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, October 02, 2007

US Getting a Lecture from Mexico, ¡Ay, Caramba!


Mexico should focus on creating jobs at home


End the meddling

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL



October 1, 2007

In a speech to a gathering of border governors from both the United States and Mexico, President Felipe Calderón described immigration as a “natural phenomenon that is economically and socially inevitable.” He also said that the U.S. Congress should create more legal avenues to allow Mexicans to enter the United States to work.

Not again. We're starting to think that what is inevitable in the modern age is for the president of Mexico – no matter who he is – to meddle in U.S. immigration policy instead of focusing on creating jobs at home so migrants don't have to leave their country in order to feed their families.

Calderón wasn't speaking broadly about people migrating to his country from Central and South America. That armed guards are stationed along the border between Mexico and Guatemala would suggest the Mexican government doesn't consider all immigration to be “inevitable.”

Ironically, we agree with Calderón on the urgent need for some sort of comprehensive immigration reform and an increase in the number of visas the United States makes available to those who migrate to this country legally. And we also think there is a grain of truth in what we assume Calderón was getting at: With two side-by-side countries separated by a gaping wage disparity, there is always going to be some number of workers streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border.

And yet we must frown on Calderón sticking in his two centavos in this case. When it comes to the explosive issue of immigration reform, such meddling is never a good idea. Americans have no appetite for self-righteous lectures from south of the border. They know full well that Mexico could be doing a better job of keeping more of its people satisfied and gainfully employed, and they frankly resent being told how to police their border.

For a while, it seemed as if Calderón understood that. While he was running for president, and for the first 100 days of his administration, he took care to tread lightly on the issue. In fact, Calderón rarely mentioned, it and that was in stark contrast to his predecessor. Former President Vicente Fox talked about immigration all the time, and that may well have helped drain public support for a more reasonable policy here in the United States.

Lately, Calderón is taking a more aggressive stance on the issue, and he could wind up repeating Fox's mistakes. He would be much better off continuing his efforts to bring well-paying jobs and economic development to the dozen or so poorest regions of Mexico, which tend to lose the most people to the immigration phenomenon.

Calderón knows that. He admitted in his remarks to the governors that Mexico is losing its “best people” to the United States. And so, if the Mexican president can manage to double the average daily wage for low-skilled workers in Mexico – from $6 per day, where it is now, to $12 per day, where it needs to be – he might find a way to cut those losses, retain more workers, and serve his country in the process.


115 comments:

  1. I changed the order of posts to give prominence to the Mətušélaḥ rebuttal to Westhawk on the previous post.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sonia and I got a Modeling Job in LA!
    Portraying one of AlBobAl's early exploits:

    "seeking to portray what was both an actual experience of his, growing up in Washington State near the Idaho border, and what became a common occurrence for adolescents growing up in the new age of the automobile"

    Historic Display

    ReplyDelete
  3. The cool thing is that we get to drink Beer on the job!
    (look closely to find bottle)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tumwater

    "It's the Water,
    the Water, the Water,
    that makes Olympia beer,
    So refreshing, refreshing, refreshing,
    Light Olympia beer..."

    ReplyDelete
  5. Westhawk
    "Idealism,
    then realism"

    ---
    Leopold F. Schmidt:
    "Quality First -
    Quantity Next."

    ReplyDelete
  6. U.S. barred again from cracking down on illegal immigrants' bosses

    A second federal judge blocked the Bush administration today from notifying the nation's employers that they face possible prosecution for knowingly employing illegal immigrants unless they fire workers whose Social Security numbers do not match federal records.

    U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer extended for up to 10 days a temporary restraining order issued Aug. 31 by another federal judge in San Francisco, preventing the rule from taking effect. Breyer said he would rule within those 10 days on whether to issue a preliminary injunction, sought by labor unions and business groups, that would suspend the administration's plan indefinitely.


    Under the new rule, employers receiving such a "no-match" letter would have to fire the worker or face possible civil fines and criminal penalties if the discrepancy isn't cleared up within 93 days.

    Thank goodness someone put a stop to the above tyranny. No oppressive Chickenhaawkdicks will meddle in the affairs of employers of 2nd class citizens.

    Huzzah for the age of AmnestyDicked liberators! Trish has opened my eyes and its not a war of ideas but a war of genitals!

    ReplyDelete
  7. 9/11 Is Over

    Not long ago, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a fake news story that began like this:

    “At a well-attended rally in front of his new ground zero headquarters Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani officially announced his plan to run for president of 9/11.

    ‘My fellow citizens of 9/11, today I will make you a promise,’
    said Giuliani during his 18-minute announcement speech in front of a charred and torn American flag.
    ‘As president of 9/11, I will usher in a bold new 9/11 for all.’

    If elected, Giuliani would inherit the duties of current 9/11 President George W. Bush, including making grim facial expressions, seeing the world’s conflicts in terms of good and evil, and carrying a bullhorn at all state functions.”

    - THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

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  8. "Huzzah for the age of AmnestyDicked liberators! Trish has opened my eyes and its not a war of ideas but a war of genitals!"
    ---
    Trish adds:
    "Don't Forget Open Borders, and Open Immigration! "
    ---
    We are soo Librarianated.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What if the Second American Revolution began with the Assasination of all activist judges,
    and the exile of all ACLU members to Antartica?

    ReplyDelete
  10. of course Doug, you are speaking in metaphor......

    ReplyDelete
  11. Maybe we should pardon ACLU members on the condition they disband the organization, and desist from all lawsuits, and instead exile pro-amnesty
    "labor unions and business groups."

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  12. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  13. Just an innocent what-if, in an infinite Universe of what-ifs, Deuce!

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  14. Senor Calderon, El Presidente ...
    He has a responsibility to his citizens, at home and abroad.
    Especially perilous in that he is a "minority electorate" Presidente.
    Did not get 50% of the vote.

    He has to "Stand Strong" for Mexico, or at least appear to.
    The US let his people in, now we have to listen to their Government.
    Reconciliation, hermanos, reconciliation and negotiation will solve our challenges.

    That's the buy word, reconciliation

    As to the ChickenDicks ...

    See what happens when you talk of War ...
    ... but behave like a Peacekeeper.

    People come to believe their lyin' eyes, after a while.

    Rudy has it right, the US is not at War with jihadists, the jihadists are at War with US.

    30,000 troops
    Home for the Fourth of July


    Victory Parades
    Tickertape
    Sex in the streets
    Celebrate! Celebrate!
    Dance to the music!

    Seymour Hersh writes that the Iranian nuclear assets are off the
    target list. We're going to opt for "pinpoint" "strategic" "anti-terrorist" targets.

    Warehuses, training camps, trucks.

    Tactically aggressive, strategicly chickendicked.

    See-more says the attacks are coming at the urging of "Darth Cheney", who still ignores his own advice from 1992, in the current ideological belief that "something is better than nothing".
    Rather than laying out a battle plan that assures victory.

    Just more of it ain't a real war.
    But we gotta "do something"

    ReplyDelete
  15. It's over, and wishing will make it so:
    "You may think Guantánamo Bay is a prison camp in Cuba for Al Qaeda terrorists. A lot of the world thinks it’s a place we send visitors who don’t give the right answers at immigration. I will not vote for any candidate who is not committed to dismantling Guantánamo Bay and replacing it with a free field hospital for poor Cubans. Guantánamo Bay is the anti-Statue of Liberty."
    ---
    May one of those liberated blow up Friedman's Family!

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  16. "A lot of the world thinks it’s a place we send visitors who don’t give the right answers at immigration"
    ---
    Well, Jeeze,
    let's just pretend they are right!
    Governance by fantasy,
    not constrained by Reality.

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  17. Friedman believes the world is flat, doug

    Totally 1491 thinking

    Well behind the curve

    ReplyDelete
  18. Friedman's such a great Combo of good points (intrusive and useless "Homeland Security" hassels) and nonsense:
    "I just attended the China clean car conference, where Chinese automakers were boasting that their 2008 cars will meet “Euro 4” — European Union — emissions standards. We used to be the gold standard. We aren’t anymore. Last July, Microsoft, fed up with American restrictions on importing brain talent, opened its newest software development center in Vancouver. That’s in Canada, folks. If Disney World can remain an open, welcoming place, with increased but invisible security, why can’t America?"
    ---
    The most polluted Nation on Earth, rapidly running out of water to drink, beats the USA because of some promise they make about some car they don't make.

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  19. If one were to investigate I am sure that Mr Friedman does not live in the places he touts as the up and comers.

    Up and coming they are, from so far behind the pace that any forward movement is to be appaulded.

    That so many should live in such dire poverty for so long, impoverished and enslaved by socialist dogma. A real shame.

    We are seeing the fruition of decades of US efforts to commercialize conflict, while providing a "security" blanket to those participating in the marketplace.

    The fun has just begun.

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  20. Governance by wishing it were so:
    ---
    This guy says we keep on acting like China is what we'd like it to be, as it becomes worse, in many ways, than a decade ago.
    ---
    Arthur Waldron Lauder Professor of International Relations-University of Pennsylvania;

    "Clik Interview Highligts"

    ReplyDelete
  21. Not only will the Chinese great leap forward automobile meet euro 4 standards, it'll also help Chinese workers compete with American workers by offering a 100% crumple zone to the thrifty gwailo market! Can you imagine how much more efficient the market can get?!

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  22. Even so, dRat. The whole paradigm of the city designed for the car needs to change. People are herded into these mega malls and the city dies. You see it in downtown Haifa. You see it in downtown Tel Aviv. The independent theaters close. The small shops close. No foot traffic. Nothing to do in the city, the place is dead.

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  23. We need a Toby Keith video montage of brave Americans dying in tin chinese cars, skewered with metal and glass by drunk illegals, poisoned by toxic imports (soon to include pharmaceuticals from our Chinese Brothers in Achievement and World Betterment!), scolded by petulant socialists in positions of authority...

    ReplyDelete
  24. "The folks who criticize Americans who risk their lives to shop with drunk illegals on the road and poisoned goods on the shelves are undermining our mission."

    ReplyDelete
  25. Yeah, just hand the cities over to the Saudis.

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  26. Indeed it is, for about 15 years.
    Then, as in Riverside CA, or even here in Phoenix, downtown Tempe, there is a rebirth. The property values have declined, in realtionship to the outer areas, and the public rediscovers the joys of urban living.

    Independent theaters are a thing of the past. Not enough economy of scale. Single unit businesses are not very economicly viable. Very difficult for an independent single outlet business to succeed, in most any retail industry.

    Even doctors & dentists cluster in offices, two to ten chairs working at a time, just like screens in a mega-plex theater.

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  27. Yeah, my last colo-rectal exam was projected on 10 screens!

    ReplyDelete
  28. I'm now known as
    "Assman"
    throughout the islands.

    ReplyDelete
  29. doug, just wait 'til someone posts it on the internet - you'll be famous!

    ReplyDelete
  30. doug and paris sittin' in a tree...

    ReplyDelete
  31. At BC, someone suggested employing the Salvation Army in this struggle.
    ---
    This was my affirmative response:

    "Exactly!
    I just took a bunch of Old Claymore mines I had lieing around to the local Army of Salvation.

    Multiply that by the population of charitable donors, and it becomes obvious that the
    Army of Salvation
    is well-Armed,
    and ready to Rumble!
    "

    ReplyDelete
  32. dRat,

    That’s not the way to go. And there’s no real reason for it either. If one measures the cost of upkeep and maintenance of the car economy, the cost in time on the road traveling, the cost to the soul, the costs far outweigh any saving one might manage through a “more efficient” distribution channel.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Every light rail project in this country, all subsidized by the billions, is a loser in terms of transporting any significant number of people where they want to go.
    ---
    Megapork Construction Projects, for small-pond politicians.

    ReplyDelete
  34. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  35. Doug,

    Intra-city public transportation?

    ReplyDelete
  36. "We can’t afford to keep being this stupid! We have got to get our groove back. We need a president who will unite us around a common purpose, not a common enemy. "
    ---
    By Jove, I believe he's discovered Barracks Insane Osama!

    "If I am elected, I vow to employ the full force o
    f my High-School debating and empowering others skills
    to preserve our Liberties and Freedoms for all!
    "

    ReplyDelete
  37. Mat,
    It works in NY City, not aware of anywhere else.

    Know it does NOT work in any cities on the laid-back, sprawled out west coast of the USA.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Now you are lining up against bob and his home grown activist group.

    It is their property, their lives, their decision what to do with the dirt.

    Not some social and city planner.

    Go to Tokyo, New York or Panama, if you like spontaneous and successful urban living.

    Do not expect urban living in Phoenix, San Diego, Dallas or Denver.

    In Seoul, South Korea my most vivid cultural memory is that the people were living, packaged like sardines.

    Not for me, regardless of positive social benefits the could acrue.

    Lonely are the Brave

    ReplyDelete
  39. Doug,

    Because those are not cities. Those are large villages, and not even that.

    ReplyDelete
  40. doug wrote:

    "Megapork Construction Projects, for small-pond politicians."

    And how would you portray tax payer funded road building?

    ReplyDelete
  41. In the the 70’s in Israel, apartment/condo size was 60 to 90 square meters. Families living in the old buildings are now buying the unit upstairs or downstairs or next door, thus expanding their living space to 120 to 180 square meters. New apartment/condo projects range in size from 120 on the low end to 220 square meters on the higher end. The 220 square meters are aimed as affordable middle class projects. ($250,000-350,000 depending on location) These are not the high end projects. I see no reason why unit size cannot be even double that in the US.

    ReplyDelete
  42. The brave are always lonely, Rat, unless they have found 'that one good gal'.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Caramba Definition of, in case you didn't know for sure, which I didn't.

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  44. Tel Aviv itself has a population of 384,600 over an area covering 50,553 dunams (50.6 square kilometres (19.5 sq mi)) giving a population density of 7,445 people per km². According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), as of June 2006

    Phoenix, AZ
    1,512,986 people
    - Density 3,077.6/sq mi (1,188.4/km²)

    While New York City
    City 8,214,426 (13th)
    - Density 27,083/sq mi (10,456/km²)

    Seems that to be a successful urban center a city needs to reach a critical mass of both density and population.

    Tel Aviv not qualifying based on it's small population, despite confining density, as a successful urban center

    Phoenix has four times the population at half the density of Tel Aviv. But no "urban center", just a few high rise building in a Downtown corridor surrounded by 50 year old housing and infrastructure.

    While people continue to flock to Phoenix, the downtown area is being being redeveloped as renovation becomes economicly viable. The commercial movement led by the local sports magnate of the '90's, Mr Colangelo, CEO of the Suns basketball and Diamondback baseball Teams.

    The housing being renovated or razed by mostly private concerns.
    The light rail system that will connect the Valley of the Sun. About 60 miles at final build out killed the downtown of Phoenix, put a dagger in a sick man.

    High hopes for recovery after the Tempe to Phoenix portion of the route is finished. Makes the hotels of Tempe available to Conventions using Downtown Phoenix facilities.

    Bigger Conventions, yada, yada ...

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  45. Whit had This One figured out months ago. We are going to get taxed for a problem we are not sure even exists.

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  46. actually......Caramba Definition of, in case you didn't know for sure, which I didn't.....it is a bastardization of
    carajo which translates to penis or dick.

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  47. Hold on to your wallets, boys. The black carbon gold tax is out of the barn.

    I sense the tide has turned on the global warming debate and the other side has worn down our side. It's only a matter of time before the majority of pols get on the latest wealth redistribution scheme. The idea is that somebody's going to make money with this scam...We may as well get out share. For now, Bush is holding the line fairly well but we're only an election or two away from a full scale retreat from objectivity.

    If we're lucky, someday history will notice that our Constitutionally protected "free press" has been complicit in the sad decline of a mighty nation.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Listen closely, because you will, almost surely, never hear me say such a thing, again; but, the Mexicans, especially the highest income Mexicans, are "Undertaxed."

    Mexico only collects 9% of GDP in Revenue, and that isn't enough to provide the infrastructure for a Growing Economy.

    Something like 40 families control sixty percent of the wealth in that country. It's a recipe for disaster continuing indefinately.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Whit, I've tried to read and make an 'informed decision' about this global warming issue. What I come up with is...I'm not sure. What to do when the scientists are divided, as they sure seem to be?

    If global warming is a fact, and if we are contributing to it is this even necessarily a bad thing? Up to a point of course.

    We might find some advantages to it, and we might be saving ourselves from a coming ice age.

    We just don't know. We need more science. I advocate nuke plants, we know how to do it, and we know it is enviro friendly.

    I agree with you there is a barnstorming going on politically, and the horse is getting out of the barn before we even know if a storm is coming.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Well, I'm not sure finding one or two scientists offering countering opinions constitutes a complete rebuttal of a thesis but there does seem to be some concern over recent trends:

    Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts

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  51. Maybe, your experts should take a trip down to Antarctica, where the Ice is Growing.

    By the way, Antarctica is where the Ice Ages start.

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  52. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  53. Ms T:
    Harry Reid and company are on the losing end of this nonsense which indicates the depths to which they will go politically.

    Very bad politics are their part but it may be that they had no choice...they had to advance the agenda of their benefactors. Move-On, Soros, et al.

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  54. Mr Reid can see victory parades on the Fourth of July, too.

    Not quite what he saw, eight months ago. It's rocking his world

    Right after General P's March briefing. There'll be a cascading effect if the "right" just get's "On Course".

    They've been down so long,
    it looks like up.

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  55. The warming trends are only recent if you're looking at an insignificant span of time.

    The earth has been warming and ice melting since the end of the little ice age. Glaciers have been receding for almost 200 years and it would make sense to me that a thawing process would accelerate towards its end.

    What is so bothersome is that the climate hysterics like the non-Scientist Gore get the lion share of the worthless media while calmer Scientific heads such as Bjorn Lomborg are constantly ignored

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  56. For example the 20 foot sea level rise prophesied by Al Gore will only be 20" over the next 100 years according to Lomborg. The interesting thing is that this is about the same level of rise which has been occurring for the last hundred years.

    Lomborg says there are more important issues than global warming.

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  57. Another 1,000 Brits will be leaving Iraq!

    More Success!

    Final victory will be found in providing "basic services" in Baghdad. Just saw General Odierno say so

    Victory on the Fourth of July!

    Rollin' to November...

    Wheels ... they keep on spinnin'...

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  58. BAGHDAD -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today announced plans to pull 1,000 troops from Iraq before the end of the year, saying Iraqi authorities would be ready within two months to take over security in the last province under British control.

    In contrast to the U.S. troop buildup, Britain has been gradually withdrawing its forces from Iraq, where it once was responsible for four southern provinces. It now has about 5,500 troops in the country, most of them in Basra, the main hub of the country's lucrative oil industry.

    Last month, Britain moved the last 500 troops based in the city center to an air base on Basra's outskirts, and these forces have now started going home, military officials said today. British commanders believe there are now enough trained Iraqis -- about 13,000 soldiers and 15,000 policemen -- to take charge of security in the city and the wider province, permitting the pullout of an additional 500 troops.

    "That releases 1,000 of our troops, and hopefully they will be home by Christmas ..."

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  59. 4,700 Coalition Troops
    home for Christmass!

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  60. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  61. Doubt if they celebrate the Fourth of July ...

    In London

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  62. whit, are you saying that all us people on the planet are not affecting the environment in a negative manner?

    Sure, some of the predictions made will be wrong but it seems pretty clear that we people are mucking the place up pretty good. China is one of the worst. I get the impression you are suggesting it is all 'natural' and we need do nothing except grow.

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  63. ...and deregulate getting government out of the way of industry.

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  64. Unless you're prepared to bring Martians to advocate otherwise (and that's not a joke), pollution has been shown to have little to do with global warming.

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  65. Deuce and Whit--I would like to suggest a topic one of these days--"Marriage in America, and what it means to us and our society".

    Or something to that effect. It might be "how to kill loneliness when you are middle-aged"--or some other way of putting it.

    Are we "star crossed lovers" as some of the old poets used to say, are we just Idaho farmers that happened to meet a neat teacher on an airplane ride to Hawaii, or are we involved in 'Celestial Marriage' as our Mormon friends are wont to say.

    What are our relations between men and women here in our American Republic?

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  66. This is hard to say, really hard to say, but, on the evidence, what there is, I am taking Ash's side of the argument a little over Whit's right now, on global warming.

    Go ahead, shoot me, I deserve it.

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  67. It's hard for me to think we are not having an effect.

    But just how, and what kind?

    We need more science.

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  68. “Go ahead, shoot me, I deserve it.”


    No need for that, Bob. I’ll just task one of these Generals for the job:

    link



    :D

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  69. No need for that, Bob--I will take you up on that, Mat, and the heck with the rest of the article:)

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  70. Don't worry folks, some big old volcano will go off one of these days, dumping a few gazillion tons of Sulfur Dioxide into the air and we'll cool down real nicely. Probably right into another "little ice age."

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  71. You Global warmeners do realize that we went into one "Ice Age" with CO2 levels approximately 8 times present levels, right?

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  72. Bob,

    I have a strict policy of leaving swedish farmers be; if not for their sake, then for the sake of their gorgeous daughters. :)

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  73. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  74. The biggest joke about all the hubbub about man-caused warming (whether or not it exists) is acting like what ANYBODY says is going to make the slightest difference in what the Chicoms or Indians, Ruskies are going to do, which is to burn however much oil dirty coal, and etc is needed to maximize their economies within the political limits they impose on there people.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Because it is a Trumped up LIE of a charge, made by HILLARY'S ORGANIZATION, and repeated by the ignorant and stupid, which now, sadly, includes YOU,
    Teresita!

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  76. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  77. Almost every detail is a lie or distortion of the facts, from the chronological order of things, to who in plain English, was being refered to.

    And why does NOBODY that is supposedly standing for the truth report this TRUTH:
    Hillary was one of the FOUNDERS, and is supported Daily by
    "Media Matters!"

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  78. re:
    Tue Oct 02, 08:50:00 PM EDT
    ie:
    Much Pissing into the wind about something over which we have NO Control, even if we stop using ALL forms of energy.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Hillary and Soros:
    Two of the most corrupt and destructive agents to come down the Pike in our lifetimes.

    ReplyDelete
  80. we need to embrace mexican (not the whole world for this specific idea) guest workers...

    we should LURE them to come here to be our workers, we should make money off them, use them as the low cost labor they can give us to export our goods to mexico and the rest of the world with out lower valued dollar.

    we can combine american brains with mexican cheap labor costs and hurt china with our exports of factory produced crap

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  81. WiO: we can combine american brains with mexican cheap labor costs and hurt china with our exports of factory produced crap

    The flaw in your plan is that the US is the only country that consumes factory-produced crap because our import tariffs are zero. Every other country has 20% import tariffs, they make it and sells it to us.

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  82. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  83. "The only losers are the dissenting troops who are called "phony soldiers" by a fat gasbag who got out of serving in Vietnam by having a boil on his ass, but who nonetheless is one of the biggest cheerleaders for the occupation of Iraq."

    Complete bullshit.

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  84. The "dissenting soldiers" were clearly the dozens of fake war veterans/criminals like Jessie MacBeth, as anyone who's actually read the transcript knows he was referring to. The "phony soldiers" that are really dragged out, given money, and sent around the country to truly slander the real ones.

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  85. ...The transcript continues...

    "Here is a Morning Update that we did recently, talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the left props up as heroes. They have their celebrities and one of them was Army Ranger Jesse Macbeth. Now, he was a "corporal." I say in quotes. Twenty-three years old. What made Jesse Macbeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart; it wasn't his being affiliated with post-traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. No. What made Jesse Macbeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage, in their view, off the battlefield, without regard to consequences. He told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq, American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account, translated into Arabic and spread widely across the Internet, Army Ranger Jesse Macbeth describes the horrors this way: "We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque."

    Now, recently, Jesse Macbeth, poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court. And you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs claim and his Army discharge record. He was in the Army. Jesse Macbeth was in the Army, folks, briefly. Forty-four days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse Macbeth isn't an Army Ranger, never was. He isn't a corporal, never was. He never won the Purple Heart, and he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen. You probably haven't even heard about this. And, if you have, you haven't heard much about it. This doesn't fit the narrative and the template in the Drive-By Media and the Democrat Party as to who is a genuine war hero. Don't look for any retractions, by the way. Not from the anti-war left, the anti-military Drive-By Media, or the Arabic websites that spread Jesse Macbeth's lies about our troops, because the truth for the left is fiction that serves their purpose. They have to lie about such atrocities because they can't find any that fit the template of the way they see the US military. In other words, for the American anti-war left, the greatest inconvenience they face is the truth."


    Brownshirts.

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  86. Tes,

    Are you really such a sap, or is there an agenda behind this?

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  87. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  88. Btw, Tes, you do make a good point in your 09:26:00 post.

    I think it would be good idea to move completely off income tax and replace it with import tax. Also, eliminating sales taxes and the bureaucratic waste and welfare system that it supports, wouldn’t be such a bad idea either.

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  89. METUSELAH: I think it would be good idea to move completely off income tax and replace it with import tax. Also, eliminating sales taxes and the bureaucratic waste and welfare system that it supports, wouldn’t be such a bad idea either.

    None of that will happen because the Clinton tag team is getting back in, with 42% of the vote again, because James Dobson and that gang doesn't think Rudy is Christian enough and wants to run a third party candidate.

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  90. That’s not the issue, Tes. The issue is that none of it will happen, particularly if Rudy is elected.

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  91. It’d be interested to see who Newt throws his support to.

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  92. The last time I pissed into the Mississippi it didn't change a thing one way or the other.

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  93. Bob, here’s a guy that knows all about it:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VIFOwMJBrw

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  94. But if we all piss into the Mississippi it might make a real stink.

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  95. Might even cause it to change course.

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  96. teresita said...
    WiO: we can combine american brains with mexican cheap labor costs and hurt china with our exports of factory produced crap

    The flaw in your plan is that the US is the only country that consumes factory-produced crap because our import tariffs are zero. Every other country has 20% import tariffs, they make it and sells it to us.


    dear t,

    your points are (no offense) crap.

    the USA is hardly the "only" country that consumes factory produced crap, we may consume more than our 4% world foot print but the truth? USA EXPORTS are hugh, and now with the 40% drop in the value of the dollar MY EXPORTS of American made goods are really picking up.

    In the last 3 months (no bullshit) we have shipped at least 12 times to australia, 10 times germany, 40 times to canada, 20 to england, 1 to reunion, 3 times to new zealand, 1 to tasmania, and smaller amounts to rio, france, spain, turkey and others...

    now combine that with hard working mexican labor I am seriously thinking americans CAN compete and export to the world.

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  97. Another fly in Occupation's Ointment, is unlike machines, Mexicans breed and multiply far faster than they did in their home country.
    That, plus an unstoppable push by the left to get them into the voting booth would make elections with any meaning whatsoever a thing of the past:
    A ugly and Deadly repetition each cycle with a monotone of Democrate Socialist Programs eating more of the substance out of everything great about this country.

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  98. Australia, by choosing not to go the cheap slave labor route, has done what UC Davis could have done for agriculture back in 1970:
    MECHANIZE IT!
    Inventiveness w/machines has always been one of the areas we were most dominant in.

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  99. Bob, here's one that will put a smile in your face. :D

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aIpjYrXYd4

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  100. Bob, around the 8 min mark. :D

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  101. Mat, all I could get up there was a Playtex ad for bras, with a lot of pretty girls of various persuasions, but that was good enough!

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  102. Drug Trade Takes Root, and Toll, in Mexico

    As Mexican drug cartels have grown in power, medium-sized towns have large and growing populations of addicts, along with a rise in violent crime.

    Another Negative, WIO:
    Crime many times the native rate,
    Gang Violence and Drug trafficing,
    Drunk, uninsured drivers, on and on.

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  103. WiO--may I ask, what is it you or your company makes/produces and sells overseas? Just interested.

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  104. More irrational exuberance?
    "Google Stock Approaches $600 as Web Ad Spending Soars (Update1)

    By Ari Levy

    Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. shares may surpass $600 for the first time as investors bet the world's most popular Internet search engine will capture more sales from companies shifting advertising spending to the Web.

    Google, which began trading at $85 in 2004, has the sixth- highest stock price in the U.S. and has surged 27 percent this year. The shares rose $1.84 to $584.39 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market and earlier reached $596.81. "

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  105. And, the biggest problem of all:
    Corruption in and of the various government social systems, from welfare and medical care, to the schools and prisons.
    LA Unified School District is a sterling example of failing it's students, and wasting the Taxpayer's Dollars.

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  106. “The Borinqueneers,”

    After years of being footnotes to a forgotten war, they are glad to let others know they were there when they were needed.

    “This documentary is something historic,” Mr. Lopez said. “You see it from beginning to end and learn that Puerto Ricans fought in World War I, World War II and Korea. The truth is there.”

    The support of the old veterans, men who came home and settled into uneventful, but blessed, lives is what helped Ms. Figueroa Soulet stick with her project when others would not even return her calls.

    “Those guys are my troops,” she said. “I look at the long list of organizations who protested the Ken Burns thing and say, ‘Gee, none of them contributed to my project.’ Some of them would not give me the time of day.”She paused. Being an actress, she knows a thing or two about timing.

    “Now,” she said, “they’re all calling.”

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