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."

Friday, December 23, 2011

Is it too late to cancel the election?

I mean really, haven’t you ever gone to a baseball game that was so awful you made the sensible decision to leave early and beat the traffic. It is a simple economic trade of value, exchange a lousy game for a more enjoyable ride home.

The first vote has yet to be cast but it ain’t looking too good for the Republicans. At double time, it went from "anyone could beat Obama" to "amateur hour." Our choice is coming down to who is the least awful. The Republican Party seems to be most adept at making Obama look good. Obama can’t believe his luck. The party began for Obama when Republican, Jack Ryan, from the state of Illinois was forced to withdraw from the 2004 United States Senate race due to an alleged sex scandal involving his relationship with his ex-wife. It seems Ryan wanted to take his then wife to a sex club for the pleasure of watching another man bone her. Jump forward to the next Boehner, the Republican House Leader and you get my drift.




How Beatable Does He Look?

95 comments:

  1. The idea that "anyone can beat Obama" was never a valid one.

    While the idea that Jeb Bush could, just silly.

    Who'd have guessed the Texicans had elected and then reelected a fella to be their Governor that was so ...
    ... unready for prime time.

    Anyone that thought Herman Cain was going "all the way" ...
    What can I say?

    RomneyCare is never going to rally the evangelicals to the cause.

    While Newt has more baggage than PanAm, and is just as timely.

    Mr Santorum, couldn't win reelection in his own home State.

    Dr Paul, he's quirky and entertaining, but he'd never beat Obama.

    Mrs Bachmann, let's not even go there, it'd not be gentlemanly to list her deficiencies.

    Leaving us what ...
    Mr Bloomberg, on the America Elect ticket?

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  2. Joe Starbucks, telling me that Dr Paul is the only Republican with an electoral base, in Iowa.

    Bringing the troops home, from Europe, Korea, Japan and Southwest Asia, seems to be an ever more popular political position.


    Joy to the Whirled.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. LANCASTER, N.H. - Mitt Romney said yesterday he has no current plans to release his tax returns, and suggested that he would not shrink from using a controversial provision of the tax code that allows him to pay at just a 15 percent rate on income he continues to receive from Bain Capital.

    “We don’t have any current plans to release tax returns, but never say never,’’ he said yesterday after greeting voters at an Agway farm and hardware store here. “We’ll see what the future holds. We’ve released, of course, all of the information required by law,...

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  5. Gary Johnson, the most viable ideological opponent to the President?

    Doubt he can carry any State, with the exception of New Mexico...
    Even that would be a reach.

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  6. It beginning to look like the only way the elephants get close to the White House is if the circus comes to town.

    Oh, I forgot, that is there town.

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  7. Jobs It looks like Steve Jobs designed that Obama election graphic.

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  8. …"watching another man bone her. Jump forward to the next Boehner,”…

    I missed your double boner :)

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  9. Didn't I say Obama was going to win.

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  10. .

    There are dozens of reasons Obama should lose in 2012.

    There are at least seven big reasons why he shouldn't.

    I will probably vote NLP just so I can continue to piss and moan about both major parties being populated by dicks.

    .

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  11. .

    ...How often does this happen?


    Not too often.

    You're link doesn't seem to work.

    .

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  12. DR: Bringing the troops home, from Europe, Korea, Japan and Southwest Asia, seems to be an ever more popular political position.

    If Obama brought the troops home from Asscrackistan I would vote for him.

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  13. .

    The polls are still meaningless this far out, especially with no GOP candidate selected yet; however, the GOP can't be happy with the rise in Obama's numbers over just the past week.

    From RealClearPolitics

    .

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  14. The men whose defeat gave us Bill Clinton (Bush '92, Dole '96) now want to give us Mitt Romney.

    I report; you decide.

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  15. reporting from deep inside the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest



    heh


    b

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  16. Them reporters are good these days, one must admit.


    b

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  17. An improving economy, or a big rally around the Chief war, or both, might give us Obama again. As it is he's gonna lose.

    b

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  18. Congress just passed a crap tax bill they are going to "fix"... after their vacation. This is how Democrats govern.

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  19. Hopefully Allen and WiO will read the following:

    I Shall Not Hate: A small book that should change Harper’s foreign policy


    gerald caplan

    Globe and Mail Update

    Published Friday, Dec. 23, 2011 2:00AM EST

    Exactly three years ago, Israel attacked the Gaza Strip. It is of course quite impossible to write anything about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without being accused of bias by someone, and the Gaza war is no exception. But here are what I believe to be agreed facts.

    Israel stated the attack was to stop rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel. Since 2001, thousands had been launched resulting in 28 Israeli deaths and hundreds of casualties. The Gazans responsible said they were justified in attacking Israel as an occupying power.

    During the three-week operation, 1,200 to 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. Of the 13, three were civilians and ten soldiers. Of the Palestinians, about 700 were civilians, 250 of them younger than 16. All fighting occurred on Gaza soil. Four thousand homes were destroyed by the Israeli Defence Forces. Tens of thousands were left homeless. Many observers, including Israeli human rights groups and a UN commission, found the Israelis guilty of using seriously disproportionate force.

    Despite these findings, Stephen Harper’s government offered its usual unconditional support for Israel and showed its usual indifference to the plight of the Palestinian people of Gaza.

    Among the Palestinian civilian dead were three daughters, aged 21, 15 and 14, and a 17-year old niece, of Izzeldin Abuelaish. Dr. Abuelaish was born and raised in a refugee camp in the tiny, squalid Gaza strip and Gaza remained his home until last year. He now holds a position at the University of Toronto’s school of public health.

    “Thick, unrelenting oppression touches every single aspect of life in Gaza,” he writes in his remarkable little book, I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey. It is “a human time bomb in the process of imploding. … Gazans are trapped. ... The frustration and humiliation were a constant burden.” As in any description of Israel-Palestine relations, always that key word reappears: humiliation, the relentless humiliation of powerless Palestinians by Israelis, utterly disconnected to any legitimate Israeli security concerns.

    Yet despite all the obvious obstacles, Dr. Abuelaish became a medical doctor specializing in obstetrics and gynecology and infertility. He also became the rare Palestinian doctor who worked in both Israel and the Gaza Strip and who had many good friends in Israel, mostly doctors. Nevertheless, even for him every single trip between Gaza and Israel was another protracted experience in humiliation at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

    On Sept. 16, 2008, Dr. Abuelaish’s wife, mother of his eight children, died from acute leukemia after a very brief illness. He was on a working trip in Europe and the story of his frantic attempt to return is one long Israeli-imposed logistical nightmare. At last he arrived at her bedside, in an Israeli hospital, in time to be with her when she died. The children were not allowed to leave Gaza to be with their mother at the end.

    On Dec. 27, the Gaza war began with an air strike by Israel. Dr. Abuelaish and his family were all in Gaza. What followed, he writes, was Israel’s “scorched earth policy” and the “wanton destruction” of the Gaza Strip. He derides “the blind stupidity of attacking the citizens of Gaza and claiming the rampage was aimed at stopping the rockets being fired into Israel.”

    On Jan. 16, exactly four months after his wife died, two Israeli rockets were fired into his daughters’ bedroom in the home where his extended family were attempting to hide from the Israeli bombardment:

    There was a monstrous explosion.… Suddenly it was pitch dark, something was sucking the air out of me, I was suffocating. … I realized the explosion had come from my daughters’ bedroom. … The sight in front of me was something I hope no other person ever has to witness – the body parts of my daughters and niece.

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  20. Dr. Abuelaish then describes, in clinical, detached yet unbearable detail, the precise horror of the scene before him.

    After a period of lies and denials by Israelis about what happened, he reports that the Israeli government finally took responsibility “for wrongly targeting my home and killing my daughters, but it has never apologized and no official has ever said ‘I’m sorry’.”

    The nightmare was not yet over. After his daughters and niece were killed, Dr. Abuelaish travelled to Israel where other family members who had been wounded in the same attack were in hospital. But the Israelis would not allow him back in Gaza in time for the burial of his children. Nor were his daughters allowed to be buried beside their mother because, he writes, “Israeli soldiers said no one was allowed to go into that area.”

    Here is where Dr. Abuelaish’s story moves to dimensions beyond the extraordinary. In an introduction to the book, Marek Glazerman, a leading Israeli doctor, articulates what all must wonder: Izzeldin Abuelaish seems too good to be true. “Having lost his daughters, how can he still speak about love and peace and keep his Israeli friends?” Yet this is exactly what he does:

    Let my daughters be the last to die. … If I could know that my daughters were the last sacrifice on the road to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, then I would accept their loss. … What we need is respect [for each other] and the inner strength to refuse to hate. Then we will achieve peace.

    As a Muslim with deep faith, I fully believe what is from God is for good and what is bad is man-made and can be prevented or changed. … The Quran taught me … to forgive those who create the man-made injustices that cause human suffering. This does not mean that we do not act to correct those injustices.

    Let there be no misunderstanding here. Dr. Abuelaish has no illusions about Hamas, its brutality, corruption and authoritarianism. But he also shows that for the Palestinian people – his people – the chief obstacle to peace and dignity is Israel. He repeatedly and harshly criticizes Israel for its treatment of Palestinians and presents evidence from many credible sources, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, documenting the miserable conditions of life in Gaza, a virtual prison controlled by Israel.

    Yet even so, he forgives Israel for its trespasses, even – unbelievably enough – for the deaths of his family and his lifetime of humiliation at their hands.

    It seems to me that no normal person can read this book without being both moved and influenced. It’s very short and can be read in a couple of holiday afternoons. If Stephen Harper, John Baird and Jason Kenney were to do so, with an open mind, it’s inconceivable that they would not review their Middle East policy with a new and balanced perspective.

    After all, at this time of year we’re permitted to dream of miracles.

    Epilogue

    An excerpt from a poem by Anael Harpaz, an Israeli woman who met Dr. Abuelaish’s daughters at a peace camp. It is dedicated to his eldest, Bessan, dead at age 21.

    I feel I have been betrayed by God

    By my country

    By the cruelty of humanity

    By the warmongers

    By those who think violence is the solution

    Bessan forgive me

    For not being able to save you

    From my own people

    Forgive me for giving you hope

    That peace is possible

    And then taking that dream from you

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  21. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/gerald-caplan/i-shall-not-hate-a-small-book-that-should-change-harpers-foreign-policy/article2281146/

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  22. Obama may lose Idaho, but he never had it.

    Whether he loses Ohio, well, that's still a question mark.

    It is doubtful any of the GOP contenders will beat him, there.
    After the campaign is said and done.

    As Q relates, the polls this far out are hard to project forward, but the President has many advantages that are evident to those that choose to see them.

    The power of the Presidency and a billion dollars, both, will give Mr Obama an edge over any of the dwarfs.

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  23. The Pubs are just crossways with the American Public on almost all important issues.

    They rail against Renewable Energy, the people approve of "clean" energy.

    They are seen as the "War" Party. The people are sick of "Empire," and wars.

    The Republicans promise to Repeal Healthcare Reform. The people Want something done with healthcare.

    The Republicans want to Preserve Tax Cuts for the Wealthy; the people support raising taxes on "millionaires."

    And, worst of all, the Pubs just appear to be jerks.

    This is going to be a long, hot summer. Gas prices are going back up, and wages aren't. Thus, the Pubs could still win in November.

    But, right now I wouldn't want to bet on it.

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  24. How can we possibly believe someone who was there in Gaza, ash, when the story they tell is diametrically opposed to that told by those in Atlanta and Cleveland?

    There are no civilians in Gaza, don't you know?

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  25. That article reinforces my contention that the 'Israelis made their bed and now they've got to sleep in it'.

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  26. I was thinking that this is the bed the Palestinians made for themselves.

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  27. The Palestinians haven't done themselves any favors.

    I'm sick of both sides. I think most people are.

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  28. Ash, It is disgusting and criminal what is happening in some parts of Israel, but not unusual.

    There is nothing special about anyone, any religion or any tribe. Those that think they are special, are at best delusional or something far worse. The enablers of such a system share responsibility for not speaking out against gross injustice and criminal behavior, behavior not unusual amongst folk that believe they are more special than their neighbors. .

    Fortunately there are some very honest Israelis, decent human beings that are appalled at what is happening in parts of Israel and they are nothing like the apologists and real racists who justify atrocity.

    Here is an example:

    This is Israel? Not the one I love
    By Jonathan Freedland, November 7, 2011,

    THE JEWISH CHRONICLE ONLINE


    All credit to Israel's friends in the British Jewish community: they are nothing if not energetic. A matter of months after they gathered for BICOM's We Believe in Israel rally in London, they are now erecting a Big Tent for Israel in Manchester. According to an ad for a spin-off event, once again the focus will be the "delegitimisation of Israel".
    I applaud the tirelessness of these campaigners and they are certainly right to take on those who would deny the legitimacy of Israel's existence. But I wonder if they realise that the fight for the Israel they love may also need to take other forms - and not just against the obvious enemies.
    Start with the place I visited a week ago: Hebron. What I saw there would shock even those who think they know all there is to know about Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians. The centre of a city of 175,000 people has been utterly emptied, its streets deserted, its shops vacant, thanks to a policy the Israeli army calls "sterilisation" - ensuring the area is clear and safe for Hebron's 800 Jewish settlers.
    In what was once a throbbing market district, a place teeming with life, successive restrictions have been placed on Hebron's Palestinian population. A map shows purple roads where no Palestinian cars are permitted, yellow roads where no Palestinian shops are allowed to open and red roads where no Palestinians are even allowed to walk.


    {…}

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  29. {…}

    What I saw would shock those who think they know it all

    I watched an old man, a bag of cement on his shoulder, ascend a steep bypass staircase because his feet were forbidden from going any further along the road. Those unlucky enough to live on a red road have had their front doors sealed: they have to leave their own houses by a back door and climb out via a ladder.
    All this has made life so impossible that an estimated 42 per cent of the families who once lived in this central part of town have now moved out.
    What they have left behind is eerie. Israelis can walk freely down streets that are barred to Palestinians, surveying the shuttered shops that have been covered with some of the most vile graffiti I have ever seen. The familiar "Death to the Arabs" is there, but so is "You have Arabs, you have mice," the words covered up, but still legible. Perhaps most shocking are the Stars of David, daubed on Arab shopfronts and doors. To see that cherished symbol used to spit in the eye of a population hounded out of their homes is chilling.
    All right, some will say, Hebron is an extreme case. Not according to my guide, Yehuda Shaul, a kippah-wearing army reservist who served two long tours in Hebron and who now works with the Breaking the Silence movement which, via the new Yachad organisation, has shown several Anglo-Jewish Zionist youth leaders and synagogue activists around the city. Shaul believes that Hebron simply reveals the reality of the occupation in an intense, distilled form.
    But let's say Hebron is too much to stomach. Contemplate instead the bill that would formally make Israeli democracy subordinate to the state's Jewish identity, altering the nation's Basic Law and elevating, in the words of the Knesset's legal adviser, Eyal Yinon, "values such as national strength, honour and Jewish identity, even at the expense of values...such as freedom of expression, the right to equality and minority rights".
    It would be consoling if this proposal to turn Israel into a kind of Jewish Prussia - high on nationalism with democracy an afterthought - had at least come from the far right, with no prospects of success. But behind it is Avi Dichter of the supposedly centrist Kadima party.
    Or visit the ultra-orthodox Mea She'arim neighbourhood of Jerusalem, where the streets themselves now have a mechitza, men walking on one side of the barrier, women the other. That is until they get on a bus, where the women are required to sit at the back, leaving the seats at the front for the men.
    The point is that if the Israel we love is the Jewish, democratic state established in the Declaration of Independence then we need to fight for it. It is under threat and not only from the usual suspects, the hostile media and the "delegitimisers". It is also threatened from within, by Israel's own actions. Put simply, if we are true friends of Israel we would take on those who would transform the country into a place most pro-Israeli Jews in Britain would not even recognise.

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  30. The Sunni v Shia conflict is on a high simmer, in Syria and low simmer in Iraq.

    The Muslim Brotherhood proving to be popular in Egypt, while the US funded firewall continues to hold, there.

    The MB forces in Syria striking with car bombs in Damascus, killing 40.
    In Iraq those same Sunni forces are attempting to destabilize the US backed government, with bombs, killing 72 on Thursday.

    In Afpakistan the US admits that the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers occurred when the Americans failed to share crucial information about their future military movements because its commanders didn’t trust their Pakistani counterparts.

    The Pakistani Generals do say that they will not topple the civilian government by staging another coup de etat.

    Meanwhile there are those that fret that an Islamic Army is marching towards our freedoms and liberties, with the idea that we will be forced to submit to Allah.

    Those that fret, though, cannot provide satellite imagery of that imaginary Army.

    While all of the reports seem to indicate that the Islamoids are involved in intramural fratricide.

    Sanctions and Sabotage, doing their jobs, sufficiently.

    Joy to the Whirled.

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  31. But know in your heart, Deuce, Israel is not a Jim Crow society.
    Strictly enforced by the Europeon colonists.

    The voice of Atlanta has told us so.

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  32. I expect to hear that Jonathan Freedland is a loathsome self-hating jew that just doesn’t get it.

    Don’t believe your lyin eyes.

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  33. I can honestly say that most of my personal and business experience with Israelis (not transplanted orthodox jewish American fanatics) has been positive and enjoyable as has been my experience with Iraqi Christians, Turks, Egyptians and Palestinian professionals.

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  34. I try to make it a point not to have stupid friends,

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  35. Painting those emblems on folks doors, that certainly reminds me of pictures I've seen of the treatment of Jews, in Hitler's Germany.

    There is, seemingly, some equivalence of Israel in 2011 and Germany of 1938.

    The tactics are the same, will there be equality of outcome?

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  36. The Religious will be the death of us all.

    If we let'em.

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  37. The Elephant Bar seems to have developed a peculiar fascination with Israel.

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  38. Hell, Jubal, they're the most potent force in American Politics.

    And, with the ascending drumbeat for War in Iran, you've almost got to think about'em.

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  39. Certainly, Jubal, as Israeli actions are integral to US foreign policy.

    That the US basically ignored the advancement of bigotry in Germany of 1938, cause for a "Lesson Learned".

    That and the disproportionate amount of funding the US supplies to Israel makes it a ward of our government.

    Israel's actions against the Palestinians, ours by proxy.

    To state otherwise, disingenuous.

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  40. Come on Jubal, u too can receive your own Palestinian keffiyeh with an embroidered EB logo.

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  41. The US government should cut all financial support for Israel, until it reverses course.

    They are following a totalitarian path, to disaster.

    If we cannot convince them to change course, we should get off the bus.

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  42. You've got the two top Republican candidates saying they would bomb Iran to keep it from completing a nuke, and the Secretary of Defense, basically, saying the same thing.

    Many of the readers of this blog are Veterans, and quite a few of us think a War with Iran would be a horrible thing for America.

    On the other hand, the Israeli government seems to be the ones pounding the wardrums the loudest.

    That almost has to invite "scrutiny," now?

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  43. "That almost has to invite scrutiny, NO?"

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  44. I can speak for me. Several recent events caught my attention:

    The first was when Bibi Netanyahu spoke to the Potomac Politburo and our rulers and masters were slavishly jumping to their feet twenty times or so. It was a sight as pathetic as the old Supreme Soviet.

    Then there was Romney, wishing to lead a country of 315 million, expressing the necessity for his very first flight as a future president to be to Israel.

    The entire American political system is smothered and servile to Israel?

    Why is that? How could the US political system be so corrupted and intimidated?

    There is also the constant blather about the Iranian existential threat to the modern Troy, a nuclear state armed to the teeth, trying to get the US to do her bidding to ensure that Israel has the nuclear monopoly in the Middle East.

    The US had that monopoly for five years and has responsibly and sensibly adjusted to changed events as other powers, including hostile states, China, USSR and North Korea became nuclear powers

    The US owes Israel nothing. Israel is a strategic liability of the first order and has become dangerous to American security by requiring things from our politicians that we never granted to ourselves.

    Curtis LeMay wanted to make a pre-emptive strike against the Soviets. That was wisely rejected. Bibi Netanyahu should be rejected as well as Israel has no value to US political or strategic interests. The slums of Mexico City , with a greater population than Israel is far more important to US interests than the bizarre religious military state of Israel.

    US law prohibits the imposition of any religion in secular American society but our national interests are tied to a group that wants to do it to an entire country?

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  45. In Brazil’s latest power auction earlier this week — a process in which developers bid for contracts with the country’s national electricity agency — more than 80% of contracts were for wind projects. This follows an auction in August that brought in power contracts for wind that were below the bidding price of natural gas plants.

    The National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL) signed contracts with 42 new power plants worth 1,200 MW — including 39 wind projects totaling more than 976 MW that agreed to an average selling price of US $55 per megawatt-hour, or 5.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. That’s a 1.2 cent per kWh decrease over the average selling price in the August auction.

    A combination of resources and policy have helped grow Brazil’s domestic wind market by more than 50% since 2009. With an import on foreign wind turbines, major manufacturers have set up operations within the country that have helped bring down the cost of developing projects.


    Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/14Yl9)

    Gettin' Windy in Brazil

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  46. Bluntly, I want Israel out of our domestic politics and international affairs. I want the US out of israeli domestic politics and international affairs.

    They have their problems. We have ours.

    You dig it?

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  47. Come on Rufus, stop exaggerating the threat. Haven't u learned from the expertise at the bar -
    "The Iranians cannot project a military threat beyond its own borders."

    Forgot Jubal, upon your 100th Israel post, some of the regulars will send you your very own commemorative Hamas charter or a hand sculpted soap statue of Arafat.

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  48. If Iran can shut down the Straits of Hormuz, for just a couple of months, we could easily be looking at Great Depression II.

    And, I think they could do it.

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  49. Well, rufus, those Straits do constitute their border.

    They do not have to project force beyond it, to influence whirled markets.

    Even the Israeli Navy could not defend itself from Chinese designed missiles.

    The INS Hanit (translated as Spear) is a Sa'ar 5-class corvette of the Israeli Navy that was built by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in 1994. On July 14, 2006, during the 2006 Lebanon War, it suffered damage after being attacked by Hezbollah, apparently by a C-802 anti-ship missile.

    Wonder how oil tankers would do?

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  50. Just the threat of blowing up ships in the Strait would induce the insurance companies to withdraw coverage effectively closing the Strait without a shot being fired.

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  51. The Israeli ship possessed sophisticated multi-layered missile defense capability: a Phalanx CIWS gun, Barak anti-missile missiles, Chaff and ECM. These should have been able to prevent an anti-ship missile attack such as the YJ-82


    There is not an oil tanker in the whirled with such defensive capabilities.

    The YJ-82 can be fired from the bed of a pickup truck.

    Those are realities.

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  52. If the Iranians Really Wanted to shut down the Straits, the only way to open them back up would be to invade Iran, and Physically control the entire 600 mile coastline of the Gulf.

    This is a nation with close to 80 Million people, and a larger than average YOUNG Demographic.

    They could put a 15 Million Man Army in the Field in a heartbeat.

    We could go in and take the shoreline fairly quickly (a couple of months,) but we'd have to, at the same time, Defeat the Rest of the country, AND OCCUPY IT.

    2 1/2 Times the size of Texas, and 80 Million People fighting you in a guerilla war.

    This would be a ball-buster.

    This would be Insanity.

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  53. The Jews got my Idaho delegation by the balls. Yup, you heard it here first.

    Doesn't have anything to do with the fact the folks here generally support Israel.

    It's the Jewish lobby, fer shur.

    b

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  54. No, it has to do with ignorant fundamentalist hicks in Ideehoe, readin' their Bibles, and dreaming of the Rapture.

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  55. And the Mormons, too, that's it, I forgot the damnable Mormons. Them and the Jews is all in it all together. The Scandinavian farmers ain't got no say.

    It stinks.

    b

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  56. The folks in Idaho support the Jim Crow policies in Israel?

    They support the painting of religious emblems on folk's front doors?

    That's good to know.

    Or could it be that those folk in Idaho are ignorant of the realities in Israel?

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  57. We are as endangered by our Fundamentalists as the Israelis are by theirs.

    Or, the Arabs are by theirs.

    If ALL Preachers, of ALL stripes were run out of town, tomorrow, the world would become a much more peaceful place by tomorrow night.

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  58. .

    The US owes Israel nothing. Israel is a strategic liability of the first order and has become dangerous to American security by requiring things from our politicians that we never granted to ourselves.


    Then why not blame the politicians?

    Israel does what Israel does, one assumes for what they think is in Israel's interest.

    The politicians that have reasons for supporting Israel currently have little reason not to. Among the US public, possibly an ill-informed public, there is no ground-swell anti-Israeli sentiment, especially when the question is raised as a choice between the Israeli's and the Palestineans.

    Support for Israel among the politicians is based upon a number of things. First there is patronage and I don't just mean campaign contributions. More, the Israeli's are favored co-dependants of the neocons who were not kicked-out when the younger Bush left. Israel is an excuse for promoting their expansionist philosophy. And don't kid yourself that the neocons are all on the GOP side. The Dems also covet the Jewish vote though it is small.

    I thought their would be some relief from the constant drumbeat about Israel when Fric and Frak left. Evidently not.

    .

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  59. Good God, I see the crapper was up at 2:30 a.m. this morning blabbling along.

    Talk about dedication.

    b

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  60. Yep, that football game was so awful, I went to bed early.

    Early to bed, early to rise.
    Makes a man ...
    Healthy, Wealthy, Wise.

    Guilty on all counts.

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  61. The politicians here just swoon over the Jewish vote --

    IDAHO, state in northwestern U.S. Idaho had fewer Jews than any other state; in 2005 the estimated population of Idaho was 1,347,000 and the Jewish population was 1,000.

    Jewish Virtual Library

    b

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  62. If only those ignorant bible thumping Hillbillies were as enlightened as you Rufus; they could spend day and night at the bar, living life to it's fullest.

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  63. About all I can say about that is:

    "I'm not dead, yet."

    :)

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  64. 1,347,000 peoples in Idaho

    When I was growing up it was around 250 or 300,000 peoples.

    It's not the same place it was.

    O my lost world....

    b

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  65. :) I lived a pretty "Full" life, Bob. I'm just all tuckered out.

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  66. I guess it wasn't "completely" full though.

    I did limit my exposure to Bible-thumpers.

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  67. That anon wasn't me. I'm anon b Ruf.


    b

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  68. I'll bet I've had less exposure to Bible thumpers than you, Ruf.

    This part of the US really isn't noted for them.

    It wasn't from the thumpers I got my outlook.

    A good number of the thumpers really ought to be jailed, in my view.

    It's just hard to convict them of much, when they talk folks out of their money voluntarily.

    It is a real art, an American practical art.


    b

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  70. Speaking of "bars:" I get, marginally, less pussy at this one, but the bar stool rent is way more affordable.

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  72. Speakin' of which, I gotta go spread the wealth a bit. later.

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  73. Wasn't as funny as I thought it'd be.

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  74. Wow!

    You guys just illustrated my point.

    Like I said. Appears to be fascination bordering on obsession.

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  75. It also appears that Obama's ears were photoshopped (they look smaller) for the Christmas card.

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  76. I have experienced fascination bordering on obsession, but not for a politician, money or philosophy.

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  78. .

    So it is said, yet...

    No doubt our political system is corrupt. No doubt people and groups take advantage of that corruption for their own ends. But when it comes down to it only people who are either corrupt or corruptible can be further corrupted.

    It has been said many times, the people of OZ are all corrupt even if some didn't start that way. Worse they act like spoiled children when they don't get their way.

    It's similar to the way ALL the parties in the ME act. But in the end we would be wiser to concentrate on our own scum. It won't be Israel or the Arabs that drag us into war. It will be the pricks in D.C.

    .

    .

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  79. .

    As for Iran causing trouble in the Straits, that would only be likely if they were attacked and possibly not then.

    Iran has few friends or customers. Middle East oil currently is primarily shipped to those who have shown her support (with possible exception of Russia). Why would she want to alienate what few friends she has left?

    Were she to attack the straights she would be left alone. Those who think her size and population would protect her should remember that attacking the straights would not just turn the US against her, it would turn the world against her.

    .

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  80. But when it comes down to it only people who are either corrupt or corruptible can be further corrupted.


    HHMMhhmmmm....this has the smell of profundity...


    hhmmm..


    hmm.



    b

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  81. hmmm...are the pure corruptible?

    Or only the perfectly pure, or is there a difference?

    Are there any that are perfectly good in our race?

    Does corruption involve thoughts as well as actions?

    Was my father correct when he said, "There's a little larceny in everybody."?

    Is Quirk corruptible?

    Am I?

    Are you?





    b

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  82. Roseanne Barr Worth $80 Million but Wants Anyone With More Than $100 Million Beheaded

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  83. She better not accrete that last twenty large.

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  84. Occupy North Pole is in full swing, elves are on strike, Santa has a skeletal staff and lot of children will not even get coal this year.

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  85. .


    Is Quirk corruptible?


    Not easily so. Only at the right price.

    But then, I wasn't elected to represent you in OZ.

    .

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  86. Russian satellite crashes into Siberia shortly after launch - Putin Blames the US

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  87. General Election: Romney vs. Obama

    Rasmussen Reports

    Obama 44, Romney 41

    Obama +3

    ---

    So, if the election were held today, Romney would win.

    Most people aren't Dicks like Quirk, and will vote for the lesser of two evils, rather than submitting the nation to further damage and risk of destruction.

    For now, many of the Gingrich, Perry, Bachman, etc voters act like if they can't have their guy or gal, they won't vote for Romney...

    ...but will when it is
    Feces in the Fan Time.

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  88. You are projecting your Dickhood onto others, Quirk.

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  89. "Roseanne Barr Worth $80 Million but Wants Anyone With More Than $100 Million Beheaded"

    I want anyone worth 80 million who weighs more than 200lbs and wants people beheaded to be canned as
    Cat Food.

    Save the Earth!

    Recycle!

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