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."

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, USMC

A necessary component of our defense.


Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach is a personnel clerk assigned to Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, the Marine Corps said. She joined the service on June 6, 2006. I assume she spent 4 months in some form of basic training. That takes us into October 2006. On December 2007, the marine is missing and eight months pregnant. So the US taxpayer after spending who knows how much to recruit and train this marine finds her in a family way without a family within seven months of her leaving basic training. I do not know what kind of peril this young woman is in but what was she doing in the Marines in the first place? Please explain to me how having young pregnant unwed woman in the marines is in the national security interest of the US taxpaying public.

Pregnant Marine missing from North Carolina base

(CNN) --
A search is under way for a pregnant 20-year-old Marine who has been missing from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, since December 14.

Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach was eight months pregnant when she went missing on December 14.

Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach could give birth at any time, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown told the Jacksonville, North Carolina, Daily News on Monday.

The sheriff's department said Lauterbach's mother said that her daughter, of Montgomery, Ohio, had witnessed an incident at Camp Lejeune and was to testify about it.

Sheriff's department officials said evidence causes them to be concerned about Lauterbach's disappearance, WITN reported.

The Marine's car was found Monday at Jacksonville's bus station, Brown told the Daily News, and her cell phone had been found at Camp Lejeune's front gate on December 20.

Her mother reported her missing on December 19, and told the sheriff's department "that she was very suspicious that something bad may have happened to her daughter," the department said in a news release.

Investigators told the Marine Corps Times that a withdrawal from Lauterbach's bank account was made on December 14 and said there was "suspicious activity" on the account 10 days later. December 14 was also the last time Lauterbach's cell phone was used, authorities told the Marine Corps Times.

The Raleigh News and Observer, citing Brown, reported that the woman's mother said her daughter phoned home or her relatives up to 12 times a week and the mother became concerned when she did not hear from her daughter for five days.

A Facebook page established to help find Lauterbach says she was last seen December 14 in Jacksonville. "Call mom!!! You know the number," the page says. "All of us love you and we miss you. Please come home!"

The page contains pleas for contacts from fellow Marines and friends of Lauterbach in Ohio.

.


65 comments:

  1. Police: Man Throws 4 Kids Off Bridge

    The family initially feared the children had been traded to support a drug habit, Kam Phengsisomboun said.
    ------------------

    Men Wheel Dead Roommate to Check Cashing Store, Arrested for Trying to Cash His Social Security Check

    NEW YORK — Two men wheeled a dead man through the streets in an office chair to a check-cashing store and tried to cash his Social Security check before being arrested on fraud charges, police said.

    David J. Dalaia and James O'Hare pushed Virgilio Cintron's body from the Manhattan apartment that O'Hare and Cintron shared to Pay-O-Matic, about a block away, spokesman Paul Browne said witnesses told police.

    "The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up and keeping him from flopping from side to side," Browne said.

    The men left Cintron's body outside the store, went inside and tried to cash his $355 check, Browne said. The store's clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O'Hare told the clerk they would go and get him, Browne said.

    A police detective who was having lunch at a restaurant next to the check-cashing store noticed a crowd forming around Cintron's body, and "it's immediately apparent to him that Cintron is dead," Browne said.

    The detective called uniformed New York Police Department officers at a nearby precinct. Emergency medical technicians arrived as O'Hare and Dalaia were preparing to wheel Cintron's body into the check-cashing store, Browne said. Police arrested Dalaia and O'Hare there, he said.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hope the detective's food didn't get cold.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Winner in the previous quiz was me:
    "Medved is for McCain."
    Thank you,
    Thank you very much!

    ...I think I've found my voice, sniff.
    ...and, I Flew in a Planeload of Brainiacs from Oahu to prepare for the Quiz.
    They, of course did not participate in the quiz, since none of them were willing to LIE and say they were eligible because they planned on moving to Maui.

    PS None of them cheated and TOLD me about Medved, either.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Total Delegates:

    Romney 30

    McCain 10

    Huckabee 21

    Giuliani 1

    Thompson 6

    Hunter 1
    ---
    Left out Hunter:
    He campaigned in Nevada while the rest were in NH

    ReplyDelete
  5. My guess on why the Dem polling was so far off is all the out-of-state voters brought in by Hill and Bill:
    All you have to do to vote LEGALLY is say you intend to move to NH!

    ReplyDelete
  6. In Iowa caucuses, most everyone knew everyone else, which should mitigate SOME hanky-panky, at least.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Can you still write "Hanky Panky"
    on right-wing blogs on blogger?
    ...guess we'll find out.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I got censored, in a way, by gmail. I tried to attach a file that was a .exe to an email to send and it wouldn't allow me to do it. What's next - can't say 'wingnut'?

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  9. There were reports that the lance cpl was going to testify in a Marine investigation. No information as to what that investigation was about, but ....

    Silencing a witness or ...

    Was she a victim of Corps values?

    Marines Differ on Deadly Afghan Shooting
    By ESTES THOMPSON

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  10. Why are US soldiers doing this kind of duty?

    BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six U.S. soldiers were killed Wednesday in Iraq when a bomb exploded in a house while they were on patrol in Diyana, north of Baghdad, the military announced.

    Four soldiers were also wounded in the attack and evacuated to a coalition forces hospital, Multi-National Corps-Iraq said.

    The soldiers were with Multi-National Division-North.

    It was the first incident involving multiple deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq since September 10, when seven Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldiers died and 11 were injured in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad.

    Three other U.S. troops, two Marines and one soldier, died in two incidents on that day in Iraq.

    The Marines died in combat operations, and the soldier died when the vehicle he was riding in overturned and caught fire.

    The last incident in which so many troops died from hostile action happened on May 28, when six Task Force Lightning soldiers were killed by explosions that went off near their vehicles while they were conducting operations in Diyala province.

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  11. I'm not sure what national defense has to do with this young Marine woman, but common decency calls for an all out search for her. As far as what she is doing in the Marines; Liberals want total equality, so here is total equality. Just like everything else liberals want, it is very expensive to the tax payers.

    That being what it may, as a parent who has buried a child, I pray (yes liberals, to God) that she is okay and just quietly having her baby somewhere.

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  12. L.A. grand jury issues subpoenas in Web suicide case

    A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has begun issuing subpoenas in the case of a Missouri teenager who hanged herself after being rejected by the person she thought was a 16-year-old boy she met on MySpace, sources told The Times.

    The case set off a national furor when it was revealed that the "boyfriend" was really a neighbor who was the mother of one of the girl's former friends.


    MySpace is headquartered in LA, which gives the Fedeal Grand Jury jurisdiction.
    Be nice on-line. Be polite.
    Do unto others ...
    or the Feds may knock on your door.
    They know just who you are.
    No hiding from the Feds.

    No more hanky panky, doug.

    ReplyDelete
  13. "Phantom Phoenix" is the Operation that was just instigated, these soldiers may have been part of that.

    Policing Baghdad's streets, surging...

    That's the deal in Baghdad, joint operations with Iraqi allied troops. 350,000 under Iraqi Government control. 75,000 Awakened Sunni

    U.S. Starts 'Phoenix' Campaign
    Reuters
    BAGHDAD -- U.S. and Iraqi forces began a series of operations on Tuesday targeting al-Qaida in Iraq after an upsurge in suicide bombings that U.S. commanders say are an attempt by the militant group to reignite sectarian violence.

    "Working closely with the Iraqi security forces, we will continue to pursue al-Qaida and other extremists wherever they attempt to take sanctuary," said Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno, in a statement announcing the start of the offensive, dubbed Operation Phantom Phoenix.

    Odierno gave few details of the new offensive but said it comprised a "series of joint Iraqi and Coalition division- and brigade-level operations to pursue and neutralize remaining al-Qaida in Iraq and other extremist elements."


    This type of Operation is why we remain in Iraq. To secure it & to train the Iraqi.

    While we wait for the 100 A-Teams to be formed, trish said it could take a decade.

    Seems everything the Federals do, it takes at least a decade to bear fruit.

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. hmmm, the jurisdiction based on the physical location of the server?

    Here is the same issue only different:

    "VANCOUVER - The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide this week if it wants to hear the case of a pollution lawsuit against Teck Cominco Ltd. (TSX:TCK.B), a case legal experts say could make it easier for U.S. environmentalists to sue other Canadian companies.


    "It could change the way Canada and the U.S. solves transboundary problems, normally they've always been dealt with on a diplomatic governement-to-government level," said Austen Parrish, a professor at Southwestern Law School who has followed the case.


    Parrish said if the case is allowed to stand it could mean interest groups would be left to battle out cross-border pollution cases and allow the courts to decide the issues.


    Teck Cominco wants the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision to allow a lawsuit filed by Joseph Pakootas and Donald Michel of the Colville tribe. They have accused the company of dumping millions of tonnes of heavy metals into the river from its lead and zinc smelter in Trail, B.C., for nearly 90 years, and allowing it to flow into the United States.
    "

    http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/071230/business/teck_cominco_pakootas

    ReplyDelete
  16. killed by a house born improvised explosive device

    The "born" spelling direct from the Coalition website.

    But even, the expression "house borne improvised explosive device"
    How does a house carry an explosive device"
    Isn't just bobby-trapped enough?

    House Borne Explosive Device.
    Wonder what the hell we're doin' there?


    TIKRIT, Iraq � Six Multi-National Division � North Soldiers were killed by a house born improvised explosive device while conducting operations in Diyala Jan. 9.

    Additionally, four MND-N Soldiers were injured in the explosion and evacuated to a Coalition Forces� hospital.

    The names of the deceased are being withheld pending next of kin notification and release by the Department of Defense

    ReplyDelete
  17. One land, One People,
    Isthmus to Artic

    See that train a comin'
    it's rollin' round the bend
    Won't see the sunshine 'til
    NAFTA, SPP & NAU combine for a win

    Stuck in North America
    Canadians prayin' that the US Supremes grant salvation.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Tiffany Melvin, executive director, North American SuperCorridor Coalition Inc. (NASCO), was rather emphatic saying, "NASCO can state unequivocally that plans for a new giant NAFTA superhighway do not exist" (Dec. 18 letter).

    Why, then, has a Spanish company, Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte S.A., paid $1.3 million to the Texas Department of Transportation for a 50-year lease to operate a 10-lane toll road through the heart of Texas?

    This Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) construction that could start next year includes plans for six lanes for automobile traffic, four lanes for trucks, rail lines both ways for passenger and freight and a utility corridor. This doesn't sound like I-35.


    Superhighway Story

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  19. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Because it is not
    a NAFTA Super Highway,
    it's the Trans-Texas Corridor.

    So by using the Clinton definition of "is" the Trans-Texas Corridor is not "the" NAFTA Super Highway.

    Pretty simple and legally accurate, if misleading in substance.

    What else would one want but accurately parsed definitions from our officials?

    ReplyDelete
  21. But in the final stretch here, it may have been the media's peculiar obsession with Hillary that rescued her. Her aides said that two moments were critical.

    One was the flash of temper she displayed at Saturday night's debate, after Obama and Edwards seemed to be teaming up on her as an agent of the Washington "status quo," as Edwards put it. The other was her now-famous near-teary moment in a Portsmouth cafe after one woman asked about her travails in public life.

    Both episodes drew huge amounts of attention precisely because the nation is so fascinated by what makes her tick. For weeks Hillary's aides had labored to make her seem less remote and imperious, more human and likeable.


    Taking a Bow

    ReplyDelete
  22. Romney won among REPUBLICANS,
    35 to 34

    ReplyDelete
  23. Gee, Sam, they didn't mention Hill's bussed in voters as a critical part of her surge!

    ReplyDelete
  24. She doesn't tick, she cackles.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Bless all their hearts. But political leaders in Washington have changed the U.S. less often than social movements have.

    The U.S. is signaling it is hungry for change again, and we will need to build the kind of spiritual and social movement that can deliver on that hope. Last night, Barack Obama said, "it's also about what you, the people who love this country, can do to change it."

    And he's right; it is really all about us.


    Power of Change

    ReplyDelete
  26. Yes, I saw your post earlier about that. The Clinton machine. Always thinking ahead. Whatever works. Just do whatever it takes.

    ReplyDelete
  27. That Romney note is not what I've heard reported, doug.

    On FOX McCain won both Indis and GOP. There's new news on that?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Another big question going forward is, while the polls accurately predicted Sen. John McCain's victory on the Republican side, they were off by double digits on Democrats.

    Laslo Boyd with Maryland-based Gonzales Research told WBAL TV 11 News, "I think things changed late. The old cliché is right.

    Polls are a snapshot in time, and time passed quickly. There was less volatility on the Republican side."


    Polls accurate on GOP

    ReplyDelete
  29. It's all or nothing for Mitt
    Michigan or Bust

    Romney Goes Dark In FL, South Carolina
    09 Jan 2008 12:17 pm

    Up on television in Florida and South Carolina through yesterday, Mitt Romney is not running any television ads in those states now, according to a Republican with knowledge of the traffic purchases in the state.

    Romney's campaign hasn't booked any television time in those states, either.

    ReplyDelete
  30. The Day After New Hampshire
    By Amy Walter, NationalJournal.com

    Exit polling in New Hampshire showed John McCain tied with Mitt Romney among the 61 percent of primary voters who defined themselves as Republicans. This is a much better showing than he had in 2000, when he lost Republicans to then-Gov. George W. Bush by 5 points. Not surprisingly, McCain carried independent voters, but his 9-point advantage over Romney was nowhere near his 43-point margin over Bush in 2000.

    ReplyDelete
  31. There's a lesson in what happened in New Hampshire. It's not that New Hampshire often plays a contrarian role in presidential races, voting in unexpected ways.

    We knew that. The lesson is that Hillary and Bill Clinton are survivors.

    Just when you think they're not only down but out, they rise from the grave. We should have known.


    Survivors

    ReplyDelete
  32. Immigration was only number 4 in NH.
    McCain won voters who cared most for Iraq and etc.
    Romney won voters for whom immigration was most important.

    "It's all or nothing for Mitt
    Michigan or Bust
    "
    That's the MSM line, 'Rat, not one that emanates from Romney or GOP Voters. That was his plan when he thought he'd be battling Rudy.
    Now he figures it's going to be a 4 person race for quite a while, and he's got the bucks.
    No reason wasting money in S Carolina (Hucktster and McCain) or Florida (Rudy and whoever)
    Michigan will be rough, due to independent voters, but he plans on staying in beyond that.
    Big Michigan Catholic, founder of Dominoes endorsed him today.

    Romney For President National Call Day 2008 Raised over $4 Million today.
    I'm not Mitt Romney, but he approves this post!

    ReplyDelete
  33. " "I think things changed late."
    ---
    Yeah, the buses arrived!

    ReplyDelete
  34. The report by George Borjas is the latest academic attempt to quantify the impact of illegal immigrants on the Arizona economy. It offered not-so-subtle criticism of a University of Arizona report last summer that found illegal workers overall made a slight positive economic contribution to the state.

    Borjas' analysis did not attempt to examine any possible economic benefits illegal immigrants may make to the state's economy, such as lower prices for goods and services.

    Judith Gans of the University of Arizona tried to quantify the net effect of illegal immigrants on the state's 2004 finances in her report, which immediately touched off a firestorm of complaints that it was not sufficiently thorough.


    Lower Wages

    ReplyDelete
  35. Craig's Lawyers Try New Tactic

    AP--Seeking to have his guilty plea in a bathroom sex sting erased, Idaho Senator Laaarrrry Craig's laaawyyyyers argue in a new court filing that the underlying act wasn't criminal because it didn't involve multiple victims.

    An appeals brief filed Tuesday contends that Minnesota's disorderly conduct law "requires that the conduct at issue have a tendency to alarm or anger 'others'"--underscoring the plural nature of the term.

    xxxxxxxx Won't plague you with the rest but he also says his freedom of speech is involved. The hand signal used to communicate a desire to engage in sexual conduct would be protected speech. All this might be true, but the hard part is he pleaded guilty. Always get a lawyer BEFORE you plead guilty.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Others is plural.

    Nice catch. Wonder if his lawyers work for the Clintons also.

    ReplyDelete
  37. "All you have to do to vote LEGALLY is say you intend to move to NH!"

    Is that really true?

    ReplyDelete
  38. Obama who led Clinton by as many as 13 percentage points in pre-primary polling in New Hampshire, told NBC's "Today" show that he is setting his sights on the Democratic caucuses in Nevada on Jan. 19 and the South Carolina primary 10 days later.

    "Right now we're in a very close contest that'll probably go all the way through February 5th as the voters lift the hood and kick the tires and make an assessment who's going to really fight for them and their families," he said.

    Obama complained on CBS's "Early Show" that former president Bill Clinton "made several misleading statements about my record" during a New Hampshire campaign speech on behalf of his wife. Clinton criticized Obama's record on the Iraq war and other issues in the speech, declaring at one point, "This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."


    Upcoming Battles

    ReplyDelete
  39. If a few second semi- boo-hoo can change thousands of votes, are we finished as a country?

    ReplyDelete
  40. I don't know, Bob, I don't know.

    I can tell you I feel like throwing up 'though.

    ReplyDelete
  41. From the tequila last night:)

    from Israel Matzav--

    Woodrow Wilson and the advent of political correctness

    At Gates of Vienna, Baron Bodissey has an interesting post in which he blames Woodrow Wilson for the advent of political correctness on the world scene.

    For those of us who are attempting to unlearn the decades-long indoctrination that is now known as “political correctness”, an essential part of the process is dethroning the icons of modern liberalism. From an American viewpoint this has meant looking at JFK and FDR with a jaundiced eye, but we also need to go even further back, all the way to Thomas Woodrow Wilson.

    Woodrow Wilson is the only scion of the Commonwealth of Virginia whose election to the presidency I would rather forget. Wilson did much mischief in his conduct of American foreign policy, and we have yet to shake off his legacy. From Versailles to the UN to the idealism of George W. Bush: we set out to make the world safe for democracy, and ended up making it unsafe for just about everyone.

    What is rarely recognized is how much Wilson had in common with Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, and all the other murderous socialist dictators of the 20th century. Like them, he believed that humankind could be reshaped by the idealistic vision of the privileged few who governed them. Like them, he was loath to allow the reality of human nature to stand in the way of his vision.

    Shaking off Wilsonianism is a worthwhile goal.

    A commenter named Alexis ties political correctness specifically to radical Islam:

    I would argue that Woodrow Wilson’s worst long-term legacy was the Europeanization of America’s foreign policy. Wilsonian politics puts undue emphasis on whatever happens in Europe at the expense of ignoring other parts of the world. He was a racist, even by the standards of the time; I have often wondered if his ideas of “self-determination” and the League of Nations were actually means to create an international atmosphere conducive to promoting the secession of a future Southern Confederacy.

    There is one other legacy of Woodrow Wilson we must remember – Islamophobia, as in a phobia against angering Muslims. During the early years of World War I, American public opinion was against entering the war against German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, American public opinion was staunchly in favor of declaring war on the Ottoman Empire to avenge atrocities against the Armenian people. Yet, when the time for war came, Woodrow Wilson was scared about angering Turkey because American missionaries in danger of facing the same fate as Armenians.

    This led to a private rebuke from former president Theodore Roosevelt.

    “The Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and failure to act against Turkey is to condone it; because the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense; and because when we now refuse to war with Turkey we show that our announcement that we meant ‘to make the world safe for democracy’ was insincere claptrap.”

    From Theodore Roosevelt to Cleveland Dodge, May 11, 1918. Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 8, 1316-18. Found in p. 308, The Burning Tigris, by Peter Balakian.

    Ironic, isn't it, that just a couple of months ago when the United States Congress passed a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide the Jews were blamed by Turkey, and eventually the United States backed off doing anything about it. We're still fighting World War I!

    Read the whole thing.

    ReplyDelete
  42. If a boo-hoo is worth a thousand votes, how many votes would a good barff be worth?

    ReplyDelete
  43. Hillary barffs on election eve, sweeps fifty states.

    ReplyDelete
  44. That may be true, doug, about Romney wanting to stay, but if he does not compete in Florida, he'll be out.
    It is the first of the big States.
    114 delegattes, winner take all.
    Add up the delegates with that factor. Give SC to Huck 47 Delegates.

    On Feb 5, Rudy guarenteteed
    New York, 101 winner take all
    New Jerseu, 52 winner take all

    Romney,
    Mass 43, winner take all

    Huck
    Georgia, 71 winner take all

    McCain,
    Arizona 52 winner take all

    The balance are either proportional or have no polling available and are not obvious as to candidate choice.

    At This site "The Republican Choice" each State's rules are outlined. Most of the delegates, they are not legally bound by the primary or caucus results.

    It'll go to the Convention, to be brokered.
    Total Number of Delegates: 2488
    Needed to win the nomination 1245

    ReplyDelete
  45. So maybe Romney hangs on, tries to become the convention choice or a delegate broker

    ReplyDelete
  46. Probably a lot of truth in this from Time--

    Thank You, Joe and Chris
    Posted by Jay Carney | Comments (22) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This
    So a social scientist friend of a colleague here has run some comparisons into the pre-election polls and the actual turnout to see if there were signs of a so-called "black tax" in New Hampshire -- the phenomenon familiar to students of the Harvey Gant-Jesse Helms races in North Carolina. He didn't find any evidence that white respondents who were telling pollsters they planned to vote for Obama did not. What he found, instead, is that a certain percentage of Democratic voters in the last days of polling presumed Biden (especially) and (to a lesser degree) Dodd hadn't dropped out. By and large, come election day, those Biden and Dodd supporters ended up casting ballots for Hillary. Also, of the 5 percent or so who were still undecideds in the last polls, almost all broke for Hillary. And a tiny percentage of Edwards supporters switched to Hillary.

    ReplyDelete
  47. It looks as if the politics of 'hope' and 'change' don't leave any room at all for worrying the people with such mundane affairs like life or death--

    Dems Speak No Evil Of Islamic Jihad
    By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, January 07, 2008 4:20 PM PT

    War On Terror: If the New Hampshire debates settled anything, it's which party has the stomach to take on radical Islam. The Democrats couldn't even identify the enemy. Not once. Really.


    We scanned the transcripts of Saturday's debates hosted by ABC News and tallied up the references to Islamic terrorism. The rhetorical divide between Democrats and Republicans on that score alone — ignoring the yawning gaps in policy — is stunning.

    None of the four Democrat presidential candidates — despite running for an office that demands they lead the ongoing global war against Islamic extremists — could bring himself or herself to define the enemy we face as Islamic.

    Their combined references to "Islam" or "Islamic" totaled zero — even though moderator Charles Gibson prompted them with a question about "Islamic radicals" threatening the U.S. with nuclear terrorism.

    But Democrats refused to go there. Out of respect for their constituency, there was a complete blackout regarding Islamic jihad.

    Instead, Hillary Clinton defined the enemy generically as "stateless terrorists," while Barack Hussein Obama complained about the "politics of fear" that he thinks accurately defining the enemy has created.

    John Edwards, meanwhile, continued to wage his own personal jihad against a phantom enemy of "irresponsible" corporations — from pharmaceutical and insurance companies to oil giants and multinational corporations.

    Republicans, on the other hand, called the enemy by its proper name.

    The candidates referred to terrorists and terrorism as "Islamic," while also citing radical "Islam" as the problem, no less than 22 times. For example:

    • Rudy Giuliani argued the U.S. must stay "on offense against Islamic terrorism."

    • Mike Huckabee said the source of the threat we face is from the "radical Islamic faith." "This is an Islamic problem," he said. "This is a jihadist problem. This is an Islamofascism problem."

    Huckabee elaborated: "They are prompted by the fact that they must establish a worldwide caliphate that has nothing to do with us other than we live and breathe, and their intention is to destroy us."

    • John McCain warned that "the transcendent challenge of the 21st century is radical Islamic extremists."

    • Mitt Romney said the "philosophy of radical jihadism says, 'We want to kill.' "

    • Fred Thompson asserted, "We are in a global war with radical Islam. They declared war on us a long, long time ago. We took note, really, for the first time on Sept. 11, 2001."

    They get it. Democrats don't. They talked a lot about "fighting" — fighting insurance companies and big business and Wall Street and polluters. But will they fight the real enemy — Islamic terrorists?

    To hear the Democrats in their debate, you'd think Islamic radicals had stopped plotting new attacks against us and scheming new ways of killing us.

    You would think they hadn't just assassinated a former world leader. You would think they hadn't just issued a fatwah to assassinate our own president.

    To hear them, you would think it was the 1990s again, when Democrats controlled the White House and the CIA and the Pentagon, and blew off Osama bin Laden after he and radical Islam declared war on the U.S.

    These contrasting performances in New Hampshire should crystallize in voters' minds more than any other recent example how one party understands the titanic challenge we face from radical Islam, while the other decidedly does not.

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  48. Man's got a way with the morose imagery, I'll hand him that:

    Reading about this endless election is a lot like crawling through wet sand with a cement block on your back. Apart from the wonk takes, where the tiniest policy position is pure mother's meth, accounts about the remaining candidates range from the semi-religious to the snarkiest celebrity dish, all of it mind-numbing.

    You wouldn't know how deeply buried in corpse-choked shit we are, rattling about in our respective veal crates, looking for any distraction from the slaughterhouse on the hill. Right wingers are divided, awaiting to see how the post-Bush fall out will affect them. Liberals are anxiously dreaming, insisting that it's their birthright to have a Dem prez elected this year, and when that happens -- and it must happen, do you hear, it MUST HAPPEN -- the universe will begin to right itself. At least, they hope that's the case. Contemporary American liberalism is all about hope. They turn their sad cow eyes to their keepers, trusting that the blades being sharpened aren't intended for their throats.

    Little wonder that Obama has most of them spellbound. His oratory is sweet music among the crates, bovine heads bobbing to the beat. Hillary simply spooks the room, putting everyone on edge, even though, if it comes down to it, the veal libs will take her over any GOP keeper. But Uncle Barack spins a much gentler yarn, elevating captive moods while keeping all in place. He's the most logical choice to run the abattoir for the next four-to-eight years.

    To those who admonish me for being so pessimistic, what can I tell you? I didn't chose this mood, for it eats away at me and drains my creative energy. If I truly believed that there was a real chance for change in this election, brothers and sisters, I'd be out there waving my placard. But our imperial system does not require change, merely an executive who can help run it more efficiently. Obama is emerging as that executive. Like Reagan and Bill Clinton, Obama becomes who you want him to be, at least in your own head. That's an important political gift. Bush was and is too polarizing. A system based on lies, theft, alienation, and murder needs a steadier hand. That's what the Obama campaign is all about. He has arrived at the perfect time. The guy may very well pull it off.

    - Dennis Perrin

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  49. That is the problem, bob.

    The differences in the Parties "contrasting performances in New Hampshire should crystallize in voters' minds", it has been. The electorate saw, heard and decided.

    In Iowa, Obama out polled all the GOP, combined.

    In New Hampshire
    The four Democratic candidates last night drew about 270,000 votes between them, while the larger G.O.P. field drew about 210,000, or about 60,000 more votes for the Democrats than the Republicans.

    60,000 is a 28.5% winning spread for the Democrats, based upon the GOP vote total, in a historicly GOP State.

    At best the Dems recieved a 12% positive spread, based upon total votes.

    The differences in verbage were evident to anyone that watched both Parties debates.

    At least in Iowa and New Hampshire, the "War on Terror" was a loser with the electorate at the polls.

    To mention it, or to demand a rational explanation of the War on Terror, gets one cussed out at this Bar.
    But Mr Bush has convinced the general electorate,
    there is no War on Islam.
    Mr Bush did his job well, in that regard.

    To try to rev it up, without a major event, or even the sinking of some Iranian fast boats, just not gonna work.

    Look to turnout for each Party in the past and upcoming events, where the two Parties are having primaries on the same day.
    We'll see if the trend continues.

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  50. Very perceptive, this Dennis Perrin fellow.

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  51. In Iowa and New Hampshire, by allowing the Indis to particpate, we get a little better picure of the General Election, where Independents are allowed to participate.

    In California, all the Indis will be particpating in the Dem primary.
    The GOP freezing them out.

    But in AZ, one must be registered to the Party, to particpate. So in States like that, turnout ratios may not be as accurate a read on the General Election

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  52. With regards New Hampshire and Iowa

    George Bush beat Mike Dukakis there in 1988 by almost 30 percent

    It’s one of only four states in the country (New Mexico, Wisconsin and Iowa are the others) where an outcome was determined by less than 2 percent of the vote in both 2000 and 2004. John Kerry won the state by just 9,000 votes in 2004; and President Bush won it by only 7,000 votes in 2000.

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  53. Anybody heard why Calif did that?
    (first time, far as I know)

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  54. The body heat of 250,000 stinking, sweating Swedes to be used to heat Stockholm!!

    Lord, can you imagine the Odor in that Building

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  55. Nobody believes you can really walk up in NH and say you're movin in and vote legally, but that's what I've heard.
    That's MY vote for how Hil won.

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  56. You can do that in Oregon, Doug, no ID required, just tell them you live there. I could vote there, in the state elections.

    That Stockholm thing doesn't sound quite so bad, now that I read it again, the rancid air being used to heat water, then the building, but I wouldn't want to work in that boiler room.

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  57. Obama not only does not dwell on the details of Jihad, Albob, he doesn't dwell on the details of ANYTHING!
    Pure inspirational about how great it's gonna be, just as great as it was w/MLK and JFK.

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  58. I didn't even READ about the Sweaty Swedes!

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  59. 10,000 swedes
    sweatin' in the weeds
    advancin' on copenhagen!

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  60. That's our war cry.

    back when we whupped the danes

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  61. I should think the commuters ought to be paid something for the use of their body heat. After all it costs to heat the body. Hows about calorie credits? Or a free tube pass once a week? Talk about sucking off the other guys precious bodily functions.

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  62. Thankfully some bloggers can write. Thank you for this piece...

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