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."
"Since the mid-term elections, we have seen some nasty politics here in Washington.
ReplyDeleteWe thought we were going to see the end of those Bush Tax Cuts. We thought we were going to finally get the rich to pay their fair share. But nooooo, those wascally wepubwecans and their fatcat rich banker friends insist that unless the Bush Tax Cuts are extended in toto, we'll have the largest tax increase in history. There are some in our party that do not want to compromise, but WTF are you going to do when your constituents are raising holy hell with you about the huge chunk of cash that's suddenly disappeared from their paychecks? Hmmm? think about that. Picture hayseeds with pitchforks storming the Capitol. Get it?
Let's face it boys, they had our asses over a barrel. Now, I didn't want to do it. I really didn't. Everybody knows that the rich do not play their fair share. But, don't you worry, I didn't give away the farm, I made 'em throw in an unemployment extension. I stood strong, I insisted that this tax cut extension for is only temporary until we get back on our feet. Then by golly, them's that got, shall give. Until it hurts.
We had no choice but to do the right thing for the economy, the nation and the American people. No, a tax increase would be the wrong thing to do right now."
If a person does'nt work for three years, what are the chances they will ever work?
ReplyDeleteDoes a potential labor pool having been on the dole for three years and half are overweight inspire much confidence in the future?
This is a backdoor method of insuring complete public healthcare, afterall 10% of the country will have a government check as there only source of income.
I am amazed he capitulated on the tax rates on $1,000,000 and over.
ReplyDeleteDropping the social security rates was a good idea, but why maintain the income gap?
ReplyDeleteWe will end up with deficits double what they are in Europe.
ReplyDeleteSteady as she goes!
ReplyDeleteWe're going to "Stay the Course"!
As predicted here, in '07 and '08.
There has been no
"Change".
Nobama, Nochange. Maybe that will be his platform in '12.
ReplyDeleteDeuce: Dropping the social security rates was a good idea, but why maintain the income gap?
ReplyDeleteLike hell. That's a transfer payment, and you reduce the front end, but maintain the payouts on the backend (all for political brownie points) you just added trillions to the debt. They were already talking about reducing benefits and jacking up the retirement age to 70 BEFORE Obama pulled this idea out of his ass.
doug copied:
ReplyDelete"Other than the pension funds and insurance companies that will be bankrupt I can see very few downsides in the long term for the States that repudiate, however the credit markets will be off limits for some time, they will have to make due without deficit spending or borrowing for large infrastructure."
There is another option than default, which 'they' are pursuing now, and that is QE. The feds can bailout the states, the banks, the insurance companies and the Federal Bank will buy the gov's bonds. Simple really. What could go wrong?
Jan Hus must burn
ReplyDeleteGovernments … want you to believe that the actions of Julian Assange pose a great danger to you… Nothing could be further from the truth… Quite to the contrary, it is an attack on a very narrow group of people… because it shows them for what they truly are: liars, hypocrites, schemers, incompetents, egomaniacs, thieves and murderers.
When things get bad, politicians love to rally the populations by sounding alarm about some foreign threat. This is the oldest trick in the book. This time that great threat to America is a slightly built Australian bloke who cannot not even grow a beard…
Disclosing the truth about a country's politicians by no means constitutes an attack on the country and its people. America is not the same thing as its present administration or government. [Nonsense, it most certainly is.]
I am not sure what the downside is in removing the ceiling on when an earner stops paying social security taxes, especially if it solidfies the financial stability of the system.
ReplyDeleteThe excitement over the tax cuts ignores another trillion in debt over two years. Has a week made the deficit less troublesome?
If Obama serves a second term the accumulated deficit will approach $20 trillion.
As Red said, "what could possibly go wrong?"
Pruden: Where have all the grownups gone?
ReplyDeleteThe Defense Department, ever vigilant, warns its employees and contractors not to read the stolen files on display for the rest of the world because "they're still classified." The Office of Management and Budget, the brass standard of the bureaucracy, sent out an official directive solemnly warning that "classified information, whether or not already posted on public websites or disclosed to the media, remains classified, and must be treated as such until it is declassified by an appropriate U.S. Government authority."
How could a soldier, a mere private first class, download a quarter of a million classified documents and send them on to Julian Assange, and not raise somebody's eyebrows?
Allen,
ReplyDeleteDo Federal workers, in this case diplomats, have some expectation, some right, to privacy or, in your view, is anything they say to their counterparts fair game for publication? Does their communication differ from, say, private corporate communications? How about communications between Whit and Deuce - perfectly alright to eavesdrop and publish? How about the communications between you and your wife? Is that different some way?
Ash,
ReplyDeleteI would love to engage you on this topic, but as I'm sure you know, it's Pearl Harbor Day in the US.
Surely, you would agree that Pearl Harbor Day is as important as VI Day (Victory in Iraq Day)?
We can have a go at Wikileaks tomorrow.
(Psst...Ash...Ah, when was VI Day, again? I have forgotten...my bad...)
Everything has been put off till 2012, when the American people will make the decision.
ReplyDeleteObama is a dead duck one termer.
Today, some WWII aircraft are making a low run down the Clearwater River, and we are going, now, I'm camera ready.
It's a wonderful thing to have a wife begin calling one " the Developer Prince".
Mossad’s attack sharks
ReplyDelete“Israel has dismissed Egyptian claims that a series of shark attacks in the Red Sea could have been the result of a plot carried out by its foreign intelligence agency, Mossad.”
As they say, “There is probably something too it.”
___XCLVIII Schmute 2:87
"to"
ReplyDelete'I see no future for Jews in the Netherlands'___former European Union Commissioner Frits Bolkenstein
ReplyDelete“Politician Geert Wilders, who visited Israel this week, responded that ‘Jews shouldn't emigrate, anti-Semitic Moroccans should.’"
Jews have lived in and enriched the Netherlands since about 1325 C.E.
The great pan-Eurasian scholar, Maimonides, among a host of others, was forced out of Spain by the fanatical, jihadi Berbers of “Morocco”.
…same old, sorry story…different time…
hmmm, so allen is keen to talk about Israel, and, I guess, Jews, some more? I noticed Israel in the news today.
ReplyDeleteThe first about the fire. It seems a 14 year old kid accidentally started it with his pipe and ran back to school. The fire spread rapidly but Israel had no forest fire fighting equipment to speak of. Many other countries donated men and supplies. Even the Palestinian Authority donated men and trucks to fight the fire.
"(Interior Minister) Mr. Yishai could only plead his case to higher authorities. His party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said the blame for the fire rests with Israelis who fail to observe the sanctity of the weekly Sabbath."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/africa-mideast/boy-14-held-in-connection-with-israels-deadliest-fire/article1826793/
Then there is:
"U.S. Ends Push to Renew Israeli Freeze on Settlements"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/08/world/middleeast/08diplo.html?hp
Other countries train porpoises, only the dirty Jews could train sharks, eh, ain't that right, rat?
ReplyDeleteWas wrong about our December 7th fly over here - was not WWII vintage stuff, but F-15's. Only they didn't show because of some problem at the air base.
An inspiring time was had by all in spite of this.
Ash: "(Interior Minister) Mr. Yishai could only plead his case to higher authorities. His party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, said the blame for the fire rests with Israelis who fail to observe the sanctity of the weekly Sabbath."
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of that going around. September 13, 2001 telecast of the 700 Club:
JERRY FALWELL: And I agree totally with you that the Lord has protected us so wonderfully these 225 years. And since 1812, this is the first time that we've been attacked on our soil and by far the worst results. And I fear, as Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, said yesterday, that this is only the beginning. And with biological warfare available to these monsters -- the Husseins, the Bin Ladens, the Arafats -- what we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact -- if, in fact -- God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.
PAT ROBERTSON: Jerry, that's my feeling. I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population.
JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.
PAT ROBERTSON: Well yes.
JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."
PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system..
Ash,
ReplyDeleteAllen was having no conversation with anyone. Allen just reported some news.
Ash,
ReplyDeleteIf you desire my concurrence, some rabbis are as wacko as some ministers and priests. That and about $4.95 will buy you something at Starbucks, I hope.
All politics is local.
ReplyDeleteI am proud of my City Council.
It's was the oddest thing. We revisited the swamp of the street names. The street names guy gave a seminar, in living color, on the philosophy of naming streets. This went on for perhaps twenty minutes, though it seemed like forever, filled with graphs, charts, theories of response, and other shit and the complaints the Fire and Police and Public Services folk had come up with.
A heated debate in council ensued.
My old friend Tim Brown, who I drove cars in from the docks to Honolulu, feel asleep, apparently the only cogent one.
When his turn to speak came, he rose out of a slumber, and muttered, you're all making a mountain out of molehill.
Much more discussion was held, and in the end, it was left up to, after an amended motion, to basically leave it up to as yours truly first purposed, with a little nip here, and a little tuck there, as Melody might have said.
So I have to put my thinking cap back on now, about the goddamned street names.
But this is a good council.
I could not have gotten this done with the earlier council.
All politics is local. Know your own turf.
God Bless The Greater Moscow Alliance, and the U.S. Marines.
And at Christmas time, too.
It's obvious I'm in a hell of a good mood today.
You can hide sadness, but not happiness, and levity.
Prudentially, Israel should swap out an F-35 for some forestry management tools and personnel.
ReplyDeleteFeel free, Ash, to jump in anywhere with your timely observations concerning the deplorable behavior of anti-Semitic Euro-Morrocans in the Netherlands.
If you like, you could also point an accusing finger at the two religiously fanatical, jihadi Berber dynasties which ruined the Golden Age of Jews and Muslims in Iberia.
On the other hand, if you wish to make a public service announcement as Smokey the Dov, have at it.
For the first time in a long time, all the council are a hell of a lot smarter than City staff.
ReplyDeleteThis is because, with the help of the Greater Moscow Alliance, we got organized, and we elected people that work for a living.
It's a lesson. You can do it in your community too.
Conservatives are usually politically lazy.
Security Nightmare: Chinese Government Has Microsoft Windows Source Codes
ReplyDeleteNot a word yet about the codes being sold by greedy Jews...Boy, was I ever worried.
Security Nightmare: Chinese Government Has Microsoft Windows Source Codes
ReplyDeleteNot a word yet about the codes being sold by greedy Jews...Boy, was I ever worried.
Maybe it will show up on WikiLeaks and Bill Gates will call for the death penalty.
.
ReplyDeleteNigeria graft agency charges Cheney, Halliburton boss
Nigeria's anti-corruption agency filed charges against former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney and the head of oil services giant Halliburton Co on Tuesday over an alleged scheme to bribe Nigerian officials.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it had filed 16-count charges at a federal high court in Abuja against Cheney, Halliburton Chief Executive David Lesar and two other executives, in a case dating back to the mid-1990s.
It also filed charges against Halliburton as a company, which was headed by Cheney during the 1990s, and four associated businesses. Cheney was U.S. vice president from 2001 to 2009...
Cheney Charged With Bribery in Nigeria
Note: This is not one of those phony Nigerian e-mail scams.
.
IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."
ReplyDelete...
But our publications have been far from unimportant. The US diplomatic cables reveal some startling facts:
► The US asked its diplomats to steal personal human material and information from UN officials and human rights groups, including DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, credit card numbers, internet passwords and ID photos, in violation of international treaties.
...
► King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia asked the US to attack Iran.
► Officials in Jordan and Bahrain want Iran's nuclear program stopped by any means available.
...
In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government". The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth.
Uncomfortable Truths
Chinese hackers 'slurped 50 MB of US gov email'
ReplyDelete“While links between top Chinese companies and the PRC are not uncommon, it illustrates the PRC's use of its 'private sector' in support of governmental information warfare objectives, especially in its ability to gather, process, and exploit information…
“In the US, the majority of the systems BC actors have targeted belong to the US Army, but targets also include other DoD services as well as DoS, Department of Energy, additional USG entities, and commercial systems and networks.”
I am sure that teams of knowledgeable CTs are out there now working on implying a potentially absolute connection. The Elders have much to fear! May the bandwidth be with them.
I repeat: In the year 2000 the PLA leaked part of a plan that called for war with the USA by 2025 for dominance of the western Pacific.
ReplyDeleteDuring the past decade, having observed gross incompetence and indiscipline, the PLA has widened its Pacific horizon.
This man was the real deal
This guy...
.
ReplyDeleteThis continues to be the Developer Prince's theme song.
Where The Streets Have No Name
.
Gary Owen
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteUncomfortable Truths
Sam, any sympathy generated for Wikileaks is the result of actions taken by the bureaucracies they are exposing.
A couple streams back, I mentioned how goverment workers were being instructed to not read any classified info put out by Wikileaks and that this is merely an extension of Bush administration actions to reclassify info in the public domain and purge it from public documents.
Some can call it closing the barn door after the horse is out. I call it rewriting history.
I suspect this is why G.W.B. feels confident that history will look kindly upon him some day.
1984 or old boys club, either way they look out for their own.
.
Here is something noteworthy...
ReplyDelete100 rounds of buckshot can it inside a standard size ammo can!
how clue is that?
WiO,
ReplyDeletePlease, backup and try that one again :-)
Welcome to the Jungle
ReplyDeleteIt was not by accident that I wrote, "Jan Hus must burn." Hus was burned in 1415 for propagating "Uncomfortable Truths". His murder came too late: 102 years later another reformer, following in his footsteps, would shake the Christian world with his Ninety-five Theses.
ReplyDeleteOur government will soon attempt to gain control of internet communication. We must resist, though the effort will initially be futile. We must resist for the same reason that Jan Hus resisted: History is watching and ultimately it will not be denied.
Jesse Cook: Rattle and Burn
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the Jungle
One of my all-time favorites Sam.
Good Choice.
.
What is "Occupation" said...
ReplyDeleteHere is something noteworthy...
100 rounds of buckshot can it inside a standard size ammo can!
how clue is that?
wow... talk about fingers not listening...
100 rounds of buckshot ammo can fit inside a standard size ammo can almost perfectly!
and "how clue is that means"
ReplyDeletethat translate to:
How COOL is that....
I have been busy at work these last few weeks..
ReplyDeleteall profits are being spent as durable inventory...
so by the end of the year I will have no more debts for the season or taxes, but will have a warehouse full of DEDUCTED inventory...
This I will continue to turn and redeploy into more products...
Until such time as a cannot rent any larger of a space..
The good news? of the 4000 items I now carry?
almost 90% are all made in the USA....
WiO,
ReplyDeleteMazel Tov!
Well, the votes are in. It's Overwhelming. A Landslide. I'm an idiot. The dumbest asshole in America. The Dumbest Asshole in the world!
ReplyDeleteI haven't a clue what's going on in DC. This is like a trip to "The Twilight Zone."
I'm not "sad." I'm not "glad." I'm bemused. I feel like I've gone to sleep, and awoke in the middle of a "Chinese Metaphysics" class.
Either I'm having a nervous breakdown, or the rest of the world is.
I feel like I'm watching that goofy Kenny Rodgers flick where the guy folds a Royal Flush (and, the rest of the world is standing around going, "that's all he could do." Huh?
Maybe I'll think about it in the morning. And, maybe not.
Mensa Ain't Us.
Dummer'n Doornails is Us.
?
ReplyDeleteYou talkin' 'bout the attempt to kill the fillibuster?
.
ReplyDeleteOh, man. This sounds way to familiar.
...Things work like this at the Kumback: The guys, average age about 80, arrive around 8 a.m. and get talking on “the whole gamut of life”; the girls, average age too indelicate to print, gather later at a horse-shoe shaped table toward the back. Ken Sherman, 86 and spry, explained: “We’ve got to come here every day to find out what’s going on. And by the time we leave we forget.”
I asked Paul Morrow, a whippersnapper at 71, how things were going. “There’s just too much Muslim influence, all this Shariah law,” he said. “We’re conservative here, old and cantankerous...”
Pulse of the EB...er...I mean the Kumback Cafe
.
Why are my posts with hyperlinks disappearing?
ReplyDelete