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."

Friday, September 12, 2008

McCain's Next Move. Please stay off the View.




WHAT MCCAIN SHOULD DO NEXT
Powerline

To pull himself level with Barack Obama, John McCain needed to do three things. First, he needed to rally and energize the Republican base. Second, he needed to knock Obama down a few pegs. Third, he needed to seize the mantle of "reformer" and to counter Obama's claim that a McCain victory would represent a third Bush term.

McCain accomplished the first mission in spades through the selection of Sarah Palin. He accomplished the second, with the help of Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin, by subjecting Obama to well-deserved ridicule.

McCain has made progress on the reformer front, thanks in part to Palin. He has not definitively countered the "third Bush administrative" charge, perhaps because he feared that a full list of his past disagreements with Bush would undercut his efforts to rally and energize the base. However, repeated references to his maverick status in the context of his extraordinary biography seem, for now, to have neutralized the charge.

McCain may well have done enough to ensure that he will be in race to the finish. But what can he do in the coming weeks to maximize his chances of pulling away?

In my opinion, he needs to make his case that a McCain presidency will be better for the economy than an Obama presidency. Indeed, whether McCain likes it or not, the need for this case will become more urgent because, with the debates ahead, we're moving into a phase when the candidates have less control over their message. McCain will have to talk about the economy with some specificity. Then, when the debates are over and undecided voters start to make up their minds, they are likely to be more concerned with their pocketbooks than with whether Obama has been "disrespectful" to Palin.

The building blocks for McCain's economic case are in place. McCain should explain that a significant factor in the economic downturn is the cost of energy, and that his proposals (including drilling) will better address the high cost of energy, both over the next few years and longer term, than Obama's. This argument seems like a sure winner.

Drilling doesn't provide a short-term answer to rising unemployment. So far, McCain has addressed this issue by focusing on job retraining, and that's fine. However, he should also connect the issue of unemployment to tax relief by pointing to the stimulus lower taxes will provide. And McCain should not shy away from tax relief for corporations. Our corporate tax rate is among the highest in the industrialized world. McCain can argue that lowering it will keep corporations, and the jobs they provide, here.

The Democrats may complain that lower tax rates will mean less revenue and more debt. This proposition is debatable as a matter of economics, and it plays into another of McCain's strength -- his record as a spending hawk. Reducing wasteful spending by itself will not cure our economic ills, but McCain's record of attempting to do so is an attractive feature of the economic case for a McCain presidency. It also reinforces his status as a reformer and differentiates him from President Bush.

Health care has been high-up on the list of issues in this race, and it plays out as a winner for Democrats. In an economic downturn, the issue can lose some of its force, as Americans focus more on when they will get their next raise and less on whether others have free health care. But the issue remains important. It's doubtful that McCain can turn it into a winner, but he needs to articulate concretely how his market-based approach will produce progress, while avoiding a government takeover of the health industry.

Democrats like to complain about the "audacity" Republicans display when they attack Democratic presidential nominees for their supposed strengths. These strengths are usually imaginary (e.g., Kerry's war record -- never mind the slanders he directed at Vietnam vets -- and Obama's community activism -- never mind its strong radical overtones). It's time for McCain to attack Obama on another "strength," the economy, this one real in political terms, but imaginary on the merits


244 comments:

  1. This is the same Barbra Walters that:
    "In a sizzling new memoir, Barbara Walters reveals she had a passionate affair with a married senator - and dishes on Star Jones' "lies" and Rosie O'Donnell's divalike antics.

    Walters, 78, writes in her book, "Auditions," that the affair with former Massachusetts Sen. Edward Brooke in the 1970s almost ended both their careers.

    At the time, the twice-divorced Walters was a rising television news star and co-host of the "Today" show. When her lover, who's now 88, told the newswoman she was the oldest woman he had ever been with, she wanted to say - but never did - "Oh yeah? Well you are the blackest man I have ever been with," Walters writes.

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  3. "If it's a woman, its caustic; if it's a man, it's authoritative." - Barbara Walters

    I wonder if that statement is still operative.

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  4. Thanks for the heads up on the cell phones, deuce.

    Barbara Walters has a place up around Sandpoint, where Palin was born. Also that turd of a cop from the OJ trial, Mark Furhman, who never told a lie, but took the Fifth on the stand, thus letting OJ go free. He tried local radio for awhile, failed at that. Maybe he is starting up a new Neo-Aryan Nations, I don't know.

    Palin leaves.

    The good ones move out, the turds move in.
    -----------

    McCain--energy, energy, energy, drill, drill, drill--everybody drives, and feels the pain.

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  5. This Hurricane Ike on the 24/7 cable scaremongers have gotten everyone in my part of the country in a gas panic. It's amazing every few years to see a panic. One year, the grocery stores were cleaned out. Today on news of $5.00/gal gas, the lines at every service stations were extraordinary. Many stations have already sold out of all but 93 octane. The rise of gas jumped about .60 per gallon today as everyone rushed to beat a gas increase and the coming fuel shortage. Meanwhile, if the cable news people are to be believed, say "Goodbye," to Galveston as this time tomorrow it will all be under water.

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  6. Printed that cell phone warning out to my wife--she says, well, the Elephant has actually done something! :)

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  7. UK Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law...
    ---
    The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

    Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a "lawful excuse" to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change.

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  8. Yeah, but now she's running a Cost/Benefit Analysis, al-Bob!!

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  9. Greenpeace activists

    Probably the same morons that nixed nuclear power in the country years ago, opening the doors to coal fired, now blowing up same....

    Does that mean I can burn down the U of Idaho wood chip fueled power plant?

    They ought to shut the hell up and let the adults run things.

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  10. Doug:
    That bit of news leaves me speechless.

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  11. The Fall of Grandmother Pelosi?

    The numbers look good right now.

    But, if she goes, who will save the planet?

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  12. The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday.

    Tell me this is a sick joke or a bad dream.

    Honestly, it's the French Revolution all over again.

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  13. "Forging a "special relationship" with Georgia isn't nearly as bad an idea as that of kicking Russia out of the G8 - which is about as bad as they get."

    Setting aside the likihood - if I were the Russians - I would be hoping that NATO took in Georgia. Then next time I could not only do what I wished with Georgia, but perhaps even discredit NATO itself permanently.

    Which ... might not be such a bad idea.

    ...Georgia and Ukraine for NATO!

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  15. Why should Maverick stay off the View. It is a very popular television show, and he handles the format so well.

    Or do the Republicans have him by the short hairs?

    Is not Mrs Palin the very best candidate, ever.

    Who and what is Mrs Palin going to reform. A reasonable question, for a reform candidate for President. What will Mrs Palin's portfolio contain?

    Will she sell the National Forests, like that Alaska plane, at a loss?
    Or just that prisitne coastal plain of ANWAR?

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  16. Anyone who calls that 888 number deserves to have their cell phone number harvested and sold to everyone and his dog.

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  17. Watched Sarah Palin with Charlie Boy and she did great. None of the dreary dreadful victimization that oozes from the angry Michelle and the miseries of the 60's and 70's class of feminists. Lucky guy that Todd.

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  18. "Getting control of the border is prelude to moving ahead in Afghanistan - a decades-long endeavor. "Nation building" in the Hindu Kush, albeit not with boots, ought to follow in tandem. (The Afghan refugee camps is a fine place to start.) Along with broader civil, military, and economic reform in Pakistan. That will require serious arm-twisting, but not in Islamabad."

    Odds of such an ambitious program succeeding are slim. Even slimmer are the odds it will in any way be under our direction. Certainly too low to wisely wager a decades-long commitment (which isn't to say we're not going to try and do it...for a while longer).

    Pakistan's too big, too fucked, and fortune (as some wise person recently noted) too fickle for a plan like that.

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  19. T. thanks. I'll remove it till I get more info.

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  20. I know, sinless. I know.

    Will we do it?

    Yes.

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  21. Geez,my accountant sent it to me.

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  22. All four parts of that BBC series were interesting, duece. #3 was out of order and a bit weak. Still 1,2 & 4 were clear and to the point.

    If, as you say, the bad boys of the barrio are sreading through out America, they'll be hooked into the MS-13 and other gangland infrastructure.

    Turning criminals into faux revolutionaries.

    But, no worries, our Ambassador to Costa Rica, he is learning Spanish.

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  23. Fri Sep 12, 07:04:00 PM EDT

    You think we're going to succeed, or we're going to try?

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  24. We have to wake up in our dealings with Latin America:

    China Used Foreign-Exchange Reserves
    In Diplomatic Deal with Costa Rica

    By ANDREW BATSON
    September 12, 2008 7:54 a.m.

    BEIJING – China secretly agreed to use its foreign-exchange reserves to buy $300 million in bonds from Costa Rica as part of a deal that enticed the Latin American nation to switch diplomatic recognition to Beijing away from Taiwan, newly-published government documents show.

    The documents provide rare evidence that China has used its $1.81 trillion in official reserves, the world's largest such store, for explicitly political purposes as well as financial ones. The documents describing the deal were released by the Costa Rican government on an official Web site this past week after a court challenge by local newspaper La Nación, which published accounts of their contents. According to the documents, China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange in January purchased $150 million of the U.S. dollar bonds, which pay 2% annual interest, and will purchase another $150 million in January 2009.

    The politically-driven investment by SAFE, as the foreign-exchange agency is known, could lead to a backlash just as it becomes an increasingly active player in international stock markets. It could also undercut efforts by the China Investment Corp., a sovereign investment fund that is run separately from SAFE, to be welcomed as a global investor that pursues only financial returns.

    The negotiations that led to the Costa Rica purchase are part of a long tradition of "checkbook diplomacy" practiced by diplomatic rivals China and Taiwan. China considers self-governed Taiwan part of its territory and demands that its diplomatic partners sever official ties with the island.

    Most of the handful of countries that keep diplomatic ties with Taiwan are poor developing nations to which it gives aid. But China's growing economic might has in recent years allowed it to outmaneuver Taiwan and convince many countries to change their ties. Costa Rica switched its diplomatic recognition to Beijing in June 2007. The impoverished African nation of Malawi followed in December.

    Costa Rican Vice President Laura Chinchilla has defended the deal with China, saying "We believe the country received only positive news with the establishment of this relationship," according to a statement by her foreign ministry on Wednesday. She noted China's commercial promise and its support for Costa Rica in international forums like the United Nations.

    On its Web site, Costa Rica's foreign ministry published copies of an agreement between the two governments that was signed in Beijing on June 1, 2007, as well as several subsequent letters. China is to give Costa Rica another $130 million in direct economic aid that will not be repaid, in addition to the two-stage bond purchase.

    In a statement Friday, China's foreign ministry did not contest the validity of the Costa Rican documents. "China provides assistance to the Costa Rican government within its means. The goal is to help Costa Rica's economic and social development," the statement said.

    SAFE doesn't publicly discuss its investments and took steps to ensure this deal would also be secret. In an English-language letter dated Jan. 2, 2008, a SAFE official named Fang Shangpu wrote to the Costa Rican finance ministry setting out terms of the bond deal, including a request that Costa Rica "shall take necessary measures to prevent the disclosure of the financial terms of this operation and of SAFE as a purchaser of the bonds." On Jan. 7, finance minister Guillermo Zuniga replied in a letter saying "It is a pleasure for me to confirm that these suggestions are acceptable to us."

    Costa Rica also published a letter by foreign ministry official Edgar Ugalde, confirming that SAFE's first investment of $150 million took place on Jan. 23, 2008. Asked to comment, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said "the investment in Costa Rica government bonds is a normal investment activity for foreign exchange reserves," noting that it owns bonds issued by many other governments.

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  25. In Costa Rica, all the whores are not at the del Rey.

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  26. We're going to try.

    I'm confident we can succeed.

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  27. Actually, all the honest whores are besmirched by the comparison with Costa Rica Politicians.El Norte is a third world power compared to that crew.

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  28. Trish, do tell us what you bought.

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  29. Teresita:
    But think how rich I can become when I trace down the dog that calls back!

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  30. My lady friends tell me Michael Kors killed for fashion week.

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  31. I think you've taken leave of your senses, but hope you're right.

    We're going to find out either way.

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  32. A really nice argyle sweater at Talbots.

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  33. "But, no worries, our Ambassador to Costa Rica, he is learning Spanish."
    ---
    We give credit for efforting it.

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  34. Checkbook diplomacy!! Now why didn't we think of that?

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  35. Frankly, for while now I've hoped to get to Afghanistan eventually. For some reason I've always had a thing for lost causes. Probably my inherent romanticism, buried as it may be by my brain 99.9% of the time.

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  36. Is it because you'd like your head trimmed off, the poppies, or the young boys, sinless?

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  37. It works with Israel, but they and their neighbors drain both the funds for and interest in what should be spent in other locales, ash.

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  38. Now my wife is laughing her ass off--"Told you you couldn't believe anything you read there"--hahaha

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  39. Did anyone watch The View?

    ― Rebecca Traister― sounds as mindless and pointless as the girls on the view.

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  40. HA HA HA

    ...tell her the aliens are gonna git her.
    That'll put the fear in her.

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  41. (and BELIEVE YOU ME, I think she has good cause to be very afraid!)

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  42. She thinks you're an alien, Doug, and, she may be right!

    Charles Krauthammer Clears Up The Bush Doctrine

    Savage is saying Obama couldn't qualify to be an FBI agent--drug use, past associations, etc. yet he's almost President.

    True too. All too true.

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  43. I think he's angling for a Palin interview these days.

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  44. "Obama couldn't pass the test to be his own body guard in the Secret Service."
    Savage

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  45. Trish, (or anyone)
    Steve@threatswatch sent this reply, what do you think he means?
    (what will change the dynamic?)
    ---

    "I can come in and I can clobber the enemy, but then I can't hold it and stay with the people,"
    he said.

    Steve said,

    "Key to Victory. Soon, I think this dynamic will be changing."

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  46. Maverick and I saw the folly of Iraq, at about the same time.

    Of the four main instruments of the current US success in Iraq, Mav and I agreed on two, at least.

    As to the increase in US troop levels, I always thought we'd have been better off using the Iraqi in that manpower role.

    As it is, we're back to the summer of '03, right before we cancelled the locally organized elections in Iraq.

    Just about the same number of US troops, perhaps a better Iraqi Army to turn the country over to and a Shite government made of old line political if not religious radicals.

    If the Iraqi government continues to arrest and dismantle the Awakened Sunni, trouble lies ahead, perhaps.

    But it should not be our trouble.
    We should abandon those Sunni like they were Montenyards, or Iraqi Shia, cira 1999.

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  47. If we'd gone with the Garner Plan, we'd have started with an integrated Army, the country would not be split apart, and millions of refugees might still have homes.

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  48. While the Communist Party USA hasn't formally endorsed Obama, they have done the nearest next best Thing

    Iraq's still an experiment in progress. I've had the heretical thought that breaking it up into three wasn't a crazy idea. Like Biden. But, the experiment is on going. Just leaving is asking for more trouble than we've got now.

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  49. But it's been a magnificent display of brilliance to some, nevertheless.

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  50. Nobody on the "right" makes much mention of the several million refugees.

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  51. Now we may find out how secure and redundant our refinery capacity is, 'Rat!

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  52. I'd think Iran would try to the best of their ability to stir things up in Iraq before the election. But no miniTet seems afoot yet.

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  53. You know, bob, as the Canadian PM said, ten years is enough.

    That there are cultural dysfunctions within Iraq, how is that if we leave Iraq, over an 18 month period, that we'd be in "more troube", than now.

    We'd no longer be borrowing and spending, like druncken sailors in a Chinese whorehouse.
    To about the same effect.

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  55. Nobody on the "right" makes much mention of the several million refugees.
    ==

    Or the Iraqi "apartheid walls".

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  56. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  57. CBSNews.com:
    Your former colleague Howard Wolfson argued that you all unintentionally paved the way for Palin by exposing some of the unfair media coverage that Hillary Clinton received. And, therefore, a lot of the media may now be treating Sarah Palin with kid gloves. Do you agree with that?

    Mark Penn:

    Well, no, I think the people themselves saw unfair media coverage of Senator Clinton. I think if you go back, the polls reflected very clearly what "Saturday Night Live" crystallized in one of their mock debates about what was happening with the press.

    I think here the media is on very dangerous ground. I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Governor Palin ever filed, if they don't do that for all four of the candidates, they're on very dangerous ground. I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems.

    And I think that that's a real problem growing out of this election. The media now, all of the media — not just Fox News, that was perceived as highly partisan — but all of the media is now being viewed as partisan in one way or another. And that is an unfortunate development.

    CBSNews.com:
    So you think the media is being uniquely tough on Palin now?

    Mark Penn:

    Well, I think that the media is doing the kinds of stories on Palin that they're not doing on the other candidates. And that's going to subject them to people concluding that they're giving her a tougher time.

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  58. The Iraqi have 350,000 men, trained, ready and able to respond.

    How many more will they need.

    Previously it was thought about 35,000 would be needed for a border patroling military.

    A low estimate, in retrospect.

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  59. Well, Mat, we thot that secular part of Iraq was not godly enuff, so we get what we got.
    PBUH

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  60. How am I supposed to relate to a Chinese Whorehouse?

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  61. The Dems did it AGAIN!

    Crazy John can't use a computer because of injuries sustained as a POW.

    This is turning into the most amazing party-wide self immolation in the history of Politics.

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  62. Rat, I'd answer, if we were totally out of the picture, Iran owns southern Iraq if they desire.

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  63. Mark Penn:

    I think if you go back, the polls reflected very clearly what "Saturday Night Live" crystallized in one of their mock debates about what was happening with the press.

    I think here the media is on very dangerous ground. I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Governor Palin ever filed, if they don't do that for all four of the candidates, they're on very dangerous ground. I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems.

    And I think that that's a real problem growing out of this election. The media now, all of the media — not just Fox News, that was perceived as highly partisan — but all of the media is now being viewed as partisan in one way or another. And that is an unfortunate development.
    ---
    SNL Should be a McCain Ad.

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  64. That's racist of you to conflate them, 'Rat!

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  65. Rufus,
    Kick the POW and the Lady when they're down!

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  66. Everyday, some dem puts another foot in the mouth. Like they all got foot in mouth disease, Rufus.

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  67. "Crazy John can't use a computer because of injuries sustained as a POW."


    yaaaaa, riiiight..."I can't see the screen, I can't see the screen, OMG now I can't use email".

    I guess he is so disabled he can't use the nuke codes if necessary?

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  68. Rufus,
    W was an e-mail addict until he went to the big house.

    Then he had to stop.

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  69. His wife does the e-mail Ash, she can toss the football.

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  70. dang right doug 'cause then there'd be a record of what he said - can't have that!

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  71. But we'd never be TOTALLY out of the picture and not one of the candidates has proposed that.

    That's the point, bob. Iraq for Iraqis, and if they want to join with Iran, then let them. But they will not join Iran, but will trade with them, as part of the PanIslamic village

    We are not at war with Iran.

    We will not let the Israeli attack Iran, to the point that mat thinks the US conspired with Putin to destroy those Georgian airfields.

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  72. and if he's having a nap, well, she'll just make it up as she goes - don't want to suffer another unsightly outburst from the Mav!

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  73. Gibson was out to embarrass Palin and expose her presumed ignorance from the word go. By contrast, when Obama referred to his "Muslim faith" on Sunday and did not correct himself, Stephanopoulos rushed in at once to help him and emphasize that the senator had really meant to say his Christian faith.

    By contrast, Gibson tried to embarrass Palin by referring to her Christian faith in asking people to pray for U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Palin countered by pointing out she was following the precedent set by Abraham Lincoln.

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  74. And I think that that's a real problem growing out of this election. The media now, all of the media — not just Fox News, that was perceived as highly partisan — but all of the media is now being viewed as partisan in one way or another. And that is an unfortunate development.
    ==

    I think it's a very fortunate development. It allows people the insight into how the media manufactures news and to what purpose.

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  75. NOBODY will ever use e-mail again, Ash.

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  76. Highly educational, indeed, Mattie!

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  77. Well, rat, as Palin indicated (if her man McCain is elected), we shall support Israel, whatever she does.

    You want to hurt Iran then let them care for the tar baby.

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  78. ironically, doug, Nixon was so confident of himself he wanted it all recorded for histories sake.

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  79. EAT THIS, ASH!
    ---
    The double-standard Gibson applied to Palin, compared with the uncritical media platforms repeatedly offered to Obama, who has had zero executive experience running anything, was especially striking. ABC and Gibson focused on Palin as if she were running right now for the presidency rather than the vice presidency. He and other media pundits, by contrast, have never asked the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, if he has ever had to make a decision on anything.

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  80. Can't disagree with much of that, Rat.

    I don't know why Russia went into Georgia, just flexing the Russian muscles I quess, but I'm sure it was pre-planned, not just a reaction to some Georgian misdeed.

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  81. A Racist Philandering Con Man is Fine!
    ___

    Gibson's aggressive approach appeared to take Palin by surprise: He was clearly attempting to put her on point by presenting her as having extreme religious views.

    This again, however, appears to be a double-standard, as Palin grew up in the Assemblies of God, one of the largest Christian denominations in America with 16 million members, and is now a member of the Wasilla Bible Church.

    Even now, Obama has yet to receive any comparable grilling on his 20-year attendance in the congregation of the notoriously racist Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

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  82. We will not let the Israeli attack Iran, to the point that mat thinks the US conspired with Putin to destroy those Georgian airfields.
    ==

    No. I think the conspiracy was wholly one sided. The Russians had little to do with it (other than taking the automatic measures they were expected to take).

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  83. I'm waiting for Bill's Oval Office recordings of knee padded Monica, Ash, right there in our national White House.

    Couldn't that uncouth man have at least gone out in the alley?

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  84. It remains to be seen if Gibson's perceived arrogance and condescension will give Palin another boost. It certainly didn't help the Democrats that ABC's chief political correspondent, Stephanopoulos, who had rushed to Obama's aid only four days before, was wheeled on to discuss her interview with Gibson as soon as it was concluded.

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  85. If the Russian build up and deployment of the 58th Army, along with their foreign foodstuff purchases, leads one to see a Russian action that was not "spur of the moment", I can see that.

    That Georgia would not have restarted the civil war without US preknowledge, I can see that.

    That the Russians destroyed those airfields, undeniable.
    The effects are plain to see, while the causes are still in the shadows.

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  86. Pamela Anderson Hates Sarah Palin.

    Says, "She Can SUCK IT?"

    You couldn't make this shit up.

    Well, you could; but, Who would believe it?

    Jest simply Amazin!

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  87. But the outcome does serve the interests of both the US and Russia.

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  88. Kissinger was the man in the White House there for awhile. Nixon trying to drown his troubles in the bottle. Too hung over to answer the phone on occasion. I don't know if McCain ever drinks, we got no problem in that regard with Palin, I believe, unlike Biden. Obama seems in control of himself.

    Believe it or not, such considerations matter to an older guy like me. If you're Presient, you set an example.

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  89. If the Russian build up and deployment of the 58th Army, along with their foreign foodstuff purchases, leads one to see a Russian action that was not "spur of the moment", I can see that.
    ==

    BS. The forces were there for decades. What wasn't there is the command structure to deploy these forces. There was no prepositioned command structure in place. The command structure was improvised.

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  90. Maverick disdains drinking, bob.
    Or so it is reported.

    Pretty sure Cindy is dry and sober, too.

    Both reformed partiers.

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  91. KRAUTHAMMER: Charlie Gibson's Gaffe...

    Until Iraq. A year later, when the Iraq war was looming, Bush offered his major justification by enunciating a doctrine of preemptive war. This is the one Charlie Gibson thinks is the Bush doctrine.

    It's not. It's the third in a series and was superseded by the fourth and current definition of the Bush doctrine, the most sweeping formulation of the Bush approach to foreign policy and the one that most clearly and distinctively defines the Bush years: the idea that the fundamental mission of American foreign policy is to spread democracy throughout the world.

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  92. That the Russians destroyed those airfields, undeniable.
    ==

    Can you show this to me?

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  93. "Yes, Sarah Palin didn't know what it is.

    But neither does Charlie Gibson.

    And at least she didn't pretend to know -- while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain, sighing and "sounding like an impatient teacher," as the Times noted.

    In doing so, he captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and intellectual condescension that has characterized the chattering classes' reaction to the mother of five who presumes to play on their stage."

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  94. Well there you go, mat.
    bob has his background pertaining to logistical movements and purchases prior to the August assualt. Seem reputable when I looked at them, contemperaneously.

    Seems reasonable, to me, that Putin & Company knew they were going to be rolling.

    The timing guarenteed the Olympics would be above the fold.

    The status que, with regards Iran, remains. The Russian President was clear, an attack on Russian foreign investments is an attack on Mother Russia, itself.

    A unilateral Russian Article 5.

    The easiest way out, destroy the infrastructure the Israeli would require to carry out the strike.

    Which the US military considers would be ineffective in stopping or even much slowing the Iranian march to split the atom.

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  95. Do not have to, mat.
    It stands on it's own.

    Reported throughout the early days of the conflict.

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  96. Mat, they destroyed and cratered the airfields, I'm pretty sure. But don't have a source at hand.
    --------
    Eric W. Rademacher, co-director of the Ohio Poll, noted that more Democrats than Republicans currently say they intend to cross party lines by voting for McCain.

    Bob intends to cross state lines to Vote Palin/McCain in Ohio.

    Political News From Ohio

    ReplyDelete
  97. You know what my over-riding impression has been of Palin?

    A cheerleader.

    Really. It is because in just about every media appearance I've seen of her she has been saying things like "John McCain this" John McCain that" John McCain and I".

    She really has taken her political supporting role to heart. Briefed by McCain's (weellll, is it Rove's folk?) people and put out there to entice the voters to her man - McCain.

    If he gets elected, I hope he's good and healthy for the duration!

    ReplyDelete
  98. Remember, Rufus:
    Now they're gonna take the gloves off!

    ReplyDelete
  99. You don't wanna know what my impression of you is, Ash!

    Really

    ReplyDelete
  100. My impression of Palin is a deep religious joy.

    ReplyDelete
  101. He can't see he's now officially in the same boat as the elite media, Rufus!

    ReplyDelete
  102. Lookin down at the Trailerpark Trash.

    ReplyDelete
  103. Clinging to their guns and religion.
    Hell, maybe Ash can run next time.

    ReplyDelete
  104. Here Ash, buzz around this a bit. Bush as cheerleader.

    By the way, Palin was captain of the team, sank the last points in the championship game, after playing on a bum ankle. That's not cheerleading, that's leading.

    ReplyDelete
  105. dougo old boy, to repeat - you are acting like the notion that "anyone can be president" is equivalent to "anyone should be president".

    With respect to your concern about Gibson's gaffe I posted this earlier but let me highlight the relevant section for you:

    "The other was Gibson's own minor mis-statement. American foreign policy has long recognized the concept of preemptive action: if you know somebody is just about to attack you, there's no debate about the legitimacy of acting first. (This is like "shooting in self-defense.") The more controversial part of The Bush Doctrine was the idea of preventive war: acting before a threat had fully emerged, on the theory that waiting until it was fully evident would mean acting too late.

    Gibson used the word "preemptively" -- but if a knowledgeable person had pushed back on that point ("Well, preemption was what John F. Kennedy had in mind in acting against the imminent threat of Soviet missiles in Cuba"), Gibson would certainly have come back to explain the novelty of the "preventive war" point. Because he knows the issue, a minor mis-choice of words wouldn't get in the way of his real intent.

    Sarah Palin did not know this issue, or any part of it. The view she actually expressed -- an endorsement of "preemptive" action -- was fine on its own merits. But it is not the stated doctrine of the Bush Administration, it is not the policy her running mate has endorsed, and it is not the concept under which her own son is going off to Iraq"

    http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/

    ReplyDelete
  106. Do not have to, mat.
    It stands on it's own.
    ==

    No, it does not. Because it is nonsensical:

    "A US military transport plane landed in Tbilisi airport on Wednesday evening, delivering what the US said was medical supplies, bedding and other items for internally displaced people."

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7559905.stm

    Now go and have a look at the map. See where Tbilisi airport is, where South Ossetia and Abkhazia are, and where Iran is.

    ReplyDelete
  107. slimslowslider:


    cedarford, the kraut, would like us to believe that he is oh so American. he’s morphed this image in order to deceive. Europe, specifically germany and germanics in general, are his real priority. He’s a regular Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (claimed he was Clark Rockefeller). I’d actually say he is far worse by pulling this
    “I’m a great american” con.

    ReplyDelete
  108. Reported throughout the early days of the conflict.
    ==

    Yeah, reported by people who are geographically challenged.

    ReplyDelete
  109. geee bobal, maybe we should Palin and Obama on the court together and see who wins? Would that make some difference on their capacity for office in your POV?

    ReplyDelete
  110. Mat,
    Where's Hilo?
    ==

    Where is where?

    ReplyDelete
  111. Basically Palin doesn't know her ass from page 4 re. foreign affairs but at least she's hot....right!?

    ReplyDelete
  112. oh ya, and she loves life. That's all she needs for the job.

    ReplyDelete
  113. That's like it, Ash. Propose a game between a 6ft something man, and a 5ft something woman.

    You know, though, I'll bet she'd give a good account of herself, maybe win, Obama being an empty jock strap.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Let's see, Ash, Obama wanted to totally withdraw from Iraq, before the surge, which he said wouldn't work, and now says worked beyond everyone's wildest expectations, wanted to invade Pakistan, pull the troops in Iraq away from the oil fields and put them into Afghanistan, gut all our military and military research and development programs, and turn foreign policy over to his ability to chit chat his way around Ahmadinejad, Putin, Chavez.

    No wonder they are all backing him for President, along with Hamas, Hezbollan and the Communist Party, USA.

    Grow up, son.

    ReplyDelete
  115. ASHLEY, CHECK THIS OUT!!!

    From Forbes, Via Ace of Spades who is all over this thing:

    In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate's savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email.

    His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. "She's a whiz on the keyboard, and I'm so laborious," McCain admits.

    ReplyDelete
  116. Re: Wondering no more [Mark Steyn]

    Jonah, why didn't the Obama guys and the AP figure that out?

    It's extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief knows how to send an e-mail ...but not how to do a five-minute Google search.

    ReplyDelete
  117. You guys can explain that to ASh.

    ReplyDelete
  118. I'll just say it's part of their
    "Git Tuff"
    Campaign.
    BRILLIANT!

    ReplyDelete
  119. All causes were lost before they weren't, sinless.

    ReplyDelete
  120. bobal, if Palin wants to argue foreign policy I say she go for it. Unfortunately she's tanked so far.

    doug, it is reassuring to read your dissertation on McCain's technological savvy - wife reads him his emails and he dictates responses - great! Now let see him rake in those internet donations and send out the opt in info for all his devoted fans! hmmm two more months to build his list - all the time in the world.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Gibson was horrible, and it ticked off my wife. She wanted to hear the complete answers and was irritated that Gibson kept cutting her off. At first, given Gibson’s past professionalism, I blamed it on editing. Perhaps that accounts for some of it — but not all.


    On another note, I’m sure Palin will get better. And her interview — her continued composure despite the gotchas — made me realize that this will be good for her. If she can stay that cool under that pressure, we will have a rock as VP. Further knowledge will come. Punting will come. Evading traps will come. But her fortitude now counts for a lot.

    ---
    ---
    Note “rock,” not “rock star”! A fourth:

    Just this minute my wife, who watches GMA every morning while walking on a treadmill and used to love Charlie Gibson, said she never wants to look at him again. The nastiest part of the interview was his “Exact words” response when Palin questioned whether he had quoted her accurately.

    And she was right to question.

    ---
    ---
    One mo’:

    I’m sure I am one of millions of American women who have had to keep smiling through the infuriating condescension of Charles Gibson. [Charles!] I wrote to ABC this morning to congratulate them, because Gibson’s behavior has surely persuaded many more women to vote McCain-Palin.
    ---
    ---
    Sorry, just one more:

    Jay, forget Biden and October 2 — Palin’s just had her first debate!

    ReplyDelete
  122. You know what Steve@Threatswatch was getting at in cite above, Trish?

    ReplyDelete
  123. Basically Palin doesn't know her ass from page 4 re. foreign affairs but at least she's hot....right!?
    ==

    Actually, she knows a lot more than you do. She knows who are the bad guys, and why. And this is something which I've yet see you get right.

    ReplyDelete
  124. Looks like he agrees w/you that it is doable, tho.

    ...somehow.

    ReplyDelete
  125. hmmm, she's watched enough movies to recognize that black hats portend trouble...

    ...and I'm not running for office, but carry on, I'm sure you'll offer an insight sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  126. She knows the "Bad guys" alright.
    Putin leads her list.

    Because he leads Mavericks'.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Putin leads her list.
    ==

    We'll see for how long. Especially when the military budget is cut in half.

    ReplyDelete
  128. already trailing and the 527s haven't even had their say

    ReplyDelete
  129. cedarford, the kraut
    ==

    Cedarfart is the same nationality as Ashley. Jihadi.

    ReplyDelete
  130. She's an expert on Russia because Alaska is next door to Russia. You can even see Russia from an island off the coast of Alaska. I guess since I can see the moon that makes me an astronaut.

    h/t balloon-juice

    ReplyDelete
  131. They really do have Michelle Obama on a tight leash. She didn't show for that 9/11 ceremony.

    That looked really really strange. Obama walking along there by himself, wifeless.

    Stuck out like a giant swollen thumb.

    ReplyDelete
  132. I'm waiting for some Rev Wright G-Damn America ads.

    Maybe McCain is such a fine fellow he won't use 'em.

    ReplyDelete
  133. The idea that McCain will cut the military budget is farcical, mat.

    And Russia has always been McCain's enemy, through thick and thin.

    Without directly criticizing the president, however, McCain made it clear he has long seen Russian leader Vladimir Putin as far more dangerous than has Bush.

    McCain said his regard of Putin, the former Russian president and now powerful prime minister, "has been very clear for a long time. I've been very concerned about Russian behavior in a broad variety of areas."

    Because of Russia's aggression in Georgia, McCain said, NATO should "address the future of the alliance's relationship with Russia. And with our G7 partners, we should discuss whether it makes sense for Russia to continue its participation in the G8."

    The two groups include the world's major economic powers.

    "We also need to review Russia's aspiration for membership in the World Trade Organization," he said.



    McCain supports all these varied positions and policies that his promoters, here at the Bar, tell us are misguided, foolhardy or just plain dumb.

    ReplyDelete
  134. The idea that McCain will cut the military budget is farcical, mat.
    ==

    I'm bookmarking this page. Just so you know.

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

    ReplyDelete
  136. McCain supported the KLA, wanted to send US troops to help them, in 1999.

    Guess that makes him a jihadi, too?

    ReplyDelete
  137. Save it next to your heart, for all I care, amigo.

    ReplyDelete
  138. McCain supported the KLA, wanted to send US troops to help them, in 1999.

    Guess that makes him a jihadi, too?
    ==

    No, it makes him uninformed. I'm sure since then, he's much better informed.

    ReplyDelete
  139. You'd have to prove it.
    Maybe you could,
    on the Iraq/Pakistan border.

    Or in Czechoslovakia

    You see, amigo, McCain operates on his own "known fact" base. That reality is not current but it is "OLD", and/or as you say, uniformed.

    Nothing has changed.

    ReplyDelete
  140. You can put lipstick on an old dog,
    but he still won't learn new tricks.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Nothing has changed.
    ==

    I agree. Partially. McCain operates on Cold War instincts. Only, the Cold War is over. The global threat is Islamic Nazism. It is a threat to all civilized societies. And if I, with my background, can understand this, so can McCain.

    ReplyDelete
  142. Sen. John McCain on Saudi Arabia, Parkistan and terrorism
    August 2007

    He was so wrong, about Pakistan, it is scary.
    As to Saudi Arabia, they are making real progress, should catch up to Turkey, the model, soon.

    ReplyDelete
  143. McCain may be a little out of date, I don't know. But, he did see KGB when he looked into Pootie the Poisoners eyes, proving himself to be a better optometrist than Bush.

    In This Picture McCain checks out Pootie's eyes.

    ReplyDelete
  144. Course the two of you might kill one another.

    We could only hope.

    ReplyDelete
  145. Miller Caller cannot wait for first State of the Union w/Vice Pres Palin Right next to
    Blinkie Pelosi!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  146. You are projecting, mat, your hopes and dreams, onto a really really faulty premise.

    The Cold War is not over, for McCain.
    He is 72 years old, not at all introspective, he says. McCain, he is still on the same track.

    ReplyDelete
  147. Rufus thinks he's off the Rails

    ReplyDelete
  148. My point, exactly, bob.

    KGB

    Soviet style old school

    Another rebranding gone awry.

    ReplyDelete
  149. Well, we're not electing God here, we're trying to defeat the devil, Obama, the adversary, the evil One, the anti-American anti-Christ, the man a heart beat away from an endorsement by the Communist Party, USA, hero of Chavez, Hamas, Ahmadinejad, Putin.

    Keep your eyes on the ball!

    ReplyDelete
  150. Any suggestions for when kids make fun of me for my Glasses, al-Bob?

    ReplyDelete
  151. The Cold War is not over, for McCain.
    ==

    I agree. But as your clip indicates, practically will ultimately dictate McCain's course of action. No projection here. Just reality making reality a reality. :)

    ReplyDelete
  152. Don't forget Alinsky's Endorsement of Lucifer.

    ReplyDelete
  153. But the KGB remark dates McCain's thinking, and core belief structure.

    He knows that the Bear is still the Bear. Regardless of the hair dye in it's coat.

    If he holds an internal grievence, about his treatment in prison, bet he could hold it against the Russians, easily enough.

    ReplyDelete
  154. You can rebrand the pig, but the pig's still a pig, rebranded. :)

    ReplyDelete
  155. Them Gooks were just Proxies.

    ReplyDelete
  156. Hey Mat, is Al Jooish?
    ==

    Isn't Rabbi a Jooish title?

    ReplyDelete
  157. You did not want to use force, to stop the Russians on 8 August 2008, bob. Risks were to high.

    Why would you want to committ to take that risk, in the future?

    That is the policy that McCain is sure to follow. He will risk the Country, first, before he loses a war.

    He has used that same line, since 1999. It is an ingrained thought, not subject to change.

    ReplyDelete
  158. Tell 'em you won't pay their computor bills Doug, that should fix that problem

    from the desk of Ask Rabbi Bobb "Bobalm", the Answering Sage

    ReplyDelete
  159. He hears the calls of the Siren, now, 'Rat.

    ReplyDelete
  160. oops:

    practically -> practicality

    ReplyDelete
  161. Rabbi Bobb "Ballbalm for the Napalm"

    ReplyDelete
  162. Salvia Sage is the Hot Drug Item on YouTube.

    ReplyDelete
  163. Salvia divinorum, also known as Diviner’s Sage

    ReplyDelete
  164. Pharmacy Guys are upset it'll be outlawed before they can check it out.
    Unique in that it only affects 1 Receptor.

    ReplyDelete
  165. Another of God's herbal creations, outlawed by "The Man".

    What's up with that?

    ReplyDelete
  166. Why is there
    Captain Morgan Rum?

    ReplyDelete
  167. Privatized the land and you and I will no longer subsidize drug cartels, bob.

    By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
    CHICAGO — Mexican drug cartels are stepping up marijuana cultivation in national parks and on other public land, endangering visitors and damaging the environment, law enforcement and National Park Service officials say.
    John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, says 75%-80% of marijuana grown outdoors is on state or federal land. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says there were more than 4.8 million marijuana-plant seizures at outdoor sites in 2006.
    ...
    Hunting and cleaning up after pot growers diverts resources at a time when parks face chronic funding shortfalls, says Laine Hendricks of the non-profit National Parks Conservation Association.

    Recent busts:

    • A site with 16,742 marijuana plants was raided last month in North Cascades National Park in Washington state. It was operated by a Mexican organization, says park Superintendent Chip Jenkins.

    People living at the site downed trees, dammed creeks and left 1,000 pounds of trash, he says.

    • Thousands of marijuana plants were seized last month in Utah's Dixie National Forest. Ignacio Rodriguez was charged with drug and immigration offenses, says Michael Root, a DEA special agent.

    The problem is worst on the West Coast, but law-enforcement pressure on growers, Root says, "has pushed them out this way."

    • Last month, officials burned thousands of marijuana plants seized in Cook County, Ill., forest preserves. Drug organizations use the Chicago area as a base for distributing marijuana across the Midwest, says DEA special agent Joanna Zoltay.

    • In July and August, officials seized more than 340,000 plants, some from Sequoia National Forest and Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks.

    Ranger Alexandra Picavet says Mexican cartels are responsible for many sites in those parks. They leave behind car batteries and propane tanks and poach deer and birds, she says.

    ReplyDelete
  168. In this case, doug, "The Man" would be the Federal FDA.

    ReplyDelete
  169. Probly more dangerous than Vietnam Jungle.
    ...they had trip wires and stuff 30 yrs ago.

    ReplyDelete
  170. So Linear is surrounded by Dope.
    The Straight amidst the Bent.

    ReplyDelete
  171. ...maybe he got swept up in the raid?

    ReplyDelete
  172. It sells, well.
    Flashy logo.

    Captain Morgan is a brand of rum produced by Diageo. It is named after the 17th-century Caribbean privateer from Wales, Sir Henry Morgan. Captain Morgan's slogan is "Got a little Captain in You?"
    ...
    Captain Morgan is, by volume, the second largest brand of spirits in the United States,
    ...
    In 1944, the Seagram Company started producing rum under the name Captain Morgan Rum Company.

    Seagram CEO Samuel Bronfman purchased a distillery named Long Pond from the Jamaican government. Among the buyers of raw rum from the Long Pond distillery was a Kingston pharmacy named Levy Brothers. The Levy family had been purchasing raw rum, adding medicinal herbs and spices, aging, and bottling it. Bronfman liked the rum product and bought the rights to it.


    Funny stuff, Samuel Bronfman, he was a mentor of Kemper Marley. Or so I've read.

    ReplyDelete
  173. Most people perceive a small dose as clearing the mind and impairing coordination. Many find a small dose useful for meditation or simply being in the world. Consciousness is retained until the very highest doses, but body control, awareness of externalities, and individual personality disappear at modest ones.

    Sounds like great shit, alrighty, you flop around, while you don't know who you are, you still have 'consciousness' of 'externalities'.

    Doctor, call the doctor.

    ReplyDelete
  174. CORRECTION

    You have 'consciousness' but NOT of externalities, or of WHO YOU ARE.

    Kind of like a spruce tree, swaying in the wind.

    ReplyDelete
  175. Note: Plants are said to have a rudimentary consciousness.

    ReplyDelete
  176. We won't be able to set foot on the privatized land, Rat. I'd much rather foot the bill for some clean up of drug runners. I wish the hunters would just shoot them, to be honest.

    Started with the hippies back when, in the forests. Kid from my high school went down to Northern California, nobody ever heard of him again.

    For myself, I've never seen any drug operations in the woods yet, but granted it's colder up here.

    You seem to want the Kemper Marleys of the world to own the national treasures. I disagree.

    ReplyDelete
  177. National Forests of Idaho

    Remember: Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires.

    ReplyDelete
  178. Seagram CEO Samuel Bronfman started producing rum under the name Captain Morgan Rum Company.
    He was a business mentor to Kemper Marley.

    It was Kemper Marley, who funded John McCain's entry into AZ politics.

    While John McCain, he was born in Panama City at Gorgas Hospital.
    Panama, the city Captain Morgan raided and burned, to help gain his reputation and political viability, in London and Jamacia.

    ReplyDelete
  179. Such a reputation was created that in 1944 Seagram CEO Samuel Bronfman started producing rum under the name Captain Morgan Rum Company.

    ReplyDelete