COLLECTIVE MADNESS


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

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Gaddafi and His Political Friends

Gaddafi's death breached the law, says Russia

World Reaction
By Shaun Walker in Moscow
Saturday, 22 October 2011



As politicians in Western capitals were taking quiet pleasure in the capture and killing of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi yesterday, opinions elsewhere were divided.
In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Geneva Conventions had been breached with the killing of Colonel Gaddafi.
"We have to lean on facts and international laws," Mr Lavrov said. "They say that a captured participant of an armed conflict should be treated in a certain way. And in any case, a prisoner of war should not be killed."
Russia has been critical of Nato military action in Libya, saying that it has gone well beyond the stated mission of saving civilian life. The main concern for Moscow now is whether the new Libyan authorities will honour contracts signed by the Gaddafi regime. As well as the oil and arms trade, Russian Railways had secured a £2bn contract to construct a railway line between Sirte and Benghazi. Moscow recognised the National Transitional Council as the official government of Libya last month and said it expected all existing contracts to be honoured.
China, which like Russia abstained in the Security Council vote on whether to use force against Colonel Gaddafi's troops, was quicker yesterday to change its tune. Beijing initially refused to support the rebels and had been highly critical of the bombing campaign. But as realities on the ground altered, in recent weeks the Chinese government had started to engage with the rebel movement.
"A new page has been turned in the history of Libya," a foreign ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said yesterday. "We hope Libya will rapidly embark on an inclusive political process ... and allow the people to live in peace and happiness," she said.
A sign of the official policy change could be discerned in the language that Chinese state media used to refer to Colonel Gaddafi. Newspapers and agencies run by the state, which had previously referred to a "Middle East strongman", had yesterday made a small but significant change to their phrasing, calling him a "madman" instead.
Reaction from other enemies of the US was varied. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez described the dead dictator as a "martyr", while Iran's foreign ministry tried to banish any parallels between the Libyan revolution and anti-government protests at home. "Despots and oppressors throughout history have no fate other than destruction and death," a spokesman said. He called Colonel Gaddafi's killing a "great victory" but added that all foreign forces must now pull out of the country.
And the eccentric Russian politician Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who is also the head of the World Chess Federation, said that Colonel Gaddafi's death was a "tragedy" but that he died as a martyr and would be reincarnated.
Mr Ilyumzhinov made a surreal mission to Tripoli in June, where he met with Colonel Gaddafi as an unofficial mediator and played a game of chess with him. Yesterday, he said in a Russian newspaper interview that he had spoken to the Libyan leader numerous times on the phone since. He claimed that Colonel Gaddafi had not been scared of death: "Not a bit! He believed in reincarnation."












89 comments:

  1. " Beware of friends who are false and deceitful."

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  2. That about covers all politicians.

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  3. Beware of friends who dispatch snipers and torture squads to "dissuade" protesters when the going gets rough for their regime. That also covers our buddy pals Ferdinand Marcos and the Shah.

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  4. Two days ago Obama hailed the troops’ withdrawal as the result of his commitment — promised shortly after taking office in 2009 — to end the war that he once described as “dumb.”
    Now we get the truth.

    The Iraqis said thanks but no thanks.

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  5. .

    Hosea warns that those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind.

    Muammar reaped what he sowed.

    It will be interesting to see what Hillary and Barach have sown.

    .

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  6. 1.6 Million Barrels of Oil/Day for Export can get you a lot of nice photo ops.

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  7. Threatening to sell it to the Chinese can get you daid.

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  8. Empires always value expediency to enable order and control. Political expediency dictates not being overly choosey in your selection of "a friend of ours"

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  9. Muammar jumped the shark a long time ago. Why these guys don't accept the retirement palace in balmy Eastern Chilinomora has always baffled me.

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  10. Rufus II said... Threatening to sell it to the Chinese can get you daid.

    So Canada better not THINK of laying an oil pipe from the tar sands to Vancouver.

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  11. I haven't thought much about Hosea lately, an interesting guy to say the least.

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  12. Russia ought to know something about breaking international law since their beloved dictator ordered the death of Alexander Litvinenko with a dose of a prohibited substance, Polonium, no less.

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  13. Deuce said... Muammar jumped the shark a long time ago. Why these guys don't accept the retirement palace in balmy Eastern Chilinomora has always baffled me.

    The power to order other people's lives has it's own attraction. That's why our pols settle for salaries in the low six figures.

    ... And then all the clouds rolled away, and the white sun shone, and at his command
    the vale of Gorgoroth became a garden of flowers and trees and brought forth fruit.
    He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be.

    In that hour of trial it was the love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if
    such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands
    to use, not the hands of others to command.

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  14. Quietly, under the radar, the "pipeline to the Sea" is being expanded in BC. Being an expansion of an existing pipeline a minimum of permits, etc, is necessary.

    Canada is getting ripped off on the tar sands oil. Some of that Canadian oil is selling for as little as $65.00/bbl according to some sources at the Oil Drum. That can't last.

    With a "world" price of approx. $115.00/bbl, that Canadian oil will, eventually, find its way to the Sea.

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  15. ...with a dose of a prohibited substance, Polonium, no less.

    Prohibited you say? Gosh, somebody better call the police and report Putin.

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  16. Rufus: Canada is getting ripped off on the tar sands oil. Some of that Canadian oil is selling for as little as $65.00/bbl

    If I bought a Kia for $25,000, I can't say I got ripped off, because that's my signature on the contract. But if I bought a Mustang at that price and they delivered a Kia, that's something else.

    Now if a buyer offers $65 a barrel for Canadian oil, and Canada goes, "Beauty!" and sells at that price, they can't say they got ripped off later, especially if they keep on making those kinds of transactions.

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  17. The Muslim Brotherhood is sweeping through the middle east with the help of the US and NATO. The US is 65% of NATO. Egyptians are murdering Christians and burning their churches. Has Obama said a word about that?

    Gadaffi's car was attacked and destroyed, and he was wounded, by NATO missiles. He was picked up and murdered while begging for his life. Love him or hate him, Gadaffi was the recognized leader of Libya. (The photos on this post attest to those that recognized that inconvenient truth, including two Nobel Peace Prize winners!)

    The Libyan government would never have been overthrown by the minority tribes and islamists who now claim to control the country, had NATO not massacred the Libyan armed forces and wrecked the infrastructure on which the country's administration depended. Gadaffi would not have been captured had NATO not attacked his car. It is a war crime to attack a convoy of cars which are fleeing a battle zone which has been under siege for several weeks.

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  18. 4. Blast From the Past If we choose to we could drill for oil, crack shale, build nuclear plants, improve our technological efficiency, and do so in ways that create so much wealth that we could improve the environment.

    That's not the way capitalism works. It is all about maximizing next quarters' bottom line. The market doesn't have a mastermind behind it, it's like a computer program that can only see one instruction ahead. And so it blindly follows the sweetest money trail until the whole system is dependent on politically unstable sources of cheap crude. And when that oil becomes unavailable, the system will automatically select the next cheapest source.

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  19. Okay, "ripped off" isn't, technically, the right choice of words.

    Let's just say, "they're going to find a better deal." :)

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  20. It is disgusting to hear American liberals gloating how this shows Obama is not a wimp. Do thry believe in anything?

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  21. Rufus: With a "world" price of approx. $115.00/bbl, that Canadian oil will, eventually, find its way to the Sea.

    Don't hate the player, hate the game.

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  22. "Retreat" is not surrender.

    "Retreat" is a Military Strategy, and an adversary in the act of retreatomg IS fair game.

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  23. A war crime?

    Attacking a convoy advancing to the rear?

    By your standard oppo, was the destruction of the Republican Guard during Desert Storm, on the "Highway of Death" a war crime?

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  24. At least all those yankee dollars will flow back to North America.

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  25. It is disgusting to hear American liberals gloating how this shows Obama is not a wimp. Do thry believe in anything?

    It's all partisan. Obama knows that. All that crap about Bush the War Criminal from 2003 to 2008 was pure partisanship. On the BC Dr. Mabuse just said:

    This administration has “ends”? That’s more than I know. I think they’re a pack of monkeys pulling levers, and they’ve suddenly discovered that the one marked “drone attacks” keeps spitting out bananas.

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  26. I don't "hate," either the player, nor the game, T. The game is just what it is.

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  27. The low prices for landlocked crude at Cushing (WTI) are, actually, mostly only advantageous to the Midcontinent Refiners. Most all of the gasoline sold in the U.S. is priced off the much higher world prices.

    Basically, Brent Crude which was selling on the Spot market, yesterday, for about $111.00 bbl, I believe, and Louisiana Light Crude which was selling on the Spot Market for about $115.00/bbl.

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  28. Rufus II said... "Retreat" is a Military Strategy, and an adversary in the act of retreatomg IS fair game.

    Seven Days Battle, McClellan retreated from the moment he lost Fair Oaks (aka Seven Pines) and Lee chased his ass all the way back to Harrison's Landing. When the bluecoats were getting on their barges, JEB Stuart brought a cannon up on a hill overlooking their position and started lobbing shells down on the fleeing men. That would be called a "war crime" today. Back then it was just a matter of McClellan fucking up and not posting a rearguard on that hill.

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  29. Desert Rat, you crticized Israel for similar atrocities.

    Look at the photos. Do you see one burned out military vehicle? The vehicles, civilian automobiles, were not advancing. They were fleeing a war zone.

    Article 33. No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.

    Have you not crticized Israel for similar atrocities?

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  30. I probably should have said, Military "Maneuver."

    There is no lawful difference between an enemy that is retreating, and one that is advancing.

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  31. They may not have been APCs (armored personnel carriers,) But they were transporting Combatants.

    They were fair game.

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  32. Woman beaten with frozen Armadillo


    There's gotta be a "country/western" song, here, somewhere.

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  33. Rufus II said... Woman beaten with frozen Armadillo...There's gotta be a "country/western" song, here, somewhere.


    I been drivin' all night since I set out from Amarillo

    Thinking thoughts of my honey, a layin' there on her pillow

    When I got home to Tulsa, I caught her with a strange fellow

    So I beat them good and dead with a frozen Armadillo.

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  34. Indonesian light costs a bunch because of the Tsunami.

    Japan, having shut down a bunch of Nukes, is buying.

    Pineapples fleeing to photovoltaics.

    Co-Worker with the kid bought a Leaf, and charges it with PV paid for electricity.

    Kid planning on PV pronto.

    Dad lived utility free for ten years back in the day.

    Rufie, a Newbie.

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  35. Indonesian Output has peaked, and is in decline.

    Falling output drives up Minas prices and exposes the market to aggressive bidding, pushing the Indonesian crude above Brent values for five of the past six months, making it a bane for refiners grappling with high costs.

    Minas output, once above 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), has fallen below 200,000 bpd, traders estimate. Some put it as low as 150,000 bpd due to the ageing field's natural decline.

    Less than 50,000 bpd of Minas may be exported. But it is still used as a marker for up to 1 million bpd of Indonesian, Vietnamese and Sudanese crude, a legacy from an era when Minas, which began commercial production in the 1950s, was the largest oilfield in Southeast Asia.

    "Minas is a very frail benchmark. It is hard to hedge against it. Brent would be far easier to hedge," says John Vautrain, vice-president of consultancy Purvin and Gertz.

    U.S. major Chevron (CVX.N), which operates the Minas field found in 1944 on Sumatra island, and produces more than half of Indonesia's crude supply, declined to comment on flow rates for Minas but said work was underway to sustain output.

    Indonesia, a net exporter until two years ago and had this year decided to withdraw from OPEC, expects output to fall to 927,000 bpd in 2008, and keeps exporting less as it has to feed rising fuel demand seen at 1.2-1.3 million bpd.


    Past its Peak

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  36. Staff members in New Hampshire for Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann have resigned en masse, a Republican familiar with the situation said on Friday, in a fresh blow to her 2012 hopes.

    So no chicky-babes for POTUS this year, unless Hillary challenges Obummer.

    --
    Totenberg: 'Don't Make Me Spokesman for the WHouse'

    Krauthammer: 'What would be new about that?'

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  37. Doug: Pineapples fleeing to photovoltaics.

    That might work, as long as you remember that every morning at 10 AM it rains in Hawaii, on one side of the street. The other side is good.

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  38. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  39. Deuce said...

    Two days ago Obama hailed the troops’ withdrawal as the result of his commitment — promised shortly after taking office in 2009 — to end the war that he once described as “dumb.”
    Now we get the truth.

    The Iraqis said thanks but no thanks.

    Sat Oct 22, 09:57:00 AM EDT

    ---

    Doug said...

    "A few months back they were talking contracting out 16,000-20,000 jobs to protect all them multi-million dollar buildings they put up (oh yea, and the diplomats in the buildings)."

    Malikicountered with: "No legal protection against prosecution"

    Fri Oct 21, 09:26:00 PM EDT


    Deuce said...
    Two days ago Obama hailed the troops’ withdrawal as the result of his commitment — promised shortly after taking office in 2009 — to end the war that he once described as “dumb.”
    Now we get the truth.

    The Iraqis said thanks but no thanks.

    Sat Oct 22, 09:57:00 AM EDT

    ---



    Doug said...
    Plans dropped to keep troops in Iraq

    Fri Oct 21, 09:30:00 PM EDT

    It takes a small man to gloat.

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  40. ...also to cut and paste a mess like that.

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  41. "That might work, as long as you remember that every morning at 10 AM it rains in Hawaii, on one side of the street. The other side is good."

    Sat Oct 22, 01:31:00 PM EDT

    South Maui is a desert, sustained only by irrigation.

    Rain shadow of Haleakala.

    Offer of fun in the sun still stands.

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  42. Desecrating the American flag, no wonder Obama and the liberals on the EB bar support the fleabaggers.

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  43. Thoroughly Brainwashed, they are.

    Too weak to reject the siren call of the MSM.

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  44. Pelosi loves her some ows'rs

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  45. CONCEPT:

    People protesting for more government assistance bear little resemblance to those advocating smaller government.

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  46. I asked you a question, oppo, concerning US behavior, not to draw comparisons 'tween the US and Israel.

    The question to you:

    Did the US commit a war crime on the "Highway of Death", during Desert Storm, or not?

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  47. ...one of these days I'm gonna dig up photos of a T-Party we had here about ten years ago.

    Revolutionary costumes and all.

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  48. In your opinion, of course, oppo.

    What do YOU think?

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  49. "Did the US commit a war crime on the "Highway of Death", during Desert Storm, or not?"

    It was too much for Colon Powell.

    Woulda been too easy to break the China and leave it to our one-time allies, the Shia, to fix up the shop.

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  50. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  51. We did leave to them, Doug, after giving them the idea they'd be backed, by US.

    Instead the US stood by while Saddam used his US granted local air superiority, to spray chemical weapons upon Shitte civilians.

    Then some of US wondered why the Shiite still did not trust US, after we marched to Baghdad, but did not allow elections, in June of 2003.

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  52. I look at the pictures posted with these "civilized democratically elected leaders" smiling and shaking hands with Gadaffi, whose history was known to all of them and then I look at this video. All the smiling faces, leaders of NATO forces used in Libya are in the photos with Gadaffi. Who is the worse person, the bigger hypocrite or the criminal?

    I assume by your question that you are referring to this. Do I think a war crime was committed here? Yes

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  53. 'Rat said...

    "We did leave to them, Doug, after giving them the idea they'd be backed, by US."

    Yeah, what I meant was that if we hadn't listened to The Colon, and driven up to the largely undefended Babylon, we could have left the rest up to the Shia.

    but we didn't.

    Just like this time we were GONNA leave it in the hands of the integrated Iraqi Army, but we did not AGAIN.

    Some kind of addiction to long wars when the Regular Army and the Politicians start hobnobbing together, it seems.

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  54. "I assume by your question that you are referring to this."

    Before that, we buried them alive in their tanks.

    I still can't figure why after that, and abandoning the Shia on top of that, that we were not treated as best buddies.

    Then this time we promised the Iraqi Army we would pay them to disappear.
    They did, we paid them for a few weeks, and said

    "Sorry, Charlie, change of plans, you lose"

    Damned Iraqis.

    Now we got them all behaving back down to the level common throughout the Arab World.

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  55. "I still can't figure why after that, and abandoning the Shia on top of that, that we were not treated as best buddies."

    al-Qaeda and Iran?

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  56. The Iraqis, as they were prior to Desert Storm.

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  57. al-Qaeda and Iran?

    Not really related issues.

    One is a Saudi sponsored terrorist organization, the other the major threat to and historic enemy of those same Saudi Royals.

    The US has had a special relationship with the Saudis, since FDR first broke bread with the King.

    With regards the Iranians, well, the US has fumbled on that field, more than once.

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  58. The US backing the Shiites of Iraq, while trying to contain Iran.

    A tough balancing act, for those that play checkers.

    But the Baathist, Shiite leaning, regime in Syria, while well entrenched is under pressure from the Saudi backed Sunni, there in Syria.

    The Sunni dominated Turks, as well as the non PPK Kurds, also Sunni, are now aligning against Assad.

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  59. DR: Did the US commit a war crime on the "Highway of Death", during Desert Storm, or not?

    Our own police and National Guard can shoot looters, US citizens, during a catastrophe, but we can't do it when one country loots another one? The real war crime was what Saddam did with his helicopters after Gulf One.

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  60. .

    Yeah, what I meant was that if we hadn't listened to The Colon,...

    More humor from the Maui coast.

    Blaming Powell for the clusterfuck that was Iraq.

    Never fails to amuse.

    .

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  61. Ghadaffi the big rat is gone and NATO is playing the human right card that that they need to know how he was killed or who killed him when NATO was chasing him with 8000 sorties since the air campaign to kill him began. What a silly rot .....
    NATO mandate was to impose a no fly zone for the Libyan air force. that was it. As usual the law is a joke and meaningless to the custidians of the law. The mandate drifted to bombing military facilities because the rebels were too small and too weak to do the bidding of the west. Then the NATO, whoever that is, decide to kill the rat and his entourage. No law was involved except the law of the gun and the bomb and the law of empty words. it is quite clear that French missiles incinerated the rat's convoy and the death toll there is unimportant to human right groups. Liars, liars and bigger liars, all dogs.

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  62. .

    Desecrating the American flag, no wonder Obama and the liberals on the EB bar support the fleabaggers.



    One could take your arguments a little more seriously T were you to post a link rather than a partial link to make a point.

    Fleabaggers?

    It was only within the last couple weeks that you were calling the Tea Party teabaggers.

    It's hard to tell when you are serious or just trying to appear clever.

    .

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  63. Quirk: Fleabaggers?

    It was only within the last couple weeks that you were calling the Tea Party teabaggers.


    I'm an equal-opportunity antagonista. As a fiscal conservative, I share many views with the Tea Party. However, according to a University of Washington poll of 1,695 registered voters in the state of Washington who are Tea Party supporters:

    82% do not believe that gay and lesbian couples should have the legal right to marry

    52% believe that "lesbians and gays have too much political power"

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  64. ...aah the freedom of being an agnostic!

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  65. Opo, I am tempted to put that video clip up at the end of the photos I posted. Had I seen it before, I would have but It is too late in the thread but it complets completes the theme of the shit birds that are drawn to power…all of them… those driven to lead are the least deserving to do so.
    Thanks for posting it.

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  66. I'm pretty much a middle-of-the-road type guy, but I love to see these fringe groups march.

    Anything to "afflict the comforted" is a good thing. Keeps'em on their toes, hopefully. A little bit, at least.

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  67. Rufus II said... Unmanned Helicopter Cargo Delivery System being deployed to Iraq

    Skynet can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until it delivers our robot soldiers their light machine oil (in six packs) and their bullets. Obama only said he was pulling our human troops out of there.

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  68. Deuce: ...those driven to lead are the least deserving to do so.

    Power doesn't corrupt, it merely attracts the corruptible.

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  69. Perfect for remote jungle areas, no roads, anti-insurgency operations.


    What? They've found oil in the Congo, you say? hmmm.

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  70. .

    I'm an equal-opportunity antagonista


    And you claim to know what the "liberals on the EB bar" support.


    Desecrating the American flag, no wonder Obama and the liberals on the EB bar support the fleabaggers.


    It would be interesting to have you identify the 'liberals' you are talking about.

    .

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  71. Quirk: It would be interesting to have you identify the 'liberals' you are talking about.

    If the gun grabbin' Captain Planet watchin' NPR listenin' UTNE Reader readin' commie pinko, red diaper doper baby, leave flyover country Americans defenseless and penniless union thug shoe fits, wear it!

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  72. .

    A chickenshit answer.

    Name names.

    .

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  73. Here's another one that needs some killin'.

    Afghanistan would support Pakistan in case of military conflict between Pakistan and the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview to a private Pakistani TV channel broadcast on Saturday.

    The remarks were in sharp contrast to recent tension between the two neighbors over cross-border raids, and Afghan accusations that Pakistan was involved in killing the chief Afghan peace envoy, former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, by a suicide bomber on September 20.

    "God forbid, If ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan," he said in the interview to Geo television.

    "If Pakistan is attacked and if the people of Pakistan needs Afghanistan's help, Afghanistan will be there with you."


    Are we gone, yet?

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  74. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  75. 26. David: No amount of modern Western military hardware, exchange students, Voice of America broadcasts, USIA cultural outreach, etc., will penetrate the closed circle of Islam, until those people are willing themselves to cast off the shackles of the implicit barbarism that is that faith.

    That is what we have seen with the Arab Spring. All those dudes taking pictures of Qaddafi's body with their iPhones are also communicating with each other over those iPhones, and for every pair of Muslims doing fundamentalist scripture study, another twenty are surfing YouPorn, just like right in the US Bible Belt. The genie is out of the bottle. The only way the hard core Taliban-style Islamists can win is to shut down every cell tower in the country (as we saw in Egypt), and even that would only be a temporary setback because in the near future, the heart of each portable device, as it shrinks and approaches the size of a shirt button, will be one node in a dynamic "swarm" network of millions of transceivers that no central authority will be able to control or shut down. Three-dimensional images will be displayed on the inside of what appears to be ordinary glasses, visible only the wearer. Cell towers will become as obsolete as all those strands of copper wire still running from telephone poles to the house.

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  76. .

    According to the World Bank, an estimated 97 percent of Afghanistan’s gross
    domestic product (GDP) is derived from spending related to the
    international military and donor community presence.


    According to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report from June of this year.

    .

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  77. Rufus II said... Here's another one that needs some killin'.

    Maybe the CIA will be dismayed to discover Karzai's body, dead from suicide with three rounds to the back of his head, shades of 1963:

    Conein: Where were Diem and Nhu?

    Minh: They committed suicide. They were in the Catholic Church at Cholon, and they committed suicide.

    Conein: Look, you're a Buddhist, I'm a Catholic. If they committed suicide at that church and the priest holds mass tonight, that story won't hold water. Where are they?

    Minh: Their bodies are behind General Staff Headquarters. Do you want to see them?

    Conein: No.

    Minh: Why not?

    Conein: Well, if by chance one of a million of the people believe you that they committed suicide in church and I see that they have not committed suicide and I know differently, then if it ever leaks out, I am in trouble.

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  78. Anybody who believes that Gaddafi's tyranny will be replaced by a Western-style democracy with respect for basic human rights will be sadly disappointed. Look at the "Allah Akbar" screaming neanderthals and ask yourself, is this positive news for everyone else? No, it is more confirmation of the same: the barbarism and sickness of Islam. The libyans demonstrated their barbarism in what is believed to be the execution of Gaddafi and his son after they were known to have been taken alive . I expect the mob in-fighting to intensify soon. Egypt is already in deep trouble. These are war crimes .
    They also demonstrated their barbarism by celebrating by beheading 9 camels in Freedom Square in front of cheering crowds who smeared themselves with camel blood . Worthy people, worthy of NATO support.

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  79. As for Karzai, he is probably just saying things to score points with the primates he calls constituents- so you can pretty much count on them feeling the same way. We should just gone into Afghanistan, done a bunch of killing (of the right men) and left a single super base there to continue the effort to take out bin laden.

    Now, we should just forget these people. Even if we were rich at the start of all this, which we clearly weren't- we still couldn't afford to raise another country of this size, from the ground to even a second world country- what were we thinking? Karzai and his people are beasts, they only recognize and respect one thing- strength by means of brutality. We don't kill on the scale they require for respect, so we'll never have it.

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  80. .

    "If Pakistan is attacked and if the people of Pakistan needs Afghanistan's help, Afghanistan will be there with you."

    Of course, they will have to barrow the cab fare for the trip to Pakistan from the US or Nato.

    .

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