COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The biggest terrorist catch of the Obama era



While the world has been focused on military action in Libya, a major breakthrough in the war on terror took place in Pakistan. The highest-ranking terrorist to be captured alive since Barack Obama took office was taken into custody by Pakistani authorities recently — and his capture poses a major test for the Obama administration: Will the president insist that this high-value terrorist be taken into U.S. custody for interrogation? The answer will tell us how serious Obama is about stopping the next attack.

The captured terrorist is Umar Patek, a senior commander of al-Qaeda’s Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah, and one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. Patek was field coordinator for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings and the last at-large member of the notorious Hambali network that collaborated with Khalid Sheik Mohammed on a planned “second wave” of attacks on America after Sept. 11, 2001.

After the terrorist known as Hambali and his gang were captured in 2003 (thanks to information from KSM and other terrorists interrogated by the CIA), Patek fled Indonesia and took refuge in the southern Philippines, where he linked up with Islamic terrorists and ran a terrorist training camp. The United States had offered a $1 million reward for his capture.

Patek is a potential intelligence gold mine. A former U.S. senior intelligence official told me that he is precisely the kind of high-value terrorist who would have been taken into CIA custody for questioning during the Bush administration. But President Obama has eliminated the CIA’s interrogation program and closed the agency’s black sites. How will the president handle the disposition of this captured terrorist operative? Where will Patek be detained? And who will interrogate him?

A senior Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters over the weekend, “We are going to hand him over to Indonesian authorities. There is no plan to hand him over to the Americans.” That would be a disaster for American national security. The only way to fully exploit the intelligence Patek possesses is for U.S. officials to interrogate him directly. Has the Obama administration requested that Pakistan transfer him to American custody? If not, why not? And if he were handed over to the United States, where would he be taken? Guantanamo Bay? The president needs to answer these questions — and fast — if we are to find out what this senior al-Qaeda commander knows about threats to the American homeland.

What might Patek tell us? It is significant that he was captured not hiding out in Southeast Asia but in Pakistan. There is only one reason an Indonesian terrorist with a million-dollar bounty on his head would risk traveling halfway across the world to Pakistan: to meet with al-Qaeda leaders.
With whom specifically was he to meet?

Last year, CIA Director Leon Panetta said that aggressive attacks against al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal region had driven al-Qaeda leaders into hiding and disrupted their ability to plan sophisticated operations. “It’s pretty clear from all the intelligence we are getting that they are having a very difficult time putting together any kind of command and control, that they are scrambling, and that we really do have them on the run,” Panetta said. Yet, senior terrorist operatives like Patek are still traveling to Pakistan to meet with top al-Qaeda leaders and discuss terrorist operations. Patek may be able to tell us a great deal we do not know about the current state of al-Qaeda’s leadership and its operational planning.

According to the International Crisis Group, there are credible reports that just before traveling to Pakistan, Patek was in Yemen. If true, what was Patek doing visiting the base of operations for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) just before going on to meet with al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan? The Post recently reported that U.S. intelligence officials believe AQAP “may be close to launching a terrorist strike” against the homeland. What might Patek know about the location of AQAP leaders and their plans for new attacks?

To find out answers to these and other questions, Obama needs to make sure Patek joins his former bosses, Hambali and KSM, at the high-value detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. If the Army Field Manual’s techniques prove insufficient to break him, Obama should authorize additional interrogation methods so we can find out what he knows. Before he faces justice for his terrorist acts, Patek needs to tell us what he knows about future terrorist acts.

Will President Obama insist that he do so? If Patek knows al-Qaeda’s plans for new attacks, the decision to interrogate him directly may be the most important of Obama’s presidency.

82 comments:

  1. The man reportedly in Pakistan is indeed Umar Patek. Umar Patek, the fugitive in the Bali bombing, was arrested by the Pakistani Police. There was a gunfight and Patek was wounded in the arrest. He was arrested together with his wife, also an Indonesian national.

    The Pakistan authorities gave Indonesia the first choice over other countries to take back Umar because of his Indonesian citizenship. A Pakistani Intelligence Agency officer said Umar Patek’s arrest was with cooperation of US intelligence. “CIA gave information that Patek went to Pakistan,” An anonymous Pakistani official said “We did the operation alone" the yanks had a million dollar reward but the Pakis said "no thanks."

    ReplyDelete
  2. This fella should be shipped to Indonesia where he committed crimes.

    Not shipped to Gitmo where he'd reside under the protections of the US Constitution.

    Just as the other miscreants there have enjoyed the good life, gaining weight, while studying the Koran.

    The idea that the US could deliver justice more effectively than the Indonesians, imperial hubris that is not backed by facts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 46. Subotai Bahadur
    #45 Doug

    OK, real world. The odds are split, depending on how you view Obama as being either incompetent or malevolent. Mind you, I am fairly open about falling into the second camp. If it is merely incompetent,he is going to be terrified at the prospect of making a decision that may have … sequalae. His preference will be to have Umar Patek handed over to Indonesia where he is sure to escape.

    If he is malevolent, he is going to want Umar Patek handed over to Indonesia where he is sure to escape. There is no way that Buraq Hussein is going to want Umar Patek in our custody.

    Subotai Bahadur

    ---

    47. Doug

    Subotai …

    My vote is incompetent and malevolent.

    I’ve got more fingers than this administration has members that ever had a job in the real World.

    …but you already knew that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thankfully the Pakistani did not want the million dollars, which the US would have to borrow before that check cleared.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Under Ashcroft, intelligence would be gained.

    But Bush "evolved" Ashcroft is long gone, and BHO is large and in charge.

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  6. Under the Bush Administration there was no concern about the deficit.

    The "Right" has been successful in changing the focus of public concern.

    Where this Umar Patek is interrogated and by whom is not as important as cutting Federal spending. The Pakistani are doing US a favor, sending him to Indonesia.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Indonesian may torture and then execute Umar Patek, the US would not do either.

    Sending him to Gitmo would be a reprieve.

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  8. Better than the rendition policy of the Bush Administration, this way the US keeps its hands clean, while achieving the greater goal, the demise of another terrorist.

    This is just another proof that the US is allied with Islamic regimes around the whirled. The Indonesian government is an ally, of the US. Our President a former resident, there.

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  9. "Where this Umar Patek is interrogated and by whom is not as important as cutting Federal spending."

    ...Limbaugh just explained the GOP's next three moves to fold on the spending fight and kick it down the road.

    Thiessen, the writer of this article, has another one explaining how the GOP could force spending cuts.

    Limbaugh knows the GOP better than Thiessen.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "What does portend for the coming debt-limit fight? It means Republicans hold all the cards. After all, if Obama was not willing to allow a temporary government shutdown on his watch, he certainly will not allow a cataclysmic government default. As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently warned Congress, default would “cause a financial crisis potentially more severe than the crisis from which we are only now starting to recover.” President Obama will not allow this to happen under any circumstances. Unlike his threat last week to veto a short-term spending bill and let the government close, he has no such leverage when it comes to the debt limit."

    ---

    But Boehner and McConnell have already pre-emptively caved on the debt limit!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Peas in the Federal pod, dougo.

    Just as Q, rufus and I have been telling you.

    ReplyDelete
  12. .

    Definately, let Indonesia have the guy (and with our thanks).

    KSM was captured 8 years ago and he still hasn't been tried. It was estimated that it would cost about $500 million (just for security) to try the guy in NY.

    Under our jury system and given the waterboarding he went through there was no guarantee what the result would be. With a military trial, the verdict is more certain; but that is only if we ever get to a military trial.

    The cost benefit of spending hundreds of millions to try these guys can't be justified.

    The Indonesians have a good record of taking out terrorists. And they are not going to waste millions doing it. Justice is more likely to be served on a timely basis.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  13. DOE offers $1.19bn loan guarantee for 250MW solar power project.

    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) promised to shut down all executive branch and judicial confirmations in the Senate until he gets $50,000 to conduct a study on deepening the Port of Charleston.

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  14. .

    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) promised to shut down all executive branch and judicial confirmations in the Senate until he gets $50,000 to conduct a study on deepening the Port of Charleston.

    Does Lindsay Graham and his extortion equate to being a domestic terrorist?

    Graham, like most of his friends in the Senate, is a dick.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  15. I truly fear for rat's soul.

    He simply is not capable of, say, sitting in a garden and enjoying the bees.

    Rather, his mind is always upon things

    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  16. I have been told by an ex Black Water buddy, that high ranking terrorists, when captured, are only leaked to the press when the President needs a "win", or when it will do the US good politically on the international front. He says about 1 out of 5 captured are actually reported and those not leaked are being interrogated on floating prison ships, not at gitmo.

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  17. Nothing will be done. Obumbler will not insist that we have access to him. If he does, I'll be shocked. We won't learn anything, and more Americans will die. We should just pull out of the middle east, let Israel do what they need to do and help if they ask for it. If we find out there are terrorist camps ANYWHERE in the region, bomb them until nothing is standing. If terrorists are hiding in caves, send missiles into the caves. I don't care if the whole mountain collapses. Eventually, they will get the message.

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  18. The Letter To The King

    "Until the mid-1990s, Pakistan maintained a division of troops in Saudi Arabia, and it has long been a recruiting ground for Persian Gulf security forces. Although Bandar made no official request, he was assured of help if needed, a senior Pakistani official said. “We hold the Saudis so close,” the official said, “we have to really help them if there is a need.”

    But others are more dismissive of Saudi concerns. “Our friends are mad at us because we said Mubarak had to go,” Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said Tuesday at the U.S.-Islamic Forum, a conference in Washington jointly sponsored by Brookings and the government of Qatar. “We didn’t say that . . . the Egyptian people did,” Kerry said. “We acknowledged a reality.”

    For leaders worried about their regimes, royal families and governments,” Kerry said, “this is an opportunity to adjust to how they stay in power.”

    ---

    Beyond Bahrain, the Saudis were stunned at Obama’s rapid abandonment of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, a decades-long ally. They have been dismayed by what they see as Obama’s failure to seize the initiative in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. They also consider Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki little more than a stooge for Iranian interests, and were disappointed in the administration’s support for his second term in office against Saudi advice.

    “I don’t want to pretend we haven’t had some differences,” said a senior U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the situation on the record.

    “There are some things we need to work on.”

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  19. Hope he rots in jail in Pakistan. I am sure it will not be much fun to be tried and jailed as "foreign" terrorist there. If that fails bring him to the US. Maybe "The One" can talk to him personally by prepared remarks and reverb from his teleprompter and try and convince him of his wrong actions. The One could start w/ "Patek, let me be perfectly clear." Yea, that will do it. Just like the Cairo speech.


    JKT

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  20. .

    Obama's speech was filled with smoke and mirrors. Much of the $4 billion he talks about is illusionary, the estimates inflated, and some of the 'cuts' a duplication of those already factored into his current budget proposal.

    Much of Ryan's proposal is also pie in the sky, depending on typical soundbite material to explain how the program get's to be "revenue nuetral". Worse, it is a reqressive shake up of how programs are funded.

    Both proposals are bullshit. And let's face it, the crew we have in DC right now are never going to compromise and come up with an adult solution. That being said, at least Obama's BS doesn't carry the burden of being radically regressive.

    The GOP is on a suicide mission.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  21. Q, the only thing I can figure is that both side think (are hoping) that the economy is going to come roaring back, and Revenues are going to come rushing in. This Has always worked in the past.

    I'm afraid they might be in trouble this time, though.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Good Lord, Obama has A Trillion Dollars in there to be realized from "Savings on Interest! How in the Hell does That work?

    That's nuts.

    That's Worse than Nuts.

    How drunk do you have to get to fall for That?

    Bizarre.

    ReplyDelete
  23. talk about your "smoke and mirrors."

    ReplyDelete
  24. Isn't This Pretty?

    Sitting astride a Major Fault Line, and Right on the Ocean.

    Of course, that seawall must be at least 15, or 20 ft. high. How high was that wave at Fukushima again? 50 ft???? shit.

    ReplyDelete
  25. The seawall is 30'. If you stood on top of a step-ladder, on top of the seawall, you would be drowned by the Fukushima wave.

    San Clemente. That's what within pissing distance of 25 Million, or so people?

    Darwin at work.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hurry up, Q, turn on American Idol the girl is singing our Miley Cyrus song.

    ReplyDelete
  27. f China's economic growth does halve as feared, it could have serious implications for the global recovery. LGIM's argument is that soaring food prices are not a temporary driver of inflation, but reflect underlying pressures from rising demand rather than one-off supply shocks.

    Lending has been expanding rapidly, while wage inflation is rising as cities find the pool of cheap labour from the countryside is not infinite.

    In addition, measures from Beijing to rein in prices are running into difficulties, LGIM believes. Banks are "getting around" lending quotas with off-balance sheet transactions, which see loans repackaged as investment products.


    Inflation Threat

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  28. Don't fear for me, I spend lots of time in the wilds of the Tonto National Forest. Five hours just today, on horseback, along the Verde River.

    Communing with our National Heritage.
    That you all subsidize my time there, joyous.

    Better than a garden, as I let the Creator tend to the plants.

    ReplyDelete
  29. The European Central Bank's upcoming stress tests provide a "golden opportunity" to improve bank balance sheet transparency and reduce market uncertainty about the quality of assets on banks' books, the IMF said.

    European banks won't be able to obtain all the necessary capital from markets, and public money may have to fill some of the gaps, it added. Banks could also cut dividend payouts and retain a larger portion of earnings.

    The IMF said banks' exposure to troubled sovereign debt is "uncertain," which adds to the funding strains.


    Stability Report

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  30. America will rack up a budget deficit of 10.8pc of gross domestic product this year, the largest of any of the developed economies, the IMF said in its latest Fiscal Monitor report.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous said...
    I truly fear for rat's soul.

    He simply is not capable of, say, sitting in a garden and enjoying the bees.

    Rather, his mind is always upon things

    dwr



    Now that is funny...

    Rat has no soul....

    ReplyDelete
  32. The Story of "o" now delves into a subject that he has no expertise in.

    But he is a defender of the murder of Jewish souls, while comparing them to Islamic and Shinto sperm.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Microsoft has begun to show users and developers how the next generation of its web browser, Internet Explorer, will change the way consumers experience the net. Coming just a month after IE9 was officially released, the company claims IE10 will offer further hardware acceleration and build on the compatibility and web fidelity trends Microsoft established in IE9.

    ReplyDelete
  34. anon and the Story of "o" both of you see the speck that is in my eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own.

    ReplyDelete
  35. CBO - Hey, you know that $38 Billion Cut? Yeah, the Historic one?

    Well, it's kinda, just, like, you know, $352 million.

    suckers.

    ReplyDelete
  36. desert rat said...
    The Story of "o" now delves into a subject that he has no expertise in.

    But he is a defender of the murder of Jewish souls, while comparing them to Islamic and Shinto sperm.


    ah the self confessed ACTUAL KILLER of actual men speaks!!!!


    He starts off with his favorite PORN reference. We all KNOW the reason he is obsessed with it is that it is his mother, yes, I say, his very own mother, that cheated on his father and turned his father into the panty waste he became...

    Rat's father DID abuse Rat, both verbally and sexually, and as we all KNOW was a drunk...

    This does explain Rat's obsession with the PORN movie Story of "O'


    Published in French by Jean-Jacques Pauvert, Story of O is a tale of female submission about a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer, O, who is blindfolded, chained, whipped, branded, pierced, made to wear a mask, and taught to be constantly available for oral, vaginal, and anal intercourse. Despite her harsh treatment, O grants permission beforehand for everything that occurs, and her permission is consistently sought.
    At the beginning of the story, O's lover, René, brings her to the château of Roissy, where she is trained to serve the men of an elite group. After this first period of training is finished, as a demonstration of their bond and his generosity, René hands O to Sir Stephen, a more dominant master. René wants O to learn to serve someone whom she does not love, and someone who does not love her. Over the course of this training, O falls in love with Sir Stephen and believes him to be in love with her as well. While her vain friend and lover, Jacqueline, is repulsed by O's chains and scars, O herself is proud of her condition as a willing slave. During the summer, Sir Stephen decides to move O to Samois, an old mansion solely inhabited by women for advanced training and body modifications related to submission. There she agrees to receive a branding and a labia piercing with rings marked with Sir Stephen's initials and insignia. At the climax, O appears as a slave, nude but for an owl-like mask, before a large party of guests who treat her solely as an object.


    Now WHO is Rat?

    Well we all KNOW he is a self confessed murderer, that claims since he shot those poor bastards in the back of the head in Central America, those laws dont apply to him...

    Wow, what a soul-less bastard...

    ReplyDelete
  37. Rat's obsession with sperm and abortion is also legendary...

    Maybe Rat's a closet "gay" person...

    Or since Rat spends a lot of time with horses......

    What do you call a soulless murderer who dates horses?

    ReplyDelete
  38. Rat has confessed he doesnt care about Israeli abortions... Since the truth is that millions and millions of others are aborted and he doesnt give a hoot..

    no our very own real murderer just hates Israelis, Jews and Zionism...

    Funny that a guy named Rat (whose real name is Ishmael) gets his panties in a wad about the status of his "soul"

    Remember Rat is a cold blooded murderer or a liar, either way.... Just a cyber bully who is a cross dressing, horse dating product of mother who cheated on his daddy...

    ReplyDelete
  39. Once again the Story of "o" is writing pure fiction, when he says I confessed to murder.

    As always his Story is one that supports Russian and other Europeon gentiles migrating to Israel, while Jewish souls are murdered, there, allowing those Europeon Gentiles living space, in occupied Arab territories.

    ReplyDelete
  40. The Story of a Rat....


    Please use the following words in the story:

    Liar, Antisemite, Jew hater, Asshole, Murderer, bully, Fat ass, Cliff Clavin, Sperm, Abortion, Ishmael

    ReplyDelete
  41. Stratfor's saying watch out for a NK missile test.

    It's spring. And they always pull something in the spring. For some reason.

    ReplyDelete
  42. It is a joy to see that some of the posters spend all their time writing about me, my ego soars.

    I have always been a believer in the wisdom of Samuel Goldwyn, Mae West, or PT Barnum:

    "I don't care what they say about me as long as they spell my name right."

    And since desert rat is only used here, I do not even care much about that. As long as they are talking about me, I prove my point.

    Those self chosen peoples are, at best, equivalent to everyone else.

    Proving, once again, that all men are created equal, even those that deny it.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Our Bar's self confessed killer continues....

    "Once again the Story of "o" is writing pure fiction, when he says I confessed to murder."


    No you confessed to killing people in Central AMerica with Ollie North, you most passionately stated you did not feel killing others was murder. You continued that you (as a "black ops" killer) were not under the laws of the country where you did your contract killing....

    Our Rodent continues: As always his Story is one that supports Russian and other Europeon gentiles migrating to Israel, while Jewish souls are murdered, there, allowing those Europeon Gentiles living space, in occupied Arab territories.


    I dont support GENTILES migrating to Israel, I support them migrating to Arizona....

    And your concept that a fetus has a "soul" in quite interesting since jewish Law says that a fetus does not "join" it's soul intil several hours before birth.

    Your lack knowledge of Jewish traditions and beliefs never ceases to amaze me...

    Just when I think you actually make a point, POOF you get ever dumber...

    that's why we all call you the cliff clavin of the bar...

    an opinion on everything. self confessed expert on all....

    ok CLIFF....

    ReplyDelete
  44. Rat is like a Whack a Mole game...

    When he spouts his shit?

    You just want to club his sorry ass....

    ReplyDelete
  45. Mark Levin, Rufus, was the first one I heard bringing this story to the US public. He has been on this daily and is beside himself with the Republican betrayal.

    It could be that the greatest, bipartisan sham ever has been perpetrated.

    ReplyDelete
  46. April 12, 2011

    Mark says that the Republicans deceived and deliberately lied to conservatives and the American people regarding this budget bill. The so-called "$38.5 billion dollar cut," is not nearly that high, and is in fact much lower.

    ReplyDelete
  47. This is the last straw for me.

    ReplyDelete
  48. whit said...
    This is the last straw for me



    Yep, time to stop the party....

    Obama wants chaos?

    GIve him it... Shut it down.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Levin says that the so-called cuts were based on Obama's 2010 budget which was so bloated, it was never adopted.

    He says it's a "historic scam" by a bunch of "Ponzi-ites." The media and talking heads were complicit in that they never even questioned the numbers fed to them by the spinners.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Departments getting cut:

    1. Department of Agriculture - $1.5 billion

    Sidenote for Rufus:

    Another $323 million would be cut from research programs that do everything from predict America’s consumption trends to develop alternative energy sources using agricultural by-products.

    2. HUD - $942 million

    3. National Science Foundation - $53 million

    More

    ReplyDelete
  51. It's all smoke, mirrors and lies. And why? Because money is power. The Feds and DC politicians are addicted to the wealth and power. They can't give it up even if it destroys the country.

    I believe that D.C. has become so corrupted that not even a decent man can resist it.

    We are in a whirled of trouble.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Well, Whit, I've gotta give Mark Levin his props on this one. He was "dead right," from the git-go.

    It was a Scam, and it was Bi-Partisan.

    Now, we know why Boehner is crying all the time. He knows what a lying, worthless sack of shit he is.

    ReplyDelete
  53. That is called "Baseline Budgeting"

    SOP for decades, now.

    Nothing new, nothing different.

    Certainly not change.

    Neither from the Democrats or the Republicans.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Oil has a "constituency." Oil has a constituency. Even Wind, and Solar have constituencies (think, GE.)


    But, "Cellulosic" has no constituency.

    It's gonna be a long ten years.

    ReplyDelete
  55. That should have been:

    Oil has a Constituency; Corn has a constituency; . . .. etc.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Deuce called this budget deal right, immediately.

    Me, and the other dumfuks just jumped right into the trap.

    That's okay; 2012 isn't That far away. I might vote 3rd party.

    Or, write in someone.

    ReplyDelete
  57. The CBO did confirm that spending would remain nearly $80 billion below what President Obama requested in his fiscal 2011 budget request, and Republicans can point to long-term savings as a result of lowering the government’s spending baseline.

    ReplyDelete
  58. I did see somewhere that they cut some money from the Border Fence.

    Scum


    All of'em.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Read it, Whit.

    Ok, so the Post story is fucked up.

    ReplyDelete
  60. After a relaxing bath...Monica Lewinsky was looking at herself, nude in a mirror... Her frustration over her lack of ability to lose weight,was depressing her....

    In an act of desperation, she decided to call on God for help...

    God....If you take away my love handles, I'll devote my life to you,

    She prayed...

    And just like that... Her ears fell off...

    ReplyDelete
  61. Sam, I have to hand it to you, the Midnight shift would not be the same without you.

    "Good on you, mate".

    ReplyDelete
  62. Well, at least they didn't waterboard the poor souls, Deuce.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Hell, Sam pretty much IS the midnite shift. :)


    And, he's the only one around here that can tell a decent joke.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Yeah, gets kind of lonely in this bar during my shift at times.

    Although, I must say, Bob and Rufus put in some pretty long hours.

    ReplyDelete
  65. .

    You guys just don't get it.

    Those budget cuts were ,draconian (Democrats), historic (Obama), and the largest cuts in U.S. history (Boehner).

    The people in D.C. expect the American public to be bilingual. They need to understand not only English (or Spanish or ebonics as the case may be) but also Washington-speak as developed in the Ministry of Truth.

    Get with the program.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  66. They've just about "programmed me out."

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  67. Boy I hate getting lied to.

    And, I really hate it when I fall for it.

    Somebody's gotta pay.

    ReplyDelete
  68. You'd think by the time a man's my age he'd get used to it.

    ReplyDelete
  69. At this time, Paris executions were carried out in the Place de la Revolution (former Place Louis XV and current Place de la Concorde) (near the Louvre); the guillotine stood in the corner near the Hôtel Crillon where the statue of Brest can be found today.





    Public guillotining in Lons-le-Saunier, 1897. Picture taken on 20 April 1897, in front of the gaolhouse of Lons-le-Saunier, Jura. The man who was going to be beheaded was Pierre Vaillat, who killed two elder siblings on Christmas Day, 1896, in order to rob them and was condemned for his crimes on 9 March 1897.
    For a time, executions by guillotine were a popular entertainment that attracted great crowds of spectators. Vendors would sell programs listing the names of those scheduled to die. Many people would come day after day and vie for the best seats; knitting female citizens (tricoteuses) formed a cadre of hardcore regulars, inciting the crowd as a kind of anachronistic cheerleaders. Parents would bring their children. By the end of the Terror the crowds had thinned drastically. Excessive repetition had staled even this most grisly of entertainments, and audiences grew bored.

    Eventually, the National Convention had enough of the Terror, partially fearing for their own lives, and turned against Maximilien Robespierre. In July 1794, he was arrested and executed in the same fashion as those whom he had condemned. This arguably ended the Terror, as the French expressed their discontent with Robespierre's policy by guillotining him.[15]


    Madame Guillotine, also known as The National Razor


    Somewhere between 16,000 and 40,000 got "shaved."

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  70. "It is hard for me to assess why the Japanese colleagues have taken this decision," Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia's state nuclear agency Rosatom, said in the southern Chinese city of Sanya on the eve of the BRICS summit.

    ...

    Mr Kiriyenko said at first the Japanese authorities had thought to downplay the scale of the disaster but now the situation at the plant was improving.

    "Our estimates have shown that the level was between five and six," Kiriyenko said. "Today it doesn't reach the sixth level."


    Nuclear Disaster

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  71. The Brits are getting ready to have a "Royal" wedding.


    If I lived to be a bazillion years old I would Never understand how a somewhat, from time to time, rational people, operating under a Democracy, would pay to support a "Royal" bunch of eurotrash.

    I mean, "Kings?" "Queens?" "Bonny Royal Princes?" Really?

    Poor fucking people have their money appropriated by way of taxes, and given to this bunch of leeches?

    Come on.

    This is just another joke they're playing on us, right?



    Is Boehner in on this?

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  72. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  73. What's worse than being boned?

    "Bonered"

    ReplyDelete
  74. John O'Reilly hoisted his beer and said, 'Here's to spending the rest of me life!, between the legs of me wife!'
    That won him the top prize at the pub for the best toast of the night!
    He went home and told his wife, Mary, 'I won the prize for the Best toast of the night.'
    She said, 'Aye, did ye now. And what was your toast?'
    John said, 'Here's to spending the rest of me life, sitting in church beside me wife.'
    'Oh, that is very nice indeed, John!' Mary said.
    The next day, Mary ran into one of John's drinking buddies on the street corner.
    The man chuckled leeringly and said, 'John won the prize the other night at the pub with a toast about you, Mary.'

    She said, 'Aye, he told me, and I was a bit surprised myself.

    You know, he's only been there twice in the last four years.

    Once he fell asleep, and the other time I had to pull him by the ears to make him come.'

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