COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Maureen Dowd Gets Testy


"Thanks guys!"

This is choice. It shows just how far the Republicans have fallen thanks to what's his name. The Democrats are railing at each other and ignoring the stupid party.

Look at this cast: Caroline Kennedy, the Clintons, the absolutely crackers, Blago, and of course, Chuck Schumer, everyone's fave narcissist. Now, how can you not enjoy this?
____________________

Which Governor Is Wackier?

By MAUREEN DOWD
January 24, 2009
WASHINGTON

The New York Times
Maureen Dowd




I love Blago.

I love his beady little eyes. I love his Serbian shock of hair. I love his flaring nostrils. I love the way he jogs through the snow under indictment, like a stork in spandex trying to gallop. I love the way he compares himself in quick order to Pearl Harbor, Oliver Wendell Holmes and a dead cowboy.

I love the hurly-burly way the Illinois governor rammed through his choice for the Senate, compared with the namby-pamby way the New York governor strangled his best choice for the Senate.

So now we have an N.R.A. handmaiden in Bobby Kennedy’s old seat? Kirsten Gillibrand, a k a Tracy Flick, accepting the honor with her Republican pal Al D’Amato beside her on stage? Gross.

After quoting Kipling and Tennyson in previous shameless press conferences, Blago moved on to an old cowboy movie analogy on Friday to explain why he should be allowed to call Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett and Jesse Jackson Jr. as witnesses at the impeachment trial he’s refusing to attend.

“There was an old saying in the Old West,” he said. “There was a cowboy who was charged with stealing a horse in town. And some of the other cowboys, especially the guy whose horse was stolen, were very unhappy with that guy. And one of the cowboys said, ‘Let’s hang him.’ Then the other cowboys said: ‘Hold on. Before we hang him, let’s first give him a fair trial. Then we’ll hang him.’ Under these rules, I’m not even getting a fair trial. They’re just hanging me.”

Raising his own high bar for chutzpah, he complained to The Associated Press about his arrest, “Dec. 9 to my family, to us, to me, is what Pearl Harbor Day was to the United States.”

Even though he is accused of pressuring The Chicago Tribune — fire members of the editorial board who had criticized him or lose his help in selling the prime asset Wrigley Field — Blago called on The Tribune to write editorials defending his rights.

Mayor Richard Daley pronounced Blago “cuckoo.” Governor Paterson is simply a goofball.

Paterson could have acted a month ago, or even a week ago. There was no reason not to, certainly not his claim that he had to wait for Hillary, ad nauseam, to exit to State. Colorado’s governor named Michael Bennet senator two and a half weeks before Ken Salazar resigned his seat for the Interior Department.

Then the Democrats would have had another Kennedy in the Senate representing New York — Bobby’s niece and a smart, policy-oriented, civic-minded woman to whom the president feels deeply indebted in an era when every state has its hand out.

Instead they have Gillibrand, who voted against the Wall Street — as in New York — bailout bill. And who introduced a bill to balance the federal budget annually, which suggests she would oppose the $825 billion in deficit spending that President Obama proposes to rescue the country, not least New York.

Paterson’s five weeks of dithering let the jealous vindictiveness of the Clintons and friends — still fuming over Caroline’s endorsement of Obama and Teddy’s blocking Hillary from a leading health care role in the Senate — poison the air. With his usual sense of entitlement and aggrievement, Bill Clinton of Arkansas did not want Caroline Kennedy of New York to have the seat that Hillary Clinton of Illinois held.

Paterson wasn’t thinking of New York, only of how an upstate ally who was a woman would bolster his own chances for re-election. We can only hope that an avenging Andrew Cuomo takes him out in a primary.

The 42-year-old Gillibrand, who has been in the House for only two years, is known as opportunistic and sharp- elbowed. Tracy Flick is her nickname among colleagues in the New York delegation, many of whom were M.I.A. at her Albany announcement.

Fellow Democrats were warning Harry Reid on Friday that he was going to have his hands full with the new senator because she’s “a pain.”

Chuck Schumer embraced Gillibrand because at long last he can be the best-known senator from New York, something that would have been impossible with Kennedy.

The governor who began his accidental tenure, thanks to Client 9, by confessing his infidelities and drug use had so little class that he trashed Kennedy while letting her hang out to dry, then let aides trash her even after she dropped out.

Kennedy friends said that, as Caroline was pulling out for family reasons, the governor made a crude attempt to control the spin — a childish “You can’t quit, I’m firing you” power play.

Carolyn McCarthy, who ran for Congress on an antigun platform after her husband was killed and her son wounded by a gunman on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993, said she may challenge the “N.R.A. poster child” in 2010.

She had the best line Friday, wondering about the chuckle-headed governor: “Who’s in control up there?”



99 comments:

  1. If you didn't get laid any more often than Maureen Dowd does you'd get "Testy," too.

    Speakin of which: Man, those are some fine-lookin wimmin on the thread, below.

    Fine Lookin!

    Really, Really Fine Lookin!

    JaZaam!

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  2. I've looked those wimmin over closely, too, and, I think #3 is the best, but we all have our own peckadillios, or whatever that term is, and, they are all acceptable to me, and all, exceptional.

    God Bless American Women!

    Wimmin!

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  3. Who cares what Maureen Dowd says, when we got somethin' to look at.

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  4. Another friend of Israel speaks, he does not see a victory, in Cast Lead, either.

    But, he adds, "we have to make sure that the radicals do not perceive this as a victory," and it remains far from clear that they would be wrong to see it as one.

    "Notwithstanding the blows to the Hamas, it's still in Gaza, it's still ruling Gaza, and the Philadelphi corridor [which runs along Gaza's border with Egypt] is still porous, and . . . Hamas can smuggle new rockets unless it's closed, to fire at Israel in the future."


    That'd be Benjamin Netanyahu with the scathing analysis of the lack of success of Israels' campaign against the women and children of Gaza.

    He goes on, in the WSJ piece, to tell us that the Israeli have impeded the economic life of the Palistinians, but that he will lift those restrictions.

    Mr. Netanyahu's own prescriptions for a settlement with the Palestinians -- what he calls a "workable peace" -- ... stresses the need for rapid economic development in the West Bank, promising to remove "all sorts of impediments to economic growth" faced by Palestinians.

    The only way an Israeli PM could remove the "impediments to economic growth" in Palistine is if the Israeli put those "impediments to economic growth" there, in the first place.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Whjole in the US, the War on Drugs creates collateral damage far from the frontier:

    At around 6pm on January 27 of last year, 80-year-old Isaac Singletary spotted a couple of drug dealers attempting to do business on his front lawn. It wasn’t the first time. Singletary, described by relatives as territorial and a bit crotchety, did what he’d done in the past. He grabbed his gun, and walked out on to his lawn to scare them off. Problem is, this time the men weren’t drug dealers. They were undercover Jacksonville, Florida police posing as drug dealers. They had come on to Singletary’s property to bait possible drug offenders. When he brandished his gun, the police shot Singletary four times, once in the back. He died a short time later. A subsequent investigation by Florida’s attorney general cleared the officers who shot Singletary of any wrongdoing.

    Singletary wasn’t a drug dealer. Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford described him as “an honest citizen trying to do good.” Florida Governor Charlie Crist visited Jacksonville a few days later. When asked by a reporter about Singletary’s death, Crist euphemistically called it one of the “challenges in fighting crime.”

    Singletary is far from the first innocent person to die for the war on drugs, and he’s nowhere near the last. But let’s call Singletary’s death what it is: collateral damage. Like the collateral damage of military wars overseas—innocents inadvertently killed by bombs, bullets, and missiles aimed at legitimate targets—Singletary's a victim only because he happened to live in close proximity to the government's intended target, in this case, drug offenders. And like the civilian casualties of military wars, Singletary’s death won't do a thing to cause the people who run this war to rethink their priorities. Because for them, the ultimate goal is more important than the innocent lives they may take along the way. As Governor Crist said, Singletary's death is really little more than a "challenge" on the journey to a drug-free Florida.


    Be careful wavin' that pistol around, while in your yard, bobal.

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  7. of Israels' campaign against the women and children of Gaza

    Honestly, Rat, I ask, give up the anti-Jew crap for a while, would you please?

    Sit back, have a smoke, look at the wimmin, and relax.

    Honest to God, you sound like Cedarfart, sometimes.

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  8. I'll be careful with my gun, Rat.

    You look to your obvious anti-semitism.

    You don't even know where it comes from, you just have it.

    It's one of your prejudices.

    ReplyDelete
  9. No anti-senitism, bob.

    Semetic:
    In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical "Shem", Hebrew: שם, translated as "name", Arabic: ساميّ) was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. This family includes the ancient and modern forms of Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese, Phoenician, Tigre and Tigrinya among others.

    As language studies are interwoven with cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution.


    I have nothing 'anti' about anyone from that region. Arabic or Jew.

    Just see the actions of the governments there, for what they are. One cannot be anti-semetic and support the Palistinians in their desire to not be impeded by the Israelis.

    I support life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The Isarelis do not provide those basic rights of man, endowed by the Creator, to the Palistinians living in the occupied areas that are under Israeli control. Not on an equal basis that they provide those rights to their own citizens.

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  10. That was the essence of the Mitchell Report and the core of US policy in the Region, now.

    I support the national interests of United States and care little about the interests of others, anywhere else.

    As Mr Mitchell said about Peace and Stability in the area, that is where the US national interests lie.

    I tend to agree with the positions expressed by the US envoy to the Region, who represents the interests of the United States.

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  11. Geography
    Semitic peoples and their languages, in both modern and ancient historic times, have covered a broad area bridging Africa, Western Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. The earliest historic (written) evidences of them are found in the Fertile Crescent, an area encompassing the Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, extending northwest into southern Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and the Levant along the eastern Mediterranean. Early traces of Semitic speakers are found, too, in South Arabian inscriptions in Yemen, Eritrea, Northern Ethiopia and later, in Roman times, in Nabataean inscriptions from Petra (modern Jordan) south into Arabia.

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  12. Oh sure.

    What a bunch of crap.

    But, I give up.
    There is no arguing with you.

    It's all a bunch of B.S.

    And, you know it down deep, too.

    But, I leave it up to Mat and WiO.

    It just isn't worth it.

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  13. Yes, yes yes.

    The damned Jews attacked Gaza to KILL THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

    Out of the murder in their minds.

    What a bunch of crap.

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  14. Ash, in my list of arab countries that had kicked the "Palestinians" out, I forgot to mention Libya.

    Add that to the list.

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  15. That is about as vicious as I've ever seen Dowd, which says a lot. I put together a poster on my blog which shows Kirsten Gillibrand as Tracy Flick.

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  16. "Crist euphemistically called it one of the
    “challenges in fighting crime.”
    "
    ---
    A Perfect example of today's politician.

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  17. Mo MoDo, welcome to
    The Elephant Bar!

    Barkeep, set her up!

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

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  19. Thanks for the drink. Vodka, straight. Just like Hillary and McCain do.

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  20. Gillibrand has/had a 100% rating, if I read it right, with the National Rifle Association. This is remarkable, given New York ways. And immediately endeared her to me. On the other hand, I saw it reported, that at her news conference, she was quoted as saying something along the lines of she supports Zero's plan to 'keep guns out of the hands of criminals.'

    Well, we all support that. What's worrisome is the details in the legislation they are going to inevitably propose, and probably pass.

    So, I'm witholding my rating on Gillibrand for now.

    But, it could have been much worse.

    ----

    Most welcome. Hope you hang around.

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  21. Welcome MoMo. Keep your flack jacket on in this place.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Check this out on New York:

    "Hunters harvested approximately 220,000 deer in the 2007 season, a 16 percent increase over the previous season, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis announced today...."

    (I would think maybe one in ten hunters gets a deer in the best of times. That implies 2,200,000 hunters.)

    "...The 2007 take included 104,451 bucks and 114,690 antlerless deer. Buck takes grew by 8 percent over 2006 (96,569) and 17 percent over 2005 (89,015), suggesting that deer populations in many portions of New York are continuing to grow slowly.

    AND THIS:

    "...In 2007, muzzleloader hunting once again gained in popularity with more than 232,000 hunters buying muzzleloader licenses and a total take of more than 17,207 deer. This is the highest muzzleloader take on record."

    WHODA THUNK IT?

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  23. "Pozole Maker"

    TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) - Relatives of 100 missing people want to show photos of their loved ones to a man arrested in Tijuana for allegedly helping a druglord dispose of his slain enemies by dissolving their bodies in acid, a victims' group said Saturday.

    Santiago Meza Lopez, known as the "Pozole Maker" after a local stew, is accused by Mexico's military of disposing of 300 bodies for Teodoro Garcia Simental, a suspected former lieutenant of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug cartel.

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  24. Terror in our streets
    Homegrown terror
    Fueled by drug money and revenge, street gangs have flourished and spread across Southern California and beyond in the face of sporadic and ineffective law enforcement efforts and inadequate intervention strategies. [MORE]

    Homegrown terror Fueled by drug money and revenge, street gangs have flourished and spread across Southern California and beyond in the face of sporadic and ineffective law enforcement efforts and inadequate intervention strategies. [MORE]

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  25. Celebrate Diversity!

    Long Beach has seen 127 gang-related murders since 1999. The city counts approximately 6,000 gang members in a complex mix of ethnicities. There are 48 Hispanic gangs in the city, 28 black gangs, 12 Asian gangs and two white gangs.

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  26. Rat is becoming quite the jew hating idiot...

    Just like C$ before him, the JOOS are all powerful

    So why argue with him on this issue?

    It's pissing in the wind..

    ReplyDelete
  27. All warfare is based on deception, WiO. You make the enemy believe you are what you are not. If you are a sliver of land with 10 km of strategic depth at the narrowest point, surrounded by a hundred million implacable enemies who dress their babies up as suicide bombers, let the enemy believe you are omnipotent.

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  28. Of course, a couple of hundred nuclear warheads doesn't hurt, either. :)

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  29. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  30. Two articles stood out today while perusing the Sunday NY Times. The first regarding Bobal's and WiO's retreat to crying "anti-semitism" regarding Rat's arguments on Israel/Gaza. (funny in bobal's case given his racist rants on Blacks and entirely in keeping with WiO's hatred). The article is worth reading in full but here is the start:

    "The Bullets in My In-Box

    "By ETHAN BRONNER
    Published: January 24, 2009

    GAZA — Faisal Husseini, a Palestinian leader who died at the start of this decade, used to tell a story about his first visit to Israel. The 1967 war had just ended, borders were suddenly opened and he took a drive to Tel Aviv, where at some point he found himself detained by an Israeli policeman. Questions and answers ensued. At one point the policeman said to him, “As a proud Zionist, I must tell you ....” At which Mr. Husseini burst out laughing.


    What’s so funny? the policeman asked. “I have never in my life,” Mr. Husseini replied, “heard anyone refer to Zionism with anything but contempt. I had no idea you could be a proud Zionist.”

    I have written about the Arab-Israeli conflict on and off for more than a quarter-century and have spent the past four weeks covering Israel’s war in Gaza. For me, Mr. Husseini’s story sums up how the two sides speak in two distinct tongues, how the very words they use mean opposite things to each other, and how the war of language can confound a reporter’s attempts to narrate — or a new president’s attempts to mediate — this conflict in a way both sides can accept as fair.

    Among Israel’s Jews, there is almost no higher value than Zionism. The word is bathed in a celestial glow, suggesting selflessness and nobility. But go anywhere else in the Middle East and Zionism stands for theft, oppression, racist exclusionism."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/weekinreview/25bronner.html?_r=1&hp





    The second article brought which appeared on the front page reminded me of Mats and his continually writing of how dissenters to his view should be killed. He is so similar to the Taliban except in his case it is just empty words.

    "Radio Spreads Taliban’s Terror in Pakistani Region

    PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Every night around 8 o’clock, the terrified residents of Swat, a lush and picturesque valley a hundred miles from three of Pakistan’s most important cities, crowd around their radios. They know that failure to listen and learn might lead to a lashing — or a beheading.

    Using a portable radio transmitter, a local Taliban leader, Shah Doran, on most nights outlines newly proscribed “un-Islamic” activities in Swat, like selling DVDs, watching cable television, singing and dancing, criticizing the Taliban, shaving beards and allowing girls to attend school. He also reveals names of people the Taliban have recently killed for violating their decrees — and those they plan to kill."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/world/asia/25swat.html?hp

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  31. I do not know any Jews to hate.
    Had a lawyer that was Jewish, seemed a reasonable enough fella.

    No, wi"o", it is Israel and its' government, which is not synonymous with Jews, that is taking these actions and is being denounced for those specific behaviours and activities.

    No, it is you and bobal that spread the religous slime with the big brush. I tend to quote Israeli Prime Ministers and leading politicians, drawing the obvious and logical conclusions that their statements lead to.

    Cast Lead was responsible for the deaths of aprox 1400 Palistinians. Last I read these deaths were split pretty evenly, 700 Hamas combatants and 700 civilians, women, children and old men.
    There were said to be 15,000 Hamas combatants, at the start of Cast Lead, so Hamas took 5% casualties, KIA. Not a knock out blow by any means.

    Those civilian casualties include those from the UN facilities that Israel targeted in Gaza, acts, which if any other State or Organization had perpetrated it, would be declared, prima facie, terrorism.

    As Benjamin Netanyahu said, it gives Hamas the opportunity to declare victory, just as Benjamin Netanyahu feared.

    This then is how Israel fights 'Total War'?

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  32. When all else fails, play the "Race/Religion" card.

    Does not cut the mustard, amigos.

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  33. yawn...

    if it smells like shit, tastes like shit and looks like shit

    it's shit...

    and those innocent UN schools with rocket launchers, and mosques with anti air craft guns, and schools with secondary explosions when hit?

    shit...

    war crimes accusations?

    go fuck yourself

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  34. Now it is Obama's turn in the barrel. Not bad for five days:

    Afghan president: US forces killed 16 civilians

    Jan 25, 7:13 AM (ET)

    By JASON STRAZIUSO and RAHIM FAIEZ

    KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - President Hamid Karzai condemned a U.S. operation he said killed 16 Afghan civilians, while hundreds of villagers denounced the American military during an angry demonstration Sunday.

    Karzai said the killing of innocent Afghans during U.S. military operations "is strengthening the terrorists."

    He also announced that his Ministry of Defense sent Washington a draft technical agreement that seeks to give Afghanistan more oversight over U.S. military operations. The same letter has also been sent to NATO headquarters.

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  35. Please remind me - why is it we WANT to stay there?

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  36. go fuck yourself
    ==

    That's exactly the attitude Israel's gov should be taking. And they should have done this 60 years ago.

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  37. No UN supplies and aid money to the Jihadis without the same going to Israelis.

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  38. And the sooner Israel takes out the Jihadi oil facilities, the better.

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  39. Take out the oil tankers as well.

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  40. Israel should "just do it"

    Say to the world, we have confiscated iranian and Syrian supplied arms supplied to an international terror group hamas...

    We have decided to send a message to both syria and iran

    As of 12pm Syria's presidential palace and main power generating station has been erased

    And Iran is no longer in the oil refinement business

    Please understand that any additional evidence of arms, men or cash smuggled or attempts to smuggle Israel will destroy selective high value targets in Iran (or any other nation) at will...

    Please see the below list of preselected targets:

    Syria:
    The Baniyas station
    The Suwaydiyah power station
    Muhradah power station
    Tishrin power plant

    This list could be complied by several sources for any and all countries supporting terror against the Jewish state...

    but the message would get out quite quickly

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  41. Based on past history, unconfirmed reports of civilian casualties and Israeli war crimes should be treated as highly suspect. Anyone with a Hamas barrel pointing at them is going to deliver whatever propaganda they told to deliver. This includes everyone from the man on the street to the Doctors in hospital.

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  42. I said back in December that based on past history, this latest incursion would probably come to naught.

    Hamas is declaring victory...we'll see.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Radio Ecoshock:

    http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EcoshockNews/~5/520472513/ES_090123_Show_LoFi.mp3

    ReplyDelete
  44. - Starling
    ==

    Startling. Tiz missing Mat's Girls musical soundtrack. :)

    ReplyDelete
  45. Damn hotel, just wastes space and fucks up what was once a good landscape.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Idle hands are the devils workshop.

    That's true.

    But the best is, to control one's hands, and lookout for the overall scheme of things.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Wonder what Dubai's carbon footprint is, and where's the electric plant?

    ReplyDelete
  48. Got this on your ecoshock link, Mato.

    description The request sent by the client was syntactically incorrect ().
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Apache Tomcat/5.0.28

    ReplyDelete
  49. syntactically incorrect
    ==

    I checked it on two browsers. Works fine.

    ReplyDelete
  50. But try this one:

    http://www.ecoshock.net/eshock09/ES_090123_Show_LoFi.mp3

    ReplyDelete
  51. Doug, I firmly believe, we need a new states rights movement, without the racism.

    Uncle Sam, my uncle, has gotten too damn big.

    I've been invited to the Governors' Ball, in Boise, thinkning of giving some bucks to the party.

    I chipped in some bucks for Sarah, that's why I am getting these invites.

    I may go, just for the heck of it. Idaho is still a sane state, and, I feel, I kinda of owe the political party that has run it without corruption a little something.

    Where's the cheapest place to buy a snap on bow tie?

    ReplyDelete
  52. It is not just the UN doctor, whit, it is Benjamin Netanyahu that tells US the Israeli are killing innocent women and children. Mr Netanyahu grieves for those children.

    "We grieve for every child, for every innocent civilian that's killed either on our side or on the Palestinian side. ... "

    That is 4 innocent Israeli and 700 innocent Palistinians, that Bibi grieves for.

    As much as wi"o" rants and cusses, he will not admit that his statement earlier, that the Israeli had accomplished their military mission within minutes of the start of Cast Lead, should be denied as a truth, his remarks not revised or extended.

    At least not before the first 'shit' in each comment, as I quit reading after that.

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  53. I think you are right on the money with that obsevation, whit, the Israeli killed 700 civilians, for naught.

    ReplyDelete
  54. With folks like Tim Geithner, Pelosi, and Sharpton at the helm, we'll be pump and steamshovel ready.

    Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday the federal government may need to pump more taxpayer funds...

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday the federal government may need to pump more taxpayer funds into the faltering banking system and that taxpayers should receive equity as compensation.

    Pelosi told ABC's "This Week" program that "some increased investment" might be needed beyond the $700 billion approved last year under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to stabilize the nation's banks and get them to resume making loans.

    Congress would require more oversight of any further bank bailout, the California Democrat said.

    "Change has to happen in terms of what is done, what the transparency of it is, what the accountability of it is. Only then would we be able to pass any additional funding," Pelosi said.

    President Barack Obama's pick for treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, said last week the Treasury had no current plans to request more bailout money beyond the $700 billion already authorized, but that the situation was "dynamic."

    "We have to be prepared to act flexibly and with speed if conditions worsen appreciably, to devote more resources if that is necessary to secure our objectives," he wrote last week in reply to written questions during his confirmation hearing.
    ---
    "Dynamic, speedy, transparent"

    what a ride!

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  55. "...devote more resources if that is necessary to secure our objectives,"

    Who defined the objectives?
    What are the objectives?
    When were those objectives made public?
    Where are those objectives published?

    ReplyDelete
  56. Page not found
    The page you are looking for might have been removed,
    had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
    ---
    Damned Zionist Browsers!

    ReplyDelete
  57. As much as wi"o" rants and cusses, he will not admit that his statement earlier, that the Israeli had accomplished their military mission within minutes of the start of Cast Lead, should be denied as a truth, his remarks not revised or extended.
    ==

    Military objective(s) and military mission(s) fall within the larger scope of a military operation. Even I, as a complete military amateur, know that. Operation 'Cast Lead', as any military operation, will have within it a variety of objectives and missions. That you deny this, goes to show how thoroughly dishonest your argument is. Your sophistry is not impressing anyone.

    ReplyDelete
  58. Is Transparent 'Rat!
    Is No Problemo!

    ReplyDelete
  59. Damned Zionist Browsers!
    ==

    What other browsers are there?

    ReplyDelete
  60. Look at this snafuChina dams reveal flaws in Carbon Credit program

    ...hundreds of hydro projects line up for carbon credits, at a potential cost of billions to Europeans, Japanese and soon perhaps Americans, in a trading system a new U.S. government review concludes has "uncertain effects" on greenhouse-gas emissions.

    One American expert is more blunt.

    "The CDM" — the 4-year-old, U.N.-managed Clean Development Mechanism — "is an excessive subsidy that represents a massive waste of developed world resources," says Stanford University's Michael Wara.

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  61. No, mat, I agreed with you that Cast Lead was primarily a politcal move by Olmert and his crew to influence the Israeli election.

    wi"o" claimed the military objectives were achieved within minutes of the start.

    The targeting of civilians, to 'influence' them or 'teach them a lesson' is specificly outlawed. Again, as wi"o" stated, if that was the "plan" what he describes is a war crime, as presently defined.

    The US bombed Serbia for lesser 'war crimes' than occured in Gaza, because the Serbs were suspected of committing such against the Islamic residents of Kosovo.

    Those were the actions taken by the Clinton Administration, which now inhabits the corridors and cloak rooms of the Obama Wings of the White House and most of Foggy Bottom.

    The Mitchell Report, which President Obama ratified with George Mitchell's appointment as Envoy to the Middle East, paints the Palistinians as an aggrieved people, with the Israelis behaving beyond the pale in regards the human rights abuses they have laid upon the Palistinans.

    That is the policy position of the United States.

    As the Elephant Bar's candidate for President, John 'Maverick' McCain often told his staff:

    Learn it, live it, love it.

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  62. Life in mat's green utopia

    "Nobody asked if we wanted to move," said a 38-year-old man whose family lost a small brick house. "The government just posted a notice that said, 'Your home will be demolished.'"

    Where Big Brother knows what's best.

    ReplyDelete
  63. Always looking at, and out for, YOU!

    ReplyDelete
  64. Uncle Green needs YOU
    ...and your Green.

    ReplyDelete
  65. wi"o" claimed the military objectives were achieved within minutes of the start.
    ==

    Some have, some have not. Some military objectives were not even on the table, unfortunately. WiO stated that large quantities of Iranian arms intended for siege on Israeli cities and towns were destroyed within minutes. I can't say yes or no, but definitely the barrage of rockets that Israel suffered this time around was less than during the Lebanon conflict.

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  66. So they got less than they deserved.
    So says the Global Consensus.
    (Mostly all those Euros with their spotless histories.)

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  67. The CDM" — the 4-year-old, U.N.-managed Clean Development Mechanism — "is an excessive subsidy that represents a massive waste of developed world resources," says Stanford University's Michael Wara.
    ==

    I would go further and call it organized corruption. I think the best way forward is to simply stop trading with polluting countries.

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  68. So that has to be remedied, doug.
    Every one gets their fair share.

    Got to spread the wealth.

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  69. “Oefinger, like others, expressed concern that the stimulus will not provide long-term benefits or jobs. ‘I think it’s going to be dumping a lot of money down the rat hole and not have a lot to show for it,’ he said.” Gee, do you think? Meanwhile, it’s now been 185 days since Dodd promised to release those Countrywide mortgage documents.

    The potential for hanky-panky was recently illustrated in the UK where four Labour Peers are being accused of the stiffer upper lip version of “pay to play”. The Telegraph reports:

    Several Labour peers are prepared to accept fees of up to £120,000 a year to help make amendments to legislation in the House of Lords on behalf of business clients, it has been alleged. Lord Truscott, the former energy minister, Lord Taylor of Blackburn, Lord Moonie, a former defence minister, and Lord Snape, a former Labour whip, were named in the investigation by the Sunday Times. The paper said its reporters had posed as lobbyists acting for a foreign client, who was setting up a chain of shops in the UK and wanted an exemption from the Business Rates Supplements Bill. It claimed that two of the peers were covertly recorded telling the journalists that they had previously secured changes to bills going through parliament to help their clients. Lord Taylor of Blackburn, a former BAE consultant, claimed he had already changed the law to help his client Experian, the credit check company, the paper claimed.

    I’m so glad that sort of thing has never been heard of in Chicago. The tree of liberty was picturesquely said to be watered by patriotic blood and tears, but modern trees, especially those which grow from acorns, need something a little greener to sustain them. Who said Green Tech was impractical?

    Getting “shovel ready”
    ---
    - Wretch

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  70. How Many Gazans Really Died in the War?
    Reports are coming out that show Hamas vastly inflated the number of civilian dead.

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  71. If even ONE gazan died in the 'war', Israel ought to be taken before the United Nations!

    Now!

    They need sanctions toot sweet.

    Blockade Israel!

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  72. (always wanted to use that phrase, toot sweet)

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  73. Infrastructure Spending: China Knows

    http://seekingalpha.com/article/116283-infrastructure-spending-china-knows?source=feed

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  74. That reporter fella's numbers do not add up either, doug

    He uses 1,200 to 1,300 as the most reported number of casualties and states that Israel claims that 2/3 or 800 were combatants.

    So, if that is accurate reporting, Israel claims to have killed 800 Hamas combatants.
    Should we believe that, or the report that no more than 500 or 600, total, were killed in Gaza.

    If there were few civilians killed, the balance that survive will not have 'learned the lesson of deterence' but rather demand vengence for the rubble.

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  75. At 600, that'd be 400 combatants and 200 innocent civilians.

    If only 400 combatants, out of the 15,000 claimed Hamas 'fighters', were KIA, then again, there will not have been any kind of lesson taught to Hamas, and could be quite justified in their claims of victory.

    Hamas suffering under 2.7% casualties KIA, if accurate.

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  76. I think they suffered 80% KIA among the combatants. Every time they came out they got popped. If you hide in a basement under a hospital, you aren't a combatant.

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  77. Mysterious ways, indeed!

    ""He just walked out in front of it," Murray said. "There's no way either one could have seen the other."

    The newspaper reported that organizers immediately halted the remainder of the show.
    "
    ---
    Some Promoters are more equal than some six year olds, I guess.

    uh, why could he not have peeked both ways before "crossing?"

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  78. What Britain Needs is a Prime Minister that is not afraid of the sound of machine gun fire. It doesn't matter if he's intelligent, but he should be able to speak. He should come from the middle or working classes, and be unmarried, that way he'll attract the women. I have only half my tongue in my cheek here.

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  79. Your Taxes Are Going UP

    Well of course they are.

    My state taxes went up over $3,000 this year on my rentals. That's in a down market.

    Just soak it to anyone that has anything, that's what's coming.

    When Ash becomes destitute, he will change his political stripes.

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  80. Women In Italy Are Soooo Beautiful They Need The Military To Protect Them

    The women in Idaho are beautiful too, but we have a grip, and treat them right.

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  81. For the Record:

    PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY

    Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic "stimulus" package, claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

    Pelosi, the mother of 5 children and 6 grandchildren, who once said, "Nothing in my life will ever, ever compare to being a mom," seemed to imply babies are somehow a burden on the treasury.

    The revelation came during an exchange Sunday morning on ABC's THIS WEEK.

    STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

    PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

    STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?

    PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

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  82. Gus Johnson

    He taught our P.E. class some days. He was HERO to all of us snow bunnies.

    We got to know him. He was a good guy.

    He was known as "Gus The Great", and he was, too.

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  83. The Nail

    When Johnson played at Idaho in 1963, he already had a reputation as a leaper of the highest order. One evening at the Corner Club, a local tavern on north Main Street in Moscow, Johnson was requested by owner Herm Goetz to display his rare ability to the patrons. The Corner Club was a very modest establishment, converted from a white-stuccoed small chapel in the 1940s with hardwood floors and a beamed ceiling. From a standing start near the dimly-lit bar, Johnson touched a spot on a beam 11'6" (3.51 m) above the floor. This spot was ceremoniously marked with a nail by Goetz, who then proudly proclaimed that anyone who could duplicate the feat could drink for free, which was obviously highly improbable. A 40-inch (1.02 m) diameter circle was painted on the floor, and both feet had to start within the circle to ensure a standing start. A full 23 years went by with many attempts at Gus Johnson's Nail, including Bill Walton in the summer of 1984, but there were no successes.

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  84. "comes out of the forests with gold, turns to ashes"

    bummer

    the trouble we're in

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  85. Is that youngster your male lover?

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  86. (if so, nice of you to bring Sweden's mores to our shores!)

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  87. Let me guess:
    That's "Testy Testosterone" and you thot it would be cute to post his pic in this thread!

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