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."

Monday, December 17, 2007

China Cyber Strategy Becoming Clear


It has become increasingly clear that Chinese military strategy is being devised to disable and disrupt communication technology at the highest level. The Chinese economic expansion is deeply rooted into the Chinese army. The benefits of this investment are being returned handsomely. There is no affirmative action in the People's Army. Yikes.

China Scouts Colleges to Fill Ranks of Modern Army
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 17, 2007; Page A01

BEIJING -- The fliers circulating last month on the campuses of China's most prestigious universities showed three soldiers positioned against a Chinese flag and an appeal that read in part: "Carry Your Pen to the Army to Become More Accomplished."

In ancient times, the phrase was "Throw Away Your Pen and Join the Army," a challenge to China's intellectuals to stop wasting time and help defend the country. Now, the People's Liberation Army is recruiting college students in an ambitious modernization program designed to attract smart soldiers who can handle sophisticated equipment and transform the 2.3 million-strong force into a high-tech adversary.

Zhou Hao, left, and Tan Zhenwen are juniors at Tsinghua University who have signed up for the army. Zhou, who wants to work in government after college, said, "I think my experience in the army will help me to get a position." (Courtesy Of Zhou Hao)

"With the rise of China, China needs a powerful army," said Tan Zhenwen, a junior at Tsinghua University in Beijing who recently headed to Guangdong province to join the South China Sea Fleet. " . . . I don't worry about the low social status of soldiers. With more and more college students joining the army, the situation is changing and getting better."

While China's rising diplomatic power has helped fuel a desire for a more professional army, military commanders also need highly educated soldiers to maintain the "information-based" military power that has become increasingly important -- both internationally and as a means to dissuade Taiwan from declaring independence.

Domestically, the army already has come a long way. A military that 18 years ago was most readily associated with the shooting of protesters in Tiananmen Square is increasingly helping in relief efforts after floods and other natural disasters. The army has also been the driving force behind recent achievements in space exploration.

In a speech in August marking the 80th anniversary of the army, President Hu Jintao called for accelerated modernization of weapons and equipment, enhanced personnel training and strengthening of combat capabilities through technology.

One of the most important aspects of the modernization is a huge effort to shed the impoverished farmhands who have traditionally signed on as a way to ensure three solid meals a day. The once-bloated force had 4.2 million people two decades ago but has gradually reduced its infantry. It has, however, increased the number of personnel who serve in the navy, air force and Second Artillery Corps, which maintains China's nuclear missiles.

The army now advertises itself as an opportunity for young people to acquire technical skills and experience not easily attained in the private sector. This year, for the first time, the army took out full-page advertisements in newspapers. The ads featured an astronaut, a naval college professor and Peking University's first recruit since its students began signing up in 2005.

Six years ago, 26 universities produced roughly 1,400 army recruits through a special government program similar to the U.S. military's Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or ROTC. This year, the program has grown to include 110 universities, and officials hope to recruit 11,000 students, including some majoring in philosophy, law and medicine.

"Compared with the private sector, army salaries are not very high. But in recent years, the army has increased the salary for soldiers and officers," said Li Shengqiang, an officer at the army's Beijing Recruitment Office. "Because the army is trying to equip itself with advanced weapons and equipment, the quality and knowledge of soldiers has become correspondingly higher. . . . In the 1980s, primary school graduates could join the army. But now, no way."

Recruits are lured by financial incentives and programs that allow students to return to university after two years in the army with preferential standing for graduate school. Officials have introduced psychological tests to weed out unsuitable candidates and imposed penalties for ineligible applicants who try to bribe their way in. Also this year, for the first time candidates who want to be air force pilots must pass a language test in English or Russian.

Undergraduates from outside Beijing may be offered Beijing residency, an important perk, in exchange for two years of service, according to a proposal now under discussion, said another recruitment official who spoke on condition of anonymity because a decision has not been announced.

For Zhou Hao, 20, a third-year journalism student at Tsinghua University, joining the army had been a childhood dream. He was unaware that university students were eligible until he spotted a recruitment poster and discovered financial rewards for signing up. Last week he headed off to join the Second Artillery Group in Chuxiong city, Yunnan province.

"I prefer to work for the government after I graduate, and I think my experience in the army will help me to get a position," Zhou said. "I don't think I really give up anything for the army. But one thing is that more eyes will look at you. So, there must be more pressure, which will force me to do my best."


Zhou Hao, left, and Tan Zhenwen are juniors at Tsinghua University who have signed up for the army. Zhou, who wants to work in government after college, said, "I think my experience in the army will help me to get a position." (Courtesy Of Zhou Hao)

China's growing military budget has generated intense debate in Washington, where some analysts believe China's defense spending is much higher than the $45.3 billion officially earmarked.

Whatever the amount, one Beijing-based military expert added that some of that money is going toward China's military education system.

"We didn't use all those funds just for missiles or defense" but also for "better welfare" for troops, the expert said, noting that more than $1 million has been spent recently on uniforms.

"Maybe five years ago IBM had the most advantage. Most students wouldn't have joined the army. But now the situation is different," he said. "The army now offers higher salaries, higher status than before and more opportunities for advancement. If you wore the uniform before, maybe you couldn't get a girlfriend. Now, even that's different."

In addition, with an increasingly competitive job market, a growing number of college graduates are finding it difficult to secure a stable job with a good salary. Many are beginning to think two years of army experience will give them advantages over other candidates. Others worry that their lives are too comfortable and that they're unprepared for the world.

"Most young people my age have only focused on their studies since childhood. We are relatively delicate and fragile," said Jia Na, 21, a journalism student at Tsinghua University. "When you enter society, there are even bigger hardships. If I join the army and experience hardship, I will be well-prepared to face challenges in society."

Jia, from Shanxi province, is the first from her peasant family to attend university. She signed up after speaking with another Tsinghua student who had returned to campus after two years in the army.

"A teacher who knew him before said he had changed a lot in two years. I found his attitude to be serious and precise and his stories about the army impressed me," Jia said. "He said the labor in the last two years was more than all the work he'd done in his first 18 years of life."

Last week she packed her bags and headed for an East China Sea Fleet base in Zhejiang province, taking jeans, a sweater and a few books. She left behind her makeup, most of her clothes, her computer and her MP3 player.

Researcher Zhang Jie contributed to this report.


58 comments:

  1. In ancient times, the phrase was "Throw Away Your Pen and Join the Army," a challenge to China's intellectuals to stop wasting time and help defend the country.
    ---
    With all due respect, try as I might, I find it hard to lose any sleep over the prospect of young Chicoms compromising our secure IT infrastructure with their Pens!
    Jeesh!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder if Mitt will use this upstanding, affluent, DEVOUT, Mormon Family as the centerpiece for a speech on family values?
    ---
    A murder suspect's family speaks publicly for the first time about the death of 24-year-old surfer Emery Kauanui.
    Their son, Seth Cravens,
    is one of four men accused of killing him.
    "He did not do what he's accused of doing. There's no doubt in my mind," said Seth's mother, Karen Cravens.
    (all of the many witnesses were hallucinating)

    Seth is the 13th of 14 children born to devout mormon parents, married for 47 years. In letters to the court, his mother says, "It was Seth's habit to give me a kiss and say, 'I love you' before going to bed."
    (well, isn't that SPECIAL!)

    Seth's sister, Sarah, describes her brother as someone with a very tender heart.

    "He cares for people, for his friends and for his family," said Sarah. "He's not perfect, he's not the angel or the golden child by any stretch of the imagination. But he's not who has been depicted."

    Others paint a darker picture. The owners of the Shack Bar and Grill tell FOX6 News that they banned Cravens and his friends for life after they started a fight in the establishment. And prosecutors say at least two people have filed police reports against the 21-year-old suspect.
    (one was severely beaten while walking out to his car, another, a 16 year old girl, punched in the jaw and chest by Seth Cravens.)

    "We have verifiable information that he in the past has inflicted substantial injury on other individuals in a group setting," stated Deputy District Attorney Genaro Ramirez.
    ---
    The Perp, having already beaten up many innocent victims, including women.
    ---
    ---
    "He definitely liked to be intimidating," says buddy Matthew Schneider. He was such a confident puncher that most adversaries would back away to save themselves, Schneider says. "I've never seen him get dropped."

    Schneider says Cravens was the "odd one out" in a family of 13 brothers and sisters. They lived in Mount Soledad, an exclusive hilltop enclave in La Jolla with panoramic views of the coast. While his siblings were charting careers and building families, Cravens, the second-youngest, was getting suspended from middle school for fighting, according to Schneider and others.

    Cravens' parents tried hard to control him, says one of his sisters, Sarah. They grounded him, took away his video games and lectured him on respect for authority.

    "My parents never made excuses for Seth," Sarah says. "Ultimately, the child is going to do what he is going to do, despite the best efforts of the parents."

    It wasn't always easy, though, for Cravens' dad to claim the moral high ground. In 2002, William H. Cravens pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in connection with a $74-million investment scheme. In exchange for his cooperation, he was sentenced last year to 32 months in prison, credited to time he'd already spent in custody. He was placed on probation and ordered to pay more than $36 million in restitution.
    Just one month after the elder Cravens' guilty plea, his son was encountering the judicial system for the first time.

    At a party in La Jolla in the summer of 2002, Cravens, then 17, was accused of punching Thomas Barrow in the head as many as 20 times, causing hearing loss and jaw damage. Barrow, also 17 at the time, was beaten after he came to the defense of a young woman Cravens allegedly had threatened to hit. A group of Cravens' friends made sure nobody got in the way, trapping one would-be rescuer inside a car.

    "I remember trying to shield my head and thinking, 'Don't fight back.' If I were to fight back I'd have 10 people on me," Barrow recalls.

    Barrow's mom, Clare, was horrified when she saw his bruised and lumpy face. "It's a very helpless feeling when you see that your child has been beaten up like that," she says.

    She and her husband began talking to witnesses. "My son was not the first," she says.

    The family pressed charges, and the San Diego County probation department recommended that Cravens be prosecuted in juvenile court.
    His parents, however, sent him to live with relatives in Hawaii. The Barrows say prosecutors explained that they didn't press ahead because Cravens no longer was a threat to San Diego residents.

    Such an upstanding, Devout Mormon Family!
    Death in a seaside paradise

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sarah needs to be treated for Schizophrenia:
    In the Fox News piece, Seth is a loving Angel.
    When she talked to the LA Times, she described him as out of control:
    Cravens' parents tried hard to control him, says one of his sisters, Sarah.
    They grounded him, took away his video games and lectured him on respect for authority.

    "My parents never made excuses for Seth," Sarah says.
    "Ultimately, the child is going to do what he is going to do, despite the best efforts of the parents.
    "

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

    ReplyDelete
  5. Luckily, mom and her youngest son now live in Oahu, where mostly Japanese, and some Haole tourists, get beat up by Hawaiian thugs!
    ---
    A few years ago, the fad was to drive by little Japanese ladies out shopping, and rip their purse out of their hands! Beats getting beat up, unless you're one of the unlucky ones that gets "involved" in the traffic flow.
    Bad Publicity for the Tourist Trade.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We gotta teach Albob how to defraud somebody in a $74-million investment scheme.
    ---
    Maybe then he'll he'll be too busy to bother, and quit hasseling us with his weird-ass stories from the Bible.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Maybe it would have worked out better if William H. Cravens had 2 wives and only had seven children with each.
    Variety is the spice of life, after all, and perhaps he became bored repeatedly punching the same old broad like that.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Some Christmas Cheer for folks living near Google HQ:

    EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. — A man decorating a tree outside an apartment complex was electrocuted when a string of Christmas lights touched a high-voltage power line, authorities said.

    The 23-year-old man, who had climbed about 60 feet up a redwood tree in East Palo Alto, was trying to throw the string of lights onto hard-to-reach branches when he was killed instantly Saturday, according to Menlo Park Fire Protection District Chief Harold Schapelhouman.

    Shortly after a neighbor reported the incident around 12:20 p.m., fire crews arrived on the scene and found the man's body attached the tree with smoke rising from his feet, officials said.
    The body hung for more than an hour as hundreds of neighbors watched.
    Firefighters had to wait for utility crews to shut down power lines that supply electricity to thousands of nearby homes and businesses.

    Firefighters brought the man's body down from the tree after the power was turned off, Schapelhouman said.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This has been your morning update from The Onion.

    ReplyDelete
  10. NEWSFLASH!
    Brady Bunch star threatens separation over lesbian photos

    Christopher Knight threatened to leave his model wife Adrianne Curry when she posed for sexy lesbian photos - as a birthday gift.

    The incident, which was caught on camera for upcoming reality show My Fair Brady... Maybe Baby, left the upset actor suggesting the couple separate.

    The girl-on-girl photos, which Curry has since repeated with a pal for Playboy magazine, were supposed to end a feud over baby plans - but they started a new one.

    In the tense episode, which will air in January, Knight says of the photo gift,
    "It is the physicalisation of my worst fears.
    It creeps me out.
    I want a separation.
    "
    ---
    Boy, that must reeally suck!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Speaking of Pens
    This looks kinda cool:
    Instead of lugging your laptop around, this computerized pen records your brilliant musings and then transfers them to your PC.
    Think I'll buy one for my wife and see if it's worth a s....
    (always put the spouse first in your thoughts,
    ...Albob has the scriptural text.)

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  12. Albobal said...

    Ananias and Sapphira experieced liberation theology first hand from Peter the Zapper in Acts 5:1-12.
    "Great fear seized the church and all who heard about these events."
    ---
    Peter the Zapper, what's up w/that?
    I majored in BioChem, so my Theology is, shall we say, lacking.

    (Actually, it's cause I hated having to go to Sunday School, and vowed never to learn a damn thing.
    One of the few vows I made good on, I might add.)

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  13. Al-Bobal Idahiri should sneak his wisdom onto video every once and awhile.

    W/ a name like that alone, he could get a global audience.

    "Hear me, O' Idohans, Desert Rat's foul tongue speaks a devilish duplicity! His words seem like the enchanting luster and sheen of the Bran Muffin with none of its sturdy fiber! Have faith not in the substance of his words; rather, eye them suspiciously as you would the antics of a Salesman or a gigolo."

    -Al Bobali Idahiri

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  14. For the baker-ally challenged or the scholars amongst us:

    Muffins

    ReplyDelete
  15. Adrianne Curry sure looks like a bad little girl.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Doug: The girl-on-girl photos, which Curry has since repeated with a pal for Playboy magazine, were supposed to end a feud over baby plans - but they started a new one.

    Maybe Peter is having bad flashbacks to the Jan and Marcia incident.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Desert Rat belatedly bestrode into the conference room, his commanding bouffant imposing the presence of his surly brow upon all in the range of his face.

    "Sorry, gents, I was playing around on the In'ernet"

    He combined the foppishness of an erudite geek with the exaulted Americana of a Cracker Barrel menu. When he spoke, it was as if his very words were advertisements for this larger than life caricature.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Tribadistic Fundamentalists

    ReplyDelete
  19. I could be the Sayd Qutb of Tribadism.

    All problems of the world are derived from the fact that frottage is no longer fashionable.

    ReplyDelete
  20. "Hear me, O Idohan! The Elephant Bar is like a nymph-administered colonic machine with aftermarket water pump upgrades. Intellectual intestines can accumulate a vast and putrid detritus, a mac-nastay bullshit(Bernie Mac 236-237). One is saved only by reading this vaunted text, as if it was a humble gastrological nectar, a spellbinding cleaning! Fear not the esteemed effrontery of the Belmont Club! Though the tyrannical eggheads may boast and laugh, you know Mike Rowe could never save them, even if he had an industrial pressure washer or even a water laser. A man needn't bend over to receive wisdom as the "boy-lovers" at the BC proclaim. He must only part his ideological pre-conceived notions and await the muses and satyrs of the Elephant Bar to enlighten!

    -Al Bobali Idahiri

    ReplyDelete
  21. Looks like the Chinese have figured that their 21st century war machine needs a GI Bill to find viable recruits.

    Just like US, they now need enlistment bonuses and post service benefits.

    Nice muffins, alderman, but a tad to much fiber.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Laugh away infidels, but I know Jesus supports the 2nd Amendment

    Someimtes it's love, sometimes it's Smith and Wesson.

    Words to love and slay by.

    ReplyDelete
  23. One outta fourteen isn't all that bad, percent wise.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Maybe the dude has two y chromosomes, you ever think of that? Ain't his fault.

    ReplyDelete
  25. You all are the kind of people that would hide half your holdings back from the movement.

    ReplyDelete
  26. China Cyber Strategy Becoming Clear...

    perhaps one main objective is an attempt to nulllify/disrupt novel U.S. C4ISR capabilities.

    ...The PLA has been watching closely how the revolution of military affair (RMA) transforms the U.S. armed forces, and helped the success of the U.S.-led military operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The PLA’s latest operational doctrine highlights the importance of information technology, electronic and information warfare, and long-range precision strikes in future warfare.

    The Electronic Battlefield

    ReplyDelete
  27. Researchers Discover Giant Rat ... in a Remote Jungle in Indonesia
    12-16-2007 10:47 PM

    JAKARTA, Indonesia (Associated Press) -- Researchers in a remote jungle in Indonesia have discovered a giant rat and a tiny possum that are apparently new to science, underscoring the stunning biodiversity of the Southeast Asian nation, scientists said Monday.

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  28. A good rat for high school dissecting labs everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  29. As many have noted in the past, not a nickel's worth of difference ...

    Former Democrat VP Nominee Lieberman Backs Republican McCain, Citing Common Ground

    "On all the issues, you're never going to do anything about them unless you have a leader who can break through the partisan gridlock," said Lieberman, who was Al Gore's running mate seven years ago. "The status quo in Washington is not working."

    ReplyDelete
  30. said Lieberman, who was Al Gore's running mate seven years ago.

    Whores, one and all.

    ReplyDelete
  31. More than a nickel, to be found amongst the librarians:

    Ron Paul backers stage Boston Tea Party, raise millions
    Ron Paul supporters marched through the snow yesterday from the State House to Faneuil Hall, then smashed the one-day fund-raising record for a Republican presidential candidate.

    As of 10 last night, the supporters said, they had raked in about $5.2 million, surpassing the record $4.2 million they raised on Nov. 5.

    Most of the donations were made over the Internet in what the supporters called a "money bomb" timed to coincide with the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. The last fund-raising blitz, which took in 40,000 donations, was timed to coincide with Guy Fawkes Day, which commemorates a British mercenary who tried unsuccessfully to kill King James I on Nov. 5, 1605.

    "This basically shows that Ron Paul is a viable candidate," said Rachael McIntosh, a spokeswoman for what was dubbed Boston TeaParty07. "People are so engaged in this campaign because it's coming from the grass roots."

    ReplyDelete
  32. In South Africa, there seems not to be a penny's worth of difference. If Mr Mandela or Bishop Tutu are to be believed.

    Former President Nelson Mandela, at pains not to take sides in the increasingly bitter contest between ANC leader President Thabo Mbeki and his former deputy Jacob Zuma, pleaded with comrades Sunday to tone down the destructive rhetoric.

    "Of course it saddens us to see and hear of the nature of the differences currently in the organization," Mr. Mandela told delegates in a taped statement. "Whatever decision you are to make at this conference, including decisions about leadership positions in the organization, let the noble history of the ANC guide you," he urged.

    Fellow Nobel laureate and anti-apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu, meanwhile, seemed to be despairing of either of the candidates making a good leader.

    "The nation is distressed and needs a political leader who cares for them and makes them feel as though they matter," he told the local Mail and Guardian newspaper in a weekend interview. Archbishop Tutu said South Africa needs a leader who can inspire it as Mandela once did, but he did not see either of the candidates as this person. "Let us not choose someone of whom most of us would be ashamed," he added, in reference to both.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Funny stuff,

    Putin Agrees to Be Protégé’s Prime Minister

    This is the end of Russian democratic hopes, if the
    WSJ is to be believed.

    The Perils of Putinism
    A non-transfer of power that makes Russia less stable.

    Plans for a transition of power were unveiled this week in Russia. The news is that there won't be one.


    Mr Putin remains on the political scene, instead of fading into the night.

    While in the US, Mr Bush's GOP puts his son in the White House and Mr Clinton tries to re-embed his wife, in the Oval Office.

    These political machinations not worthy of comment as to the lack of... a non-transfer of power that makes US less stable.

    ReplyDelete
  34. I kind of like Lieberman, but there is some truth to the charge he's the Senator from Tel Aviv.

    Lieberman, a democrat who is a republican, endorsing a republican who is a democrat.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Ash, here's a really good article about freedom of speech we were talking about the other day. Speech in Canada It's a serious problem.

    ReplyDelete
  36. But to paraphrase the late Pastor Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the redneck trolls, and I did not speak out because I was not a redneck troll. Then they came for the male chauvinist pigs, and I did not speak out because I was not a male chauvinist pig. Then they came for Mark Steyn, and I did not speak out because I was not Mark Steyn. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

    ReplyDelete
  37. Even Alan Keyes did not claim Mr Obama a Muslim, which if he thought it, he'd have said it.
    But the Clinton machine, it's operating on a whole different level.

    Obama staffers and volunteers say they periodically encounter voters who say they cannot support Obama because they've heard he is Muslim, a claim that has been making its way through Internet sites and blogs since he announced his candidacy for president.

    The issue gained prominence earlier this month when Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign forced the resignation of two Iowa volunteer coordinators who had forwarded e-mails that falsely tried to tie him to Islamic jihadists.

    The Illinois Democrat — whose middle name is "Hussein" — was born in Hawaii and moved to Indonesia at age 6 to live with his mother and stepfather, who was Muslim. He left Indonesia when he was 10 and returned to Hawaii to live with his mother's parents.

    Obama's background re-emerged Sunday when former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, who had just endorsed Clinton, referred to Obama's Muslim side of the family in an interview with The Washington Post. The remarks were part of a generally complimentary assessment of Obama.

    "It's probably not something that appeals to him, but I like the fact that his name is Barack Hussein Obama, and that his father was a Muslim and that his paternal grandmother is a Muslim. There's a billion people on the planet that are Muslims and I think that experience is a big deal." Kerrey added, "He's got a whale of a lot more intellectual talent than I've got as well."


    Rollin', rollin', rollin', keep them the doobies rollin', rawhide!!

    Pick 'em up, move 'em out!!

    This is a rush transcript of "Special Report With Brit Hume" from December 14, 2007. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

    (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

    SEN HILLARY CLINTON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As soon as I heard about this, that I not only disapproved it, but that it did not reflect the campaign that I'm running, and I did personally apologize. And the gentleman in question has stepped down.

    UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The negative stuff isn't going to work. It's not going to work here in Iowa. People are really sincerely interested in doing the right thing and lifting and making the right decisions. And I found other people who also have been dissatisfied.

    (END VIDEO CLIP)

    BRETT BAIER, GUEST HOST: There you see Senator Clinton talking and apologizing again for a statement made by the head of her New Hampshire campaign, Billy Shaheen, about Barack Obama's teen drug use. He has since left the campaign.

    The second video there is from Obama's Web site. That lady is Susan Koppler(ph), a former Iowa Clinton precinct captain, announcing she is now going for Obama.
    ...
    FRED BARNES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, WEEKLY STANDARD: Yes. That's not a good time for your campaign. She had to apologize not only for her aide, who was in New Hampshire, who said that about Obama's and his drug use, which he had written about in the book, for heaven's sakes.

    But why did that person mention that? Because most people haven't read that book. Most people don't know about what he wrote about, that as a teenager using drugs, and he wrote very frankly about it.

    This is not an innocent tactic, where you just say—I mean, this was kind of crude, saying, well, Republicans—of course we're not—but Republicans may use this issue if Obama's nominated.

    And she had to apologize for the aide who sent along those Clinton emails about him being a Muslim when he was five, or something like that. It is pretty pathetic.

    But, remember that column by Robert Novak a few weeks ago in which he said some Democrats were telling them they heard from the Hillary campaign this: watch out for Obama, we have some dirt on him. And, of course, the Clinton campaign denied it. Then all this stuff comes on.

    She's in trouble. Obama's soaring.

    BAIER: So, Mort, is there a backlash here?

    MORT KONDRAKE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, ROLL CALL: Yes, of course there is. And the dirt that they've got, if that's what they've got, is used-up dirt. There's nothing new in any of this kind of stuff. They're raising it, and it's plainly not working.

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  38. So Mark Styen is persona non-grata in Canada, he may soon to be designated a hate monger.

    If he does not go up there to visit, he should be a-okay.

    But hate speach laws are advancing in the US, even if violence is not advocated.

    Do not color outside the lines.

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  39. ya, it starts with banning the speech of jew hating holocaust deniers to, now iy seems, Mark Steyn, soon they'll be after you bobal. Sorta like sifting through your electronic communications looking for terrorists has slid to sifting for drug traffickers and soon they'll too be after you bob. I hope you haven't mailed to Canada to fill your prescription!

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  40. Jees, I'd rather be white than two-toned, and if salt water can get to him that bad, what would a confrontation w/Madam Pelosi look like?

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  41. ... in places where reporting the truth means risking all; and to each of you, Courage.

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  42. Who'd have ever thought Dan Rather would be speaking of Canada?

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  43. "Do not color outside the lines."
    ---
    Maybe that's what's responsible for Osama Barrack Hussein Obama's Color Scheme, and why he looks so agitated.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Senor Obama has a farmer's tan.

    Just another redneck

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  45. Mr Orwell was writing of the World, ash.

    The Anglo-sphere and the "other"

    But his experience was with the anglo-sphere. But all part of the human experience.

    As H.G. Wells described in his dream. Writing from the anglo-sphere perspective, as well.

    The Canadians are flying the SPP patrols over Alaska because:
    Air Force orders 452 Boeing F-15 fighter jets grounded less than a week after returning to fly

    ReplyDelete
  46. What with the MS-13 and the PLA recruiting college graduates, you'd think there was a general trend, except that ...

    U.S. Army expands by lowering the bar on recruits
    By Bryan Bender, The Boston Globe,
    Published: November 27, 2007

    WASHINGTON: Two weeks ago, the Pentagon announced the "good news" that the army had met its recruiting goal for October, the first month in a five-year plan to add 65,000 new soldiers to the ranks by 2012.

    But Pentagon statistics show the army met that goal by accepting a higher percentage of enlistees with criminal records, drug or alcohol problems, or health conditions that would have ordinarily disqualified them from service.

    In each fiscal year since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, statistics show, the army has accepted a growing percentage of recruits who do not meet its own minimum fitness standards. The October statistics show that at least 1 of every 5 recruits required a waiver to join the service, leading military analysts to conclude that the army is lowering standards more than it has in decades.

    "The across-the-board lowering of the standards is buying problems in the future," said John Hutson, a retired rear admiral, dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire, and a former judge advocate general of the navy. "You are going to have more people getting in trouble, more people washing out" before finishing their tour of duty.

    The Army Recruiting Command, based in Fort Knox, Kentucky, insists that it carefully reviews each applicant. "We look at the recent history, such as employment, schooling, references, and signs of remorse and changed behavior since the incident occurred" on how recruits with criminal records are regarded, the command said in a statement to The Boston Globe.


    Gotta get more of them college educated American patriots to enlist, from here in the homeland, to stay ahead on that quality recruit curve.

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  47. I guess that if we're going to overlook drug use in our Commander in Chief candidates, there's no sense holding Army recruits to a no pot heads allowed standard.

    Youthful escapades, why even Al Gore said he smoked a doobie or two while in the Army.

    And he grew up to be Vice-President & Nobel Prize winner.

    No harm, no foul.

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  48. Mary Jane gives you that intuitive slow motion feel of the battlefield that every commander needs.

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  49. every commander-in-chief needs...

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  50. Ash, you're making me paranoid. I've give you up, on my word! Without water boarding.

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  51. what would a confrontation w/Madam Pelosi look like?

    He'd be white as a swede.

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  52. " Prior to entering Top Model, Curry went to rehab and kicked her heroin, cocaine, and cutting habit."
    ---
    Pardon me, and I know I should know this but what's a "cutting habit?"
    (too anxious to google)

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