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, September 14, 2007

Moonbat of the Week

All he is asking is that we "give peace a chance" which means "end the occupation, withdraw the troops and bring in the international community. Oh, one more thing, the US must pay reparations to the people of Iraq. He is broken hearted that the world doesn't like us right now but if we make a "truthful confession" and admit that "the war was based on a lie" we can begin to make things right with the world.



In another day and time, this man would be in a brig somewhere awaiting trial and a noose. In this day and age though, he is a Presidential candidate.

60 comments:

  1. WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility Friday of going beyond President Bush's current troop-cut plan and reducing forces to about 100,000 by the end of next year.

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  2. North Korea and Syria
    September 14, 2007; Page A12
    A nuclear-armed North Korea is dangerous enough. A North Korea that shares its nuclear technology with other bad actors is worse -- especially if the partner-state is known to be cozy with terrorists. The potential nexus between WMD and terrorism is the biggest threat to the security of the U.S. and its allies.

    So reports this week in the New York Times, the Washington Post and elsewhere that North Korea may be cooperating with Syria on some sort of nuclear facility are worth taking seriously. Syria has close ties with Iran and provides sanctuary within its borders for Hezbollah, a group that the National Intelligence Estimate released in July warns may be prepared to launch terrorist attacks against the U.S. Pyongyang has a long, well-documented history of sharing missile technology with Syria, and it is all too believable that sharing nuclear knowhow could be next.

    Israel is said to be the primary source of the intelligence on a North Korean-Syrian nuclear connection. But neither Israel nor the Bush Administration has commented officially on this or another mysterious event -- Israel's flyover and apparent raid last week on targets inside Syria. Given the Administration's experience with prewar intelligence on WMD in Iraq, it's understandable that it would want to have solid evidence before going public.

    Meanwhile, however, the six-party talks on the dismantling of North Korea's nuclear program have picked up steam, with Pyongyang promising to dismantle its facilities by the end of the year and the U.S. pledging to consider such goodies as fuel aid and removing North Korea from its list of terror-sponsoring states. U.S., Russian and Chinese inspectors turned up at the Yongbyon nuclear facility this week.

    If North Korea is moving its nuclear facilities to Syria -- or "merely" proliferating -- it would undermine everything at the heart of that agreement, as well as cross a long-stated American red line that Pyongyang not proliferate. Even if it is unsure of the full implications of the intelligence, the Administration has an obligation not to proceed with a nuclear deal until Pyongyang and Damascus come clean.

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  3. DOUG!!!---THERE IS STILL TIME FOR YOU TO MEET THE CANDIDATE!!!

    Kucinich in Hawaii! Luau Party. Surf with a Leader. Check it out now, Doug!

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  4. Doug! He's on YOUR ISLAND TODAY!

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  5. Kucinich wants to pull us out of NAFTA, and the WTO.

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  6. That's why doug is here.
    Hiding in the Palapa

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  7. My wife is dragging me off to see 3:10 to Yuma.

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  8. Who could possibly be against that, bob?

    I'm against illiteracy and high taxes, too.

    Yes doug, It'll be Novenber of '07, the US troops will begin to withdraw, handing over to Iraqi forces, either National or Local, or a working blend of the two. Depending on the locale.

    Most all of my reccomendations, made in '04 are coming to pass now.
    It could have been accelerated, or not. But it is the path now, DefSec Gates said 100,000 at the end of '08.

    Next President will be able to do what they decide is best, for US and them.

    Mission Accomplished, per the Athorization.
    They just do not have the balls to take a stance, wide or narrow, they're all sittin' & pissin' in DC

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  9. You want to end "Poverty?" Here!

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  10. Ahmad Abu Reesha has taken over the Anbar Awakening Conference following his brother’s assassination.

    This after his father and uncles and brothers, nearly ten, have bought the farm on this Program. Not lacking for bravado, stepping up, filling those shoes.

    Our current ally, Ahmad Abu Reesha, the unproven prudent moderate muslim. A new generation of leaders, not tainted by Baathist bloodletting, under Saddam's tenure.
    Forward we go!!

    Handing off, to the moderate & modern Iraqi muslims, that we've been training since 2002 & 2003.
    Nearly five years of military training, from that authorized by Congress prior to the Invasion through today. Five years, that'd give you the NCOs and midRange officers in that Iraqi Army we've stood up.
    In 18 to 24 months, that'll be... Seven Years of Training.
    If the Iraqi are not ready after that, then the US Military is proven to not be a capable Army Builder, just as the Nation building mission was fumbled by State.

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  11. It's so good to know Baathist mass murerers will be culled, or not, in an evolutionary "process" rather that in the cold, calulating systematic way, up front, as envisioned by Garner et al.
    ---
    Gotta go see Dennie,
    the Maui Favorite.
    See ya!

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  12. The Baathists are no longer an international threat, so are off the list of Terrorists.

    If the locals can learn to get along, happy the US will be. The 1920's are Baathist, but that is now a legitimate politcal position, just slap another name on it, and away we go.

    The US providing a Peacekeeping Overwatch until 2015 or beyond.
    What more was there, militarily after 2003 to achieve, but a long term presence?

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  13. It’s interesting how much of this conflict is about managing perceptions; From the surge to Kook’sin’itch speaking of his plan to address perceptions crafted and disseminated by aljazeera and other muslim brotherhood affiliates, such as the BBC, Reuters, AP, etc.

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  14. That Peter Fonda fella sure does heal quick.

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  15. Dropping like Flies

    Third fatal crash at Nevada air races this week.

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  16. "In another day and time, this man would be in a brig somewhere awaiting trial and a noose. In this day and age though, he is a Presidential candidate."

    So why have you arrived at this sorry state of affairs? What does it say about your people, your culture? And finally, what are you going to do about it? Bitch and moan in an echo chamber like the club and bar?

    It's your country, not mine, but even I can see this guy's a crackpot.

    You need people to infiltrate the Dems, the media, the education sector, and start imposing your ideas. That's what they did for the past 30 years. Do unto others what they would do unto you.

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  18. I haven't even watched the video but:

    The US invades and occupies a country and you guys get your knickers in a twist when someone suggests taht the US should actually be held accountable for such a flagrant aggression? Who's being silly here?

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  19. Actually I consider your presence and comments here an occupation and a flagrant aggression. As a member of the directorate at the Bar, I’d like you leave and never come back, Ash.

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  20. "The US invades and occupies a country and you guys get your knickers in a twist when someone suggests taht the US should actually be held accountable for such a flagrant aggression? Who's being silly here?"
    ...............................

    But no mention of the current imperialism of the Safavids in the ME?

    If only muslim countries would welcome Westerners under the banner of multiculturalism there would not be the need for violonce.

    No?

    I would be interested in an explanation of the methods by which some think ME governments exert control (past or present) in the middle east: the Taliban, the theocracy in Tehran, Hamas in the territories, Hezbollah in the Lebanon, the Assad regime in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan?

    Is violence and force not employed to control their populations?

    Exactly how was the Sunni Baathist party able to control Iraq which is predominantly Shia?

    Does the term Hama model come to mind?

    Imperialism? What is the methodolgy?

    Boumedienne provided a paradigm at the UN in 1974:

    "Victory will come to us from the wombs of our women"

    The Policy of the Womb, what nonsense?

    Population dynamics?

    No?

    The first 2 minutes, what does state within a state man?

    More folk Marxism by some at this site, the opressed and the oppressor?

    i am still waiting on that list of international Hindu or Christian terrorist organizations.

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  21. Mat, it is with some reluctance, and a great deal of respect to you, that I am going to pull rank, assuming of course I am not overruled from above, and rule that Ash may stay, at least on good behavior. Understand, I may be over ruled from above, or outvoted by the other Oak Leaf Cluster Recipients at any time, but for now, Ash may stay.

    (Gee, that felt good, never having had a rank before in my life, or giving an order. If the Oak Leaf Cluster is indeed a rank, and I'm not sure it is. In fact I don't know what it is.)

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  22. Well, I Don't have one; so, that means you all can take yours and stick'em up your collective Lifer Asses.

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  23. ash said:

    "On the other hand it is quite a big leap, quite a 'big idea' with lots or ramifications, to label the IRGC as a terrorist oraganization. The basis for that? The Quds."

    cutler said:

    "So many things to say, so little time.

    "We'll just go with a short primer:

    "You ever hear of Khobar Towers? Or maybe the Marine Lebanon barracks bombing? The French Lebanon barracks bombing? Or the Iranian attempted coup in Bahrain during the 1990s? Assassinations of various exiles?

    "The truth is you're right - in a way.

    "These aren't terrorist attacks, according to common definition, because the IGRC is an arm of the Iranian government."

    trish says:

    You will never find a USG doc establishing or declaring the IGRC an arm of the Iranian government. No matter where you look; no matter how long you search. Such a document does not exist.

    Does the distinction matter? Of course it does. Accuracy matters. And the sloppier we get, the farther away from reality we drift.

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

    "In another day and time, this man would be in a brig somewhere awaiting trial and a noose."

    For saying Bush lied, people died? Doug says it every day.

    For saying the troops ought to be brought home and the occupation ended? Were that an act of treason, millions would be lining up, one cross each, door on the left.

    You wouldn't hang my mother would you?



    I didn't think so.

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  24. You can have mine, Rufus. But be advised, it goes to the head awfully fast, like a tin badge or something:)

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  25. That's the first good chuckle I've had all night. I think I'll go to bed on that one, thanks Bob :)

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  26. I don't know what part of Ohio Kucinich represents, but I imagine it's one of the more industrialized areas, or older industrialized areas, and much of his program reflects the loss of living wage jobs overseas and to outsourcing, etc. He's representing his folks, to that extent I think. But he drifts into impossibilities--end poverty around the world--how are we to do that? Groveling around to Assad--what's the point of that? Pay reparations to Iraq? jeez If they insist on a civil war, perhaps we should have better anticipated it, but I can't see how we are responsible for it.

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  27. I wonder what we'll get in return for not declaring the IRGC a terrorist organization?

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  28. "A day will come that the current U.S. president and officials will be tried in an international supreme court for the catastrophes they caused in Iraq," he said.

    "Americans will have to answer for why they don't end occupation of Iraq and why waves of terrorism and insurgency have overwhelmed the country," he added. "It will not be like this forever and some day they will be stopped as happened to Hitler, Saddam and certain other European leaders."

    So says Supreme Leader Khamenei of Iran. While our record may be spotty, we did have a hand in stopping 'Hitler, Saddam and certain other European leaders' though he is unlikely to give us any credit for doing so.

    xxxx
    Probably more explosions, Trish.

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  29. "Pay reparations to Iraq?"

    Um. We're paying 'em.

    Little known fact: We financially compensate those rolled up on the battlefield, questioned, then released without further action. Not a handsome sum, by any means. But a sum. And it has in the past turned into a bizarre racket.

    As someone once noted, we are the nicest, most generous people you could ever hope to know. At the same time (even in the same vein) we do occasionally - pretty dependably, in fact - get an itch to come on over there and seriously fuck you up. Whoever you are.

    I blame it on militant Protestantism. Either that or it's in the water.

    Americans traditionally love to fight.

    And love to convert.

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  30. And I'm not awarding points for "stopping" Saddam.

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  31. I blame it on my neurons, Trish. It's All In Your Brain

    "I blame it on militant protestants."

    What's that?

    We Lutherans just passed a nonsensical resolution against Israel. We couldn't fight our way out of a paper bag, today.
    Militant Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Anglicans. Militant Quakers. Seventh Day Adventists. Militant Mormons. MMs, for short.

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  32. "...liberalism was associated with stronger conflict-related anterior cingulate activity..."

    That settles it then, just what I always suspected, and goes a long way in explaining a phenomena like Kucinich.

    Nite.

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  33. "We Lutherans just passed a nonsensical resolution against Israel. We couldn't fight our way out of a paper bag, today."

    Because interventionism has become the province of secularists since the end of WWI. They're the ones who've got the push, and the pull, that you're looking for. But its roots lie elsewhere.

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  34. Petraeus says Iran involvement in attacks 'clear'

    Wednesday, 12th September 2007
    WASHINGTON (AFP) — The top US commander in Iraq said Wednesday there was hard evidence of Iranian involvement in attacks on US soldiers but demurred on whether US forces should respond with operations inside Iran.

    General David Petraeus said the evidence included captured hard drives that contained digitized items taken from the wallet of a US soldier killed in an assault in January in Karbala along with four other US soldiers.

    "The evidence is very, very clear," Petraeus told a news conference here. "We captured it when we captured Qais Khazali, the Lebanese Hezbollah deputy commander and others. And it's in black and white."

    Khazali is alleged to be an Iraqi member of the Iranian backed cell that stormed a security station in Karbala January 20, killing a visiting US soldier and kidnapping four others, who were later found dead.

    The US military in July announced the capture in Basra of a senior Hezbollah militant, Ali Musa Daqduq, who it accused of training "special groups" of Shiite militants at camps near Tehran under the auspices of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force.

    Iran has denied the charges.

    Petraeus said video-taped interrogations of the captured operatives have been shown to senior Iraqis, some of whom then confronted the Iranians with the evidence.

    "Qais Khazali, himself, when asked, 'Could you have done what you have done without Iranian support?' he literally throws up his hands and laughs and says, 'Of course not.'"

    "So they told us about the amounts of money that they have received. They told us about the training that they received. They told us about the ammunition and sophisticated weaponry and all of that that they received," he said.

    "And so, this is evidentiary. It is not just intelligence. It rises to the level of evidence, particularly what we captured when we got the hard drives of the computers from the individuals that we picked up in Basra," he said.

    In testimony before Congress on Tuesday, Petraeus was asked whether he needed the authority to pursue Quds force operatives into Iran.

    The general said he was focused on Iraq, and any military operations outside the country were the responsibility of Admiral William Fallon, the commander of the US Central Command.

    "There is a regional combatant commander, Admiral Fox Fallon. And that is his province. Outside Iraq would be his area," Petraeus said Wednesday, expanding on his testimony.

    "And so I'm literally trying to avoid starting to talk about something that would extend beyond the borders of Iraq."

    He said the Iranian activity was "a huge concern to Iraqis, not to mention the Multi-National Force and our effort to achieve the objectives outlined by Iraq and in our joint campaign plan."

    "But that doesn't mean that it's something for which I should have the authority to pursue, anymore than we should have that with respect to Syria or elsewhere," he said.

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

    There is no mention of the Iranian government. There is no mention of the Iranian regime.

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  35. Qais Khazali, himself, when asked, 'Could you have done what you have done without Iranian support?' he literally throws up his hands and laughs and says, 'Of course not.'"

    Well, of course not.

    Nite again.

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  36. What's meant by Iranian support? What's meant by Iranian? What's meant by support?

    And of course we all know in any case that the Iraqis can't do anything on their own.

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  37. So Trish,

    How do you characterize the IRG's relationship with the Iranian government?

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  38. Formal and informal government. The SS had no formal legal standing in Germany, either.

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  39. Well, I think it did have legal standing under Enabling Act, but officially it was not a formal political body --- but obviously was informally a part of Germany's ruling coalition.

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  40. Rough analogy, I admit, because it was clear that Hitler had control of the SS, whereas it is hard to know whether the rulers actually command the IRG.

    Eh, I'm rambling...time for bed.

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  42. el al bob,

    It sure would be interesting to see if Ash follows her own advice to the Coalition Forces and withdraws her occupation from the Elephant Bar, wouldn't it. My prediction, is that she will not.

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  43. Hey,
    Is Ash a He,
    or
    Is Ashley a She?

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  44. Hitler had NOTHING to do with the Luftwaffe:

    Just as the Resident Expert on all things Governmental.
    Take the OIF Warplans, for instance.

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  45. Support can mean athletic support, such as a jockstrap (if you listen to you know who)
    or
    A Fungicide Provision in your Medical Plan to give you the Assurance and Confidence that comes with knowing your Balls aren't getting Mouldy.

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  46. "Does the distinction matter? Of course it does. Accuracy matters. And the sloppier we get, the farther away from reality we drift."
    ---
    Exactly,
    Like denying there was more than one plan for OIF.

    Or more generally for denying the obvious, when one claims there is no connection between the Ruling Powers in Iran and the IRG.
    ...and insisting that
    "The IRG is an NGO,
    it really is!
    "

    Set yourself free from worry and care.

    Enter the World of Certainty and Eternal Verities,
    Go Trish!

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  47. AlBobAlHarb,
    Support can also mean assisting in fullfilling the wants and needs of the
    Differently Stanced,
    but then, you already know all about that.

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  48. It is also well known by those in the know, with access to the Governmental Labyrinth, that a Fungicide Provision in your Medical Plan and 5 Bucks will buy you 999 Calories of Caffeinated Saturated Fat at StarBucks.

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  49. trish said...
    "What's meant by Iranian support? What's meant by Iranian? What's meant by support? "
    ---
    The careful observer will note the use of THREE contractions in the space of 3 sentences for the term
    " What IS"
    ---
    This belies the fact that the
    Clear Intent of the writer
    (to the extent that the writer is ever CLEAR about anything)
    is to avoid the thornier issues raised here.
    To Wit:
    "
    What IS
    the meaning of
    IS?
    "
    ---
    When all fair-minded people with a lick of common sense know,

    What IS, is.

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  50. "There is no mention of the Iranian government. There is no mention of the Iranian regime."
    ---
    Petraeus says Iran involvement in attacks 'clear'
    ---
    Uh, Iran was a Country,
    last time I checked.
    General's being rather inclusive here, ain't he?

    ...but that's probly why they call him "GENERAL."

    I just wish he'd be a little more SPECIFIC and legalistic, if
    ya know what I'm talkin about.
    (introduces a little Hillary Speak to bring attention to the issue at hand.)

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  51. Let's See,
    If someone were to say they have incriminating evidence that the
    United States of America detonated an H-Bomb over Mecca,
    might one reasonably deduce, that in all probability, the Govt of the USA was involved in authorizing one of the
    Military Arms of the USA to conduct the mission?

    But, of course, it is always possible that a
    Rogue Evangilistic Christian Radical, with access to the

    Megaton H-Bomb and Delivery System Outlet

    just MAY be the REAL Culprit.

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  52. Always good to pay attention to any mental Errata for yet ANOTHER opportunity to burnish your image at the Bar as
    a Buffoon and an Idiot.

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  53. Perhaps one might even replace the subject of this thread to retake the title of
    "Moonbat of the Week"
    to add to one's trophy chest alongside your
    Eternal, Grandmaster Moonbat Trophy.

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  54. I just don't understand the
    Visceral Hatred by looney librarian government apologist moonbats of Don Rumsfeld.

    Reminds me of Officer Al's defense of Marine top General and Murtha in the Haditha affair.

    Easy to see how Iraqis in this chain might not think too kindly of all the talk by us that they were irretrivably F....., everything IS, and always WAS THEIR FAULT, and they let down the ever honorable and Steadfast Government of the USA.

    (Kurds and betrayed Shiites had already put their resentment of previous betrayals behind them.)

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  55. ...although, if they did, I BET they remember NOW!

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