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."

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

If the medal fits, you have to acquit, maybe.


Ex-CIA Officers Among Tenet Critics
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer


George J. Tenet's close friends said he anticipated criticism for some of the claims and anger he expressed in his new memoir about his former life as director of the CIA. He did not expect, they said, that his detractors would include former CIA and military officers, or that he would be blamed for the deaths of U.S. troops fighting a war in Iraq that he knew had been badly planned from the start.

As his book, "At the Center of the Storm," debuted yesterday, six former CIA analysts called on Tenet to donate a significant portion of royalties to families of service members killed or wounded in Iraq. They also called on him to return the Presidential Medal of Freedom he was awarded in December 2004.

The signed letter chastised Tenet for bottling up criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war for three years and then publicly focusing on how the White House may have sullied his reputation. The letter -- written by officers who have been vocal in their opposition to the war -- was widely circulated by e-mail to CIA and military veterans groups and blogs. Several former CIA officers who worked closely with Tenet in the run-up to the war said they agreed with the letter but did not want to become embroiled in a public fight with their former boss.

"What about the 3,000 Americans who are dead in Iraq?" asked a former senior CIA officer who left the agency shortly after Tenet resigned in 2004. "Where's George's sympathy for them? I think he is a guy that did care and tried to do the right thing, but he didn't have the moral courage to stand his ground when you need to."


46 comments:

  1. *********************************************************************************************************

    Most patrons of the EB know that William F. Buckley is the Father of Modern Conservatism. Perhaps fewer of us know that he lost his wife two weeks ago. He is writing again and as an acolyte of his I place great weight on what he writes. The following piece is as worthy of any he has written.

    The Waning of the GOP

    By William F. Buckley Jr.


    The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue. The opinion polls are savagely decisive on the Iraq question. About 60 percent of Americans wish the war ended — wish at least a timetable for orderly withdrawal. What is going on in Congress is in the nature of accompaniment. The vote in Congress is simply another salient in the war against war in Iraq. Republican forces, with a couple of exceptions, held fast against the Democrats’ attempt to force Bush out of Iraq even if it required fiddling with the Constitution. President Bush will of course veto the bill, but its impact is critically important in the consolidation of public opinion. It can now accurately be said that the legislature, which writes the people’s laws, opposes the war.
    Meanwhile, George Tenet, former head of the CIA, has just published a book which seems to demonstrate that there was one part ignorance, one part bullheadedness, in the high-level discussions before war became policy. Mr. Tenet at least appears to demonstrate that there was nothing in the nature of a genuine debate on the question. What he succeeded in doing was aborting a speech by Vice President Cheney which alleged a Saddam/al Qaeda relationship which had not in fact been established.

    It isn’t that Tenet now doubts the lethality of the terrorists. What he disputed was an organizational connection which argued for war against Iraq as if Iraq were a vassal state of al Qaeda. A measure of George Tenet’s respect for the reach and malevolence of the enemy is his statement that he is puzzled that Al Qaeda has not, since 2001, sent out “suicide bombers to cause chaos in a half dozen American shopping malls on any given day.” By way of prophecy, he writes that there is one thing he feels in his gut, which is that “Al Qaeda is here and waiting.”

    But beyond affirming executive supremacy in matters of war, what is George Bush going to do? It is simply untrue that we are making decisive progress in Iraq. The indicators rise and fall from day to day, week to week, month to month. In South Vietnam there was an organized enemy. There is clearly organization in the strikes by the terrorists against our forces and against the civil government in Iraq, but whereas in Vietnam we had Hanoi as the operative headquarters of the enemy, we have no equivalent of that in Iraq, and that is a matter of paralyzing importance. All those bombings, explosions, assassinations: we are driven to believe that they are, so to speak, spontaneous.

    When the Romans were challenged by Christianity, Rome fell. The generation of Christians moved by their faith overwhelmed the regimented reserves of the Roman state. It was four years ago that Mr. Cheney first observed that there was a real fear that each fallen terrorist leads to the materialization of another terrorist. What can a “surge,” of the kind we are now relying upon, do to cope with endemic disease? The parallel even comes to mind of the eventual collapse of Prohibition, because there wasn’t any way the government could neutralize the appetite for alcohol, or the resourcefulness of the freeman in acquiring it.

    General Petraeus is a wonderfully commanding figure. But if the enemy is in the nature of a disease, he cannot win against it. Students of politics ask then the derivative question: How can the Republican party, headed by a president determined on a war he can’t see an end to, attract the support of a majority of the voters? General Petraeus, in his Pentagon briefing on April 26, reported persuasively that there has been progress, but cautioned, “I want to be very clear that there is vastly more work to be done across the board and in many areas, and again I note that we are really just getting started with the new effort.”

    The general makes it a point to steer away from the political implications of the struggle, but this cannot be done in the wider arena. There are grounds for wondering whether the Republican party will survive this dilemma.

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  2. Thanks for posting that Habu. As a life long Republican and conservative, sometimes libertarian, and twice voter for Bush, I can see that Bush has done for the country and party, what Carter did for the Democrats and then some.

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  3. Deconstructing George Tenet
    The former CIA director's new book gets some facts wrong--or so says the former top staffer of the 9/11 commission.
    Web exclusive
    By Michael Hirsh
    Newsweek
    Updated: 6:20 p.m. ET April 30, 2007
    April 30, 2007 - Former CIA Director George Tenet’s new book, “At the Center of the Storm,” has reopened the wounds of the war on terror. In the book, on sale today in bookstores, and in a memorable interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” Sunday night, Tenet argues that there was no real debate inside the administration during the run-up to the Iraq War. He claims he gave then-national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice a heads-up about an imminent terrorist attack in July 2001, telling her that a “big event” was coming. And he has defended the conduct of the CIA against criticisms that the agency was largely to blame for failing to place two of the 9/11 hijackers on its watchlist--even though the two had been in the CIA’s sights.

    Tenet’s salvo drew return fire Monday, as the White House, the State Department and some members of the intelligence community rushed to respond. Philip Zelikow, who evaluated the CIA’s handling of the terrorist threat in his capacity as executive director for the 9/11 Commission, also took a critical view of Tenet’s version of events. Zelikow, who says he has not yet read “At the Center of the Storm,” nonetheless says he “spent many hours interviewing” Tenet about what happened before 9/11--and finds Tenet’s new account to be confused on some of the facts. Zelikow, who also served as senior counselor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, spoke with NEWSWEEK’s Michael Hirsh. Excerpts:


    excerpts

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  4. As an addition to Mr. Buckley's comments I would say that others on this site have been a good bit more right about things than say, my good friend SparrowHills or Aquarium.

    I don't want to put words in their mouths but my best recollection is that Mr. DR. has advocated ,along with others, not a total with drawl but an American redoubt, away from the daily car bombs and IED's to places where they can still affect the outcome should a decisive showdown develop. this would seem a prudent course to pursue.
    I am as of this day reassigning several of my staff, SparrowHills, Aquarium and TarBabyTater to the stacks for deeper research into the metaphyscial understanding of the color purple.
    Possumtater I need close at hand so that I can be smarter than anyone else in my immediate presents. It's however becoming a push.
    It took Mr. Buckley, a hero of mine to aid in reassessment and I thank him.

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  5. Looking ahead at "Toast" for the month of May

    From the Archives
    J. Edgar Hoover, F.B.I. Chief, Dies at 77
    (May 2, 1972)
    Marlene Dietrich, Symbol of Glamour, Dies at 90
    (May 6, 1992)
    Joan Crawford, Screen Star, Dies at 69
    (May 10, 1977)
    Erik Erikson, Who Reshaped Views of Human Growth, Dies at 91
    (May 12, 1994)
    Rita Hayworth, Movie Legend, Dies at 68
    (May 14, 1987)
    Jeannette Rankin, First Woman in Congress, Dies at 92
    (May 18, 1973)
    Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady, Dies at 64
    (May 19, 1994)
    Frank Sinatra, Matchless Pop Stylist, Dies at 82
    (May 14, 1998)
    Jane Addams, a Foe of War and Need, Dies at 74
    (May 21, 1935)
    Langston Hughes, Writer, Dies at 65
    (May 22, 1967)
    John D. Rockefeller, Oil Tycoon, Dies at 98
    (May 23, 1937)
    Mrs. C. J. Walker, First Black Woman Millionaire, Dies at 51
    (May 25, 1919)
    Edward VIII, Who Abdicated Throne, Dies at 77
    (May 28, 1972)
    Boris Pasternak, Who Wrote 'Dr. Zhivago,' Dies at 70
    (May 30, 1960)
    Claude Pepper, Fiery Fighter for Elderly, Dies at 88
    (May 30, 1989)
    Jacques Monod, Nobel Biologist, Dies at 66
    (May 31, 1976)
    Jack Dempsey, Boxing Champion, Dies at 87
    (May 31, 1983)
    Timothy Leary, Piper of Psychedelic 60's, Dies at 75
    (May 31, 1996)

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  6. From the PajamasMedia

    Tenet: Webwide Whipping Boy of the Day

    We hope George Tenet’s recent and future tour on behalf of his book sells a lot of copies. He’ll need it to make up for the withering criticism he is undergoing on the Internet. Usually you can count on at least one side to stick up for you. Tenet can’t get a break from the Right or the Left.

    Christopher Hitchens at Slate is busy filleting him with observations like: “Tenet knows how the kiss-up and kiss-down game is played. And, for a rather mediocre man, he did well enough out of the arrangement while it lasted.”

    At the same time, Juan Cole at Salon continues the autopsy. “He never cared enough about the fate of the country to stand up and say that the country was being driven to war on the basis of obvious falsehoods and a tissue of lies. Even now, his high dudgeon concerns affronts to his own reputation….”

    It gets worse just about everywhere on the Web for Tenet. So bad that neo-neocon is convinced he needs to stop writing books and seek professional help. “I’m all for feelings, and talking about them. But there’s a place and time. This sort of thing rightly belongs in a therapist’s office.”

    PJM Seattle

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  7. Raised as I was on John Ford and John Wayne, only coming to see the gusto in Peckinpah's work later, the story of Fort Apache tells US a tale.

    A tale of an eariler insurgency, but one where the lessons were learned, only to be forgotten with each successive generation.

    Cochise speaks with tremendous presence, dignity, good sense, and reasonableness. His only complaint, as it happens, is the Indian Agent on the Reservation, a corrupt and vicious person who is responsible for sickness and death among the Apaches. Cochise is perfectly willing to talk peace if the Agent is sent away, otherwise, "war is better."

    As it happens, we already know all about the Agent, since the Regiment has discovered the bad liquor that he illegally sells to the Indians, and his weapons smuggling. One might think the Agent would have been arrested and tried; but Col. Thursday evidently regards that as beyond his jurisdiction.

    Now it turns out that Thursday also regards the Agent as somehow Sacrosanct, despite his behavior and crimes, just because he is a "representative of the United States Government."
    The complaints of Cochise are therefore beneath consideration, and the Apaches must simply do as they are told.

    Although Sgt. Beaufort and others protest that Cochise is simply speaking the truth, as they all know well, Thursday has nothing but contempt for the Indians, insults them, and stalks away, confident in his ability to handle anything that the Apaches might do. His ignorance, arrogance, bigotry, and inability to listen to informed advice will now have terrible consequences.

    The next day, as the Regiment prepares to attack the Indians, a cloud of dust seems to indicate that they have fled. Capt. York advises the Colonel that this is certainly a trick, and that the Apache warriors are doubtlessly waiting in ambush in the rocks ahead. Col. Thursday simply doesn't believe him and orders the Regiment into a formation merely for pursuit. Capt. York objects that such a source of action would be suicidal, and the Colonel now chooses again to insult the Captain's honor by calling him a coward and ordering him to the rear. This is too much for Capt. York, who literally throws down his gauntlet, challenging the Colonel for his insult. Thursday says he will either fight a duel or courtmarshal York, but meanwhile York is still to return to the rear--with Lt. O'Rourke, a provision probably intended to deprive him of the "glory" of the battle, but which in the event preserves him from the massacre.

    And massacre is what we get, as all seem to understand except the Colonel himself. The Apaches are waiting, and Col. Thursday is one of the first to have his horse shot out from under him. Capt. York actually rides in to rescue the Colonel, but then Thursday does the only morally redeeming thing he has done the whole movie: He recognizes his folly and then insists on returning to the men to die with them, which he does, also apologizing to Sgt. Maj. O'Rourke.

    Col. Thursday's final act of courage produces the final, bitter irony of the movie:
    He officially becomes a hero

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  8. JUST TO SPICE THINGS UP

    Postcopulatory Sexual Selection Is Associated with Reduced Variation in Sperm Morphology

    SPICE UP

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  9. The sad thing about Tenet's book is that he is feeding the historical amnesia of the left who selectively cite GWB and Dick Cheney as "lying" the country into war. In spite of the rich historical record of public statements made by politicians and security experts of every stripe, the left has doggedly persisted in it's calumny that Bush and Cheney manipulated the intelligence. I have not read Tenet's tell all from what I hear, he picked a hell of a way to repay a man who gave him the Medal of Freedom rather than the boot up his ass which in an earlier time, he would have assuredly received. George Tenet played no small part in the decade preceding 9/11. He was "the adviser" to Presidents, Democrat and Republican alike. His book should be boycotted but instead will be one more projectile of hate hurled against George W. Bush.

    The world has turned upside down.

    Woe, Woe, Woe.

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  10. Good Lord, sparrowhills, aquarium and tarbabytater have all deceased on the same day in the month of May? This is shocking news, if true.

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  11. DR,
    Very scary. I watched both "Fort Apache" and "The Wild Bunch" just last week from my home library of "greats"

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  12. bobalharb,

    Not deceased, just reassigned until they learn the craft of posting better.
    Right now lets just say they have light duty. I was feeling gracious.

    One of them is simply folding T-shirts

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  13. 'to the stacks for deeper research into the metaphysical understaning of the color purple' could be interpreted in a number of ways, I am just glad it didn't carry the deepest metaphysical meaning.

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  14. William Buckley declared the war "lost" long before Harry Reid publically uttered the words. In my opinion, strategically, Iraq has become FUBAR such that it has become a very complicated task just to define victory. We once had high, idealist expectations for a people newly freed from the darkest despot on Earth. Now we wish for a strong leader who can "push the string" towards order from chaos.

    As to Buckley's "The Waning of the GOP." Bush is a lame duck in an especially hostile political era. Buckley is probably stating the obvious when he declares the Bush political problem as possibly "beyond the point of rescue." We will need the "deep breath" of a decade or more to realistically assess his Presidency.

    The "waning GOP" that we are witnessing is a result of a relentless attack by the Democrat party aided and abetted by the liberal MSM. Those forces have nearly perfected the tactic of smearing Republican leaders.

    That's not to say the GOP is blameless. The self-inflicted wounds and weakness against the leftist onslaught have indeed set the GOP on a waning cycle. But, a couple of years ago, it was the Democrat party which was imploding. So what waxes also wanes and vis versa. It's just a law of nature. The ideals of conservatism will live on even if the party does not.

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  15. A new more humble Habu. It is almost inspirational. I need to re-examine my life.

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  16. A word of caution. Anyone at the EB inviting Habu to dinner, ought to reserve a table for eight. Better bring your platinum card.

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  17. The Deadly Companions •
    Ride the High Country •
    Major Dundee •
    The Wild Bunch •

    The Ballad of Cable Hogue •
    Straw Dogs •
    Junior Bonner •
    The Getaway •

    Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid • Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia •
    The Killer Elite •
    Cross of Iron •
    Convoy •
    The Osterman Weekend

    The embolden film s being "great"
    Jr Bonner making my list, since Prescott was changing then, even more so through today, a kind of story about my own family's life, in the changing "West".

    Ride the High Country, Killer Elite & Osterman Weekend, all being entertaining.

    Alfredo Garcia stands as a piece of cinema artwork.

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  18. 2164.....more humble? Didn't you see the deft way I turned on my staff in the best D.C political tradition casting them in the roles of inept advisors or worse, and letting the buzzards feed on their flesh while bankrupting them with legal fees thay can never pay?

    I will agree I said I was being gracious but it was that "damning with faint graciousness" (to prostitute an old saying) that I used.

    I think Buckley is, and has been for fifty plus years, more right than wrong, and I've always felt that when two or three of your advisors tell you you're drunk, well, you should probably at least take a seat.

    I also agree with Yogi, that it ain't over til it's over.
    I clearly remember the 1960 World Series.


    Oh and Whit I appreciate the Hudna thing but being such an anti-Islamist is there another moniker out there that might fit? Not that I'm not greatful for the sentiment, it's just spoken in a tongue I dispise.

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  19. I have found that irony does not travel well on the internet. Most of my attempts at it have fallen flat.

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  20. I've always thought Buckley is a self-satisfied son of a bitch, and one of the phoniest 'christians' walking. Further, whatever he serves up as philosophy is always self serving in the highest degree. I can't stand the guy. Like GWB, Kennedy and all too many others, 'never worked a day in my life, and proud of it.'

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  21. And further, if your wife has just kicked the bucket, you give it a break for at least a month or so, even if you are glad she's gone, just for appearances sake.

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  22. bobalharb

    Give the guy a break. He had to slog all over Europe, first class as a youth, then attend the best prep schools, then Yale.

    My God man how much do you expect a man to have to endure?

    Then, during the earliest beginnings of TV interview shows he had to perfect the double-jump eyebrow manuever and the almost Jimmy Stewart like, 'well,well" stutter.
    I think one of his most enduring qualities aside (no joke here) from his first rate mind, (joke coming) was his ability to look rumpled in any suit.

    He did in fact work very hard at publishing and writing, toils that are rarely measured with that word but do require a measure of persistence. He gave structure and voice to the modern conservative movement and that's ok by me for a life's work.

    As I've always reminded my wife, we do not pick our parents. Had he become a besotted, bloviating, gassbag, adulterous poltroon like Teddy Kennedy it would be a different matter but he managed the labor he chose quite well.
    So we must agree to disagree regarding Mr. Buckley's contributions to this nation.

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  23. I see Tenet merely trying to sell a book, which he got such a nice advance on, and is under literary pressure to make good on the advance.

    I see essayists and columnists, both liberal and conservative "piling on" concerning Bush.

    As someone much smarter than me once observed, " Columnists come down the hill after the battle and shoot the wounded, essayists come down the hill after the columnists and go thru the pockets of the dead."

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  24. Just to keep the ballast properly placed on our long voyage to wherever in Iraq. I give you the:

    IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION REPORT

    It ain't over til it's over

    Iraq Reconstuction Report

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  25. Junior Bonner with the coolest actor for quite some time, Steve McQueen...a "must see" for folks into the western genre

    Mistuh Habu suh,

    yeah 'Tater

    I wishes you wouldn't be used dat frille word "genre" whince talk'n 'bout westerns or Mistuh McQueen.

    Hmmm, I see your point 'Tater. From now on I'll call them , western movies, ok..

    dats be betta Mistuh Habu.

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  26. gag reflex.

    " Columnists come down the hill after the battle and shoot the wounded, essayists come down the hill after the columnists and go thru the pockets of the dead." ...

    a keeper

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  27. Buckley was also a staunch, public Conservative, when it was uncool, to say the slightest. With some of the characters running around during the 60s, probably was unsafe as well. At least, when they weren't killing themselves with their own bombs.

    Bless him.

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  28. At the same time, this:

    "The opinion polls are savagely decisive on the Iraq question. About 60 percent of Americans wish the war ended — wish at least a timetable for orderly withdrawal."

    Is not fact, so far as I know.

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  29. DR

    Osterman is excellent..How about "Will Penny"?

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  30. Always enjoyed Straw Dogs, even a wuss can be pushed too far.

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  31. gag reflex,

    I need your help. I once taped Will Penny. Let me start again.
    I once taped 99% of Will Penny.
    My tape cut off as he was riding away from the woman, which I was hoping he wouldn't do .... and I've never found out ...
    well wait this isn't gonna work cause if you tell me it'll spoil it for those who haven't seen it and may want to ...guess I'll have to wait till it comes back on TV.

    The 99% I saw was good.

    I really liked Robert Mitchum but he didn't do alot of westerns.....down South "Thunder Road" is a gotta have seen.

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  32. I recently picked up a copy of Will Penny from the bargain bin at Wal Mart. 3 bucks, great movie.

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  33. cutler,
    You're right. He was way out front all alone fighting off the socialist legacy of the FDR administrations and alerting conservatives to books such as "The Road to Serfdom" and other bedrock works.

    His erudition was without peer and his verbal and written sparring with John Kenneth Galbraith and prissy Gore Vidal were worth the price of his magazine.

    Plus he gave use the the incomparable Blackford Oakes!

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  34. In "Will Penny", Donald Pleasance and Bruce Dern played the meanest SOB father son team in any movie during that time.

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  35. jake,
    I'll keep a sharp eye out for it. Like most folks I have my favorites library and it will go in there.
    I usually watch the Magnificent Seven once or twice a year too,
    but inching up toward the top isn't a western at all. It's Apollo 13. It was true, very accurate in recounting the event and well acted. I followed our space program from Sheppard up to today. Facsinating.

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  36. The initial presentation today, Bill Buckleys column has some points that nits could pick. Of course not being a nit picker I will catagorize my comment as "an observation"
    WFB says;
    There is clearly organization in the strikes by the terrorists against our forces and against the civil government in Iraq, but whereas in Vietnam we had Hanoi as the operative headquarters of the enemy, we have no equivalent of that in Iraq, and that is a matter of paralyzing importance

    I would point out that just as Hanoi was in another country directing a war against a different county so Tehran is without a doubt the epicenter of the continued fomenting of hostilities in Iraq, the greatest provider of arms against Iraq, and a haven for training AQ and other terrorist organizations and can therefore easily be identified as the Hanoi of this engagement.

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  37. (smoooove segue)...and speaking of Hillary check out this dandy leftover from her recent South Carolina Magnolia Tour.

    Hillary

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  38. Staying on Offense

    Rudy Giuliani had it exactly right when he said the following this past week on "The Sean Hannity Show" about the defeatists who are running for President and leading the Congress today: "They do not seem to get the fact that there are people, terrorists in this world, really dangerous people that want to come here and kill us…"

    Straight Talk About Offense

    What's really pitiful is that it still has to be said, but then Islam is a religion of peace

    One of great bullshit lines (lies) in history

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  39. He or She?

    The bar was filled with many women.

    Can you pick them?


    http://www.dr-joe.net/shemale/index.html

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  40. hey Whit,

    I just got outta da joint ...it don't matta a bit ...

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  41. Jeeze, no hat tip from Habu, and then a compliment from the host, also sans hat tip for Doug!
    If this keeps up, I'm going to get as serious-minded as honest Al!
    Check out Reid thread at BC:
    Al and another nose to the grindstoner there overlooked Scott Ott's byline and took Scrapleface seriously!
    :-)
    Made my day.

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  42. hogzill,
    Ya gotta do what you gotta do.
    ...under the circumstances and on the sheets.

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  43. What I always found the most intersting about Mr Buckley, was that he did not learn to speak, read or write, in english, ubtil his early teens.

    Raised in Mexico, english was not part of his world. That is an example of a sharp mind, to say the least,

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  44. Doug,

    If I missed a H/T to you I do apologize.

    Tell ya what, next time you're in HogzillaTater country I'll let ya rub his tummy. Now whether he'll let ya rub his tummy is something you two will need to work out

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