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, June 04, 2008

Chuck Hagel Talks to Spiegel

Senator Chuck Hagel spent 13 months in the Mekong Delta from 1967-1968. He was a grunt. He received the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge. After returning from Vietnam, Hagel worked as a bartender and radio newscaster while finishing college. He went on to become the senior US Senator from Nebraska and he is calling it quits.



In a March 2007 interview with the NY Times he said, "His faith in the rightness of the Vietnam War was worn down by reading history and traveling abroad, but what changed his mind most, he said, was listening to tape recordings released in the late 1990’s of telephone conversations in which President Lyndon B. Johnson confided that he saw the war as pointless. That was in 1964, and Mr. Johnson said he feared impeachment if he tried to withdraw.

“The dishonesty of it was astounding — criminal, really,” Mr. Hagel said. “I came to the conclusion that they used those people, used our young people. So I am very careful, especially now. We’d better ask all the tough questions. This administration dismissed every tough question we asked. We were assured, ‘We know what we’re doing.’ That’s what they said in Vietnam.”...

Hagel reminds me of most of my friends and contemporaries who actually served in the military and Viet Nam. Their views on war are several decibels below those that did not. Some interesting comments from Spiegel:

________☂________

SPIEGEL: It doesn’t look good for your own party. After seven years of George W. Bush, 81 percent of Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track and only 27 percent have a favorable view. What went wrong?

Hagel: The party is in terrible shape and it is because we did not do a very good job of managing this country. We have gotten into two wars. We have run up a third of the national debt in the last seven years. So we have controlled the government and we have made a lot of mistakes. All the same, McCain and Obama are within the margin of error in the polls.

SPIEGEL: Is the era of the hawks in your party definitely over?

Hagel:
I hope so. That segment of the Republican Party, the so-called neocons, held the Republican Party hostage much of the time. What this element has done to our party is clear now and I would hope that it will come back to the party of Eisenhower, even the party of Ronald Reagan. Today’s party is no longer Ronald Reagan’s party, who, contrary to his reputation, governed from the center. But he sat down with the Soviets, the great evil empire, and was able to get results, for example in nuclear disarmament.

SPIEGEL: You write in your new book about former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt visiting you in your office in the Senate, chain-smoking and complaining that “there are no more great leaders." Do you agree?

Hagel: Today, I don’t see any great global leaders of the stature of Reagan, Kohl, Mitterand and Thatcher. They were important, whether you agreed with them or not. But as Schmidt also told me in my office, there will come a time when we will find those new leaders again.

SPIEGEL: A lot of Germans hope Obama is that someone.

Hagel: He could be. But until he is in office, you don’t know.
The interview

74 comments:

  1. The pairing, however, could produce a so-called dream ticket for Democrats, hoping to shore up Obama's support among white ethnic voters and women who strongly supported Clinton.

    Other possibilities, analysts told CNN, include Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., whose strong points include service on the Senate armed services and intelligence committees; Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., whose foreign relations credentials are extensive; New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former Republican who could help attract Jewish votes; and former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark, a staunch Clinton supporter who analysts say could help unite the party.

    Other possibilities, CNN said, include Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell; and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.


    VP Possibilities

    ReplyDelete
  2. American Thinker The Clinton-Obama Battle Continues

    That angry Michelle Obama might provide the visible potential knockout punch should not surprise us. She is remarkably bitter about the country that has provided her fame, wealth, luxury, and status, and is not able to understand the way other people see her. A remarkable case study in the depth of human self-absorption, she has already generated considerable mockery for her whining about the difficulties of getting by on what seems to ordinary folk like considerable wealth. She appears to carry a huge racial chip on her shoulder, repeatedly characterizing ordinary life challenges faced by everyone as a matter of some bar being raised by an unseen "they".


    For the last few weeks the campaign has succeeded in squelching her tendency to reveal smoldering racial resentments with offhand remarks, such as the infamous "proud for the first time" aside. But now out of the video vault comes this reported bombshell just in time for the next stage of the campiagn. If I believed in coincidences, I would call it one.


    The mainstream media may be falling over itself to puff up Obama, supporting him as messianic or even a mythical figure, but Hillary still has friends in various media. And with Fox News and talk radio unwilling to maintain radio silence on items that might hurt Obama, keeping the evidence of his deal with Farrakhan will prove impossible if the story of the tape is true.


    Even if it isn't, Hillary will stick it through to the convention in Denver. Given the feminist sensitivities of many of her most ardent supporters, it probably is impolitic to mention the fat lady vocalizing. But there is still reason to delay coming to any conclusions as to whose tune she will be singing in Denver.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm not convinced. I think Barack Obama is more inclined to interpret American life in the formal categories of identity politics than is generally thought, or even than would older "conventional liberals" like Al Gore or John Kerry.

    Legal theorists have been a main source of its ideas; it's hard to imagine that Barack and Michelle Obama didn't hear a lot about "marginalized constituencies" at Harvard Law School. Sen. Obama may not be so conventional after all.

    Speaking last July about picking Supreme Court nominees, he said: "We need someone who's got the heart . . . the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old – and that's the criteria by which I'll be selecting my judges." This is the language of identity politics.


    Nuthin' 'bout the Constitution there.

    Obama's Identity Beat Clinton's Identity

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is it bigger than a colege thesis? But smaller than a dead body and a smoking gun? The whole world wants to know, as do I. Actually, I can't wait to see this, if it's there. Seems to fit, doesn't it? If American Thinker is right, it sounds like a heck of a monkey wrench.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yer gonna hafta wait until August, Bob, after the convention, I think.

    I think the polls have McCain slightly matching up better with Obama than Clinton in November.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beckel looked really concerned there, didn't he?

    ReplyDelete
  7. There outta be a law in this country that says if you got dirt on a politician or politician's family, you have a duty to immediately make it public! The suspense is killing me.

    I can feature her saying that type of thing, in the right circumstances. Sounds credible. But then, we were all rooting for Larry Sinclair too.

    Yep, he looked concerned.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bombshell Bob says the shoe is going to drop 'tomorrow' then says the pubs have it, to use later.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The world's rubbish dump: a garbage dump that stretches from Hawaii to Japan.

    World's Biggest 'Seafill'

    ReplyDelete
  10. Meanwhile, up in Canada they are starting to go after the Christians---

    Prioest Hauled Before 'Canadian Human Rights Kangaroo Commission'

    ReplyDelete
  11. What if it turns out to be the
    "American Stinker?"

    ReplyDelete
  12. No Quarter dossier on Barack Obama and Antoin “Tony” Rezko:

    That's a heck of a dissier.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The pissier the dissier,
    the better.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I wouldn't
    1. Hold my breath waiting
    2. Put all my eggs in that video basket

    We should all go out and promote Carbon Cap & Trade, the new GOP solution to Global Warming and/or climate cange.

    We have to do, SOMETHIMG!!!

    Anything less is a sign of Republican derangement syndrome.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Comprehensive reform and cap and trade, that's the way history will be made.
    Burma Shave

    ReplyDelete
  16. Mexico’s war on drugs Journey into a lawless land

    It is not the sort of place where you can just turn up without an introduction, and I spent years trying to make contacts who could take me in under their protection. Time and again, I was told that it was too dangerous to take a gringo into the mountains, because the drug lords were feuding, or battling the army. Finally, I found a way to get into the Sierra Madre, spent four months travelling down the range and was extremely lucky to escape from the mountains without getting killed.

    Along the way, I glimpsed Mexico's future. In the past 18 months, and particularly in the last two weeks, the murderous narco-anarchy I saw in the Sierra Madre has gone nationwide. President Felipe Calderon has gone to war against Mexico's drug cartels, all of which were started by Sierra Madre clanfolk who came downhill – and he is now discovering that the Mexican state isn't strong enough to defeat them.

    In Mexico City, cartel gunmen assassinated the nation's police commander in the grounds of his home. In the state of Chihuahua, drug gangs have, in the past fortnight, put up hit lists and wanted posters with names and photographs of police commanders, and offers of reward money for their deaths. In the border city of Juarez, the list was posted on a police memorial statue. No one dared take it down, and so far 17 names have been crossed off it – dead.

    The narcos are also feuding with other, with 1,400 drug-related murders so far this year, and many towns and cities are under a virtual curfew. Several police departments have resigned en masse in terror, and three police commanders have fled to the United States requesting asylum. President Calderon is claiming signs of progress, but it looks like the whole nation is unravelling, turning feral, descending into lawlessness.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control

    A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Yesterday I mentioned "The Tape" in my only post. Today I imagine it will mean more since it is now getting greater coverage here, my apologies for taking my reference as a known item.

    If we find that indeed Michelle is on the record as reported, and the reports place her sitting next to Louis Farrakhan at a confab where she rants and then redoubles the rants, being egged on by the kind of mob vitriol we have seen in the Trinty Church members going ape shit over Jere Wrights castigation of white people then this nation will split.

    There are already a number of polls showing that to be the case. So Obama, far from being a uniter is proving to be a garden variety politician who will say and do whatever it takes to gain power.

    But to develop a pattern, the limn of which we are seeing now, of bashing, or being in league with those who bash whites isn't a theme too many whites are going to rally behind.

    CherChez la femme.

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

    ReplyDelete
  20. We've all heard of the mystery video, just none of US have seen it.

    Mr Hensley, father-in-law to Senator McCain, ran a criminal organization and was convicted in Federal Court.
    The payoff, for taking the fall, substantial, Kemper was no piker.

    The payoff, the Budwieser distributorship in Phoenix, said to be worth $300 million USD.

    Even by Chi-town standards, a good piece of business.

    ReplyDelete
  21. US Marine acquitted of all charges in Haditha killings

    ReplyDelete
  22. Video to McCains father in law in one easy step.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Commandments from the Messiah:

    Thou shalt not set your thermostat @ 72 degrees.

    Thou shalt not drive SUV's.

    Thou shalt not order a Burger with Cheese.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Joseph Kennedy boolegged during Prohibition , making his fortune and backed Hitler in WWII. Jack Kennedy had a daughter who now works for Obama, a Muslim, whose wife hates America. Great by leftest Bostonian standards.

    It's all so easy.

    ReplyDelete
  25. But then I guess everyones heard about that.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Some more stuff EVERYBODY KNOWS;

    Osama bin Laden must be chuckling in his safe house. After all, the 2008 campaign could very well give Al Qaeda the ultimate propaganda tool: President Barack Hussein Obama, Muslim apostate.

    The fact that Senator Obama – the son of a Muslim father – insists he was never a Muslim before becoming Christian is irrelevant to bin Laden. In bin Laden's eyes, Obama is a "murtad fitri", the worst type of apostate, because he was blessed by Allah to be born into the true faith of Islam.

    There are two types of apostates according to sharia (Islamic law) and the Hadith (sayings of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him).
    The first type is murtad milli, one who converted to Islam and later renounced the faith. The second, and most egregious, type is murtad fitri. It refers to a person born of a Muslim father who renounces his birthright. Two recent examples of the latter are Magdi Allam (a male Egyptian who converted to Catholicism in Italy) and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Somali-born woman who's now an atheist). Both now face death threats.
    According to Islamic jurisprudence, children of a Muslim father – even an apparently nonpracticing one, such as Obama's father, and irrespective of the mother's faith – are automatically Muslims. Most Muslims around the world agree: A child of a Muslim father is a Muslim. Period.

    ReplyDelete
  27. OBAMA WAS SELECTED, NOT ELECTED
    by Ann Coulter
    June 4, 2008

    Words mean nothing to liberals. They say whatever will help advance their cause at the moment, switch talking points in a heartbeat, and then act indignant if anyone uses the exact same argument they were using five minutes ago.

    When Gore won the popular vote in the 2000 election by half a percentage point, but lost the Electoral College -- or, for short, "the constitutionally prescribed method for choosing presidents" -- anyone who denied the sacred importance of the popular vote was either an idiot or a dangerous partisan.

    But now Hillary has won the popular vote in a Democratic primary, while Obambi has won under the rules. In a spectacular turnabout, media commentators are heaping sarcasm on our plucky Hillary for imagining the "popular vote" has any relevance whatsoever.

    It's the exact same situation as in 2000, with Hillary in the position of Gore and Obama in the position of Bush. The only difference is: Hillary has a much stronger argument than Gore ever did (and Hillary's more of a man than Gore ever was).

    Unbeknownst to liberals, who seem to imagine the Constitution is a treatise on gay marriage, our Constitution sets forth rules for the election of a president. Under the Constitution that has led to the greatest individual liberty, prosperity and security ever known to mankind, Americans have no constitutional right to vote for president, at all. (Don't fret Democrats: According to five liberals on the Supreme Court, you do have a right to sodomy and abortion!)

    Americans certainly have no right to demand that their vote prevail over the electors' vote.

    The Constitution states that electors from each state are to choose the president, and it is up to state legislatures to determine how those electors are selected. It is only by happenstance that most states use a popular vote to choose their electors.

    When you vote for president this fall, you will not be voting for Barack Obama or John McCain; you will be voting for an elector who pledges to cast his vote for Obama or McCain. (For those new Obama voters who may be reading, it's like voting for Paula, Randy or Simon to represent you, instead of texting your vote directly.)

    Any state could abolish general elections for president tomorrow and have the legislature pick the electors. States could also abolish their winner-take-all method of choosing presidential electors -- as Nebraska and Maine have already done, allowing their electors to be allocated in proportion to the popular vote. And of course there's always the option of voting electors off the island one by one.

    If presidential elections were popular vote contests, Bush might have spent more than five minutes campaigning in big liberal states like California and New York. But under a winner-take-all regime, close doesn't count. If a Republican doesn't have a chance to actually win a state, he may as well lose in a landslide. Using the same logic, Gore didn't spend a lot of time campaigning in Texas (and Walter Mondale campaigned exclusively in Minnesota).

    Consequently, under both the law and common sense, the famed "popular vote" is utterly irrelevant to presidential elections. It would be like the winner of "Miss Congeniality" claiming that title also made her "Miss America." Obviously, Bush might well have won the popular vote, but he would have used a completely different campaign strategy.

    By contrast, there are no constitutional rules to follow with party primaries. Primaries are specifically designed by the parties to choose their strongest candidate for the general election.

    Hillary's argument that she won the popular vote is manifestly relevant to that determination. Our brave Hillary has every right to take her delegates to the Democratic National Convention and put her case to a vote. She is much closer to B. Hussein Obama than the sainted Teddy Kennedy was to Carter in 1980 when Teddy staged an obviously hopeless rules challenge at the convention. (I mean rules about choosing the candidate, not rules about crushed ice at after-parties.)

    And yet every time Hillary breathes a word about her victory in the popular vote, TV hosts respond with sneering contempt at her gaucherie for even mentioning it. (Of course, if popularity mattered, networks like MSNBC wouldn't exist. That's a station that depends entirely on "superviewers.")

    After nearly eight years of having to listen to liberals crow that Bush was "selected, not elected," this is a shocking about-face. Apparently unaware of the new party line that the popular vote amounts to nothing more than warm spit, just last week HBO ran its movie "Recount," about the 2000 Florida election, the premise of which is that sneaky Republicans stole the presidency from popular vote champion Al Gore. (Despite massive publicity, the movie bombed, with only about 1 million viewers, so now HBO is demanding a "recount.")

    So where is Kevin Spacey from HBO's "Recount," to defend Hillary, shouting: "WHO WON THIS PRIMARY?"
    Thanks Ann C.

    ReplyDelete
  28. In Michigan, Clinton was the only name on the ballot, the others having withdrawn their names to conform with the rules against too-early primaries. Competing against no one in what was considered a meaningless primary, Clinton won 55% of the vote. But a staggering 40% of Democratic primary voters went out in the middle of winter to vote for "uncommitted," i. e., to vote for anyone but Hillary Clinton.

    That was the key to this election year -- the determination of so many to stop the apparent Clinton juggernaut.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Cap and Trade not exactly a Reagan Conservative's Dream.
    Open Borders with a Drug-addled, violent war zone less than ideal.
    No Drilling in Anwar
    Close Gitmo
    ---
    "We'd love to have somebody articulating our conservative values to the American people in this race. It's not going to happen. We have to face it."

    "Right now, as conservatives, we are not going to have an inspirational leader articulating our values and inspiring the American people. Therefore, we are going to have to inspire ourselves -- just like we did through the Clinton years."

    "These are the Clintons; they are never going away, folks! No matter what happens, they aren't going away."

    "Obama, what are your accomplishments? Community organizing? Whoop-de-doo. Harvard Law Review? Whoop-de-do. Running around with terrorists? Whoop-de-do."
    ---
    ---
    And there's an interesting piece today by The Prowler at the AmericanSpectator.org: "Word out of the Sedona auditions for GOP vice-presidential nominee is that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal at the very least wowed other guests over the weekend with his grasp of policy and the need for change inside the Republican Party. 'He was the only one who seemed to understand that we have to get back to innovative public policies that don't stray far from our conservative values,' says a source with knowledge of the weekend. 'He was the star of the weekend without really trying.'"

    Now, something about this is just overwhelmingly confusing to me. I don't understand. It doesn't make sense, because McCain is not projecting himself in this manner. McCain is not projecting himself as somebody who can change inside the Republican Party and take it back to a more conservative entity. McCain's doing just the exact opposite. And yet Jindal goes out there, according to this report, and causes everybody to do back flips. I would think it would scare 'em. I would think, "Oh, no, this is not what we're looking for," because the McCain campaign is doing everything it can to get away from conservatism, at least the kind that Bobby Jindal represents. "In the run-up to the Memorial Weekend getaway, McCain campaign aides insisted that while Jindal is under heavy consideration, the party might be better served to have him as a highly visible governor for the next several years. But Jindal apparently saw the opportunity and made the most of it."

    Now, he's publicly saying he doesn't want it; he's got too much work to do in Louisiana; he's pretty young, 36-years-old. But I read this and it stunned me. We've got some insider, knowledge of the weekend, somebody at McCain's place, "he was the only one," presumably includes McCain, "who seemed to understand that we have to get back to innovative public policies that don't stray far from conservative values?" Would that not be a great thing for the nominee to try
    ?
    - Rush Limbaugh
    ---
    ---
    (but it beats Barry, the man of many EX-friends)
    (I had no idea what any of my friends were thinking)
    Shocked,
    SHOCKED!
    Damn them,
    Damn them all to Hell!

    ReplyDelete
  30. (I had no idea what any of my *EX*friends were thinking)

    ReplyDelete
  31. Well I'll be damned, never thought I'd see the day when an islamic preacher said something that makes sense--

    Pray Less, Work More, Cleric Advises

    "Ten minutes a day should do."

    And do it in the closet, wouldya? Looking at you asses up in the air is disgusting.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Here-


    Pray less, work more, says Islamic preacher


    For Egyptian-born Muslim cleric and television host, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, there is a simple answer to Egypt's productivity problem -- pray less, work more.
    "Praying is a good thing ... 10 minutes should be enough," Al-Jazeera television personality Qaradawi says in a religious edict, or fatwa, published on his website.

    Praying five times a day is one of the five pillars of Islam, along with the well-known requirements of making a pilgrimage to Mecca and of giving alms to the poor.

    Two of each day's five sessions -- the dhuhr (noon) prayer and asr (afternoon) prayer -- fall within working hours, bringing work to a standstill at least twice a day in many places.

    A prayer generally takes an average of 10 minutes, but it can be extended if a worshipper chooses to recite one of the longer verses of the Koran.

    And before the prayers themselves, there is also a mandatory ablution during which worshippers must wash their faces, hands and arms, feet and heads. In large office buildings, the trips to the bathroom can also eat away at valuable work time.

    Qaradawi's plea to reconcile faith and productivity may hit some hurdles as it risks upsetting the deeply entrenched custom of "prayer breaks" at work.

    Society's increased Islamisation over the past 30 years has already silenced some critics of long prayer sessions.

    According to an official study, Egypt's six million government employees are estimated to spend an average of only 27 minutes per day actually working, reflecting a real problem with productivity.

    Qaradawi's fatwa is aimed at removing prayer as a pretext for not producing.


    Religious beliefs in Egypt are very overt, from the headscarf covering the majority of women's heads to the bruise on many a man's forehead showing how piously and how often he has touched his head to the ground in prostration.

    In every large company, factory or public building, there is a formal prayer space. Individual prayer rugs, slumped over the backs of chairs or folded neatly on a desk, are often at hand in public offices, ready to be grabbed once the call to prayer booms out over the public address system.

    In downtown Cairo, lies Mugamma, a 13-storey building that is the beating heart of Egypt's sprawling bureaucracy, where 65 different government services are performed by some 18,000 employees.

    Thirty thousand people walk through the doors of the vast Soviet-style building every day, hoping to get a passport or a work permit, or whatever it is they need.

    "But when it comes to prayer time, and there are many, there is no hope of anything getting done for an unknown length of time," says Ahmed Ghani, whose company has tasked him with scouring the labyrinth for official stamps.

    The 90s Egyptian cult film comedy "Terrorism and Kebab" (Al-Irhab wal Kabab) recounts the tribulation of a middle class man's adventure in the Mugamma with the lead role played by Egyptian screen giant Adel Imam.

    Frustrated by the bureaucracy and repeatedly being told to wait for a government employee to finish his prayer, Imam's character ends up in a tussle with a security guard and is mistaken for a terrorist.

    Qaradawi has a few ideas of his own to help shorten the prayer time: Muslims can do the mandatory pre-prayer wash at home before reaching the office, instead of in the office toilets during working hours.

    "To save some time, they can also just put some water over their socks, instead of taking (socks) off to wash the feet," Qaradawi says in his fatwa.

    While it may be too early to judge the effects of the popular sheikh's fatwa on productivity in the work place, Egyptian clerics, in a rare show of unity, have largely agreed with the Qatar-based cleric.

    "He's right. I cannot say the contrary. One must not waste time at work and use prayer as the pretext," Sheikh Fawzi al-Zifzaf, of the centre of Islamic studies at Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's main seat of learning, told AFP.

    As for Mohammed al-Shahhat al-Gendi, secretary general of the Council of Supreme Islamic affairs, "10 minutes are absolutely suitable for one prayer."

    "Improving productivity is not at all contrary to Islam," he told AFP.

    They both also agree with Qaradawi when he says: "Praying is of course compulsory, and if everyone were to pray, it shows that society is on the right track."

    ReplyDelete
  33. According to an official study, Egypt's six million government employees are estimated to spend an average of only 27 minutes per day actually working, reflecting a real problem with productivity.

    Damned hard to get the harvest in during the work breaks from prayin'.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Now I begin to understand how it is that Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark can outproduce all of islamic araby. The islamers don't do anything.

    allah will provide

    ReplyDelete
  35. Which brings me to the protestant work ethic and its basis in the New Testament. Is there any? Where? St. Paul, maybe.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Figure in $30,000 worth of gas in your next new Ford F-250

    Prayers call, later.

    ReplyDelete
  37. From rumored video of one of the "First Wives Club" to the family history of the other, all in one easy spin rotation, no doubt.

    Open the wive's closets and this campaign will not bode well for Mrs McCain.

    Though there are rumors about Mrs Obama, the Court records on Ms Cindy are lengthy, detailed and pretty nasty.

    Show's John as the hypocrite he truly is.

    Then there is Ms Cindy's daddy and his mentor, Kemper.

    Tread lightly on the ladies, that be the polite advise.

    Best to beat Obama on the issues.
    Surly McCain can do that, but that there are few differences 'tween them. Where there are, Obama's policy fixes are better.

    A Carbon tax is better policy than Cap & Trade.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Which brings me to the protestant work ethic and its basis in the New Testament. Is there any? Where? St. Paul, maybe.

    2nd Thessalonians 3:8 Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you

    ReplyDelete
  39. Open Michelle's closet and find a pure bred rascist, complete with matching handbag and shoes.

    Obama is the greatest con man this country has ever fallen for, but given the last thirty years of the Democrats effort to dumb down every aspect of American life it is little wonder his sycophantish followers are mesmerized by his bull shit instead of drilling into his Marxism.

    Bobal calculation of $30 grand in gas into your new truck may be a great calculation but it's one no country, including this one could live with. While attempting the Democrats grand experiment we'll see a worldwide depression.

    Last week Russia, China , and India surpass the USA as the largest users of gas. Russia is suspending exports already.
    It's gonna be a disaster.

    In 1949 the US had the strongest currency in the world and Fort Know held 75% of the world's monetary gold. We owned 21,775 metric tons of gold. BY 1970 we had only 7,200 tons. We owed 38,879
    tons....it's been fiat money now for as long as anyone can remember.
    The government won't even release the M3 numbers any longer.

    We are on just about all fronts...screwed.

    ReplyDelete
  40. So there would appear to be an Obama apologist and supporter in the crowd. I wonder if that support goes all the way to Marixist philosophy embraced by Obama and Rev Wright racism.

    I know, lets pay all the a
    African Americans reparations ..you know thats com'in folks.

    Doesn't matter if they just flew in from Ghana, if they're black they get the boons.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Call the Italians!
    We need a Fiatmobile tm that runs on air, and can be purchased with Fiat Money.

    ReplyDelete

  42. Westhawk Gates to shoot down Air Force brass


    In less than an hour and a half, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to announce the forced resignations of Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff General Michael Moseley. According to the cited NBC story, Secretary Gates asked Secretary Wynne to replace General Moseley. Wynne refused so Gates fired them both.
    ---

    U.S. Air Force leadership fired after nuclear issue Reuters

    ReplyDelete
  43. Doud,

    maybe you could buy some "options" on the fiat, it is a "convertible" cuurency.

    I want an eight track and fuzzy dice.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Invest in a rickshaw now.

    Make that $40,000 on your F-250. ---

    Dear Robert,

    At $4 a gallon, Americans are hurting at the gas pump. Higher gas prices are affecting every part of our life. We’re paying more for food, milk, clothes, and cooling our homes. Even summer vacations are in jeopardy.

    Yet the Senate is about to vote on a bill (S. 2191) that would make things worse by raising gas prices, increasing home energy bills, and slowing the economy, and we need your help to stop it. Send an email to your Senators and sign our petition today!

    Sponsors say their bill will reduce the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. They call their plan "cap and trade," but it is really a huge hidden carbon tax on our economy that will have devastating consequences.

    This bill could not come at a worse time. Last week General Motors announced it was closing four plants, putting nearly 5,000 Americans out of work. Thousands more in supporting industries will also lose their jobs.

    Meanwhile, United Airlines announced it was slashing 1,600 jobs, idling older planes, and cutting routes - all because of skyrocketing gas prices.

    Is your job next?

    Incredibly, the bill before the Senate is estimated to raise the price of gasoline $1.10 a gallon, raise taxes, and increase your home energy bills (to find out what these higher costs will be where you live, click here).

    This bill is so bad the Wall Street Journal called it “the largest income redistribution scheme since the income tax.” That’s saying something.

    So please help us stop this bill from becoming law. First, click here to send your senators an email opposing S. 2191. Second, sign our petition opposing this bill that we can deliver to the Senate on your behalf.

    With your help, we can stop this liberal assault on the paycheck you work so hard to earn. Please act NOW!

    Sincerely,

    Joe Eule
    Chief of Staff
    Freedom's Watch

    ReplyDelete
  45. OBAMA'S VP SEARCH MISTAKE

    By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN


    On his first day as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama made his first clear, serious mistake: He named Eric Holder as one of three people charged with vice-presidential vetting.

    As deputy attorney general, Holder was the key person who made the pardon of Marc Rich possible in the final hours of the Clinton presidency. Now, Obama will be stuck in the Marc Rich mess.

    If ever there was a person who did not deserve a presidential pardon, it's Marc Rich, the fugitive billionaire who renounced his US citizenship and moved to Switzerland to avoid prosecution for racketeering, wire fraud, 51 counts of tax fraud, evading $48 million in taxes, and engaging in illegal trades with Iran in violation of the US embargo following the 1979-80 hostage crisis.

    Seventeen years later, Rich wanted a pardon, and he retained Jack Quinn, former counsel to the president, to lobby his old boss.

    It was Holder who had originally recommended Quinn to one of Rich's advisers, although he claims that he did not know the identity of the client.


    And he gave substantive advice to Quinn along the way. According to Quinn's notes that were produced to Congress, Holder told Quinn to take the pardon application "straight to the White House" because "the timing is good."

    And once the pardon was granted, Holder sent his congratulations to Quinn.

    In 2002, a congressional committee reported that Holder was a "willing participant in the plan to keep the Justice Department from knowing about and opposing" the Rich pardon.

    It is one thing to reach back to Obama's pastor to raise doubts about his values. But it is quite another to scrutinize the record of his first appointee.

    It couldn't be a bigger mistake.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Getting The Gas Prices We Deserve

    The entire Congress ought to be recalled. China and Cuba drilling sixty miles off our coasts.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Girlfriend had a 1970 850 Spyder Convertible.
    (rear engine, rear wheel drive)
    Around 40 mpg, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  48. UAV:
    You wont regret buying it im kinda pissed off cuz i dropped it in the sink full of dishes and water =( so thats 40 bucks down, upsetting lol

    ReplyDelete
  49. I'm gonna buy an upscale golf cart, put a license on it. Should carry plenty of groceries.

    ReplyDelete
  50. This afternoon it was announced that the joint venture between Molson Coors and SABMiller, to be called MillerCoors, has been given regulatory clearance. From Harry’s Beer Business Daily:

    The proposed joint venture between Miller Brewing Co. and Coors Brewing Co. in the U.S. and Puerto Rico has been approved by officials at the Department of Justice, as expected.

    Miller and Coors have combined beer sales of nearly 70 million barrels and net revenues of approximately $6.5 billion. Synergies from the deal are thought to top $500 million.

    ReplyDelete
  51. I certainly hope they don't blend the beers.

    ReplyDelete
  52. And the Air Force is looking for some new talent--

    Gates ousts Air Force leaders in historic shake-up


    Email this Story

    Jun 5, 5:11 PM (ET)

    By ROBERT BURNS

    (AP) In this July 18, 2005 file photo, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne testifies on...
    Full Image



    WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates ousted the Air Force's top military and civilian leaders Thursday, holding them to account in a historic Pentagon shake-up after nuclear missile warhead fuses were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan.

    Gates announced at a news conference that he had accepted the resignations of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne - a highly unusual double firing.

    Gates cited two embarrassing incidents in the past year. In one, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown across the country without anyone realizing nuclear weapons were aboard.

    In the other, four electrical fuses for ballistic missile warheads were mistakenly sent to Taiwan in the place of helicopter batteries. Gates said an internal investigation found a common theme in the B-52 and Taiwan incidents: "a decline in the Air Force's nuclear mission focus and performance."

    ReplyDelete
  53. Westhawk has an update to the AF Link.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Bud had a very large increase Beer Exports.

    ReplyDelete
  55. (but I drink Coors rather than put up w/the headache)

    ReplyDelete
  56. Bud had a very large increase IN Beer Exports.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Not an apologist, amigo, but one that knows the McCain story. Up close, for many years.

    The tit for tat trading that could occur will smear Mrs McCain. John by association.

    Now if there is a video of Mrs Obama gettin' down, post the link.

    If there is no link, there still ain't no video. Ms Cindy still has Court records. John is still a hypocrite.

    As to your prophecy of Democrat disaster, your track record as a seer is none to ggod. But the Democrats advance is a direct result of Republican incompetence.
    At home and abroad

    Newt has told the tale, an anti-Obama campaign may feel good, but will fail.

    Figure you'd be promoting Cap & Trade legislation. Illegal Regularization and Comprehensive Reform.
    Those GOP bedrock positions, now.

    ReplyDelete
  58. And your record as a know it all is still as obnoxious as it was when I ceased posting here before.

    You have got to be Democrat, there can't be any other explaination for your writings.

    So we're bound to disagree..as for being a seer..no more so than all the other prognosticator
    on the site.

    I can state without equivocation one thing with absolute certitutde...we should never ever be in the any reasonable proximity to each other.

    ReplyDelete
  59. I can state without equivocation one thing with absolute certitutde...we should never ever be in the any reasonable proximity to each other.

    EB posts which talk about lesser and greater lights get deleted, but posts which are veiled physical threats will stand. I'll lay money on it.

    ReplyDelete
  60. And as before, you avoid any debate of issues.

    If being against Cap & Trade, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, McCain/Feingold Campaign Reform and a one hundred year occupation of Iraq makes for a Democrat, this cycle, well I guess I'll still be a Librarian.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Hillary needs to continue officially campaigning because she has $11 million dollars in debt, and the law says when you roll up your campaign you can only raise a maximum of $250,000 in additional funds. This works out for Barack because he never wanted to have Hillary in the number two spot anyway, and speeches where she's expected to concede, and congratulate Barack, but only gives out her website instead, give him an excuse to cast off any pressure by Democrats to consider her for VP.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Barack Hussein's camel can't take another straw. There's got to be a limit to the load the old back can handle. One more major piece of bad crap loaded on, I think he's finished. That video, which probably doesn't exist, would do it. Maybe something else would come along. Wright, Farrakhan, Rezko, ec etc, jeez it's the mirror image of the kkk and people are nervous. One more straw breaks the camel's back, and the caravan doesn't make it to Mecca. That's my prediction.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Could well be, bob.

    But then no one here, at the EB was right about the '06 election, as I recall. The size of the debacle greater than any foresaw.

    For whatever the reason, our preconcieved ideas mad for a stronger GOP than actually existed.

    Newt's been right more than not, and more than most. He is right about an anti-Obama campaign failing.

    Stand proud for GOP Values!

    Carbon Cap & Trade
    Comprehensive Immigration Reform
    Limitation of Free Speech

    All in the name of a better America

    ReplyDelete
  64. I still maintain a perfect 0 (zero) rating in predictions, proudly carried!

    ReplyDelete