Costa Rica, at 2.0, are actually slightly below a replacement rate. Trinidad and Tobago, at 1.6, is well below ZPG. For all of Latin American and the Caribbean, a rate of 3.2 in 1990 fell to 2.4 in 2005, a decline of 25 percent. This means less pressure on the United States from illegal immigrants from the entire area, not just from Mexico. A powerful demographic transition is well underway, and soon many of these countries may be worried about there being too few babies rather than too many. We may miss this labor, and wonder how we will replace it.

    What is going on in Latin America? Better education and improved job opportunities for women mean that it has become quite expensive for them to leave the labor force to have more children. The improved availability of birth control technology and liberalization of abortion rules in some countries mean that it is easier for women to avoid that outcome.

    Fertility rates are declining across the globe, but the change is particular striking to our south. The world fertility rate fell from 3.1 to 2.6 over the 1990-2005 period. The population bomb is becoming a fire cracker.

    Another reason for the particularly sharp decline in Mexico is the cultural influence of the United States. Our xenophobic nationalists fear that we are being ‘Mexicanized.’ In fact the opposite may be underway. NAFTA, our mass media, the more widespread use of English, and the large number of people going back and forth (legally or otherwise) mean that Mexicans are increasingly influenced by our culture, and that implies fewer babies. The United States also has a fertility rate of 2.1, but that is the same as it was in 1990. Mexico is becoming more similar to the United States, which must frustrate their nationalists.

    The main point for the United States is that we have only a temporary problem with illegal immigration from Mexico. For another decade or a bit more we must attempt to limit such entry, but then the problem will fade like the smile on the Cheshire Cat. Lou Dobbs, Rep. Tancredo and their xenophobic friends can calm down and relax.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Fully 3/4 of the membership of the House of Representatives have signed onto Ron Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve, but Barney Frank isn't letting the bill out of his committee.

    It'll have to wait until after January, 2011.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Now that the Obama administration is suing Arizona over its tough immigration law, some critics are asking why so-called sanctuary cities are getting a pass for ignoring federal immigration law
    .

    More than 50 cities in the U.S provide sanctuaries to illegal immigrants. Supporters of such policies say they want the local police to focus on solving crimes and leave the immigration work to the federal authorities.

    "What sanctuary cities are saying is, we are not going to preempt the federal government. It's the federal government's responsibilities," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

    But Richard Land, the president of Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Liberty Commission, said while he supports comprehensive immigration reform, he opposes sanctuary cities.

    "We can't have government officials deciding which laws they are going to enforce or not enforce. That undermines the rule of law. We have to have officials who are under the rule of law," he said.

    Sanctuary cities are not a new idea. They've been around for decades and no administration -- Democrat of Republican -- has really gone after them.

    But the Obama administration is going after Arizona for its new law that permits officers to ask about a person's immigration status during the course of other law enforcement duties
    , such as a traffic stops. Opponents say the law promotes racial profiling and is unconstitutional. But supporters deny those charges.

    "The Arizona law is in compliance with federal law," said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at Numbers USA. "The Justice Department should stay out of it. They should be encouraging Arizona to be enforcing the laws. Secondly, they should be enforcing federal immigration law, which means challenging cities and states that have sanctuary policies."

    The Justice Department sees it differently, saying Arizona is unconstitutionally interfering with the federal government's
    role in immigration control.

    "There is a big difference between a state or locality saying they are not going to use their resources to enforce a federal law, as so-called sanctuary cities have done, and a state passing its own immigration policy that actively interferes with federal law," Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said.

    But to those who support the Arizona law and oppose the idea of sanctuary cities, that seems like a cop-out.

    "The administration has shown again and again it has no intention of enforcing federal immigration laws," Jenks said

    ReplyDelete
  37. Scurrilous, scummy dick

    ReplyDelete
  38. Archived material cannot be used for the purpose of...

    Well, it just can't.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Thou hath not so much brain as ear wax.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Thou goatish knotty-pated scut!

    ReplyDelete
  41. There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Thou spongy clapper-clawed lewdster!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Thou art sick in the world's regard, wretched and low, a poor unminded outlaw sneaking home.

    ReplyDelete
  44. $35.00 PC

    Interesting discussion in the comments.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Bob, it appears you too, have visited the Imagospere recently.

    I just got back myself.

    The Imagospere, ruled by one immutable law: "Imagine it and rule the world; talk to someone about it and risk spending 30 days in the local psyche ward."

    .

    ReplyDelete
  46. Thou goatish knotty-pated scut!

    That's what I almost said.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Obumble is unfit for any place but hell.

    Whatever his reasons, he's just pissing the white people off more and more.

    In November, in the nation's wide mouth he'll live scandaliz'd and foully spoken of.

    Such inordinate and low desires,
    such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts,such barren pleasures, rude society,
    as he's match'd withal, and grafted to!

    ReplyDelete
  48. I've got to catch up on the language, as we're all going to the Shakespeare Festival in Boise next week, the Basque Festival too! And niece Emily will be there, who I haven't seen in decades.

    And we're all staying at the Holiday Inn, reservations already made!

    Thou all wouldst eat thy dead vomit up,
    and howl'st to find it.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Loved to Death


    BERLIN – At least 10 people were killed and another 15 injured when mass panic broke out Saturday in a tunnel at an annual celebration of techno music in western Germany.

    The deaths occurred at the Love Parade in Duisburg, near Duesseldorf, where thousands had gathered for the event.

    Police gave no other immediate details. But the German news agency DAPD reported the stampede broke out after authorities tried to stop thousands of people from entering the area where the parade was being held.

    DAPD reported the victims were crushed and that emergency workers had trouble getting through to them.

    ReplyDelete
  50. And here it was going to be such a lovely day...

    ReplyDelete
  51. I'm also going to fish the Boise River while I'm there.

    No Love Parade for me.

    ReplyDelete
  52. La seconde, le mécontentement âgées, bon vivant, connaisseur of the femme fatale, warrior of the road well traveled, with a long and growing list of formers, baking a blueberry pie with some outstanding wild New Jersey blueberries, preparing for a trip to Poland and Croatia with a stop in Prague to study a painting by Gustav Klimt when in comes an astrologer of some ill repute and the cad attacks Red the Fed.

    What else is a gentleman to do?

    ReplyDelete
  53. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  54. "Red the Fed, as is her wont when bored, hung over (as in this case), or having nothing else to say, decided to throw a little shit in the game."

    It was meant to be lighthearted.

    Good God, Quirk.

    ReplyDelete
  55. heh
    ------

    In a document, or white paper, outlining the plan, the government admitted that the changes would “cause significant disruption and loss of jobs.” But it said: “The current architecture of the health system has developed piecemeal, involves duplication and is unwieldy. Liberating the N.H.S., and putting power in the hands of patients and clinicians, means we will be able to effect a radical simplification, and remove layers of management.”

    The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, also promised to put more power in the hands of patients. Currently, how and where patients are treated, and by whom, is largely determined by decisions made by 150 entities known as primary care trusts — all of which would be abolished under the plan, with some of those choices going to patients.



    Britain Plans to Decentralize Health Care

    back and fro

    ReplyDelete
  56. "It was meant to be lighthearted.

    Good God, Quirk."


    I took it as such Trish.

    Mine also was meant to be lighthearted. I'm just not as good at it as you.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  57. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  58. I fake well.





    So, our globe-trotting, art-collecting Casanova bakes.

    Even I don't bake.

    ReplyDelete
  59. sea nap

    full fathom five

    ReplyDelete
  60. Ariel's Song

    Come unto these yellow sands,
    And then take hands:
    Curtsied when you have, and kiss'd
    The wild waves whist,
    Foot it featly here and there;
    And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear.
    Hark, hark!
    Bow-wow.
    The watch-dogs bark.
    Bow-wow.
    Hark, hark! I hear
    The strain of strutting chanticleer
    Cry, Cock-a-diddle-dow.



    Full fathom five thy father lies;
    Of his bones are coral made;
    Those are pearls that were his eyes:
    Nothing of him that doth fade,
    But doth suffer a sea-change
    Into something rich and strange.
    Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
    Ding-dong.
    Hark! now I hear them—Ding-dong, bell.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Yeah, the jet-setting, french-dropping, Pa Pussy takes up for the aristo-lingual military/industrialist Embassy mouse, but

    No One takes up for poor ol' Rufus.

    No, Bilderberger/trilateralists can jest beat up on the poor ol' ex-enlisted till the cows come home. Nary a tears is shed. Nary a word from management.

    After the Revolucion, Compadres. After the Revolucion.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Nary a word of encouragement for poor ol' Rufus.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Now we got Ideehowun farmers, of uncertain persuazhun, posting pomes, and pikturs of wimmins' dresses.


    Why don no one like Missippians?

    ReplyDelete
  64. You won't laugh at poor ol' Rufus, then:

    L'Internatioionale

    ReplyDelete
  65. spit, Comrades, spit

    ReplyDelete
  66. spit, Comrades, spit

    ReplyDelete
  67. I cain't even spell frenchie when I'm looking at it.

    ReplyDelete
  68. heh

    Arise ye starvlings
    From your slumbers....

    ReplyDelete
  69. What are you moaning about for anyway?

    You got a political career.

    ReplyDelete
  70. :) :) :)

    Call me Guvnor.

    I'll get the Peeople's vote.

    ReplyDelete
  71. ah can dee liver da 10th precinct

    ReplyDelete
  72. "After the Revolucion, Compadres. After the Revolucion."



    Hey, I offered to bring a lovely potato gratin to the Revolution. Surreptitiously, of course.


    Figured it would, ah, get me special consideration in the aftermath.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Vodka would have been better - consideration-wise.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Great Music. No wonder that deal caught on.


    For a little while, anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  75. They'll be vodka for all, after your Victory, Guvnor Ruf. And not in little shot glasses, either.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Oh, BTW, Bob,

    That article on Mexican Demographics was really interesting. I, for one, had no idea. 2.1? Whoodathunkit?

    Malthus, screwed again.

    ReplyDelete
  77. We ain't drinkin none of that potato whiskey at my party, Bob.

    Corn Whiskey all around. And, yeah, Big glasses. Fruit Jars.

    We'll brew it out back, behind the Mansion. Ethanol for all.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Rite on, Guv.

    ah got to go to walmart with the little womin

    ReplyDelete
  79. ah just wanna be head of the fisheries department in you new administrtion

    ReplyDelete
  80. No Fisheries Dept. We're just all gonna go fishing once a week. Maybe Mondays. They ain't good for much else, anyway.

    Nah, Wednesdays. Break up the week some.


    Maybe Fridays.

    Yeah, Fridays.

    ReplyDelete
  81. I'm back....

    Human stampede:
    DUISBURG, Germany – Crowds of people streaming into a techno music festival surged through an already jammed entry tunnel on Saturday, setting off a panic that killed 18 people and injured 80 at an event meant to celebrate love and peace.

    The circumstances of the stampede at the famed Love Parade festival were still not clear even hours after the chaos, but it appeared that some or most of the 18 had been crushed to death.

    ReplyDelete
  82. "No, Bilderberger/trilateralists can jest beat up on the poor ol' ex-enlisted till the cows come home. Nary a tears is shed. Nary a word from management."

    Am I to assume this was directed at me?

    (I not sure how many more Bilderberger/trilateralists there are here.)


    .

    ReplyDelete
  83. don't forget the pig roast.

    i'll bring the apple.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Jes you, Trish, an Deuce, prolly.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Yeh, thas right, Boss; I'm callin you out. You think we dint notice those weird time stamps when the "conferences" were goin on?

    ReplyDelete
  86. No pig "roasts." We'll take that sucker down to Corkey's and have'm BarBiQue it.

    ReplyDelete
  87. How to BarBiQue, Mississippi-style.


    1) Steal a fat pig.

    ReplyDelete
  88. "Jes you, Trish, an Deuce, prolly"

    sorry kris didn't realize it was a private party i'll fedex the apple and make sure i crash it well into the night.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Did you notice that while singing the Internationale those guys couldn't quite figure out whether to put up their left or right hand.

    A little awkward. Slightly embarassing. There probably should be a little basic training for new recruits.

    You wouldn't see that sort of disarray at one of our meetings.



    .

    ReplyDelete
  90. That's Frightening.


    Bilderbergers Singing.

    ReplyDelete
  91. They probably started off with a right hand salute, and then the Nazis embarrassed them, making some want to go to the left hand.

    ReplyDelete
  92. they were either fat or unhealthy how could they stand there that long holding only one arm in the air

    ReplyDelete
  93. “Good lord, the last time we had that discussion I made you look like such an ass I'm surprised you keep bringing it up.”

    "Imagine it and rule the world; talk to someone about it and risk spending 30 days in the local psyche ward."

    :) Haldol should help.

    “Bob, you are dead to me.”

    :) Right...unless he needs attention of course...

    ReplyDelete
  94. misdirection, you continue to amaze.

    For years, here and at the old BC, I have discounted the threat of the Muslim hordes and, instead, have said the greatest physical threats to US security are south of the border, Our border. Not the Iranian, nor Iraqi nor Russian borders.

    While the greatest economic threat comes from the addiction to oil that the US suffers from.

    But the southern US border.

    It was true on 08SEP01, it was true in 09SEP01 and is true today.

    That the security threat from the south is not a truly military one, all to true. That the answer to the threat is not military, more than evident by our US military's current performance in cultural modification, in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or Pakistan.

    It is a task beyond the military's capability or capacity.

    But, misdirection, there is nothing to fear, but fear itself.

    Most everything else can be accommodated, with prior planning.

    ReplyDelete
  95. I think there's a whole Hell of a lot about Mejico I don't understand. I would like to know more about Mexico City, and the other large population centers to the South.

    There's a Lot about the "Mexico" story that just doesn't add up.

    ReplyDelete
  96. the Mexico City metropolitan area population is 21.2 million people,[2] making it the largest metropolitan area in the Americas and the third largest agglomeration in the world.[7] The city had a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $390 billion USD in 2005, making Mexico City the 25th largest economy in the world, richer than industrialized countries such as Taiwan and developing countries like Iran.[8] It is also ranked as the eighth richest city in the world.[9] According to estimates, as of 2008, the city proper, as opposed to the metropolitan area, had a nominal income per capita of $25,258 USD, above the national average, and on par with the GDP per capita of Portugal, which has a comparable population, and significantly above nations such as South Korea, and Czech Republic.[10]

    Mexico City

    ReplyDelete
  97. making Mexico City the 25th largest economy in the world, richer than industrialized countries such as Taiwan and developing countries like Iran.[8] It is also ranked as the eighth richest city in the world.[

    ReplyDelete
  98. Eighth Richest.

    That ain't no small deal.

    ReplyDelete
  99. That's pretty damned rarified atmosphere.

    ReplyDelete
  100. Mexico City has a GDP over 4 times that of the State of Mississippi ($84 Billion,) and over 1 1/2 that of the State of Arizona ($232 Billion.)

    ReplyDelete
  101. With a GDP of $1.5 Trillion Mexico is the eleventh richest country in the World.

    While their GDP is 1/10 ours, their debt is 1/70th our own.

    In short, there is no reason why they should have the mess they have "in the north."

    ReplyDelete
  102. Except, it suits "Someone's" Agenda.

    ReplyDelete
  103. "sorry kris didn't realize it was a private party i'll fedex the apple and make sure i crash it well into the night."

    AFTER the police have come and gone.

    And the hookers.

    ReplyDelete
  104. They have PLENTY of money, and Resources to squash that "lawlessness."

    IF they wanted to.

    ReplyDelete
  105. 21.2 million people, can you imagine that? That's only about 21 times all of Idaho, packed in there like sardines. I think it would drive me to madness. My brother and father went down there, sometime ago now, and came back saying parts of Mexico City were really quite nice. They drove down. Out in the countryside, a lot of it was the absolute pits.

    ReplyDelete
  106. Hookers, "leave?"

    What kinda parties do you folks have?

    ReplyDelete
  107. Ah jus got word from my polsters here in the 10th Guv Ruf is like to take 79% of the eletrical vote statewide, and here in the 10th bout 107%.

    ReplyDelete
  108. Mexico is an enigma, Bob, wrapped in a mystery (to us Anglos, anyways.) *I always wanted to use that phrase :)*

    I've read where 60 Families own 40% of the Wealth, down there. I don't know how accurate that is, anymore - or, how accurate it was; but I imagine there's a Lot of truth in there, somewhere.

    They Have Elections. It's a puzzlement.

    ReplyDelete
  109. 107%???

    Did Amos die?

    ReplyDelete
  110. These are budget-conscious days.

    ReplyDelete
  111. The remittances from Mexican citizens working in the United States account for only 0.2% of Mexico's GDP[128] which was equal to US$20 billion dollars per year in 2004 and is the tenth largest source of foreign income after oil, industrial exports, manufactured goods, electronics, heavy industry, automobiles, construction, food, banking and financial services.[129] According to Mexico's central bank, remittances fell 3.6% in 2008 to $25bn.[

    Puts an end to that story.

    ReplyDelete
  112. "AFTER the police have come and gone."

    Of course, I always escape the inevitable.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Among the most important industrial manufacturers in Mexico is the automotive industry, whose standards of quality are internationally recognized. The automobile sector in Mexico differs from that in other Latin American countries and developing nations in that it does not function as a mere assembly manufacturer. In 2007 one out every seven cars sold was made in Mexico. [132] The industry produces technologically complex components and engages in some research and development activities.[133] The "Big Three" (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) have been operating in Mexico since the 1930s, while Volkswagen and Nissan built their plants in the 1960s.[134]

    Later, Toyota, Honda, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz established a presence. Given the high requirements of North American components in the industry, many European and Asian parts suppliers have also moved to Mexico: in Puebla alone, 70 industrial part-makers cluster around Volkswagen.[133

    ReplyDelete
  114. The electronics industry of Mexico has grown enormously within the last decade. In 2007 Mexico surpassed South Korea as the second largest manufacturer of televisons,[137] and in 2008 Mexico surpassed China, South Korea and Taiwan to become the largest producer of smartphones in the world.[138] Some 90,000 students graduate from electronics engineering and technical programs each year and Mexico had over half a million (580,000) certified IT professionals employed in 2007. [139] In 2005, according to the World Bank, high-tech industrial production represented 19.6% of Mexico's economy.[

    ReplyDelete
  115. Reading the wiki entry on Mexican land ownership and land reform, land reform has been a never ending political battle in Mexico. The Catholic Church was a big landowner for awhile, and the original Spanish big landowners. The article ends on this note--

    Effects of land reform
    Today, most Mexican peasants are landowners. However, their holdings are usually too small, and farmers must supplement their incomes by working for the remaining landlords, and/or traveling to the United States.


    The article was not very informative but attempts at land reform are a deep part of Mexican history.


    I'll check on Amos, Guvnor, I'm not sure the situation.

    ReplyDelete
  116. Israel attacked today...

    "Hamas fired from Gaza Saturday was standard military-grade weapon, their first, possibly Iranian-made • Two exploded just short of Ashkelon industrial zone"


    Please Israel start the carpet bombing now!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  117. I've got to buy some speakers tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  118. According to Goldman Sachs, BRIMC review of emerging economies, by 2050 the largest economies in the world will be as follows: China, India, United States, Brazil and Mexico.[122] Mexico is the largest North American auto producing nation, recently surpassing Canada and U.S.[123]

    ReplyDelete
  119. That's the piece of the puzzle that's missing, Bob. Agriculture. They should be able to feed the world.

    Americans don't realize just how remarkable U.S. Agriculture really is. A Solid Base, on which everything else rests, comfortably.

    500 Acre Family Farms, operated, primarily, by college-educated farmers, utilizing the most modern equipment, GM Seeds, and able to access needed "Credit." With, gov safeguards thrown in to insure against disastrous weather, disease outbreak, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  120. I agree with that Rufus. It stabilizes society, creates an area of national life outside the endless political fights, etc. I fear land ownership is becoming too concentrated here now. Back in the 1950's there were still projects in the Columbia Basin and the Snake River Plain opening up more irrigated farming areas, but those days are over, now.

    On the other hand, I know from watching over the years, sometimes it's the big boys that fail. Farming corporations have to pay wages, and it's hard to beat the guys that basically are willing to 'work for free', i.e. the family farmers.

    ReplyDelete
  121. But now I'm sorely tempted, Melody, just for comparison's sake - there being so many flavors and degrees of hot - to post my own idea of it. At length.


    Then we could at least get rufus to stop talking about Mexico...I mean, who gives a shit really? It's Mexico. And it's Saturday night.

    Maybe shut everyone but us up for a few days.

    There would be the conspicuous chirp of crickets.

    LOL





    But it would be a bad, bad thing to do.

    ReplyDelete
  122. good grief looks like she got pissed and walked out on him

    ReplyDelete
  123. Sorry, rufus.

    Sometimes I have trouble focusing on foreign affairs.

    ReplyDelete
  124. The "average" farmer makes $26,000.00/yr operating a multi-$hundred thousand/yr enterprise, with an investment of several Million Dollars in Land, and Machinery.

    He, and his wife both work "off" the farm to support the family.

    Exxon ain't got a chance in That business.

    ReplyDelete
  125. My mantra these days is, go for it.

    Let me have it.

    ReplyDelete
  126. ...and it's Saturday. Mexico will still be there tomorrow and the next day and the next...

    ReplyDelete
  127. Don't read it Trish. Tell us all about your husbands shiny, new pedicured toenails, or something.

    I mean, fuck! I post about biofuels, and I get slammed. I post about Afghanistan, I'm a backward, malcontented hick.

    I post about Mexico (the topic of Deuce's post,) and I get scolded.


    Shit, I ain't ever HAD a pedicure. What the F.

    ReplyDelete
  128. C'mon Trish don't keep in suspense.

    ReplyDelete
  129. there's definitely many degrees of hotness, I just posted a couple I was just watching. My daughter danced for 12 years and tried to minor in it last semester but it was too much. I don't care if she can perform surgery or develop a cure for a disease. When she choreographs there is so much empathy and insight and warmth in her character that it just runs through your blood with such awe.

    ReplyDelete
  130. Rufus, I really, truly mean no personal offense and sincerely apologize for my bad manners.

    Carry on.

    ReplyDelete
  131. St Pete is pretty cool.

    It's not your grandfather's retirement town on the gulf anymore. Nearly a quarter of a million people on a peninsula sitting between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Rail service, trolley service, NFL Football, MLB, six miles of public beach facilities such as marina, pier, parks.

    A huge electrical storm came through this afternoon and tonight is steamy. Winter here should be outstanding. A downside though are the 'homeless' men around and about but I understand the city is moving on that. Downtown St Pete is ten miles from the beaches which we'll visit tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  132. “Bob, you are dead to me.”

    :) Right...unless he needs attention of course...



    Allen, you're rambling again.

    Get a grip.





    .

    ReplyDelete
  133. Joeseph Campbells's wife Jean Erdman was a dancer, and as I just found out, from Hawaii, which explains to me why J. Cambell spent his last years there.

    ReplyDelete
  134. He's off his Haldol, Quirk. :)

    The one time the wife and I went through St. Pete everyone looked to be about 135 years old.

    ReplyDelete
  135. “Bob, you are dead to me.”


    But thankfully, not to me.

    ReplyDelete
  136. Downtown has a small town feel but has plenty of restaurants and clubs for a vibrant nightlife. There are no sprawling suburbs and the great majority of houses were built before WWII. Nearly all of the neighborhood streets are narrow, brick paved, tree shaded with sidewalks. If you're into water this is great place to be. Kayaking, sailing, fishing.

    ReplyDelete
  137. :)

    Ah, Trish, you're a trip.

    Have a drink, Darlink. Put on some Jazz. Tomorrow's another day.

    ReplyDelete
  138. Mexico...

    Let's see...

    It appears quite the mess, doesn't it?

    But it's in a state of democratic transition and those usually are messy.

    I think I read that at CSIS.

    ReplyDelete
  139. Yeah, bob, they used to say that Miami Beach was God's waiting room. St Pete was the Gentile version on the west coast. Now, they've both changed. Much younger, more vibrant.

    ReplyDelete
  140. I've already had a few, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  141. For those that don't know, Ariel's Song is from The Tempest, one of Shakes last and of the drowned man it is said--

    Of his bones are coral made;
    Those are pearls that were his eyes:
    Nothing of him that doth fade,
    But doth suffer a sea-change
    Into something rich and strange


    a beautiful image of an upward movement and change through death.

    ReplyDelete
  142. And some not-bad pizza from some new place.

    ReplyDelete
  143. They used to have some bull fights in Mexico, but I don't know if they still do.

    ReplyDelete
  144. I had pizza, tonight. From the Red Baron, I believe it was.

    ReplyDelete
  145. I've had a few potato chips and iced tea.

    ReplyDelete
  146. Trish, you're diverting from your temptation to tell us your version of hotness. Ya know, just for comparison sake.

    ReplyDelete
  147. [Whispering, so as not to interfere with anyone else's dialogues.]

    The significant variations, Mel, are not in the range of degree so much as very idiosynchratic taste.

    Remember Blue's post on "the hottest beer commercial ever"? I didn't find that hot either.


    "When she choreographs there is so much empathy and insight and warmth in her character that it just runs through your blood with such awe."

    That has to be extremely gratifying to observe.

    ReplyDelete
  148. We're all waiting, even me, and I have no audio.


    Center for Strategic and International Studies, Ruf.

    ReplyDelete
  149. And I cannot spell idiosyncratic.

    ReplyDelete
  150. There is no audio, bob.

    There is no video component either.

    ReplyDelete
  151. Ah yes, now I remember. Kissinger, Scarecrow, and Arnaud de Booger. Also known as the trilateral commission. Q's buddies.

    ReplyDelete
  152. But, what is there, then?

    ReplyDelete
  153. New Jersey: A Muslim woman was raped by her Muslim husband (who was about to divorce her). However, a state judge refused to find that there had been a sexual assault or any kind of criminal sexual misconduct because, under sharia principles, a wife may not refuse her husband's requests for sex.

    ReplyDelete
  154. "The significant variations, Mel, are not in the range of degree so much as very idiosynchratic taste."

    Does this have anything to do with leather and riding crops?




    .

    ReplyDelete
  155. The mouthpiece for the "Real, True Ruling Class."

    ReplyDelete
  156. Arnaud de Booger

    I talked to Arnaud de Booger once, on the phone, about Central America, I think it was.

    But I've never talked to Kissinger.

    Scarecrow is in my backyard.

    ReplyDelete
  157. Who the hell-ever They are. Q knows, but he wants cash for the secret knowledge, and "cash" is getting in short supply in N. Mississip along about now.

    ReplyDelete
  158. Teresita said...
    New Jersey: A Muslim woman was raped by her Muslim husband (who was about to divorce her). However, a state judge refused to find that there had been a sexual assault or any kind of criminal sexual misconduct because, under sharia principles, a wife may not refuse her husband's requests for sex.



    Sounds about normal for Islam...

    I'd suggest Islamic women learn to use a Mossberg 12 gauge...


    Trust me if several thousand moslem men have their tiny peanut sized balls shot off they will start to learn...

    ReplyDelete
  159. We were supposed to go to Mexico City before they switched us to Bogota.

    Before that it was supposed to be Islamabad.

    Without the wife and child, of course.

    Funny story: Man calls the house one morning from the embassy in Mexico while the husband is out of town and says, "I'm (So and So) and just want to extend an early welcome. We've loved it down here and if I can be of any help in the transition..."

    There was a long pause.

    "Oh, dear," he said. "This is the first you're hearing of this, isn't it?"

    Then all I could do was laugh.

    ReplyDelete
  160. Kissinger called me for advice, once. Something about whether we should "open up China." I told him they better "leave it be," but I don't think he understood. I didn't know how to talk "nazi."

    And, he sure as hell didn't know how to talk Mississip.

    ReplyDelete
  161. "Does this have anything to do with leather and riding crops?"

    No.

    ReplyDelete
  162. "But, what is there, then?"

    Just words.

    ReplyDelete
  163. And, Pedicures; Don't forget the Pedicures.

    ReplyDelete
  164. Arnaud is the son of Belgian count Baudouin de Borchgrave d’Altena, a friend of my father's.

    He writes for the Washington Times, The Unification Church and Sun Myung Moon.

    Nice fella.

    ReplyDelete
  165. Quirk said...
    “Bob, you are dead to me.”

    :) Right...unless he needs attention of course...


    Allen, you're rambling again.

    Get a grip.





    .

    Sat Jul 24, 10:16:00 PM EDT


    Hardly, dear boy: It was a quote, following bob's repeated use of the "nigger" bomb. It was given to show the almost total lack of integrity of those using this site. You people would wet kiss a bigot if it garnered attention.

    ReplyDelete
  166. so then what does it for you, Trish?

    ReplyDelete
  167. Well, I can see Trish isn't going to "open up" as long as I'm here, so I guess it's bedtime for bozo.

    G'nite.

    ReplyDelete
  168. Allen why do you keep coming back if that is the way you feel?

    ReplyDelete
  169. "so then what does it for you, Trish?"

    Oh, no. Everyone else gets to go first.

    ReplyDelete
  170. We all know what excites me...

    I don't hide anything

    ReplyDelete
  171. gnite Guvnor, it was fun talking with you all day.

    ReplyDelete
  172. And if you think these people will show their true colors you got another thing coming.

    ReplyDelete
  173. "I don't hide anything..."

    And kudos to you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  174. "And if you think..."

    Melody. It was said in knowing.

    And this is a public forum, after all.

    Little though it feels that way at times.

    ReplyDelete
  175. Well Trish, if you can't be yourself than it's not worth being. I've always said you either love me or you hate me. And if you hate me then it's your loss.

    ReplyDelete
  176. "Well Trish, if you can't be yourself than it's not worth being. I've always said you either love me or you hate me. And if you hate me then it's your loss."

    Um...I don't know how you made the leap to that.


    Okay, T. It's an open-and-available-to-everyone forum.

    ReplyDelete
  177. I think it's probably time for Trish to go to bed, too.

    Weighing options: A third of the way into The Green Zone. I could do that.

    Or just go play Tetris for half an hour until sleep overcomes.

    ReplyDelete
  178. T, you would be all to happy if we talked about pussy....

    ...but we are at the EB.


    Trish, this place is like a convent compared to some of the blogs I've been on. I'm not talking about sexual content just content in general. Of course they weren't political blogs but we talked about politics sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  179. trish said...
    "Does this have anything to do with leather and riding crops?"

    No.



    I assume this means my interpretation of your comment

    "I fake well."

    is probably way off base too.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  180. It was somewhere in between..


    "Oh, no. Everyone else gets to go first."

    and...

    "And this is a public forum, after all"

    ReplyDelete
  181. Tetris, I used to play that. And it's the m word I've used a lot, not the n word.

    I'm going to bed in a little too, but I have to check my lottery tickets from the Automatic Lotto Generating Machine.

    ReplyDelete
  182. Oh, for God's sake, Melody.

    I wasn't ridiculing you.

    ReplyDelete