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."

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Frozen Turf Wars



George Bush is finally getting tough on the Canadians and Russians over the Arctic. Old W never worried much about the southern border so I am not not sure what fired a neuron over the recently frozen North. Maybe it is the next big thing, turf wars.

Turf wars are beginning to turn up everywhere especially within the White House. President Barack is adding a change. The Obamas are moving on up and bringing the mother-in-law. That will be the classic turf war.

Anyway, as we are reminded with the video, the moral to the story is:

Hold the line.

Strength in the face of diversity. Concede Guantanamo but please hold the Arctic.
________________

Bush policy stakes U.S. claim in Arctic
Seeks rights to waterways and resources


Stephen Dinan Washington Times
Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Facing growing competition for the Arctic, President Bush on Monday issued a directive staking the U.S. claim to be an Arctic nation with rights to its resources and travel lanes.

It's the first presidential declaration of Arctic policy since 1994. The directive comes at a time when Russia has claimed the North Pole seabed, Canada has continued to assert that the Northwest Passage is an internal waterway and scientists say global warming is chipping away the polar ice cap but opening up new opportunities to explore for oil, minerals and natural gas.

In the document, Mr. Bush challenges Canada's claim to the Northwest Passage, saying the U.S. must spell out its own claims on natural resources and calling for American defense and homeland security officials to "develop greater capabilities and capacity" to defend U.S. access.

Mr. Bush also renewed his call for the Senate to pass the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which has been blocked by conservative senators.

"The Northwest Passage is a strait used for international navigation, and the Northern Sea route includes straits used for international navigation; the regime of transit passage applies to passage through those straits," said Mr. Bush, who issued the directive with just a week to go before he leaves office, though the policy process had been under way for months.

"Preserving the rights and duties relating to navigation and overflight in the Arctic region supports our ability to exercise these rights throughout the world, including through strategic straits," Mr. Bush said.

Two dozen executive offices and agencies worked on the document, which comes as Arctic issues are heating up.

Late last year, the European Union, citing member nations that border the Arctic, asserted its own claims to be involved in discussions on the region.

Mr. Bush's document focuses heavily on science and environmental protections.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, who was the lone member of Congress to actively participate in the drafting process, said the policy is a needed statement at a time when there is much uncertainty surrounding the Arctic.

"This is a significant step forward for the nation and sends a message to the world that the Arctic is important to the United States, and we stand ready to work cooperatively with the international community in this vital region," she said.

She added that Congress and President-elect Barack Obama would have to follow through with manpower and money to help make the recommendations policy.

In his directive, Mr. Bush also called on the Senate to ratify the Law of the Sea treaty, which has been pending for years and has been ratified by all of the other nations that border the Arctic.

But the treaty has been blocked by conservative senators, who argue that the U.S. would cede sovereignty and could end up subject to an international tax. Sen. John McCain, Republicans' presidential nominee last year, came out in opposition to the treaty, which could explain the Bush administration's delay in releasing the directive.




184 comments:

  1. Heard on the radio that Bush wrote off vast areas of the Pacific from drilling.
    Don't know if this was part of his national preserve, done some years ago, or something new.
    Will check it out.

    According to the guy at the Center for Security Policy, the Law of the Seas thing is a disaster.
    ---
    F... the "focuses heavily on science and environmental protections."
    ---
    The focus should be on securing the Oil within 200 miles of every last subsurface outcropping of Alaska.
    Fat chance, with Obambi following the Wuss.

    ...somehow I missed the "toughness" entirely.

    Don't think the de-balled Faux Cowboy is capable of it, anymore.

    All Hat, all concerned with his "legacy," which to me consists of selling the country down the Rio Grand.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Funny stuff, once again John 'Maverick' McCain defines a "conservative" Senator in America

    In his directive, Mr. Bush also called on the Senate to ratify the Law of the Sea treaty, which has been pending for years and has been ratified by all of the other nations that border the Arctic.

    But the treaty has been blocked by conservative senators, who argue that the U.S. would cede sovereignty and could end up subject to an international tax. Sen. John McCain, Republicans' presidential nominee last year, came out in opposition to the treaty


    Limbaugh is close to being 'right' about the Obama bailout proposal. Trouble is, Obama is just following the course set by that other current "conservative" GW Bush.
    ... this spending is designed to expand government and move this country beeline as far left ...

    This is the course charted and approved by GW Bush ...

    STAY THE COURSE!!!

    Or admit the Republican solution amounts to much of the same.

    Whether a bureaucrat with the Federals or AIG gets to 'manage' the money and the celebration fiesta, doesn't make much difference. The party still goes on.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ...ain't it grand:
    and only $333,333 per job "saved"
    ...except they won't be, any more than FDR, not WWII pulled us out of the depression.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The loyal opposition is loyal, but not opposite.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Musk oxen are neat.

    Watching coyotes take down a deer is gruesome.

    There is a BIG coyote around the neighborhood here. He works the dumpsters, part time. Saw him the other day again. Gotten so I like the guy. At night sometimes I can hear them yipping.

    ----

    Why not pay $111,111 to each 'employee', as sit down money. That way you'd create 9 million 'jobs'. At $55,000 you'd create 18 million sit down jobs. Think of all the hassle that would be saved.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I do not think that number is right, doug

    333,333 x 4,000,000 = 1,333,332,000,000

    Now, with 3 million jobs, you get a trillion, @ $333,333 apiece.

    The four month tax holiday proposal still sounds best, to me, but not a likely course to be chosen.
    Not even up for popular discussion on the Redstone News Service. GE deciding that a tax holiday would not bring good things to the life of an Imagineer.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "And then help arrived in the form of one man: CSM Prosser.

    Prosser ran around the corner, passed the two young soldiers who were crouched low, then by me and right to the shop, where he started firing at men inside.

    A man came forward, trying to shoot Kurilla with a pistol, apparently realizing his only escape was by fighting his way out, or dying in the process. Kurilla was aiming at the doorway waiting for him to come out. Had Prosser not come at that precise moment, who knows what the outcome might have been.

    Prosser shot the man at least four times with his M4 rifle. But the American M4 rifles are weak - after Prosser landed three nearly point blank shots in the man’s abdomen, splattering a testicle with a fourth, the man just staggered back, regrouped and tried to shoot Prosser.
    "
    ---
    The kid's latest toy is an AR w/a 50 Caliber barrel!

    ...that plus his semi-auto AK Shotgun can do some serious damage, near, or far.

    ReplyDelete
  8. (3,000 meters on the 50, he says!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm not following your math, 'Rat, but what's new?
    Math was semi doable, that was long ago and far away.

    Funny, the wife was good at Math and hated Science, I was good at Science and hated Math.

    ReplyDelete
  10. CSM Prosser, he did cut a 'cool' image, with his Raybans.

    To bad the fellow he shot had already been captured, associated with a US mess hall bombing, earlier. Then being released to fight again, after a period of US financed rest & rehabilitation.

    Three hots & a cot.

    The war policies of GW Bush costing LtCol Kurilla severe wounds to his leg.

    ReplyDelete
  11. If only guys like this were in DC...
    ...the long War that shouldn't have been.
    ---
    Gates of Fire

    Catch and Release and it's Immoral Rewards for our Warriors.

    Three bullets reach flesh: One snaps his thigh bone in half.

    The Commander rolls into a firing position, just as a bullet strikes the wall beside 2nd lieutenant’s head (left).

    The Commander fights…

    …and fights, as more bullets kick up dust.

    And then help arrived in the form of one man: CSM Prosser.

    Prosser ran around the corner, passed the two young soldiers who were crouched low, then by me and right to the shop, where he started firing at men inside.

    CSM Robert Prosser goes “black.”

    Prosser had beaten the terrorist in the head three times with his fist and was gripping his throat, choking him. But Prosser’s gloves were slippery with blood so he couldn’t hold on well. At the same time, the terrorist was trying to bite Prosser’s wrist, but instead he bit onto the face of Prosser’s watch. (Prosser wears his watch with the face turned inward.) The terrorist had a mouthful of watch but he somehow also managed to punch Prosser in the face. When I shot the propane canister, Prosser had nearly strangled the guy, but my shots made Prosser think bad guys were coming, so he released the terrorist’s throat and snatched out the pistol from his holster, just as SSG Konkol, Lewis, DeVereaux and Muse swarmed the shop. But the shots and the propane fiasco also had brought the terrorist back to life, so Prosser quickly reholstered his pistol and subdued him by smashing his face into the concrete.

    The combat drama was ended, so I started snapping photos again.

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  12. About two weeks ago, word came that Nohe’s case had been dismissed by a judge on 7 August. The Coalition was livid. According to American officers, solid cases are continually dismissed without apparent cause. Whatever the reason, the result was that less than two weeks after his release from Abu Ghraib, Nohe was back in Mosul shooting at American soldiers.

    LTC Kurilla repeatedly told me of - and I repeatedly wrote about - terrorists who get released only to cause more trouble. Kurilla talked about it almost daily. Apparently, the vigor of his protests had made him an opponent of some in the Army’s Detention Facilities chain of command, but had otherwise not changed the policy. And now Kurilla lay shot and in surgery in the same operating room with one of the catch-and-release-terrorists he and other soldiers had been warning everyone about.
    When Kurilla woke in recovery a few hours after surgery, he called CSM Prosser and asked for a Bible and the book: Gates of Fire. Kurilla gives a copy of Gates of Fire to every new officer and orders them to read it. He had given me a copy and told me to read it. In my book, there is a marked passage, which I thought rather flowery. But I have it beside me on the table by the map of Iraq.

    I would be the one. The one to go back and speak. A pain beyond all previous now seized me. Sweet life itself, even the desperately sought chance to tell the tale, suddenly seemed unendurable alongside the pain of having to take leave of these whom I had come so to love.”

    A short time after Kurilla gave me the book, following the death of one of his soldiers, he said to me, “I want you to write about my men. You are the only one who might understand,” the passage registered in my mind.

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  13. Every time a Jihadi is killed, a demon is sent back to hell and an angel gets its wings.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This is a first.

    Obama Goes Up In Flames

    Far as I know this is the first public trashing of The One. These Iranians might be onto something.

    I recall reading about the law of the sea treaty sometime ago and one of the major questions was how far inland a Russian or Chinese sub could penetrate and still be legal. Can't remember the details but it seems it was more or less like they might be able to cruise right into San Francisco Bay. Maybe this isn't really a problem anyway with sub launched missiles.
    -----------

    Every time a Jihadi is killed, a demon is sent back to hell and an angel gets its wings.

    Nice smell the morning coffee thought, but off topic. What's this got to do with musk ox?:)

    ReplyDelete
  15. I was searching under 'pop gun fly swatter' (I've had one off these, they're great) for a possible post over at BC, and stumbled onto This instead.

    The ingenuity of the American marketplace.

    ReplyDelete
  16. 31 August, 2005

    ... The terrorist turned out to be one Khalid Jasim Nohe, who had first been captured by US forces (2-8 FA) on 21 December, the same day a large bomb exploded in the dining facility on this base and killed 22 people.

    That December day, Khalid Jasim Nohe and two compatriots tried to evade US soldiers from 2-8 FA, but the soldiers managed to stop the fleeing car. Then one of the suspects tried to wrestle a weapon from a soldier before all three were detained. They were armed with a sniper rifle, an AK, pistols, a silencer, explosives and other weapons, and had in their possession photographs of US bases, including a map of this base.


    Means that Nohe was in custody in December of 2004.
    Four full years of "Catch and Release"

    Now, with the warrant system required through Iraqi courts, we do not even have authorization catch them.

    Despite that, 130,000 US soldiers airmen, sailors and Marines are still there, in Iraq.

    Oh, we saved Nohe's life and he went back into detention. No further follow on story did I ever see, about terrorist Nohe.

    No angels were awarded wings, that day.

    ReplyDelete
  17. January 13, 2009, 7:35 am

    Yours For The Next Few Hours: An EV?

    By Micheline Maynard
    The Future Toyota Electric Vehicle — or FTEV — is drawing plenty of attention at the Detroit auto show. (Photo: Micheline Maynard)

    Decorated with swooping birds and stars and flowers, Toyota’s electric vehicle normally might seem out of place at the Detroit auto show, where automakers traditionally have put their most formidable iron on display.

    But this is a show where green cars have taken center stage. And even though it did not star at a news conference, the Future Toyota Electric Vehicle — or FTEV for short — is drawing plenty of attention.

    Toyota said here that it will begin to market the FTEV in 2012, marking a return of electric vehicles to its American lineup. Toyota initially leased, and then sold an electric version of its RAV-4, a small sport utility, between 1997 and 2003. But it was overshadowed by the Toyota Prius, a hybrid-electric vehicle, and quietly disappeared after Toyota sold 328 of its electric RAVs.

    The new electric vehicle might also be in danger of being overshadowed by the new version of the Prius and the new plug-in hybrid that Toyota will introduce late this year. (It may be called the Prius Plug-in, said Bob Carter, the general manager of the Toyota Division.)

    But Toyota isn’t looking at the conventional car market for the FTEV. Instead, it sees the car as ideal for the growing market in car-sharing vehicles.

    “We’re focusing less on traditional commercial use,” said Bob Reinert, national manager of Toyota’s advanced technology group.

    While there are no plans in place yet, FTEV could end up as an offering from Zipcar, which offers vehicles for short term use in a number of cities across the country, or join the lineup of vehicles made available by CityCarShare, a program in the San Francisco area. It also might participate in the electric car network that is being formed by Project Better Place, Mr. Reinert said.

    He cautioned that many issues have to be resolved before the electric vehicle can make its debut. A dearth of recharging stations across the country is one hurdle. Though electric vehicles might seem an opportune choice for city dwellers, Mr. Reinert said many New Yorkers, in particular, “don’t have a parking space and a place to charge it at night,” he said.

    Mr. Reinert sees a promising opportunity, however, in newly minted communities that encourage residents to use non-polluting vehicles. He said Toyota might team up with a developer so that its vehicles are made available to home owners or renters, like the GEM electric vehicle, which is used in a number of neighborhoods in warm climates.

    The Toyota EV would have an advantage, he said, since it can legally be driven on city streets and area highways. “It’s more than a golf cart — it’s freeway capable,” Mr. Reinert said.

    All that is well down the road: Toyota has not set a price, nor has it decided how many FTEVs it plans to build. But executives clearly see the need to do something more than conventionally powered cars and hybrid-vehicles.

    “The new automotive era will be very complex,” said Masatami Takimoto, Toyota executive vice president in charge of powertrain development.


    http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/yours-for-the-next-few-hours-an-ev/?pagemode=print

    ReplyDelete
  18. No angels were awarded wings, that day.
    ==

    Opportunity lost.

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  19. “It’s more than a golf cart — it’s freeway capable,” Mr. Reinert said.

    !

    And, you're guaranteed to die in any fender bender.

    And join where the angels sing:)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ucilia Wang

    Tesla To Build Powertrains, Batteries for Daimler

    Tesla Motors will be building powertrains for Daimler, said Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a speech at the Detroit auto show Tuesday.

    The announcement confirmed speculations that have swirled over the past year that the startup electric carmaker could ink a deal with Daimler to supply auto parts (see Green Light post).

    Musk also said his company will supply lithium-ion battery packs and chargers to Daimler for a second-generation, all-electric Smart ED, reported AutoblogGreen.

    Partnering with a large car company is good news for San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla, which has run into money trouble. It wasn’t able to raise the money needed to build a factory for its second car, the Model S, and had to get emergency cash infusion from its existing investors while waiting for the U.S. Department of Energy to approve loan guarantees. Tesla plans to introduce Model S in 2011 instead of 2010.

    Could Tesla also be working with Daimler to build its third model? Musk has talked about partnering with another company to develop a cheaper car that would cost less than $30,000 (see Tesla Coughs Up Sedan Price, Details On Economy Car).

    Musk is holding a press conference in a little while, so we will keep you posted.

    Tesla is currently shipping its first model, a $109,000 Roadster. It also announced a sports car version of the Roadster Monday (see Tesla Spiffs Up Roadster; Chrysler Touts All-Electric Sports Car).

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  21. Bob, here's the pic of that Toyota EV micro car:

    http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/greeninc/ev.jpeg

    ReplyDelete
  22. Here It Is--Toyota's New Electric Car Captured On Video

    Wife wants one. Have to remember to keep her life insurance paid up.

    ReplyDelete
  23. And, you're guaranteed to die in any fender bender.
    ==

    And does that stop you from driving your 1960's vintage Ford?

    ReplyDelete
  24. If my F-600 hit that Toyota EV I wouldn't even feel it.

    With a range of 50 miles, you're just running errands. Have to have it plugged in most all the time. And you'd have to learn to plan ahead a bit, think of you next drive. Learn to put three or four errands together for one trip. Cute little car, though.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Have to remember to keep her life insurance paid up.
    ==

    And then send her to the Toyota dealership on the old Ford. :D

    ReplyDelete
  26. And some people say the Jews run America--

    WHAT THE SENATORS MUST ASK HILLARY

    By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

    Published in the New York Post on January 13, 2009


    Former President Bill Clinton's massive financial ties with Arab governments raise serious questions for his wife as she tries to clear Senate confirmation and become secretary of state.

    The disclosure of Clinton's finances (wrung out of him by the Obama transition team) shows that the family, through its personal finances and those of Bill's nonprofits, has received tens of millions from the royal families in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Dubai, Oman, Brunei and Abu Dhabi.

    While these funds were nominally paid to Bill Clinton, they inure to the benefit of his wife, as well. Never have we had a secretary of state who has profited so handsomely from foreign governments.

    Bill Clinton has refined the sale of access to an art form. Now there is a big potential for selling access to the secretary of state by retaining her husband to give speeches or by donating to his presidential library or foundation. In view of this danger, his wife must answer some crucial questions at her confirmation hearings.

    Still more questions are raised by Bill's financial relationship with the emir of Dubai. Clinton got millions from his association with supermarket magnate Ron Burkle in an investment group called Yucaipa. Most of that money likely came from a partnership managing private investments of the emir, one of the world's wealthiest men.


    During Hillary's presidential campaign, Bill claimed that he was moving to terminate his relationship with Burkle and the emir - but there have been no further reports of what eventuated. Since this involves personal income to the Clintons, it is imperative to know the status of those relationships.

    So here are the questions the senators must ask Hillary:

    1) Does your husband have any ongoing financial relationship with the emir of Dubai directly or indirectly through Yucaipa, Ron Burkle or any other entity? What is the nature of that relationship? Does your husband stand to get any further payout from the emir, Burkle or Yucaipa? If so, how much and for what services? And, if he sold his interest, how much was he paid?

    2) During your campaign, you said you favored extending the US nuclear umbrella to the Gulf States and specifically Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Have you changed your position? Do your husband's extensive financial dealings with these nations influence your opinion on this matter?

    3) Since Dubai refineries process a large portion of the gasoline consumed by Iran and the rest is imported through Dubai, will you ask Dubai to cut off deliveries to Iran to pressure that nation to abandon its nuclear ambitions? Does the fact that your husband earned millions managing the emir's investments make you hesitant to press Dubai to curb its dealings with Iran?

    4) During a recent trip to Kazakhstan, your husband met with its dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was seeking to be named to head the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a body that is charged with overseeing the fairness of elections. Because his nation does not have free elections, the State Department opposed his bid. Your husband endorsed his candidacy.

    Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra, who hosted your husband's trip, later got a lucrative uranium-mining contract from Nazarbayev and, in turn, donated at least $10 million to your husband's library and foundation and to the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative. How can you deal impartially with Nazarbayev, given this evident conflict of interest?

    5) Such recipients of federal bailout aid as AIG, Lehman, Merrill Lynch, the Citi Foundation and General Motors have given large donations to your husband's library and foundation - and have also paid him hefty speaking fees. As a member of the administration, will you recuse yourself from deliberations relating to any future federal aid to companies that have donated to your husband's interests?

    6) Will you agree to post on the Internet the source and amount of all payments each month to your husband and his nonprofits, including contributions from existing donors?

    Even in the strange world of the Clintons, the funds that flow to one flow to both. And, of course, the largesse they've received from Dubai was simple, direct personal income to them both.

    In view of these massive donations and payments, Sen. Clinton must be grilled on the conflicts of interest they create. We also need to hear how she plans to handle them and avoid them in the future.

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  27. Cute little car, though.
    ==

    I think that once real mass production of the battery packs kicks in, you'll see these micro cars selling for few thousand dollars. 90% of the cost is the battery pack.

    But really what needs to be worked on is the basic design of the city. You shouldn't be needing a car in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Mat!
    ==

    I'm just teasing, Bob. But don't tell her of our plan. :D

    ReplyDelete
  29. I would like to see Mr. Morris and Ms. McGann do similar research and ask similar questions to Pelosi, Frank, Paulson, Obama, Cheney, Reid, Franken, Biden, Richardson, Emanuel and any one else you would like to add to the list.

    ReplyDelete
  30. If we started looking into them all, we might lose what innocence we have left, Gag. We might no longer be able to entertain quite the fantasy that there might be some good guys among the bad guys. Maybe then we'd kick them all out and try to start over.

    I remember back in the Eisenhower days, some Secretary of something got in trouble for accepting some meaningless gift, like a pair of fancy cufflinks or something. Things definitely have gotten worse since then. What a sewer.



    Boulton Speaks Against Law of the Sea Treaty

    Pros and Cons of the Law of the Sea Treaty

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  31. Oil.

    Jeez, guys, this isn't difficult. It's only One word. Oil.

    You know; the difference between Iraq, and N. Korea. Oil.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Was just talking with me cousin returning from Singapore, and he brought this to my attention:

    Singapore Car Law

    I'd like to see Israel to emulate similar laws.

    ReplyDelete
  33. You'd like to see the right to drive a car put up for bids?

    So only the rich can drive?

    Each month, a certain number of COE's are released for bidding....The catch? COE's have become so expensive that it is cost prohibitive to own a car.


    Isn't Singapore the place where they hang you if you smoke a joint?

    No, thankee.

    ReplyDelete
  34. North Korea doesn't even have electricity. Doug pointed that out from that night satellite photo. Dark as a tomb. South Korea, lit up like a Christmas tree.

    The evil influence of the capitalist running dogs.

    ReplyDelete
  35. North Korea, your future under Obama's Incoming Carbon and Global Warming Czarina Carol Browner.

    "We've got to shrink the econony."

    ReplyDelete
  36. So only the rich can drive?
    ==

    $200,000 a year to "drive". Of which 80% is taxes. And you can only drive during specific times (early morning, late night) and all passenger seats must be filled. I say, let them drive.

    ReplyDelete
  37. off topic...

    I could and most likely am wrong...

    but i see something about to pop with iran in about 5 days....

    ReplyDelete
  38. “IMPLEMENTING SMART POWER:
    SETTING AN AGENDA FOR NATIONAL
    SECURITY REFORM”
    A Statement by
    Richard L. Armitage
    President, Armitage International
    Dr. Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
    Distinguished Service Professor
    Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

    ReplyDelete
  39. That's been the discussion for years now, wi"o". It's finally come down to six days.

    The true mettle of GW Bush, which has been much discussed for many years, as well.

    He gave his word, about Iran and its' capacities, and his watch.

    Well, the watch of GW Bush is about done, and the capacities of the Iranians are enhanced.

    Is GW Bush all hat and no cattle?
    It will be known, to one and all, by 20JAN09.

    ReplyDelete
  40. dr: That's been the discussion for years now, wi"o". It's finally come down to six days.


    Aint talking about GW......

    Talking about Israel

    ReplyDelete
  41. The Israeli government says the action is in retaliation for Hamas rocket attacks on Israel from the Palestinian territory.

    There have also been several Canadian rallies in support of the Israeli action.

    The congress said it would release a list of those who co-sponsored the anti-Israel protests, among them the Ontario wing of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Canadian Peace Alliance and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.


    Canadian Laws

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  42. hmmm, Gaza such and easy walk in the park they might as well take on Iran too. riiiiight.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Same thing, amigo.

    Mr Olmert is not stepping across the Iraqi Air Defense system without US permission.

    But we'll all wait, watch and see what, if anything, happens.

    ReplyDelete
  44. That is one clean machine, whit.

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  45. George got that phony CIA/Security finding handed to him. Iran quit working on the bomb.

    Like Ash says....rrrr i g h t

    ReplyDelete
  46. Ash said...
    hmmm, Gaza such and easy walk in the park they might as well take on Iran too. riiiiight.

    Hey ash....

    I guess you never heard of using larger bombs?

    and btw, gaza is now what? 4 israeli dead by the arabs and israel has killed over 700 terrorists?

    yep i'd say easy walk...

    Just think what if Israel wanted to conquer Gaza like most of the rest of the world fights?

    it would be over in a day... and Gaza would be flat...

    Iran is doable...

    of course using a few nukes could help....

    but then you'd be pissed that it wasnt a fair fight...

    ReplyDelete
  47. That's an ordinary offering for that guy in Clearwater, Rat. His inventory is low right now, but he's had some awesome muscle cars over the years. Here's a Camaro convertible

    His Ebay site

    ReplyDelete
  48. Rallies held in cities across Canada to condemn Israel's attacks on Gaza may have broken Canadian laws by inciting hatred and genocide.

    Haul 'em all before the Canadian Human Rights Commission! That they won't do so, another indication what a farce it is.

    Ash I hope and trust you've been staying away from the Anti-Zionist Entity and Free Gaza demos. I'd hate to see you get deported.

    ReplyDelete
  49. There is, or was, a used car guy in Spokane--"Big Boys Toys"--dealing in nothing but old muscle cars and Cadillacs and such. He had some nice ones.

    ReplyDelete
  50. If Israel thinks Iran is about to get a nuke and their national survival is at stake....

    If the world condemns Israel for it's gaza operation and passes a UNSC resolution that condemns her with out mentioning HAMAS or THEIR ROCKETS or Gilad Shalit?

    If the Israelis (rightly so) think the entire world would sit by as Israel burns?

    ISRAEL WIN AND CAN ACT....

    If you think not?

    Your on crack...

    Israel after all DID ATTACK and BOMB SYRIA"S nuke setup last year and did not seem to have any problems getting thru Syria's anti-aircraft web...

    AND who is to say that the USA would ATTACK the IDF flying thru IRAQI Air Space?

    AND How many Sub's does Israel now have and how many cruise missiles can it fire...

    read this:

    Israel Builds up its Stockpile of Deadly Military Hardware

    A massive buildup in military hardware has occurred in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

    Israel has recently taken delivery from the US of some 5,000 "smart air launched weapons" including some 500 BLU 109 'bunker-buster bombs. The (uranium coated) munitions are said to be more than "adequate to address the full range of Iranian targets, with the possible exception of the buried facility at Natanz, which may require the [more powerful] BLU-113 bunker buster ":

    "Given Israel's already substantial holdings of such weapons, this increase in its inventory would allow a sustained assault with or without further US involvement." (See Richard Bennett, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/BEN501A.html )




















    Gbu 28 Guided Bomb Unit-28 (GBU-28)


    The Israeli Air Force would attack Iran's nuclear facility at Bushehr using US as well Israeli produced bunker buster bombs. The attack would be carried out in three separate waves "with the radar and communications jamming protection being provided by U.S. Air Force AWACS and other U.S. aircraft in the area". (See W Madsen, http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAD410A.html

    Bear in mind that the bunker buster bombs can also be used to deliver tactical nuclear bombs. The B61-11 is the "nuclear version" of the "conventional" BLU 113. It can be delivered in much same way as the conventional bunker buster bomb.


    No IF israel see no alternative they have been practicing this attack for quite a while...

    ReplyDelete
  51. Ah, riding to the rescue gallops Hillary. She's knocked back a couple of whiskeys and vows to Stop Iran In Its Tracks

    You go girl! Smart Power!

    ReplyDelete
  52. It's going to be very interesting to see how Obama/Clinton deploy this kinder, gentler Smart Power, multi-culti diplomacy. One tenet is that we can't talk democracy yet support dictators. I guess that means we'll be hearing a lot less about democracy.

    I recently heard Tony Blair talking about the prerequisites for peace in the middle east. Hamas must stop sending missiles into Israel. Think that's going to happen?

    Seems to me that eventually, one has to accept that some people (Hesbollah, Hamas) do not want democracy and want peace only on their terms. When the incoming "smart power" people and their international partners come to that conclusion, maybe we can progress until then, it will be the SOS.

    ReplyDelete
  53. using US as well Israeli produced bunker buster bombs.

    I was wondering if they could produce their own bombs.

    Elijah posted a link showing the US now legally controls only the lower part of Iraqi airspace. I quess they could just fly over the US controlled airspace.

    ReplyDelete
  54. WASHINGTON - The top Republican on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee is 'raising questions' about the immigration status of a housekeeper that worked for U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner and years in which Geithner allegedly did not pay some taxes for himself, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.


    Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa "is raising questions about a housekeeper that worked briefly for Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner without proper immigration papers, and multiple years when Mr. Geithner didn't pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself."


    A spokeswoman for Grassley said she could not comment on the report, but said members of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over Geithner's nomination, were meeting to discuss the matter.


    Surely using a little illegal alien help, and not paying your taxes, shouldn't keep a fellow from running the United States Treasury. After all Charlie Rangel hasn't paid his taxes and he runs the Tax Committee.

    ReplyDelete
  55. WiO, I'm surprised you have such little respect for the decision making skills of the Israelis. When you are busy calling up reserves and using your personnel to fight in a dense urban environment addressing what is really a minor military concern (ineffective rocket fire) it would be foolhardy to purposely start another fight with a more difficult foe. I don't doubt that the Israelis possess strong military power but they aren't invincible and to take such blatant risks by choice would be foolhardy. You may think they are stupid but I don't. They will not instigate a fight with Iran while deployed in Gaza in the next five days.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Maybe the reserves aren't for Gaza.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Lebanon, then?
    Or Syria, bob?

    A blitz in the next five days?

    If anyone thinks, for a moment, that the US would allow its' troops to come under Iranian missiles, fired in self-defense, against an air attack emenating from Iraqi airspace ...

    Then you have little regard for US troops or their commanders.

    The US will splash those Israeli planes, as assuredly as the Israeli fired upon the USS Liberty.

    As a matter of National Security.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Six days will tell the tale.

    If one takes wi"o"'s scenario out, past the initial strike, or mat's for that matter.

    The IDF is flying against US air defenses and AWACs, which wi"o"'s cut and paste said was required for a successful Israeli operation:
    The attack would be carried out in three separate waves "with the radar and communications jamming protection being provided by U.S. Air Force AWACS and other U.S. aircraft in the area".

    Without those assets, or with those assets set against the israeli, they stand no chance of success.

    The Israeli airforce has never been able to stop the rockets. Not in 2006 nor now. Not from a piece of beach smaller than Scottsdale, AZ.

    Who's kiddin' who?

    ReplyDelete
  59. If one takes wi"o"'s scenario out, past the initial strike, or mat's for that matter.
    ==

    You don't need planes to knock out Iran's oil facilities. There are plenty of other ways to accomplish this.

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

    ReplyDelete
  61. The IDF is flying against US air defenses and AWACs,
    ==

    Israel already proved that it can be done. Think back to '81.

    ReplyDelete
  62. American presidents have never had an easy time in the Middle East. For 60 years they have been trying to make peace, or just prevent recurrent wars, and the record of success is thin while the death toll from the violence is disturbingly high.

    ...

    In the mid-1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted to build hydroelectric dams to turn the barren hills of the West Bank and Jordan Valley into an agricultural mecca that might coax Palestinian refugees, displaced by war, out of their camps and onto new farms. He also wanted Israel to give up a sliver of land that would connect Egypt and Jordan via a highway overpass.

    ...

    In December 1960 President-elect John F. Kennedy learned that Israel was secretly building a nuclear reactor complex that eventually would be able to produce atomic weapons. He waged an unsuccessful behind-the-scenes campaign until his death in 1963 to persuade David Ben-Gurion, the Israeli leader, to give it up.


    Middle East

    ReplyDelete
  63. The US will splash those Israeli planes...

    I doubt that.

    ReplyDelete
  64. THamas, a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel, cannot be deterred. As the organization is struck, its support among the local population grows, and its popularity among fundamentalist Muslims around the world increases.

    It attaches no value to life, whether Muslim or Jewish. Israel is concerned over the loss of life in the Gaza Strip during the current round of fighting, but Hamas is not.

    The infrastructure in Gaza, if destroyed or damaged, will quickly be rebuilt with foreign donations after the fighting is over. If a cease-fire is established before Hamas' rocket capability has been eliminated, the group will be seen as the victor.


    To Deter or to Defeat

    ReplyDelete
  65. A British adventurer plans to set off Wednesday in a home-made vehicle which can transform itself from a car into an aircraft in minutes -- destination Timbuktu.

    ...

    The journey is expected to take some 40 days, during which they plan to soar over the Pyrenees, and the Straits of Gibraltar between southern Spain and Africa.

    With four-wheel drive it can allegedly deal with the most rugged terrain, starting on the city streets of London and ending in the sands of the Sahara.


    Skycar

    ReplyDelete
  66. An Israeli attack would destroy any pretense of success, in Iraq.

    The Status of Forces Agreement would collapse and the entire Bush tenure's effort would be a total write-off.

    The Iranians would be justified in retaliating, and "Bush the Incompetent" becomes the Legacy.

    What with four dollar gas back and the Iranians, not stopped in their nuclear quest, not even slowed much.

    If the attacks continue on to Saudi Arabia and Iraq itself, mat's scenario of choice, the Sauds will nuke up with Paki weapons and strike back.

    Not in the National Security interests of the US. Not at all.

    We'll splash 'em, if need be, guarenteed.

    ReplyDelete
  67. The Iranians would be justified in retaliating,
    ==

    With what?

    ReplyDelete
  68. On January 4, 2009, the Iranian website Khabaronline reported that Hojat-Ol-Eslam Mojtaba Zolnour, representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), had told reporters that "in the event of the slightest aggression against Iran, every one of the U.S.'s 32 bases in the region is within range of Iranian missiles."

    ...

    "The American warships cannot deal with Iranian boats that are undetectable by radar, which if necessary can collectively attack these warships.... The power of surprise attack, mining the sea, missile attack, and Iran's firepower are a small part of the undeniable Iranian military capability.

    ...

    Zolnour dismissed the possibility that the countries in the region would cooperate with the U.S. in an attack, saying that such cooperation "does not exist. They [the countries of the region] are aware that such circumstances [a U.S. attack] will result in America's defeat and withdrawal, while they cannot quit the region and run away - and they would have to accept their responsibility and the outcome of their unwise act.


    Iranian Missiles

    ReplyDelete
  69. But they would all cooperate against an Israeli attack, rather than a US one.

    All the while President Bush assured by his trusted military Commanders that the attack cannot succeed.

    In the National Security interests of the United States, any Israeli attack would have to be stopped.

    ReplyDelete
  70. In the National Security interests of the United States, any Israeli attack would have to be stopped.
    ==

    That's nonsensical. US national security interests lie in protecting Iran?

    ReplyDelete
  71. No, US National Security rests on a stable oil market. That priority has just been driven home, to the US public, forcefully.

    Especially when viewed from GW Bush's perspective.

    The breakdown in stability that would occur in Iraq, that would unacceptable, to Mr Bush.

    ReplyDelete
  72. It's all about that oil, mat

    Like you say.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Sounds more like our "American Eagle" is frightened by the howls of Iranian Jihadi Jackals.

    ReplyDelete
  74. It's all about that oil, mat
    ==

    We can manage without Iran's oil.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Oil and Fear.

    George Bush is a man afraid.
    No bold moves in his final hours, it's not in his nature.

    He is dependent upon Obama to secure his legacy, he will not let Israel gum up the works, more than they already have.

    They've gotten the pre-Obama action in Gaza approved, but no more than that.

    We'll all know fer sur, in six days

    The wait is nearly over.

    Next!

    ReplyDelete
  76. No, our Chinese allies cannot, and they hold $11 trillion is currency reserves or some such amount.

    In any case the Russell Company boys have US in a symbiotic relationship, with China.

    What is good for China, is good for the USA.

    ReplyDelete
  77. In the US sponsored "Global Economy" we need every drop, will for decades to come.

    The Israelis, in their small county size patch of desert, cannot go oil free. If they cannot, no one can.

    Policy is based upon realities, not magic batteries.

    ReplyDelete
  78. Nobody is going to miss Iran's oil, other than Iran. This could be a good lesson for Iraq and Saudia.

    ReplyDelete
  79. sorry about the cut and paste...

    but israel could attack Iran directly from her sub's that was the point of the cut and paste...

    the article was several years old....

    israel can hit Iran's oil field and refineries, nuke power plants and another 100 or so important nuke points of importance without over flying iraq...

    Israel has cruise missiles and sub's just off the coast of Iran as we speak...

    ash says : Ash said...
    WiO, I'm surprised you have such little respect for the decision making skills of the Israelis. When you are busy calling up reserves and using your personnel to fight in a dense urban environment addressing what is really a minor military concern (ineffective rocket fire) it would be foolhardy to purposely start another fight with a more difficult foe.



    Actually the Israelis are fighting in a dense area the way they are to minimize civilian deaths...

    Iran being as far away makes the targets easier...

    Iran's long range missiles are hard to set up, fuel and position in less than 50 minutes... AND just as in the 2006 battle in lebanon, israel will take those out asap...

    Iran's targets are NOT civilian dense targets, they are military/industrial targets well known to the israelis...


    ash continues: I don't doubt that the Israelis possess strong military power but they aren't invincible and to take such blatant risks by choice would be foolhardy.


    IF israel thinks iran is about to go live with nukes, she KNOWS that she cannot ALLOW Iran to go live...

    then they would certainly sustain at least 660,000 deaths from a 1st strike...

    ash, unlike you, the Israelis KNOW the true threat from the persians and if it means causing Iran to go without power, water & electricity as well as any major industry for the next 60 years then so be it...

    ASH: You may think they are stupid but I don't. They will not instigate a fight with Iran while deployed in Gaza in the next five days.

    Hamas will not be any threat to cause a southern front in the next 96 hours...

    Hamas has shot it's wad and quite frankly they are now becoming irrelevant. This is way the attack on Iran is MORE likely...

    Hezbollah? is now a ball-less wonder, reduced to an idiot with rockets...

    Israel can remove most all of Hezbollah's rockets in a blistering attack this time by not sending leaflets & 24 -48 hr warnings...

    If I was planning to attack Iran I would do exactly what israel has done...

    2006 teach lebanon and hezbollah a lesson.. ( a nice pavlovian lesson) and finally allow hamas to over shoot their wad (like they just did) thus eliminating all 3 local fronts...

    syria - scared shitless (since israel has proven it's air defenses are useless)

    hezbollah - scared shitless since it KNOWS israel held back and can brutally hammer down anything that moves (45,000 rockets? watch what happens if Israel lays down cluster muntions on top of hezbollah as they hide in their bunkers...

    Hamas - fading fast as we speak.. just watch the kill ratios climb...

    Iran is now in the sights....

    do you really think Israel is using 3% of it's airforce in GAZA?

    Israel will reserve MOST of it's air wings for Lebanon and Syria, while using long range rockets, cruise missiles and IT's stealth aircraft to hit Iran...

    ReplyDelete
  80. The Israelis, in their small county size patch of desert, cannot go oil free. If they cannot, no one can.
    ==

    Nobody even tried. But that soon will be changing.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Those conditions include immediately disclosing any donation of $50,000 from any source, revealing any pledge of $50,000 or more from a foreign entity, submitting foreign donations of $50,000 or more to a State Department ethics review and committing to provide a “distinct list” of donors and amounts each year.

    When Lugar sought to press Clinton on the issue, she indicated no willingness to adopt further disclosure measures and rejected the notion that the contributions created a conflict of interest.

    Bill Clinton’s foundation got at least $41 million from foreign nations such as Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer, and government-run groups. Foreign businessmen in the Middle East, the former Soviet Union, South Asia and Africa also contributed.


    Disclosing Donations

    ReplyDelete
  82. it's amazing the level of bullshit that most people think about the ability of the arab/persian/islamic armies...

    let's review...

    330 MILLIOn arabs that occupy 649/650th of the middle east cant beat a bunch of jews that sit on 1/650th of the middle east....

    Iraq was going to be the mother of all battles...

    Israel used 1% of it's ability in 2006 and turned southern lebanon into rubble....

    Syria? Israel proved last summer it's a empty suit...

    and now Iran?

    they are nothing but terrorists...

    take out their oil, reduce their power grid to rubble and hit their nuke sites and industrial base and they will be shown to be the empty suits they are...

    screaming hoards of islamic jihadists dont scare me...

    maybe it's really time to teach them a lesson on WHO allah really loves...

    ReplyDelete
  83. The hearing lasted five hours, much shorter than the hearing for Condoleezza Rice four years ago, which involved two days of intense and sometimes hostile questioning by Democrats. Mrs. Clinton's daughter, Chelsea, sat behind her.

    In the only critical note, Mr. Lugar and other senators brought up contributions from foreign donors to the foundation of Mrs. Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, that might give the appearance of a conflict of interest.

    "The bottom line is that even well-intentioned foreign donations carry risk for United States foreign policy. The only certain way to eliminate this risk going forward is for the Clinton Foundation to forswear new foreign contributions when Senator Clinton becomes secretary of state," Mr. Lugar said.


    Smart Power

    ReplyDelete
  84. Some 2,200 management-level Toyota Motor Corp. employees are expected to buy new Toyota cars by the end of March under the company's initiative to boost sales, company officials said Wednesday.

    Toyota Cars

    ReplyDelete
  85. The meeting formally launched the Strategic Framework Agreement process, which will guide U.S.-Iraqi relations. Secretary Rice and Prime Minister Al-Maliki reaffirmed their strong desire to establish a long-term relationship of cooperation and friendship, based on the principle of equality.

    They reviewed the broad range of U.S.-Iraqi cooperation and agreed to establish Joint Coordination Committees to develop initiatives in economic and energy cooperation, services and technology, law enforcement and judicial cooperation and education and cultural cooperation.

    This meeting represents an important step forward in our bilateral relationship. The goal of these efforts is to bring tangible benefits to the people of the United States and Iraq through greater economic growth with expanded trade and investment, more projects in areas like electricity and telecommunications and information technology that will help Iraq’s economy grow more quickly, and improved educational opportunities through University Partnerships and increased scientific, academic and cultural exchanges.


    Coordination Committee

    ReplyDelete
  86. Gentleman George would never bequeath any unpleasantries of unfinished business on his successor, barring direct attack on our soil or troops.
    (and maybe not even that, for the troops)

    ...recall him standing down the entire Immigration/Border Establishments, so as not to leave even a CHANCE that Auntie Odinga, or whoever, or her nephew Messiah Odinga Obama, might be embarassed

    Family values don't stop at the periphery of the GOP.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Whit,
    My neighbor, the retired Navy/Commercial Pilot, has an immaculate Camaro Convertible.

    Usually only see it out of the garage once a year, on veteran's day.

    ReplyDelete
  88. WiO,

    You spew much BS, some of it probably true, but in the end, Nope, Israel will not dare to attack Iran in the next 5 days. No way, no how. The reasons range from strategic to tactical to diplomatic. All three are not aligned with an attack. Bad tactics, bad strategy, and, BAD diplomatically. Can you imagine the reaction of an Obama administration to being drawn into a conflagration with Iran while the guard is being changed?? If Israel had a death wish, she'd attack Iran now. She doesn't!

    ReplyDelete
  89. But that requires diplomacy. Israel de facto recognizes Hamas’s right to rule Gaza and to provide for the well-being and security of the people of Gaza — which was actually Hamas’s original campaign message, not rocketing Israel.

    And, in return, Hamas has to signal a willingness to assume responsibility for a lasting cease-fire and to abandon efforts to change the strategic equation with Israel by deploying longer and longer range rockets. That’s the only deal.

    Let’s give it a try.


    Goals in Gaza?

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

    ReplyDelete
  91. Ash said...
    WiO,

    You spew much BS, some of it probably true,


    What I "spew" aint bullshit especially if it’s true... I may not always be correct, but it’s not bullshit, but at least what I comment on I know and the points have been well thought out....



    Ash: Nope, Israel will not dare to attack Iran in the next 5 days. No way, no how. The reasons range from strategic to tactical to diplomatic. All three are not aligned with an attack. Bad tactics, bad strategy, and, BAD diplomatically.


    WRONG... Israel COULD attack IF SHE FELT that IRAN WAS about to cross the RED LINE, ash you don't KNOW jack shit about the Israeli MIND....


    As for tactics & strategy?

    I have explained, but you're not listening, Israel has just relieved itself of any issues from Gaza, Hezbollah is scared shitless of israel, as is Syria. IF Syria or Hezbollah open up the war on their fronts the IDF aint pussy footing around anymore and will burn syrian & Hezbollah faster than you can prostrate yourself to allah...

    as for diplomatically?

    Ash you still don't get it... THE SUNNI ARAB WORLD is scared shitless of IRAN not of ISRAEL.

    And truthfully? after the recent UNSC resolution condemning Israel and not mentioning HAMAS by NAME, their ROCKETS or Gilad Shalit, the COLLECTIVE Israeli minds can be summed up as" F+CK YOU WORLD, we KNOW you hate us, GO F+CK YOURSELF"

    ASH: Can you imagine the reaction of an Obama administration to being drawn into a conflagration with Iran while the guard is being changed?? If Israel had a death wish, she'd attack Iran now. She doesn't!


    Now that's the funniest thing you've ever said... and you say allot of funny things....

    Can you image the reaction of an Obama administration if Israel got HIT with a nuke and had to destroy 1/3 of the world’s oil forever?

    Ash you are limited in your knowledge of the middle east... Go get a colon cleanser and get ready for your all powerful messiah to get his crown...

    Israel, and I do not bow to earthy kings...

    ReplyDelete
  92. Heard global warming is causing glacier melt which is cooling the oceans which is causing the record snows.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Hardly any glaciers left in Glacier Park.

    ReplyDelete
  94. Oil that is in the ground, will not be destroyed, at all.

    A nuke will not damage it.

    The ground above can be repopulated, within a year.

    Japanese cities, two of them stand in testament to that.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Not many left in New York of Michigan, though both were once covered by glaciers.

    In fact, the 'Snowball Earth' story had the entire planet under ice.

    The weather on this planet, it is something to talk about, not anything man is going to change.

    ReplyDelete
  96. Glacier National Park When we went through there, I saw one snow field away back thatta way, barely visible. Beautiful park, too many tourist like me hanging around. Bought a wonderful hat there, best hat I've ever had. Lady said, "That's just you" so I had to buy it. There was a mountain goat in the parking lot up towards the top, wandering among the cars, looking for handouts, miserable begger. If you are young and a hiker, you're in paradise.


    Rat you make some good points. So does WiO. We need a crystal ball.

    Seems to me even if Israel didn't fly over Iraq, the missiles from Iran would still fly towards our troops. Particularily with Obama coming in. 'Death is driving the clattering train' or however that goes.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Animals are basically lazy beggers, if they can get away with it. Take this coyote that hangs around here, snooping in the garbage bins, for instance. If he was an honorable, good upstanding coyote like he's supposed to be, he'd be out in the wheat fields chasing mice!

    ReplyDelete
  98. Gun Grabbers Back In Action

    Back in business, with the new Obama administration.


    Join the National Rifle Association today, like I just did, you can get in for a year at a reduced $25 fee, get a monthly magazine, action reports, AND a nice NRA carry bag, too, and help protect your rights. Join now.

    ReplyDelete
  99. From Bob's link:

    The glaciers in Glacier National Park today are all geologically new having formed in the last few thousand years. Presently, all the glaciers in the park are shrinking. More snow melts each summer than accumulates each winter.

    As the climate changed over the last two million years, glaciers formed and melted away several times. What will happen to today's glaciers if the climate becomes colder, wetter, or warmer?

    ReplyDelete
  100. The precision of Israeli intelligence about Hamas suggests that Gazans are providing information to end Hamas misrule (Hamas two weeks ago authorized crucifixion as a judicial punishment).

    Even Arabs Will Benefit If Israel Finishes The Job In Gaza

    The Hamasoids seem to be losing some support among their own folks. The Senate and the House both have passed resolutions supporting Israel. Strong support for Hamas remains among morons in Berkeley and elsewhere. The 'control center' of Hamas is under the major hospital in Gaza, making it a tough call. Even the smartest of bombs can't take out the basement and leave the building intact.

    ReplyDelete
  101. Seems to me even if Israel didn't fly over Iraq, the missiles from Iran would still fly towards our troops.
    ==

    In Iraq?

    ReplyDelete
  102. Yeah, in Iraq. What would Iran's response be? Fire up Hezbolla, lob missiles around, try to close the gulf. What would the One do if missiles started flying at the Green Zone? And shipping were interdicted? I have no idea. Maybe call for dialogue. Maybe send Hillary.

    ReplyDelete
  103. You sure that goat wasn't sniffin for antifreeze, al-Bob?

    In the parking lot of some caves in Oregon (forgot the name) a bunch of deer were lapping up any overflows/leaks.

    Bad news for animals, as it destroys there kidneys.

    You'd think green antifreeze would be required by now.

    ReplyDelete
  104. Sources who tracked the investigation tell Newsmax that the main target of the breach was the Obama passport file, and that the contractor accessed the file in order to “cauterize” the records of potentially embarrassing information.


    “They looked at the McCain and Clinton files as well to create confusion,” one knowledgeable source told Newsmax. “But this was basically an attempt to cauterize the Obama file.”


    At the time of the breach, Brennan was working as an unpaid adviser to the Obama campaign.





    Obama Breached His Own Passport File?

    Don't we have any good conspiracy theorists around here who can sort this stuff out?

    ReplyDelete
  105. Maybe, Doug. I've read too, don't let the dog or cat around anti-freeze, they like the smell or taste.

    I don't drink the stuff myself.

    ReplyDelete
  106. "Quote o'the Day" at the Elephant---

    You spew much BS, some of it probably true Ash


    Barkeep, buy the liberal Canadian at the end of the bar an Anti-Freeze on the Rocks. Make it a double. He's 'brain froze' again.

    ReplyDelete
  107. Canucks probly developed an immunity to Antifreeze, after years of use to ward off frostbite.

    ReplyDelete
  108. Five days and a wake-up.

    Does George W really have an itchy trigger finger?

    On a more realistic matter ...

    By Michael D. Shear and Lori Montgomery
    Washington Post Staff Writers
    Wednesday, January 14, 2009; Page A01

    Timothy F. Geithner, the man tapped to lead the nation out of the greatest economic crisis in decades -- and who would oversee the Internal Revenue Service -- trekked to Capitol Hill yesterday to explain to senators how he made almost $43,000 worth of mistakes on his own tax returns.


    Yep, Mr Timothy F. Geithner
    A REAL AMERICAN.

    Because what is more American than cheating on your taxes

    ... the revelations could delay consideration of Geithner's nomination. Late Tuesday, Republican Sens. Jim Bunning (Ky.) and Jon Kyl (Ariz.) blocked a request to proceed with his confirmation hearing Friday. Democratic lawmakers still hoped to confirm Geithner to the critical economic post before Inauguration Day.

    In his appearance yesterday, Geithner told the committee that he had failed to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes because he mistakenly believed that his employer at the time, the International Monetary Fund, was deducting those taxes from his paycheck.


    Guess the 1040 was just to complicated a document for Mr Timothy F. Geithner to fully understand and fill out, per instructions.

    Tells US something about both Mr Timothy F. Geithner and the tax system. One or the other, perhaps both, are dysfunctional on a personal level.

    ReplyDelete
  109. Is Obama Courting His Ex-Opponent?

    Reed Galen, RealClearPolitics

    It will not be much of a surprise if McCain, more often than not, turns out to be an ally of Obama's.

    Always remember, McCain is "Your Man", duece.

    ReplyDelete
  110. ... the situation echoed past revelations that led to the withdrawal or rejection of Cabinet nominees. Zoe Baird, Bill Clinton's first choice for attorney general, withdrew after it was revealed she had not paid the proper taxes for her nanny.

    Others who ran into trouble because of back taxes included Bobby Ray Inman, nominated by Clinton to succeed Les Aspin as Defense Secretary; Linda Chavez, who was President Bush's choice for Labor Secretary; and Bernard B. Kerik, who Bush hoped to make secretary of Homeland Security.


    WaPo

    A tax cheat, or at least someone that does not understand US tax code, to become the top dog at the IRS?

    It is time to 'Just say No', but little chance of that, in the current political enviorment.

    ReplyDelete
  111. By Bob Woodward
    Washington Post Staff Writer
    Wednesday, January 14, 2009; Page A01

    The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a "life-threatening condition."

    "We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.

    Crawford, a retired judge who served as general counsel for the Army during the Reagan administration and as Pentagon inspector general when Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured.

    Crawford, 61, said the combination of the interrogation techniques, their duration and the impact on Qahtani's health led to her conclusion. "The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge" to call it torture, she said.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Bob better find himself a deep hole to crawel in, all thirty of 'em.

    Be my advise, deep and dark, cause the power of the light is going to be intense. Making the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, in Iraq, appear like the foreplay sex pranks of a female soldier and her NCO lover, which is what they were.

    But sanctioned torture, the shining light will hunt down all the perps, big and small.

    Not just the young, dumb and pregnant trailer-trash bleached blonde soldier.

    Wonder if she is related to Levi's mother, by something other than culture?

    ReplyDelete
  113. WiO wrote:

    "Can you image the reaction of an Obama administration if Israel got HIT with a nuke and had to destroy 1/3 of the world’s oil forever?"

    See WiO this is where your analysis is nonsensical. Iran will not shoot a nuke at Israel in the next 5 days, they just don't have the capability. So, there is no pressing reason why Israel would act so precipitously in the next 5 days. Your fantasy of Israel launching an attack in the next 5 days is just that, a fantasy, a delusion.

    ReplyDelete
  114. Nonsensical also in that the oil would not be destroyed, forever.

    Could be year in rebuilding the infrastructure, but that is all.

    Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki prove the point.

    The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:

    QIn 1945 an atomic bomb using plutonium as its source for a chain reactive explosion was used to destroy the city of Nagasaki in Japan. Because plutonium was used, and because plutonium has a very long half-life, is plutonium still present there today and is it still irradiating and affecting local fauna and local inhabitants?
    AEssentially all of the uranium and plutonium in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs fissioned, producing radioisotopes with half-lives of a few seconds to a few years. These have decayed down to near-background levels. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki are now thriving cities, rebuilt and repopulated. I had the privilege of visiting Hiroshima recently and found it to be a modern, lively city. They have maintained one bombed-out building, near the hypocenter, and developed a large Peace Park and museum, all as reminders of the suffering and devastation of nuclear war.

    S. Julian Gibbs, DDS, PhD

    Health Physics Society

    The Health Physics Society is a scientific and professional organization whose members specialize in occupational and environmental radiation safety. The primary purpose of the Society is to support its members in the practice of their profession.

    ReplyDelete
  115. While I agree, Bobal, that on the face of it that hastily written line seems self contradictory but what I meant was the WiO is spewing mostly bullshit but things like, Israel has subs and cruise missiles, is probably true but has little bearing on whether they will attack Iran in the the next few days. His whole line of reasoning is bull shit but he does get the odd fact right.

    ReplyDelete
  116. Ash said...
    WiO wrote:

    "Can you image the reaction of an Obama administration if Israel got HIT with a nuke and had to destroy 1/3 of the world’s oil forever?"

    See WiO this is where your analysis is nonsensical. Iran will not shoot a nuke at Israel in the next 5 days, they just don't have the capability.


    Ash you miss the POINT....

    Israel WONT WAIT until the Iranians have a big shiny RED BUTTON TO PUSH....

    What? it's NOT a THREAT UNTIL they have the nuke on a platform?

    ASH: So, there is no pressing reason why Israel would act so precipitously in the next 5 days.

    IF Israel learned that they were close to passing WHAT THE ISRAELI's SAW as a RED LINE they would act....


    ASH: Your fantasy of Israel launching an attack in the next 5 days is just that, a fantasy, a delusion.

    It's a possibility, it may not be likely, but Israel has planned for it, is ready for it, has built 1/2 million shelters to be prepared for it, has flown dry runs for it, has told the world to expect it...

    Ash please mail me that great weed your smoking since it is you that cannot see the forest for the trees....

    IF ISRAEL see that Iran is moving pass what Israel SEES as IT"S redline....

    pow...

    ReplyDelete
  117. desert rat said...
    Nonsensical also in that the oil would not be destroyed, forever.

    And just how or why would the world rebuild the Iranian oil fields 12 months after it was turned into glass?

    really...

    explain DR just WHO would be landing on the shores of Iran to do this...

    If Israel was hit by a nuke and responded with it's own MORE powerful nukes what would Iran look like 12 months later....

    get back to me...

    ReplyDelete
  118. Nitpicking point---

    I'd read that those bombs didn't fission all that well---

    About 10% of the nuclear material in the bombs underwent fission; the remaining 90% rose in the atmosphere with the fireball.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Not that it matters much. People living there now, have been for a long time. Japan's a norrow island, probably a lot fell in the sea.
    ---

    Was just making a small joke at your expense, Ash. It is possible for the truth to contain a lot of BS anyway. Consider, "I didn't have sex with that woman" which while probably true, is mostly BS:)

    WiO didn't say Israel would attack Iran in five days, he said --

    I could and most likely am wrong...

    but i see something about to pop with iran in about 5 days....


    and he's jumped on like he's making an absolute prophecy.

    Sooner or later, they may very well do it.

    In the prophecy business you want to leave wiggle room. That's why a good end of the world prophet shouldn't mark the day. "Only the Lord knows the day..."

    ReplyDelete
  119. Re: Iranian strike. Any time is a good time. The only relevant issue here is that relating to military preparedness.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Here's an example of a proper end of the world prophecy, done right, with appropriate wiggle room at the end--


    King James Version:



    Mat 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to [him] for to shew him the buildings of the temple.


    Mat 24:2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.


    Mat 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?


    Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.


    Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.


    Mat 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet.


    Mat 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.


    Mat 24:8 All these [are] the beginning of sorrows.


    Mat 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.


    Mat 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.


    Mat 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.


    Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.


    Mat 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.


    Mat 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.


    Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)


    Mat 24:16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:


    Mat 24:17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:


    Mat 24:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.


    Mat 24:19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!


    Mat 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:


    Mat 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.


    Mat 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.


    Mat 24:23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here [is] Christ, or there; believe [it] not.


    Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.


    Mat 24:25 Behold, I have told you before.


    Mat 24:26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, [he is] in the secret chambers; believe [it] not.


    Mat 24:27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.


    Mat 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.


    Mat 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:


    Mat 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.


    Mat 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.


    Mat 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh:


    Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, [even] at the doors.


    Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.


    Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.


    Mat 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Bob, I did not say any of this!

    ReplyDelete
  122. And, Mat, don't buy into that end of the world Mayan Long Count Calendar BS either, though it may contain some fleeting cyclical truth, related to the orbit of Venus or some other planet. It's kinda like Y2K, or somesuch.

    My Sarah Palin Calendar ends on December 31, 2009, and I'm not expecting the world to end then:)

    ReplyDelete
  123. Bob,

    The world will end when I say it will end!

    ReplyDelete
  124. Damn them imperialist Roman scribes! Who the hell instructed them and gave them permission to scribe this nonsense?!

    ReplyDelete
  125. wi"o" glass is easy to drill through.

    Who would leave the oil in the ground?

    No one would, the rest of the world would still need it.

    First best guess, the Chinese would move to exploit the resources.

    As they are already expanding their "Zone of Influence"

    Red Tide
    The Chinese Navy sets sail for Somalia.
    by Michael Auslin


    Second best guess, the Chrisitans, as the Muslims and Jews would both have been living in the blast areas, and neither would be viable politically or militarily.

    On second thought, switch those guesses around, the Christians followed by the Chinese.

    ReplyDelete
  126. "Bob better find himself a deep hole to crawel in, all thirty of 'em."

    "Bob" doesn't need a hole to crawl in.

    What do you think was meant by Obama's employment of "blatant" law breaking? Actions that were not authorized, that had no cover, and were egregious in character.

    Actions that were authorized, but egregious in character, will come under further review of past practices, many of which have long since undergone revision in the removal in time of 9/11. In that review, "Bob's" identity will never be known to the public, nor to those undertaking the review.

    I believe Clinton would call this "moving on." That's just what we're gonna do.

    Is it the right thing for the nation? Absolutely. But don't take my word for it; Obama's the one who sat through the briefings and cordial sit-downs. He chose his words with care...and with a preparatory understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and capabilities he inherits.

    ReplyDelete
  127. Oh, I agree that Obama would like that to happen. To look forward and not back.

    But Obama is not the messiah, nor even a mortal king. Events will grow beyond the President's attempt to control them.

    As has often happened in the past.

    The ever infamous "They" will not let go of torture until the torturers are chastised.
    The victims stories told.

    Whether good or bad, is beside the point. There are are rabid dogs that will be fed, count on that.

    To be dependent upon Obama's use of the word 'blatant' to build an edifice of immunity from the ravages of the shining light is to misplace one's faith.

    Seems to me.

    ReplyDelete
  128. The ravages of the light do not always turrn out so well, for those illuminated, guilty or not.

    Doctor Steve Jay Hatfill's story is informative, as to the shining of the light upon a life.

    On June 27, 2008 Hatfill was exonerated by the government and a settlement was announced in which the Justice Department has agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle the lawsuit in which Hatfill claimed the Justice Department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case

    Anonymity was certainly a casualty of the light for Lon Horiuchi.

    ReplyDelete
  129. Both government men that became illuminated by the shining light of public interest.

    ReplyDelete
  130. Seems to me.

    Wed Jan 14, 01:12:00 PM EST

    It's not my job to account for what seems *you*, Rat.

    I can only say that your particular grasp of the matter is uninformed.

    You'll simply have to find somebody else's cage to try and rattle. So to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  131. Horiuchi went from Ruby Ridge to Waco---didn't know that, or had forgotten it.

    In 1997, Boundary County, Idaho Prosecutor Denise Woodbury, with the help of special prosecutor Stephen Yagman, charged Horiuchi in state court with involuntary manslaughter. Horiuchi successfully petitioned to remove the case to federal court,[4] where the case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge on May 14, 1998, who cited the supremacy clause of the Constitution which grants immunity to federal officers acting in the scope of their employment.[1]

    The decision to dismiss the charges was reversed by an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit, which held that enough uncertainty about the facts of the case existed for Horiuchi to stand trial on state manslaughter charges.


    I generally can't stand the Ninth Cirucus Court of Appeals, but they were right there. He should have stood trial.


    Three of the twelve expended .308 Winchester shell casings that the Texas Rangers reported finding in the house were at Horiuchi's position.

    Sounds like Horiuchi was/is a loose cannon.

    However, officials maintain that they could have been left behind from the earlier use of the house by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and that it would be "nearly impossible" to match them to Horiuchi's rifle, as it had probably been rebarreled since that time.

    Which sounds like a coverup.


    For the five months following the Waco inferno, Timothy McVeigh worked at gun shows and handed out free cards printed up with Horiuchi's name and address, "in the hope that somebody in the Patriot movement would assassinate the sharpshooter". He wrote hate mail to the sniper, suggesting that "what goes around, comes around", and debated putting aside his plan to target the Murrah Building to instead simply target Horiuchi, or a member of his family.

    So, McVeigh decides to blow up a lot of totally innocent people.

    There's got to be a lesson in all this.

    Nitwits everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  132. I am not uniformed about the Press and the witch hunts that transpire.

    The Bobs will be the in the vortex of a witch hunt, blatantly guilty or not.

    ReplyDelete
  133. I thought Rat might enjoy this...maybe not. Ibbitson was sent to the US to follow the Presidential election. He's become a pretty good observer of US politics with an eye from Canada.




    Commentary
    'Barack the Magic Negro': Nope, the GOP's just fine

    JOHN IBBITSON

    From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

    January 14, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST

    Four Republican senators have decided not to run in 2010. The party's fundraising arm doesn't understand the Internet. And one of the candidates for the leadership of the party's national council sent out a CD containing the song "Barack the Magic Negro." Nah, no reason to worry about the Republicans at all.

    On Nov. 4, John McCain led the GOP to its worst election defeat since Barry Goldwater's immolation in 1964. Since then, things have got worse.

    Because the Republicans are down to 41 seats in the Senate, they have no hope of regaining a majority in next year's midterm elections. No majority means no committee chairmanships or other powerful perks. Older senators, or impatient young ones, are thinking of stepping down. There will be further defections in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

    Each defection forces the Republican National Committee to divert limited resources to protecting what used to be safe seats. The Republicans will be defending at least 20 Senate seats in 2010, the Democrats only 17. And all four of the retiring senators are in states - Kansas, Florida, Ohio and Missouri - where Democrats are competitive.

    GOP fundraisers watched slack-jawed as Barack Obama exploited the burgeoning social networks on the Internet to recruit four million donors who contributed $750-million, three times what Mr. McCain raised.

    Republicans will never be able to replicate that boggling achievement unless, and until, they can find a message and a candidate to galvanize both conservatives and swayable independents. Which is why the race for chairman of the RNC is being watched so closely.

    The 168 RNC members will choose a new chairman the week after next. He (all the candidates are men) will be the voice of the Republican Party until its next leader is chosen.

    One of those candidates, Tennessee party chair Chip Saltsman, circulated a CD to committee members that contained "Barack the Magic Negro," a parody of a Peter, Paul and Mary song that only those with longer teeth even remember.

    Another, South Carolina party chair Katon Dawson, only recently resigned from a country club whose covenant (unenforceably) excludes blacks.

    Two of the candidates actually are black. One of them, J. Kenneth Blackwell, who was Ohio's secretary of state, is favoured by the most socially conservative wing of the GOP. He could become the Clarence Thomas of the RNC.

    The Republican Party is shunned by every part of the electorate that is growing - the young, Latinos, blacks, city dwellers, people in the New South.

    As the base of the party dwindles, that base becomes more radical and intolerant, and its leadership devolves along with it. In a recent debate, the six candidates for the chairmanship competed to see who owned more guns. All agreed that Ronald Reagan was a greater president than Abraham Lincoln.

    It is a rough beast that slouches toward the leadership of such a party in 2012, and its name is Sarah Palin.

    But we've tried moderation, say the talk-show hosts and the preachers and the guys at the institutes. We've kowtowed to the ethnics, and toned down on abortion, and supported deficits. Look where it got us.

    The Republican Party, they insist, must cleanse itself, must champion a strong Christian America with an open economy and closed borders. Voters would flock to a party of such uncompromising principle, they argue.

    They can try that line if they want. Meantime: On Nov. 4, Democrats took all 10 of the wealthiest states in the union. Republicans won nine of the 10 poorest states.

    U.S. population growth is driven by immigration and by high Latino birth rates. Of the 15 states projected to have the largest populations in 2030, according to the Census Bureau, 12 went Democratic in 2008. Of the 15 states expected to be at the bottom, nine went Republican.

    In Florida, the ultimate swing state, 22 per cent of voters are now Latino or black. But don't Florida Latinos vote Republican, because of their hatred for Fidel Castro? Not any more. The Democrats took 57 per cent of their vote, and the state.

    Nationally, among those who voted, one in five was black or Latino. Members of what is being called the "black/brown coalition" made up a third of the Democratic vote.

    Send out copies of "Barack the Magic Negro." That'll make 'em switch."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090113.wcoibbi14/BNStory/specialComment/home

    ReplyDelete
  134. Barack, the magic negro

    Judge for yourself, if this is what real Republicans can rally around.

    ReplyDelete
  135. When caught in the shining light, it's best to go to ground, go as deep as one can.

    Just ask Hamas.

    They understand the blatant shifting of US public perception, as well as the next fellow.

    David Frum writes:
    A Rasmussen poll conducted in the last week of 2008 found that while 62 percent of Republicans backed Israel’s action in Gaza, only 31 percent of Democrats did. Almost three-quarters of Republicans blamed Hamas for starting this war; only a minority of Democrats agreed. Republicans are 20 points more friendly toward Israel than Democrats. And while extreme hostility to Israel does not exist among Republicans, almost one in 10 Democrats describes Israel as an “enemy of the United States.”

    This is the political environment in which Barack Obama will be forming policy toward the Jewish state. Friends of Israel should find this worrying to say the least.

    ReplyDelete
  136. BRAZIL has sent a planeload of food and medicines to the Palestinian victims of the current Hamas-Israeli war, a spokesman for the Brazilian embassy in Doha said.
    “After a 26-hour flight, a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane landed at Marka International Airport, Amman, on January 11 carrying 14 tons in food and medicines to Gaza victims of the current war.”

    The cargo was officially received on January 13 by Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Celso Amorim who was in Amman for the occasion.
    “He undertook a three-day regional tour, visiting Israel, Palestine, Syria and Jordan, to discuss the Gaza conflict with local authorities and to let them know the Brazilian perception and expectations on the matter,” a release from the mission said.

    “In Brazil a large Palestinian community lives side by side and in perfect harmony with the Jewish community. The Brazilian government wants to keep it that way and show it as an example to the world,” it added.


    Supplies to Gaza

    ReplyDelete
  137. Our fellow Americans, those Brazilians.

    ReplyDelete
  138. Republicans are 20 points more friendly toward Israel than Democrats. And while extreme hostility to Israel does not exist among Republicans, almost one in 10 Democrats describes Israel as an “enemy of the United States.”

    Those numbers aren't surprising. As the democratic party has moved left, it has left its saner roots behind. You get pinkos aligned with the muzzies, an anti-semitic and irrational bunch drinking a fanatical brew. Mix this up with some kind of multicultural stuff, you got antisemiticism breaking out all over, in Europe and the US too.

    The pinkos and the muzzies, what a hell of a sad disgusting situation.

    ReplyDelete
  139. Here's a good cartoon like depiction of the state of affairs in and around Gaza.

    ReplyDelete
  140. When Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine steps in as head of the Democratic Party next week, he will face a local challenge along with his national priorities: making sure his state's next governor is a Democrat.

    ...

    Maintaining momentum will be Kaine's biggest challenge, said Democratic strategist Dave "Mudcat" Saunders of Roanoke.

    ...

    In strengthening a party based on grassroots organization, Obama has called for fundamental changes in party fundraising.


    Kaine at DNC

    ReplyDelete
  141. During the debate, the vast majority of European Parliament members called for an immediate ceasefire and a negotiated truce.

    The European Parliament is set to pass a resolution calling for such ceasefire and urges a "multinational presence" to monitor such a truce.

    European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who also attended the debate, said the conflict "pushes the prospect of peace ever further away" and "has a negative impact stability throughout the region."


    Israel/Hamas

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  142. The report painted a grim picture of the housing sector, saying most districts felt conditions in residential real estate markets "continued to worsen." Commercial real estate markets deteriorated in most districts, it added.

    It said labor market conditions weakened as continued layoffs by companies were reported across the country, while wage pressures remained largely contained.

    The report said manufacturing activity decreased in most districts.


    Weaker Across US

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  143. The al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden, called for solidarity with the people of Gaza. "Our brothers in Palestine, you have suffered a lot ... the Muslims sympathise with you in what they see and hear.

    We, the mujahideen, sympathise with you also," Bin Laden said on a new audio tape.

    "We are with you and we will not let you down. Our fate is tied to yours in fighting the crusader-Zionist coalition, in fighting until victory or martyrdom."


    Al-Qaida Leader

    ReplyDelete
  144. U.S. military report warns 'sudden collapse' of Mexico is possible...
    ---
    Chávez Reopens Oil Bids to West as Prices Plunge
    The shift shows how the global financial crisis is hampering Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s ideological agenda and demanding his pragmatic side as he seeks to bolster his country’s stream of income.

    ReplyDelete
  145. If the Pubs had any brains, they'd run a slate of conservative blacks, with a new contract for America centered around vouchers for residents of shitty school districts.
    ...and Jindal for POTUS.

    ReplyDelete
  146. Remarkably, King improvised the entire cascading vision of the “I have a dream” section of the speech, which was not in his prepared text, in accord with the practice of African American oratory. Yet the meaning of King’s dream, as of the American dream itself, remains contested to this day, from both Left and Right, partly because of the ubiquity of the speech, and partly because King himself spoke in different voices at different times.

    An African American predecessor, Frederick Douglass, adroitly sketched the tensions in regard to Lincoln while making clear where he himself stood. “Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent”, wrote Douglass.

    “But measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined.” A century later, King might have said something similar about Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon Johnson.


    Obama's King

    ReplyDelete
  147. Yeah, in Iraq.
    ==

    I would think that would be the end of Iran. I would also think that mullahs in Tehran think the same.

    ReplyDelete
  148. Larry Chomstein's

    Book Review: Ann Bimbot Coulter's Guilty

    The was a rumor going around that Nazi bimbot, Ann Coulter, had a new book out - so I checked my testicles and sure enough, they were the size of peas. Every time that venom-spewing slut releases one of her right-wing hate screeds, my gonads shrivel up like shrinky-dinks in a microwave. This, her latest in a long line of racist tomes, must be a real doozy because my family jewels haven't been this tiny since Sarah Palin put lipstick on a pit bull.

    It's like waking up in the morning to discover that someone performed gender reassignment surgery on you in your sleep. The bad news is that it makes it next to impossible to write an informative, comprehensive review of the hatemongering hater's book without it deteriorating into a series of catty remarks about her hair, or those bony elbows and cottage cheese thighs of hers...not to mention that bowling ball-sized Adam's apple. And she has the GALL to criticize Michelle Obama's pantsuits? HOW DARE SHE?! She looks like someone who just crawled out of a David Bowie look-alike contest in a concentration camp. The only reason the right-wingers like her is because she's so damn HOT. Ooooohh I could just SCRATCH HER PRETTY LITTLE EYES OUT!!!!

    Whoo! There I go again. My estrogen is through the ROOF right now. Can you imagine what would happen if I actually read her book? My genitals would dwindle away completely, to be replaced by a huge, gaping hole from which nothing - not even light - could escape. That might get me a job writing op-eds for the Huffington Post or the New York Times, but it just try sitting at a desk with office products, heavy machinery, and entire families of undocumented workers spiraling into the dark vortex of your mangina. I don't know how Paul Krugman does it.

    So as much as it pains me to say it, I won't be reviewing the hussy's book this time. In fact, I'm going to stay as far away from it as possible. If you value your chestnuts, I suggest you do the same.

    .
    .

    http://blamebush.typepad.com/

    ReplyDelete
  149. Looks like it's over for Jobs:

    --

    Team,

    I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

    In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

    I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple's day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

    I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

    Steve

    --

    The stock will be sold down for the next 6 months.

    ReplyDelete
  150. Mom's a financial planner. She was on a conference call with an economist from a mutual fund. Doing a forecast for '09. He thought the Dow would be up to 11.5 or 12 by the end of the year. Thought there would be a bounce in the 1st quarter due to Obama optimism then nothing much again until the 4th when the stimulus projects start to show an effect.

    ReplyDelete
  151. In other developments:

    * Palestinian medics say seven people were killed in two separate airstrikes on Gaza City in the early hours of Thursday

    * A boat carrying medical supplies to Gaza is surrounded by Israeli warships in international waters off Lebanon's southern coast and forced to return to Cyprus, according to charity Free Gaza

    * Palestinian deaths in the Gaza Strip reach 1,028 according to Gaza medical sources. Nearly a third of the dead are said to be children.


    Pressure Grows

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  152. Quess I'll have to breakdown and read Coulter's book.

    ReplyDelete
  153. Well, sam that would be an aalmost 50% jump from todays close of 8200.

    I truly doubt that will happen.

    ReplyDelete
  154. Climate Questions Enable Local Nazis

    It's this kind of crap that might take hold in my home town if the wrong people got elected again. These damned busy bodies would consent to have their teeth pulled in order to be able to dictate people's property. Thankfully, they are out of power now, but who knows tomorrow?

    In my good state, where the legislature is controlled about 80% by sanity, it might be possible to castrate the bastards with a few well written state laws.

    They wanted to go gun controlling, for instance, and ran smack into the Idaho Code.

    ReplyDelete
  155. WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama's economic recovery bill has grown to perhaps $850 billion after negotiations with his Democratic allies in Congress, who have rewritten some of the president-elect's tax proposals and may drive the price tag even higher.

    But House Democrats are likely to back away from an effort to use the economic recovery bill to extend a tax cut for middle- to upper-income taxpayers. Obama's transition team had concerns that extending current rules regarding the alternative minimum tax wouldn't boost the economy.

    Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said Wednesday that lawmakers in both the House and Senate wanted to use Obama's stimulus package to make the annual fix to the AMT to prevent more than 20 million additional tax filers from having to pay it.

    But making that fix for one year alone would have cost about $70 billion, taking a healthy chunk out of the approximately $300 billion that Obama has set aside for tax cuts. Now, Democratic aides briefed on the details but demanding anonymity to speak frankly, say the soon-to-emerge $850 billion stimulus plan is unlikely to address the minimum tax, at least in the House version likely to be revealed Thursday.

    In the Senate, Max Baucus, D-Mont., the top tax writer, said the alternative minimum tax fix was likely to remain in the recovery bill, which could drive the cost of the bill above $850 billion.

    A $3,000 job-creation tax credit proposed by Obama, which drew strong objections as unworkable, still appears likely to be jettisoned from the Obama plan, Rangel said.


    I know that rufues told us the bigger, better, bailout would not pass, but it looks like the deficit will top $2 trillion bucks.

    Despite assurances from rufus.

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  156. Is that 11.5 to 12%, Sam, or 11500 to 12000?

    I'm with Rat if it's the latter.

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  157. Charlie Rangel pays the real true alternative minimum tax himself, by not paying his taxes. Likewise with Obama's pick for Treasury Secretary. Likewise possible Senator Frankenstein.

    This is a touchy subject with me right now, as we are working on our taxes, filling out the accountants check list, getting things in order.

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  158. There was an article in the local fishwrap the other day about the number of private schools popping up like mushrooms around Idaho. The local school districts were getting worried, losing all those students, so they were asking to have the number capped at, I think it was, 6 a year. This is kind of interesting. Some real competition is coming to our state sponsored school system here, and they are trying to stiffle it as best they can. In Moscow, the local high school got beaten in academics by the local Logos School, for instance. I'm interested in following this story.

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  159. Doug's got a good idea at 9:45.

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  160. Rat's Warnings Coming True?

    Mexico collapsing.

    Odd thing about Mexico--I read it, along with Nigeria, ranks at the top of the world's 'happiness scale'.

    Happiness is "nothin' left to lose", I quess.

    I predict Bush will spring Ramos and Compean. He's getting some heat from some Senators over the matter.

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  161. Tomorrow's high in WestPenn: Bone. Ass. Cold.

    Friday's high in Bogota: Mid-sixties. Sunshine - frosting on the cupcake.

    Yyyyyyyyyyyyyeah buddy.

    And saving it for last, I finally had my cheeseburger.

    Mission complete.

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  162. We're heading down to Riggins for Inauguration Day. Wife says she can't stand to hear about it, so we're goin' to the woods. She says she's got some hike to take there, I say, it'll be snowy, she says I don't care.

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  163. A woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do, bob.

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  164. And by the way why are we wasting so much money on this newfangle fandangle? Bush got inaugurated and wasted about 50 million doing so, and there was a howl, as there should have been, and this is going at 150 million or so. Let the democratic party pick up the tab. Let Ash pay for it.

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  165. My aunt says hotels are booked all the way down to Norfolk. Wouldn't know.

    We're gonna be made a respectable nation again, bob. What price, really, respectability?

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  166. $4,000,000?


    News from the respectable nation--

    The 22 year old girl who is auctioning off her virginity has got the bids up to $4,000,000.

    Just heard her on the radio.

    Majored in Women's Studies.

    Sister used to work at The Cottontail Ranch.

    She says, "I don't why anyone would pay that much. It's supply and demand, I quess. Some people really value virgins."

    Some arab sheikh, most like.

    That's a respectable price, for sure.

    Gotta take your hat off to the girl.

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  167. It's supply and demand, I quess.

    It's damned hard to find a decent virgin, these days.

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  168. That's truly sad, bob.



    I have to sleep and catch a plane.

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  169. Speaking of howling--

    Bill loses it in the Cathedral---


    At midnight, in the shadowy choir loft of a candlelit gothic cathedral of the Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburg, a fifty-four year old businessman named Bill sits in a crowded pew enjoying a concert by the innovative jazz encemble known as the Paul Winter Consort. It's a hallmark of Winter's group to set their stage in unusual, and atmospheric venues--canyons, beaches, old stone barns--to reflect the moody, reverent spirit of their music, which often blends their own live performances with the recorded songs of nature. Tonight's concert, for example, has included a lyrical duet with a school of singing humpback whales and a haunting serenade built around the keening of eagles. Now, as the evening draws to a close, Winter and his group are providing the instrumental accompaniment to the tape-recorded singing of a pack of free-roaming wolves.

    (you got your free range chickens and your free range wolves--bob)

    The rhythmic, otherworldly wolf serenade echoes eerily in the monumental quiet of the cathedral's soaring spaces. The wolves raise their voices in raw howls of sheer animal power, then let them soften into haunting and melancholy sighs. This grand old church has never heard such a choir, and the unhurried rise and fall of Winter's moody soprano sax--sometimes harmonizing with the animal voices, sometimes joining them in a gentle exchange of rythmic call and responce--adds a powerfully hypnotic dimension to the music. In a more conventional venue, the effect of this remarkable performance would weave a powerful spell, but in this old cathedral, lit only by the soft glow of candles on the limestone walls, it's enough to lift listeners out of their everyday lives, and into another world.

    And as the wolf serenade reaches its emotional crescendo, that's exactly what's happening to Bill. Quitly, unconsciously, he has allowed himself to be absorbed into the song of the wolves, lulled by its haunting rhythms and the beauty of those wild voices. He feels deeply, serenely at peace. Then, suddenly, he is seized by a surge of excitement. It rushes up from the gut in a burst of joy and energy, and before he can think twice about it, Bill is on his feet, with his head thrown back, and he is howling from the bottom of his soul.

    Remarkabley, at the same moment, other people have begun to howl, At first it's half a dozen, scattered throughout the cathedral. But in moments others follow their lead and soon the entire cathedral is alive with joyous noise, as hundreds of people joyfully join in the primal song of the wolves.

    "I don't know what happened," says Bill.....


    from "Why God Won't Go Away" Newberg, M.D. and D' Aquili, Ph.D.

    The authors of this book maintain the brain has become constructed through evolution in such a manner as to facilitate transcendent experiences, of which this is a humorous example, often on the wings of drum, the lift of song, or, the calm of extreme quiet, or, oddly enough, all three concurrently.

    ----

    That a virgin is hard to find, or that she costs so much, or that a young girl is willing to advertise herself thus, Trish?

    Have a safe trip.

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  170. Savage is claiming Obama is paying back the "LA gay mafia", who he says originally funded his campaign, by getting rid of the 'don't ask don't tell' rule in the military, the metrosexualization and intentional ruination of the military, a recent theme of his.

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  171. "...but in this old cathedral..."

    Night, bob.

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