COLLECTIVE MADNESS


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

Monday, September 26, 2011

Old Habits Die Hard. Putin the Man Who Never Left is Returning.




Vladimir Putin sets sights on another 12 years in Kremlin's top job

Prime minister bids to return for two more terms as Russia's president after months of speculation




Vladimir Putin is to run for president of Russia next year in a move that could keep the powerful leader at the helm of the country until 2024.
Prime minister Putin and head of state Dmitry Medvedev ended months of speculation on Saturday during the ruling United Russia party congress.
"I think it's right that the party congress support the candidacy of the head of the government, Vladimir Putin, in the role of the country's president," Medvedev said. Thousands of flag-waving delegates inside Moscow's Soviet-era Luzhniki stadium gasped before breaking into applause.
Russia has been paralysed by months of speculation regarding the decision, though signs had recently emerged that Putin would announce his intention to return to the Kremlin seat. Putin, who has worked hard to prevent a credible opposition from forming, is all but certain of winning the presidential vote that is set for March, raising further concerns over the growth of soft authoritarianism in the country. The announcement is also likely to dismay the combative prime minister's numerous critics in the west.
In a surprise twist, Medvedev said he was ready to serve as prime minister under Putin. Medvedev will head the party list of United Russia as it readies for parliamentary elections in December, paving the way for the premiership.
"I'm ready to head this government and work for the good of the country," he said, adding that such a move was dependent on United Russia sweeping the parliamentary vote, he said. United Russia has seen its popularity decrease sharply since the financial crisis hit, but it remains the country's most influential party, created with the aim of supporting Putin.
The swapping of roles would be the clearest illustration yet of Russia's so-called "managed democracy", a term coined by Kremlin ideologues to describe Russia's political system.
Putin, who served as president from 2000 to 2008, remains the country's most popular leader, albeit with the help of a carefully controlled media. Under constitutional changes adopted by Medvedev upon coming to office as Putin's hand-picked successor, Putin will serve for another six years. A possible second term after that would keep him in the Kremlin beyond his 71st birthday.
The former KGB agent appeared to enjoy the acclaim yesterday.
"I want to thank you for the positive reaction to the proposal for me to stand for Russian president," Putin said. "For me this is a great honour." He launched into an electoral programme that focused on addressing the stagnant economy.
A return to the Kremlin will hand Putin back formal control over foreign policy. Relations with the west plummeted when he was president.
Russia's opposition denounced the move, despite having expected it. "All authoritarian regimes are the same," said Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the 82-year-old doyenne of Russia's human rights community. "Either they have to modernise or they come crashing down, as happened with Gaddafi."

88 comments:

  1. As long as he doesn't wear dark glasses, and I can keep track of his soul, I'm comfortable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 250 Trillion and counting...

    Derivatives Ownership Even More Concentrated Than Ever

    As I noted in 2009, 5 banks held 80% of America’s derivatives risk.
    Since then, the percent of derivatives held by the top 5 banks has only increased.

    The latest quarterly report from the Office Of the Currency Comptroller is out [shows] that the top 4 banks in the US now account for a massively disproportionate amount of the derivative risk in the financial system.

    Specifically, of the $250 trillion in gross notional amount of derivative contracts outstanding...

    ...the top 4 banks: JPM with $78.1 trillion in exposure, Citi with $56 trillion, Bank of America with $53 trillion and Goldman with $48 trillion, account for 94.4% of total exposure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Comments

    "Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge.

    Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied.

    Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated.

    Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous."

    ReplyDelete
  4. Putin is said to be worth about $40 billion. He needs to stay in power so that his kleptocracy can retain it's wealth.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ...the top 4 banks: JPM with $78.1 trillion in exposure, Citi with $56 trillion, Bank of America with $53 trillion and Goldman with $48 trillion, account for 94.4% of total exposure.

    Maybe it is time to foreclose on the banks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Better be more prudent. A short sale.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Will he promise to put his shirt back on if elected?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Christian Science Monitor:


    Pakistan's top military commanders announced Sunday that they will not take action against the Haqqani network, the Pakistan-based militant group that the US suspects in two brazen attacks on Western targets in Afghanistan's capital this month.

    The announcement signals a certain measure of defiance from Pakistan, which the US has accused of aiding and abetting the Haqqani network. Washington has repeatedly asked the Pakistani government to do more to undermine the group's operations.

    Pakistan news outlet The Express Tribune reports that the commanders agreed to resist US demands for an offensive in North Waziristan, where the Haqqani network is believed to be operating.
    “We have already conveyed to the US that Pakistan cannot go beyond what it has already done,”


    We should never send the Pakistani another dime.
    Not for their military,
    not for disaster relief.

    Leaving the Pakistani military to finance their jihad, without US support.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Death panels or cost/benefit analysis, call it what you will, but for the public purse to subsidize unending medical care for the terminally ill, unsustainable.

    (Reuters) - An explosion of new technologies and treatments for cancer coupled with a rapid rise in cases of the disease worldwide mean cancer care is rapidly becoming unaffordable in many developed countries, oncology experts said on Monday.

    With costs ballooning, a radical shift in thinking is needed to ensure fairer access to medicines and address tricky questions like balancing extra months of life for patients against costs of a new drug, technology or care plan, they said.

    "The cancer community needs to take responsibility and not accept a sub-standard evidence base and an ethos of very small benefit at whatever cost," ....

    ...

    Some 12 million people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer each year and that number is expected to rise to 27 million by 2030.

    ReplyDelete
  10. New Home Sales - 295,000

    Pretty pathetic

    ReplyDelete
  11. Apple has canceled some orders with suppliers. ?.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm thinking about buying a tablet, but I'm not the least bit interested in paying $500.00 for an ipad.

    ReplyDelete
  13. DR said...

    for the public purse to subsidize unending medical care for the terminally ill, unsustainable.

    My late mother was diagnosed with cancer of the lung (non-smoker) that metastasized to every organ system during her 18-month ordeal. Unbelievably, some three weeks prior to her death, under pretext of a routine visit, she was given a razzle-dazzle, whiz-bang hip replacement. She hadn't walked a step in months. I was not pleased.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Rufus: Big day for Boeing.

    If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.

    They just found a virus that doesn't harm humans, but kills breast cancer in seven days. They want to study how it works. Might hit trials in two years.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Infundibulation, Infibulation, Female Circumcision, Female Genital Cutting, or Female Genital Mutilation, it is, by any name, horrific in intent and in fact. Designed to secure virginity by making sexual intercourse impossible, the clitoris may also be removed in the process to provide the additional “benefit” of eliminating and controlling female sexual desire. The degree of excision is dictated by cultural practice, so that women in any given community with all undergo the same sort of genital cutting.

    The severity of the excision varies, categorized into 4 methods:

    Type I: removal of clitoral hood, tip of clitoral glans, small potion of labial minora

    Type II: removal of entire clitoris, part or all of labia minora

    Type III: “Pharaonic” – the most extreme – complete removal of clitoris, complete labia minora and most of labia majora, leaving a tiny opening for passage of urine and menstrual blood.

    This extreme excision was recorded in Ancient Egypt over 2000 years ago, hence the Pharaonic label.

    Type IV vaginal scarring, piercing or nicking that causes the vagina to close

    This tie to cultural rites of passage has sparked debates in various political and anthropologic circles regarding the potential for cultural bigotry, concerned that Euro-American standards ought not be applied to these ancient genital practices, pointing out that circumcision of males, normal and for a time almost ubiquitous in the States, illustrated the need to “respect” these practices on females. Women and girls seeking international asylum to avoid such procedures were turned away or held in detention as debates raged (EU Agenda on FGM).

    As of 1999, the Fact Sheet on U.S. Intervention on Gender Equality, Equity and Empowerment of Women released by the U.S. Bureau of Populations, Refugees and Migration 1999 contains among its six stated goals; “combat violence against women, eliminate female genital mutilation, and reduce sex trafficking”. How sex trafficking got mixed up with the cloistering impact of FGM, and why sex trafficking is not also in the cross-hairs for elimination (reduction deemed sufficient) is a topic for another day. A federal acknowledgement of FGM as a wrongful act was a hard won step in the right direction, no matter its bedfellows.

    ReplyDelete
  16. .

    The good news. Nudists riding around on San Francisco buses are unlikely to cause a rise in infectious deseases.

    Public-health experts say that increased nudity would not lead to an increase in infection rates.

    The Bad News: There are nudists riding around on San Francisco buses.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  17. Kim Saylors-Laster, energy vice president for the company, said Walmart has reduced its energy expenses by nearly a million dollars through its solar energy program.

    Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/13kWi)

    Walmart to "Solarize" 60 more stores.

    ReplyDelete
  18. .

    Do Animals Have Rights?

    Or maybe it is not so much that animals have rights, as that we have duties toward them. And maybe the distinction between those two things is meaningless in practice. If your dog gets hit by a car, you must see that it gets proper medical attention. That much is perfectly clear—even if the ultimate reason is not.

    Animal Rights?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  19. .

    Do the Rich Really Make All the Jobs?

    In Washington shorthand, many politicians have begun interchangeably substituting the phrase “people who have a lot of money” with the more hopeful term “job creators.” With every new debate over raising taxes or lowering the deficit, the two meanings seem to move closer. All job creators, this rhetoric implies, are rich. And all rich are job creators.
    But are these two groups really one and the same?

    …Kane’s research suggests a pretty shocking reality: brand-new start-ups drive just about all job growth in the U.S. They’re responsible for about 3 million new jobs a year, while older companies (including even companies that are just two or three years old) are basically net job destroyers..


    Who actually creates new jobs?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  20. Teresita,
    Have any tricks for keeping your weight up? ...high calorie, halfway healthy stuff you can snack on, etc.

    Wife almost looks anorexic, as she had problems consuming enough calories BEFORE Chemo, and that's just made things worse.

    She too is glad she spends most of her time on the computer @ work.
    Had more energy than me a couple of years ago, not so now.
    Oncologist says many Cancer patients die of malnutrition.

    You should stop by here on your way to Sam's place.
    Your partner can get you a 300 buck room at the Wailea Marriot cheap, and the wife can get you good deals on food, luaus, and the like.
    AND you'll be right next door to the Grand Wailea, so you can stroll over there and see how the rich spend their vacations.

    The cool thing about drinking at the underwater bar there is that you can cheat and pee in place instead of having to walk to the Loo.

    ReplyDelete
  21. .

    The U.S. needs a long-term, comprehensive infrastructure policy based on merit and backed by sound economic planning - and we need it now. We need to be innovative and realistic about how to pay for a project of this magnitude. Funding can't come from the federal government alone; nonfederal sources, including local government and private sector investment, will also be necessary...

    ...This isn't just a matter of convenience; it's a matter of economic growth and sustainability. The Northeast Corridor, which stretches from Boston to Washington, generates 20% of the nation's GDP. Delays in shipping goods throughout the region and hours of lost productivity caused by congestion are costing us billions of dollars. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, our national transportation system is underperforming to the degree that we are effectively leaving $1 trillion in GDP on the table...


    Infrastructure

    .

    ReplyDelete
  22. "Do the Rich Really Make All the Jobs?"

    ---

    BHO talks of "taxing the rich," as tho that means only millionaires, but in fact, most of the "revenue" raised will be from small business.

    ...just one more way he sabotages the economy.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Rendell Meltdown

    "You're not getting it," Rendell said, gnashing his teeth and grimacing. "Those people would lose that money anyway! Don't you understand? You guys don't get that! You're simpletons! You're idiots if you don't get that."

    ReplyDelete
  24. .

    Women will be allowed to vote in Saudi Arabia as long as they don't have to drive to the polls.


    Saudi authorities to try woman for driving


    CAIRO (AP) — A Saudi lawyer and rights advocates say authorities will bring a Saudi activist to trial for defying the kingdom's female driving ban.

    The attorney, Waleed Aboul Khair, says Najalaa Harrir was summoned for questioning by the prosecutor general in the port city of Jeddah on Sunday, the same day that Saudi King Abdullah introduced reforms giving women the right to vote and run in local elections four years from now...


    Detroit Free press

    .

    ReplyDelete
  25. doug stated:

    "BHO talks of "taxing the rich," as tho that means only millionaires, but in fact, most of the "revenue" raised will be from small business."




    Have you got any support for that dougo or do we just believe it because you wrote it?

    From my perspective it looks like the Republican whiners talk as if tax is based on revenue as opposed to profit. There actually is a difference.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Doug also cited a blog stating that:

    "As I noted in 2009, 5 banks held 80% of America’s derivatives risk.
    Since then, the percent of derivatives held by the top 5 banks has only increased.

    snip

    ...the top 4 banks: JPM with $78.1 trillion in exposure, Citi with $56 trillion, Bank of America with $53 trillion and Goldman with $48 trillion, account for 94.4% of total exposure."




    interesting especially if true. To make it more interesting I noted this in my local paper this am:

    "Mark Carney latest target of a Dimon tirade.

    Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney is the latest senior policy maker to feel the wrath of JPMorgan Chase (JPM-N30.520.933.14%) chief executive officer Jamie Dimon.

    In a scene that resembles a public confrontation Mr. Dimon had with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in June, Canada’s central bank governor was the lightning rod for a tirade by the JP Morgan chief over tougher financial regulations.

    ...

    Mr. Dimon is on a campaign against plans by the Group of 20 to force the world’s biggest banks to retain larger capital buffers than their smaller rivals, going so far as to call the push “anti-American.” "

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/mark-carney-latest-target-of-a-dimon-tirade/article2179981/

    ReplyDelete
  27. Last I heard, Canadian banks were doing a lot better than our TBTF Casinos...

    Is that still true, Ash?

    ReplyDelete
  28. How could anyone not believe something I wrote???

    ReplyDelete
  29. Pretty Boy Dimon had better just thank his lucky stars that he's not in jail, and shut up.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I've got one last nerve left, and he's starting to grate on it quite a bit.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Yes, the highly regulated banks have survived quite well through the financial crisis...


    ...so far.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Actually, the reason I wrote "revenue" is because of it's latest use by the Dems to avoid saying TAXES.

    Like "progressive" avoids "liberal"

    ...if only they actually WERE liberal on issues like free speech and "staying out of people's bedrooms".

    ReplyDelete
  33. What's Canadian Real Estate doing?

    ReplyDelete
  34. This Westinghouse (available at Lowes) DIY Solar system (includes 4 panels - in one iteration - inverters, brackets, etc.

    Payback in Hawaii - 2 yrs



    Rat, if you haven't already spent your money at the other place you might want to look into this.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Kid has a friend that installs solar, I'll show him that for comparison.
    Panels have really come down.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Real Estate has continued to go up with Vancouver, especially Vancouver, and Toronto being ridiculously high in my view. Where she stops nobody knows but I've been thinking she'll correct for a number of years now but so far only flattening growth at times with no declines. Condos are usually the first to go but they keep building new ones...

    ReplyDelete
  37. Call it what you will but most of the small business owners I know don't earn a million bucks a year. They may well have revenues far north of a million but revenues aren't profit so I fail to understand how taxing millionaires will soak small business folk.

    ReplyDelete
  38. .

    Actually, the reason I wrote "revenue" is because of it's latest use by the Dems to avoid saying TAXES.

    Orwell complained about euphemisms but they have been around forever.


    "While visiting America one year, Winston Churchill attended a buffet luncheon at which cold fried chicken was among the dishes served. Churchill, delighted, returned for a second helping. "May I have some breast?" he politely asked. "Mr. Churchill," his hostess replied, "in this country we ask for white meat or dark meat."

    Churchill apologized profusely and, the following morning, sent the woman a magnificent orchid with an accompanying note. "I would be most obliged," it read, "if you would pin this on your white meat."


    .

    ReplyDelete
  39. .

    In the 1800's, the 'polite' in society often cited Longfellow’s 1841 poem “Wreck of the Hesperus” sacrificing rhyme for refinement when they revised the last three words of one line – “like the horns of an angry bull” – in this fashion:

    She struck where the white and fleecy waves
    Looked as soft as carded wool;
    But the cruel rocks they gored her side,
    Like the horns of a gentleman cow.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  40. .

    Thomas Sowell once observed, “All statements are true, if you are free to redefine their terms.”


    Libyan war: Limited kinetic engagement

    .

    ReplyDelete
  41. .

    One of the most egregious euphemisms thrown around was "enhanced interrogation techniques" as when George Bush was saying "we don't torture" but we do use "enhanced interrogation techniques" or "harsh interrogation methods."

    As was explained on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,"

    STEWART: How is fake drowning, sleep deprivation, how isn’t that torture?

    JOHN OLIVER: That is not torture.

    STEWART: Why?

    OLIVER: Because we don’t torture.

    STEWART: Meaning we don’t do those things?

    OLIVER: No, no. Meaning if we do do those things, they must not be torture.

    So next time you hear words like "truth," "fairness," "sensible" and "patriot" coming from official OZ try to avoid the urge to want to be 'euthanized'.

    The Cato Institute on Euphemisms and the War on Terror

    .

    ReplyDelete
  42. .

    Citizens for Sensible Control of Acid Rain -- a group funded largely by power companies, that fought efforts which would have tightened the Clean Air Act to reduce acid rain.

    .

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

    ReplyDelete
  44. Libyan War, Q, is simply a NATO Operation. The euphemisms, simply to confuse the markets' memory.

    Not really a "War" and no Congressional approval required for NATO or UN approved military operations. As per the War Powers Resolution of 1973 (50 U.S.C. 1541-1548).

    What was thought to limit Executive authority, actually becomes carte blanche.

    Unintended consequence.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Voting in the US is a "Right", driving is a privilege.

    Seems it is going to be that way, in Saudi Arabia, too.

    ReplyDelete
  46. .

    "The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every person of sense and character detests and despises it."

    George Washington

    For rat and other euphemismphiles.

    Other words for sex:


    100 Ways To Say "Sex"

    1. Sex
    2. Intercourse
    3. Coitus
    4. Making love
    5. Making whoopee
    6. Doing it
    7. Boning
    8. F******
    9. Bumping uglies
    10. Hiding the bishop
    11. Hiding the salami
    12. Boffing
    13. Shagging
    14. Knocking boots
    15. Hittin' the skins
    16. Going at it
    17. The horizontal hula
    18. Makin' bacon
    19. Mattress dancing
    20. Bonking
    21. Getting it on
    22. Laying
    23. Nookie
    24. Poking
    25. Porking
    26. Quickie
    27. Screwing
    28. Fornication
    29. Bury the bone
    30. Buzz the brillo
    31. Banging
    31. Slap bellies
    32. Roll in the hay
    33. To couple
    34. Copulate
    35. Dip your wick
    36. Do the deed
    37. Pound
    38. Feather bed jig
    39. Fiddle
    40. Frig
    41. Nail
    42. The lust and thrust
    43. Knock mops
    44. Get a piece
    45. Get some
    46. Get lucky
    47. Jump one's bones
    48. Hit it
    49. Hanky panky
    50. Home run
    51. Go all the way
    52. Bump and grind
    53. Play on all fours
    54. Get busy
    55. Pin
    56. Plow
    57. Shake the sheets
    58. Score
    59. Churn butter
    60. Boom-boom
    61. Having a hump
    62. How's your father?
    63. On the job
    64. Buff
    65. End away
    66. Get stuffed
    67. Slam
    68. Sleep with
    69. Sink the sausage
    70. Thread a needle
    71. The beast with two backs
    72. A bit of the ole' in and out
    73. Be intimate with
    74. Wind the clock
    75. Wham
    76. Tie the true lover's knot
    77. Lie with
    78. Rock the trailer
    79. Rock the casbah
    80. The hokey-pokey
    81. Tapping
    82. The horizontal mambo
    83. Bedroom rodeo
    84. To know someone Biblically
    85. Feed the kitty
    86. Stuffing the turkey
    87. Midnight jockey ride
    88. Quimsticking
    89. Thumping thighs
    90. Rolling the newspaper
    91. Barneymugging
    92. Post a letter
    93. Make feet for children's shoes
    94. Introduce Charley
    95. Horizontal refreshment
    96. Go to bed with
    97. Pile.
    98. Roast the broomstick
    99. The disappearing cane trick
    100. Grand slam

    .

    ReplyDelete
  47. In Israel, legal Palestinian residents are not permitted the privilege of driving.

    From ynetnews.com

    Why can’t Palestinian residents of Israel drive despite strict security checks?


    Imagine that you have to do all that without a driver’s license. This isn’t the case because the father doesn’t know how to drive, or because he is suffering from some kind of disability. It’s not even because his license expired, but rather, it’s because he’s a Palestinian Arab.


    In Israel, where any tourist can get a driver’s license, Palestinians are not allowed to drive. This ban is relevant to thousands of Palestinians who are allowed to live in Israel because they are married of Israeli citizens. The reason for this ban is, as usual, security considerations.


    Even if we’re able to barely understand the link between driving and security, as well as the more meaningful question of why being Palestinian
    is enough to designate one as a security threat, we must recall that a comprehensive solution to the security threat is already in place, even without revoking one’s license: All Palestinians married to Israelis undergo comprehensive security checks every six months as a condition for extending their resident permits. If intelligence information points to suspicions of a security threat by any of them (or their extended family,) the partner is removed from his or her family immediately and sent back to the territories. The security apparatus works all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  48. .

    Libyan War, Q, is simply a NATO Operation. The euphemisms, simply to confuse the markets' memory



    This take, merely another euphemism designed to obscure reality.

    The US pushed the resolution for attacking Libya through the UN. We lead the effort.

    In the case of Libya, NATO was an euphemism for US action. The whole limited kenetic action wouldn't have been possible without US assets and resources.

    Hell the 'allies' were running out of ammo half way through the conflict. The US organized, coordinated, supported all the air strikes.

    To deny the US was "the major player" both diplomatically and physically is to obscure reality, something euphemisms are created for.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  49. .

    Seems it is going to be that way, in Saudi Arabia, too.


    Only if you are a man.

    If you are a woman, you don't have the privilege.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  50. Privileges are like that, Q.

    The government gets to decide you gets it, and who does not.

    In Saudi Arabia, it is women, in Israel, it's Palestinians.

    That's what makes it a governmental privilege, not a right.

    In many countries, voting is a privilege, not a right.
    Monarchies, often have no voting, at all, they're not bound by the enlightened idea of the inalienable rights of man.

    So that the Saudis have voting, at all, and that they have extended the franchise to women, ground breaking, for an Arabic Monarchy and US ally.

    ReplyDelete
  51. If voting in Saudi Arabia is considered a privilege, and not a right, well, then the expanding universe of those privileges for women should be applauded, not bemoaned for not being "more".

    Another form of straw man.

    One that is normal for that region, as evidence by Israel limiting the driving privileges of Palestinians, by denying them the privilege.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Good reason to be thankful for being a resident of the United States and not one of those "other" locales.

    Where privileges are not freely permitted.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Your "rights" are whatever the people with the "biggest, and best guns" say they are.

    ReplyDelete
  54. For ex., the distaff half of the population got the "right" to vote when the U.S. Government (the guys with the biggest, best guns) said they had the "right" to vote.


    The Blacks got the "Right" not to be Slaves when the outfit (the North) with the biggest, and best guns won the War.

    ReplyDelete
  55. The Cherokee lost the "rights" to their land when Andrew Jackson said, "The Supreme Court has made its ruling, now let them enforce it."

    ReplyDelete
  56. The town hall meeting comes amid Obama's push for Congress to pass his $447 billion American Jobs Act, which he has said would be paid for with an estimated $467 billion in tax hikes for oil and gas companies, hedge fund managers and American families earning more than $250,000 a year.

    The meeting at LinkedIn, a website used by 120 million professionals and job-seekers worldwide, also comes as he is facing mounting pressure to revive the nation's stalled economy and boost job creation.

    The president is on his second day of a three-day West Coast fundraising swing to raise money for his 2012 re-election campaign.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Speaking of rights and Cherokees

    "Last month, the Supreme Court of the Cherokee nation approved decision to oust thousands of descendants of black slaves who were brought to Oklahoma some 170 years ago by Native American owners from the Cherokee tribe.

    But the federal government is now warning the Cherokee nation, the country’s second largest Indian tribe, to think twice about that decision.

    To recap, the Cherokee court ruled that it was proper to kick the slave descendants, so-called “Freedmen,” out of tribe, as we reported here.

    That decision could result in thousands of Freedmen losing their eligibility for free health care and other benefits such as education concessions, Reuters reports in this piece.

    Cherokee Nation officials maintain that the tribe, as a sovereign nation, has the right to amend its membership requirements, according to Reuters.

    But the assistant secretary for the Bureau of Indian Affairs today called on the tribe to restore the descendants’ membership, including voting rights and benefits such as medical care and food stipends, the Associated Press reports.

    The bureau, according to AP, said that the tribe’s expulsion of the Freedmen is unconstitutional.

    The Law Blog has sought comment from the Cherokee nation.

    Update: Joe Crittenden, the Acting Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, issued a statement that he was “disheartened” by the government’s actions. “The Cherokee Nation will not be governed by the BIA,” Crittenden said. “We will . . .continue our long legacy of responsible self-governance.”

    ReplyDelete
  58. Doug: Teresita,
    Have any tricks for keeping your weight up? ...high calorie, halfway healthy stuff you can snack on, etc. Wife almost looks anorexic, as she had problems consuming enough calories BEFORE Chemo, and that's just made things worse.


    The "hard" chemo, A&C, was only four infusions. It changed the way food tastes to me, but I didn't get sick. Lucky me. The last ten chemos were "medium" ones, Taxol, with steroids, but I've also been getting Herceptin, and that actually makes me put on weight. I'm up twenty pounds, 129lbs, a lifetime record. Miss Fely makes the world's best spaghetti, but I laid off it for a while, but when I got the big C I went back to it. Other than that, my diet hasn't changed much.

    ReplyDelete
  59. desert rat said...
    In Israel, legal Palestinian residents are not permitted the privilege of driving.



    Or in actual English:

    In Israel, NON-citizens who happen to be Palestinian by Nationality are not permitted the privilege of driving.

    In Palestinian areas Jews are not permitted to live let alone get drivers licenses...

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  60. One standard for Israel, no standards for anyone else

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  61. Rufus: The Blacks got the "Right" not to be Slaves when the outfit (the North) with the biggest, and best guns won the War.

    The best guns were on the redneck side, but there were three times more guns on the Yankee side, and they had a butcher of a general.

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  62. Here's a guy that explains what I've been trying to say much better than I can. The Thread is very informative, and thought-provoking, also.

    A Brief Explanation of Peak Oil

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  63. DR: In Israel, legal Palestinian residents are not permitted the privilege of driving.

    Because they don't seem to be interested in the parallel parking part of the driving lesson. They just want to know how to drive the car into a Sbarro Pizza before it detonates.

    Saudi Arabian nationals are not permitted the privilege of flying a plane in the US for the same reason. They don't seem to care very much about landing it.

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  64. Odyssey CEO Greg Stemm said the company is confident the salvage can be conducted on a timely basis despite the potential complexity due to the depth of the shipwreck. "We were fortunate to find the shipwreck sitting upright, with the holds open and easily accessible.

    This should enable us to unload cargo through the hatches as would happen with a floating ship alongside a cargo terminal."

    Odyssey shares rose 24 cents, or 9 percent, to $2.90 in morning trading Monday.

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  65. .

    If voting in Saudi Arabia is considered a privilege, and not a right, well, then the expanding universe of those privileges for women should be applauded, not bemoaned for not being "more".

    Another form of straw man.



    Nonsense.

    You are constantly talking about how everyone has basic human rights. One of those rights is to be treated equally under the law.

    Are you being inconsistent or merely selective in trying to prove some weird point?

    .

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  66. Blogger Rufus II said...

    Your "rights" are whatever the people with the "biggest, and best guns" say they are.






    ummmmm, no. That is really quite a quaint and naive way to view human interactions, power, and "rights". Institutions play a huge role in our lives and a hallmark of civilized society is the power they exercise without resorting to "big fucking guns".

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  67. Quirk I posted that Sex list on my Wiki here but there's two #31s.

    Doug said, "As long as he doesn't wear dark glasses, and I can keep track of his soul, I'm comfortable."

    That's funny.

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  68. it comes with the territory of being a "peaker" rufus - one explanation for all phenomena

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  69. ironic that it is so similar to religious nutters!

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  70. the peakers bible "the oil drum"

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  71. Ash, when I see a horse that is 10 for 10 I start to get religious.

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  72. In fact, we're coming around the final turn in race number 11, and the "peak" horse is looking pretty good, again.

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  73. And, besides, all this ever boils down to in the end is what Winston Churchill referred to as the "price."

    If I said, "Quirk, Ash, Doug, would $30.00/gal gasoline crash the economy," you would all three say, "Well, of course, Rufus, that just makes sense."

    Your argument, therefore, is not in the "effect," but only in the level of price that would be necessary to "cause" said effect.

    I believe it lies somewhere, At. This. Time., in the $3.25 to $3.50/gal range. You, obviously, think it would be much higher.

    As a result, I think this feels much more like an "economic," or "scientific" argument than a "Religious" one.

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  74. More distortions and lies from the Rat..

    he says:
    The government gets to decide you gets it, and who does not.

    In Saudi Arabia, it is women, in Israel, it's Palestinians.


    Nonsense...
    In Saudi Arabia the women in question are CITIZENS.

    In Israel, the palestinians are GUESTS.

    More distortions and lies from the Rat....

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  75. More distortions:

    Rat: One that is normal for that region, as evidence by Israel limiting the driving privileges of Palestinians, by denying them the privilege.



    Again "Palestinian" citizens can drive in Palestinian lands...

    If they are in Israel they are not citizens, Arabs that are CITIZENS have the right to drive...

    What a distorting liar Rat is...

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  76. Another thread...

    Another Rat Israel rant...

    So really it's the Rat that causes so much shit on this blog...

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  77. #49 is my favorite on the list.

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  78. I kinda like #30.

    Buzz the Brillo :)

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  79. Old school, Rufus. There ain't much brillo out there anymore.

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  80. “This is a very big and important move. It says we met each other halfway. We saved the jobs,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), referring to the the auto loan program.

    ...

    Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), whose state was hit hard by flooding from Hurricane Irene, said the deal would solve the disaster issue — but only temporarily.

    “I’m concerned about the fact that we give blank checks to Iraq and [Afghanistan] and we don’t want to take care of America for Americans,” he said. “It’s wrong, it’s foolish and it will come back to haunt us.”

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  81. That's okay, Sam; there ain't much of me out there anymore, either. :)

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  82. "Old school, Rufus. There ain't much brillo out there anymore."


    ( :

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