The pitiful self-inflicted tragedy of the West’s “strategy” in Afghanistan is summed up in this opening sentence:
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A newly recruited Afghan village policeman opened fire on his American allies on Friday, killing two US service members minutes after they handed him his official weapon in an inauguration ceremony.There’s nothing clever or sophisticated about this attack. You don’t have to plot, or disguise yourself, or break into a secure facility. They come to you, to your village. They even give you money. And then they give you the gun. And then you shoot them. Do they cover that in Pentagon-approved must-read Three Cups Of Tea? Afghanistan is just another in the long roll-call of America’s un-won wars these past six decades — except that it’s taken longer to lose than the others, and in their barbarity the locals demonstrate an almost gleeful contempt for a lavishly endowed enemy with everything except the one thing it needs: strategic purpose. This ought to be a national scandal, but the coverage has dwindled down to nothing butsedating banalities: KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A man in an Afghan police uniform shot and killed a U.S. service member on Sunday, a U.S. Defense Department official said, raising the death toll to 10 in such attacks in the space of just two weeks.“International partners . . . work together . . . key transition . . .” As I wrote herefive months ago: Six weeks after the last NATO soldier leaves Afghanistan, it will be as if we were never there. Before the election in 2010, the New York Post carried a picture of women registering to vote in Herat, all in identical top-to-toe bright blue burkas, just as they would have looked on September 10, 2001. We came, we saw, we left no trace. America’s longest war will leave nothing behind.OBAMA WAS NOT THE FIRST: |
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ReplyDeleteBoth sides were playing chicken with the defense budget when they agreed to sequestration after the Supercommittee debacle.
Now, hopefully, it will bite them in the ass. If a deal isn't cut on sequestration, at least one good thing that will come out of it will be major cuts in defense spending.
Heard a GOP big wig on one of the Sunday news shows list the reasons we need an increased defense budget including giving us the ability to conduct foreign intervention.
Neither money nor lives mean anything to these guys.
The military/industrial complex is alive and well.
.
.
ReplyDeleteHow many people in Afghanistan actually heard Reagan dedicate a shuttle launch to them?
How many gave a shit?
.
It just shows how little we know about the Middle East and how little we have learned and to many how much we forgot.
ReplyDeleteSome brave reporter actually made it a couple of hundred miles out of Kabul a couple of months ago, and found villages where the natives thought they were still fighting the Russians.
DeleteWatched 'The Left Handed Gun' on tellie last night. Great movie. Paul Newman shoulda been prez.
ReplyDeleteThe Syrian government supported the UN role in Syria and any "formula" it wanted to employ, President Bashar al-Assad's special envoy, Bouthaina Shaaban, said here Monday.
ReplyDelete...
There is no clear end in sight for the worsening Syrian crisis, now in its 18th month. Shaaban blamed "foreign support" for armed opposition groups for the continued violence in the turmoil-hit Middle East country.
"There is a lot of money and a lot of armaments that are pouring into this group against the Syrian people, the Syrian army and Syrian government," she said.
On Aug. 20. 1940, Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico.
ReplyDeleteThere's something wrong with that video. I think it's a phony. Looks like, maybe, an "abandoned" base.
ReplyDeleteNo, here it is:
DeleteISAF said.
It said 14 fighters were killed in the June 1 attack carried out by fighters wearing suicide-bomb vests and firing rocket-propelled grenades.
Khost is a main area of operations for the Taliban-linked Haqqani armed group which the US says has been behind a string of bombings in Kabul as well as attacks on foreign forces in the countryside.
Leon Panetta,the US defence secretary, blamed the group for the attack on the base and vowed to fight them.
Yeah, but is that the same attack that we saw on the video? I'm telling you, that "base" didn't look right. And, an explosion that size would have killed a whole lot of ours (if they were there.)
DeleteThose people were running Toward the show, not away from it.
It's a crappy deal over there, but I think that particular piece of propaganda is a phony.
Ash.
DeleteBurn Calories
ReplyDeleteSomebody floated a bullshit meme, many years ago that no one hates wars more than the soldier (by inference, the Generals.)
ReplyDeleteThat is horseshit. Generals live for wars. They Pray for wars. It's how they get promoted, and attempt to obtain "glory."
Of course, the MIC, also, prays for the end of peace. That's how They make money.
The chickenhawks just had to have their Aghani "surge," and Obama, being a rookie, acquiesced. But for that, we could be out of that shithole by now.
Now, they (Obama included, I'm afraid) are trying to dust off the "weapons of mass destruction" playbook, and get us involved in Syria. It's madness, and it never ends.
Hover Bike
ReplyDeleteAn ex-Marine Combat Engineer, with tours in Iraq, and Afghanistan has been arrested, and put in "psychiatric evaluation" For 30 days because of a facebook post.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read anywhere that his posts were violent, or threatening in nature. He did show a picture of the Pentagon, and asked "where's the plane?"
All bureaucrats are the same. Russian/Chinese/American. An asshole with a badge is an asshole with a badge.
American Gulagee - One of the First, but not one of the last
I put his name up, but took it down, figuring google might censor the post. It's in the story.
Witnesses say he was standing in front of his house, calmly talking to the FBI/Secret Service Agents when they grabbed him, and started trying to put handcuffs on him.
DeleteHe has Not been charged with a crime. He's in stir for "Mental Evaluation."
Gestapo, FBI - in their dirty little hearts there's not a lick of difference.
I copied this, word for word, from a Kos poster. I didn't want to butcher it up.
ReplyDeleteBrandon Raub is a former Marine who had long been posting on Facebook his belief in a 9/11 conspiracy, chemtrails, that our government is communist, and his distrust of the Illuminati. He likes rap groups and conspiracy theories. He considers himself a Christian and expressed disgust at the TSA pat down of a child last year. Some of his posts, although violent in nature, do not target specific people or groups.
Friends,
You deserve to kow[sic] the truth. There has been an overwhelming amount of evil enacted and planned against you, your children, and your countrymen. It is great in scope. Your government evil. It is as simple as that.
And the calvary is coming.
(August 12 at 10:02am)
and
I'm starting the Revolution. I'm done waiting.
(August 10 at 12:11am)
and
Sharpen up my axe; I'm here to sever heads.
(August 13 at 10:38am)
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According to Business Insider, the former Marine was taken into custody by members of the FBI, Secret Service and Chesterfield County Police Department this weekend and continues to be held in a psychiatric hospital in Hopewell, Virginia.
Raub told the Times-Dispatch that he served as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2005 to 2011, was a combat engineer sergeant and does not own a gun. His mother said he returned from Afghanistan about a year ago and does not have PTSD.
Why then was it so important for the law enforcement authorities to take him into custody? According to online news outlets, Raub was taken into custody stemming from complaints arising from his posts on Facebook. We already know that Big Brother is constantly monitoring social media. Not surprisingly, one of my acquaintances had his Facebook posts used against him in his court case that was related to his activism.
Despite the violent nature of some his Facebook posts, Raub is well-spoken and articulate when writing for Don't Tread on Me, a blog with obvious conservative/libertarian leanings that appears (after a cursory examination) to be more geared towards the preparation for socio/economic collapse and as advocates for change by the implementation of more conservative policies. From what I did see, the site surprisingly lacks the more gratuitous expressions of violence sometimes used by other conservative websites.
An excerpt from one of his writings:
The Constitution was constructed to restrict a government from encroaching on their (and our) economic liberty as given to us by the Creator. Many of them favored state power because they rationalized that you could restrict a states government from encroaching on liberty more easily than a large federal government. The civil war was fought because a group of states took issue with the growing power of the federal government because they recognized that their liberty was at stake. It is the epitome of irony, because those states were predominantly slave owning states. They were restricting the hearts and minds and economic liberty of blacks. Slavery was and is an affront against nature and the heart of God, because in order to keep someone enslaved you must keep their minds enslaved and their minds cannot grow as god intended.
I could not find any references on his Facebook wall endorsing or demonstrating his involvement with groups advocating violence or having a connection to U.S. hate groups. The same goes for his posts at Don't Tread on Me.
More important, I think, than Raub's postings about the revolution on Facebook, was a recent and violent incident that occurred on August 16, in Louisiana. No doubt law enforcement in Virginia were hyper-aware of the ambush that took place in Louisiana that killed two deputies and wounded two more. According to the Daily Reporter, the suspects in the Louisiana shootings had ties to the "sovereign citizens" movement.
Cont.
DeleteRaub, I think, stumbled into the perfect storm of saying something stupid online at the exact moment that law enforcement became aware of just how dangerous home-grown hate groups have become. The fact that he was former military didn't help either, as there has been much discussion regarding the recruitment of veterans who may be more vulnerable by internal terrorism groups. It also didn't help Raub, that Wade Michael Page, whose shooting spree at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin killing five earlier this month, was a former veteran with ties to the Neo-Nazi movement.
As a lifelong progressive, there is lots about Raub I disagree with, but I don't know that I can say that his posts were an example of a clear and present danger. To me, he seems a bit deluded, but didn't appear to be so deluded that he could present a danger to himself or others.
With my Marxist tendencies, I have often said "eat the rich," and made allusions to revolution myself on Facebook. My blog is even called "So You Want to Start a Revolution." But it would appear for some, the government feels there is no difference now between talking about revolution or violence and going on a shooting spree.
I have said stupid things on Facebook and online (and in person, too), but I would hope that no one would look to me as a terrorist. And I am positive I am not the only one. And I will vociferously defend Raub's right to say stupid things anywhere as well, even though I think he may be a complete twit.
But this is chilling, that any person, anyone of us, could be labelled a terrorist because we said something ill-conceived on Facebook or on our blogs, or on twitter. There is a huge difference between words and actions. But to the authorities, that would appear to no longer matter. I hope that Raub, although unfortunate, was the isolated overreaction of law enforcement made extremely paranoid from two other terrorist acts committed earlier this month and that Raub gets the opportunity to clear his name and is able to obtain some sort of compensation.
If not, then it could mean that our government means to silence us all. And permanently.
…Col. Theirry Depuis, the county police chief, said Raub was taken into custody upon the recommendation of mental health crisis intervention workers. He said the action was taken under the state's emergency custody statute, which allows a magistrate to order the civil detention and psychiatric evaluation of a person who is considered potentially dangerous.
ReplyDeleteHe said Raub was handcuffed because he resisted officers’ attempts to take him into custody.
Obviously a sane man would not object to being captures and jailed by a cop under the direction of Col. Theirry Depuis.
Free pussy! Free Raub!
ReplyDeleteThis site has a video of the arrest. He looks pretty "sane" to me.
ReplyDeleteThese assholes have overstepped, big time.
Assholes arresting Sane Man
Nice find, Ruf.
DeleteThis pisses me off. Kid serves tours in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and they arrest him for blowing off a little steam on Facebook.
ReplyDeleteAnyone that thinks ALL governments aren't corrupt, evil organizations is too stupid to find his way to the bathroom.
Let's see - whose Administration is doing this?
DeleteVote Obama - for surveillance, spooks, big sis, drones, and the destruction of Mississippi stills!!
CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WTVR) – Attorneys for the Chesterfield Marine veteran who has been detained since Thursday over alleged Facebook posts released a statement Monday afternoon.
ReplyDeleteThe Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties group, is representing 26-year-old Brandon Raub.
Here is the group’s complete, unedited statement on the incident:
The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of a former Marine, 26-year-old Brandon Raub, who was arrested, detained indefinitely in a psych ward and forced to undergo psychological evaluations based solely on the controversial nature of lines from song lyrics, political messages and virtual card games which he posted to his private Facebook page.
Although the FBI and Chesterfield County police have not charged Brandon Raub, a resident of Chesterfield County, Va., with committing any crime, they arrested Raub on Thursday, August 16, 2012, and transported him to John Randolph Medical Center, where he was held against his will due to alleged concerns that his Facebook (FB) posts were controversial and “terrorist in nature.”
In a hearing held at the hospital, government officials disregarded Raub’s explanation that the Facebook posts were being interpreted out of context, sentencing him up to 30 days’ further confinement in a VA psych ward.
In coming to Raub’s defense, Rutherford Institute attorneys are challenging Raub’s arrest and forcible detention, as well as the government’s overt Facebook surveillance and violation of Raub’s First Amendment rights.
“For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon. This should be a wake-up call to Americans that the police state is here,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “Brandon Raub is no different from the majority of Americans who use their private Facebook pages to post a variety of content, ranging from song lyrics and political hyperbole to trash talking their neighbors, friends and government leaders.”
Brandon Raub, a former Marine who has served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was detained by FBI agents and police officers at his home in Chesterfield County based upon the nature of content posted to his Facebook page in recent months.
Like many Facebook users, Raub uses his FB page to post songs lyrics and air his political opinions, as well as engage in virtual online games with other users.
On Thursday, August 16, police and FBI agents arrived at Raub’s home, asking to speak with him about his Facebook posts. They did not provide Raub with a search warrant. Raub was cooperative and agreed to speak with them. Without providing any explanation, levying any charges against Raub or reading him his rights, law enforcement officials then handcuffed Raub and transported him first to the police headquarters, then to John Randolph Medical Center, where he was held against his will.
Outraged onlookers filmed the arrest and posted the footage to YouTube. Law enforcement officials have stated in press reports that Raub was not arrested. However, as attorney John Whitehead points out, if the police have put handcuffs on you and you’re being held against your will, that qualifies as an arrest.
DeleteIn a hearing before a judge on August 20, government officials again pointed to Raub’s Facebook posts as the sole reason for their concern and for his continued incarceration.
Ignoring Raub’s explanations about the fact that the FB posts were being read out of context and his attorney’s First Amendment defense, the judge agreed that Raub should be incarcerated at a VA hospital for up to 30 more days.
Rutherford Institute attorneys are working to challenge Raub’s detention and the highly unconstitutional nature of the government’s actions.
Statement from his Attorneys
It makes me sick.
DeleteIt makes me madder'n a motherfucker.
DeleteIf they had arrested him I'd say, "okay, it's bullshit, but he'll have his day in court."
DeleteBut, this shit is triple-wrong.
This is Soviet Union bullshit.
Let's see - whose Administration is doing this?
DeleteVote Obama - for surveillance, spooks, big sis, drones, and the destruction of Mississippi stills!!
Obama, not being in the center of attention, needs to drag us into another war:
ReplyDeleteLate on Monday, US President Barack Obama warned Syrian President Bashar Assad that Washington would not tolerate the use of chemical weapons by the regime against the rebels. Obama said Assad faced "enormous consequences" if he crossed the "red line" of even moving unconventional weapons in a threatening way.
In Syria itself on Monday, fighting raged on as members of a team of United Nations military observers left the country following their ultimately ineffective four-month-long mission.
Almost all of the 300 observers who had been sent to Syria have now left the country, with only a few staying behind to operate a “liason office” Damascus.
There happened to be people with cameras there. How many more have they done this to?
ReplyDeleteWill they come for us tomorrow? Or tonight?
"Psychiatric Evaluation?"
The KGB has nothing on these motherfuckers.
Let's see - whose Administration is doing this?
DeleteVote Obama - for surveillance, spooks, big sis, drones, and the destruction of Mississippi stills!!
Must not get in out of line with our rulers and masters in Mordor on the Potomac.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had the tv on all day; I wonder if this made the news? Bet it didn't.
DeleteDrudge doesn't even have it up.
DeleteGuess his right-wing financiers didn't like it.
You'll notice that the Entire power structure will circle wagons on this.
DeleteLet's see - whose Administration is doing this?
DeleteVote Obama - for surveillance, spooks, big sis, drones, and the destruction of Mississippi stills!!
: )
ReplyDeleteNewsweek Cover
ReplyDeleteDon't Tread On Me
ReplyDeletejill
ReplyDeleteAugust 19, 2012 at 5:04 pm · Reply
I will try to explain how the arrest went down. This is all conjecture on my part but let’s see how close I come to the truth about what occurred.
The FBI or Secret Service received a tip regarding a person using the name Brandon J. Raub who posted a number of statements on Facebook.
The federal agents acting under the authority of the Patriot Act contacted the security units at Facebook and the ISP provider, and without warrant or subpoena received information on the location of the computer.
Utility queries were done, along with property record queries, criminal record queries, surveillance of the location done intermittently to identify associates, EPIC queries are made, etc.
The FBI and Secret Service in consultation with their in house counsel determine that there is not sufficient “probable cause” to obtain a search warrant for the premises or a search warrant for the computer or an arrest warrant for John Doe aka Brandon J. Rob.
Remember it’s merely a “tip”. There is no confidential informant who has supplied reliable information in the past and whose information would be required for the warrants. The federal agents need probable cause for the warrants in order to obtain the approval of a U.S. Magistrate.
An agent from the FBI or Secret Service contacts the Chesterfield Police Department
and requests that officers from that department accompany them to the premises where the computer is located and “back them up” in their attempt to positively identify the author of the Facebook posts.
The officers approach the location, knock on the door and identify themselves to the person opening the door.
Here is where Brandon made to critical errors.
Brandon opened the door to law enforcement officers who did not have a search warrant nor an arrest warrant.
Second, Brandon interacted with the officers and probably answered their questions.
Then something happened. Whatever occurred, provided an excuse for the local police to place Brandon under arrest and take him into custody.
How Brandon wound up in a psychiatric facility is beyond anything I could comment on. In normal arrest situations this simply does not happen. As far as I know, no law enforcement officer has such authority.
Upon Brandon’s release from custody, I would urge him to file a lawsuit against the officers.
It is only through the sworn depositions of the officers and agents will Brandon be able to find out the truth behind the circumstances of his arrest and subsequent detention in a psychiatric facility.
In closing, I would like to remind everyone of their absolute right to remain silent. Whether you are confronted at home or on a public street, you do not, under any circumstances, have an obligation or duty to answer the officers/agents questions.
You can view this video by law Professor and former defense counsel, James Duane regarding your absolute right as a citizen not to answer any questions:
http://www.volokh.com/2011/09/30/prof-duane-dont-talk-to-the-cops/
The guy was, evidently, a little nutty, but, it seems, he not only Did Not have any firearms, etc, and he not only Did Not belong to any Militia-type groups, it sounds like he didn't even own a car.
ReplyDeleteLet's see - whose Administration is doing this?
DeleteVote Obama - for surveillance, spooks, big sis, drones, and the destruction of Mississippi stills!!
If it's legal to lock away Anyone that some hick judge decides is a little nutso, in spite of said whackjob having done nothing more than run his mouth on the internet, we're All doomed. Where does a deal like that end?
ReplyDeleteIt seems he was sitting in his house waiting for someone (anyone) to come "pick him up" to go lead the revolution.
HELL, that's what I'M waiting for. :) Hope they don't need gas money. :)
It's just pure bullshit. If he was some looney-tunes Muzzie Army Captain, ranting about Jihad, they would have issued him a pistol, and made him a Major.
Let's see - whose Administration is doing this?
DeleteVote Obama - for surveillance, spooks, big sis, drones, and the destruction of Mississippi stills!!
Illinois in play? --
ReplyDeleteShock poll: Obama could lose Illinois, Romney leads in Chicago suburbs
Published: 1:31 AM 08/20/2012
By Alexis Levinson
President Barack Obama could lose his home state of Illinois in November, a new poll shows.
A poll conducted by Illinois-based pollster and political strategist Michael McKeon found Obama leading Republican Mitt Romney by 49 percent to 37 percent in Cook County, the home of Chicago. That puts him ahead by a far thinner margin than expected in a county he should be winning handsomely.
Cook is the most Democratic leaning county in the state. It is also the most populous.
Those numbers do not bode well for the president.
“He has to come out of Cook County with a big lead or he’s gonna have problems downstate,” explained McKeon, who said that based on the numbers he had seen, Obama polled only in the forties in downstate Illinois.
“It’s not like his policies are very popular downstate,” McKeon said. “He’s viewed as more part of Chicago than he is part of Illinois.”
According to the poll, which surveyed 629 registered voters last week, Obama’s problems are not in Chicago proper, but in suburban Cook County.
In the city of Chicago itself, he retains a 60-29 lead over Romney. But the Republican challenger leads 45-38 in the surrounding areas. Across the county as a whole, Romney leads 43-31 among independent voters, a crucial voting bloc. Romney also holds a 44-38 lead among male voters, and a 53-40 lead among white voters.
Illinois is not considered a swing state by any means; it is seen as solidly blue, and has been for the past two election cycles. But McKeon pointed to the 2010 gubernatorial race when Republican Bill Brady came within a single percentage point of now-Gov. Pat Quinn because Brady won most of the downstate counties. That is a feat Romney could repeat this year, leaving Obama vulnerable if he cannot expand his lead in Cook County.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/20/shock-poll-obama-could-lose-illinois/#ixzz249ETXMri
And to think some of you morons rely on Rasmussen and Gallup and RCP averages, when you should be reading BubblePlumbPolling, which has been saying all along, Obama is going down hard.
ReplyDeleteAugust 20, 2012
Obama Underwater in Cook County?
Rosslyn Smith
According to the Daily Caller a recent poll of 629 registered voters has Obama under 50% in Cook County, Illinois.
A poll conducted by Illinois-based pollster and political strategist Michael McKeon found Obama leading Republican Mitt Romney by 49 percent to 37 percent in Cook County, the home of Chicago. That puts him ahead by a far thinner margin than expected in a county he should be winning handsomely.
In the 2010 statewide elections Republicans won almost every other county in Illinois. Only the vote from Chicago itself kept the statehouse in Democrat hands. Quinn had a largely undeserved reputation as a reformers, which helped him prevail. Republican Mark Kirk beat Obama's minion Alexi Giannoulias for the US Senate Seat in part because many voters couldn't stomach Giannoulias's reputation for corruption.
If the McKeon poll is accurate Illinois could become a close race because Obama's lead in the city of Chicago is less than overwhelming, with a huge number of undecideds.
In the city of Chicago itself, he retains a 60-29 lead over Romney. But the Republican challenger leads 45-38 in the surrounding areas. Across the county as a whole, Romney leads 43-31 among independent voters, a crucial voting bloc. Romney also holds a 44-38 lead among male voters, and a 53-40 lead among white voters.
These number makes some sense to me. Obama is largely a creation of the national media. Before his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech he was a largely undistinguished state senator. He is respected by his base, to be sure, but he isn't loved the way many other politicians have been loved. For a while now I have been watching the Obama administration with a sinking feeling that I was seeing a replay of the tumultuous years under Mayor Harold Washington when a coalition of black and white progressives ran Chicago and everything from fixing potholes to filling vacant city jobs seemed to be about race. While progressives still consider that a golden age for Chicago, the fact is a great many voters of all races didn't like what happened during those years. The first election after Washington's death saw the election of Richard M. Daley. Over the next 20 years Daley handily beat back progressive challengers such as Judge R. Eugene "Lynch 'em" Pincham,(1) Congressman Bobby Rush and Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. Nor was former Senator Carol Moseley Braun able to do much against Daley's chosen successor Rahm Emanuel. Chicago voters may not be overly concerned about honesty but they have a record of preferring their executives to be competent administrators.
(1) During the 1987 mayoral election Illinois Appellate court Judge Pincham declared anyone living south of Madison Street "who doesn't cast a vote for Harold Washington ought to be hung." In Chicago political circles the injudicious judge was for ever after known as "Lynch 'em Pincham".
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/08/obama_underwater_in_cook_county.html#ixzz249GQOvy4
BubblePlumbPolling has been predicting Hew Hampshire for Romney.
ReplyDeleteVoter surveys here show New Hampshire is up for grabs. Obama won the state in 2008 with 53.4 percent to John McCain’s 44.8 percent. Looking toward November, the University of New Hampshire’s bimonthly Granite State Poll has Obama ahead, but his lead has been steadily declining. In February, he was 10 points ahead; in April, 9; in June, 4; and on August 12 he led by 3 points. Obama still has an edge, but the trend line is troubling to his campaign.
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/20/edsall-do-you-trust-politicians/?ref=opinion
PPP says Akin is still up by one. They did a poll, tonight.
ReplyDeleteEverybody hates what he said, and just about everyone, Republicans included, hate him; but, they're still voting anti-McCaskill (and, prolly, just as much "anti-Obama.)
Obama needs to pull a rabbit out of a hat, or he's liable to lose this thing. I fear, rabbits are going to be hard to come by this season. He better get huntin', fast.
What happens if Akin drops out, as it looks he is going to do?
DeleteDo the pubs have time to slap up another another body?
PPP says Akin is still up by one. They did a poll, tonight.
DeleteMust mean he's up by six or seven.
The Party of Rufus runs fossil in South Dakota --
ReplyDeletehttp://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/92-year-old-to-be-on-ballot/?id=136030
Kellogg says response from the public has been positive so far. She's already had people asking her for yard signs to display.
There's a democrat I'd vote for. She might be the only sane one in the legislature.
Go Miss Kellogg!
Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research said in a research note Monday that Apple shares have shown more pronounced increases relative to the S&P 500 ahead of the past two iPhone announcements. Consumers have put off purchasing devices in anticipation of the new phones, which start generating buzz months before their release.
ReplyDelete...
Another positive for the stock has been Apple's decision to issue a quarterly dividend for the first time in nearly two decades. The $2.65 per share payout, issued Aug. 16, placated investors who had been grumbling about the company failing to dip into its cash hoard—which totaled more than $117 billion as of the end of June—for shareholders.
Still, the recent rally has investors on guard in the event that the company's growth rates disappoint analysts.
Obama - Nationally +2.5
ReplyDeleteObama - Illinois +14.3
Akin - Missouri Senate +5.0
- RCP
Best way to kick oil habit is illegal, but for how long?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/08/alternative-fuels?fsrc=nlw|newe|8-20-2012|3169912|76657877|NA
Ethanol is not the answer.
Niall Ferguson is not a man who shies away from controversy. Nor, as a Scottish professor of history who jumped ship from Oxford to Harvard eight years ago and who said earlier this year that he was permanently leaving the UK for America's superior "quality of intellectual life in my field", is he a man who is frightened of expressing forthright opinions.
ReplyDeleteThis time, however, those opinions have ruffled some heavyweight feathers on Professor Ferguson's preferred side of the Atlantic.
Professor Ferguson, once an adviser to the 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain and who delivered the prestigious BBC Reith Lectures earlier this year, has stirred up a hornets nest with his cover story for Newsweek under the headline: "Hit the road, Barack."
Ryan Speaks
ReplyDeleteFor our duo of dimwits, Ouirk and Rufus -
ReplyDeleteAugust 21, 2012
Don't Dismiss ID
David Lawrence
The fact that liberals could even suggest something so stupid, naïve, and deceptive as that you don't need ID to vote is ridiculous. It is only in the age of Obama that people have become so confused and contradictory as to suggest that ID is not necessary for voting. Maybe we don't even need our names and should sign ourselves in as "none of your business." Or we should hide our faces behind burqas like Muslim women. Or put thimbles on our fingertips if we are printed.
Obama's defenders on dismissing ID now excuse themselves by claiming that voter fraud isn't a major problem anyhow. Democrats re-evaluate voter fraud as minimal because they would rather revise reality than to face an obviously existent problem. Obama was a lawyer for ACORN and sued Illinois in 1993 to make voter registration laxer. He is the poster boy for voter fraud and hopes to stamp the next election with covert self-promotion. I'd like to see Obama for once side with an American value or tradition rather than come up with some sophomoric reinterpretation.
It is a simple axiom that you need ID to vote. It has always been that way because voting is considered at least as important as driving, buying a gun, entering a hospital, boarding a plane, or going to court or jail. If you need ID for those functions, why wouldn't you need ID for something as essential to the country as voting?
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/08/dont_dismiss_id.html
.
DeleteIt is a simple axiom that you need ID to vote. It has always been that way because voting is considered at least as important as driving, buying a gun, entering a hospital, boarding a plane, or going to court or jail. If you need ID for those functions, why wouldn't you need ID for something as essential to the country as voting?
Bob, you are a complete Doofus.
Take those remedial reading and critical thinking courses you were offered.
Whoever, this author is you're quoting, he uses the language like the Jesuits. He talks about ID when what he really means is photo-ID. He admits that you have always needed ID to vote but ignores the fact that as far as I know everyone is issued a voter registration card when they register to vote.
A photo-ID is an answer to a problem that doesn't exist. There are lots of cases of voter fraud (absentee ballot, selling votes, criminal acts by polling workers, etc.) but these are not solved by a photo-ID. This is not what these guys are going after. They demand a photo-ID to solve a problem there is no proof exists, that someone would go into vote and say he was someone else. The experiance of that happening is so small as to be insignificant. This is a clear case of voter suppression at a time when only half vote for president and a third vote in off-year elections. We should be doing what it takes to get out more of the vote, not to suppress it.
You sit here and pound sand griping about the government buying ammo or drones flying over your farm. Good lord, they are monitoring your Facebook account and now have said they can suspend habeas corpus on some ill-defined 'suspicion'. At that point, it's not much farther to suspend voting due to 'national security concerns'.
Yet doofus like you and the other Chip Dillers out there just let them gradually drain you of your rights and your votes. This power grab didn't start with Obama but his is a logical extension and he is adept at not 'wasting a crisis'. It's only nitwits like you that can't see that both sides play the same game.
I'd like to think of a better word, but Bob, you are just plain dumb.
.
blah,blah,blah
DeleteYet doofus like you and the other Chip Dillers out there just let them gradually drain you of your rights and your votes.
bahahahahahha
Listen up, you ignorant hooligan, which is more honestly run, Detroit, or Boise?
Please please please say Detroit.
I feel like laughing myself to death today.
How have rights drained away in my state?
Immediately upon the S.C. ruling on that takings case, our legislature got to work and in about two weeks had exempted our entire state from it, for instance. My property rights were strengthened by that S.C. ruling.
You can say the same?
Why,I was approached just the other day by some City Official from Detroit saying they were going to condemn my lot there, give me a dollar or so, and turn it into a pool hall and liquer outlet. They can't do that here.
A photo-ID is an answer to a problem that doesn't exist.
horse shit
But we got to stop the wetbacks from turning a green card into a drivers license.
The first part of your rant is so confused I honestly can't follow it.
I am really beginning to wonder about you Quirk. You are not Rufus yet but you are not sane, either.
By the way, maybe you have had one of your intermittent lucidities. What is Homeland Security doing with 750 million rounds of hollow point bullets?
And Governor Butch who you so denigrate with your big city shit superior hip attitude, signed the legislation within the hour of passage.
DeleteJesus Quirk, you worry about flying drones and your solution is to vote for some levitating yogi.
Delete.
DeleteAnd you would vote to prolong the madness, Einstein's definition of insanity.
.
.
DeleteHorse shit?
Let's see. We were talking about photo-ID's.
In response to my criticism of your position on that subject you start out with some rhetorical question about the honesty of Detroit and Boise officials. Then you bring up some takings issue at the state level. Then some sorry attempt at humor. A mild expletive. Another switch to illegals getting PHOTO-ID's. An admission you couldn't understand my arguments (no surprise, and remember, I did suggest a remedial reading class for you). And finally, an assertion that I am the one who is insane.
Only one mention of photo-ID's and that one worked against your position.
Quit while your behind Bop. Come back when we are talking about the Earth-mother or Dionysian revelry. You might have something to offer.
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And finally, an assertion that I am the one who is insane.
DeleteThe heart and very heart, and strength and very strength of my argument.
I only rejoice you haven't descended to the level of poor Ruf.
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DeleteThe heart and very heart, and strength and very strength of my argument.
As my pal, Frank Zappa, once said, "There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life." But Bob, your comment is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Even the phraseology is stupid. It is criminally stupid.
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WILL OBAMA SUSPEND THE CONSTITUTION IF HE IS LOSING?
ReplyDelete"Whom Does the Government Intend to Shoot?"
That's the question recently posed by retired Major General Jerry Curry in the Daily Caller, in light of horrifying reports that the Social Security Administration is buying 174,000 rounds of hollow-point bullets for distribution to 41 locations in the U.S.
According to Major General Curry, Social Security's ammo spree follows the purchase by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of 46,000 rounds of hollow-point ammunition. Will they be shooting fish in a barrel?
Most terrifying of all, Major General Curry reports that the Department of Homeland Security ordered 750 million rounds of hollow-point ammunition in March, then subsequently ordered an additional 750 million rounds, including bullets capable of penetrating walls.
"This is enough ammunition to empty five rounds into the body of every living American citizen," writes Major General Curry, who wonders what plan might require "so many dead Americans."
I strongly suggest that you read Major General Curry's article for yourself, so you can appreciate the full horror of what he describes. After pointing out that Congress has done nothing to investigate these weapon purchases, Major General Curry, a 40-year veteran, concludes with these chilling words:
This is a deadly serious business. I hope I'm wrong, but something smells rotten. And If the Congress isn't going to do its duty and investigate this matter fully, the military will have to protect the Constitution, the nation, and our citizens.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/08/will_obama_keep_power_by_any_means_necessary.html
Rufus, Obama is your baby, answer the questions, why all this ammo, why all this activity, why the war gaming, why the executive orders, why the trial balloons?
Just askin' the man that is voting for this hooligan.
750 million rounds
Delete46,000 rounds
174,000 rounds
That's a lot of rounds wouldn't you agree, Ruf?
Are they planning to shoot possums, squirrels, gators, what?
5 rounds/per body for everybody here.
I...er....don't see the need for it, or the rationale behind it.....do you?
Scratch my head all I might, I can't seem to see how all this ammo is to be used against the alien illegal entry invasion. That would ramp the numbers up to what, 30 rounds per dead Mexican or something?
ReplyDeleteEspecially when I consider Obama is now not enforcing the border at all, against the wishes of the American people. Doing just the opposite, he is inviting them in.
So, I conclude, it can't be for that purpose.
What is this for?.
To gun down my wife and I, Tea Party protesters in lawn chairs?
To shoot the nation's farmers?
To shoot Republicans?
What are the 750 million rounds for that are purchased by Homeland Security?
Still functioning minds wish to know.
And Ruf, our Obama expert, is the guy to tell us.
I hope he has a benign explanation, or maybe it's all just a clerical error, or some misreporting, or something.
One must add, Obama has been super great for the gun and ammo making industry.
DeleteWe have a true success story going there.
This week, four high-tech Indian warships visited the Israeli port city of Haifa. Why? We don't know. But don't doubt that the forthcoming conflict with Iran and possibly Egypt was discussed; possibly technology secrets were exchanged, and cooperative war plans were explored. Of course, you could do that on the internet, so the four Indian warships were also a signal to the world. Just like Vladimir Putin's visit to Israel a few months ago (when Obama has conspicuously avoided a visit) was also meant to be a signal to the world.
ReplyDeleteWhat do those signals mean?
Obama believes in American decline, and just to make sure, he's making decline happen.
The Mediterranean used to be mare nostrum, as the Romans called it -- an American sea, a crucial part of the six decades of Pax Americana that kept Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East at peace and open to world trade. Today the Russians have ten warships in the Eastern Med, and they've built up a port in Syria at Tarsus. With Putin's visit to Israel, the Russians are moving into the power vacuum left by Obama's deliberate neglect.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/08/israels_nuclear_warning_shot_option.html#ixzz24AI1NwWq
Robert Spencer of JihadWatch on why we should get out of Afghanistan now -
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, says the AP, “the supreme leader of the Taliban boasted on Thursday night that the insurgents are infiltrating the quickly expanding Afghan forces.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/08/robert-spencer-the-fools-errand-in-afghanistan.html
JihadWatch is a wonderful site, if you can stand it.
There was another article today about Christians being singled out for murder in the newly liberated and liberal Arab Spring Egypt, for instance.
I have hereby completed my daily readings.
This psych detention of Raub is just going to make him that much more angry at the gov.
ReplyDeleteIn my wildest dreams I never thought I would be grateful for the Russians and the Chinese to do anything
ReplyDeleteMOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West on Tuesday against any unilateral action on Syria after President Barack Obama said U.S. forces could act if the Syrian leader deployed chemical weapons against rebels trying to topple him.
Russia and China have opposed military intervention in Syria throughout 17 months of bloodshed and have vetoed three U.N. Security Council resolutions backed by Western and Arab states that would have raised pressure on Damascus to end violence.
Lavrov spoke at a meeting with China's top diplomat one day after Obama, in some of his strongest language yet, said U.S. forces could move against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he resorted to chemical weapons against insurgents.
Russia and China base their diplomatic cooperation on "the need to strictly adhere to the norms of international law and the principles contained in the U.N. Charter, and not to allow their violation", Lavrov said at a meeting with Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo.
"I think this is the only correct path in today's conditions," Lavrov told Dai, who also met President Vladimir Putin and his top security adviser, Nikolai Patrushev, on Monday for consultations went unannounced by the Kremlin.
Lavrov's remarks underscored Moscow's wish to keep international efforts to end Syria's crisis within the United Nations, where Russia and China wield clout as two of the five permanent Security Council members with veto power.
Frustrated by the vetoes and by the refusal of Russia and China to join calls for Assad to leave power, the United States and other Western and Arab countries are seeking other ways to exert influence on the situation in Syria.
{…}
{…}
ReplyDeleteNO LIBYA REPEAT
Obama said on Monday he had refrained "at this point" from ordering military engagement in Syria. But when asked whether he might deploy forces, for example to secure Syrian chemical and biological weapons, he said his view could change.
Russia has also expressed concern about Syria chemical weapons, saying it had told Damascus that even the threat to use them was unacceptable.
But Lavrov said on Monday that the Security Council alone could authorize the use of external force against Syria, warning against imposing "democracy by bombs".
Russian leaders have said they are determined to avoid a repeat of what occurred in 2011 in Libya, when Moscow let NATO military operations go ahead by abstaining from Security Council resolution that authorized air operations.
Russian officials then accused the United States and its allies of overstepping their mandate and using it to help rebels overthrow longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi. Putin, prime minister then but now back in official charge of foreign policy, likened the U.N. resolution to "medieval calls for crusades".
Russia denies that it is propping up Assad and says it would accept his exit in a political transition decided by the Syrian people, but that his departure must not be a precondition and he must not be pushed out by external forces.
Putin, who has faced frequent U.S. and European criticism over his treatment of dissent, has made opposition to foreign intervention in sovereign states on human rights grounds a central plank of his foreign policy in his new presidency.
China has issued similar warnings to the West.
In remarks at the start of his otherwise private meeting with Dai and other officials, Lavrov said the opportunity to discuss coordination on global affairs was "very, very timely".
Dai, speaking through an interpreter, said he was in Russia for "consultations on strategic security" and had had a "very good, friendly and important meeting" with Putin.
A Syrian delegation led by Qadri Jamil, deputy prime minister for economic affairs, was also in Moscow on Tuesday and was expected to meet Foreign Ministry officials. It was Jamil’s second visit this month.
Brent Crude is selling for $116.53 in Rotterdam, as we speak. If Obama doesn't release some crude from the SPR pretty damned mos skosche he's going to lose the election (the problem is, to make it work he's got to convince the Europeans to release some gasoline and diesel at the same time.)
ReplyDeleteRe: Raub
ReplyDeleteAll part of the New World Order (Illuminati, MK Ultra). The puppet masters don't like it when one of their Monarch Slaves gets loose.
They treated (are treating) that boy Wrong. If they can lock you up for sitting at home and typing silly stuff on your computer they can lock us all up.
DeleteAll in due time, my little pretties!
DeleteI'm still pissed off about it. Where's fucking Ron Paul? It was his bullshit that got that boy all hyped up. Now, he he's down in Tx, eating ribeyes and spouting his nonsense, and that Marine is sitting up there, somewhere, locked up in a nuthouse.
Deletecocksuckers
"Psychiatric Evaluation"
DeletePure KGB Bullshit
He's not under arrest; we locked him up for "psychiatric evaluation."
Totalitarian motherfuckers.
Was it something I said?
ReplyDeleteMy language, maybe? :)
I see that b is still spouting bubblingbullshit.
ReplyDeleteThe Bush/Cheney administration passed the Patriot Act, which further empowers the Federal government to infringe upon the 10th, 9th and 4th Amendments.
That the current administration uses that power, no surprise.
That a Romney/Ryan administration would change course, not possible.
Indeed, Mr Romney has told US he would eliminate an individuals opportunity to hold "assault rifles' in their personal arsenal.
ReplyDeleteThere is just no justifiable need for such things to be owned by the public at large.
Vote for an assault weapons ban. Vote Romney.
He signed one before, he'll sign one again.
NEWSER) – A federal court yesterday ruled that a new Florida law restricting early voting would not be implemented in the five historically black districts covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Section 5 of the Act allows the government to review election laws in places with a history of racial discrimination. The three-judge panel ruled that the change "would make it materially more difficult for some minority voters to cast a ballot," the AP reports.
ReplyDeleteMinorities have a habit of voting early in Florida. The law, passed by Florida's Republican legislature last year, cut the early voting window from 12 days to eight, and specifically banned voting on the Sunday before the election, which happens to be when black churches usually hold "Souls to the Polls" events, the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting explains. "It's clearly targeting minorities," an ACLU official tells WFSU. But the court did say it would be possible to change early voting in a non-discriminatory way.
The DOJ Approved Virginia's Voter ID Law. It allowed a wide range of IDs (does Not require a photo,) and the State Will Mail a Voter ID Card to all registered voters.
ReplyDeleteOne shakes ones head in dismay at America sometimes what with:
ReplyDeleteThe arrest of Raub
The high school valedictorian who said "hell" in her speech and now can't get her diploma
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/us-valedictorian-denied-high-school-diploma-for-saying-hell-in-speech/article4489629/
and Todd "legitimate rape" Aiken.
AND there is bob.
Sad, sad place!!
Then you need to stay where you are, bubba. You won't be missed.
DeleteI would miss Ash.
DeleteI would miss his patriotism, his knowledge of sail, and his befuddlements.
For me, he is like late-night.
......
Day Four -
She must be either:
1) Finished
2) Taking the day off
3) Eaten by the cat
Pray it is not #3.
A Majority of Americans can't name ONE Supreme Court Justice.
ReplyDeleteand we expect them to recognize that Paul Ryan is full of shit?
If you put a gun to my head, right now, I'd have to say Romney's going to win this election. Ryan's too cute, Obama's too black, gas prices are too high, and the economy is sucking too much wind.
Some here are driven to despair over your failure to recognize Obama is full of shit, even when his Administration it is pulling innocents out of their own homes.
DeleteDee Rybiski, an FBI spokeswoman in Richmond, said there was no Facebook snooping by her agency.
ReplyDelete“We received quite a few complaints about what were perceived as threatening posts,” she said. “Given the circumstances with the things that have gone on in the country with some of these mass shootings, it would be horrible for law enforcement not to pay attention to complaints.”
Whitehead, Raub's attorney, said some of the posts in question were made on a closed Facebook page that Raub had just created and that had only three members, so he questioned whether anyone from the public would have complained about them.
Calling Rufus, Calling Rufus, you have a problem.
This is happening under the Administration of The One, The Only, The Guy YOU Are Going To Vote For, Your Leader: B-HO.
Bob, you're an idiot. Bush put all this shit in place. And, Romney will leave it there.
DeleteThat's like trying to blame Bush for 9-11.
DeleteAND, OBAMA IS THE ONE USING IT, you moron.
DeleteBush/Cheney used it too, b.
DeleteA whole list of persons held, without charge, without bail and never seeing the inside of a courtroom.
Face the facts, the Federals are all of the same ilk. Or they'd not be in the game.
Then, of course, there in foreign rendition.
DeleteRufus, you naif, some of this draconian stuff goes back to Kennedy.
DeleteVote Count on Patriot Act below -
Was sponsored by a democrat -Mary Landrieu of some southern state
http://bunkerville.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/vote-tally-count-patriot-act-passes-275-144/
Beides, maybe I shouldn't tell you this, but I think they followed state law in taking the guy in for a mental. A local judge signed off on it, I believe I read.
We had a guy here running around naked, masturbating, throwing rocks at cars, fighting with people - he is now in custody, the judge having signed a mental eval.
I never cared what they did to foreigners, and still don't. But, that boy is one of mine. And that pisses me off (and, scares me, too - maybe that's why it pisses me off so much.)
DeleteYes, Bob, you fool, but this former Marine wasn't running around causing damage. He was sitting at home typing on his computer.
DeleteExactly, boobie, the abuse of power is bi-partisan. It is not limited to any political party, but pervasive in the current Federal system.
DeleteFuck off crapper. Be polite.
DeleteI agree Ruf. But I think they went through a local judge. Not that that makes it all right. I think it stinks too.
I am making the point this is your guy's FBI.
Even Idaho has temporary civil commitment for a mental eval.
I'm bet a testicle Mississippi has too.
They are actually sometimes necessary.
Got doc appointment. see ya
DeleteIf the Doctor was local, and it was a local matter, why was the FBI involved.
DeleteIf it was a local matter, with what justification do you blame the Obama administration four or five times, up thread?
Either it was local issue, or it was Federal, which do you think it was, boobie?
Sending a US citizen to a foreign land, to deprive him of his day in Court, pure Bush/Cheney. They sent Yaser Esam Hamdi to Saudi Arabia rather than allow him into the US court system.
ReplyDeleteThe current precedent was set, in 2005
Fancy that.
U.S. Can Confine Citizens Without Charges, Court Rules
Padilla is one of two U.S. citizens held as enemy combatants since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The other, Yaser Esam Hamdi, was released and flown to Saudi Arabia last year after the Supreme Court upheld the government's power to detain him but said he could challenge that detention in U.S. courts.
A federal appeals court yesterday backed the president's power to indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil without any criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital during wartime to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.
The ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, came in the case of Jose Padilla, a former gang member and U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago in 2002 and a month later designated an "enemy combatant" by President Bush. ...
Padilla is one of two U.S. citizens held as enemy combatants since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The other, Yaser Esam Hamdi, was released and flown to Saudi Arabia last year after the Supreme Court upheld the government's power to detain him but said he could challenge that detention in U.S. courts. ...
Yes, Rat, but this case is not the least bit similar to the other two.
Delete.
DeleteIt doesn't matter, Ruf.
The money line is right here.
A federal appeals court yesterday backed the president's power to indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil without any criminal charges, holding that such authority is vital during wartime to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.
"during wartime"
Just declare a war on terror, a war that will never end, and you have your justification, at least, according to this court.
This all needs to end up with SCOTUS. The problem is with guys like Hamdi they find something else to do with him because they don't want these cases to end up in court. Too much risk that there is an actual precedent set that would deny them the ability to do what they are doing.
.
You both are absolutely right.
DeleteI thought it was just peachy when they broke the Constitution with Padilla, not thinking it through to the realization that if they got away with it with that scum, it would be me and mine that were next on the list.
I was an enabler.
I won't be again.
Sure it is similar, rufus.
DeleteAs for the reasons Q pointed out.
US citizens detained and/or sent abroad without committing a crime, proven in Court.
Nor even being arrested, just "detained".
It is a slippery path that Bush/Cheney set US upon.
Which the Courts have approved of.
As I said above, you and Quirk are abosutely right. Although the circumstances (Padilla, for instance, was trying to blow up a plane) were different, the Principle of Habeas Corpus is the absolute foundation of Constitutional law.
DeleteI was wrong on Padilla, but I won't be again.
I was writing my reply, before your 6;23 comment was seen, by me.
Delete