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."

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Count every half a vote.



"We had our votes counted,"
US Representative Robert Wexler, D, Fl.

The Dems have stood by their mantra to count every vote. By unanimous decision, the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee have decided that Florida's and Michigan's Democratic primary votes will be counted. Never mind that their great compromise of '08, their "extraordinary victory" means that millions of people in these two states are only half a person with half a vote. The votes have been counted and like the Presidential race of 2000, the outcome is unaffected. Senator Obama is still the front runner and mathematically there is no way for Senator Clinton to affect the outcome.

The votes have been counted and the Democrat elites have stood true to their principal that every vote should be counted. This is another triumph for truth, justice and the American way.

________________________

Democrats have lost their minds.

Two items in my local dead-tree news known locally as "the mullet wrapper", reminded me once again of the effete snobism of the left. The first was a letter to the editor claiming that any talk of drilling for oil in areas such as ANWR and the Gulf of Mexico are misguided. It seems that the writer feels that oil is a thing of the past and plays no part in our energy policy. Like the debate over global warming, the debate over domestic drilling is closed. No more discussion needed and anyone who suggests it is just too neanderthal to understand that the future is green only. At least he threw nuclear into the mix.

The other article was a column by Garrison Keillor on his Memorial day visit to Washington, D.C. which was marred by the distasteful, jingoistic, flag waving display of "hollow patriotism" by the "Rolling Thunder" motorcycle club. His visit to the National Gallery and the Smithsonian was delayed by a loud parade of "fat men with ponytails on Harleys". He thinks these "patriots" should be air-lifted to Baghdad.
_________________________

Speaking of Baghdad, I was at a party last night. It felt as if I was behind enemy lines. I was surrounded by Democrats and let me tell you, they have all lost it. Eight years of Bush have left them apoplectic to the point of irrationality. They are like spoiled children pitching hysterical fits.

I'm afraid that the only way to avoid all out civil war is to allow them to run the country for a few years. Only by letting these petulant children have their way will the country be able to move forward after they and the Rockefeller/Bush Republicans have run the country into the ground.

Hunker down, boys.

146 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't know who Kim Lokken is but from the first day she set foot in the EB, every comment has been preceded with the "A Lesser Light said" insult.

    Our skins are not thin here, we are tolerant and welcome opposing viewpoints but as in the real world, when the first words out of your mouth are synonomous with calling your host a "dumb shit" you can expect to get your rear-end bounced out the door.

    This "lesser light" has exercised the abitrary power of the "delete comment" function. Try it again without the insult, por favor.

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  3. BTW, my name is "whit" not "lesser light."

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  4. Whit said, Never mind that their great compromise of '08, their "extraordinary victory" means that millions of people in these two states are only half a person with half a vote.

    I answer that, in the GOP winner-take-all system, all the delegates from the various states are pledged to vote for the candidate who won that state. This has the effect of giving, for example, the McCain voters a full vote and Huckabee voters no vote.

    Senator Obama is still the front runner and mathematically there is no way for Senator Clinton to affect the outcome.

    Clinton has understood that for some time. Therefore she has telegraphed her next move, which is to take the issue to the credentials committee. She will now begin to speak of the injustice of only seating half the delegates from MI and FL, which she will characterize as virtual disenfranchisement, and she will make sloppy references to the 3/5 vote for apportionment called out in the Constitution, playing the race card once again.

    Eight years of Bush have left them apoplectic to the point of irrationality. I'm afraid that the only way to avoid all out civil war is to allow them to run the country for a few years.

    The Obama Campaign is OPERATION TAKE BACK AMERICA, not "ask for America back". It's not going to be about "allowing" Dems to run the country.

    Only by letting these petulant children have their way, will the country be able to move forward after they and the Rockefeller Republicans have run the country into the ground.

    It's not the Rockerfeller Republicans who have been running the country the last eight years, it's the neo-con democracy-in-the-middle-east open borders cheap labor crew.

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  5. I answer that, in the GOP winner-take-all system, all the delegates from the various states are pledged to vote for the candidate who won that state. This has the effect of giving, for example, the McCain voters a full vote and Huckabee voters no vote.

    Yes, but however imperfect, these are rules going into the game. As long as everyone understands the rules and agrees to play by them, the game can continue. Democrats have a hard time understanding this.

    What has the Democrat Rules Committee actually accomplished?

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  6. The Obama Campaign is OPERATION TAKE BACK AMERICA, not "ask for America back". It's not going to be about "allowing" Dems to run the country.

    Yes, that's what I'm afraid of despite the "unifying" rhetoric.

    I don't believe that my viewpoint and worldview is included in their vision.

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  7. "The Obama Campaign is OPERATION TAKE BACK AMERICA, not "ask for America back"."

    And now that he don't need it anymore, America can take his racist Church back.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/31/AR2008053102238.html?hpid=topnews

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  8. ...she has telegraphed her next move, ...and she will make sloppy references to the 3/5 vote for apportionment...

    Exactly.

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  9. What Syrian nuclear reactor? There was no Syrian nuclear reactor! Ask Trish.

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  10. Well, I was at a party last night, too.

    Guess what I had to drink?

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  11. Deuce's recommended rum?

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  12. I'm more interested in what she had to eat. :)

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  13. (No. It was not a crow margarita.

    Unless that was in the hazy, wee hours.)

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  14. You betcha. The 15 yr old variety. Courtesy of the Old Man, who brought it back from Nicaragua.

    Strong smelling, but smoooooth.

    And yes, it is for sale here in Bogota. But you kind of have to hunt for it.

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  15. Ayahuesca and Mountain Dew? Popular party favorite in that part of the world.
    ---

    She will now begin to speak of the injustice of only seating half the delegates from MI and FL, which she will characterize as virtual disenfranchisement, and she will make sloppy references to the 3/5 vote for apportionment called out in the Constitution, playing the race card once again.

    A comment that sheds much light, and is likely exactly what she will do, if she decides to keep on truckin'

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  16. I can't get that newly discovered tribe out of my mind. That's more or less how we'd all look seen from above by the aliens, if they are about.

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  17. The Dem talking heads on the Sunday morning shows are more divided than ever. Harold Ickes speaking for the Clinton campaigns states that they intend and expect to win the nomination. Period.

    Ed Rendell says that the Democrat party is united.

    Yeah, right.

    Tom Dashchle speaks as though the issue is settled. The Obama campaign is moving on to McCain.

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  18. Fears Grow Obama Can't Win

    With senator Barack Obama poised this week to clinch his party's nomination for President, there are growing fears in some quarters that the Democratic party may not be choosing its strongest candidate to beat Republican John McCain.

    Senator Hillary Clinton has been making that argument for weeks. Now some recent polls and analysis, looking particularly at vital battleground states and support among white voters, have bolstered her case - even as Obama looks certain to become the nominee.

    Obama supporters reject this argument and point to his record of boosting Democratic voter turnout, especially among the young. But sceptics in the party, already nervous about nominating Obama after the furore over outspoken pastor Jeremiah Wright, are growing increasingly concerned. 'There is an element of buyer's remorse in some areas. The question is whether it gets really strong now or in September - or even after the election is over, if he loses,' said Steve Mitchell, head of political consultancy Mitchell Research.

    Another boost to Clinton's case came late last week after a pro-Obama preacher gave a race-tinged rant against her at Obama's church in Chicago. In a recent sermon Michael Pfleger - a long-term Obama backer who is white - mocked Clinton as an entitled white person angry at a black man having beaten her. His angry, red-faced speech, in which he mimicked Clinton weeping, was played repeatedly across American cable channels and the internet.

    The news sent shock waves through Democratic circles; many had hoped Obama had put 'pastor problems' behind him. 'It is more of the same problem as Wright. It reinforces the image among some voters that Obama does not share their values,' said Mitchell.

    ----

    If that rumored video of Michelle lambasting "whitey" at church really exists and makes its appearance, they're toast. Anybody have any info about said rumored video?

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  19. Maybe someone will bring me back a bottle, eh?

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  20. Is dear host back in the States yet? If not, tell that guy to make a pit stop in your neck of the woods and drop off a bottle or three.

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  21. I was hinting at that very thing, Senora.

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  22. Or meet me at the Miami airport in a month.

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  23. Hundred bucks a bottle. That sounds fair, hm?

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  24. What with transportation costs and all...

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  25. chortle, chortle.

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  26. And just for you, FRIEND, I will throw in a Chavez Go Home t-shirt.

    Gratis.

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  27. I am not sure it's over...

    open convention....

    however IF BHO takes the democratic nomination, for which i am a declared member of, I shall start a club, "Democrats for Republicans" for this presidential election..

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  28. it will be VERY interesting what is said by all 3 monday and tuesday at the aipac convention

    olmert, hillery, BHO & McCain pluw a slew of others will be talking...

    and as it has been for the past 4 years, Iran will be the central point...

    I remember several years ago when we spoke to the hill about iran and enrichment and so many that opposed our position about that just would ridicule us and say we were just neocon war mongers..

    iran, syria, lebanon (hezbollah), hamas, FATAH and Iran are working on something much larger than a disputed couple of acres...

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  29. That free tee shirt is very tempting but I'm afraid I'll have to wait until the bottles make it to "Trish's Last Call Basement."

    A bit rich for me.

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  30. The DNC has just sanctioned no end of state party mischief in the future.

    They'll get what they deserve.

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  31. What will I tell my daughter?" she asked, beads of sweat from the Washington humidity trickling down her face -- colliding with a couple of tears.

    haha--I've been kept in stitches the last couple days.

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  32. I'd be willing to post a few photos of pristine Idaho in exchange for a bottle of rum.

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  33. $35 bottle at duty free in San Jose. $40 at Price Smart. Maybe the bar should get distribution rights.

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  34. We poor guvmint people have to find some way of padding our wallets, whit - in addition, I mean, to simply robbing tax payers blind.

    Think of the children.

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  35. All I can get out here is Bacardi...

    Hello,
    How are you doing today? My name is Rebecca, i am a student from WI and i am coming to study

    in University of Idaho so i need a place to live asap, either furnished or unfurnished, so i got

    your email online that you have a place available for rent and i decided to get in touch with you

    so tell me everything about the place and i will appreciate if you send some pictures as well,

    tell me the price monthly, when it will be available and the terms of lease but i would love to

    rent for one year or more. Oh sorry i almost forget to tell you about myself. Where do i start,

    Ok my name is Rebecca and i am 24 years old from WI, i am a gentle and respectful girl, i mind my

    own business, i don't party and no night party either
    , i am neat and i don't smoke too.
    Get back to me asap.
    Rebecca

    ....which won't do me any good with this no party girl.

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  36. But, I might have a chance to get 'oiled' with this Foreshore worker servicing Africa--


    Hello,

    I am Susan I work with Foreshore Oil Servicing Africa.
    Presently i am on assignment in the UK . I will be going
    on a Sabbatical leave for Two Months, so i will be
    Relocating to your area not with my family in a few
    Weeks time and i am interested in renting the apt/Room you
    Advertised on the classified ads.

    I will also want to know your final asking price plus
    Utility,

    Sincerely,
    Susan

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  37. On all obstacles and hindrances
    On top or under
    In flames of revolt
    Flames to rekindle
    For silence is mire
    Sacrifice blood and spirit
    Glory hidden
    Die or take the hill
    Yodfat, Masada, Beitar

    From the pit of decay and dust
    With blood and sweat
    Shall arise a race
    Proud generous and fierce
    Captured Yodfat, Masada, Beitar
    Arise again
    In strength and glory

    Die or conquer the hill
    Yodfat, Masada, Beitar


    Zeev Jabotinski

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  38. Don't go trying to ruin my promising racket, dear host. And here I was getting set to offer 85 bucks per.

    And I'll make it the 25 year old stuff.

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  39. That's a damn fine idea, Deuce. I'm in! Let's discuss.

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  40. I have an unlimited supply of people I can recruit as mules for the importing project--


    Off-Campus Housing

    The Off-Campus Housing List is a free service provided to students and prospective students by the ASUI Office. There are no guarantees the rentals or properties are available and this list is not necessarily an exhaustive list of what is available in Moscow.

    Warning: A person offering to pay rent on a dwelling they have never seen may be attempting to scam you. They may offer to send you a cashiers check or money order well over the total rent, on the condition that you wire the difference back to them. The cashier's check will be fraudulent and you will lose the money you sent while your bank or credit union holds you accountable for the fraudulent check.

    ---though they might run off with the rum.

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  41. Hey, 85 bucks a bottle AND a t-shirt AND you get to meet me.

    Bargain, whit.

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  42. bobal:
    Excellent! you make me laugh, my friend.

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  43. Geez, you're a temptress, Trish.

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  44. Hello,

    I am whit I work with Foreshore Oil Servicing Africa.
    Presently i am on assignment in the US. I will be going on a Sabbatical leave for Two Months, so i will be in the Miami area area not with my family in a few weeks time and i am interested in the offer you have made.

    I will also want to know your final asking price plus extras.

    Sincerely,
    whit

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  45. however IF BHO takes the democratic nomination, for which i am a declared member of, I shall start a club, "Democrats for Republicans" for this presidential election..

    You got get 'em WIO.

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  46. Dear whit--your need to learn write more clearly. The Board can't tell whether you want to buy rum or run it for us. Pleez reply asap.

    b

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  47. The technical term that applies to Obama is b.s. artist.

    Get Me From The Church On Time

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  48. shh, bob:
    I'm trying to work an angle here.

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  49. Excellent resource, Whit, hopefully 'Susan' and 'Rebecca' won't get hold of it, to improve their skill set, which sure could use some polishing.

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  50. (Trish has to occasionally wonder who reads this blog.)

    You'll be the guy in the Che beret, right? Down by the bus kiosks.

    I'll be the one having a quick smoke and a pricey cuppa joe.

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  51. I answer that, in the GOP winner-take-all system, all the delegates from the various states are pledged to vote for the candidate who won that state. This has the effect of giving, for example, the McCain voters a full vote and Huckabee voters no vote.

    Not at all. The fact that you didn't get your way doesn't at all mean that you didn't have a vote. Not any more than the fact that we elect one person to be President means that those who voted against had no vote.

    It is inherent in the concept of representative democracy that some people will almost certainly have voted against the elected represesentative.

    A vote is not beneficial primarily as a way for one side to impose its will, but rather as a way for people who want to act in concert to decide among themselves on a single course of action. If you don't have that precondition, then why not just have each faction do its own thing rather than vote?

    We vote in areas where people must (or desire to) act in unity, but at the same time wish to respect the notion of equal sovereignty.

    In this case, I don't really see the advantage of proportional delegations over just having a single national primary with a direct election of the national candidate.

    Losing when you have cast an equal vote is entirely different from losing when your vote was not counted equally, even though the outcome may be the same. It is a question not just of outcome, but of influence.

    We have delegations because the United States is a federation of sovereign member states. So it is appropriate for the people of a state to attempt to wield influence in concert.

    The "winner take all" system actually magnifies the influence of all voters in that state, making it extremely important for candidates to try to appease such local factions as necessary to obtain the needed plurality.

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  52. (Actually, trish doesn't wanna know.)

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  53. Mazzula, you wouldn't be from that nice town of Missoula, would you?

    I'm the one down at the warehouse with the straw in his teeth.

    Local fishwrap today has a couple of big articles about gold and particularily silver mining making a major comeback in Idaho with the higher prices, after years and years of the doldrums.

    In that regard, I noticed last time when we were down around the Salmon River, a couple of "For Sale" signs at some diggings along the river, right by the highway. Those have been there unworked for years, now someone is trying to cash in. Probably worthless. Probably the roof of the tunnels would cave in on you, too.

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  54. Can I interest anyone in Colombia's version of Everclear? Nektar, the drink of choice of every downscale dyspeptic and available in handly litre boxes, I shit you not.

    What say?

    Mighty fine enjoyed straight out of the box (on the sidewalk right outside the grocery store of purchase). Good for family reunions. Handy for the bottom desk drawer at work.

    Twenty bucks.

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  55. Ol Rufus might be a bit more tolerable for the next few days.

    I got my second biopsey back. It were Negatory. (the first one was, also.)

    Drinks are on the Ruf-man!

    uh, . . except fer that $75.00/bottle stuff. We don wanna get too wild n' crazy, here. :)

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  56. Good Rufus, here's to you. (clinks coffee cup on desk)

    My usual Chivas Regal and Mountain Dew, please.

    The Democrats Have Screwed Their Pooch

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  57. Congratulations, rufus!










    Cranberry juice and a couple of aspirin. Put money in that juke box and I'll tear your head off.

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  58. The fact that you didn't get your way doesn't at all mean that you didn't have a vote. Not any more than the fact that we elect one person to be President means that those who voted against had no vote.

    I agree, but the tenor of the originating post in this thread is that Democrats have sacrificed their principle of one-man-one-vote in favor of one-man-half-vote. Michigan and Florida broke the rules, they by all rights should nave one-man-no-vote. But Hillary is bitching about it, so they gave her one-man-half-vote, but that's still not good enough for her. IF we give her one-man-one-vote again, we completely throw out the incentive for other states to obey the DNC rules next time.

    It is inherent in the concept of representative democracy that some people will almost certainly have voted against the elected represesentative.

    True, but selecting nominees is a purely internal affair to each Party, and it is not necessarily a purely democratic process, nor ought it be. If the DNC wants to give each superdelegate the same power as thousands of primary voters, so be it. If the GOP wants to skip the primary and caucus system altogether and just let the corporations pick their front man, they should be allowed to do that as well. It would have the same effect as the process you have now, but eliminate the sham of polling the will of the people. Exxon and Halliburton can even keep their nominee secret until the GOP convention, for infotainment value.

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  59. Mazzula, you wouldn't be from that nice town of Missoula, would you?

    No, I live just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.

    I originally chose the handle to post on a financial blog because it kind of reminded me of luck (mazzal) and money, and I think that success, financial and otherwise, is largely a matter of luck, even the luck of being the kind of person who is talented, virtuous, and hard working.

    I see from the Missoula website that the name means either "Horrible" or "River of Awe". So maybe that works, too.

    The Salmon River looks awesome.

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  60. Informal talks have already begun between Obama and Clinton fundraisers to discuss a merger, enabling Mr Obama to pay off Mrs Clinton’s campaign debts of $11 million.

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  61. I meant to say that for me, yesterday felt more like Memorial Day than Monday did. I listened to Dennis Prager's podcast from his radio show on Memorial Day. Listeners call in to remember by name, date and action those who had died in service to this country.

    You're a hard person if you could listen to that broadcast without being touched by it.

    It may be at townhall.com under their radio section.

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  62. Dennis Prager Memorial Day podcasts

    All three hours are there. See items 13, 14 and 15.

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  63. IF we give her one-man-one-vote again, we completely throw out the incentive for other states to obey the DNC rules next time.

    I agree. Well actually, I think they obeyed the rules. They chose to have a symbolic, early primary because they thought that would give them more influence than having a real primary later on. Now that things have worked out to be more competitive than they anticipated, there is a move to change the rules.

    Maybe the biggest threat to DNC rules is that they aren't very good rules. Democrats always seem to be violating their party rules in order to achieve some result the party bosses want. It's tradition.

    They try to rig the system, but they just aren't very smart about it--they aren't used to having to care about the process because they are the party of large, organized factions whose bosses can get together and decide things ad hoc.

    True, but selecting nominees is a purely internal affair to each Party, and it is not necessarily a purely democratic process, nor ought it be.

    I agree that it ought to be up to them to decide, but I don't agree that all possible choices they might make are therefore of equal virtue.

    I think that a process that respects fundamental notions of the sovereignty of the governed are more virtuous than those that do not. That is part of what makes me a Republican.

    [Unlike the Libertarians, who base their political theory in a doctrine of property rights, I base my politics in a theory of sovereignty rights. In general, the conclusions are similar (because property rights and sovereignty rights are related), but for different reasons.]

    If the GOP wants to skip the primary and caucus system altogether and just let the corporations pick their front man, they should be allowed to do that as well.

    Well, yes, but only because political parties do not rule. To the extent that an election is deciding who rules, there is a constitutional obligation to maintain republicanism.

    So the party should be allowed to do that, but clearly that kind of approach is unlike anything Republicans would do.

    This year is somewhat unusual for Democrats in that they are having a hard time pushing the pick of the party bosses down the throats of the electorate.

    Responding to criticism that although more than 1 in 5 Democrats is black, they (unlike the Republicans) had no black leadership except as shepherds of the black vote, they latched onto Obama--a seemingly non-threatening black man raised by his white mother in a white suburban environment, as such a crossover figure.

    To their utter surprise Obama proved more capable than they thought possible, and claimed a large following among Democrats, ultimately challenging the choice of the elite.

    I think a lot of Republicans actually crossed over to vote for him in the primaries (believing that the next President would be a Democrat and that it was more important to get the best Democrat nominated than to influence the choice among the Republican candidates).

    The last time such a challenge to the pick of the bosses happened, as Hillary suggested, was when RFK challenged Hubert Humphrey. I don't think she was suggesting the "problem" might be solved in the same way, but I think she was suggesting that it might be solved.

    As for the notion that big business is pro-Republican, ordinarily, Republicans create a more favorable climate for smaller businesses, whereas Democrats create a more favorable climate for big business (in the short run).

    The problem Democrats have with small business is that it is harder to unionize--because union pay scales require the support of lots of capital and effective collective bargaining requires less fluidity in the corporate structure.

    So Democrats try to undermine small business, and the general notion of the success of the individual. The Democrat mantra is that no indivdual should succeed until we all succeed, the tacit Republican alternative is the success of the few is a precondition to the success of the many.

    This isn't trickle-down, but that Republicans tend to look to decentralized laboratories of what works (whether in business, education, or government) whereas Democrats prefer a centrally planned, more uniform, society and the suppression of any competition to those ideas.

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  64. Mazzula-

    The River of No Return is awesome, and the name sounds awesome, but I think it comes from the old days when the float boats could only go one way, not that you are entering the gates of hell with no chance out. For that, you might go to Hells Canyon or the Seven Devils.

    The venereal goddess of the silver screen, Marilyn Monroe, made a movie called The River of No Return in 1954.I see from google there are Seven Devils in North Caroline too.

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  65. It may not be up to the democrats to decide, as some disaffected dems have taken the issue to the Federal Courts under the Voting Rights Act. What's happened to this case I don't know, or if Billary was behind it. It does seem the logical outcome of all this running to the judges about every last thing, particularily the enviros and the gays.

    Long as we escape one man, one woman, one vote, one time we can count ourselves lucky.

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  66. I think that success, financial and otherwise, is largely a matter of luck, even the luck of being the kind of person who is talented, virtuous, and hard working.

    Deep questions lurk under the surface of this question, debated for centuries. And these days some throw in the luck of the genetic draw, while others continue to hold to the idea genetics follows karma.

    My wife is a "it's a crap shoot" type person. I'm uncertain.

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  67. The demonstration started with about 25 people gathering by a statue of 19th century Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, widely considered to have been gay.

    "We came to bow before this great composer in this most symbolic place in the capital," gay rights leader Nikolai Alexeyev told the demonstrators.




    Russian Gays Demonstrate, Not Shot Down in the Streets

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  68. I think they obeyed the rules. They chose to have a symbolic, early primary because they thought that would give them more influence than having a real primary later on. Now that things have worked out to be more competitive than they anticipated, there is a move to change the rules.

    The conventional wisdom was that Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina essentially picked the nom and Super Tuesday merely ratified it. That's why Florida and Michigan broke the rules to move their primary as early into the calendar years as possible, so they would have a real say. If they could foresee what a horse race it has been, they would have stood pat.

    Democrats always seem to be violating their party rules in order to achieve some result the party bosses want. It's tradition.

    This year the RNC halved the GOP delegates from Wyoming, New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina, and Flordia. But no one says the Republicans are practicing outcome-based electioneering.

    they aren't used to having to care about the process because they are the party of large, organized factions whose bosses can get together and decide things ad hoc.

    As if there's no such thing as the NRA and the Christian Lobby creating GOP platforms planks like in Washington State, 1992, calling for the criminalization of witchcraft and yoga.

    (I would give a more complete response, but I have other demands on my time. Perhaps again later)

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  69. On a more pedestrian level, here's the Vanity Fair article which is drawing Clinton fire and is certain to dominate the next 24 hour news cycle.

    In summary it's about Bill's predilection for fast women and sleazy friends plus the adverse effects of medication.

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  70. Medication, always the fly in the ointment.

    Most all of human failure is attributed to "medication", often self-perscribed.

    Saw an hour of Hitler as a speed freak as well as another with Doc Feelgood and JFK as the central theme.

    Always blame the "medication"

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  71. At 11:38, the bait is dangled:
    "Strong smelling, but smoooooth."

    Intervening hours spent selling.

    At 3:23, the truth slips out:
    Cranberry juice and a couple of aspirin. Put money in that juke box and I'll tear your head off.

    Ha, ha, ha. The demon rum, it'll do it every time. Not quite so smoooooth the next day is it?

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  72. As for sleaxy friends, he has friends, other than the fast women?

    Or are they to be considered sleazy?

    Or just half sleazy?

    ReplyDelete
  73. Charlie Cook:

    Number Soup
    By Charlie Cook
    © National Journal Group Inc.
    May 20, 2008

    This column was originally featured on nationaljournal.com on May 20, 2008.

    Whether you look at the averages of all the major national polls on realclearpolitics.com or pollster.com's trend estimates based on most recent polling, presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona very narrowly trails Democratic Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York by 2 to 3 points.

    The fact that there is minimal overall difference between Obama and McCain and Clinton and McCain suggests some stability in the numbers. The closeness of the gap suggests an election consistent with the last two. The 2000 election came down to a 537-vote margin in Florida out of almost 6 million votes cast, and 2004 was decided in Ohio, where there was a difference of just 118,599 out of almost 5.6 million votes cast.

    Add in that Democrats need to win the popular vote nationwide by somewhere between a half point and 1.5 points to overcome the more efficient allocation of Republican electoral votes (Republicans only "waste" a lot of extra votes in Texas; Democrats do it in California, Illinois and New York) and that points to a particularly close fall general election.

    A new survey conducted for National Public Radio by two of the most respected Democratic and Republican pollsters in the business does a great job of setting the stage for a fascinating election. The survey, conducted by Democrat Stan Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and Republican Glen Bolger of Public Opinion Strategies, portrays a very sour electorate, with just 16 percent saying the country was headed in the right direction and a whopping 80 percent saying it was off on the wrong track. In January, right direction was at 23 percent, wrong track at 68 percent.

    [...]


    I think my mother is right: Another brutal, and excrutiatingly close, election.





    I skimmed that article, whit. The diagnosis: Narcissism.

    Over at Pat Lang's there was a discussion of GWB's narcissism.

    Maybe there's just something about our national political life at this time that brings narcissists to the oval office. It selects for narcissism.

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  74. According to the article which btw is by Dee Dee Myer's husband, he has no real friends but sleazy associates who share his penchant for food looking twenty-year olds.

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  75. ...for good looking twenty-year olds.

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  76. In Panama the drink of the downtrodden, was "Seco".

    Distilled from sugarcane, it was often drunk with milk and sugar.

    So one night, at a cantina not often visted by GIs, we sat and drank a few rounds. All seemed well, and I awoke in my own bed. Eyelids worked, the first of a litney of the post party function checks.

    Toes wiggled. fingers moved, all seemed well.

    I sat up, in bed, my head exploded and I spent the rest of the day cleaning my brains off the walls.

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  77. I only had about four fingers of the Cana. We had one bottle and it made the rounds.

    But then some blithe soul set up shots of...whatever was left behind the bar.

    ReplyDelete
  78. for food looking twenty-year olds.

    I know that's a typo, Whit, you meant to say, twenty year olds looking for food.:)

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  79. A good first experience with Seco, Rat. You lived.

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  80. I haven't tried the Nektar.

    Something tells me I never will.






    Mezcal story: I was down in Nogales with some Marines once.


    Once.


    It's sad when you have to carry the unconscious back over the border.

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  81. If you turn up a little gouty later, Trish, try pure black cherry juice:)

    ReplyDelete
  82. Rum story:
    I and two friends knocked down a bottle and spent the balance of the night hugging the toilet.

    Then there was the time in Appalachia; I traded a pony for a half gallon of white liquor. My friends said they carried me to bed but I don't remember it.

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  83. Otherwise known as white nightning.

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  84. Once in a while I used to take a bottle of wine with me in the tractor when plowing--never during harvest, too much going on--for the late afternoon, til the sun winked down on yonder horizon. Kind of make the end of the day--long days--go a little easier. Still plow a straight furrow.

    You had a pony?

    Had, the operative word:)

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  85. For both the pony and the white lightning. Both gone now....

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  86. I learned a month or so ago (watching the Discoveryhistoryscience Channel, which is where I learn most everything) that NASCAR arose from...bootlegging. Outrunning the revenooers. Which my father did as a teenager in the hills of SW Missoura. Which he never told me until relatively recently.

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  87. With all this talk about women and voting recently, and sexism, etc. did you folks know Idaho was one of the first 4 or 5 states to let the femmes vote? Somehow we've gotten a reputation we don't deserve. It may have been a hell of a mistake, but we were one of the first ones to make it.

    ReplyDelete
  88. Anyone have a slivovitz story?


    I can't seem to remember any of mine.

    ReplyDelete
  89. "It may have been a hell of a mistake..."

    Bob.

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  90. While working at Ft Sherman, we would sometimes take our new found friends, each time a unit rotated into JOTC, into Colon. On the Atlantic side of the Canal.

    Without doubt, the armpit of the Americas

    Almost always brought some back, unconscious, to Ft Sherman.

    The rum and the women were cheap, they were also inexpensive.

    Sleazy does not describe it.

    Made the strip outside Camp Casey look down right uptown and tame, by comparison.

    Korea where the soju held sway.

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  91. Donald Roussin's beer collection would put most college students to shame: More than 8,000 beer cans from around the world line the walls of the basement of his Maryland Heights home. Another 1,000 cans sit in boxes waiting for a place on the shelf.

    Nearly all the walls of the ranch home he shares with his wife and two sons is covered in advertising signs from breweries across the globe, many from his own backyard of St. Louis. Soccer pictures of his sons share space on a living room table with a light-up Hyde Park Brewing Co. sign.

    He even has a Falstaff beer can replica that at one time served as a promotional robot.


    Memorabilia Museum

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  92. Just heard that the Pres. invited Scott Mc Clellan to go quail hunting with Dick Cheney.

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  93. Just casting a fly into a calm pool, Trish, trying to get a rise. And hear that wonderful sound--B-O-B
    Worked too.

    The rum and the women were cheap, they were also inexpensive.

    Wonderful descriptive phrase. Could be the opening words of a novel of reminiscence.

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  94. Hillary wants them to invite Obama along on the hunting trip.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Ripple was often referred to on the TV series Sanford & Son as it was Fred Sanford's alcoholic beverage of choice[2]. On the show, Fred mixed Ripple with champagne, referring to as "Champipple"

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  96. Hey, that would go perfectly with a cold nipple.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Gallo..

    That brings back memories. Mom used to drink that stuff in the '70's. Gallon jugs. That and Rossi.

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  98. Soju!

    When we clearing out of our house in VA we came across a few cans in the back of the pantry that traveled from Seoul some years ago.

    Gross stuff.

    But less offensive than the kimchee my husband had developed a fondness for. Have THAT stuff sittin' in your fridge for a couple of weeks - like someone crawled in there and died.


    (Now, having a brother who was stationed in Panama, I happen to know you were committing a no-no. For shame!)

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  99. If concert figures hold steady from last year, it is quite possible that four acts that earn the bulk of their coin from a single Vegas venue will be in the year's top 20 in grosses: Midler, John, Cher and Barry Manilow, who has 35 more dates booked this year at the Las Vegas Hilton.

    Dion was consistently in the top 10 during her four years and eight months at the Colosseum. Dion performed 717 concerts and grossed $400 million in ticket sales.

    Intriguingly, in Dion's first year at the Colosseum, 2003, she grossed $80.5 million and was the second-highest concert earner of the year. Right behind her was Cher at $68.2 million.


    Vegas has Cher

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  100. I've committed many a no-no, trish.

    All my share and some of the other guy's.

    Only the good die young
    and I'm growin' old

    ReplyDelete
  101. soju and kimchee at night, then a three mile PT run in the morning

    Good and stinky, just a tad sleazy.

    ReplyDelete
  102. The size of the domestic wine market is estimated to be around 450 billion won. Discount stores take up about 40 percent of the whole wine purchases and the figure is likely to continue to grow, according to the retailer.

    The total consumption of wine was 37,700 kiloliters last year, which is equal to 2.03 bottles per person, outnumbering that of whiskey for the first time.

    Last year, E-Mart sold around 6.9 trillion won in combined total with its subsidiary Shinsegae Mart, 0.8 trillion won ahead of Homeplus, which is owned by Samsung Tesco, a joint retailer of South Korea's Samsung and British-based retailer Tesco.


    Wine Outsells Soju

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  103. I like Cher. It's the incredible voice.




    Shakira's gonna be at the embassy here soon. (Again, an incredible voice.) Has to renew her yearly visa.



    Oh, Rat, I am amazed, looking back on it, that the Army ever got anything out of me.

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  104. Youth was not wasted on us.


    Entirely.

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  105. Harold Ickes, a top adviser to Clinton, said on NBC's "Meet The Press" no decision had yet been made.

    "I have not had a chance to talk with Senator Clinton at any length about it, and obviously this will be a big decision. But her rights are reserved," he said.

    But one of her strongest supporters, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, sounded uninterested in a further challenge.


    Ickes

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  106. A guest blogger at Washington Monthly:

    In response to all sorts of different questions about Barack Obama -- Why should we support him? How is a first-term Senator suddenly winning the nomination? How can he beat John McCain? What kind of President will he be? -- I like to point to these three paragraphs from his 2002 speech against the Iraq War:

    But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

    I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

    I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.












    Discuss.

    ReplyDelete
  107. (Are you Sam as in Sam from Rick's Place? Providing background music?)

    ReplyDelete
  108. (Hoagy Charmichael in The Best Years of Our Lives comes to mind, too. 'Cept you don't call yourself Butch.)

    ReplyDelete
  109. But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States

    True, evn though all the democrats save Obama said the opposite

    or to his neighbors,

    Certainly had in the past, and arguably would have in the future

    that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength,

    More or less true, but easily built back up

    and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

    What international community? The sanctions etc were leaking like a sieve

    I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.

    True, and leaving in a huff presents lots of dangers

    I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world

    This doesn't seem to have proven out

    strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

    Well, maybe, on the other hand Iraq has not been so kind to the jihadi, at least it seems so now

    The Kurds seem a winner in all this, at least.

    And the story isn't over.

    ReplyDelete
  110. no imminent and direct threat to the United States

    Obama is from the 'wait until we get hit' crowd.

    ReplyDelete
  111. I keep waiting for a great reckoning.

    I guess it doesn't happen like that.

    ReplyDelete
  112. On the contrary, Sam, Obama is from the "go into Pakistan to hit the one who actually hit us on 9-11" crowd.

    ReplyDelete
  113. "Go into Pakistan"

    In what way?

    Cuz we're already there.

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  114. ``It was not the United States of America alone that believed he had weapons of mass destruction, that he was hiding weapons of mass destruction, that led him to throw inspectors out,'' Rice added, referring to United Nations weapons experts.

    ...

    Rice, who is in Stockholm to take part in a UN-sponsored conference on the future of Iraq, said the threat from Hussein ``was well understood.''

    ``You can agree or disagree about the decision to liberate Iraq in 2003,'' Rice said. Given the sanctions that were imposed on Iraq, she added, ``I would really ask do people really believe that he was not a threat to the international community?''


    Threat was Known

    ReplyDelete
  115. Never played the piano. Played the sax in junior high. Wife plays the piano.

    ReplyDelete
  116. He's also from the 'wait until we get hit' crowd.

    ReplyDelete
  117. I think piano players (amateur and otherwise) are worth their weight in gold at social gatherings. And I regret none of us bothered (much) to learn. Donated our antique upright to
    to an aspiring opera singer before we left.

    The Golden Bee at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Delightful piano player.

    ReplyDelete
  118. Obama's intent wrt Pakistan is actually our current policy. Has been for a number of years.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Charlemagne was the oldest son of Pippin the Short, who towered at 5ft 0 in. Pippin in turn was the son of Charles Martel who fought the Saracen. Before Martel a feller named Odo had whipped the Saracen about 7 or 10 years earlier. Charlie the Great may have done incest with his sis, a common practice at the time, though dying out under church pressure, giving birth to Roland who we have all heard of from the Song of Roland. After Charles the Great went into Spain, allied with one sect of the muzzies against another, it turned out his allied muzzies lost heart in the affair, and holed up behing city walls. Charles the Great, who was 6 ft 4 in and red haired, and couldn't write, but could read(it is thought) got thoroughly ticked off at this, and irrationally took it out on the Basques, who were kinda Christian, and destroyed Pamplona. Then he took off back to Frankland, leaving Roland to bring up the rear, and the loot. Roland and one Oliver and about 20,000 others were slaughtered by the muzzies in a pass in the mountains between Spain and France. Roland wanted to fight without calling for help from Charlie the Great. Oliver wanted to call for help. Thus Roland is a kind of hero for the idea of the independent individual in the west, or the impetuous fool, in Oliver's view. The Song of Roland is a founding document of the nationalizing and Christianizing and making of Europe. Charlie the Great also really clobbered the Saxons. When it comes to religious tolerance his policy was much more severe than than of the muzzies, in Spain. He had 4,500 Saxon captives butchered in one day, which even the Pope in Rome thought went too far. Not really understanding the gospels, he was a genius at military affairs, and had the first real insight into using religion and nationalism to forge an empire. Oddly enough, this proto-forming of Europe wouldn't have happened, at least so soon or in the same way, without the muzzies getting into Spain, and then really into and threatening France.

    I learned all this from "God's Crucible, Islam and the Making of Europe", an I'm only about half done.

    If you have European blood, you can rest assured your ancestors were as brutal and as irrational as the best of the rest.

    ReplyDelete
  120. I didn't know you were married, Sam, kind of thought of you as single for some reason.

    My grandfather on mom's side made his living in Seattle teaching and playing piano. Mom was excellent too, for a while, till she got worn by us kids and working.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Converting residual industrial heat into something usable (read: electricity) has proven to be more than a novel concept on more than one occasion, and ElectraTherm's giving the process one more vote of confidence by installing its Green Machine at Southern Methodist University. Just this past week, the firm flipped on its first commercial waste heat generator at the Dallas-based institution, with hopes to generate "fuel-free, emissions-free electricity at three to four cents per kW/hr during payback period and under a penny/kW hour thereafter."

    The 50kW rig has so far exceeded expectations, and the firm is now forecasting that its units will have a "subsidy-free payback period of three years or less." Of course, we aren't told exactly how many zeros reside on the left of the decimal or anything, but folks in the area can get a tour of the installation later this month.


    Converting Waste Heat

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  122. Yep, wife used to teach it also. She's doing day care at the moment 'though.

    ReplyDelete
  123. The Song of Roland




    In the original, gave my daughter serious heartburn it did.

    You're either an epic poem person, or you're not.

    ReplyDelete
  124. As for Reagan Democrats, how Clinton was treated is not their issue. They are more concerned with how they have been treated.

    Since March, when I was accused of being racist for a statement I made about the influence of blacks on Obama's historic campaign, people have been stopping me to express a common sentiment: If you're white you can't open your mouth without being accused of being racist. They see Obama's playing the race card throughout the campaign and no one calling him for it as frightening.

    They're not upset with Obama because he's black; they're upset because they don't expect to be treated fairly because they're white. It's not racism that is driving them, it's racial resentment.


    Ferraro

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  125. Sucks when you've thrown in your lot with the loser.

    ReplyDelete
  126. Clinton is trying to keep her options open and the negotiating path clear, but has suggested that if she isn’t offered the vice presidential nomination perhaps that could diminish her level of enthusiasm for the nominee.

    Clinton’s campaign has also said it is reserving the right to challenge the decision concerning Michigan’s delegates. That decision on Saturday by the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee gave Clinton 69 delegates to Obama’s 59 even though he wasn’t on the ballot in the state.

    Florida’s entire delegation will be seated but each delegate will only get half a vote.


    Popular Vote

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  127. This is great stuff. First they cry about the popular vote in '00 now they disregard it.

    Crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  128. Answering a question, Feingold said he had been critical of the previous US policy towards Pakistan, which had rested too heavily on relations with President Musharraf. He added that it was a mistake of Bush Administration to repose its trust in a one-man rule rather than trusting democratic elements.

    However, he further said, America desired to see Pakistan as a strong democratic entity.

    He said that he favoured the reinstatement of judges who were dismissed by President Musharraf to protect his presidency during the emergency rule in November 3, last year.


    Relying on Musharraf Mistake

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  129. The spread of the Pakistani Taliban threatens even Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province bordering the tribal areas, the inspector general of police, Malik Naveed Khan, warned.

    "They are now on the periphery," Khan said in an interview. If nothing is done, it could be "a matter of months" before Peshawar falls, he said.

    To woo young men away from the Taliban, he wants to create a broad "conservation corps" to employ 300,000 men — approximately one from every family — to build roads and bridges in the impoverished tribal region. The men would get a stipend to counter the generous 13,000 rupees (about $200) the Taliban pay some members each month.


    Flaunting Power Inside Pakistan

    ReplyDelete
  130. Like dad used to say, "It all depends on whose ox is getting gored."

    What I get a kick out of is the cries of sexism. 57% to 61%, so I have read, depending on the state, of democratic voters are women. I scratch my cheek and wonder to myself, how can you claim sexism under those circumstances? They have curious minds, some of those dem women, deep, and hard to fathom, inscrutable.

    grrnite

    ReplyDelete
  131. Aside from a few nuts who have derided Senator Clinton because of her gender (and there have certainly been the same kinds of nuts deriding Senator Barack Obama because of his race), most people have decided to support Obama because they prefer him to Clinton. Isn't that the goal of the feminist movement - to put everyone on equal footing?

    Ferraro doesn't get it. Just because someone supports Obama doesn't mean he or she is a sexist.

    The former vice presidential candidate ought to be ashamed that she's turned feminism from a righteous roar to a subjugated whine.


    Sounds Like a Whine

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  132. Owing to the splintered nature of the Sunni insurgency, rather than a single truce as in Basra and Sadr City, amnesties were negotiated with neighborhood insurgent bosses. By last Monday, 27 insurgents had surrendered, according to the U.S. military.

    Organizers of suicide bombings were not eligible for amnesty.

    Major Adam Boyd, the intelligence officer for the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, described the Sunni insurgency here as a dozen groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq, a radical Islamic group that insurgents have put forward as an umbrella group for fighters in northern Iraq, and Sunni nationalist organizations like the 1920 Revolution Brigades and a Baath Party revival group called Al Awda.


    Hope in Mosul

    ReplyDelete
  133. This year the RNC halved the GOP delegates from Wyoming, New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina, and Flordia. But no one says the Republicans are practicing outcome-based electioneering.

    Well that is because it wasn't outcome-based electioneering. Those states made a decision according to the rules, and the rules were applied, all before-the fact. Each state did what it did in order to maximize its own influence.

    The Democrats did something similar initially, but then when they didn't like the outcome they went back and decided, in central committee not in accord with the outcome of any political process, to give more delegates to the candidates in the name of Michigan and Florida. In the case of Michigan, they are sending a large number of delegates to support someone who didn't even appear on the ballot there.

    As if there's no such thing as the NRA and the Christian Lobby creating GOP platforms planks like in Washington State, 1992, calling for the criminalization of witchcraft and yoga.

    Being a member of the NRA is more like being a member of the ACLU than being a member of a labor union. If I oppose Wayne LaPierre, I don't have to fear he will send goons to change my mind.

    Certainly there are factions within the Republican party. But the difference between our factions and so many of the Democrats' factions is that the leaders don't impose control on the membership, they are more like lobbyists on behalf of the membership.

    The 1968 Democrat convention was a good illustration of their model. Or you could look at the 2004 convention, with their razor-wire enclosed "free speech zone".

    And I think you are mischaracterizing even that obscure platform plank. The actual plank, as I understand it, had to do with extending the limitations on prayer in public schools to include such practices as "channelling" and and witchcraft.

    I agree with you that the plank was misguided, though. Essentially, they brought attacks against wicca that were similar to (but less successful than) the attacks by the left against Christianity. Religion is a crucial part of education, and the state should be forbidden from criminalizing any religious practice on the basis of its religious significance.

    I think the Republican position is better reflected in the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act", which Republicans passed in response to a court ruling against some native Americans who had been using mescaline in a religious rite. When the court overturned RFRA it was when a Catholic parish used it to oppose a local zoning ordinance.

    The Kyrias Joel case was another illustration of the support by Republicans for religous freedom, against the leftist interpretation that religious freedom can only be found if the precondition of enjoying government benefits is the adoption of a secular lifestyle as pertains to the use of those benefits.

    School choice would allow students to attend wiccan schools with a school voucher. Rousseau found that Christianity was particularly unsuitable as a state religion, and the left has progressed to the notion that the appropriate state religion is secularism. The left demands that students (except for those wealthy enough to afford private schools) be educated within that dogma. They don't mind an independent elite, but demand that the masses be given the education of subservient wage-slaves.

    ReplyDelete
  134. Religion is a crucial part of education, and the state should be forbidden from criminalizing any religious practice on the basis of its religious significance.

    But what if the religion in question has as a major tenent the overthrow of any secular law, that is, the Constitution? The right to vote? The dignity of women? Etc. Etc.

    The Constitution isn't a suicide pact, and we are fools to let islam get any grip here. It should be treated like any other revolutionary, insurrectionary movement, because that is what it is, at base.

    ReplyDelete
  135. Except that we don't seem to outlaw any political group anymore, a mistake.

    ReplyDelete
  136. But what if the religion in question has as a major tenent the overthrow of any secular law, that is, the Constitution? The right to vote? The dignity of women? Etc. Etc.

    Larry Sabato, director of the UVA Center for Politics, has called for scrapping our constitution and starting over with a new constitutional convention. Would you outlaw that? There is an explicit provision in the Constitution that allows for it.

    The place where the line is drawn is where the method of achieving such change crosses from political action to coercion. A plot against the government (aside from a political campaign) will never have protection that arises simply because it is a religious tenet. It is outlawed independently of whether it is a tenet of any religion.

    The first amendment forbids any restriction on any religious belief or act that arises simply because of its religious content. For example, we used to forbid religious organizations from participating in government charity programs simply because they were religious. It is wrong to forbid someone from enjoying the benefits of citizenship unless they agree to curtail their religious practice.

    In a democracy, you simply have to trust that interests of your fellow citizens will balance in a concensus that promotes the good. This is one of those things, like belief in free markets, that seems kind of nutty at first. If individual interests are selfish, then why should they balance in the good? But if you cannot believe that, and no longer believe in the sovereignty of the political concensus, then you no longer believe in democracy.

    Freedom of religion is a protected source of political action. As I pointed out earlier, this was in direct rebuttal to the ideas of Rousseau, who saw some religions, Christianity in particular, as incompatible with the authority of the state because they presented a competing source of authority.

    ReplyDelete
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  138. Costa Rica is a country with an extremely sense of freedom. The landscapes are for many people the greenest in whole center America. The chances of investments are very high; the average of Americans, European and people of the entire planet who are buying here is up in the sky!!!

    ReplyDelete