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."

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Revisting Peggy Noonans Latest Column

I've long admired Peggy Noonan as one the most eloquent and "sweetest voices" in Journalism. Never ascerbic, always reasoned in her arguments and astute in her observations. It pains me to read this:
I suspect the White House and its allies have turned to name calling because they're defensive, and they're defensive because they know they have produced a big and indecipherable mess of a bill--one that is literally bigger than the Bible, though as someone noted last week, at least we actually had a few years to read the Bible. The White House and its supporters seem to be marshalling not facts but only sentiments, and self-aggrandizing ones at that. They make a call to emotions--this is, always and on every issue, the administration's default position--but not, I think, to seriously influence the debate.

They are trying to lay down markers for history. Having lost the support of most of the country, they are looking to another horizon. The story they would like written in the future is this: Faced with the gathering forces of ethnocentric darkness, a hardy and heroic crew stood firm and held high a candle in the wind. It will make a good chapter. Would that it were true!

If they'd really wanted to help, as opposed to braying about their own wonderfulness, they would have created not one big bill but a series of smaller bills, each of which would do one big clear thing, the first being to close the border. Once that was done--actually and believably done--the country could relax in the knowledge that the situation was finally not day by day getting worse. They could feel some confidence. And in that confidence real progress could begin.

One of the things I have come to think the past few years is that the Bushes, father and son, though different in many ways, are great wasters of political inheritance. They throw it away as if they'd earned it and could do with it what they liked. Bush senior inherited a vibrant country and a party at peace with itself. He won the leadership of a party that had finally, at great cost, by 1980, fought itself through to unity and come together on shared principles. Mr. Bush won in 1988 by saying he would govern as Reagan had. Yet he did not understand he'd been elected to Reagan's third term. He thought he'd been elected because they liked him. And so he raised taxes, sundered a hard-won coalition, and found himself shocked to lose his party the presidency, and for eight long and consequential years. He had many virtues, but he wasted his inheritance.

Bush the younger came forward, presented himself as a conservative, garnered all the frustrated hopes of his party, turned them into victory, and not nine months later was handed a historical trauma that left his country rallied around him, lifting him, and his party bonded to him. He was disciplined and often daring, but in time he sundered the party that rallied to him, and broke his coalition into pieces. He threw away his inheritance. I do not understand such squandering.

Now conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it's time. It's more than time.
Ms Noonan says "it's more than time." Pat Buchanan says, "lock and load." Bill Kristol and Brit Hume said on Chris Wallace's show today that Ms. Noonan was overstating the matter. I don't think so. It seems as though the Rockefeller Republicans have once again attempted to regain control of the Party. Perhaps thinking that their party nemesis, the "Christian Right" had been successfully demonised and weakened, they made their move. Sanity could once again prevail on the right. After all, a couple of years ago, it appeared that the Democrats were about to implode.

98 comments:

  1. Money in the bank

    Place you bets.

    The odds are really good that "Infantile Deaths DR" will be cynical about everything he discusses and then will later delete any controversial "misstatements"..
    but he's still THE authority on all things political.

    Also he will continue to evade producing the list of war dead on Memorial Day from our past engagements.

    Trish. What can we say? Menopausal? Probably. Misinformed and undereducated on the issues, definitely...However we can count on her to write like a longshoreman talks.
    She'll for the tenth time ask me if I was a U.S.Marine and was I in the CIA, envy oozing from her every pore. But let us say a prayer for her child or children that they are not subjected to her potty mouth.

    Rave on.

    Does anyone else wonder why DR is so cynical?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't have a TV hookup, but saw Hume on some video for the first time:
    Touted to be the best, he seemed to have a hard time simply asserting a point, sounding more MSM like in his attempt to be "balanced."
    ---
    The people with Balls in Media these days tend to be the women on the right.

    Noonan and Coulter have produced some classics of late, cutting through the daily clutter of BS to the heart of the matter.
    W, sadly lacking same.
    All Compassion, no heart.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dr,

    Why are you so cynical about everything? Not that your not Ok on the brights, it's just that everything you right reeks of cynacism...

    There's an easy one step program to cure that ...get your head out of your....well I'll turn it over to Trish Trash for the obvious last word.

    Go Trish Trash Go

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rufus and Habu remind us in the previous thread that now is the time to
    TURN UP THE HEAT ON DC.
    The country truly hangs in the balance.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Same story for Mexican LEGALS:
    THEY get the treatment at the Border:

    The Great Possum-Squashing
    and Beer Storm of 1962

    Stock up.
    Christmas will eventually come again, if it isn't outlawed.
    Possum-Squashing is a better present than an ugly tie.
    At least as good anyway.

    ---
    Looks good to go to me:
    Bloody Chainsaw Man Enters the USA

    ---
    Larger Version Showing his Bloody Shirt-Body

    Take your pick.

    Feeling Better, thank you very much:
    Psychiatric assessment of accused killer Gregory Despres extended by judge

    Despres' first-degree murder trial in Fredericton was stopped on Feb. 1 after he delivered a 10-minute courtroom rant about al-Qaida, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and something he called "Super Space Patrol."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry, here's the link about the Mexican lady and her friends with Real Visas, not the 'Z' kind that are legal only for ILLEGALS.
    ---
    Unnatural Selection

    And so often now officials at the borders and airports are just plain unpleasant. Vi doesn’t need it. She has heard the horror stories of being jerked around at the border from friends with visas. A friend of mine always has his Mexican wife taken from him at the border for questioning in separate rooms. For this we pay taxes.

    Of course if Vi swam the river, she could get welfare, schooling for thirteen illegitimate offspring, a driver’s license, medical care, and be eligible for a dozen consecutive amnesty programs. How sensible. Like outlawing smoking while paying farmers to grow tobacco.

    Best I can come up with is to buy her a chain saw at Wal-Mart, chop a goat up with it, get her a sword, a garrote, and some anthrax, and they’ll let her across, no problem. Maybe a severed head in a pillowcase, just to be sure.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You weren't really a Marine, were you?

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's right. We need to turn up the heat as best we can. Senator Craig is lost to us I think, but Senator Crapo is more reasonable, here in Idaho. I am writting another letter to Senator Crapo tonight. My Representative, Mr. Sali, is firm against this bill, so I might as well not worry him with another letter.

    I have tried to get some understanding of what might happen in the Senate, but not getting any read on it.

    The House is coming up too. Those boys and girls are elected every two years.

    Doug, I feel for you, being out there in Hawaii, where whatever you do locally probably won't make much difference. What about your House of Representative folk, any chance there?

    ReplyDelete
  9. More than anything else, it's Big Government control freaks vs. Free People.

    Reagan tapped into the massive body of the malcontents and mustered the will of Free People to win two terms based on his positive outlook and his communicated belief in freedom.

    Now the record shows his actions never quite lived up to his words, but the guy was the closest we had at any time to a liberty-minded politician with actual influence.

    I can't see any republican candidate for President today (other than Ron Paul) proudly stating the "government IS the problem" when it comes to moving a Free People forward.

    The rightist control freaks have consolidated their hold on the RNC with Bush II. The DNC has been run by control freaks since Woodrow Wilson. With Bush II, the RNC is where the DNC was in 1912. "Progressive", interventionist and full of their own intellectual superiority.

    The fact of the matter is that there are as many voters today that ID themselves as "Independent" as (R) or (D). Every national election is about the two McParties conning enough of the 33% of Indpendent voters that hates them to swallow their vomit enough to vote for the lesser of the two evils to get control.

    That 33% is the Free People. They don't want socialism, in the name of Marx or Jesus. They want freedom and accountability in their government.

    The coalition Jorge Busheron has destroyed was the one of the Free People that put up with the Control Freaks in the RNC to advance economic and individual freedom. Two things that the RNC has abandoned wholesale in the last six years.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You weren't really a Marine, were you---burma shave

    ReplyDelete
  11. glad you recognize it, habu.

    Your track record of prognostication is as good as nonexistent.

    Bombing Iran before Election day '06, that was a habu guarentee.

    Oh well.

    Cynical or not, I'm accurate enough to best your scores.

    The rest of your gas, amigo mio, uncontrollable fatulence.

    ReplyDelete
  12. i wasn't really a farmer was i?--burma shave

    I never did read a Burma Shave advertisement that used bad language.

    ReplyDelete
  13. YES..turn up da jam on da Senate and da House..

    Saw Newt on Fox earlier .. he made his usual five or six excellent points. One of them was that if this Amnesty thing gets passed about 13-15,000 gang members in LA and other cities will be Z-Visaed too.
    And we have all used around the same numbers 10,12 up to 20 million illegals but as Newt said the government really has no idea.

    It's us vs. da guvment on this one...lets raise some communication thunder and swamp this bill asunder ..ok the word isn't the best fit but it ain't easy ta busta rhyme..

    This next run goes out ta da Trash Trish ....
    Sir Mix A Lot

    ReplyDelete
  14. DR,

    You keep try'in to call the gme over in the third quarter ..rule book says you can't do that..but you're a hero dude. A flat out cynical, two sentence double entendre hero type dogface....Corps wouldn't take ya huh?

    Deleteing anymore posts lately?

    ReplyDelete
  15. You weren't really a Marine, were you?

    ReplyDelete
  16. ah, grrr...sometimes we have really great posts here, and sometimes it goes right to the potato cellar--g'nite, like Rufus says.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Trish,

    If you know anybody that was in The Company say in 1975 ask them where the gym was located at headquarters?
    The only floor you could go on when I was in without an escort was the first floor with a visitors badge. All other floors required an escort if you weren't a Company Man so ....ask 'em.

    The ask 'em the configuration of the floors where only cleared people are allowed.

    Ask them where NPIC was?
    And ask them what was the unusual aspect of the cafeteria.

    BTW have you taught your daughter any new curse words today? Home environment is so important...and where did she put her tattoo?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Third quarter?

    Of a 1400 year clash?

    So close to the end?

    No need to delete,
    still got you beat.

    The US Army tells US and the world it cannot win, militarily. The Commanding General says so in the halls of Congress and to the press, so that all his troops can know, it's all up to hadji.

    Like your mentor Mr Lewis wrote, Osama was right. We won't sustain the will to fight a "long war".

    I knew that years ago. Learned it in the 70s and 80s. Nothin' cynical about it, just accurate.

    Is it funny when a foreigner knows US better than you do, or as lugh said, only tragic...

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh, habu, I see things more as episodes than games.

    Games do end, Episodic stories just keep on goin', like life, until they're canceled.

    Better analogy, then a set piece game, one with time limits and schedules.

    We aren't having any of either, in Iraq.

    No, it's much more episodic. The Bremmer shows, the al-Sadr cameos, and an occasional guest star, from the DC Follies.

    Now we are coming to the end of a season, new episodes are due in September. But maybe they'll find some extra reels in the Ollie's old office in the White House, you know, the Basement Tapes.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Dr...shame continuing to try and call the game in the third quarter...6/3/07 9:01..Wasting those young GIs lives...don't you know it ain't over til it's over.....and even then to continue to point out that good men and women who volunteered to serve their country wasted their lives....very bad DR,very bad indeed..

    I guess in the heat of a firefight when things are really tight you'd sound retreat first...of course as a measure of your leadership in having a greater understanding of the situation..

    ReplyDelete
  21. meercat_coon_habu,

    Mix-A-Lot rules. Good dude. Car nut and a real Class III aficionado to boot, so to say. From Seattle, but sure as hell no hippie.

    A True American.

    ReplyDelete
  22. You weren't really a Marine, were you?

    ReplyDelete
  23. In spite of the a-holes what's in charge of everything, there are a bunch of good people trying to do the Right Thing Over There.

    I am sure LTC Crissman will be punished for his actions by someone up the chain.

    ReplyDelete
  24. And if you weren't really a Marine, you weren't really anything else.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Not just a Marine,
    A Marine Sniper w/700 kills

    Bring Your Bloody Self Right In!
    ---


    "He said he was wanted for murder in Russia," police officer William McIlmail told the court.

    Despres, who has dual Canadian and U.S. citizenship, described himself as a marine sniper and an assassin with 700 kills to his credit when he arrived at the U.S. border crossing at Calais, Maine, on April 25, the day before his arrest.

    He was carrying a homemade sword, a knife, a chainsaw, pepper spray, a hatchet and brass knuckles, all of which were confiscated at the border.

    Despite his odd behaviour, border officials allowed Despres to enter the United States because he was carrying a valid U.S. passport.

    Despres believed the marines would help him out when he was arrested in Mattapoisett.

    "He told us to call 1-800-Marines," Murray told the court. "He said if we called five or six times, the lieutenant would pick up and straighten everything out."

    The items included a bulletproof vest, which he had been wearing, and a pair of swim fins"

    ReplyDelete
  26. uncontrolled fatulance
    just keeps rumblin' on.

    Niether silent nor deadly

    ReplyDelete
  27. Faith And Demand: Israelis On The IDF And Politics
    After Hizballah War, Israelis Believe In Their Defense Forces More Than Political Leadership

    On June 12th, the election runoff for Israel’s Labor Party leader will be determined, and one thing is clear, the current Defense Minister, Amir Peretz, will be losing his job. Reports indicate that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is looking forward to the end of the Labor contest so he can quickly re-shuffle his cabinet and choose a new defense minister.

    Israel’s Home Front Command has recently announced that it will soon be preparing citizens for full-scale war, which many expect will begin sometime this summer.

    A survey called, “The People Speak: Israeli Public Opinion on National Security 2005-2007” was recently published by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). In that report, over two-thirds of Israelis polled said they supported the decision of their government to go to war against Hizballah in Lebanon during the summer of 2006.

    The vast majority also believed that the Israeli government should have continued the war until Hizballah was destroyed, or until the P.O.W.’s were returned. It is obvious from the report that the population was not happy with the results of the war.

    However, a significant portion of the Jewish public remains confident that Israel can cope successfully with any conceivable future threat to the state;

    ReplyDelete
  28. Some of DR's work..

    "Only dead GIs in a fools game."
    Sat Jun 02, 10:25:00 PM EDT

    The idea that losses in past wars excuse current ones is infantile. Soldiers killed on offense or defense in existential battles are not comparable to those lost on police patrol, in Iraq.Sun Jun 03, 12:46:00 PM EDT
    >>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
    Habu's reply;
    "The idea that losses in past wars excuse current ones is infantile."

    Infantile? This nation must have been built on the infantile losses of millions of men then cause we didn't get to 2007 without all those "infantile losses"
    DR, that is a scurrilous remark, worthy of a Chuck Hegal or John Murtha. And since birds of a feather flock together it would appear you are flocking with the dodo's in gaining your head nodding agreement that Iraq is not important to US interest.

    "Infantile Losses" ... wow you are one confused young man.Sun Jun 03, 01:01:00 PM EDT

    ReplyDelete
  29. Barack Hussein Obama
    More Mushy than Bushy:
    ---
    "To a question on whether English should be the official language in the United States, only former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel raised his hand in the affirmative.

    But Obama protested the question itself, calling it "the kind of question that was designed precisely to divide us." He said such questions "do a disservice to the American people."
    ---
    We are the World!
    We are the Children.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Still in the third quarter ole boy....still wanna throw in the towel..isn't that your style?

    ReplyDelete
  31. President Barack Hussein Osama orders construction of Tower of Bable Memorial.

    ReplyDelete
  32. fatulance what are you aboutm now?

    The errand in Iraq is a fools game. We are according to your demi-god, Mr Lewis, proving Osama right. We played into their plan, two wars we cannot win, at once.

    How many years can the US hold on?

    Osama and his boys will still be there, no matter. We aren't killin' them, their ranks expanding, their geographic reach, expanding.

    Meanwhile we attempt to create "brathing room" for Mr Maliki with US lives. "Breathing room", that theory demands an expectation of what you yourself have said is false. That the mussulmen desire peace.

    The strategy you promote you also deride, because it's oximoranic.

    ReplyDelete
  33. DR,

    Man up dude. You keep trashing the troops, their efforts...oh yeah I know you don't recognise it but that's the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier next to my name.

    I guess the men represented by that Tomb were also "Infantile Deaths" from distant wars...right there ole daisy...see I'm you huckleberry.

    BTW that's Mr.Fatulance to you and you do give me gass.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Miztuh DR suh,

    Mistuh Habu dun made you look da fool. He dun caught yo wurds and ya dun hung yuself.
    You best juz pony away, da man box'n you silly.

    nite Rufus and Chesty
    Semper Fi

    ReplyDelete
  35. Twice awarded the Medal of Honor, this man was a real Marine. Knew the deal then, only the names have changed since.

    I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

    There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

    It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

    I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

    I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

    During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

    Major General Smedley Butler

    ReplyDelete
  36. Let's get one thing straight. According to Professor Ward, re-broadcast tonight on the Art Bell Show, Mars is not, repeat, not warming, according to his contacts at NASA, who have looked at the numbers closely. Mars is not warming. Urban myth.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Back to Viet vets, fatulance,
    Another medal of Honor awardee believes the mission in Iraq bungled. That the continued presence of a large US presence unwise. A Navy Seal, Mr Bob Kerry walked the walk. Mr James Webb, a Marine officer in the 'Nam says ut well
    We don't have to occupy a country to fight the terrorist in it

    But that may not please the Republican Party patrons in Saudi Arabia.

    ReplyDelete
  38. That's a relief, AlBobAl, I was wondering how I was gonna pay for Air Conditioning for my cousin that got a free ride to Mars c/o
    Burma Shave!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Who photoshoped Biden"
    He couldn't look like that naturally, could he?

    A bad photo moment, to be sure, if it's not been reworked.

    The chimpmunk on the lower right, my oh my, fatulance's alter ego, I'd guess.

    Big Bill, he doesn't come across well, looking like he just rode in from Imus's New Mexico Cowboy Cancer Ranch.

    ReplyDelete
  40. "Throughout its history, Americans of all political persuasions have entertained the notion that people around the world, if given the chance, are just like them; reasonable, optimistic, magnanimous, and forgiving. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush possessed these views as much as Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon Johnson, and Jimmy Carter.

    America’s experience in Iraq has taught a different lesson, and if Mr. Wong’s article is valid, it is still very early in the school term.

    What Americans will learn from this course, and demand the mastery of by their next president, is the necessity of focusing for now on America’s most basic interests, most directly and cheaply achieved. Idealistic notions will have to wait.
    "

    - Westhawk

    ReplyDelete
  41. The Gov stopped by Dunkin Donuts on the way.

    ReplyDelete
  42. You were a good student on the Smedley Butler quote which I am sure you learned froom my first usage of it at EB. Daisy

    ReplyDelete
  43. Why was it, ex-county GOP Grand Pubah, that the preponderance of Iraqi war vets that particpated as candidates in the '06 election ran as Democrats.

    Most, having seen the effort up close and personal, campaigned to change course in the War on Terror.

    Men and women that expressed an interest in continued service to the US. That after and sometimes because of their military experiences sought a change in policies direction from DC.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Knew of General butler before tou blogged your first fart, fatulance.

    ReplyDelete
  45. I don'r know who is holding the thermometer on Mars, though.

    ReplyDelete
  46. My Question, exactly, AlBobAl!

    ReplyDelete
  47. Either weeping jesus or these two martians, which is my first choice as candidates, for themometer holder.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Tammy, no longer with two legs, but spirit enough to run.

    ReplyDelete
  49. It took 13 illegals in the Dept of Homeland Security Space Cadet Team to Ferret out the Weeper, 'Rat!

    ReplyDelete
  50. This fellow is ready and waiting, hand open.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Paid professionals, to be sure, doug.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Trish ..this should satisfy you (batteries not included)

    Play

    ReplyDelete
  53. Glad you agree, fatulance.

    Mind movin' down wind, you sleepin with that possum, you're bit ripe for us folk that bathe.

    ReplyDelete
  54. And fatulance, what about those candidates in the '06 election, all those military vets, runnin' against the Party of Bush?

    Still thinkin' on that, are we?
    Just yell the answer above the wind, when it comes to ya, we'll hear ya and open the window..

    ReplyDelete
  55. Persia, Asia, Africa, So. America, Central America...
    Man, 2002 seems long ago and so far away.
    JFK Plot: The Guyana Surprise

    When the story of the JFK plot broke, perhaps the biggest surprise was the implication of a former minister of parliament from Guyana. Guyana seemed to come out of nowhere.
    In 2006, the House Committee on Homeland Security released a report titled A Line In The Sand: Confronting The Threat at the Southwest Border (PDF).
    Within it is found the following paragraphs regarding terrorism, South America and how little we know about the convergence.

    Furthermore, according to senior U.S. military and intelligence officials, Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists.
    General James Hill, commander of U.S. Southern Command, has warned the United States faces a growing risk from both Middle Eastern terrorists relocating to Latin America and terror groups originating in the region. General Hill said groups such as Hezbollah had established bases in Latin America

    ReplyDelete
  56. "A U.S. intelligence official expressed concern that “Counterterrorism issues are not being aggressively pursued in this hemisphere.” Another intelligence official stated terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay are not being interrogated about connections to Latin America. The bottom line, when it comes to terrorism so close to U.S. shores, says the official, “We don’t even know what we don’t know.”"

    ReplyDelete
  57. slip sliding away.
    hey, watch out doug!
    fatulance has been leakin' on the floor again.

    Watch your step, don't slip in the ...
    Wonder who let him in, this time?

    Forgot his damned diaper.
    Can't depend on fatulance to remember. He's an old timers, you know

    ReplyDelete
  58. From the Border Report linked above:
    ---
    "Federal law enforcement estimates that 10 percent to 30 percent of illegal aliens are
    actually apprehended and 10 percent to 20 percent of drugs are seized.2

    Therefore, in
    2005, as many as 10 to 4 million illegal aliens crossed into the United States; and as
    much as 2.2 to 1.1 million kilograms of cocaine and 11.6 to 5.8 million kilograms
    marijuana entered the United States.

    The triple threat of drug smuggling, illegal and unknown crossers, and rising violence are
    the reality facing communities. While many illegal aliens cross the border searching for
    employment, not all illegal aliens are crossing into the United States to find work. Law
    enforcement has stated that some individuals come across the border because they have
    been forced to leave their home countries due to their criminal activity. These dangerous
    criminals are fleeing the law in other countries and seeking refuge in the United States."

    ReplyDelete
  59. When you gotta Blow,
    you gotta Blow.
    ...and sometimes you go.

    ReplyDelete
  60. What with the Face on Mars,and now the weeping jesus on Mars, I don't know what to think.

    ReplyDelete
  61. "Mexican drug cartels operating along the Southwest border are more sophisticated and
    dangerous than any other organized criminal enterprise.

    The Mexican cartels, and the smuggling rings and gangs they leverage, wield substantial control over the routes into the United States and pose substantial challenges to U.S. law enforcement to secure the Southwest border.

    The cartels operate along the border with military grade weapons, technology and intelligence and their own respective paramilitary enforcers.
    In addition, human smugglers coordinate with the drug cartels, paying a fee to use the
    cartels’ safe smuggling routes into the Unites States. There are also indications the
    cartels may be moving to diversify their criminal enterprises to include the increasingly lucrative human smuggling trade.
    Moreover, U.S. law enforcement has established that there is increasing coordination
    between Mexican drug cartels, human smuggling networks and U.S.-based gangs.

    The cartels use street and prison gangs located in the United States as their distribution networks.
    In the United States, the gang members operate as surrogates and enforcers for the cartels.

    Murders and kidnappings on the both sides of the border have significantly increased in
    recent years."

    ReplyDelete
  62. Haven't seen any Burma Shave signs up there, have they AlBobAl?
    That guy's got the old
    44 o'clock shadow.

    ReplyDelete
  63. From the artic to the isthmus
    one land, one people.

    As Mr Bush said, if your mind is open, you'll see the strength that comes from diversity.

    That and saving all of the Americas collective soul, by US doing the hard thing. That tugs at my heart strings, it really does.

    But if this Bill does not pass, Mr Bush stands pat, already reducing the National Guard support of the Border Patrol by almost half, at a time we should be expanding capabilities, not cutting back.

    Does not lead one to have much confidence in the promises of future performance.
    Much like Mr Cheney in '93 and Ms Rice in '99, statements of principle and promises from Republicans are empty rhetoric, suited for the moment partisan feud, but abandoned like a used condom, where and when convienent.

    Committing a folly far greater than Mr Clinton ever even attempted in Haiti or the Balkans.

    Worse even than a blowjob in the butlers closet, which was pretty damned risque.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Is This propaganda, or what? I haven't met anyone that is for this bill, just the opposite.

    Illegal aliens, Doug, they are everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  65. DR...you're really gonna love this one..honest..a bit of self deprecating humor

    Volume

    ReplyDelete
  66. Party of Bush, true Republicans
    Mr Kyl and Mr Flake.
    They'll lie like a rug for the cause.
    The greater good, saving the soul of all the Americas.

    Vote Republican Values
    Vote Foley.

    A cute little ditti, but one the truth of which rings more clearly true each day.

    ReplyDelete
  67. No, fatulance, not until there is an answer to the '06 election question.

    Why did all the vets run as Dems, well the majority, there were a couple of GOPers, as I recall.
    But mostly they ran as Dems, why?
    After their personal experiences, what drove them to run against the President and his war policies?

    As a GOP lifer and proponent of the current course, the self introspection involved in writing the perspective is what I await reading.

    At the expense of all other favorable interactioons.

    ReplyDelete
  68. DR,
    You're work'in way to hard to convince the choir that listens to your drivel. Way too hard .. get a hobby, go to a movie, you're gonna burn out way before '08 and for nothing...you've got your compadres.

    Chill dude. Just knock off trahing the troops.

    ReplyDelete
  69. There you go, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, amigo!

    Via con dios!

    Asta la vista, baby!

    ReplyDelete
  70. US: Guyanese suspect in terror plot spoke of American 'oppressors'

    A Guyanese suspect in an alleged terrorist plot to attack New York was deported from the United States in the late 1980s and often called Americans ''oppressors,'' acquaintances said Sunday.

    Abdel Nur, the target of a manhunt in Trinidad is one of at least three suspects from Guyana, including a former parliament member. Nur appeared harmless, said Rudy Thorne, an employee of the rooming house where Nur lived. ''He left for Trinidad about three weeks ago and did talk about Americans as oppressors,'' Thorne said. ''Other than that he was very quiet.'' (AP)
    ...............................
    doug wrote -

    Furthermore, according to senior U.S. military and intelligence officials, Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists.

    General James Hill, commander of U.S. Southern Command, has warned the United States faces a growing risk from both Middle Eastern terrorists relocating to Latin America and terror groups originating in the region. General Hill said groups such as Hezbollah had established bases in Latin America
    ................................
    ...In an insightful essay exploring the alliance between the left and Islamic jihad, the socialist author Paul Berman suggests in Sayyid Qutb's writings about 'social justice' he was inspired by the 'universal declaration of human rights. Qutb did not incorporate the Marxist view of class conflict into his doctrines. However, a decade later Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini took this step of transforming Shia islam into a revolutionary force.

    ...Khomeini introduced into radical Islamic thought the Marxist concept of a world separated into oppressors and oppressed.

    The goals of radical jihad are purification and social justice, both of which are to be achieved through the institution of Islamic law.

    As long as America and capitalism continue to protect what the left and Islam regard as the global order of social injustice, all reforms and social advances within the existing structures of American democracy are illusory.

    ...There is the beginning of a permanent global war to cement the domination of the U.S. Government and its allies...Islam is being demonized, while racism and xenopobia are deliberately propagated...Opposition to the war is at the heart of our movement

    - Social Movements Manifesto, World Social Forum, 2000

    “The torment of the Iraqis, of the Palestinians, and even of the Americans are the direct outcome of liberal Western democracy, and this must serve as an important lesson to the rest of the world, [which must] open its eyes and understand that those who call themselves advocates of human rights and democracy are in fact the main supporters of crimes against humanity.”

    - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, May 20, 2004

    2/24/2007 11:19:00 PM

    ReplyDelete
  71. I don't know, Bob. I just fired off an email to my rep (an invisible man by the name of Roger Wicker. I promised him I would spend 08' campaigning against him if he votes for the bill. I wrote my Senators yesterday, and I'll mail them again, tomorrow.

    I think I might also contact the White House and mention the word, "Impeachment."

    ReplyDelete
  72. Oh and fatulance, I've never trashed the troops, only their mission.

    As Mr Cheney so rightly did in 1993 when Mr Clinton made the very same mistakes, on a much less grand scale.

    Mr Cheney trashed the strategies, he trashed preparedness, he trashed the President's policies.

    All of which the Bush Team have duplicated in Iraq.

    ReplyDelete
  73. That's what the story line will be at the next GOP convention. Here's a startling question people are already posing: will Bush be asked to speak there? "There will be angst-ridden discussion, but yes, you have to do it," says Galen. Fabrizio disagrees: "If they're smart, no. Especially if things don't change in Iraq, we'll have the problem the Democrats had in 1968 with Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam. The question becomes: where do we hide the president?" In 1968 that meant the LBJ Ranch in Texas. For Bush, Crawford would be a possibility, but perhaps Newt has found a nice spot in Hawaii.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Iran president sees "countdown" to Israel's end
    - Sun Jun 3, 2007 3:18PM EDT

    "If you make a mistake and create another war against the... oppressed...Lebanese nation, this time the angry ocean of the nations of the region will remove your rotten ... roots from the region," the president said in another speech on Sunday night.

    Ahmadinejad's speeches were made ahead of ahead of Monday's anniversary of the death in 1989 of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, whose words Ahmadinejad echoed when he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
    ..................................
    Hugo Chavez: U.S. Citizens Are Oppressed
    - Sunday, May 1, 2005

    HAVANA, Cuba - Saying that U.S. citizens are...oppressed...by their own government, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promised Friday that he would not visit the United States again until Americans "liberate" their nation.

    ReplyDelete
  75. At the NYTimes some one named BARTLE BREESE BULL explains why Mr al-Sadr is a real friend to US, we just don't know it yet. Well we do, he says,

    A real Nationalist, Mr al-Sadr.
    Defender of the poor.

    So Bartle Breese Bull says.
    Who ever the hell he is.

    ReplyDelete
  76. "the angry ocean of the nations of the region will remove your rotten ... roots from the region"

    "It's the Smegma,"
    Elijah!
    But THEY are the ones w/the accumulated desquamated epidermal cells and sebum, not the Joos!

    ReplyDelete
  77. Well, elijah, did not doug link to something showing 65% of Israeli think there will be a war in the next three years?

    Close enough, I think for discussion.

    What other deterence method than thrratening counter force do you advocate.

    Should Iran strike preemptively, fearing an Israeli attack. Or Lebanon for that matter, in conjunction with Syria.

    Israel is massing it's forces, again according to doug. Excuse enough, for preemptive action.

    If an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear capacity is to be taken seriously, then the Bush Doctrine of Preemption would allow the mussulmen to strike first, before the Israeli finished preparing for an offensive doctrine war.

    That's what the results of that Isreali study portend.

    ReplyDelete
  78. "Israel’s Home Front Command has recently announced that it will soon be preparing citizens for full-scale war, which many expect will begin sometime this summer"

    ReplyDelete
  79. Who's to blame for the Sellout?

    Texas voters tried valiantly to put a moratorium on the sale of the Trans-Texas Corridor to Cintra-Zachry, the Spanish-Australian PPP that wants to pay $7.2 billion to the state. They succeeded in the Legislature, but threats from the governor and the federal government ignored what the people want.

    In every state and every community, someone is planning, right now, to sell public infrastructure to a public-private partnership. Chances are better than good that the PPP has its roots in another country. This can't be good for America.
    ---
    Au contraire: The better to transport Mara Salvatrucha North.
    Viva La Raza!
    Viva Reconquista!

    ReplyDelete
  80. Al-Zawahiri’s May 5 statements greatly expanded previous
    al-Qaeda efforts to portray the Islamist movement as part
    of a world liberation campaign that is meant to destroy
    U.S. imperialism—”the most powerful tyrannical force
    in the history of mankind”—and assist “all the weak
    and oppressed in North America and South America,
    in Africa and Asia, and all over the world” [2]. Al-Qaeda
    wants all people to know, al-Zawahiri said, “that when we
    wage jihad in Allah’s path, we aren’t waging jihad to lift
    oppression from Muslims only; we are waging jihad to lift
    oppression from all mankind because Allah has ordered
    us never to accept oppression, wherever it may be.” He
    concluded this part of the interview by inviting “all the
    world’s weak and oppressed ones to Islam, the religion
    of freedom and rejection of tyranny, the religion which
    produced the 19 martyrs who demolished the symbol of
    America’s arrogance.”

    ..................................
    June 3 -
    Fighting broke out in the southern Ain Hilwa camp June 3 between pro-Syrian groups close to al Qaeda and Lebanese forces. Islamist Jund al Sham (Army of the Levant) prepared its offensive by building fortifications and evacuating Palestinian families from battle arenas.

    The Lebanese army has been battling stiff resistance in the northern camp of Nahar al-Bared near Tripoli for more than two weeks from Fatah al Islam boosted by pro-Syrian groups, such as Ahmed Jibril’ PFLP-General Command.

    Spearheaded by two commando units, Lebanese troops have inched forward 400m into the camp, to a loss of some 50 men. Saturday, backed by heavy fire from tanks, artillery, helicopter and gunboats, they seized and destroyed several Fatah al-Islam positions on the camp’s outskirts

    The spread of anti-government, Damascus-fomented clashes to the southern Lebanese Palestinian camp is a very serious development. It places the Palestinian refugee camps of the capital, Beirut, next in the line of fire – likewise the United Nations contingents policing the Lebanese-Israeli border.

    Al Qaeda elements among the Palestinians have repeatedly threatened the international force with attack.

    In the southern Ain Hilwa camp, our military sources report Lebanese troops must take on a coalition of radical Palestinian groups linked to al Qaeda and pro-Syrian terrorist factions, copiously armed with weapons and ammo from Damascus and its Lebanese supporters, including Hizballah.

    Syria has lined up an anti-Lebanese government front of Palestinian and Islamic radicals for an orchestrated campaign of violence to derail the UN Security Council resolution establishing an international tribunal for prosecuting the suspected murderers of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. They are under orders to sow mayhem across the country against the pro-Western Fouad Siniora in Beirut and mark down UNIFIL and northern Israel as additional targets.

    UNIFIL forces include NATO countries?

    ReplyDelete
  81. The Most Dangerous Gang in America -
    But Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, wasn't terrifying just northern Virginia. ... MS-13 got started in Los Angeles in the 1980s by Salvadorans fleeing a civil ...

    ReplyDelete
  82. VERSE...VERSE...BESIDE THE ROAD...
    IS HABU A JAR...AND A...
    BURMESE TOAD?

    ReplyDelete
  83. A former... Marxist...guerrilla who fought U.S.-backed Contra rebels during his 1980s government, Ortega has reached out to Iran since recapturing the presidency this year. He has hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Managua.
    Nicaragua president to visit Iran in Gaddafi's jet

    ReplyDelete
  84. Well, hasta lumbego, oppressed, and oppressors.

    ReplyDelete
  85. I believe I may be seeing a Face In Space but I am not sure.

    ReplyDelete
  86. I swear, them guys hallucinate up the most complex "explanations," when it's clear as day to me, Senor AlBobal, that that picture done been "altered" using the Photoshop "Smudge Tool."

    Probly some Iraqi AP "Stringer" or Mr Green (orange?) Helmet Guy from Lebanon.

    ReplyDelete