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."
Obama can’t believe his luck.
ReplyDeleteThat wasn't bad, not bad at all.
ReplyDelete"The food was a lot better in here when you were governor."
heheheh
b
Saturday Night Life could not improve on McCain’s performance.
ReplyDeleteHe had to be drunk.
ReplyDeleteRomney looked like he just met the Manchurian Candidate.
ReplyDeleteHe did.
ReplyDeleteThere would have been a lot more applause if Sarah Palin had made the speech and the endorsement. I wonder what she is going to do.
ReplyDeleteb
Sarah, the politico that endorsed Doctor Paul's anti-war stance?
ReplyDeleteWhile most of the fellas, here at the Bar, thought "Maverick" would make a "Great" President.
ReplyDeleteWhat a difference for years makes.
:-)
06/06/11
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin sounded more like Ron Paul than Ronald Reagan regarding American foreign policy, when Chris Wallace asked her about Afghanistan on Fox News Sunday.
Palin's response:
Three wars that we're going engaged in today and our country nearing bankruptcy, we have to rethink everything that we're doing with foreign aid and with foreign intervention. We have got to make sure that it' America's interest first being met in each one of these nations. And if there is an opportunity to, say, in Afghanistan with General Petraeus' guidance, to back out a little bit perhaps sooner than we have because of these conditions that have changed most recently, then I would support that.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/06/sarah-palin-sounds-anti-war-note-fox-news-sunday#ixzz1iZnC7DMg
7June2011
ReplyDelete“If President Karzai continues with these public ultimatums, we must consider our options about the immediate future of U.S. troops in his country. If he actually follows through on his claim that Afghan forces will take ‘unilateral action’ against NATO forces which conduct such air raids to take out terrorists and terrorist positions, that should result in the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the suspension of U.S. aid.”
Who was the GOP hawk shaking the fist at Karzai? Sarah Palin.
John McCain supplied her with a couple of chickenhawk, neocon advisors that she kept on until around this time, maybe a bit later, last year.
ReplyDeleteIt was right after she fired them, and hired a non-interventionist-type guy that the hits really started on her.
The Pubs did Not take the change of direction well.
The establishment, left and right, really want a war with Iran. I'll be damned if I can figure out why; but they do.
ReplyDeleteTodd Palin, he was a member of the Alaska secessionists for seven years, according to "Maverick's" chief strategist. Sarah wanted to say Todd made a clerical error, when he checked the Alaska Independence Party as his party affiliation.
ReplyDeleteSchmidt put the matter to rest once and for all with a longer response to everyone in the e-mail chain.
"Secession," he wrote. "It is their entire reason for existence.
A cursory examination of the website shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site.
Our records indicate that Tood was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect then we need to understand the discrepancy.
The statement you are suggesting be released would be inaccurate.
The inaccuracy would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews.
If you are asked about it you should smile and say many alaskans who love their country join the party because it speaks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country.
We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to address this."
The Palin family, secessionist supporters in and for Alaska.
For the rest of US, the Palin's tried to cover it up, but Team "Maverick" said no.
ReplyDelete... while there is no evidence that Sarah Palin herself was ever a registered member of the party, Todd's affiliation is well-documented.
You can read the rest of the very interesting transcript which discusses how AIP members need to become Republicans so they can become electable, and effectively infiltrate state government.
I can't remember one person here who was really gung ho crazy about McCain.
ReplyDeleteBut, most, even Rufus, voted for him in order to avoid Obama.
People like me voted for him to be able to vote for Sarah.
b
Palin – Republican Party Infiltrator?
ReplyDeleteWell, they let the "Occupation Forces" vote, in Alaska.
So…the most blaring disparity in that vote was the definition of an eligible voter. Among those qualified to cast a ballot were 41,000 American soldiers and 36,000 dependants. Now, to the native population of Alaska, to me, these were occupation troops! And they were made eligible and, in fact encouraged to vote. There were educational meetings held on the military bases. I can’t imagine them telling anyone that anything but that statehood would be very good for the military – in fact they still have 6, 7 big bases and numerous smaller holdings in the state. Statehood would be good for the military. Now can you imagine the international uproar if American troops had all went and got their purple fingers in Iraq?
McCrazy would have been worse.
ReplyDeleteWhat he is saying, now, confirms it.
The Palins were just small town politicians. It just so happened that Sarah did a pretty good job governing at the State level.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a difficult state to govern. Small population with Oil money coming out their ears, but she had a cute ass, nice legs, and governed, basically, as a populist democrat.
She was seen as uncorrupted, and hard-working, and her family "optics" were perfect for Alaska.
Everyone is for secession nowadays. Deuce has talked favorably of secession, if I recall. I'm not exactly against, might work with Alaska and Hawaii. Crapper's SuperHero Dr. Demento talks it up occasionally, so surely the crapper has no objection. In his heart of hearts I wouldn't be surprised if the Mormon in Romney might like to see a sovereign Utah.
ReplyDeleteSecession, all true Americans must be for it!
b
Oh, that's accurate, rufus.
ReplyDeleteShe is also more of a Paulista than boobie would want to admit.
Right down to the secessionist tendencies.
So, boobie, that succession thing, it is no longer a "knock" on Doctor Paul?
ReplyDeleteNow it's a "good thing"
"Everyone" does it.
That's hypocritical thinking, boobie.
It's late, I'm going to bed.
ReplyDeleteHere, read how Obama Seeks Ties With Muslim Brotherhood
then tell me again how Obama is better than McCain.
b
While
ReplyDelete"Failure to Report"
is much worse than
"Jury Nullification"
Failure to Report circumvents the entire legal system, jury nullification is twelve citizens making an informed decision, within the confines of the legal system.
The very reason to sit the jury, in the first place. To obtain justice, even when it is not embodied in the "Law".
Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran!
ReplyDeleteMcCain would still have US in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteI'll vote this time according to my core beliefs. My overriding core belief this time around is that it's time to call it a day in the Middleeast, and Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteFirst, and foremost, I will vote for the Pub, Dem, Ind, or dirty, mangy dog that promises to get us out of Afghanistan, and to leave Iran, and the rest be.
ReplyDeleteMcCain, who famously said in his campaign for the presidency in 2008 that the Iraq war could go on for more than 100 years, said in Thursday's interview that the withdrawal from Iraq was one campaign promise the administration had, regrettably, managed to keep.
McCain would have been a disaster.
ReplyDeleteRight now, it's looking like I'll be voting 3rd party. Unless I can see Obama taking positive steps to keep us out of a shooting war with Iran.
It's almost a dead certainty I won't be voting Pub. Their current core beliefs (anti healthcare, anti renewable energy, pro endless war) are just too diametrically opposed to my own.
McCain: 100 years in Iraq "would be fine with me"
ReplyDeleteGermany, Japan, Korea, too.
A truly disastrous policy prescription to continue on in Iraq, for a century of intervention and occupation.
A poor policy prescription to maintain our foreign military footprint, as we still do, under Mr Obama.
Run Doc Run!
Gary Johnson, rufus.
ReplyDeleteIn your heart ...
... you know he's "right".
boobie is just now "going to bed"
ReplyDeleteNot early to bed ...
Early to rise?
Little wonder, then, he is not wise.
I just got up, but I've got to get my sleep hours straightened out. This is nuts.
ReplyDeleteHe's anti "war on drugs." I can roll with that.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, I'll vote for a mangy, yellow dog before I'll vote for another "endless warrior."
Well, why would the US not engage the Muslim Brotherhood, when they may well control Egypt within a couple of years. Especially if our firewall in the Egyptian military does not hold.
ReplyDeleteAnd many of the commentators, here at the EB, want to see the Muslim Brotherhood depose the Alawai regime of the dentist and President for Life, Bashar al-Assad, from control of Syria. Moving that country firmly into the Wahhabi Bloc of nations.
Who wants to install the Wahhabi in Syria, but those same folk that call for a "War on Islam".
When the Assad regime is the Wahhabis greatest enemy in the Levant. Racking up the biggest body count of radical Islamoids in the entire region, over forty years of anti-Islamoid policies, and the thanks they've gotten...
We must move to depose them, quickly?
An ex-FBI buddy of mine, who had an IQ of about 199 (and was as dumb as a box of rocks) said, "they all look the same to me."
ReplyDeleteWe're not nearly smart enough to understand the Middleeast/NA/Levant.
Wasn’t The Revolutionary War a secession? Palin said she needed a break, some time to think. She had a good close up look at the political system and the puppet masters jerking the strings of the Howdy Doody platoon.
ReplyDeleteHer son must be back from war. War tends to make pacifists unless your’e insane. Good for her if she is evolving. I’ll believe it when I see it.
McCain is a slipping transmission with more than a few teeth missing. What kind of judgement does Romney have putting McCain out there on point?
ReplyDeleteMy friends.
I wonder if Mitt really wanted him out there. He looked a little unsure.
ReplyDeleteI think he picked his ass about half way through the speech.
ReplyDeleteit is rather odd that McCain would endorse Mitt and that the Romney camp would trot it out in such a public manner. McCain is hardly a fire-and-brimstone conservative, and will likely hurt Romney among the Tea Party crowds. Watch the endorsement show. It was embarrassing to watch such a display of senility. McCain has lost all his marbles. Sad indeed!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThere would have been a lot more applause if Sarah Palin had made the speech and the endorsement. I wonder what she is going to do.
b
=================
The Reagan narrative became so simplistic with shallow conservatives that "tax cuts and big deficits creates jobs" becomes enshrined as dogma. And "freedom for the plutocrats of Wall Street to do as they please unregulated" - becomes new conservative dogma Saint Ronnie decreed it be so!!
One of the dumbest things to emerge recently in conservatives is the faith-based belief that the public HUNGERS for someone as far-right as possible...combined with a twin faith-based belief that Obama, Harry Reid are so unpopular that NOW IS THE TIME!! to nominate a "true believer".
We saw the wreckage of Sharron Angle who went down in Goldwater-like flames of Purity.
No, the country does NOT hunger for a Goldwater. Before she quit, (I should specify quit being considered a 2012 Prez Prospect..) right wing Goddess Palin was polling 26 points behind Obama in several national polls. Gingrich was about 20 points behind. (Which is a more accurate reflection of his national prospects than the not-Romney delusions of right-wingers in search of the Hero in Newtie.
You Are Being Unfair To McCain
ReplyDeleteAnd he wasn't picking his ass, he was pulling his underwear out of his crack.
b
Which sensible people that don't wear underwear don't ever do.
ReplyDeleteb
Ron Paul is only a couple years away from diaddies.
ReplyDeletepiddle, piddle, piddle
b
If Ron Paul had any sense, he'd recommend we simply sell nuclear weapons to Iran, and make a profit.
ReplyDeleteSince he feels they have every right to them, and have been, are being, so put upon by the West and Israel.
The guy is a senile old fool and I can't believe anyone here takes him seriously.
College kids, sure, but we're all grownups.
b
This is the reason that this blog has gone down hill. Not the difference in opinion, but rather Rat's own thug-like attacks on a daily basis....
ReplyDeletedesert rat said...
While
"Failure to Report" is much worse than "Jury Nullification" Failure to Report circumvents the entire legal system, jury nullification is twelve citizens making an informed decision, within the confines of the legal system.
The very reason to sit the jury, in the first place. To obtain justice, even when it is not embodied in the "Law".
Thu Jan 05, 05:43:00 AM EST
We all know the reason and the thought (or lack of thought) process involved here.
Pure bullying here...
I am sure Teddy Roosevelt would think little of such behavior.
But as this Blog has proven lately, it has no concerns about what Desert Rat posts.
He can bully, he is the arbiter of who is "scum" and who is an American...
What nonsense. What a Joke.
America and the UK have the duty, the right and the ability to keep an international waterway open for the good of the entire world's economic fortune and the stability of the interwater ways open shipping lanes...
ReplyDeleteSuch is the behavior of world class nations that have the force projection and the insight to understand the importance of international waterways.
Shame the USA did not see things this way pre-1967 Arab/Israeli war when the UN was thrown out of the Sinai by Egypt's Nasser (after the USA (at that time not an ally of Israel) had pressured Israel to give up the SInai in a UN based solution to the egyptian/israeli 1956 war.
If only the Straits of Titran we as important in the mind of those leaders of the free world then the entire 1967 war would never have occurred.
UK threatens military action against Iran
By BLOOMBERG
01/05/2012 14:21
British defense secretary says Royal Navy will join any action to keep open Strait of Hormuz which Iran has threatened to block.
Talkbacks (5)
The UK may take military action against Iran if it carries out its threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, Defense Secretary Philip Hammond will warn in a speech in Washington today.
Any attempt by Iran to block the strategically important waterway in retaliation for sanctions against its oil exports would be “illegal and unsuccessful” and the Royal Navy will join any action to keep it open, Hammond will say, according to extracts of the address released by his office.
But what if's are full of shit....
America, England and the other world leaders at the time in 1967 were not able or didnt care about Egypt's closing of international water ways.
SO today, Iran is threatening to close an international waterway, this is an act of war...
But then again, Taking the USA embassy for 444 days was also an act or war....
But then again, paying for, and supplying the training and explosives to blow up the Marine Barracks in Beirut was an act of war...
Oh and suppling advanced IED's to iraq and fighters to Iraq to kill Americans? an act of war...
but to be fair?
Iran is not understood, all they want is peace on earth and goodwill to all men...
To all the advocates Equality in Marriage Act, Equality with us straight folk can suck...
ReplyDeleteBecareful of what you wish for, you will get it...
A lesbian lady, gives HER egg to her "partner" to be fertilized and implanted (hey doesnt the sperm donor have rights?) and grown and born by her lesbian partner...
Now with advent of equality, that partner, tells the egg giver to buzz off...
Egg giver is BY LAW not given access to now 8 year HUMAN...
Tina's biological daughter turned 8 this week, but she has not seen the girl since Dec. 22, 2008, because of a custody fight with her former lesbian partner. The partner is unrelated to the child, but gave birth to her.
"I thought I'd have her back on her birthday," said Tina, a law enforcement officer, whose name was never on the birth certificate and who has been denied parenting rights under Florida state law.
For 11 years, the Brevard County couple forged a committed relationship, living together, sharing their finances and raising a daughter. Tina's egg was fertilized with donor sperm and implanted in her partner's womb.
But when their romance fell apart when the child was 2, the Florida courts had to decide, who is the legal parent, the biological mother or the birth mother who carried the unrelated child for nine months in her womb?
A trial court summarily sided with Tina's ex-partner, citing Florida statute. "The judge said, 'It breaks my heart, but this is the law,'" according to the birth mother's lawyer, Robert J. Wheelock of Orlando.
But on Dec. 23, a state appeals court rejected the law as antiquated and recognized both women as legal parents.
Citing the case as "unique," the 5th District Court of Appeal ruled that both the U.S. and Florida constitutions trump Florida's law, according to the Orlando Sentinel, which first reported the story.
"I am elated and I am thankful," said Tina, now 41. "I am hoping things will run smoothly from this [point] forward, but it may not be the case. She is appealing and trying to keep me away from my daughter."
Congrats on the equality, you get to get screwed like so many divorced fathers out there...
now that's irony...
America and the UK have the duty, the right and the ability to keep an international waterway open for the good of the entire world's economic fortune and the stability of the interwater ways open shipping lanes...
ReplyDeleteNo we don't. Europe and China get their oil from there, let them deal with Iran. Frankly, I'm tired of them vetoing everything we try to do in the UN. Fuck 'em.
To all the advocates Equality in Marriage Act, Equality with us straight folk can suck...
ReplyDeleteSoon it will be moot point in Washington State, we're gonna get Marriage Equality finally.
America, England and the other world leaders at the time in 1967 were not able or didnt care about Egypt's closing of international water ways.
ReplyDeleteEilat does not produce thirty percent of the world's oil.
The partner is unrelated to the child, but gave birth to her.
ReplyDeleteI get it, but it sure do sound odd.
b
Teresita said...
ReplyDeleteAmerica, England and the other world leaders at the time in 1967 were not able or didnt care about Egypt's closing of international water ways.
Eilat does not produce thirty percent of the world's oil.
Oil wasnt the issue.
And if you were honest you could see that the international waterway of the Straits of Titran as and have been just as important.
The lesson is the same. The Free World's leaders (read that the USA, England) have a duty to keep the free passage of international water ways open against tinhorn dictators...
You cannot live in a "what if" world, but you can live in a reality that dictators cannot be allowed to grow and thrive.
Pay now? or Pay later....
Your choice.
Teresita said...
ReplyDeleteTo all the advocates Equality in Marriage Act, Equality with us straight folk can suck...
Soon it will be moot point in Washington State, we're gonna get Marriage Equality finally.
May you have divorce, alimony, child support and screwy Child Custody courts like the rest of us...
May you have the gold diggers that swipe 1/2 your assets.
May the "right" to marry hit you in the pocket book with reductions in your tax deductions.
May your "spouse's" credit rating and bad cc debt be inherited just like all of of straight people.
Enjoy it....
IRAN BUILDING MISSILE BASE IN VENEZUELA TO BE ABLE TO PROJECT FORCE IT CAN'T PROJECT, OR SOMETHING
ReplyDeleteb
ReplyDeleteMay you have divorce, alimony, child support and screwy Child Custody courts like the rest of us...
May you have the gold diggers that swipe 1/2 your assets.
May the "right" to marry hit you in the pocket book with reductions in your tax deductions.
May your "spouse's" credit rating and bad cc debt be inherited just like all of of straight people.
Enjoy it....
heh
May you learn to love your divorce lawyer.....
b
I'll bet those missiles could reach Phoenix from there.
ReplyDeleteOh, wait, Iran can't project force beyond its borders, someone here said so....
b
Rat's ranch in the Iranian cross hairs....it's awfully hard to say I don't like the idea, but, I don't like the idea.
ReplyDeleteb
Now this is funny....
ReplyDeleteWake up all you so called "christians" you are next...
Christ
Followers, you are next....
now that will be funny when the ONLY free christians left in the entire middle east will be in Israel, that shitty little county...
ha ha ha ha ha hah ah ah ah aha ha
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteRat's ranch in the Iranian cross hairs....it's awfully hard to say I don't like the idea, but, I don't like the idea.
b
I will say it... I have NO problem with Iran targeting Rat's illegal squatting ass in AZ, after all he is squatting on another's lands...
But wait, Rat is Ishmael....
But is Rat Sunni or Shia?
Inquiring minds want to know...
WiO: ha ha ha ha ha hah ah ah ah aha ha
ReplyDeleteAre you one who laughs by himself at night? Back in the day they called that possession.
Teresita said...
ReplyDeleteWiO: ha ha ha ha ha hah ah ah ah aha ha
Are you one who laughs by himself at night? Back in the day they called that possession.
I usually dont have a crowd at night so I can and do laugh by myself....
but you must admit... when you are ready to retire, after the government cuts your pay, your homeland where you want to go to live may be turning islamic as well...
now that will be funny...
11/10/2011 Philippines Carmen A church elder and father of thirteen is beheaded by Religion of Peace activists at his farm.
11/4/2011 Philippines Malabang Suspected Moro Islamists murder two Catholic roadside vendors.
10/23/2011 Philippines Cabengbeng Five Catholic plantation workers are massacred by Moro Islamists in a pre-dawn attack on their village.
10/9/2011 Philippines Zamboanga Abu Sayyaf bombers injured thirteen people in separate attacks targeting Christians.
6/25/2011 Philippines Isabela City Muslim militants are suspected of detonating a bomb outside a Catholic church that leaves two people dead.
12/25/2010 Philippines Sulu A priest and a 9-year-old girl are among eleven injured when Islamists set off a bomb inside a chapel.
ha ha ha ha a ha ha ha ha
(btw, i aint laughing about the disgusting murders of innocents, i am laughing about how those that hate israel will soon have to deal with Israel enemies themselves.)
There aint no retired lesbian/gay couples living in any islamic nation on the planet....
ReplyDeleteBut in Israel?
Lots and lots of "alternative" lifestyle folks....
Now here is an American Ally that receives BILLIONS of direct aid a year, in fact they even got 11 BILLION bucks forgiven under George Bush ONE for not doing anything. And under Obama? They got another extra BILLION or two...
ReplyDeleteAs the top two parties in the first two phases of Egypt’s parliamentary elections and expected to score a similar victory in the third phase, the two Islamist parties Freedom and Justice, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the ultra-conservative al-Nour party list have been under the limelight as concerns over the future of the country under Islamist rule keep rising.
Two representatives from both parties were invited by Al Arabiya in Cairo to answer questions, allay fears, and reiterate what they saw as non-debatable issues.
The issue of religious minorities and the way they are to be treated in case the Sharia (Islamic law) is applied was raised in the interview with Adel Abdul Maksoud Afifi, head of the Salafist al-Asala Party, which came second on al-Nour Party List, and Saad al-Husseini, member of the Freedom and Justice Party executive bureau.
“Before international laws came out, it was the sharia that granted Copts all their rights,” Afifi told Al Arabiya’s Parliament Race Monday.
However, Afifi added, Copts are still not allowed to become presidents or to run for presidency.
“The same applies to women.”
Christians
and Women need not apply.
So there are going to be Scuds in Venezuela ...
ReplyDeleteVenezuela is not Iran.
Venezuela is a separate and distinct place. With a non-Islamic government.
Those Scuds, not a military threat, to the US.
Could be a terrorist threat, perhaps, to folks in Colombia.
But not much of that, either.
Venezuelans, I know some of them.
MAD will work with Venezuelans.
The export of nuclear electrical power generation will be the next export, from Iran.
Another non-military threat, to GE and their electrical power plant sales in foreign lands.
"Three wars that we're going engaged in today and our country nearing bankruptcy,.."
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when countries would start wars just for the booty.
My how times have changed.
"o" telling us what we already know.
ReplyDeleteThe US should not fund any government that predicates itself upon establishing a State religion.
No matter what that religion may be.
The US does not follow that policy prescription, even though religious exclusion from government is a basic principle of our own government and the basis of our liberties and freedoms.
Run Doc Run!
Even our commentator from Idaho advocates for the expansion of nuclear fueled electrical generation.
ReplyDeleteTelling US all that it is safe, secure and clean.
Little wonder the Venezuelans will be wanting nuclear electrical generating capabilities, too.
Little wonder then that an energy exporting country, like Iran, would want a piece of that global market.
Or that a country with vast oil reserves, like the US, would pursue nuclear fueled electrical generation, tambien.
Our NATO ally speaks out
ReplyDeleteTurkey's foreign minister said Thursday that his country will not allow its territory to be used for a strike on Iran, adding that Ankara does not perceive Tehran as a threat.
...
"We won't allow a strike on any neighbor from our territory; this is our position," Davutoğlu said.
When will the people of Gaza be prmitted to vote in Israeli elections?
ReplyDeleteThey have been a part of Israel for over forty years, they should be enfranchised to vote in the elections of the country in which they reside.
Perhaps the Israeli government does not want to empower their hyphenated residents.
ReplyDeleteDenying them citizenship rights, even those born in the Gaza district of Israel.
Bet the Israeli believe those hyphenated voters would be a playing ...
... a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of their body politic
Your last two posts are evidence you are really losing it, Rat.
ReplyDeleteb
Will we hear that the Israeli believe that the people of Gaza will replicate Teddy's fears for the US ...
ReplyDelete... those hyphenated Americans who terrorize American politicians by threats of the foreign vote are engaged in treason to the American Republic.
Knowing as we do how the Israeli respect the ideas and principles espoused by Teddy Roosevelt.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteYour last two posts are evidence you are really losing it, Rat.
b
Thu Jan 05, 11:06:00 AM EST
Speaking of losing it. I took down your little comment about your wish list for the Mossad. Not smart.
No, boobie, we are comparing the equivalency of Egypt and the discrimination in the body politic, there and it's pervasiveness in Israel, as well.
ReplyDeleteThe Copts discriminated against in Egypt based upon religion and a "threat" to the Religious State.
Those Israelis, born in Gaza, discriminated against in Israel. Based upon their religion and the threat they pose to the Religious State.
In both cases the discrimination is based upon the religion of those excluded from participation in the electoral process.
If there are not "Two States", then there can be only one.
ReplyDeleteWhere all people are created equal, or the State of Israel is not a democracy, nor even a republic.
It'd be a religious theocracy.
Good for you T
ReplyDeleteEat, drink, and be merry.
Obviously, boobie, you do not understand the difference between military threats, economic threats, cultural threats, criminal threats, terrorist threats and commercial threats.
ReplyDeleteThey are all not one and the same.
Iran is capable of projecting some threats, but not military threats, beyond its own frontiers.
As our treaty ally in Turkey remarked, just today.
Those folks, in Egypt and Israel, being seen as disloyal to the State, because of their religion.
ReplyDeleteThe equivalency is crystal clear.
.
ReplyDeleteIt is a commentary on the state of politics in this country when Newt Gingrich takes out a full page add in New Hampshire blasting Mitt Romney as being a 'moderate'.
.
Thanks, deuce, but I said 'not violently' as I recall, and, wasn't it a response to some charge about us being involved in Israeli elections?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter but I do appreciate you looking out for me.
b
ReplyDeleteSpeaking from the Pentagon, President Obama said the plan is "smart, strategic and set priorities."
"I just want to say that that this effort reflects the guidance I gave throughout this process," Obama said. "Yes, the tide of war is receding. But the question that this strategy answers is what kind of military will we need after the long wars of the last decade are over. And today, we're moving forward, from a position of strength."
The new military strategy is driven by at least $487 billion in cuts over the next decade. An additional $500 billion in cuts could be coming if Congress follows through on plans for deeper reductions. The announcement comes weeks after the U.S. officially ended the Iraq war and after a decade of increased defense spending in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Obama said that the military will indeed be leaner, but the USA will maintain a budget that is roughly larger than the next 10 countries' military budgets combined.
ReplyDelete"Some will no doubt say the spending reductions are too big; others will say they're too small," Obama said. "It will be easy to take issue with a particular change. But I would encourage all of us to remember what President Eisenhower once said—that 'each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs.'"
Here you go ...
ReplyDelete"Small Footprint"
The "New" Doctrine
That new strategy turns away from labor intensive wars, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, analysts say.
"The attitude is no more Iraqs," said Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Iraq and Afghanistan were large nation-building efforts requiring thousands of troops.
The emphasis on the future will be to partner or advise foreign militaries in order to counter threats, Krepinevich said.
"The Army and Marine Corps are going to take the biggest hits," Krepinevich said. Both services grew in size to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the sizes of those services would be reduced.
But Special Forces troops, which can be used to train foreign militaries, will increase in size.
Better late, than never.
Moving towards Britannica's long successful force projection technique for policing the whirled.
ReplyDeleteSomalia, the new model.
Ethiopia, Kenya and Africa Union troops are joining forces with the Transitional Federal Government in the fight against al-Shabaab, the radical Islamoids in Somalia.
All of which are trained and supplied, by US.
While our ally with old school African Muslim management expertise is going to step up.
23Dec 2011
David Cameron describes Somalia as "a failed state that directly threatens British interests" and will convene a summit in London in February to bring together the countries currently active in the Horn of Africa state. A number of key decisions are expected to be made there, ranging from humanitarian aid to military missions.
The Prime Minister's decision to tackle the Somalia quagmire is seen by some as being fuelled by the success of the Libyan venture.
Mr Cameron is concerned about tourists and aid workers from the UK being attacked and kidnapped, the rise of piracy and the potential for the East African country to become a place of extremist indoctrination for increasing numbers of young Muslims from the UK.
Rat once vilified Teddy. Now he quotes him and has become his spokesman and biographer.
ReplyDeleteFlavor of the month
No President is correct, 100% of the time, gag.
ReplyDeleteTeddy has his moments.
He was certainly correct in his disdain for hyphenated Americans.
For those whose loyalties abide elsewhere, while poisoning the body politic, here.
Mr Roosevelt, despite Ash's claim of fascism, was a premier Progressive of his day.
Offering the bounty of America to anyone that would lay claim to it.
That in today's whirled of political correctness and quotas, the idea of not hyphenating Americans seems what, antiquated?
What is it that "conservatives" are trying to conserve, if not the principle embodied in the Declaration of a single homologous people and free society, based upon the unalienable rights of all men, rather than a heterogeneous society of competing ethnic, racial and religious factions.
Teddy was in the "Right" when it comes to being a "real" American, it is by choice.
That the Federal government currently promotes the hyphenation of Americans, that's a better commentary on the state of politics in the US, than an ad describing "Wall Street" Romney as a moderate.
ReplyDeleteProves just how "right" Teddy was, about that. Hyphenating Americans is, by definition divisive.
Wonder why those that retain the power do that, aye?
But Teddy was expanding the authority of the Executive when he sent the Great White Fleet to Asia, without the funding to buy the fuel to return to California.
ReplyDeleteWhen he injected the Federal government into the management of private companies. Thoroughly unprecedented and politically progressive expansion of Federal authority in the economy.
Setting the stage for the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank and the opacity of the system.
Now you can belittle me or Mr Roosevelt as being ungrounded in what it means to be an
ReplyDeleteAmerican.
But John Wayne, he knew and understood what it means to be an American
United we stand
Divided we fall.
The hyphen is divisive to Americans, no doubt.
The Free and Fair Trade with China, dominated in the US by the Russell Company led to ...
ReplyDeleteOnly one company among the nearly twenty American trading companies operating in Macao and Canton refused to participate in the opium trade: the Philadelphia Quakers of D.W.C. Olyphant Company. Russell and Company, the largest of the American firms, whose Turkish opium once competed with British Indian opium at Canton, now acted as a shipping agent for India opium ...
Warren Delano II, Russell and Company's senior partner in China, wrote a letter to his brothers in 1838, stating; "I do not pretend to justify the prosecution of the opium trade in a moral and philanthropic point of view, but as a merchant I insist that it has been a fair, honorable, and legitimate trade."
The increased trade volume following the war led to a dramatic rise in the volume of opium delivered to China. By 1845, ... Within three years, nearly 40,000 opium chests, valued at £6,000,000 per year,...
The Oregon Treaty of 1846, the Mexican conquest of 1846-1848, and the California Gold Rush of 1849 were but a prelude to the rapid settlement of America's newly won Pacific Coast. The onrush of expansive forces that ushered in the tumultuous decade of the 1850s also brought America much closer to the Orient, particularly the important new trade center at Shanghai. The introduction of the clipper ship and the application of steam navigation to the transpacific trade multiplied American contacts with East Asia.
The Chinese considered American merchants as non-belligerents and allowed them continued access to Canton during the First Opium War.
The British maintained their position in the China market by selling a number of their merchant ships to American trading firms and chartering U.S. merchantmen to act as trade agents on their behalf. The Royal Navy supported the operation by granting American merchantmen free passage through its Pearl River blockade.
The carriage of British cargoes from Canton and Macao under a flag of convenience spurred such a rapid growth in American seaborne commerce that by 1851, the United States operated the world's largest merchant fleet.
America's problems with Japan arose shortly after Roosevelt mediated the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1906, ending the Russo-Japanese War. In that conflict the Russian fleet had been annihilated by the Japanese. But despite their triumphs over the Russians on the high seas, the Japanese failed to get all they felt they deserved at the peace table and blamed Roosevelt for it.
ReplyDeleteIn the same year, anti-Japanese feelings were sweeping California. The San Francisco Board of Education ordered the segregation of all immigrant and descendent Japanese school children.
When the news of this reached Japan, violent anti-American protests broke out. Roosevelt managed to persuade the Board of Education to discontinue its segregation policy in exchange for an agreement with Japan to slow down its stream of immigrants into the United States.
Roosevelt didn't want a break with Japan, as the United States was ill-prepared for war. Most of our battle fleet was concentrated in the Atlantic, and there were only a handful of armored cruisers on duty in the Pacific. In the event of war with Japan, this small contingent that made up the Asiatic Battle Fleet would have to abandon the Philippines for West Coast ports until the United States had strength enough to go on the offensive.
Thus, to impress upon Japan that the US Navy could shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Roosevelt ordered the Great White Fleet to sail around the world.
ReplyDeleteFor the sailors who participated in this historic once-in-a-lifetime adventure, the cruise reinforced their pride in service and country. They had been the ambassadors of good will and the vehicles through which others perceived and judged America and the Navy. The results were gratifying. But even more concretely, the sailors saw their individual roles and the role of the Great White Fleet as providing the muscle behind US foreign policy.
As one sailor succinctly put it, "We just wanted to let the world know we were prepared for anything they wanted to kick up. We wanted to show the world what we could do."
Both of the Presidents Roosevelt work to expand the US ability to project power.
ReplyDeleteBoth had served as Asst Sec Navs in their early careers.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by Woodrow Wilson in 1913 and served under Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels. Roosevelt developed a life-long affection for the Navy, and was more ardent than his boss Daniels in supporting a large and efficient naval force
Working both sides of the political party system.
Though both went to Harvard.
Opium and US commercial interests, inexorably intertwined in the US military interventions in Asia.
ReplyDeleteStill, today.
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ReplyDelete