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."

Monday, September 25, 2006

President George W. Bush, Visionary and Getting it Right


No president has taken more abuse and ridicule than George W. Bush. Unnoticed and unheralded is an intelligent long range strategy that will protect American interests far into the future. These actions may eclipse the importance of the experiment with Democracy in Iraq. The synoposis of this strategy is discussed in this article in Financial Times. I missed the story when it was in The New York Times. Do not miss this one. Here are some excerpts, but a very worthy read.


"The centrepiece of President George W.Bush’s Asia policy is encouraging Japan’s normalisation as a great military power, a historic break from Japan’s post-1945 tradition of pacifism. Similarly, Washington’s intensifying partnership with New Delhi reflects America’s determination to accelerate India’s rise to world power and India’s aspirations for greatness. In India and Japan, the US is fuelling the strategic ascent of countries that intend to face China as equals.

The US is also cultivating the emerging regional powers of Indonesia and Vietnam. Like India and Japan, they share a historical wariness of Chinese power and an interest in countering Chinese influence in south-east Asia.

Lastly, the US is nurturing a strategic community of democracies in the shadow of Chinese autocracy. America and Japan have formalised trilateral defence co-ordination with both Australia and South Korea and are exploring a trilateral strategic dialogue with India. America wants Nato to develop military interoperability with leading Asian democracies."

141 comments:

  1. Great points about our counter moves in a world in flux.
    In many areas, Sweden, Germany,England, and others the Islamic threat is getting more voter recognition than ever.
    One tiny little observation. Abe Lincoln took more abuse than any President ever, far more, but he knew what he was doing and history proved him right. He made the USA into what it's potential was instead of allowing it to remain an outpost of words not deeds. Plus he's on the $5.00 bill. Cool.

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  2. OT...say what you will about Wal-Mart but their new $4.00 Rx deal just pulled the rug from underneath Hillary and national health care.
    I imagine soon they'll install CAT scan machines and for $20 a doctor will look at it and diagnose what ails ya...gosh free markets are wonderful.

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  3. Why not Afghanistan?

    First the French bring Osama above the fold, then Mr Clinton asks why not Afghanistan, on FOX.

    Today, in the WSJ, JFKerry makes the same point.
    "... When did denying al Qaeda a safe haven in Afghanistan cease to be an urgent American priority? Somehow, we ended up with seven times more troops in Iraq--which even the administration now admits had nothing to do with 9/11--than in Afghanistan, where the killers still roam free. Even as the president claimed we are on the offensive against terrorists, Gen. James Jones, the U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, made an urgent plea for more troops to fight the Taliban. President Karzai has also appealed for more troops and support, and on my trip to Afghanistan this year, he stressed to me the importance of a robust American troop presence. And on Sept. 11 this year, U.S. Col. Michael Harrison noted "more troops would be welcome" in the hunt for bin Laden and his henchmen. ..."

    Why did the US give up on Afghanistan, hunting Osama and aQ in it's Sanctiary there and in Pakistan?

    Why not victory in Afghanistan?

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  4. Need that answer in the next week or so, or Peggy Noonan will be "right", again.

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  5. yeh, Target followed 'em, too, last Friday, i believe twas. I LOVE (WMT), not the least because it drives the hard-core Socialists batsh*t crazy.

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  6. The War was "Good", but why was it managed so ineptly?
    Why was Victory selfdenied?

    Why not Osama?
    Why not Warizistan?
    Why give aQ a safe haven?

    That's the new drumbeat, in the War on Terror.

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  7. "... Love Wal-Mart or hate it, you can't deny its shrewd business sense -- and, don't scoff, its social benefits -- in using its clout to lower the cost people have to pay for consumer goods. But muscling record companies into lowering the cost of CDs was one thing. Making some 300 generic drugs available for $4, which it announced it will do, has the potential to improve the quality of life for many uninsured and under-insured people and force the pharmacy industry to introduce more competitive prices for the drugs. (The sharp drop of shares of CVS and Walgreens tells you what a radical notion that is.)..."
    From the Chicago Sun Times

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  8. The Kurds want to keep US around, but they are neiher large, nor in charge, in Iraq.

    Let US hear from Mr Maliki and the UIA on the subject, they are Iraq's Government.

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  9. DR,

    After Mr. Clinton's pop, yesterday, this may get additional attention.

    Retired officers to criticize Rumsfeld

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  10. Mr Bush went on his campaign swing, now the Dems are marching themselves. The have their share of Vets and Generals in their camp.
    If Security is the issue for Republicans, competency of War management will be the Democrats.

    Mr Webb, that Admiral in PA6, just the leading edge of the Dems rebound. As to their prior political experience, or lack of it. "Gofer", Mrs Bono, JD Hayworth had been a sportscaster. Many politicians "start" with the House, on both sides of the aisle.

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  11. Why is Iraq so popular for our interests?

    Well sex is popular because it's centrally located ..same with Iraq.

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  12. Only in a Regional War, habu, which the Federals deny we are in.

    Each of the "Wars" are local and unconnected. So say the Supremes in Hamadan and the Congress and the President have concurred. By their subsequent actions.

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  13. Why is Iraq so popular for our interests?
    Because if used properly in a game of Scrabble the "q" put together in a word with triple letter score could help you win?

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  14. Any military general who aligns himself with the Socialist Democratic Party given their leadership's attitude toward the military should be suspect and pissed on.
    Why don't they just go play golf like good little retirees.

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  15. Mostly these generals are still power hungry synchophants who see a chance to be somebody important again.
    They are in the vanguard of the Socialist Democrats Brown Shirt movement.

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  16. Gofer had a hit TV show.
    Mrs Bono had Sonny's reflected glory plus a big hunk of tree bark.
    J.D. Hayworth has lost weight.

    All good qualifiers.
    Too bad Tom Delay got booted, he was a pest control guy. That's a great qualifier.

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  17. "... The GOP has tilted too far toward its Southern wing, preoccupied as it is with religion, tradition and morality, and away from its Western wing, which is more concerned with freedom, independence and privacy.

    The result is a party that has all but abandoned socially liberal but fiscally conservative voters, leaving it increasingly vulnerable in states where libertarian-leaning voters are a presence. If you take the 2004 presidential election results in three of the Four Corners states (Colorado, where President Bush won by 5 percentage points; Nevada, where he won by 3; and New Mexico, by 1), a total of fewer than 70,000 votes would have swung 19 electoral votes and the election to John Kerry. ...

    ... So, who are these migrants?

    People who can't afford to live in California anymore, Frey says, typically Generation-X types in search of jobs and affordable homes.

    "A lot of them are from very blue parts of California," he told me. "My gut feeling," he said, is that migrant Californians "will hold on to their cultural ideas" even if their economic needs might change. Even "red" Californians leaving the state as part of "white flight" aren't likely to be anywhere near as socially conservative as voters from the South.

    This suggests that Democrats may begin to have an easier time making their case in the West. And recent election results may bear this theory out. Whereas in 2000 Democrats held zero out of eight governorships in the interior West, they now hold four — including the statehouse in Montana, which Brian Schweitzer won in 2004, the first Democrat to do so in 20 years.

    In 2004, Democrats also took over both houses of the Colorado Legislature and sent Democrat Ken Salazar to the Senate to replace retiring Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell; Salazar's brother, John, won the open House seat in Colorado's 3rd District, which was vacated by a Republican (one of only two open Republican seats picked up by Democrats that year). ...

    ... But it's the folks who drive a state or two over and stay who will eventually force the Republican Party to choose between tipping over on its West-South axis and finding a more socially tolerant, fiscally responsible alternative. "


    Seems that way to me, a divergence on Regional Issues of importance could certainly turn AZ and CO blue.

    Mr Pederson's ad campaign vs Jon Kyl is all about Fiscal Responsibility, well the Senator's suppossed lack of it, actually.
    No War talk at all.
    Mr Kyl counters with AZ County Sheriffs, sin Sheriff Joe, concerning Border Security and Mr Pederson's position on Alien Amnesty, which mirrors Mr McCain's.

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  18. The Sheriffs all look like Western Reenactors, right off the movie lot. I had not realized that they fit the "Tombstone" stereotype, until they were seen, together, with Mr Kyl. It is a bipartisan group, the Sheriffs.

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  19. You mean sex isn't popular because it's centrally located?


    Robert Byrd, Grand Klegle ...top flight Socialist Democrat.

    I shouldn't have said those generals should be pissed on. Urinated would have been more gentle and conveyed a greater harmony.
    The Armed Services are just an extended diplomatic tool used when the words cease to have meaning and the diplomats have reservations at the Sans Souci.

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  20. Bob Beckel says Mr Clinton is providing the theme for the Democrats, in that FOX interview.

    Lordy be!

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  21. If we had taken the the number of red states and the number of blue states together we would have had a nation of magenta.
    Darned old Electoral College try'in tricknolgy on us po vot'n folks.
    The Socialist Democrats look like commie apparatchik reenactors but looks are deceiving for they aren't reenactors but the real deal

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  22. Bob was last right in 1972 when he went to 4 ply tissue.

    He's an household word that's for sure.

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  23. Ahh, but post 'Nam the military has been elevated in the hearts && minds of Americans. Thye are seen a apolitical, even buddy bemoans their "politicalization". When in fact the Military and it's leaders have always been political animals.

    Since WWII their direct influence has been behind the scenes, but look to the number of Presidents that had first been Generals, 'bout a third or 'em, as I recall.

    A double MoH Marine Major General Smedley Butler said in 1933:
    "... War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses. ..."

    But he was becoming "political" as well, in 1933.

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  24. The point about the College cuts both ways, habu.

    The mobility of the people is changing the States. It is easily visible here, in the West.

    Russell KS, home of Mr Dole, was full of antiWar feelings, just a month ago. I was surprised at the remarks folk made. Not stereotypical, at all.

    It is more likely that a Western State will flip before Doc Assad does.

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  25. yeah ole Smedley was try'in to get the bonus money for the WWI vets when they needed it most when he made those remarks.
    Of course our service men in uniform at that time obeyed illegal orders (see Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 parg 263 section 15) and burned and killed some of those veterans, under the watchful eye of the imperious Dougy MacArthur.
    In the military it is your duty to follow only LAWFUL orders. They didn't and in the process committed murder.

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  26. habu, you can't use place names in Scrabble--according to the Rules. Nothing that requires capitalization is ruled in.

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  27. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  28. MacArthur, Ike and Patton all participated in that little "clear and hold" operation, in DC.

    Orders, what orders?
    We do not need no stinkin' orders!

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  29. I can't remember who said it but it went something like this..

    You'll never go broke underestimating the ignorance of the American people...

    I know P.T. Barnum made a fortune with the simple sign "To the egress" ..folks thought it was sump'in special so the went through the tentflap only to find themselves outside. They had to pay another nickle to get back in to see the show.
    Whoever wins I just hope the candidate has a clear margin of victory..these close ones seem to have a corrosive effect on the electorate's confidence in the entire system.

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  30. Buddy,

    Then in my best Clinonesque fashion i would claim it to mean a billiards term... i raq.

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  31. MacArthur even exceeded the clear and hold orders and had his men burn and pillage and murder.
    He probably got a medal for it too.

    " Awarded to Doulas MacArthur for murdering WWI veterans, the Legion of Merit"

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  32. plus Buddy down here in the south we do things differently than the west of the country.

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  33. You bet--on the close ones. Mexico just institutionalized The Gore 2000 Effect, internationally.

    Socialists feel cheated unless they lose by a landslide. If they can get 40%, they want the win.

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  34. The difference between say 40% and a simple majority, is the Victim Premium.

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  35. Budy
    If we have to we'll just change that rule.
    Rules ... those who follow them NEVER make it to the top of anything.

    In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
    Geo. Orwell

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  36. Yeah, but are you not walkin' west, habu?
    Out to the "Big Sky".

    Leaving Florida just a little bluer and Sen. Conrad Burns in Montana still buffetted by Jack Abramoff's lobbying scandal.
    Mr Jon Tester, the Democratic candidate is up by 6% or so.

    "... Jon Tester was born in Havre, Montana on August 21, 1956, and raised near the town of Big Sandy, Montana, (population: 710) on the same family land that his grandfather homesteaded in 1916.

    Tester grew up in Chouteau County, where the rich landscape and life as a farmer’s son instilled in him a deep-rooted commitment to Montana, family, faith and hard work.

    Today Jon Tester continues to honor the agricultural roots his grandfather planted in Big Sky Country by continuing the Tester family dry-land farming operations. Tester also was a custom butcher operator. ..."


    He also is a Mason and an Organic farmer and music teacher.

    "... His tenure as President marked a significant and successful transition for Montana Democrats as they moved into the majority leadership of the Senate for the first time in more than a decade. ..."

    So habu, your new State is moving Blue, as well.

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  37. Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
    George Orwell (1903 - 1950), 1946

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  38. And people who break rules DO move to the top of organizations--often cell-block committees. Hey, is there an Inmates Union yet?

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  39. rat, the old William Jennings Bryan midwest populist agrarian wobbly movement has always been just a lite touch away. Montana doesn't surprise me.

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  40. Burn down your cities and...[they] will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country

    excerpts-Cross of Gold speech, 1896

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  41. U.S. Army extends Iraq duty for 4,000

    It is imperative that the Democrats not be allowed to screw-up a magnificent plan!

    “It would not be a problem now if the situation in Iraq had improved enough to allow the Army to reduce its presence as originally planned.”

    Brilliant assessment!

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  42. Montana is sure 'nuff a curious state. After da lass 'lection Montana hit the press as a "purple" state. they did some things one way, vote'tit other s ways.
    The best thing Montana could do for itself is keep both Seators for as long as they can. Tenure and moving up in committees is the only power they really have.
    My father in law is a Socalist-Dem but he agrees keeping the power in place in the capitol. One SDem Senator and one Rep.
    They only have one Rep in the House.
    It's a poor state with few jobs but I will say they are independent thinkers.
    The place is also like a giant zoo. Wild citters all over the place, and once home of the UniBomber and current home of MOM..the infamous Militia of Montana in Noxon. You go to Noxon and people wearing guns stare at you..hard..I had on a T-shirt that said "Suck my Cock, Asshole" so nobody talked to me.

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  43. Always the conversationalist, aye, habu

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  44. An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.
    H. L. Mencken

    In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.
    H. L. Mencken

    Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
    H. L. Mencken

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  45. Erudition, a curse of the intelligent,strong,swift, and brave...Habu
    To quote copiously and well requires taste, judgment and erudition, a feeling for the beautiful, an appreciation of the noble, and a sense of the profound”
    Christian Nevell Bovee

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  46. Christian Nevell Bovee

    not to be confused with the inventer of the FlowBee

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  47. i'd say the Tee shirt was damned eloquent. don't wear it in Frisco, tho.

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  48. Buddy,
    Actually there were two t's with the same qoute.

    one had a picture of Pee Wee Herman

    and the other had Bruce Lee.

    I couldn't get one that had Pee Wee Lee on it

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  49. It's not my mind I speak of, but the electorate of our fair land.

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  50. ....speaking of the Levant

    Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.
    Oscar Levant

    Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character.
    Oscar Levant

    Once I make up my mind, I'm full of indecision.
    Oscar Levant

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  51. redaktør; 1:38:46 PM

    Marshal von Trishfits and you were talking a short time ago at the BC about the use of torture to gain information from unlawful combatants. Upon reading your exchange, I was reminded that the strongest hormones produced by the human body are for pleasure receptors. To date, I cannot recall having seen any discussion addressing the use of these for the purpose of extracting useful intelligence information.

    Among mammals, is there any force more powerful than an erection?

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  52. ..and speaking about Francois de La Rochefoucauld.

    Hope, deceiving as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.
    Francois de La Rochefoucauld

    Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.
    Francois de La Rochefoucauld

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  53. Just heard it again
    "Seven more times the troops in Iraq than Afghanistan"

    As Ms Noonan said, It'll be a question of Management of the War, not the War on Terror, itself.

    The Dems answer to the change in course question, More Iraqis Quicker.
    Transfer authority and responsibility, starting now, accelerate the process.
    The 325,000 combined Iraqi Security forces are more than enough, to accelerate, as we already have started.

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  54. ..is that a Pee Wee Herman erection or a Rambone erection?

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  55. ..speaking of acceleration.........

    Cosmoe uses the Linux framebuffer at the moment, but the short term plan is to pick up acceleration by going with DirectFB, and the long term plan is to wrap the XFree86 driver plug-in architecture.
    Bill Hayden

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  56. Even Chris Shays has called for a faster transfer. He's as expert as any, being in Iraq at least 14 times.

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  57. ERECTIONS...


    Erection is chiefly caused by parsnips, artichokes, turnips, asparagus, candied ginger, acorns bruised to a powder drunk in muscatel”
    Aristotle quotes (Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scientist and Physician, 384 BC-322 BC)

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  58. I can attest to the effects of a good ginger tea, properly prepared.

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  59. TRANSFER...

    In addition to the internationalization of Iraq we have to transfer power as soon as is possible to a sovereign Iraqi authority.
    Zbigniew Brzezinski

    Height, width, and depth are the three phenomena which I must transfer into one plane to form the abstract surface of the picture, and thus to protect myself from the infinity of space.
    Max Beckmann

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  60. .yeah leave out the asparagus, she might choke and hurl

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  61. art exists because truth would kill us

    --Neitzsche (paraphrased)

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  62. SHAYS QUOTES..

    I believe that stress is a factor in any bad health.
    Christopher Shays

    The bottom line is that the CIA knew before the war, during and war, and after the war where most of these chemicals were and most of these biological agents.
    Christopher Shays

    Chemical exposure can heighten and quicken other illnesses and make them more acute.
    Christopher Shays

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  63. I always relied on Tequila, myself.

    In Her Glass, not mine.

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  64. Art exists so something can be hung on the nail in the wall..
    Habu

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  65. Habu is a fig newton of the imagination
    --Krishna

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  66. TEQUILA ...

    Tequila. Straight. There's a real polite drink. You keep drinking until you finally take one more and it just won't go down. Then you know you've reached your limit.
    Lee Marvin

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  67. it just won't go down

    it just won't go down

    it just won't go down

    it just won't go down

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  68. "I find my identity in Art"
    --Art Johnson

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  69. ...or is it Art's Johnson is hung

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  70. Straight it just won't go down

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  71. Lee Marvin got shot in the butt in the invasion of Saipan, and thus missed Iwo Jima. Fortuitous, as we might never have had his performance in "Cat Ballou"--one of the funnier "alky" portrayals ever commited to film.

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  72. Straight it just won't go down Peggy Noonan.

    Why did Nixon watch "Deep Throat" three times?

    He was trying to get it down Pat

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  73. also had Nat King Cole as a sort of Greek Chorus, singing the story, from "in" the story--tho none of the other characters seemed to see him. Stubby Kaye, i think, was the other singer.

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  74. Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum ..real men.

    Now the young lads and lassies have chestwaxed heros who are panty waste. Meterosexuals

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  75. Nat King Cole was in "Deep Throat"?, never even noticed.

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  76. No, "Cat Ballou"--dammit, pay attention.

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  77. Cat Ballou was Marvin's tour de force in comedy roles...

    but in the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ... he was one B A D dude

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  78. Newt's on the O'Reilly Factor tonight

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  79. Jane Fonda was the lead--a perky l'il filly of 20 or so, before she became a Freaking Communist.

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  80. Per Michelle Malkin:

    Michael Yon's latest dispatch

    “[O]ur European allies are awakening to the reality that a monster really is under the bed. But this awareness is not keeping pace with the threat.”

    “As in Iraq, troop numbers are also dangerously low in Afghanistan, where the handfuls of friendly forces additionally lack sufficient air power to stretch their security resources.”

    "Losing Afghanistan."

    “[T]he Taliban seems to be flush with cash, thanks to the guerrillas' alliance with prosperous opium traffickers.”

    “Afghanistan is "unfortunately well on its way" to becoming a "narco-state," NATO's supreme commander, Marine Gen. Jim Jones, said before Congress last week.”

    Too much to do with too few people.

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  81. A recent analysis of comments on the BC show that 92% begin with some level of homage to Wrethcard.

    Take for example today's eleven posts.

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  82. Iraq is seven times more important, according to deployments.
    That's the new line, I've heard it a least three times, today.

    The idea that Mr Clinton could not perform the entire time he was at FOX Studios, that his "furor" at his staff could only be "genuine" is comical. Mr Bill can certainly be "on stage" for an hour, with his supporting cast at hand.

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  83. ah Buddy, she was a fine lass, as was my heart throb Julie Christy in Dr. Zhivago ..what a babe

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  84. “Afghanistan is "unfortunately well on its way" to becoming a "narco-state," NATO's supreme commander, Marine Gen. Jim Jones, said before Congress last week...

    hey General good to see you're all over the news THE WHOLE WORLD HAS KNOWN FOR DECADES.

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  85. Cat Ballou had a subtextual Deep Throat aspect? Damn I missed that one.
    Was "Stubby" responsible?

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  86. How come I never get any homage? I guess a good day in the Elephant is when you don't get speared.

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  87. Oh habu, when tha Taliban ruled, they burned the fields. At least for PR effect.

    Hey it may just take more allied Afghanis or Canadians or maybe the Dutch will ante up another batch of troops. But the latest call, for 2,500 bodies, went unanswered by our NATO allies.

    They say there are no more supplies in the pantry. Kosovo has streched them to the breaking point.

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  88. 2164..hosanna
    hosanna
    hosanna.....

    no kidding you are doing a great job and those of us who cut and paste our way through certain days, giving only occasional attribution (DR keeps catching my Castenada stuff).
    Occasionally real good stuff comes through mostly from Buddy,DR,Rufus, and then what ever I can rearrange to avoid plagerism outright and still sound like I can keep up.hosanna
    hosanna

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  89. DR,
    Yeah, I think we need to go to BIKETOBER FEST in Daytona and recruit some bikers.

    say how come the French Foreign Legion doesn't have a contingent,or do they?

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  90. I say we take all death row inmates and make them clear IED's

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  91. BTW, second that habunian sentiment, 2164. You and Whit are really doing some nice work. Y'all is "Nat'chuls", as we say down hyar in de deep souf.

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  92. Yuri missed how paper-thin NATO was a-fixin to be. Yuri missed PoMo Parisian Hiltonism.

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  93. 2164...i thirdly what Buddy seconded on my firsty.

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  94. The world is changing, boys; India's Getting on Board.

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  95. India..one ally that will be indespensible isn't in NATO or any other "pact" member..are they he said meekly?

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  96. Rufus is right..we can dung our way out of this energy hole

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  97. A piece of work is Franco-American UNSC Resolution 1701. It could be a glimpse into a Rice presidency, if you discount Iraq and Afghanistan…and Waziristan…and Pakistan…and Iran…

    UN in Lebanon: Pathetic Beyond Belief

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  98. Chhattisgarh has announced that it would plant 160 million saplings this financial year. It plans to take up an exhaustive programme on a million hectares of fallow land by 2012:

    That's a whole bunch of saplings, 160 million. About 12,000 per hectare, 5,000 or so per acre.
    8 square feet per plant, more or less.

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  99. India, Australia, Japan. Big, big, BIG triangle.

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  100. Be a friend in deed to a friend in need.

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  101. I'm with Buddy and DR..bigger USN....

    we need nano-algae that can be trained to do what nano-algae do best in the defense of their countries.

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  102. have you ever seen those police bubble-gum guns? they shoot a few pounds of stringy goo at a perp, and it rubberizes on exposure to air and slows way down whatever it is the perp is trying to do?

    That's the UN, i think. That's how it sees its Pee Skeeping role.

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  103. nanoalgea, that's the ticket.
    Then there'll be nanocides to counter.
    Another set of technologies, for the racket.

    Kill their machines, let their troops and people live, gum up the works. It seems to work so well?

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  104. Yeah, 3/4/4

    3,000,000 active duty personnel
    400 ships
    Defense at 4% GDP

    Sounds like a campaign slogan.

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  105. i already worried about the moral aspects of using nano-algae.
    i mean the slightest mistake in the laboratory could lead to a return of Bella Abzug ...is it worth the risk?

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  106. rufus 3:49, related

    ...the CIA and the State Department are both political assets for the Democrats, but unlike the State Department, which more often undermines the president quietly, the CIA actively intervenes in national elections by systematically leaking stuff calculated to have an adverse political impact on Republicans

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  107. little sub-micron busybodies wearing little tiny wide-brim millinary

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  108. A new Millinery Threat has arisen.

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  109. 800 ship navy with the new stealthy ones comprising 20% of the force.
    Names..we need new ship names..

    USS Elephant Bar

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  110. a nano-millinary-military

    we'll have this thing sewed up by midnight

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  111. Great link Rufus

    USS Rufus.

    Bush ain't gonna git naw credit fo nutt'in 'cept from us. The MSM is stuck deep on dumb.

    I wanna see Bill back on Fox, see if they can stroke him out...

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  112. NO, HABU! That was the "Old" strain of nano-algae.

    You Fuck UP with the "NEW" Strain you get HELEN THOMAS.

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  113. Rufus,
    then it's obvious we need to keep very careful controls in place during development.
    Nano-algae is not to be toyed with.

    Who's our best nano guy/gal?
    Please don't tell me at Berkeley,please.
    And on land ..nano-supials ..raises the hair on the back of your neck just think'in 'bout it.
    nap break time.....

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  114. By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer

    SAN DIEGO -- Three Marines from Camp Pendleton will face courts-martial on murder charges in the death of an Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania, the Marine Corps said Monday.

    Gen. James Mattis, the commanding general in the case, said he would not seek the death penalty.

    The three were among seven Marines and one Navy corpsman charged with kidnapping and murdering 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad last April. The others face preliminary hearings in coming weeks.

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  115. If you think the campaign in Iraq is part of the War on Terror, then examining whether terrorist recruitment has increased as a result is like measuring public opinion polls in Germany in the days after D-Day to see if the invasion is succeeding.

    Attacking your enemies can be expected to make them angrier. Hitting the beaches at Normandy is going to increase your casualties. Those are things you'll see on your way to victory.

    The New York Times commonly sites the anger of our enemies and our increased casualties as evidence that we are losing, and cites CIA "estimates" (political opinions, really) in support. This tells you much more about the NYT and the CIA than about whether we are headed for victory or defeat in the Middle East.


    link

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  116. Let's play "Who Do You Trust the Least?"

    first question: France or the CIA?

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  117. If some Jihadists really are leaving Waziristan/Afghanistan/Pakistan, I think they going Here!

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  118. Oh, Great Posts, Duce; Thanks.

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  119. Then, red, the Republicans will add to their majorities in both Branches of the Congress, in just 43 days. That would be a sure sign of an awakened US Electorate.

    Doubt that will happen, but we will see, will we not.

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  120. $66 Billion USD will be needed to rehab equipment wornout in Iraq. This has yet to be funded, according to FOX News.

    Rumsfeld says he is standing pat.

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  121. Well, red, since there has yet to be a single Mohammedan city dustified, there is not much of an awakening, let alone anything to cheer about.

    Glad you agree.

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  122. A precedent like the Highway of Death unilateral ceasefire?
    The Shia uprising of '91?
    The continued US support for the Shah?
    US reaction to the Marine barracks bombing and the Iranian Hostage Crisis, some 27 years ago?
    Sanctuaries in Syria and Iran for Iraqi Insurgents?

    Those are the Region's strategic precedents, for US.

    What precedent do you see coming, to break the trendline?

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  123. redactor said:

    The realization we’re wasting time and money tinkering with the problem.

    Complimentary naval escorts in the Straits of Hormuz for all tankers flagged by countries that vote with us in the UN. Devil take the rest.

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