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."

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Palau wants Uighurs. Willing to take them for $12 million each.



U.S. Money May Have Swayed Palau to Take Uighur Gitmo Detainees

COMMENT: "You Reckon?"

Two U.S. officials reportedly said that the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in development, budget support and other assistance in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.

FOXNews.com
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Palau says its decision to temporarily take the 17 Uighurs, or Chinese Muslims, being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison was a "humanitarian gesture."

But the South Pacific island may have been motivated more by 200 million other reasons.

Two U.S. officials told the Associated Press that the U.S. was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a mutual defense and cooperation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.

Figures on Palau's federal budget weren't immediately available, but if it is close to its size in 1999, when it was $71 million, the deal with the U.S. would in effect more than double the nation's spending and make it the fastest growing economy in the world.

In announcing the decision, Palau President Johnson Toribiong sounded as if the U.S. was doing his country a favor by sending the detainees there.

"I am honored and proud that the United States has asked Palau to assist with such a critical task," he said in a press release. "This is but a small thing we can do to thank our best friend and ally for all it has done of Palau."

But the move has riled some lawmakers.

"The Obama administration has still failed to present a credible plan for closing Guantanamo Bay by its self-imposed deadline, but paying $12 million per-head to send trained terrorists to an island paradise hardly seems like a good one," said Rep. Pete, Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

"There are many questions the administration must answer including what guarantees it has that the Uighurs will stay in Palau once freed and what plans are in place to keep them from linking up with the radical-jihaddist separatists operating a short distance away in Indonesia and on the Filipino island of Mindanao?

"Without solid answers to these questions, American is left with the first of many bad solutions to a problem solely of the administration's creation."

The 17 Uighurs are members of a Muslim group from China that received weapons training in Afghanistan so it could fight the Chinese government, according to U.S. officials. If they were sent back to China, U.S. officials worry they could face torture.

But the U.S. government has struggled to identify countries willing to accept the Uighurs. Now the Uighurs will join a population of nearly 20,000 and enjoy gorgeous weather in Palau where the average temperature is 81.6 degree.

The tiny nation, which has a GDP of nearly $170 million, relies heavily on tourism for revenues. More than 79,000 tourists visited last year and they spent $111.9 million in 2007.

Palau was once a trusteeship administered by the U.S. but it became independent in October 1994. The U.S. and Palau then entered into a Compact of Free Association, which a senior State Department official said plays no role in "any other discussions we might be having with the government of Palau."

Palauan citizens can travel to the U.S. without a visa and seek employment or education. It is unclear whether the Uighurs would enjoy the same perks once they are released.

The State Department did not return a call seeking comment, and no one in the Palauan government could be reached.


FOX News' Mike Levine and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


113 comments:

  1. I honestly missed the fact that we had a mutual defense pact with Palau.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Obama can't help the dummies that helped him win his election in keeping their homes, but he is showing real compassion for the soon to be homeless Uighurs, not that wimpy Texas conservative compassion either.

    No sir, this is up-town big ass compassion. Big whoop ass compassion.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ...The tiny nation, which has a GDP of nearly $170 million, relies heavily on tourism for revenues. More than 79,000 tourists visited last year and they spent $111.9 million in 20...

    This investment should come out of TARP. I see an Uighur restaurant. Job creation.

    Doesn't get anymore diverse than Uighurs in Palau.

    Whoop ass diversity. Now that is CHANGE and HOPE.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The negativity in the Republican party is really disappointing:

    "The Obama administration has still failed to present a credible plan for closing Guantanamo Bay by its self-imposed deadline, but paying $12 million per-head to send trained terrorists to an island paradise hardly seems like a good one," said Rep. Pete, Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

    ReplyDelete
  5. If the Chinese CHICAPS are agin it, I'm for it:


    WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Palau's president said Thursday his tiny Pacific nation will take in 17 Chinese Muslims who are in limbo at Guantanamo Bay, but China called them "terrorist suspects" and demanded they be sent home.

    Palau President Johnson Toribiong said the Uighurs have become "international vagabonds" who deserve his country's age-old tradition of hospitality.

    China said it opposes any country taking them.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference the United States should "stop handing over terrorist suspects to any third country, so as to expatriate them to China at an early date." He did not say if China would take any action in response.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Before I go to blessed bed (I'm in the tradition that sleep is a Great Thing) (we sleep to wake, and we take our waking slow, as the great poet Roethke said, not talking about snoozing) I will take objection to al-Dougs observation.

    I think Michelle is a very striking woman (no pun implied), and, I don't think she did herself Jusice there, but she is, in my view, a very good looking woman.

    Now, I go to bed, to dream of Valkries. Heh! With a little cheating on the side!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just to calibrate your opinion of al-Bob's taste in women, he also once commented on Pelosi being a good looking woman.
    I rest my case.

    ReplyDelete
  8. At my age, anything with Botox looks damn good, al-
    Doug!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Why I hate God
    -
    What kind of evil entity could give flips and Japs skin that passes for 45 @70 and some White Folks the Shaft, in place of skin?

    ReplyDelete
  10. give me 12 million and i'll move there...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Let's get this straight.

    These Chinese freedom fighters were in Afpakistan at one of the camps, Club Jihad, and were rolled up during one of the terrorist sweeps.

    They were brought to Gitmo, but eventually ordered released by US Federal Courts. The US Senate then went so far as to vote a budget item that forbade spending to transport any detainee to the US.

    So while the Federals determined there was no reason to hold these Chinamen, there was reason to fear for their safety if they returned to China. Where they are wanted criminals, part and parcel to their being at Club Jihadi, in the first place.

    The Uighur community in the US, it is congregated in MI, as I understand it, and would welcome these other Uighurians into their and our midst. They also could have found good use, for $200 million USD, as well, in Michigan.

    But that is an unpopular option amongst the elected Representitives of the electorate.

    So off they go, to the South Pacific, and Bermuda, to boot

    ReplyDelete
  12. WASHINGTON - Guantanamo Bay prison officials handed out four tickets to paradise Thursday.

    The U.S. flew the group of detainees to their new home in Bermuda, officials announced.

    Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement the Obama administration was "extremely grateful" to the island nation's government for taking four Uyghurs - ethnic Turk Muslims from China opposed to the Communist regime - who were stuck at the U.S. terror prison in Cuba.

    "By helping accomplish the President's objective of closing Guantanamo, the transfer of these detainees will make America safer," Holder said.

    Courts ruled years ago that 17 Uyghurs at Gitmo were not "enemy combatants" and ordered the men freed.

    The Chinese would likely execute the men they consider terrorists if they were returned - and no other country had initially offered to accept them
    .



    Read more @ the Daily News

    ReplyDelete
  13. Meanwhile House Minority Leader John Boehner refers to taking detainees to Federal District Court, in New York, for trial as Team Obamameriica importing terrorists.

    So there are the extremes of reeality.

    Sending Chinamen off to the tropics with subsidies for the host islands, while the GOP leadership bemoans taking detainees to Federal Court for adjudication.

    ReplyDelete
  14. From Pignuts, to Palau.

    There are more "widely read" blogs, Deuce, but None more interesting. :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well, then. Cheers to Palau. Which is apparently a country.




    And pass the pignuts. (Only dirty elitists use obscure words, bob! Shame, shame on you!)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Nor can the courts be relied upon to tackle militancy as Washington might wish. Last week the Lahore High Court, lacking specific evidence, released the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the organisation suspected of masterminding last November’s Mumbai attacks. Some Pakistani lawyers have also, quite reasonably, questioned the legality of US drone attacks (secretly supported by Islamabad) that have killed scores of civilians and inflamed anti-US opinion inside Pakistan.

    Finally, there is the question of Kashmir, another crucible of jihad. Barack Obama sensed, correctly, that any genuine effort to tackle militancy in Afghanistan must involve the resolution of problems not only in Pakistan but also in Kashmir. India quickly warned the US president that he was “barking up the wrong tree” if he intended to broker a Kashmir deal. Yet without resolution of that festering sore, Pakistan will continue to be a jihadi factory and to harbour sympathy for some of the militants in its midst
    .

    The truth of the US’ Pakistan clinch
    By David Pilling
    The Financial Times Ltd

    ReplyDelete
  17. The following should have become obvious to more people after all these years, and I myself have labored to make it so, but no. It hasn't.

    Foreign Policy Passport:

    Then again, maybe they won't*
    Thu, 06/11/2009 - 12:55pm

    Apropos of John Bolton's op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal, asking "What If Israel Strikes Iran?" here's a persuasive prebuttal from CFR analyst Steven Cook:

    Every three weeks or so, within a few hours of one Israeli leader or another making a statement about the threat of Iran's nuclear program, my phone starts lighting up. It's never the press, which has become inured to Israel's periodic warnings. Rather, it is nervous hedge fund managers and securities research analysts calling to find out if this is "it." Are the Israelis on the verge of attacking Iran's nuclear facilities? No doubt, should Israel launch airstrikes against the Bushehr reactor or the uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz, it would be a market-shaking event. "No," I assure the financial whiz kids on the other end of the line, explaining that "if Israel's leaders were going to strike, they would not be broadcasting it to the world." The phone will then go quiet for a few weeks until the next time Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu, an Israeli security consultant, or my cousin Ari warns that time is running out.

    ReplyDelete
  18. AP:

    [...]

    In the final hours of the fierce contest, Mousavi got a sharp warning from the country's powerful Revolutionary Guard that authorities would crush any attempt at a popular "revolution" inspired by the huge rallies and street parties calling for more freedoms.

    The threat Wednesday reflected the increasingly tense atmosphere surrounding the up-for-grabs election. It also marked a sharp escalation by the ruling clerics against Mousavi's youth-driven campaign and its hopes of an underdog victory.

    The Revolutionary Guard is one of the pillars of the Islamic establishment and controls large military forces as well as a nationwide network of militia volunteers.

    The message from the Guards' political chief, Yadollah Javani, appeared aimed at rattling Mousavi's backers just before the polls open Friday and to warn that it would not tolerate the formation of a post-election political force under the banner of Mousavi's "green movement" — the signature color of his campaign.

    In a statement on the Guards' Web site, Javani drew parallels between Mousavi's campaign and the "velvet revolution" that led to the 1989 ouster of the communist government in then-Czechoslovakia, saying "some extremist (reformist) groups, have designed a colorful revolution ... using a specific color for the first time in an election."

    Javani called it a "sign of kicking off a velvet revolution project in the presidential elections," and vowed any "attempt for velvet revolution will be nipped in the bud." It also accused the reformists of planning to claim vote rigging and provoke street violence if Mousavi loses.

    [...]



    Notice it doesn't have our name written all over it. Therefor, it is the more worrisome and promising, depending upon where one stands.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Seatbelt fastened? Tray in the upright position? Personal articles stowed securely beneath the seat in front of you?

    We are on the final approach to Stan's War. And there will be plenty of fun for everyone.


    June 11, 2009
    U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Given More Leeway
    By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT

    WASHINGTON — The new American commander in Afghanistan has been given carte blanche to handpick a dream team of subordinates, including many Special Operations veterans, as he moves to carry out an ambitious new strategy that envisions stepped-up attacks on Taliban fighters and narcotics networks.

    The extraordinary leeway granted the commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, underscores a view within the administration that the war in Afghanistan has for too long been given low priority and needs to be the focus of a sustained, high-level effort.

    General McChrystal is assembling a corps of 400 officers and soldiers who will rotate between the United States and Afghanistan for a minimum of three years. That kind of commitment to one theater of combat is unknown in the military today outside Special Operations, but reflects an approach being imported by General McChrystal, who spent five years in charge of secret commando teams in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    With his promotion approved by the Senate late on Wednesday, General McChrystal and senior members of his command team were scheduled to fly from Washington within hours of the vote, stopping in two European capitals to confer with allies before landing in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

    General McChrystal’s confirmation came only after the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, went to the floor to make an impassioned plea for Republicans to allow the action to proceed, fearing that political infighting would delay approval of the appointment. He told of a phone call on Wednesday from Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

    Mr. Reid said that Admiral Mullen had told him that there was a sense of urgency that General McChrystal be able to go to Afghanistan that very night. He said that according to Admiral Mullen, “McChrystal is literally waiting by an airplane” to go to Afghanistan as the new commander.

    Almost a dozen senior military officers provided details about General McChrystal’s plans in interviews after his nomination. The officers insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the effort, and insisted that their comments not be used until the Senate vote, so as not to preempt lawmakers.

    For the first time, the American commander in Afghanistan will have a three-star deputy. Picked for the job of running day-to-day combat operations was Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez, who has commanded troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Generals McChrystal and Rodriguez have been colleagues and friends for more than 30 years, beginning when both were Ranger company commanders as young captains.

    General McChrystal also has picked the senior intelligence adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, to join him in Kabul as director of intelligence there. In Washington, Brig. Gen. Scott Miller, a longtime Special Operations officer now assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff but who had served previously under General McChrystal, is now organizing a new Pakistan-Afghanistan Coordination Cell.

    Admiral Mullen said that he personally told General McChrystal that “he could have his pick from the Joint Staff. His job, the mission he’s going to command, is that important. Afghanistan is the main effort right now.”

    Just how this new team will grapple with the increasingly violent Taliban militancy in Afghanistan is unclear, although General McChrystal has said he will focus on classic counterinsurgency techniques, in particular protecting the population.

    Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has asked General McChrystal to report back within 60 days of taking command with an assessment of the mission and plans for carrying out President Obama’s new strategy.

    ReplyDelete
  20. A three year program, authority and responsibility, within a viable timeframe.

    They would have been Ranger Company Commanders, what, 28 years ago?

    He's a year older than I am, and entered the Army two years earlier.
    Been in for 32 years, now.

    Six stars over Afpakistan, finally, good news in the War on the dirty fuckin' bastards of 9-11.

    Seven years of takin' our eye off the ball, beginning to be rectified.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Notice it doesn't have our name written all over it. Therefor, it is the more worrisome and promising, depending upon where one stands.

    Referred to as "Soft Power", in certain circles.

    Plain dumb luck, in others.

    The culmination of a successful sancitons regime, by just a few stalwerts.

    ReplyDelete
  22. An Italian woman who arrived late for the Air France plane flight that crashed in the Atlantic last week has been killed in a car accident.

    Johanna Ganthaler, a pensioner from Bolzano-Bozen province, had been on holiday in Brazil with her husband Kurt and missed Air France Flight 447 after turning up late at Rio de Janeiro airport on May 31.

    All 228 people aboard lost their lives after the plane crashed into the Atlantic four hours into its flight to Paris.

    The ANSA news agency reported that the couple had managed to pick up a flight from Rio the following day.

    It said that Ms Ganthaler died when their car veered across a road in Kufstein, Austria, and swerved into an oncoming truck. Her husband was seriously injured.

    ReplyDelete
  23. It's gonna be Old Home Week in Kabul for a lot of people.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Some of whom are looking not at a three, but rather a five year commitment.



    The anticipation is keen.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thu Jun 11, 10:17:00 AM EDT--
    -/

    Indeed. And, as I've always said (since first hearing it from Edward Abby)--

    "When you're apokin' the fire, you ain't alookin' at the mantle."

    ReplyDelete
  26. Rorting.

    "If someone is rorting it by even 1 per cent a year, we're talking about many, many millions of dollars," Mr Torr said.--
    -/

    Rorting Down Under--
    -/

    The world's gone mad.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Stan takes his Stand in Afpakistan.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Why don't the Mullahs give the equivalent of $4 billion, US, to the Revolutionary ACORNS, and remove all doubt and uncertainty about the outcome, per 2110, and more to the point, 2112 in the
    Good Old US of Asshats?

    ReplyDelete
  29. The Islamic ACORNholes Lavender Counterrevolutionary Election Oversight Brigades.

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

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

    ReplyDelete
  32. Thought for the Day:
    -
    Election of a Marxist has Consequences.

    ReplyDelete
  33. You can delete that crap, doug.

    ReplyDelete
  34. I thought they were more clever than Crap.
    ...and commentary on the human condition
    (of the aged)
    Different Strokes.
    ---
    For those interested in the Pink Taco Reference and other inanities,
    here is the link:
    Age, Sun, and Cigarettes take their toll.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Not even John Bolton will claim the turmoil in Iran as US success, it'd spoil the fun of Barack bashing.

    Or the Bush bashing he's engaged in, now.

    Such good company has climbed on the band wagon of dissatisfaction with Republican performance.

    Being right, but late, is as bad as being wrong. Timing is everything, in politics and war.



    Do they do exit polling in Iran?

    ReplyDelete
  36. Whatever happened to Don Johnson? Last I heard it was bankruptcy court, but that was years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  37. If it was not supposed to be eaten, it would not look like a taco, doug.

    Ring that Taco Belle.

    ReplyDelete
  38. War-Funding Measure Hits Roadblock Over Detainee-Abuse Photos...
    -
    The $106 billion war-spending plan would let President Barack Obama transfer suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the U.S. for trial. It also would spend $1 billion to provide as much as $4,500 each to people trading in cars for more fuel-efficient models.

    ReplyDelete
  39. You get Michelle,
    I get Sonia,
    Both Belles, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  40. In May 2008, Johnson came within hours of losing his Woody Creek, Colorado home to foreclosure; he paid off his $14.5 million dollar debts less than 24 hours before a scheduled auction of the property. (wiki)

    ReplyDelete
  41. Ring the Belles for Bannanas,
    They're a Joy to Peel.

    ReplyDelete
  42. At one time the Woody Creek Tavern sponsored a legal defense fund for the CEO of Enron, Kenneth Lay; specifically, a jar on the top of the bar, in which patrons could drop their donations. The jar contained items such as screws, condoms, toothpicks, a small toy figure of a man with broken legs, string, rubber bands, pennies and IOUs.

    Woody Creek was the residence of noted author Hunter S. Thompson for much of his life and at the time of his death. It also has been the home of several other notable popular celebrities and musicians including the late broadcaster Ed Bradley, Don Henley of the Eagles, John Oates (Hall and Oates), and actor Don Johnson. Currently, U.S. Speaker Of the House Nancy Pelosi has a winter home in Woody Creek off Star Mesa Rd.

    ReplyDelete
  43. The Bananas Split the Belles.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Well, doug, there are belles and there are clappers.

    ReplyDelete
  45. I wonder, do pignuts suffer from

    Bell Clapper Deformity of Scrotum

    ... epididymis and testis is called a bell clapper deformity because it ... tunica vaginalis of the scrotum much like the gong (clapper) inside of a bell. ...
    www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/MedEd/urology/bellclap.htm

    ReplyDelete
  46. Could hook it,
    the real clapper,
    and a vibrator,
    for the Belles.
    Remotely Activated Stimulator.

    ReplyDelete
  47. That belle seems as cold as a witch's tit, in a brass bra

    ReplyDelete
  48. In Iran, a Real Race, and Talk of a Sea Change
    Robert F Worth

    ReplyDelete
  49. Lot of the rich seem to like Colorado. Kiss of death, when they move in.

    Barbara Walters has a place in north Idaho. Sun Valley was nice before the folks moved in.

    I know some places they don't, however, and I'm not telling 'em.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Moreover, there are limits to what any Iranian president can do. Although Mr. Ahmadinejad has tried to augment the powers of the presidency, it is Ayatollah Khamenei, as supreme leader, who controls the direction of foreign policy.--
    -/

    The Ayatollah is the Supreme Leader, Rat.

    And he picked the candidates.

    It's all for show.

    No news here, move along, move along.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Ron Paul says they are deserving of having a stockpile of nuclear weapons.

    I can't get over that. Just had to bring it up again.

    Everybody should have a few.

    ReplyDelete
  52. It's all a show, bob.
    Here and there. Enjoy it.

    If you believe te Ayatollah K is in charge, then the will be no nuke weapons in Iran, he's issued a fatwa on that subject, you know.


    The question is does Bibi accept the Two State Solution, on Sunday night, or not?

    His Government is in deep caca, whichever route he charts.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Ron Paul says we should bring every last soldier home from everywhere overseas. Anybody can have nukes. We retreat to Fortress America.

    How anybody could have taken Ron Paul seriously is beyond me.

    Talk about a recipe for an even worse situation than we've got now.....

    Think of the possibilities.....truly frightening.

    ReplyDelete
  54. It is a waste of money, bob, building those weapons.

    There is no doubt of that.
    May as well let them, as not. Since we cannot stop them from doing it, regardless.

    Look at all the good it has not done Israel, to be nuked up.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Certainly has not secured Pakistan's future, having a nuclear strike capacity.

    If did not save the Soviets.

    ReplyDelete
  56. If you believe te Ayatollah K is in charge, then the will be no nuke weapons in Iran, he's issued a fatwa on that subject, you know.--
    \-/

    He has? This is news to me, if true.

    I'd suspect, however, you might not want to take such a fatwa, if there is one, at its face value.

    It might well be a faux fatwa, a fakeroo, to foul up the minds of peaceful folk in Phoenix.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Which is so obvious as to not be worthy of comment.

    whir, whir, whir, Rat, you know what's going on probably better than I.

    ReplyDelete
  58. The US Army, being in Iraq and Afpakistan has not even slowed Iranian progress towards nuclear capacity.

    The military has totally failed, if that was their mission in that region.
    Primary or secondary.

    Having troops in SouK did not deter lil' Kim, in the north from developing nuclear explosives.

    Having the troops deployeed overseas has not been a success, at curbing proliferation, why continue a failed program?

    To continue doing the same thing, expecting a different result, a definition of insanity, I'm told.

    ReplyDelete
  59. And, while we're on the subject, Drudge tells me North Korea is prepping a new nuclear test.


    Where o where is that 'smart diplomacy' we heard so much about?

    Where's Hillary? And the 3am phone?

    ReplyDelete
  60. The US Army, being in Iraq and Afpakistan has not even slowed Iranian progress towards nuclear capacity.--
    -/

    No surprise there. You got to bomb them, as you well know.

    But you've just admitted that fatwa is piece o' shit.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Nuclear weapons are insults to Allah, bob.

    Only cowards have used them.
    Not the faithful, as to many innocent civilians would be killed in their use, and that would offend God.

    There have been a series of these type fatwas, over the past few years.
    As you say, it is the Mullahs that run the country, Abracadabra just a faux leader, inciting the ignorant of Iran with his rhetoric.

    Keeping the top spinning.

    ReplyDelete
  62. heh, Drudge was just playing the tune of A Summer Place, which sent my mind back, for some reason, to when I went to the movie Summer of '42 and I remember how my mom murmured a laugh when Hermie got laid.

    ReplyDelete
  63. The Iranians are not developing a bomb, but electrical generating capacity, utilizing nuclear fiel. as is their right and privilege, under the terms of the NPT.

    Bombing that development would be an act of war and aggression.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Only cowards have used them.
    Not the faithful, as to many innocent civilians would be killed in their use, and that would offend God.
    --
    -/

    Righy roo, and that's true too, we all know the mercies of allah, that hallucination.

    ReplyDelete
  65. The Iranians are not developing a bomb--
    -/

    Oh B.S.

    I could go back in the archives and quote you saying just the opposite.

    You just think it's fun stirring up an argument on a lazy afternoon.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Iranians elect a new president on Friday. No matter who wins, observers agree that it's time for Iran and the US to sit down at the negotiating table.

    ...

    Yet no matter who wins, the time has come for serious negotiations with the West regarding Iran's controversial nuclear program, said Christian-Peter Hanelt, a Middle East expert from the Bertelsmann Foundation.

    ...

    In March, Obama directly addressed the country's leaders in a message to the Iranian people on the occasion of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year. He offered Tehran direct talks without any preconditions.


    Negotiations with Iran

    ReplyDelete
  67. You speak unskilfully: or, if your knowledge be more, it is much darkened in your malice.--
    -/

    While not a perfect fit, this seems to sock the foot.

    ReplyDelete
  68. Look at all the good it has not done Israel, to be nuked up.--
    -/

    It has done Israel some good.
    The Egyptians knew, that if they pushed too far, Cairo is gone. So, they fought hard for the east bank of the Nile, and made peace.

    And, that has lasted.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Nookie Good for Us.
    Others, not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  70. The twisting causes edema of the spermatic cord resulting in obstruction of the lymphatic, then venous and finally arterial vessels to the testis. When the arterial supply is impaired, testicular ischemia results--
    -/

    Could this replace waterboarding?

    ReplyDelete
  71. Wait til Trish checks out your
    Tunica Vaginalis,
    al-Bob!

    ReplyDelete
  72. :)

    I never knew what term 'nookie' meant, till my wife, well, then my lover, suggested we 'nookie.'

    Out this way, we have different terms of the art.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  73. Sometimes One Man's Tuna is another man's meal.

    ReplyDelete
  74. I don't have time to get into what I didn't know.

    ReplyDelete
  75. If I did,
    What I Didn't Know,
    I Wouldn't Tell.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Sometimes One Man's Tuna is another man's meal.--
    -/


    In San Francisco, al-
    Doug, that is many times true.

    Star Kissed, so to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  77. Far as I can tell, you can no longer find a link to this
    Right Wing Christian Hate Crime. on Wretch's homepage.
    ---
    Exists for now, if you are interested to see what made him take it down.
    ...I don't have time right now.
    For Real.
    (unless I take the option of being murdered when the wife returns)

    ReplyDelete
  78. There goes al-Bob,
    Pining for Pelosi,
    Again.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Can't get her Tuna off his "mind."

    ReplyDelete
  80. He's got it back up, again,
    now at the top.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Opps, that's PJ Media's Homepage.

    ReplyDelete
  82. US officials say the legislation is needed because 400,000 Americans die from tobacco-related illnesses each year and more than 1,000 children start smoking each day.

    "At any given moment, millions are struggling with their habit or worrying about loved ones who smoke," added Obama, who has admitted to being an occasional smoker.

    "My administration is committed to protecting our children and reforming our health care system - and moving forward with common-sense tobacco control measures is an integral part of that process. I look forward to signing this bill into law."


    Tobacco Laws

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  83. Damn, Sam, that's one of those issues I can't deal with.


    As a smoker myself, I know the facts are as they are.

    On the other hand, it's not an addiction that makes me disfunctional.

    What to do, what to do?

    I don't really know.

    Tax the shit out of it, I quess.

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  84. It is well said, 'tis the red mans revenge.

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  85. Well, the addiction burdens the Health Care System, bob. Tobacco smokers have helped to create an unnatural imbalance of maladies in our society that are both expensive to treat and ultimately fatal.

    There is no real reason that cigarettes should be available to the public. They are a health menance and the Federal intervention is covered by the Commerce Clause.

    Ration health care or ration cigarettes.

    What should the Health Czar decide?

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  86. Just noticed the Mat - MIA.

    Cool.

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  87. The funny thing, bob, when you argue that the US is no empire, is my thinking of the number of Czars that exist in the Federal Government.

    Czar, a Russian adaptation of the Latin word for supreme leader, Ceasar. Now incorporated and fully integrated into the lexicon of governing America.

    From the days of Nixon, and the Drug Czars. Then the Education Czar, Bill Bennett. On to the current Car Czar, a fellow that proudly claims to know nothing, about cars.

    Forty years of leadership by Czars, here in the United States, but no, there is no Empire, not when words have no meaning.

    Bro D-Day made the point the other day, it is exemplary of where the United States is, realisticly.

    America, land of the Czars.

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  88. There is no real reason that cigarettes should be available to the public.--
    -/

    Well said, from our FREEDOM MAN!

    Our Constitutional Scholar!

    My wife might well agree with you.

    On the other hand, if I die early, she might sigh a sigh of relief, and Bless The Constitution, properly interpreted.

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  89. Well, bob, what is the alternative?

    Personally I do not think that the Federals should have the authority to ration or outlaw tobacco. No more than I think they chould ration or outlaw marijuana.

    But they do, so why exempt your vice, but not mine from Federal banishment?
    It does not fill my heart with joy to see folks huddle in the 120 degree heat, puffing on their cancer sticks. But I do see the humor in their insanity.

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  90. The funny thing, bob, when you argue that the US is no empire, is my thinking of the number of Czars that exist in the Federal Government.--
    -/

    More Rat B.S. Confusing a hopefull passing phenomenon with historical Truth. The Truth being how we have treated our defeated enemies.

    Rat and his fellow Constitutional Scholars and followers have enabled, voting for the Libertarian crazy in Minnesota, the rise of the domestic Czars.

    Rat, actually, is a Moron.

    Utah, let us remember, was a portion of the Spanish Empire, cause a couple of padres religious set foot there.

    In Rats mind.

    Oh, hah, hah

    Rat is aligned with Ash, The Potato Head, that says a lot.

    Politics, jealously, and illiteracy making really strange bedfellows.

    Rat's a moron, or, more hopefully, just being silly, for the fun of it.

    Goodnight.

    Blessed sleep, a hint of what is to come. Bliss.

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  91. Here you go, bob. You and Patrick Buchanan, agree yet again.

    What is the matter with Obama that he cannot defend our Cold War conduct and Cold War presidents like Ike and JFK?

    Answer: Obama cannot, because at heart he buys into the anti-American narrative that ours is a deplorable history -- of genocide against the Indians, of slavery and segregation, of robbing Mexicans of their land and of disrespecting our Latin neighbors
    .

    Obama is determined to make the requisite apologies to show the world he does not condone the sins our fathers committed.


    While I disagree with Buchanan's assessment of US history as anti-American, some of it is deplorable. Those claims against US are all true, all of the negatives that Buchanan presents us with:

    ... of genocide against the Indians, of slavery and segregation, of robbing Mexicans of their land and of disrespecting our Latin neighbors.

    Rather than discounting the reality of it, as Buchanan does, I think that factoring foreign perceptions of continental and international historical realities into the present whirled situation is vital to success.

    Which Mr Bush failed to do and which President Obama is attempting to remedy. He seeing it as an error not to be in discussions with adversaries prior to conflict with them.

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  92. bob thinking that forty years of behaviour by the Government to be a passing folly. Not an excelerating trend, propagated by effective use of language.

    To eliminate personal freedoms and choice, in the name of security, the enviorment and good health.

    There is no road back, that much is clear.

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  93. As to the Mexican War, bob discounts the writings of both Abe Lincoln and U.S. Grant on the subject.

    Both men loyal citizens and true Republicans. As well as living contemperaneously with the event, Mr Grant participating in the campaign.

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  94. Has the intent of America’s Founding Fathers as expressed in the Constitution been betrayed? Written by best-selling author John Stormer, "Betrayed by the Bench" will leave no doubt in your mind that the answer to this question is a resounding YES!

    Countless U.S. judges no longer uphold the standards of morality, decency and freedom that came from the common law implemented by our Founding Fathers. This intriguing but disturbing book examines the many rights our courts and judges have absconded with, which should have all of us outraged.

    "Betrayed by the Bench" examines how the 19th Century academic theories of Hegel and Darwin transformed legal education, the courts and our culture. Its underlying theme reveals the impact of God's historical intervention through the Great Awakening of the 1740-1785 period and again in the revival of 1857.


    Founding Fathers Betrayed

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  95. Can't get to sleep, but--

    As to the Mexican War, bob discounts the writings of both Abe Lincoln and U.S. Grant on the subject.--
    -/

    Not really, but let me ask, would you, Settler, Homesteader, Freeloader on others property, Shover Out Of The Others--heh,heh-- rather live in the barrio, or Phoenix?

    If I have picked up correctly, you are part Swede yourself, if so, hie thee to Stockholm, where thee belong! Or else, call thyself, HYPOCRITE!

    What a bunch of gibberish you put out, Rat.

    You ought to ashamed of yourself.

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  96. The stepped pyramid, Rat, with the Priest cutting the Living Heart out of the Dying Sacrifice--we should go back to that, RIGHT?

    After all, THEY WERE HERE FIRST!

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  97. Rat encroaches on Indian Land, right there in Phoenix, Arizona, the heart of Rat's America, claims his stake, settles down, and criticizes everybody else.

    Rat needs a mirror.

    And, a new brain.

    And, a shrink.

    And, some meditation.

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  98. Here--
    -/

    Rat, this will help you relocate.

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  99. This might be right for you, Rat.

    6 Bedroom Villa in Varmland, Sweden--
    -/

    Check it out. At least, you won't be squatting on somebody else's land!

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  100. Relocate Rat, you won't be feeling that unconscious guilt any longer.

    That guilt you want to transfer to others, in classic psychoanalytic fashion.

    It will be good for you.

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  101. A whole new LIFE, clean, pure, transcendental.

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  102. As for me, I'd rather live in some Phoenix suburb, hypocrite that I am, where I can count on the water, and heat, than some Mexican barrio, and Rat would too, rather than live up to his ideals, cause he choses to live in Phoenix, and not live up to his ideals.

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  103. Which pushed to its furthest shore would mean, ripping the living hearts out of some poor captive, on the upper reaches of a stepped pyramid.

    Ok, it's out of my system.

    Goodnight.

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  104. I think the identification of Barack Obama with God is a misidentification.

    We know Barry ain't God.

    However, we have among us, Bless Us All, we The Fortunate, we have among us, Bless Us All, The Perfect Objective Mind, according to its own testimony....

    Flawless

    Immaculate

    Perfect

    All Seeing

    All Knowing

    With A Perfect Memory

    What is that, but GOD?

    Is this self delusion?

    Nay, I say, it cannot be so, it Insists Itself that it cannot be so.

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