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."

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Obama’s Cold Move, The Pacific President



BBC


US President Barack Obama's announcement that he is going to send 2,500 Marines to Australia and increase visits of ships, submarines and aircraft to the country is of real significance.


One observer calls it a cold and clever move.

Politicians tend to tell every region and country they visit how important they are.

When President Obama says: "The United States of America has no stronger ally than Australia," you might want to remember that he said it about France at the beginning of the year.

But when he says to Australians: "We are two Pacific nations," it is from the heart.

When he declares: "The Asia-Pacific region is absolutely critical to America's economic growth," and ''We're here to stay. This is a region of huge strategic importance to us,'' you can believe he means it.

Sending the troops annoys China, which as it grows in economic power is becoming a lot more interested in being the boss of its own backyard.

There have been pretty tense confrontations over who owns what bit of the South China Sea and China's "blue-water strategy" - making its presence felt throughout the Pacific Ocean - worries some.

The Chinese say of President Obama's move: "It may not be quite appropriate to intensify and expand military alliances and may not be in the interest of countries within this region."

It is part of a bigger picture.

They are also not keen on a new military pact Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has signed with the Philippines, bolstering its navy.

They dislike even more President Obama's plan to raise territorial disputes over the South China Sea at a meeting of the Association of South East Asian Nations this weekend.

China wants the disagreements sorted out through negotiations between individual countries. The US wants a grander multi-nation agreement.

But sending the Marines to Australia is not about any crude confrontation on the high seas.

It is about America signalling to its allies in the region that it is in this for the long haul.

There are plenty of countries in the region who eye China with suspicion and will welcome help from America with a lot more enthusiasm than Afghans or Iraqis.

The US Marines are not likely to end up intervening in a confrontation between a Japanese fishing boat and a Chinese destroyer.

But as the century progresses, they or their heirs could well find themselves dealing with a humanitarian crisis as Bangladesh disappears under water, helping as refugees from Burma flood into Thailand or mitigating the chaos of the reunification of Korea.

Born on America's Pacific Islands, raised for a time in Indonesia, President Obama is of course more likely be a Pacific President than the transtlanticists of the past, whose ancestors came from Europe, the continent which once defined and dominated the whole world.

But it is not about sentiment. Foreign policy is usually linked to economic interest and President Obama makes this explicit.

If he is confronting China it is because that is the inevitable consequence of being a power in the region.

He says: "The economy in this area is going to be the engine for world economic growth for some time to come. The lines of commerce and trade are constantly expanding.

"And it's appropriate then for us to make sure that not only our alliance but the security architecture of the region is updated for the 21st century, and this initiative is going to allow us to do that."

President Obama thinks he sees the big picture and where America's long-term interests lie. The Pacific region gives him a chance to practise his doctrine of leadership through alliances.

But it is also a region with some big, tough and seemingly intractable problems.

What sort of leadership America provides and with what aims will be a critical question not only for him but presidents to come.

72 comments:

  1. His move is better than you think, if you really think it? :)
    It is brilliant because China has a massive property bubble about to go pop, there was an interview of a hedge fund manager who stated that there was entire sky scrapers that were empty, built to employ lots of people on borrowed money, and now not earning any rent!

    They are going down the toilet just like everyone else

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  2. Obama’s speech, a bit awkward at the beginning, (no teleprompter) was loaded with messages to the Chinese. Your apt observation about the Chinese property market is one of many areas where Obama may have advised the Chinese not to get too far ahead of themselves.

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  3. The real problem is that the U.S. failed to adjust to the post-Cold War world, by attempting to keep the global network of military bases that were built first to fight World War II, but then expanded to protect oil shipping lanes, oil pipelines, and oilfields from the Communists.

    Ron Paul is the only decent, credible conservative candidate left for the GOP.

    At the debates the others appear to be embarrassed of their ignorance/incompetence next to him.

    If he does run with Dennis Kucinich then Obama is finished.

    Anyone else gets the nomination then Obama's looking good to 2016.

    There's no longer any need for global superpowers - and regional cooperation for security and trade is also a better idea than quasi-imperial economic dominance programs (as attempted in Iraq).

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  4. What a genius.

    Brilliant.

    What an original thinker.

    This is worthy of Henry Kissinger.

    This is chess of the highest degree.

    Realpolitik.

    Crafty.

    Sly.

    Forward looking.

    Play the Australian card.

    Next he'll be making treaty with Vietnam.

    Obama, 2012!!!!

    jeez


    b

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  5. The Presidency will be an vacant then.

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  6. Sending 2500 Marines to Taiwan, now that would have been gutsy.


    b

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  7. The Presidency will be an vacant then.

    An vacant, like your brain, ratcrapper.

    b

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  8. This reminds me of the Corleone Family. Strike hard, and Decisively, in several different places, at one time.

    I think he's rocked China back on its heels with this one.

    If he can pull the Trade Pact off, in any way, shape, or form, by July, we'll have to call it "brilliant."

    It's true; what part of Europe he understands, he doesn't like. but, the Pacific is his home. It's where he feels confident.

    Jon Huntsman may speak Mandarin, but Obama spent his formative years in a Madrassa. In Indonesia.

    The American people are not a collective of Rocket Scientists; it's true. But, they do seem to "get lucky" a lot. They might have elected the perfect President for the second decade of the 21st Century.

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  9. I'll guarantee you, there are people in high office in Beijing sitting around, right now, saying, "What the fuck just happened?"

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  10. Romney will not beat Obama.

    He'll not draw the GOP base to the polls.
    Liberal religious cultist that he is.

    The rest of the GOP "B" team, less chance than Romney, at beating Obama.

    The only draft Mrs Palin feels, is when her b-ball players leave the door open, as they depart the love boat.

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  11. Hell, Gingrich is going to beat Romney, anyway. And, Gangrene will just be bushobama III.

    If he could get elected; but I doubt he can. The economy Is starting to pick up. And, he will repeat the SPR Drawdown sometime in the Spring. Unemployment will be dropping. If he can pull off the Pacific Deal he'll be good to go for another fo.

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  12. I've been watching the Export numbers, and, somewhat surprising to me, at least, they are picking up pretty good. And, it Is all in the Pacific.

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  13. Let's not swoon, girls.

    Yobama is just another rock star on tour with some very good PR.

    It made you want to buy your tickets for his show didn't it?

    Honestly, have you heard anything new?

    Geez, girls, get a grip and keep those knees together. Try to act like ladies.

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  14. I'm thinking that if he Can bring in Malaysia, and (this is a big "and") South Korea doesn't throw him a curveball at the last minute, he could have that deal at "critical mass" by Summer.

    It would be very hard for Japan to renounce its Mercantilist, currency-protecting ways, but at some point . . . . .

    And, That would leave China sitting there all alone, and feeling like the world had just turned upside/down on them.

    And, the beautiful thing about this for Obama - he really can't lose. There just isn't a serious downside to what he's trying to do.

    It's a "jellyroll." Found Money. The Sweetest kind.

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  15. Seems those UC Davis cops, they went to far, according to their boss.

    boobie, strikes out, again.

    Those coppers were way over the line, going beyond what was authorized.

    Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi initially did not criticize the police, but she said Saturday that she had since watched the video and reviewed more accounts from the scene.

    "It left me with a very bad feeling of what went on," Katehi said in a telephone interview. "There was enough information to show that we need to take a serious look at what happened."

    She said she authorized police to remove the tents, but not to use the pepper spray in the manner shown on the video. "Absolutely not," she said.


    That particular copper, should be arrested and charged with aggravated battery, about 12 counts.

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  16. Oh yeah, I've heard a Lot "new." The deal with the Philipines, combined with the troop announcement for Australia is a stroke of genius.

    Then, you have two oil exporters, Malaysia, and Brunei, sitting there feeling all insecure, and he decides to bring in New Zealand who has been wetting their pants with lust ever since the Australia deal, and Chile/Peru (with both Canada, and Mexico hinting they're interested)

    ties it all up in one pretty little package, well . . . .

    Thass pretty slick, kiddos. And, timed to perfection.

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  17. Glad to see the morning shift. G'nite all.

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  18. China has a growing case of national hubris. The challenge for the Communist party will be to take advantage of this while keeping it under control.

    Chinese people are proud of the accomplishments of their country. They see China as wealthy, successful, industrious and ascendant. Similar to Texans, they want to be respected and yes, feared if need be.

    Part of the hubris involves previous land disputes. Siberia, the South China Sea, Okinawa, Tibet and other lands that they claim were once part of China.

    China's neighbors are nervous and are looking for any help or friends they can get. Enter Obama stage left.

    The question is what would Obama actually do if China forced his hand with say, Taiwan or Okinawa?

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  19. Based upon how he's done with aQ Pakistan, Charlie will not press on Okinawa, even less so on Formosa, unless Charlie wants to appropriate Formosan investments on the Mainland.

    Mainland: Taiwan investments well be protected

    While at another source we discover:

    BEIJING - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Monday Taiwanese-invested businesses in the mainland will not be marginalized by the economic restructuring of the mainland.

    Wen told a press conference that the mainland's efforts to transform its economic growth pattern would create better investment environment and bring more favorable opportunities to Taiwan companies.


    While the "Financial Times" reports:

    Taiwan will for the first time allow Chinese investors to take stakes in its prized technology companies, a major step towards opening its economy to mainland China as cross-Strait relations improve.

    Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs has proposed allowing Chinese investment of up to 10 per cent in Taiwanese technology companies, and up to 50 per cent in new technology-sector joint ventures, one person familiar with the situation said.



    The threats and the solutions ...

    ... are not military.

    That is just so ...
    ... 20th Century.


    The military hegemony of the United States and its' allies have taken the military option off the table, for everyone else but US...

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  20. Yet, because of the disproportional strength of the Military Industrial Complex has in US society, we have put on blinders to that reality.

    Still fighting the "Last War".

    In the past century.
    Looking behind and not forward.

    With our government's priorities misplaced because of it.

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  21. The new rules would give Chinese investors access to some of Taiwan's most globally competitive companies. Taiwanese manufacturers, for example, make 9 out of every 10 notebook computers in the world. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is the world's biggest contract chipmaker, while Hon Hai, the Taiwan-listed parent of Foxconn, is the world's largest electronics manufacturing services provider.

    For Taiwanese companies, the new rules will make it easier to forge strategic alliances with their customers or suppliers in China, which is already by far Taiwan's biggest export market.

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  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  23. As the Soviet Premier boasted back in the day:


    "We will hang you ... and you will sell us the rope."


    But that is for the people of Formosa to decide, as regards their relationship with the Mainland.

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  24. "The threats and the solutions are not military."

    You're right.

    It's all about money and the power of money. China will continue to exert power and influence through money and power. How the US will counter that (or even need to counter it) is the question.

    Obama has resorted to the standard Presidential playbook to find an easy if largely symbolic foreign relations victory. It happens every three years. President finds himself bogged down domestically.

    The sycophantic reaction by some here at the EB is the only surprise.

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  25. If China accepts the re-assertion of a US primacy in Asia it looks weak.

    If China actively resists that new Asian order it will push it's neighbors deeper into the lap of Uncle Sam.

    If China allies itself with everyone willing to fight this re-assertion of US power, they join the club of losers: Iran, Russia, Syria, Venezuela, Pakistan, and Al-Qaeda.

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  26. Well, let me change that. China does make subtle military threats and so does the US.

    The solutions though, ultimately are not military but peace through strength is still part of the equation.

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  27. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  28. Without doubt, anon.

    But how strong does the country need to be?

    How much "Over Kill" is required?

    Who should be paying for all the excess capacity?

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  29. Either the Campus Police are a force unto themselves or they were out of control.

    Both amount to the same thing, if the miscreant officer and his superiors are not brought to the Bar of Justice.

    Katehi reiterated that under UC Davis policy, students "cannot set up equipment and set up an encampment and stay overnight," and said that
    "the intent was not to disperse the rally, the intent was to disperse the tents."


    Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/20/4067841/ucd-peppered-by-net-outrage.html#ixzz1eG2XG71x

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  30. I was deleting some spam and accidentally removed a couple of comments. I am not sure whose it was but I apologize for the error.

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  31. Romney is ahead of Obama in the latest polls in Florida, an important state, by about 6 points now, Crapper.

    It wasn't long ago that Rufus was saying that I could beat Obama. I don't see that much has changed. He's toast.

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  32. SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) — San Francisco’s public health department has declared the Occupy San Francisco encampment in Justin Herman Plaza a public health nuisance.

    The declaration came on Thursday, though city authorities so far are allowing the demonstrators to remain in the plaza.

    Barbara Garcia, head of the city’s public health department, said the grassy area being used by the campers has been found to contain feces and have inadequate toilet facilities. Conditions for the spread of respiratory illnesses have also been present, and animal control officials have warned about the spread of canine illnesses.

    Mayor Ed Lee had given the protesters until 4 p.m. on Thursday to reduce the number of tents at the camp to no more than 100 from the 200 or so there this week. But there were still more than 100 tents there after the deadline.

    Protesters feared that they would be evicted overnight, but the camp was not raided.


    "And then came the rains, and with the rains the cholera, and in the end only 7,000 died of it in the encampment"

    Modified from Ernest Hemingway.


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  33. A little pepper spray might actually save some lives in a bad situation like that.....


    b

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  34. Obama’s move may have been picking low hanging fruit, but it came out of nowhere and appeared across the region. It was not Obama’s idea for sure but someone who is advising him is thinking and Obama was smart enough to sieze it.

    Obama comes back to Washington with a foreign policy win, dome nice videos for his reelection, and the Republican controlled House unable to come up with a deficit reduction plan.

    It comes at a time where China has been quite pleased with herself vs the US and EU currency.

    It is a pretty cheap way to give cover for an Afghanistan withdrawal. It sends a message to Karzai.

    I am hardly an Obama fan and I expect to have plenty to criticize in the near future but on this one I tip my hat. I won’t call it a slam dunk but it was a razzle-dazzle.

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  35. Anonymous said...
    A little pepper spray might actually save some lives in a bad situation like that…..


    Bob, the students were hunkered down on the side like garden tortoises. The cop had to bend down to get at their faces.

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  36. Anonymous Bob: A little pepper spray might actually save some lives in a bad situation like that.....

    “Give the park police more ammo.” (Newt Gingrich response to a reporter who asked what to do about the homeless a few days after the police shot a homeless man in front of the White House.)

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  37. I'm just trying to be ornery, now.


    b

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  38. Let's see though, deuce, you were the guy said you weren't opposed to 'a little water up the nose' in reference to waterboarding. Not that I disagree with you.

    :)


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  39. Occupy Wall Street protesters stay at $700-a-night hotel

    By CANDICE M. GIOVE



    EXCLUSIVE

    Hell no, we won’t go — unless we get goose down pillows.

    A key Occupy Wall Street leader and another protester who leads a double life as a businessman ditched fetid tents and church basements for rooms at a luxurious hotel that promises guests can “unleash [their] inner Gordon Gekko,” The Post has learned.

    The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to protesters in his swanky platinum-card room.




    “Tents are not for me,” he confessed, when confronted in the sleek black lobby of the Washington Street hotel where sources described him as a “repeat” guest.

    Spitzer, 24, an associate at financial-services giant Deloitte, which netted $29 billion in revenue last year, admitted he joined the protest at Zuccotti Park several times.

    “I’m staying here for work,” said Spitzer, dressed down in a company T-shirt and holding a backpack and his suitcase. “I do finance, but I support it still.”

    During his stay, hotel sources said, he and other ragtag revolutionaries he brought into the hotel lived like 1 percenters. He would order up a roll-out bed to accommodate guests, they said.

    “He’s here all the time,” a hotel source said. “We all see him at the protest.”


    The "Engels" wing of the Marx/Engels 99% protests.

    Behind every revolution there are well-heeled fools.....


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  40. .

    I can't complain about Obama sending 2500 troops to Australia.

    However, I would have called it a real success if somewhere in another article it was announced that we were also concurrently bringing 5000 troops back from Europe.

    .

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  41. .

    The "Engels" wing of the Marx/Engels 99% protests.

    Behind every revolution there are well-heeled fools.....


    Bob, eveytime I think you are coming out of it you post something like this.

    The article you have posted is meaningless. The guy says he's not willing to camp our but he does support the movement. Where do you get he is a fool?

    Since day one, those opposed to OWS have used the same tactics as were used against the Tea Party.

    There have been protest all over the country but except in Oakland which has a long history of protest (and of police abuse) there hasn't been much violence at least on the part of the protestors.

    Still, their opponents continue to call them terrorists, racist, anti-semitic, socialist, anti-capitalistic, anti-American troublemakers. Other than 'troublemakers' none of these things is true.

    And now, all those people who complained about OWS being dirty campers on a par with the homeless, now complain that most of them do have jobs and some even prefer to do their protesting from hotel suites.

    The hypocrisy is rampant.

    .

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  42. Quirk
    However, I would have called it a real success if somewhere in another article it was announced that we were also concurrently bringing 5000 troops back from Europe.


    You got it!

    Cold War U.S. troop strength in Europe, which peaked in 1962 at nearly 277,000 soldiers, remained well over 200,000 until the early 1990s. Under current plans, resisted by a military leadership increasingly resigned to the deep cuts coming in the years ahead, will cut European based troops from 42,000 today to 37,000 by 2015.

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  43. POPE CALLS FOR NEW WORLD ORDER:

    Pope Benedict today pinned responsibility for the worldwide recession squarely on greed and an amoral fascination with technological progress for its own sake.

    This must be tackled, he said, by the creation of a global political authority and financial order based not just on the search for ever greater profits, but on ethics and a sense of the common good.


    Sort of a super Eurozone, I guess.

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  44. Where do you get he is a fool?

    Cause this movement has no attainable goal, not even a goal that is agreed on, nor any real thought out means to whatever goal is in mind. I think it's more some kind of a return of the repressed than anything else and has little to do with the structure of society.

    Here we've got a constitution, we've got elections, they got their guy in the White House, we got due process, hell we've got everything any sane society can want to make rational change and they slogan up and sit in their own shit out in the mud.

    Wa,wa,wa,wa,wa.....give me a break Quirk. These bozos have no answer to anything at all.

    You've had liberal democrats, socialists, running Detroit for a long time and you've got 36,000 homeless.

    The problems aren't going to be fixed by tentng up and closing the stock exchange and the subway.

    I don't know what the answer is but I'm certain these folk don't have it.

    They are on a silly holiday, a self righteous lark.....

    b

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  45. All this criticism from a guy who is turning to the meditation party. You might find the robed people sitting quietly in a park, but they won't have taken it over for impossible demands and will be polite and not bother you.

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  46. Here Are Your Pals, Quirk, Naming Encampments After Cop Killers

    The great Ayers, who is still guilty of murder though as he says free as a bird, was 'teaching' at one of these upwellings of the unconscious.


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  47. I have no problem with up the nose waterboarding for terrorists. These are citizens demonstrating against a crooked government, crony capitalism and various other complaints which could include just about anything. We recently had a little “to-Do” about my less than stellar opinion on good old honest Abe. After reviewing the Pennsylvania fields of slaughter and blood, the ruinage and destruction of 50,000 American lives, he ended his pious cant with…" government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Now everyone thinks Lincoln was talking about the people, but Lincoln was a skillful lawyer. He didn’t care about the cost to the people, he cared that the government would endure and somehow God would bless the carnage of Gettysburg.

    There is no such thing as "government by the people for the people.” Who believes such nonsense. You wish it were so but it is not. Hundreds of thousands of comments on this blog have often discussed that government does as it wants, the people be damned. That attitude starts at the top and watching those cops it is obvious to me that they feel they are above the people. Their interests are to their employers.

    Lincoln also said …" long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom…”


    We did not need a new birth of freedom, but people are quite impressed with Lincoln’s address on the importance of maintaning a centralized federal government at any cost. If we take Lincoln at his word, he prognosticated about a new fredom, freedom reborn. Now what does that mean? To me freedom and the government could and should go together. Protect the borders, preserve the general welfare and give the individual citizens a right to be free, fre to act, free to get a job, free to express your opinion.

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  48. Still, their opponents continue to call them terrorists, racist, anti-semitic, socialist, anti-capitalistic, anti-American troublemakers. Other than 'troublemakers' none of these things is true.

    "Still a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest."

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  49. Long before the first tent went up in New York's Zuccotti Park, communist Angela Davis' "cop-watch" organization known as Critical Resistance was teaching activists to writhe and scream for the cameras while being handcuffed. The anarchist collective Ruckus Society was publishing how-to manuals with detailed instructions for invading buildings, disrupting mass transit and cargo movements, and maximizing chaos in the streets.

    Meanwhile, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild and the ACLU continued their tradition of defending such lawbreaking. These groups provide legal support to those arrested, so the protesters can be quickly back on the streets.

    While it has become a cliche to say so, every one of these organizations enjoys funding from hedge fund operator George Soros, who also donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to subsidize Ruckus Society workshops teaching rope skills and building-invasion techniques. Soros money also flows through his Open Society Institute into Critical Resistance and the Center for Constitutional Rights' so-called Movement Support Coalition.

    The police have always stood on the front lines against such groups, while the rest of us have the luxury of watching from a distance. But with the protesters showing no signs of going away for good, it is time for the law-abiding among us to go public with our support for local police as they protect life, liberty and property.


    A lot of us have seen it all before and no good is going to come from any of it.

    Really it's better to go the way of the Natural Law Party. For this world and the next.

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  50. There has been a lot of anti-semitic rhetoric in those parks, anon, the basis of it that the Jews are thought to control the banking system, etc.

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  51. I saw one of these 99% yoots interviewed.

    "I'm an anarchist."

    (Please, please don't make me explain how idiotic that is)

    "But since the anarchists don't have a political party, I joined the democrats."

    !!!!!

    This bright bulb, an anarchist, against any lawful order at all, joined up with the biggest government party there is!

    A decratico/anarchist!!!

    heh :)

    b

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  52. That should read a democratico/anarchist....


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  53. You have to see the next clip from Cairo. Next Post!

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  54. A law enforcement official who watched the clip called the use of force "fairly standard police procedure."
    Story: Occupy protests spread to college campuses

    The protest was held in support of the overall Occupy Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the University of California, Berkeley who were jabbed by police with batons on Nov. 9.
    Slideshow: Occupy Wall Street: A day of action (on this page)

    Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department's use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a "compliance tool" that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters.

    "When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them," Kelly said. "Bodies don't have handles on them."

    After reviewing the video, Kelly said he observed at least two cases of "active resistance" from protesters. In one instance, a woman pulls her arm back from an officer. In the second instance, a protester curls into a ball. Each of those actions could have warranted more force, including baton strikes and pressure-point techniques.

    "What I'm looking at is fairly standard police procedure," Kelly said.



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  55. Above quote from This article.


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  56. US GRANT:

    There was no time during the rebellion when I did not think, and often say, that the South was more to be benefited by its defeat than the North. The latter had the people, the institutions, and the territory to make a great and prosperous nation. The former was burdened with an institution abhorrent to all civilized people not brought up under it, and one which degraded labor, kept it in ignorance, and enervated the governing class. With the outside world at war with this institution, they could not have extended their territory. The labor of the country was not skilled, nor allowed to become so. The whites could not toil without becoming degraded, and those who did were denominated “poor white trash.” The system of labor would have soon exhausted the soil and left the people poor. The non-slaveholders would have left the country, and the small slaveholder must have sold out to his more fortunate neighbor. Soon the slaves would have outnumbered the masters, and, not being in sympathy with them, would have risen in their might and exterminated them. The war was expensive to the South as well as to the North, both in blood and treasure, but it was worth all it cost.

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  57. .

    You got it!


    Damn, I'm going to have to try this more often.

    .

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  58. .

    I don't know what the answer is but I'm certain these folk don't have it.


    Given your criteria, then I guess that makes you a fool too. The only difference you are sitting on your ass bitching while they are on the street.

    Which do you think the crony capitalists and the politicos will pay more attention to? Them or you?

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  59. .

    There has been a lot of anti-semitic rhetoric in those parks, anon, the basis of it that the Jews are thought to control the banking system, etc.

    Nonsense.

    You've been listening to the likes of Rush Limbaugh again.

    I saw one statement he made where he indicated the reference to the 1% versus 99% is well known anti-semitic code. Laughable.

    The only people I know who have every referenced an anti-semitic blog, writings, etc. here are the Jews and possibly you. You are such an Israeli-phile, you would go along with anything they put out.

    Anti-semitic? Good lord. That's like Chris Matthews calling the Tea Party racist because he didn't see enough blacks in the video clips.

    Two sides of the same coin.

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  60. I don't listen to Rush.

    I must have gotten it somewhere else, like, a legitimate news report, or something.



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  61. I remember, I got it from Newt.

    You can't argue with Newt.

    He's a professor.


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  62. .

    "I'm an anarchist."

    Surprise. There is an anarchist in one of the camps.

    One guy's an anarchist so they are all anarchists?

    The fact that the homeless find the camps welcoming, does that mean that OWS is a movement of homeless people? Well, not if you believe the reports that a good portion have jobs and homes.

    You are doing the same thing the left and the Dems did to the Tea Party.

    Stupid.

    .

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  63. U.S. Grant was smarter than the average General.

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  64. QUIRK!

    I realize there are all sorts of people in those stys.

    I mentioned the anarchist just because of the incongruity of being an anarchist and a member of the big government party at the same time.

    "A genius is one who can hold two opposing thoughts in the mind at the same time and not be disturbed."
    Scotty Fitzgerald

    A genius, or a nitwit.

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  65. U.S. Grant was drunker than the average General, too.


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  66. .

    I remember, I got it from Newt.

    You can't argue with Newt.

    He's a professor.



    I'm glad to see you kept your sense of humor.

    :)

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  67. The Civil War was a complete and avoidable disaster. I was a national calamity and a failure of politics. It was stirred and enflamed up by demagogues. It was a clash of business interests. Of course Grant is going to come up with a justification and say it was worth the cost.
    He just finished a war that killed 600,000 Americans and wounded at least that many again. Of course Lincoln’s address was short. He probably threw away the prepared speech when he realized the horror, made it short and fast and took his own devils back to Washington.

    We hate our current lot of politicians because we see them for the fools, knaves and scoundrels that they are, but let the fucks die, give them 75 years and erect a bronze statue or two or name a bridge or tunnel after them and they become gods. Believe in angels, it is less toxic.

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  68. First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden were on hand this afternoon at the Homestead-Miami Speedway to Grand Marshall NASCAR’s Sprint Cup finale, and to support Joining Forces, an initiative to hire and train veterans. When they were introduced to kick off the race, however, loud booing could be heard above the cheers. At an event with such an apparently unifying theme, the crowd’s reaction was an ugly reminder of how personally some have taken the political divisions in our country.

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  69. Deuce: He just finished a war that killed 600,000 Americans and wounded at least that many again.

    The Confederates proclaimed themselves aliens, and thereby renounced all the protections the Constitution of the United States. The CSA became no different from any other foreign entity who attacked a military installation of the United States, from Pearl Harbor in 1941 to the Pentagon in 2001.

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  70. The CSA was already in existence and Jeff D was already President of it when the attack began if I remember rightly.

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