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, August 27, 2008

Maureen Dowd


Some good comments on the last thread, but Maureen Dowd nails it:

High Anxiety in the Mile High City


By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: August 26, 2008
DENVER


The New York Times

I’ve been to a lot of conventions, and there’s always something gratifyingly weird that happens.

Dan Quayle acting like a Dancing Hamster. Teresa Heinz Kerry reprising Blanche DuBois. Dick Morris getting nabbed triangulating between a hooker and toes.

But this Democratic convention has a vibe so weird and jittery, so at odds with the early thrilling, fairy dust feel of the Obama revolution, that I had to consult Mike Murphy, the peppery Republican strategist and former McCain guru.

“What is that feeling in the air?” I asked him.

“Submerged hate,” he promptly replied.

There were a lot of bitter Clinton associates, fund-raisers and supporters wandering the halls, spewing vindictiveness, complaining of slights, scheming about Hillary’s roll call and plotting trouble, with some in the Clinton coterie dissing Obama by planning early departures, before the nominee even speaks.

At a press conference with New York reporters on Monday, Hillary looked as if she were straining at the bit to announce her 2012 exploratory committee.

“Remember, 18 million people voted for me, 18 million people, give or take, voted for Barack,” she said, while making a faux pro-Obama point. She keeps acting as if her delegates are out of her control, when she’s been privately egging on people to keep her dream alive as long as possible, no matter what the cost to Obama.

Hillary also said she was happy about the choice of Joe Biden because he added “intensity” to the ticket. Ouch.

She added insult to injury by coming out Tuesday night looking great in a blazing orange pantsuit and teaching the precocious pup Obama something about intensity and message. She thanked her “sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits,” and slyly noted that Obama would enact her health care plan rather than his.

She offered the electrifying fight that the limpid Obama has not — setting off paranoia among some Democrats that they had chosen the wrong nominee or that Obama had chosen the wrong running mate. “It makes perfect sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together in the Twin Cities because these days they are awfully hard to tell apart,” she said.

Afterward, some of her supporters began crying, as they were interviewed by reporters, saying that her speech had proved that she would make a better president than Obama. And, as one said, she would only give him “two months” to prove himself.

Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania, compared Obama to the passive-aggressive Adlai Stevenson and told The Washington Post that Obama gives six-minute answers and “is not exactly the easiest guy in the world to identify with.”

At a meeting of the Democratic women’s caucus Tuesday, 74-year-old Carol Anderson of Vancouver, Wash., a former Hillary volunteer, stood in the back of the room in a Hillary T-shirt and hat signed by Hillary and “Nobama” button and booed every time any of the women speakers mentioned Obama’s name.

She’s voting for McCain and had nothing nice to say about the Obamas. What about the kids, I asked. “Adorable,” she agreed. Well, I said, Michelle raised them.

“I think her mother does,” Anderson shot back, adding: “I wonder if Michelle would give the Queen one of her little knuckle punches?”

Bill’s pals said he was still gnawing at his many grievances against the younger version of himself he has to praise Wednesday night; the latest one being that the Obama folks, like all winners, wanted control over Bill’s speech, so that he did not give a paean to himself and his economic record, which is what he wanted to do, because he was incensed that Obama said a couple critical things about his administration during a heated campaign.

Finally, Obama had to give in on Monday and say he would allow the ex-president to do exactly as he likes, which is what he usually does anyhow.

Obama’s pacification of Bill made his supporters depressed and anxious that he was going to be a weaker candidate than they had hoped and fearful that, as in Obama’s favorite movie, “The Godfather,” every time Democrats try to get away, the Clintons pull them back in.

And Democrats have begun internalizing the criticisms of Hillary and John McCain about Obama’s rock-star prowess, worrying that the Invesco Field extravaganza Thursday, with Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi, will just add to the celebrity cachet that Democrats have somehow been shamed into seeing as a negative.

So that added to the weird mood at the convention, with some Democrats nitpicking Obama’s appearance, after Michelle’s knock-out speech and the fabulously cute girls, with a reassuring white family in a town he couldn’t remember at one point. They wondered why he wasn’t wearing a tie, fearing he looked too young, and second-guessed Michelle’s green dress, wondering if it clashed with the blue stage, and fretted that there wasn’t a speaker Monday night attacking McCain and yelling about gas prices.

“I’m telling you, man,” said one top Democrat, “it’s something about our party, the shtetl mentality.”


200 comments:

  1. It all falls onto Obama's shoulders, tomorrow.

    As it should.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scoop Jackson Dems For McCain...

    Screw the Messiah...

    McCain for Potus 2008

    My party, the Democrats need an asskicking....

    Bye Bye Pelosi & Dean...

    Bye Bye Carter and Kennedy..

    We need CHANGE...

    We dont NEED DHIMMI JIMMY....

    We need Democrats that DONT embrace Terrorists and want to CHAT....

    The messiah wears no clothes....

    The messiah and his flock of crazies are not mainstream...

    Goddam america....Goddam america....Goddam america....

    Rev Wright...

    Guilty as hell, free as a bird...

    WeatherUnderground Ayers...

    Hamas & Mr DinnerJacket support Obama...

    I DONT

    ReplyDelete
  3. Scoop died in 1983, wi"o".

    That was 25 years ago

    He has yet to be replaced,
    he won't be.

    When I read this Dowd piece, earlier this morning, the phrase "shtetl mentality" was new to me. Then google provided this article as one that used it.

    Now I'd not normally link to a site that used the phrase "a who's who of Kikedom", but ....

    It is concerning bob's favorite issue, Gun Control and the leading advocates of it.
    So, if easily offended, skip it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Murphy will be on Miller Today.
    ---
    One of Laura's lady callers nailed the condescending tone Michelle emits with her repetitious use of "you know" by citing a highschool teacher she had that used the same tone and construction.

    "You know, the Soviet Union..."

    Laura was off on her Michelle impersonations for 5 min after that.
    Somehow my belle just does not warm the cockles of the average WASP'S heart, nor the Cocks of the old farts of the EB.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Taliban Gain New Foothold in Afghan City
    A spectacular jailbreak in June highlighted the Afghan government’s frailty, and the security situation has only worsened since then.
    Photographs: The Aftermath of a Jailbreak in Afghanistan

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dowd piece, and article:

    this is a clue as to why america, in my opinion, truely is a great country, if not the best (excuse the soppy patriotism). someone coming from a "shtetl" life can arm themselves and rightfully defend themselves without being in fear of mass retribution by the state.

    ReplyDelete
  7. hdgreene said...

    Actually, it all sounds believable to me.

    I had friend who was much into Pyramid products in the 1970’s. Did you know if you put a dull razor blade in a Pyramid it will sharpen like new?
    It also works on brains.
    His brother was a Concert level pianist who made his real living reading taro cards.
    He’d go on a talk radio program in New York and read caller’s cards over the phone. You see, the wires established a connection. He read my cards (in person) and told me many woman would fall in love with me. He didn’t mention it would be platonic.

    In anycase, this friend was not a leftist himself but he was an idealist and a devoted runner — kind of Evangelical about it.
    He organized “The International Peace Race” because he came across one in Czechoslovakia. I used to help him out.
    It was a good way to meet the Unitarian/Reform Jew left nexus.
    Pleasant folks, if they weren’t upset.
    We would take East European runners into Super Markets and they would defect. Turned out these folks brought down the Berlin wall, but not in the way they claim. These runners would say,
    “The Americans are hoarding all the food and I want to live there.”

    In anycase, he got connected with a local billionaire and founder of “Pharmor,” which established the Enron Business Model back in the 80’s. I think Mickey will be getting out of the pen soon. He would talk of taking things to a higher level for a bigger collapse. He was the “Peace Race” sponsor for a number of years.

    I could go on. But the intersection of Commies, idealists, quack science and out of control billionaires is totally believable to me.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Scoop died in 1983, wi"o".

    That was 25 years ago

    He has yet to be replaced,
    he won't be.


    So?

    WE did not die...

    Kennedy & Carter? they were from a TIME EVEN EARLIER and they still suck....

    ReplyDelete
  9. You've died, electorally.

    You have no champion
    Nor even a contender

    If one was to arise, it'd not be from the body of the Democratic Party, they'd abort it, first.
    For the sake of convience.

    If, as doug tells US, Obama is a marxist, then Maverick is an authoritarian socialist.
    Believing that the "good" over comes the constitutional.

    ReplyDelete
  10. You've died, electorally.

    You have no champion
    Nor even a contender


    Ah but what we have is a SWING vote...

    if the country is 45/45 dem/gop then I sit as king maker....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Betcha hd doesn't know about IBEC and the Rockefellers playing with the cultures of whole nations, manipulating societies.

    Supermarkets Italiani: Nelson A. Rockefeller's International Basic Economy Corporation and the Introduction of Supermarkets to Italy
    by Emanuela Scarpellini
    Researcher in Contemporary History University of Milan, Italy


    If he did, doug, that nexus would be more than just believable, he'd KNOW it was true.

    The IBEC model was developed for Mexico, tested in Italy, and being carried forward by Walmart in real time.

    ReplyDelete
  12. for immediate backup from as many officers as possible plus the Swat Team. The dispatcher asks what emergency she has that requires so many officers. "I've got a Tractor-Trailer stopped with 20,000 Mexican eggs in it. Two have hatched
    and they've already managed to steal a bicycle!"

    ReplyDelete
  13. dr,

    you may enjoy this bit of inside info about me...

    I am not white, I am not black, I am not considered a minority in any way shape or form and yet I am...

    My people make up less than 1.5% of the country.

    I (and us) do not vote for someone because they are LIKE me...

    I have no doubt that I never will SEE on the ticket people the LOOk like me.

    Everything is always a choice...

    I seek nothing from the government except a secure & safe life that allows us to be reasonably free.

    I do NOT identify with the far right or left.

    I do not seek governmental aid, loans, grants, set asides or special perks...

    and in the end, the BEST definition politically of my POV is Scoop Jackson...

    Yes he has been dead for 25 years...

    and Jesus dead for 1980 years, moses dead for 3000, Jefferson 250 years and so on...

    being dead doesnt stop an ideal...

    and for all things a time...

    what was once will be again...

    even a broken clock is still correct 2x a day

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

    ReplyDelete
  15. Your version of the Dowd column is the one missing the reference to Bill Clinton as Grendel.

    Or where she smells sulphur near the Clintons.

    ReplyDelete
  16. One of Laura's lady callers nailed the condescending tone Michelle emits with her repetitious use of "you know" by citing a high school teacher she had that used the same tone and construction

    Isn't that the truth. I use to blog on a blog where one guy knew EVERYTHING and he’d always begin a rebuttal by saying something like.

    No, this is the way it is….blah blah blah…same kind of condescending tone, the whole smack.

    It was irritating because in many cases that wasn't the way it was, just his opinion, but because he was such a bloviating turd the other bloggers would never challenge him. I think he got beat up a lot on the playground as a child. Mistreated, just like Michelle.

    ReplyDelete
  17. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

    ReplyDelete
  18. If, as doug tells US, Obama is a marxist, then Maverick is an authoritarian socialist.

    Too much time around horse shit there fella.

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

    ReplyDelete
  20. All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.

    Plagerizing Shakeseare now are ya?
    Where's the attribution? Very Biden-like.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Workout time.

    You folks go right ahead and let the grand pooh bah tell you how it all fits together.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Right there at the Vortex Ranch. amigo

    A New Ager President, would be one for the aged.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Only a baboon wouldn't recognize the Bard

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

    ReplyDelete
  25. DR: Now I'd not normally link to a site that used the phrase "a who's who of Kikedom", but ....

    It is concerning bob's favorite issue, Gun Control and the leading advocates of it.
    So, if easily offended, skip it.

    dr, you will be happy to know THIS jew is going to get his concealed carry permit this fall...

    already started shopping around for the pistol of my choice...

    leaning towards a glock 9mm

    raised with a 38 police special...

    one friend suggests a simple 9 (or 11?) 22...

    I want to be able to down the perp without going threw the head (no collateral damage for me)

    As we speak Jews are bringing in ex IDF members in NYC for gun training...

    yes our group does create outside the box nitwits..

    our list of failures is as long as our list of successes...

    but MANY of us are armed. we are not armed to hurt.... we dont HUNT... but we are armed...

    and quite frankly? I am a HELL of a shot...

    ReplyDelete
  26. The Glock is easier to maintain and has proven dependable.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Republicans elect Ted Stevens In Primary putting that republican seat at great risk.

    ReplyDelete
  28. desert rat said...
    The Glock is easier to maintain and has proven dependable.

    just to let you know

    Scout troops (boy scouts) can get adults to be "range master" trained, once this is done we can use (at nominal fee) the gun ranges at Scout camps (up to 50 cal)

    Cant wait...

    ReplyDelete
  29. Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
    Wednesday, August 27, 2008
    Email a Friend Email to a Friend
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    The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote for the second straight day. When "leaners" are included, though, McCain picked up another point since yesterday and now has a statistically insignificant one-point advantage over Obama, 47% to 46% (sign up for daily e-mail update).

    This is the first time since August 9 that McCain has held any advantage over Obama. The candidates have been within two points of each other on every day but two for the past month (see recent daily results). Tracking Polls are released at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time each day.

    McCain is viewed favorably by 56% of the nation’s voters, Obama by 53% (see trends).

    ReplyDelete
  30. The fellows over at Gunsite, in Paulden, AZ have a fabulous pistol training course.

    They also have a traveling road show, that is coming to Indiana in May and December of 2009.

    Good stuff

    ReplyDelete
  31. That Gunsite outfit has been there, almost forever. Right down the hill from my mountain camp.

    Built and run by Jeff Cooper, he sold the business but lived on at the facility, back before he passed.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Betcha hd doesn't know about IBEC and the Rockefellers playing with the cultures of whole nations, manipulating societies.

    - Rat

    The introduction of the supermarket to Italy, Brazil, Argentina, et al, as dark scheme.

    What the fuck are you ON, guy?

    ReplyDelete
  33. When I was last in Missoula I stopped in at several of the gun shops there(there are many). At one I was surprised to see an array of silencers on display. This was something new. I had never seen anything like that in Idaho, or at gun shows. But, it seems you can buy a silencer if you jump through all the hoops. I had thought they were not an item you could legally purchase.

    ReplyDelete
  34. We are bringing you excerpts from “Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip” we feel are pertinent for today’s world.

    ELECTION: Volume IV, Number 12, 1984
    “It is only a week or so now ‘til election day, and while the signs look favorable we must not let up on our pressure for an instant. It is not enough for you to vote (though it is certainly essential), you must also convince another. The thought of a leftist victory at this time in history is so atrocious that it is difficult for us even to think about. It is not only the fate of the United States that is hanging in the balance, but that of the entire civilized world. We have been traveling extensively in the last couple of years and the idea that the revolution of 1980 should be turned back in ’84 is regarded with abject dismay by all those with whom we have visited, from the Orient to Central America to Europe to Africa to Scandinavia. We must not let it happen! Put forth your major effort now in the last few days. Everything else is secondary.”

    NOTE: The intellectual property of Jeff Cooper is owned by Gunsite Academy and reprinted from Gargantuan Gossip 2 with their permission.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Never said it was a "dark scheme", trish. That is your interpritation of what the Rockefellers were doing. Certainly not mine.

    Neither is the Walmarting of Mexico a "dark scheme", but it is cultural manipulation, done with forethought and planning.

    The projects that IBEC under took were not profitable, and were not meant to be. The Rockefellers were into IBEC to promote societal and cultural change. Change that they saw as benefical to those foreign lands.

    Same motivators as Soros and the other billionaire activists. Trying to "do good", in foreign lands.

    ReplyDelete
  36. The fact that Soros is a foreigner and trying to manipulate the US, not much different than the Rockefellers in Italy.

    From an Internationalist's perspective.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Betcha hd doesn't know about Sears and Roebuck playing with the cultures of whole nations, manipulating societies.

    And Ikea. Betcha he doesn't know about that either.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Coca-Cola has ruined the world.

    ReplyDelete
  39. IKEA was not founded to test cultural manipulation, IBEC was, well before there was an Ikea.
    Back when Ikea's founder was still a neo-Nazi.

    As for Sears & Robuck, they changed the culture of the US.
    The IBEC experiments were developed to see if the consumer revolution was exportable.
    With the goal of liberating Mexico from the poverty that engulfed it.

    Between the Walmarting and open borders with free flowing remittences, Mr Rockefeller's dream has almost been achieved. Soon the per capita GDP in Mexico will make further assimulation possible.
    Per Vincente Fox on Larry King.

    ReplyDelete
  40. "Playing with the cultures of whole nations and manipulating societies" is language conveying neither approval nor neutrality on the matter.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Billioaires manipulating society.

    That they want to do so and then attempt to, that should come as no surprise.

    These billionaires activists did not just luck into their wealth, did they?

    Pharmor didn't just "happen"

    Nor did Walmart.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Pakistan's Presidential Front Runner Suffered from Mental Disease

    Rick Moran

    This ought to cause a few sleepless nights among policymakers in Washington.

    Apparently, the probable choice for Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, suffered from some unspecified form of mental illness, according to court documents in Britain:

    Asif Ali Zardari, who is favored to win the presidency in elections here next week, filed medical records in a London courtroom that stated that he suffered from a range of mental illnesses, according to an account in The Financial Times on Tuesday.

    Mr. Zardari, the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who served more than eight years in prison in Pakistan on corruption charges that were dismissed this year under an amnesty agreement, suffered from dementia, major depression disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, the newspaper reported that the medical records said.

    His lawyers used the diagnosis to argue that Mr. Zardari was unable to appear in court to challenge corruption charges by the Pakistani government alleging that he had bought a British country manor with ill-gotten gains. The case was dropped in March, about the same time the corruption charges against him in Pakistan were dismissed, the newspaper reported.

    Now this could very well have been a legal gambit by Zardari to escape prosecution for corruption. But just the thought of the leader of a nuclear armed country having a history of mental illness is not reassuring - especially as it relates to an already unstable country like Pakistan.

    The Pakistani High Commissioner in London says that Zardari is now fine and his recent illness should not be a bar to his accepting the office of the presidency. But given the circumstances, perhaps the Pakistani parliament, who will choose the next president, should look elsewhere for a candidate.

    Hat Tip: Ed Lasky

    ReplyDelete
  43. "Billionaires manipulating society"

    Do you consider yourself a businessman, Rat?

    ReplyDelete
  44. Nuetrality in Mr Soros's actions, if they are to be denounced, there is a moral equivelence to the Rockefellers, in capitalism. Money talks.

    Back in the day, Mr Rockefeller spent a portion of his fortune in the attempt to homogenize humanity. To create a common consumer. He felt no qualms about it.

    Nelson was a citizen of the world, as was his father and brothers. Damned proud of it, too.

    So I am a tad negative on the homgenization of cultures, the assimulating of Mexico, one remitted dollar at a time.

    I am not by nature a tri-lateralist supporter, as were the Rockefellers, being more of a nationalist, myself.

    That nationalists are losing the political debate, testimony to the success the Globalists have had in centralizing control of both power and propaganda

    ReplyDelete
  45. Very small scale business, trish, just a tad over one million a year in billings.

    But we manipulate the market with our messaging, as much as we can.
    Learned those lessons well.

    It has served us well, too.

    ReplyDelete
  46. "To create a common consumer."

    Is the common consumer a threat to you?

    ReplyDelete
  47. No, no threat to me, trish.

    Do we only speak of threats, here at the Bar?

    Just the reality of the Program.
    That it does exist, was planned and tested. Not something that has just "happened".

    The markets and societies are often manipulated by foreigners, and what is true abroad is true at home.

    ReplyDelete
  48. So you persuade people to give you money in exchange for something they deem of value.

    ReplyDelete
  49. By rich individuals and Soveriegn Funds, the US is ripe to be manipulated.

    The concentation of the US media in a few global conglomerates is troubling.
    GE both a defense contractor and NBC, all at once.
    Sony, an international company, if ever there was one.
    Even Disney has outgrown the continental US.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Just the reality of the Program.
    That it does exist, was planned and tested. Not something that has just "happened".

    The markets and societies are often manipulated by foreigners, and what is true abroad is true at home.

    Wed Aug 27, 12:03:00 PM EDT

    I don't suppose there aren't actual human beings behind any business or economic development program. How could it be otherwise.



    Is your problem with "manipulation" or is your problem with foreigners doing the "manipulating," wherever they might be so engaged on the globe?

    ReplyDelete
  51. Exactly, trish.

    But if I abandoned the profit motive, and only published to manipulate the market, using other revenue streams to subsidize my manipulations, I'd be playing the Rockefeller & Soros game.

    Using the marketplace for my purpose, but not being subject to it.

    ReplyDelete
  52. "Only a blah, blah,blah....wouldn't recognize Shakespeare"

    Well, that's not a defense against blatant plagerism which is what you did. You pilfered the words and failed to credit the man who wrote them. It's really that simple.

    You could have manned up and admitted it but that is not in your make up. Instead you attempted a cowardly obfuscation of the issue. Grow up man. Admit you made an error and take it like a man. Real men do that. And give attribution when you write others words instead of attempting a con job a la Joe Biden.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Do not have much of a problem with Soros or Rockefeller attempting their manipulations of the culture, at home or abroad, as long as it is seen and realized.

    That there are now folks, like Soros, that do in the US what the Rockefellers did abroard, makes for interesting converstion.

    That is so irritating to some, all the more interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  54. So you're an economic nationalist, believing in the inherent virtue of same.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Using the marketplace for my purpose, but not being subject to it.

    Wed Aug 27, 12:11:00 PM EDT

    This is not what the IBEC article you posted indicated of Rockefeller.

    ReplyDelete
  56. The italics, baboon, indicate it is not original work.

    There you are, again.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Do not have much of a problem with Soros or Rockefeller attempting their manipulations of the culture, at home or abroad, as long as it is seen and realized.

    - Rat

    Do you feel manipulated?

    ReplyDelete
  58. Sure it did.
    They were able to destroy the old style local markets and the cultural identity that those marketplaces provided Italy.

    They changed the character of the country, through the marketplace, by modification of buying behaviours. Just as Walmart has done in the US and is doing in Mexico.

    Not a "dark scheme" but not very conservative, either.

    Same as should be occurring in Iraq, if our whits were about US.

    The projection of soft power, by agents seen a useful to US and by those, like Soros, that fund the alternate perspective

    ReplyDelete
  59. No, but I see the attempts at it.

    By GE.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Sure it did.
    They were able to destroy the old style local markets and the cultural identity that those marketplaces provided Italy.

    They changed the character of the country, through the marketplace, by modification of buying behaviours. Just as Walmart has done in the US and is doing in Mexico.

    Not a "dark scheme" but not very conservative, either.

    - Rat

    Well, then, if it were up to conservatives we'd never have developed agriculture, never built cities, never developed trade, never sought uniformity in the law, never approved mass production, rejected moveable type...

    All of these were revolutionary, and destructive of the old ways.

    So, too, our founding. Nothing conservative about it.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Again, one is reminded of Hayek's essay, "Why I Am Not a Conservative."

    ReplyDelete
  62. Italics are also not a defense against plagerism.

    ReplyDelete
  63. (Note: Though we have supermarkets in Colombia, some quite lovely, I'd sell my own mother for the opening of a Wegman's in Bogota - and look forward to the NY-based chain taking over the world. Or Carulla, Carrefour, et al, following in its magnificent footsteps.)

    ReplyDelete
  64. Not only that but the plagerized item in question contains NO quotation marks.

    So now you're attempting to misrepresent what we can all clearly see in your plagerized offering of;

    Wed Aug 27, 09:51:00 AM EDT

    Simply admit you made an error and move on, otherwise you'll be suspect in future putative quotations. You wouldn't want that , would you? I'm trying to help you out here and instead you keep throwing up excuses for a mistake you made and won't own up to.

    Also, so you won't continue to look any more foolish the picture is not a baboon. You've now misidentified that picture several times.

    ReplyDelete
  65. One must be progressive, to progress.

    See the signs in the road and the graves beside it.

    It would be revolutionary to assimulate those seven northern Mexican States, to extend the inalienable rights of man to those Americans. All the rights, privilages and responsibilities of citizensship.

    Or just assimulate the entirity of Mexico, but through a North American Confederation and not direct annexation.

    That is part and parcel to the Rockefeller dream, still being implemented, well after his death.
    Three spheres of influence in a global society with a more common, homogenius culture.

    Nationalism is discouraged,
    Citizens of the World are not.

    We are all Georgians, now!

    ReplyDelete
  66. I was not speaking to the avatar, baboon, but to you.
    Right on target, baboon.

    ReplyDelete
  67. desert rat said...
    We are all Georgians, now!

    ..................
    I think you have the cause and effect about right. I've been thinking lately that that's what happens when you have a president whose native tongue is bilingual. He doesn't know who he is. Therefor he has no boundaries. Therefor Georgian is as good an identity as any other.

    ReplyDelete
  68. "That is part and parcel to the Rockefeller dream, still being implemented, well after his death.
    Three spheres of influence in a global society with a more common, homogenius culture."

    This is your bone of contention? Your fear? McWorld?





    Travel much?

    ReplyDelete
  69. They changed the character of the country, through the marketplace, by modification of buying behaviours.
    ==
    It goes much deeper than that, dRat. By thus changing the environment, they not only change society, they change the individual and the power equation of the individual within society. By breaking community bonds and contract, segregating human experience, they have in effect incubated a society, a flaccid society, make up of flaccid individuals, deprived of all reinforcing strength and ability to resist.

    ReplyDelete
  70. All the time, trish.

    Not much out of the country, any more, Mexico on occassion.

    It is not a fear, but a comment on the course. It drives doug to distraction.

    As the population center of the US moves West south west, the importance of assimulation will become ever more important.

    As will New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona & Nevada, as they follow California's path.
    Hopefully with some lessons learned.

    ReplyDelete
  71. There is that, mat.
    Certainly a perspective with some legs.

    ReplyDelete
  72. All those portions of old Mexico, to include Texas, that the US assimulated in the past.

    ReplyDelete
  73. "It is not a fear, but a comment on the course. It drives doug to distraction."

    Doug isn't driven to distraction by a common, homogeniized culture. He's driven to distraction by its opposite.

    ReplyDelete
  74. "Not much out of the country, any more, Mexico on occassion."

    You need to get out more.

    Waaaaaay out.

    ReplyDelete
  75. No, doug does not believe it possible, so the very discussion of it rankles ...

    He sees the modification of the culture required of the US as wholly detremental and not worthy of the gain.

    He'll correct me if I'm wrong.

    Me, I'd like to free the oppressed

    We just have to figure out how,
    Walmart may be the answer

    ReplyDelete
  76. A whole lotta horseshit, today.

    Sam Walton wouldn't have known the trilateral commission from a three-legged stool. All his company ever did was give a substantial pay raise, in the form of lower prices, to everyone in every community where he put a store.

    You can have "culture" oozing out of every pore of your ass without having to get ripped off by Pedro's Hardware Store, or Gordo's Groceria.

    ReplyDelete
  77. "The italics, baboon, indicate it is not original work."

    DR, You were referring to the Shakespeare plagerism in the above comment. Could you point out the quotation marks for me and others, which "indicate it is not an original work"?

    That post was at;
    Wed Aug 27, 12:18:00 PM EDT

    You also must know people here are going to defend you but when you try to pass off the baboon comment as one not referring to the avatar a reasonable person, even those who defend you, know that you are lying. Now a child might buy into what you're shovelling there but DR, your meglomania simply prevents you from admitting you sometimes get things wrong. That is not a healthy psychological trait.

    ReplyDelete
  78. There is that, mat.
    ==

    There’s a long list of ingredients that goes into making this flaccid society. The automobile is the key ingredient. It’s followed by anti human anti pedestrian urban planning and urban sprawl. Sky scrapers office towers. The Mega Malls. Etc.

    Jim Kunstler describes this quite well, and I would encourage you to read up on it. :D

    ReplyDelete
  79. But Sam's been dead since 1992, Walmart entered Mexico in 1991.

    1991
    A joint venture agreement (50% - 50%) was signed with
    Wal-Mart to open Sam's Club in Mexico. The first Sam's Club opened its doors in December of that same year.
    1992
    New units of Aurrera, Bodega Aurrera and Superama were incorporated into the joint venture (Cifra stops independent growth in these formats), along with the Wal-Mart Supercenters.

    Thus, two companies were created: Cifra-Mart and WMHCM, owned 50% by Cifra and 50% by Wal-Mart.

    Cifra still held 100% of the units opened before May 1992.

    1993
    Wal-Mart Supercenter began operations.

    Then, another facet I did not know, but is a confirming tid-bit of data.
    In 1985, Sam Walton began a program designed to stem the 'tide of communism' in Central America by promoting capitalism and privatization.

    That'd be right after the Salvador crisis was ending, and the need for soft power in Latin America became evident.
    Six years later, his legacy begins to shape Mexico and it's culture.
    Now extending a chain of consumer banks across Mexico.
    Privatization and capitalism at work.

    ReplyDelete
  80. You knew to answer, baboon.

    Your last moniker, fatulance, may be even more appropriate.

    I'll have to come to terms with that, myself.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Roger that, Rufus.





    Come with me to Paipa or Trunja, Rat. I'll show you McWorld. And the spaces in between.

    Melgar...that's off limits now.

    But I'll give you your tour of the common world culture - crumbling shanties, idle men, toothless, stunted women, and all. More local color than you can shake a stick at - all carefully preserved for your viewing enjoyment.

    Armed and armored up. My pleasure.

    ReplyDelete
  82. Exactly right, trish.

    Oppressed people, oppressed by poverty, as much as politics.

    In most cases the politics is not causing the poverty, but the economics of past colonialism.

    Folks with nothing to do and no way to do it.

    People like Obama's half-brother, living on less than a dollar a day.

    How do we free those folk from oppression, both economic and political.

    Selling Colombian flowers at the Walmarts in Phoenix is a step, but not nearly enough.

    ReplyDelete
  83. First ones I saw there, at my local Walmart, were from Zimbabwe, but lately, they're all Colombian grown.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Hey Mustaffa

    yeah

    Just let it go man, the guys got issues of control.

    Yeah

    If it were on youtube he'd deny it

    yeah , I know

    So just let him think everybody thinks he's cool for plagerizing and lying and then dancing around it all.

    Yep, ain't gonna change that part.

    Nope, he's the alpha, God help 'em , he's the Slick Willie here, or now the oleaginous Obama. Let it be, he's sick liar.

    Yeah, ok...

    Later 'Tater

    ReplyDelete
  85. Flyin' fresh flowers into Phoenix from Zimbabwe, to sell for $6 & $9 bucks a bundle.

    Were folks funding the oppression, by buying those flowers?

    Or just the opposite.

    ReplyDelete
  86. I think it's 100% Political, RAt.

    First ones I saw there, at my local Walmart, were from Zimbabwe, but lately, they're all Colombian grown.

    I think that pretty much says it all. Zimbabwe Wanes as Colombia Waxes. Mugabe impoverishes, Uribe enrices. Mugabe destroys wealth, and starves his people; Uribe promotes industry, agriculture, and trade, and his people Prosper.

    Yep, I'd say it's ALL Political.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Uribe's trying to get 'em off the mercantilist dime and onto the free trade dollar. They need more FDI.

    Congress isn't helping.

    ReplyDelete
  88. You know, mat, that British vs US economic model has a couple of holes in it.

    While in charge of India the Brits laid a lot of track.

    Robert Maitland Brereton, a British engineer was responsible for the expansion of the railway from 1857 onwards. In March 1870, he was responsible for the linking of both the rail systems, which by then had a network of 6,400 km (4,000 miles). By 1875, about £95 million were invested by British companies in Indian guaranteed railways.

    By 1880 the network had a route mileage of about 14,500 km (9,000 miles), mostly radiating inward from the three major port cities of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. By 1895, India had started building its own locomotives, and in 1896 sent engineers and locomotives to help build the Ugandan Railways.

    In 1900, the GIPR became a government owned company. The network spread to modern day states of Assam, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and soon various independent kingdoms began to have their own rail systems. In 1901, an early Railway Board was constituted, but the powers were formally invested under Lord Curzon. It served under the Department of Commerce and Industry and had a government railway official serving as chairman, and a railway manager from England and an agent of one of the company railways as the other two members. For the first time in its history, the Railways began to make a profit.

    In 1907 almost all the rail companies were taken over by the government. The following year, the first electric locomotive makes its appearance. With the arrival of World War I, the railways were used to meet the needs of the British outside India. With the end of the war, the state of the railways was in disrepair and collapse.

    In 1920, with the network having expanded to 61,220 km, ...



    The Brits did similar work in Argentina
    The building of a new Argentina in the second half of the nineteenth century is invariably connected with the laying of the railway lines through the country, most of them by British engineering. After the fall of Rosas in 1852, liberal economic policies were introduced by men who had been forced to flee the country during the dictatorship and, in exile, had been in contact with European ideas and customs.
    At hand in every event was a Briton. Britons placed more long-term investment in South America during the nineteenth century than in any other geographic region. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay received the lion's share.' Britain's interest in Spanish America had always been strong. After Lord Ponsonby's intervention in the creation of the state of Uruguay in 1826, his successors, Henry Fox, John Mandeville, William Gore Ouseley, Thomas Hood,. Lord Howden and Henry Southern, all secured advances in Britain's relations with Buenos Aires. Treaties for communications, transport and navigation were signed in the 1850s, paving the way for a mass of investment that began with the railways.
    ...
    Argentina's two biggest railways were the British-built, owned and operated Central Argentine Railway Ltd and the Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway Co. Ltd, with headquarters in London. They were started at the same time, but the Southern was made in sections, while the Central was planned as a great iron road to open almost four hundred miles of sparsely populated, rich land.
    A decree dated in August 1863 authorized the construction of the Southern, based on a proposal by a group of people that included the already mentioned wealthy Irish merchant Thomas Armstrong and George Drabble, a pioneer in railways and in the frozen meat trade and one-time president of the Bank of London and River Plate who had arrived in Buenos Aires in 1848,
    Extracted from The Forgotten Colony, by Andrew Graham Yooll, published by Hutchison, 1981

    Buiding the infrastructure, railways, needed to gain access to the interior of the colonies.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Habu's howling at the wind I see. Maybe he should give a stab at a substantive argument as opposed to his petty sniping about Italics versus quotation marks. Pitiful really

    Rat,

    Yep, the British made many investments in its colonies during its years of empire. Do you see any modern equivalents in our US empire?

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

    ReplyDelete
  91. Certainly, ash.
    There was the reconstruction of Europe, where the US funded the start up of the economies there.

    Investments in Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China. Both in infrastructure and technology.

    Even to funding that water treatment plant, through the World Bank, in Iran.

    Not much infrastructure funding, comparatively, in the past twenty years, though, at home. We've been living off those assets built in more expansive eras.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Well, we certainly do expend a fair amount of money through foreign aid/loan guarantees/military aid ect. Maintaining our offshore bases (force projection) and monitoring/protecting seaways also cost a fair bit. I would suggest we still spend quite a lot of blood and treasure to maintain our empire. Socialize the costs. Privatize the profits. Though some of it does trickle down.

    ReplyDelete
  93. The Brits made better use of the locals and did so much more overtly. From Africa to India and even in Europe the Brisish deployeed troops like the Gurkhas and the King's African Rifles.

    Even to sending some Punjab regiments on retribution raids into Warizistan and then to an occupation of Iraq.

    The Punjab regiments recruited in 1849 after the Second Sikh war by Sir Henry Lawrence were formed into the Trans-Frontier Brigade, becoming the Punjab Irregular Force two years later. As well as the 6 Punjab infantry regiments there were 4 Sikh infantry regiments, one Gurkha regiment, 5 Punjab cavalry regiments, 4 mountain batteries and one garrison battery. The 2nd Regiment marched from the Frontier to Delhi to help quell the Mutiny. From then on their battles were fought on the North-West Frontier.

    They were heavily engaged in the Second Afghan War and in 1894 were despatched to Waziristan with the 4th and 6th to punish an unprovoked attack on the boundary commission fulfilling treaty obligations with Afghanistan.
    ...
    In 1914 they were stationed at Hangu with a detachment at Thal. During WW1 they were sent to Egypt and Mesopotamia, and in WW2 they were sent to Burma and the Dutch East Indies.

    ReplyDelete
  94. "Even to sending some Punjab regiments on retribution raids into Warizistan and then to an occupation of Iraq."

    How did that go in the end?

    ReplyDelete
  95. The Punjab, they went back home, to India. In the end.

    Warizistan is still Warizistan and Iraq is still Iraq.

    Even after the Mongrol horde, Iraq was still Iraq.

    Even Alexander could not change Babylon.

    ReplyDelete
  96. And, trish, the Brits went home to England, in the end. Or assimulated

    Their days of dominion spanning the globe, now a memory at dusk.

    But they did more, with less, for longer.
    So far.

    ReplyDelete
  97. "But they did more, with less, for longer."

    They did more harm, with less, for longer.

    We have nothing to thank them for now. Nor admire them.

    ReplyDelete
  98. A whole lotta horseshit, today.

    Sam Walton wouldn't have known the trilateral commission from a three-legged stool. All his company ever did was give a substantial pay raise, in the form of lower prices, to everyone in every community where he put a store.

    You can have "culture" oozing out of every pore of your ass without having to get ripped off by Pedro's Hardware Store, or Gordo's Groceria.


    Around here, before the Europeans came, the Nez Perce fished, and dug camus roots with sticks, and were in a perpetual battle with the Blackfoot and the Shoshoni. Now, they own the Casino, shop at Wal-Mart, drive pickup trucks built in Japan, watch tvs built in China and many go to LCSC or the U of I. And speak English.

    Which is better? Good question. Things change.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Yup, Alaska could very well have a democratic senator.

    ReplyDelete
  100. The US model seems to have worked well in Ethiopia. And you've reported tremedous confidence in the Colombian Forces, trish. Both of those were small footprint military operations, as in the Philippines.

    I'd be claiming success in Iraq, the Iraqi Security Forces being capable of small unit actions and civil defense work, after five years of hands on US training.

    Afghanistan's Home Defense Force seems shaky, but that could just be the current reportage, by Mr Yon and others.

    Seems, for US, the more overt the support and the larger the footprint, the worse it seems to go.

    As the Russians claim arms are flowing into Georgia, along with that Humanitarian Relief.

    ReplyDelete
  101. Blogger trish said...

    "We have nothing to thank them for now. Nor admire them."

    I dunno trish. They certainly left behind many a democratic/parliamentary government in their wake. The late 19th early 20th century era of empire also had much resemblance to ours in the free exchange of goods amongst many nations. There was much bad to the British Empire as well and, many will argue (Chomsky et al), so too with the American empire. Theirs lasted about 400 years, ours...

    ReplyDelete
  102. They maintained their Empire, their military fulfilling its' mission. A tad over the top, at times, but they are Brits.
    They did it for hundreds of years.

    Hooligans at heart,
    by their genetic predisposition.

    ReplyDelete
  103. lol, mats is going to have a tough time living that one down.

    I can see his logic though:

    He's sleeping with a Russian.
    She's good, must be in the genes.
    Therefore all Russians good.

    ReplyDelete
  104. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
    Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

    -----
    There was a fellow named Habu who used to argue that much of the third world could have used an extra couple hundred years of colonialism. It's easy enough to think of some countries where that is true. India however seems to have done all right. Kind of a mixed bag.

    ReplyDelete
  105. Ash I've been meaning to ask what you think of The Messiah's pick for his vp running mate?

    ReplyDelete
  106. And here I thought she was good, out of her jeans.

    ReplyDelete
  107. I responded but not directly to your question. He seems like a logical pick in that he fills our what Obama is not - aged, white, experienced, foreign policy expert.

    Biden's been around a long time so that gives more to target, but hey, he had to pick someone. Thank god is wasn't Hillary. I was never keen on Biden's paternalistic notion that Iraq should be split up. It'll probably happen but the US should try to keep out of that kind of Middle East map drawing lest we replicate the ways of the Brits there.

    ReplyDelete
  108. If I understand the latest (Iraqi) statements, most US forces will be out of Iraq by the end of 2010. After that, you get your standard package.

    Had to work our way there.

    ReplyDelete
  109. Splitting up Iraq might have been one of his better ideas. Like you say it might still happen. Seemed logical enough to me. Time will tell.

    If you trust Biden's judgemnet, McCain would make a better President than Obama, as the Presidency isn't a place for on the job training. :)

    Wanted to get that in.

    ReplyDelete
  110. That seems to be the way it is being presented, trish.

    16 to 18 months.
    About as fast as logistics can move 'em.

    Great news, really.
    But no celebration, no propaganda prep for success.

    ReplyDelete
  111. "He sees the modification of the culture required of the US as wholly detrimental and not worthy of the gain."
    ---
    Don't know how many times I've said it, 'Rat, but somehow the point seems never to reach you:

    Show me any evidence in the last 30 years that areas with large, recently arrived populations of Hispanics have resulted in the Hispanics becoming more like us than vice versa.

    All our anti-American institutions not only enable it to be so, they require it to be so.

    How can an ever less educated, acculturated, independent, civil, and patriotic populace lead to positive change?

    FORTY PERCENT graduation rates in Hispanic areas of the LAUSD!

    Completely corrupt local politicians giving taxpayer's dollars to active gang-bangers, while shielding their criminal activities from prosecution.
    Turning a blind eye to race-based killings.
    etc.
    Less and less assimilation, more separation and alienation.

    ReplyDelete
  112. McCains own health, both mental and physical are an issue, due to his age. Although his mother is somewhere north of ninety, she was not ravaged by savages for five years.
    That adds more than a little something to the McCain mix, those years of torture.

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

    ReplyDelete
  114. See, doug, you do not think it a viable excercise.

    Just as I said.

    I do understand your position.
    I really do, but that is besides the point.
    Mr McCain and Mr Obama agree on Immigration Reform.
    Shoulder to shoulder, they'll stand, to get it passed and signed, mark my words, amigo

    No matter who ends up living in the White House in 2009.

    ReplyDelete
  115. "foreign policy expert"
    ---
    After 9-11, in a meeting with a group of foreign policy folks, Biden proposed

    "Giving 200 million to Iran, rree and clear, no strings attached."

    When he looked up for their reaction, no one responded.

    ReplyDelete
  116. "I know Sen. McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And, Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."
    Hillary Clinton

    ReplyDelete
  117. But no celebration, no propaganda prep for success.

    Wed Aug 27, 04:30:00 PM EDT

    I can understand that.

    ReplyDelete
  118. In light of the facts I listed, why do you think it is a viable exercise?

    ReplyDelete
  119. Russian general criticizes US Black Sea presence
    By DAVID RISING,
    Associated Press Writer
    Mon Aug 25, 7:19 AM ET

    ABOARD THE U.S.S. MCFAUL - A Russian general suggested that U.S. ships in the Black Sea loaded with humanitarian aid would worsen tensions already driven to a post-Cold War high by a short but intense war between Russia and Georgia.

    The U.S. Navy destroyer U.S.S. McFaul reached Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi on Sunday, bringing baby food, bottled water and a message of support for an embattled ally.

    The deputy chief of Russia's general staff suggested the arrival of the McFaul and other U.S. and NATO ships would increase tensions: Russia shares the sea with NATO members Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria as well as Georgia and Ukraine, whose pro-Western presidents are leading drives for NATO membership.

    "I don't think such a buildup will foster the stabilization of the atmosphere in the region," Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn as saying Saturday.

    Georgian Defense Minister David Kezerashvili told The Associated Press on the aft missile deck of the McFaul after greeting U.S. Navy officers that the population of Georgia would feel "more safe" from the "Russian aggression" as a result of the ship's arrival.

    "They will feel safe not because the destroyer is here but because they will feel they are not alone facing the Russian aggression," he said.

    ReplyDelete
  120. $200 million to Iran, that's got to be one of the dumbest idea's ever floated.

    By the way, I'll wager no one can say where the $ sign came from.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Because it is going ahead, doug, full speed.

    The status que is not viable.

    Change is in the air.

    If McCain wins, there will not be 40 Senators to stand against him on the Border issue.

    If Obama wins, McCain will lead the charge to get Comprehensive Reform passed, with bi-partisan support in the Senate.

    ReplyDelete
  122. Here's a guy with a million dollar lawsuit---

    ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors

    Asa Eslocker Was Investigating the Role of Lobbyists and Top Donors at the Covention

    DENVER--Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.

    Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown's Palace Hotel.
    Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.


    A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.


    Eslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.


    On the Money Trail at the DNCThe Money Trail: Putting on the Ritz, VIP Treatment for Big Money DemocratsMore From Brian Ross and the Investigative TeamVideo taken at the scene shows a man, wearing the uniform of a Boulder County sheriff, ordering Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, to the side of the entrance.

    The sheriff's officer is seen telling Eslocker the sidewalk is owned by the hotel. Later he is seen pushing Eslocker off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, forcing him to the other side of the street.

    About 15 minutes later, on-duty Denver police arrived and placed Eslocker under arrest after Eslocker asked why he was being ordered away from the front of the hotel. Dozens of pedestrians can be seen walking by the hotel, located in the heart of downtown Denver.

    Eslocker and his ABC News colleagues are spending the week investigating the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention for a series of Money Trail reports on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

    ReplyDelete
  123. I don't contend it will not probably happen, I just take issue with you describing it as progress.

    ReplyDelete
  124. $200 million is nothing, we are backing $900 million in loan guarentees, to Iran.

    World Bank Vows a Big Loan to Iran
    $900 Million for Mullahs, as Zoellick Snubs Inquiry

    By ELI LAKE, Staff Reporter of the Sun | November 5, 2007

    WASHINGTON — The World Bank is defying requests from an influential congressman to stall nearly $900 million in loans to Iran.

    Earlier this year, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, who before taking that office served in a top Bush administration foreign policy post, declined a privately made request from Rep. Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, to suspend the loans. World Bank spokesmen told The New York Sun that the bank will go ahead with the loans.

    Mr. Kirk, who serves on the subcommittee that approves America's share of the World Bank's funds, is warning that the loans will undermine recent American and Western moves to exert pressure on Iran. American sanctions on Iran's largest banks and largest branch of its military are designed to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons and to punish Tehran for its support for terrorism and attacks on American soldiers in Iraq.

    ReplyDelete
  125. According to Bill Bryson in his book on the English language, nobody knows where the dollar sign came from, many people having tried to track it down, and failed.

    Satan is a great quess.

    ReplyDelete
  126. The chairwoman of that subcommittee, Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat from New York, has yet to take a position on holding up funding to the World Bank.

    Mr. Kirk said he has been pushing the World Bank since August to review the loans it initially made in 2004 and 2005 for earthquake relief. "When I initially talked to him, he said they are not approving any new loans," the congressman, who once served himself at the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, said. Then, when Mr. Kirk asked Mr. Zoellick, about the loans of about $870 million for Iran scheduled to be disbursed in the next three years, the World Bank president responded, according to Mr. Kirk, "Oh that."

    "He said, 'I don't know if I can stop that,'" Mr. Kirk said. "I said, 'Think of the embarrassment if the U.N. Security Council approves three separate sanctions, and the United States imposes its own unilateral sanctions and three blocks away the World Bank cuts a check to the Ahmadinejad government.'"

    ReplyDelete
  127. What a hell of a bad choice, Obama or McCain. How in hell did we come to this point.

    And it seems some progress is being made on the problem now. Some returning voluntarily, big arrests at work places, fence making some difference.

    ReplyDelete
  128. Biden Gagged By Catholic Bishop

    Forbidden to speak to Catholic groups.

    hehe, put that sock in your mouth.

    ReplyDelete
  129. Fletcher Christian said...

    I suppose it doesn’t matter; after all, the time remaining for Shrub to screw up some more and kill some more people is limited.

    What does matter is that the choice for next Leader of the West is between an empty suit and a geriatric zealot, the crooked lawyer having been kicked out of the race.

    The rest of the West doesn’t like that choice much, and whichever of them wins the rest of us are going to suffer, and there isn’t a damned thing we can do about it.

    ReplyDelete
  130. Doug said...

    "I don't contend it will not probably happen, I just take issue with you describing it as progress."

    ReplyDelete
  131. I didn't think of you, as a Progressive, doug.

    Both Obama and McCain are.
    They seem to use that moniker, instead of liberal.

    Real Reform, with McCain or rhetoric with Obama.

    That criminal investigation of an anti-Obama advertising, McCain's work, at his finest. McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform. Criminalized free speech.

    ReplyDelete
  132. In the name of fairness and "Good Government"

    ReplyDelete
  133. The Reality in Maricopa County, AZ. Home of Sheriff Joe

    20% of Maricopa County inmates are undocumented immigrants

    Last Update: 8/25 8:37 pm

    Reported by:
    Brendon Brooks

    After 18 months of intense immigration and human smuggling operations, more than 16,000 inmates in the Maricopa County were determined to be undocumented immigrants.

    According to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, 60 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) trained detention officers have conducted over 106,000 interviews and investigations of inmates booked into the country jail since April 2007.

    Those 16,000 inmates have either already been deported or will be deported after being tried and/or serving their sentences for crimes committed in the Valley.

    Of the approximate 2,000 undocumented immigrant inmates, 70 percent were arrested on felony crimes.

    Of those 70 percent, 27 percent of the accused were arrested on drug charges.

    www.abc15.com
    _________________
    Why aren't our existing immigration laws enforced?

    ReplyDelete
  134. Drop houses Az's new target in fight against illegal immigration
    JACQUES BILLEAUD
    The Associated Press

    Concerning drop houses, the governor posted an executive order Monday that lets state real estate regulators and state police share information on drop houses so they can prepare a report and make recommendations on the problem.
    Drop houses, a key link in immigrant smuggling, are where smugglers hide illegal immigrants as they collect their fees and make their travel arrangements.
    They are the setting for the worst abuses in immigrant smuggling, such as assaults, rapes and hostage-takings in which their customers are the victims. Some smugglers also force their way into drop houses to kidnap rival traffickers for big-dollar ransoms.
    The Phoenix metropolitan area is believed to have about 1,000 drop houses.
    Republican state Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, the Legislature's staunchest advocate for tougher immigration enforcement and a frequent critic of Napolitano's border stances, said the governor is right to focus on drop houses.

    ReplyDelete
  135. Obama Caught In a Far Left Bottle... Loses Conservative Dems

    The Far Left, Marxist weaned, terrorist embracing, America-bashing, appeaser is losing conservative Democrats.

    Imagine that? Gallup reported:
    Within the Democratic Party, Obama's losses are primarily evident among the relatively small group that describes its political views as conservative.

    The 63% of conservative Democrats supporting Obama over McCain in Aug. 18-24 polling is the lowest Obama has earned since he clinched the Democratic nomination in June.
    At the same time, there have been no similar drops in support for Obama in the preferences of liberal or moderate Democrats.

    As a result of this, support for Obama among all Democratic registered voters fell from 81% in early August (Aug. 4-10) to 78% last week (Aug. 18-24). Obama's support from Republicans over this period also dipped from 9% to 7%, while 42% to 43% of independents have consistently supported him.

    ReplyDelete
  136. "Those 16,000 inmates have either already been deported or will be deported after being tried and/or serving their sentences for crimes committed in the Valley. "
    ---
    The Loooong War continues:
    As if Deportation accomplishes Jack Squat.

    ReplyDelete
  137. C2C-Wed 08.27 >>
    Psychiatrist Dr. Brian Weiss will discuss the most recent developments in past-life therapy.


    A graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School, Brian L. Weiss M.D. is Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.

    He's got all the credentials. Is this guy on to something, or is he nuts?

    You decide.

    Weiss Website

    ReplyDelete
  138. What a hell of a bad choice, Obama or McCain. How in hell did we come to this point.

    As I wrote before, my view is that the Republicans long ago blew off this election, thinking Clinton would win, and waiting for 2012 when Republicans could mount an offensive campaign against 4 yrs of foreign policy hell and a decelerated global economy spread into Europe and Asia.

    It seems to me that the "old white men" just called this one completely wrong - like Stiglitz's IMF economists.

    Enter stage left the "submerged hate." That's choice.

    The "tell" will come after the stone tablets come down from the mount and enter the pillars of learning. Big Bounce means a majority bought it. No bounce or negative bounce means a majority is wretching hard into the nearest bucket.

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  139. You just never tire of it, do you, al-Bob?
    I just don't know.
    al-Bog.

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  140. Aah, Shirley MacClain's "Old Souls".

    I give it credence but not a clear water pass.

    My agnosticism has deep roots.

    I relinquished the subject when the physicists got really cranky about us amateurs "abusing" their science in the name of pop psychology and "oh heart be still" parapsychology. There is much more to this story than meets the I.

    But our measurements and metrics too mechanical.

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  141. nobody knows where the dollar sign came from

    Nor does anybody seem to know where the phrase "man cannot govern himself" came from. It is a rich phrase that goes back to 600 BC St Paul (IIRC).

    Do you suppose they're related?

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  142. There was some psychiatrist lady in LA whose name I can't recall. She did a big study of past life regressions, and, as it turned out, the percentage of male/female in the hypnotized recall was just what it was in the general population, a few more female than male.

    What this might mean I don't claim to know.

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  143. I won't make any Rag Jokes, since Slade is at the Bar.

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  144. What kind of artificial distinction is "deceased?"

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  145. Dr. Wambach found that 89% of those hypnotized said they did not become part of the fetus until after six months of gestation. A large group said they did not join the fetus, or experience inside it, until just before or during the birth process.

    Which is in line with some eastern thought on the subject.

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  146. Clinton Frees Delegates, Ensuring Fast Nomination

    The roll call vote to nominate Barack Obama is under way. Former President Bill Clinton and the vice presidential nominee, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will speak later.
    ---
    Wonder if she got her 10 Mil in exchange?

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  147. deceased

    You're right Doug, it may be based on an earthly ignorance and misunderstanding.

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  148. "Which is in line with some eastern thought on the subject."
    ---
    And completely out of line with modern sonography.

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  149. He does not easily exult, despair or anger: to do so would be an indulgence, a distraction from his goals. Instead, they say, he separates himself from the moment and assesses.

    “He doesn’t inhale,” said David Axelrod, his chief strategist.
    ---
    Let's see McCain match THAT!

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  150. And completely out of line with modern sonography.

    I agree.

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  151. “He doesn’t inhale”

    He must really be a god, then.

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  152. Which is better? Good question. Things change.

    I hardly know where to begin. The incipient energy transition - large as it is - pales in comparison to the biogenetic revolution, which is just around the corner.

    Things Change? You betcha Red Rider.

    The incipient technology - incubating as we obsess - is one of the reasons the throwback to the last century is so bewildering.

    The grey white beards are coming head to keyboard with the next century. Technology meets what - the politics and economic theory of the last century?

    Wild Card.

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  153. Were you a Bio Major, Slade?

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  154. "pales in comparison to the biogenetic revolution, which is just around the corner"
    ---
    What kind of non-evolutionary developments do you foresee?

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  155. Remember 'Rat's repeated prediction that Algore would be the one, al-Bob?

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  156. I'm too old to be worried about rags but this Ted Stevens crap and the pillars thing is enough to make me invest in an Old Soul Stock. I would prefer to return at a later date, thank you very much.

    I was raised thinking that the smarter people were in charge. It was a late in life lesson to see that was not true.

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  157. NahnCee said...

    I would *really* like to know who’s been and continues to donate millions into Obama’s campaign coffers. The big donations that he doesn’t want to talk about.

    I have thought for a while that Obama has been bought and paid for by the House of Saud, but now it appears that maybe they’ve been grooming him for decades.

    This would be something I don’t believe the United States of America has ever had to deal with before: an elected President who owes his position to an enemy state that paid for him to get there. It would be interesting to watch him take the oath of office — the sky opening up and a big hand of god reaches down to slap him for lying on the Bible.
    ---
    I wonder if Nahncee ever considered the amount of money the Bush Family has received from the Saudis?
    ...or Bubba?

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  158. The roll call vote to nominate Barack Obama is under way. Former President Bill Clinton and the vice presidential nominee, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., will speak later.
    ---
    Wonder if she got her 10 Mil in exchange?

    I have no doubts that Hillary can raise the 22 mil she owes...

    As for the roll call, it will cement the destruction of the democrat party as we know it if the messiah does not win...

    I hope and pray to all that is both holy, unholy imagined and real that the messiah is swamped in a historic upset in the fall...

    signed,

    A true democrat...

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  159. "I was raised thinking that the smarter people were in charge. It was a late in life lesson to see that was not true."
    ---
    Jindal would be an exception.
    ...so it probably won't happen.

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  160. "I hope and pray to all that is both holy, unholy imagined and real that the messiah is swamped in a historic upset in the fall..."
    ---
    You might want to reconsider if you really want to go that far!
    Maybe leave out the reborn and Shirley Maclaine.

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  161. AlGore--is he even at the convention?

    Maybe he'll ride in on a white horse tomorrow.

    I thought Rat had a pretty good line of reasoning going there, but, it seems Hillary dun give up. A deadlocked convention might well have turned its longing eyes to Al.

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  162. Well Bubba-Doug I think you might have cracked it. It's not clash of civilizations or geopolitical balance of power. It's the money stupid. The oldest game in the book.

    And we're all being played for suckers by dragging us into another Cold War.

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  163. Why don't we get the Orgone Box at the Bar, al-Bob?

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  164. Algore's giving a speech, it was in the Times article, but I didn't read about it.

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  165. As for the roll call, it will cement the destruction of the democrat party as we know it if the messiah does not win...

    So true.
    They won't be looking to another messiah for a long, long time, if it turns out that way.

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  166. Why don't we get the Orgone Box at the Bar, al-Bob?

    jeez Doug, we'd all be blogging non-stop, all at the same time, weeks on end.

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  167. And I never once feared being fried by a Nuclear Device, Trish.
    Maybe I'm a hopeless optimist.

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  168. Seems to me orgone energy is the same stuff as the Sioux wakan or the Melanesian mana. Capturing it in a box, however, is a great advance.

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  169. Dry Frozen would be convenient.

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  170. C4 says--

    You likely don’t want to hear it, but Obama’s earliest and most powerful donors guiding his career are 3 Jewish billionaire families. The Crown, Pritzker, and Klutznik Families - who opened doors and set up Barack and Michelle in a string of patronage jobs through their control of the U of Chicago Board of Trustees, directly and through proxies of employees, legal firms they have major business relationships (like Sidley), and through past proteges like Valerie Barrett.

    He, and Michelle - are long-term projects of wealthy, “connected” liberal Jews - and some would add influential legal “Rabbis” like Avner Mikva - not Saudis.

    And, in the last 4 years, added a significant new cohort of heavy-hitting billionaire players and financiers and real estate magnates in Hollywood-LA and NYC donating to him. Plenty of reform or atheist Jews donating to him from those ranks, but again, no Saudis.

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  171. Dry Frozen would be convenient.

    Excellent, like a frozen orgone TV dinner.

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  172. You know our motto, Doug: Doing everything possible, just short of that which is actually necessary. (Goldberg)

    I'm flabbergasted we're still here.

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  173. Michael Savage's take on Obama was that he was first financed by "the LA homosexual mafia".

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  174. But goddamn here we are. Put a flag behind it and play some Bon Jovi.

    The rest of the world knows.

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  175. I can't understand a word of that Doug, but I'll take it as some kind of compliment or something.

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  176. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  177. WIO's wish is granted:
    cedarford:

    Nahncee - I would *really* like to know who’s been and continues to donate millions into Obama’s campaign coffers. The big donations that he doesn’t want to talk about.

    I have thought for a while that Obama has been bought and paid for by the House of Saud, but now it appears that maybe they’ve been grooming him for decades.
    "

    You likely don’t want to hear it, but Obama’s earliest and most powerful donors guiding his career are 3 Jewish billionaire families. The Crown, Pritzker, and Klutznik Families - who opened doors and set up Barack and Michelle in a string of patronage jobs through their control of the U of Chicago Board of Trustees, directly and through proxies of employees, legal firms they have major business relationships (like Sidley), and through past proteges like Valerie Barrett.

    He, and Michelle - are long-term projects of wealthy, “connected” liberal Jews - and some would add influential legal “Rabbis” like Avner Mikva - not Saudis.

    And, in the last 4 years, added a significant new cohort of heavy-hitting billionaire players and financiers and real estate magnates in Hollywood-LA and NYC donating to him. Plenty of reform or atheist Jews donating to him from those ranks, but again, no Saudis.

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  178. Real Change:
    From the Saudis to the Joooos.

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  179. Rockefeller is for Coal!
    (and drilling)
    Mat will be thrilled.

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