COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, April 27, 2007

So very very sorry. It's all my fault, and their fault.

Bush 'deeply sorry' for Tillman family about those responsible for misleading the family of a U.S. football star killed in Afghanistan. Hopes those responsible will be punished, the White House said Wednesday.

Alec Baldwin is sorry for calling his thoughtless little pig a thoughtless little pig.

Nicolas Sarkozy regrets France’s decision not to back the United States militarily in Iraq.

Prince Hal sends his regrets that they would not let him be all he could be.

Jack Valenti is sorry he had to die and leave the party. he sends his regrets.

He is sorry that the great Anglo-Saxon-Christian defender of the faith, Protector of the once great Judeo-Christian Anglosphere is taking a powder in the war with Islam.

I can only say: I am also truly sorry.

86 comments:

  1. Former Pfc. Lynch summed it up best during her testimony: "The bottom line is, the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate lies."

    Pfc. Lynch

    A Los Angeles family law judge who listened to the tape suspended Baldwin's visitation rights last week and set a hearing for May 4, at which time Baldwin could face further restrictions on his contact with the child.

    Baldwin

    Sarkozy and Royal were both vying for voters in the center of France's political spectrum, following a strong third-place showing of centrist Francois Bayrou in the first round.

    Sarkozy

    More than 900 people died during the 74-day war, including 255 British servicemen, 655 Argentines and three islanders. The 820 squadron flew over 4,700 hours during the conflict.

    Falklands

    Valenti had a stroke in March and had been hospitalized for several weeks at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore.

    Valenti

    "I don't want to be a prime minister of a country that doesn't make things any more," he said.

    Kevin Rudd

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  2. It isn't about the terrorism. It never was.

    It's about your own particular hobby horse.

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  3. I'm Sorry the State Dept Sucks

    But it is an absolute disgraceful travesty that we leave the TFG fully unfunded while al-Qaeda pours millions into the effort to destroy them. Some may view that as sinister, but sinister denotes an intent. State does not intend to bolster AQ, but the sad commentary is that they cannot see beyond their collective ego to realize this is what the effect is.

    State’s demand is that the TFG negotiate with ‘moderate’ Islamists among the ICU. When you find a ‘moderate’ Islamist to negotiate a form of government, let me know. I’ll bring my cameras and archive the find for history’s sake. Demanding this - and withholding direct funding because of it - is akin to demanding that the Allies negotiate with the Nazis to accommodate an ‘inclusive’ government.

    Sorry to my friends at the State Department, but I declare ‘bunk.’
    - Steve Schippert

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  4. Mike Gallegher was less than impressed w/Pfc. Lynch's testimony, given that she took $1 Million for a book deal!

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  5. Pakistan’s security services have quietly arrested a number of suspected militants in the past two months in a major bid to thwart planned attacks inside Iran, CBS News reported on Wednesday.

    Quoting key Pakistani and Arab officials, the report said that the arrests appear to be the first tangible evidence of a Pakistani response to the February militant attack in Zahedan, Iran, which left 11 people dead — all members of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard.

    Iranian officials blamed the attacks on members of Jundullah, a shadowy militant group based in Pakistan, and believed to be seeking to intensify attacks inside Iran.


    Militants Arrested

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  6. Musharraf's arresting the wrong militants!

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  7. There's good militants and bad militants. Doesn't he know that? Sheesh. Get it straight already.

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  8. I admit I kinda like 'arry, though it seems he didn't get the 'long straw' parent-wise. He seems to be a fellow trying to do the best he can in the position he was born into. I hope the best for him.

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  9. At the Democrats first Presidential Debate last night in South Carolina, Barack O'Bama is sorry that he did not do more to stop Congress from interfering with the Teri Shivo case. and all the candidates were sorry that the Supremes upheld a law banning partial birth abortion.

    Hillary didn't apologize for her vote authorizing the Iraq war but if she "knew then what she knows now..."

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  10. Ah, if I knew then what I know now. What an ever ready cop out.
    Every farmer knows, we have trouble with the crops, but that doesn't mean we don't go ahead and work with the situation, and make the best of it.

    If I knew then what I know now, I would never have planted that damned spring wheat named Larker, but I got out there and made the best of it anyway, and didn't leave it to rot in the field.

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  11. Michael Yon in Baghdad

    Surreal pictures of an abandoned Christian Church, in pristine shape, and untouched, new computers, books, and all, in the middle of a neighborhood devasted by war and crime, and mostly abandoned.

    "When I first reported more than two years ago, back in February of 2005, that Iraq was in a civil war, the condition was painfully obvious. Nobody seemed to believe that lone and lonely voice then, and there was a price for speaking out. More than two-years later, into April of 2007, these streets are empty. The people who could leave have mostly gone. Many of the wealthy and the educated have abandoned Iraq. The lights rarely come on here.

    On these empty streets it becomes clear that the war that began in March 2003 has been lost to rampant crime, civil war and the sundry insurgencies that have shorn the Iraqi fabric. But while our fire brigades pour up from Kuwait into Iraq, and while our allies pull out one by one, we are reinvading Iraq with not a second wave but a “surge” of brigade after brigade barreling up IED-laced highways.
    "

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  12. Dick Durbin says he's sorry that he kept silent...

    The Senate's No. 2 Democrat says he knew that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent because he was sworn to secrecy as a member of the intelligence committee.
    "The information we had in the intelligence committee was not the same information being given to the American people. I couldn't believe it," Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, said Wednesday when talking on the Senate floor about the run-up to the Iraq war in 2002.
    "I was angry about it. [But] frankly, I couldn't do much about it because, in the intelligence committee, we are sworn to secrecy. We can't walk outside the door and say the statement made yesterday by the White House is in direct contradiction to classified information that is being given to this Congress."

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  13. This Is Counterterrorism, Senator.

    General David Petraeus is known affectionately and respectfully among Iraqis who have dealt with him as Malik Daoud (King David). One of them is Sheikh Abdul Sattar. And together, with their cooperating forces, they are counterterrorism in Iraq. They are a maturing counterterrorism team in Iraq like none yet seen.

    Sheikh Abdul Sattar appears the man that analysts and experts far and wide have said was impossible in Sunni Iraq: An influential, pro-democracy, pro-American, anti-al-Qaeda leader who is not anti-Shia. We sure seem to appreciate those qualities in the Kurds. And for good reason.
    — Steve Schippert

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  14. In days of old, the Prince and his loyal guard would lead from the field.

    Today British forces apologize for their capture, and the good Prince is forced to saty in the Isles. A sad, sad day for England and Wales.

    Their days are numbered.

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  15. It is to "dangerous" for the Warrior Princes' men, to allow him to enter the battle.

    The Prince may become a "target".

    Of course he would be a target, all the more reason to send the Warrior Prince.

    Stupidity beyond bounds, to not allow the Prince to deploy to the War Zone, or into combat itself.

    The Warrior Prince, the last man in England.

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  16. BAGHDAD (Associated Press) -- An active duty U.S. Army officer warns the United States faces the prospect of defeat in Iraq, blaming American generals for failing to prepare their forces for an insurgency and misleading Congress about the situation here.

    "For reasons that are not yet clear, America's general officer corps underestimated the strength of the enemy, overestimated the capabilities of Iraq's government and security forces, and failed to provide Congress with an accurate assessment of security conditions in Iraq," Lt. Col. Paul Yingling said in the article published Friday in the Armed Forces Journal.

    Several retired generals have made similar comments, but such public criticism from an active duty officer is rare. It suggests that misgivings about the conduct of the Iraq war are widespread in the officer corps at a critical time in the troubled U.S. military mission here.

    U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said Yingling was expressing "his personal opinions in a professional journal" and the military was focused on "executing the mission at hand."

    Yingling served as deputy commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He has served two tours in Iraq, another in Bosnia and a fourth in Iraq's Operation Desert Storm in 1991. He attended the Army's elite School for Advanced Military Studies and has written for one of the Army's top professional journals, Military Review.

    In the article published Friday, Yingling wrote that the generals not only went into Iraq preparing for a high-technology conventional war with too few soldiers, they also had no coherent plan for postwar stabilization. The generals also failed to tell the American public about the intensity of the insurgency their forces were facing, Yingling wrote.

    "The intellectual and moral failures common to America's general officer corps in Vietnam and Iraq constitute a crisis in American generalship," he said.

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  17. Pakistani and other Jihadi immigrants are now leading the charge in Scotland's cessation from the Brutish United Kingdom, as an effort to withdraw support from the War on Terror.

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  18. I have felt the same way, about old Alex and his daughter, who stood him up on their "phone appointment".

    Impolite, to be sure, fighting fire with fire, but politeness is not always the best route, in child raising.

    Especially cross continent non-custodial child rearing.

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  19. Reagan's Shadow
    The polling firm Strategic Vision recently began asking Republicans in six states whether they believe George W. Bush is "a conservative in the mode of Ronald Reagan." The results were surprisingly consistent and overwhelmingly negative: 62% of Republicans in Florida answered "no." The numbers were even worse in the five other states: 68% in Wisconsin, 69% in Pennsylvania, 71% in Michigan, 77% in Iowa and 78% in Georgia.

    In a corresponding question, sizable majorities of Republican voters responded that it is "somewhat" or "very" important for the presidential candidate in 2008 to be "a conservative Republican in the mode of Ronald Reagan."

    Reagan's shadow will continue to loom over the Republican primary race as candidates work to invoke his name and associate themselves with his legacy -- starting next week when they face off in their first debate, to be held, fittingly, at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. One more thing worth noting: Rudy Giuliani led the entire Republican presidential field in all six of Strategic Vision's state polls.


    Posted by TOM BEVAN

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  20. Bush has lost several traditional Republican districts in Pennsylvania. It is unlikely they will be retrieved. Pennsylvania is now the Democrat's to lose. I do not believe Rat's polling. There is certainly no way that there are 31% conservative Republicans who believe that Bush is a conservative. Maybe 10% at most.

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  21. He sure could, maybe NJ, as well.

    In GA the poll broke down this way duece, just as you suspected.

    10. Do you view President Bush as a conservative in the mode of Ronald Reagan? (Republicans only)
    Yes 9%
    No 78%
    Undecided 13%


    Less 10%.

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  22. In PA
    Do you view President Bush as a conservative in the mode of Ronald Reagan? (Republicans Only)
    Yes 7%
    No 69%
    Undecided 24%

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  23. IA

    2. Do you see President George W. Bush as a conservative Republican in the mode of Ronald Reagan? (Republicans Only)
    Yes 6%
    No 77%
    Undecided 17%

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  24. WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- Immigration-related felony cases are swamping federal courts along the Southwest border, forcing judges to handle hundreds more cases than their peers elsewhere.

    Judges in the five, mostly rural judicial districts on the border carry the heaviest felony caseloads in the nation. Each judge in New Mexico, which ranked first, handled an average of 397 felony cases last year, compared with the national average of 84.

    Federal judges in those five districts _ Southern and Western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California _ handled one-third of all the felonies prosecuted in the nation's 94 federal judicial districts in 2005, according to federal court statistics.

    While Congress has increased the number of border patrol officers, the pace of the law enforcement has eclipsed the resources for the court system.

    Judges say they are stretched to the limit with cases involving drug trafficking or illegal immigrants who have also committed serious crimes. Judges say they need help.

    "The need is really dire. You cannot keep increasing the number of Border Patrol agents but not increasing the number of judges," said Chief Judge John M. Roll of the District of Arizona.

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  25. Trish,

    After I signed off last night (with a formal "Nite") at 12:25, you responded to a point I had made earlier. Your response was at 12:30 so it may have taken you five minutes to get this together, you said.

    Help whom?
    Answer:
    The Sovereign Nation of Iraq

    I realize how horribly bitter it is for you civil war wishers to acknowledge that Iraq had elections, has a Constitution and is a Sovereign Nation

    **************************************

    Civil war wishers?

    Habu, you never used to sound like a party parrot. I never liked you much, but you weren't that.


    Well Trish the fact that Iraq held free elections, selected a government,established a constitution and is now a recognized sovereign nation may be "parroting" to you but to those of us in the real world those are known as FACTS.
    As I pointed out you and your ilk may not like those facts but that doesn't alter the reality...it does perhaps point that you are living in an alternate reality and perhaps would benefit from some professional guidance.

    Also I am quite flattered that you don't like me much. This isn't a popularity contest and a man is known for his friends as well as his enemies. You are seldom ,if ever in my camp which is just fine with me.

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  27. Riddle me this, then amigo.

    I accept your point whole heartedly that the democratic Iraqi Government has emerged.
    Without doubt.

    Mr Maliki and his UIA bloc, which still includes Mr Sadrs' 30 voting members. They did not resign.

    Why not sign a "new" Deal with them. Give them Command of their own Defense, as they've requested. In the late Fall, to start the new year.

    The major mission goals, as litnied in the Authorization all achieved.

    Drag out training and supplying the Iraqi along with "force protection" after the New Years' transition.

    Mr Bush should announce it, hand in hand with Mr Maliki, from Iraq as soon as he could get there.

    Assume success, plan upon it, or come home. Mr Bush needs to take the inititive, but seems quagmired in hesitantcy.

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  28. 'arry sure looks young in that picture. So far, it seems, 'arry is agreeing with Rat, and is threatening to quit the whole show, if he is not allowed to be one among the many.

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  29. DR,
    To my knowledge they have control over their own army. The sovereign government has also requested that we remain in our present state provided we can't augment it to a greater extent toassure they can remain viable against iran and AQ attacks..it's all about the changing nature of the battlefield as well as the politics of the situation.

    If you think it prudent for us to sign a new agreement with Iraq lessening our protective umbrella you are of course weakening them at a time when they are under increasing attack from outside forces. Not a good move. I don't think Clauswitz,Jomini,Sun Tsu,Mao,Washington,Ike,Truman or any other luminary would recommend such a thing.

    if were going to do that then why don't we just all go to DisneyWorld.

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  30. The could call for volunteers, to replace any of his squaddies that were intimidated by the threat of being alongside the Warrior Prince.

    There would be no shortage of soldiers keen on the mission, of serving with the Warrior Prince.

    Ought to play it up That Wales is on the way. That it means that much to the Crown, that they don't submit to hiding behind the skirts of Buckingham Palace, or 10 Downing St.

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  31. That is where we differ, habu.

    It would strengthen Maliki politically to have command of the Sucurity of Iraq. US combat strength would still be there, well into '08, but with a transfer of resposibility and the Authority that goes with it.

    The Iraqi take the lead, in command, in '08. The US will supports them but they are responsible, from that leadership position.

    Assume the politics of military success or lose politically in the US in '08.

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  32. This just in

    ************************************************************



    Saudis Arrest 172 Militants in Plot

    By ABDULLAH SHIHRI (Associated Press Writer)

    From Associated Press

    April 27, 2007 10:29 AM EDT

    RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Police arrested 172 Islamic militants, some of whom had trained abroad as pilots so they could fly aircraft in attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil fields, the Interior Ministry said Friday. A spokesman said all that remained in the plot "was to set the zero hour."

    The ministry issued a statement saying the detainees were planning to carry out suicide attacks against "public figures, oil facilities, refineries ... and military zones" - some of which were outside the kingdom

    "They had reached an advance stage of readiness and what remained only was to set the zero hour for their attacks," Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Mansour al-Turki told the Associated Press in a phone call. "They had the personnel, the money, the arms. Almost all the elements for terror attacks were complete except for setting the zero hour for the attacks."

    The ministry did not say the militants would fly aircraft into oil refineries, as the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers flew planes into buildings in New York and Washington, but its statement said some detainees had been "sent to other countries to study flying in preparation for using them to carry out terrorist attacks inside the kingdom."

    The militants also planned to storm Saudi prisons to free the inmates, the statement said. More than $5.3 million was seized in the operation, one of the largest sweeps against terror cells in the kingdoms.

    "Certainly anytime the Saudis or anyone else takes action against those involved in terrorism it's a good thing. It's something that makes the world safer and makes America safer," Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, said in Washington.

    The Saudi statement said some of the military targets were outside the kingdom. Al-Turki said the arrests occurred "at various and successive times" but did not elaborate.

    The Saudi state TV channel Al-Ekhbariah broadcast footage of large weapons cache discovered buried in the desert. The arms included bricks of plastic explosives, ammunition cartridges, handguns and rifles wrapped in plastic sheeting.

    The ministry referred to the militants only as a "deviant group" - the Saudi term for Islamic terrorist.

    Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Mansour al-Turki told the privately owned Al-Arabiya TV channel that the militants included non-Saudis.

    Al-Ekhbariah showed investigators breaking tiled floors with hammers to uncover pipes that contained weapons. In one scene, an official upends a plastic pipe and bullets and little packets of plastic explosives spill out.

    The channel also showed investigators digging up plastic sacks in the desert.

    The al-Qaida terror group, whose leader Osama bin Laden is a Saudi, has called for attacks on the kingdom's oil facilities as a means of crippling both the kingdom's economy and the hurting the West, which he accuses of paying too little for Arab oil.

    ---

    Associated Press writer Donna Abu Nasr contributed to this report from Beirut, Lebanon

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  33. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  34. Sounds like Saud security had those deviant mussulmen under pretty tight observation. A few doubles no doubt.

    A double blind false flag operation, to make for some "good news" on the "Over There Front"?

    A gift from our staunch and true allies, Prince Bandar and the King?

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  35. DR,

    While I agree that the Bush admin should claim success and thus gain political cover for withdrawal the problem with empowering Malaki and his pals is that he will most likely move to increase the attack on the Sunni. Currently the US is mitigating that urge hoping that reconciliation can occur. Standing behind, protecting and empowering Malaki and gang could very well perpetuate a genocide and having our troops their supporting him would make US complicit in that genocide.

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  36. Hey Party Parrot Habu, Hamas is a duly elected government. Do you think we should throw our military might behind those folks? NO? Why Malaki and his crew then?

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  37. Ash,
    What sovereign nation do they represent? What international accords and treaties have they signed? Are they a member of the UN?

    You are such as asshole.

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  38. The announcing of the transition and the subsequent advances towards "reconciliation" would drive US tactical relationship with the Iraqi Federal and local Governments.

    The amount of aid that flowed, and to where would be determined by US. General McCaffereys' shopping list was extensive though short.

    There were 5 million or so Sunni when the insurgency began. Most of the 2.25 million external refugees are Sunni.

    So the are perhaps 3 million Sunni left. Allied efforts have converted, to date, about 60% of those to an anti aQ position. Though not perhaps a pro-Baghdad Gov. one.

    Regardless the insurgent population base is now about 1.5 million, down from 5 million.

    There may be some more relocations, internally within Iraq, on its' way to a de facto Federally partioned Iraq. Get most of those relocations done under a US military overwatch umbrella.

    Funding the Sunni sub-population is a challenge, but if they presented a Palistinian type problem, the balance of Iraq would be free to deal with them, internally.

    The external pressures, we'd still be in the area to manage the pressure release valave.

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  39. Chavez, how 'bout him Habu? UN membership, International accords, elections. Worthy of US military backing in your eyes? NO? Why should we prop up Malaki with our blood and treasure?

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  40. DR, there seems to be a Shia insurgency as well. There is also the Kurdish problem as well as the Turkomen problem, Shia on Shia fighting, and we can add to that the inter clan/tribal conflicts. My point is - why the heck should we be trying to mediate this BS especially at this great a cost?

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  41. Ash,
    If you are very lucky someday someone will explain how this country works and how the world operates.
    If some of us are really lucky you'll step in front of a cement truck.

    Am if I'm really really lucky we'll get to meet face to face.
    Why do I see a Don Knotts figure in my minds eye?

    You need a t-shirt that says...... I've been a jerk since birth

    Ash quit with the inane questions on why we don't support every sovereign nation. It's just making you look like a bigger and bigger asshole. Next you'll list North Korea,Iran,Uganda....and then chirp why, why, why.....you've got some serious studying to do.
    Someone else help this child out.

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  42. Habu, but that is the reason you just cited for maintaining our support for the Iraqi government. I'm suggesting it is not a valid reason and that truth seems to have upset your delicate ego.

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  43. "Assume success, plan upon it, or come home. Mr Bush needs to take the inititive, but seems quagmired in hesitantcy."
    ---
    Not sure any of us could do better if we really thought Condi was anything but an Academic Joke of a Sec of State.

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  44. ""The need is really dire. You cannot keep increasing the number of Border Patrol agents but not increasing the number of judges," said Chief Judge John M. Roll of the District of Arizona. "
    ---
    You could if they all had 50 Calibers Mounted on their Humvees, and a couple of Spectres for backup.

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  45. On Wednesday, the House voted 218 to 208 to impose an Oct. 1 deadline for starting U.S. troop withdrawals, if the Maliki government meets benchmarks for progress in political reconciliation. If the Maliki government fails, first departures move up to July 1. Almost all U.S. troops, except residual forces, are to be out by next April.

    On Thursday, the Senate approved this $124 billion spending bill, and Bush is expected to veto it and demand a clean bill -- no deadlines, no pork.

    Congress will then capitulate and give Bush what he wants. For recalling the "Who lost China?" and "Who lost Vietnam?" debates of decades ago, Democrats do not want to be in the dock when the "Who Lost Iraq?" inquiry begins in the public forum.

    Reid and the Democrats are risking having this can tied to the tail of their donkey. For though Americans want the war to end and the troops brought home, they do not want America to lose the war. And that may explain the duplicity of today's debate.

    Reid and four Democratic candidates for president -- Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd -- voted to give Bush a blank check for war. Now that the war is going badly, all five are calling for withdrawal. But neither they nor their party wants to be seen as responsible for the defeat that appears inevitable if we depart now.

    Politically, cynical Harry and cynical Chuck are right.

    If the war is still raging and Americans are dying at the same rate in November 2008, Republicans lose the White House and Congress. However, if U.S. forces have been defunded and withdrawn by Congress, and November 2008 rolls around with a strategic disaster and Cambodian-style bloodbath in Iraq, Reid's party could be credibly charged with having cut and run, lost the war and caused the greatest debacle in American history. The stakes here are huge.

    Democrats believe they have a winning hand on Iraq. Polls seem to confirm it. But the situation is not static. There are more cards to be dealt in this highest of high-stakes poker games. And what looks politically shrewd in April 2007 could look like suicidal folly in November 2008.

    As Bush must know, if U.S. casualties are not cut and U.S. troops have not been drawn down by November 2008, his party loses the White House and victorious Democrats will liquidate the war, my sense is that Bush himself will begin the withdrawals.

    But as he believes a complete U.S. pullout will ensure both a U.S. defeat and disaster, he will leave in Iraq, on Election Day 2008, enough U.S. forces to prevent that defeat. And his successor, Republican or Democrat, will be the one to complete the pullout and lose the war, if indeed, as Harry Reid assures us, "the war is lost."


    Entire article
    Cynical War Politics

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  46. Power, Faith, and Fantasy

    From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
    Reviewed by Robert Kagan

    We often hear that Americans know little about other nations; a bigger problem is that we know too little about ourselves, our history and our national character. When it comes to U.S. foreign policy, in particular, we were all born yesterday, unaware of how present policies and attitudes fit into persistent historical patterns. So when a brilliant, lucid historian such as Michael B. Oren does bring the past back to life for us, revealing both what has changed and what has stayed the same, it is a shaft of light in a dark sky.

    Today, the conventional view is that George W. Bush took the United States on a radical departure when he declared a policy to transform the Middle East and that, as soon as he leaves office, U.S. policy will return to an alleged tradition of realism, rooted in the hard-headed pursuit of tangible national interests. This is both bad history and bad prophecy, as Oren shows in Power, Faith, and Fantasy, a series of fascinating and beautifully written stories about individual Americans over the past four centuries and their contact with Middle Eastern cultures.

    The remaider of the review can be found here:

    Book Review

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  47. Miztuh Habu suh?

    Yes 'Tater

    I rekon if'n you reads dat dar book you just rebued din dees heer folks gonna get a schul'in

    Could be Tater. That Washington Post is a liberal newspaper so when Mr. Kagan laid down that first marker it was striking.
    I just may read that book.

    Well, Mistuh Habu, dat be gud. folks needs know'n and sum, well they be right pitiful on learn'n an nolidge

    Yes PossumTater I' think you've hit it out of the bogpark. Good job old boy.

    I be thanks you Mistuh Habu, now I goes for sum Ms. Honeysuckle-Tater

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  48. Mistuh Habu suh


    yes 'Tater

    did i jus sees ya order dat book on dat amazon.

    Sure did 'Tater

    Mistuh Habu suh, do dat mean you be hand'n out a bigga whup ass dan normal?

    No doubt 'Tater, no doubt.

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  49. jeez 2164 I'm do'in a helluva job keep'in the numbers up, whew...it's OK, there's wounded over there that need the water..I'll be OK.....ah maybe a Klondike Bar if you see one anytime soon.

    I've phoned the others, SparrowHills,TarBabyTater (H/T DR) so we'll keep the numbers up...

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  50. OK OK some of you guys get those keyboards networked, we've got some work to do...

    Now let's see TarBabytater you wanna start work'in up a piece on Sarkozy or would you rather go with the Talledaga Nextel Cup Race on Sunday?

    Ok, Sarkozy, good that's better for the site

    Anybody know where Hobotater is?

    Ok,Ok..lets check the market..OK oil over $66.37 and it's looking like another record close..halal foods up a tad.

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  51. ..man this is like being on the interstate in your Porsche in the fast lane with no traffic..whoopee

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  52. Just for you, habu


    YOU may talk o' gin an' beer
    When you're quartered safe out 'ere,
    An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it;
    But if it comes to slaughter
    You will do your work on water,
    An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's got it.
    Now in Injia's sunny clime,
    Where I used to spend my time
    A-servin' of 'Er Majesty the Queen,
    Of all them black-faced crew 10
    The finest man I knew
    Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din.

    It was "Din! Din! Din!
    You limping lump o' brick-dust, Gunga Din!
    Hi! slippy hitherao! 15
    Water, get it! Panee lao!
    You squidgy-nosed old idol, Gunga Din!"

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  53. Hot damn Aquarium's in the house...

    Hey Aquar..whaddya work'n on?

    CarWashTater I haven't decided yet. maybe a piece on medieval codpieces.

    No way man ..do maces instead they always carry more weight..

    Ah Aquar, maybe in your case but CarWashTater carries weight

    Ok,Ok

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  54. Panama Ed great stuff.... Gunga Din!
    Pashas, ambushes

    GUNGA DIN is one of the greatest adventure epics of all time. Part of the reason for this is the outstanding cast that this 1939 epic had. The three leading actors in this movie are the legendary character actor Victor McLaglen, the dashing Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and the incomparable Archibald Alexander Leach, better known to the world as Cary Grant.

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  55. but who was the actoe who blew the bugle?

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  56. actoe??

    TarBabtTater sometimes that half day of spelling you had comes back to haunt you.

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  57. Oh yeah Mr Big Aquarium Man at least I don't swim around in my own shit!! Bite me.

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  58. Ok men, we came over here to pump up the numbers in what appears to be a light wind. Let's stay focused.

    Sarkozy
    Oil prices
    Iraq
    American Idol

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  59. It seems Riverbend and her family are also giving up on Iraq for the time being:

    "I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

    On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave. I guess I've known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?"

    http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

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  60. a quick review of the days BEST OF:

    We often hear that Americans know little about other nations; a bigger problem is that we know too little about ourselves, our history and our national character. When it comes to U.S. foreign policy, in particular, we were all born yesterday, unaware of how present policies and attitudes fit into persistent historical patterns. So when a brilliant, lucid historian such as Michael B. Oren does bring the past back to life for us, revealing both what has changed and what has stayed the same, it is a shaft of light in a dark sky.

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  61. Another crowd favorite by Tar BabyTater...

    BITE ME,

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  62. I'm glad Riverbend had such a pleasant existence in Iraq. I guess she never ran into Uday's chipper shredder, or Saddams Halabja poison gas attack. That's a good thing, positive.

    I guess all the evil showed up with the arrival with the Great Satan.

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  63. Quick review on peaceful pre-war Iraq.

    Halabja poison gas attack

    The Halabja poison gas attack occurred in the period 15 March–19 March 1988 during the Iran-Iraq War when chemical weapons were used by the Iraqi government forces and a number of civilians in the Iraqi Kurdish town of Halabja (population 80,000) were killed.

    It was an event that is historically separate from the al-Anfal Campaign but related in that Kurdish civilians were caught up in the fighting and their numbers are often included in accounting the deaths attributable to Saddam Hussein's regime as part of the Anfal campaign. Estimates of casualties in this attack range from several hundred to 5,000 people. Halabja is located about 150 miles northeast of Baghdad and 8-10 miles from the Iranian border


    80,000 CIVILIANS DEAD..GASSED
    It must have been paradise.

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  64. Aquar = Ebonics for Aquarium

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  65. Doug,

    Ya gotta remember that came from CarWashTater

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  66. "revealing both what has changed and what has stayed the same, it is a shaft of light in a dark sky. "
    ---
    That's all we have left to rely on, now that they've Courts Martialed our
    Shaft of Steele.

    The shaft of light combs the dark sky, our Northstar, AWOL.

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  67. Hillary says we're ready for a "Multilingual" President.
    (explaining her "black" twang when she addresses fellow cleaning ladies, restin, from pickin up behind someone.)
    So ebonics is fine, Aquar.

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  68. Habu, dude, you are showing your ability to read and comprehend and it isn't faring very well. Read up on Halabja a little more carefully and review the numbers of estimated dead. 80,000 was the population of the place not how many were killed. I am afraid that even if you read that book you ordered today it won't provide you with much valuable insight given that recent example of reading comprehension.

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  69. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  70. The worst news is almost the same that I heard when in Iraq in December 2005. The Iraqi government isn’t yet stepping up to its political responsibilities. The hydrocarbon law, designed to assure Sunnis a share in the principal national revenue source, still isn’t progressing through the Iraqi parliament. Petraeus has some sympathy for Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister. Remember, the general admonished, that Maliki has little real power. He cannot force parliament to act, and his government “ministers” aren’t even bound to him by some party loyalty. Rumors are circulating that the Iraqi parliament is about to take a two-month recess. If they do, the Iraqis will burn up the last vestiges of American patience with their politics. If they don’t care about their political progress, it will be hard for us to care, either.

    The issue for Petraeus, unstated in this meeting, is time. He’s already planning how to measure the progress, or lack of it, in the promised report to Congress later this year. Will Congress even give him that much time, and will the Iraqis – by their parliamentary negligence – deprive him of it?


    Petraeus Reports on Iraq
    by Jed Babbin

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  71. A fun look at the trouble with Islam from a Brit.

    The trouble with Islam

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  72. 80,000 vs 5000 Congrats you passed the alertness test.
    With a dearth of traffic that stat was thrown in to test the blogpop attention.

    A raw bone thrown out for every Habuian Hater to mangle. I will consider giving your future comments more weight.

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  73. "And yet, now, just as President Bush has come around—just as he has recognized the mistakes his administration has made, and the need to focus on basic security in Iraq, and to install a new secretary of defense and a new commander in Iraq—now his critics in Congress have changed their minds and decided that the old, failed strategy wasn’t so bad after all.

    What is going on here? What has changed so that the strategy that we criticized and rejected in 2006 suddenly makes sense in 2007?

    The second element in the plan outlined by the Majority Leader on Monday is “the phased redeployment of our troops no later than October 1, 2007.”

    Let us be absolutely clear what this means. This legislation would impose a binding deadline for U.S. troops to begin retreating from Iraq. This withdrawal would happen regardless of conditions on the ground, regardless of the recommendations of General Petraeus, in short regardless of reality on October 1, 2007.

    As far as I can tell, none of the supporters of withdrawal have attempted to explain why October 1 is the magic date—what strategic or military significance this holds. Why not September 1? Or January 1? This is a date as arbitrary as it is inflexible—a deadline for defeat.

    How do proponents of this deadline defend it? On Monday, Senator Reid gave several reasons. First, he said, a date for withdrawal puts “pressure on the Iraqis to make the desperately needed political compromises.
    "

    Liebermann Jolts Senate LINK Above

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  74. Doug: "Let us be absolutely clear what this means. This legislation would impose a binding deadline for U.S. troops to begin retreating from Iraq."

    Not true. Do a little research. If he signs it, he agrees to a non-binding withdrawal date that he has the full authority to ignore if he wants.

    The bill provides more cash than the administration sought to bankroll operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but says US troops are to start withdrawing from Iraq in October, with a non-binding target of completing the pullout by March 31.

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  75. You'll have to take it up with the honorable Senator:
    Who do you believe, a reporter or one of the Deans of the Senate?

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  76. Advertisers Reach Out to Muslim-Americans
    For years, few companies dared to market to Muslims. An Ikea store in Canton, Mich., is one that has begun to do so.
    Ad Slogan:
    "Come Bomb my Market"

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  77. Scratch that,
    Here's the weiner:

    "Shop Ikea,
    It's da Bomb!
    "

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  78. "I'm glad Riverbend had such a pleasant existence in Iraq. I guess she never ran into Uday's chipper shredder, or Saddams Halabja poison gas attack. That's a good thing, positive.

    I guess all the evil showed up with the arrival with the Great Satan."


    Riverbend was benefiting from it all.

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  79. via MJT:

    “If America pulls out of Iraq, they will fail in Afghanistan,..”

    And that pretty much sums it.

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