COLLECTIVE MADNESS


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

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Karzai sentences US to fifteen to twenty of hard time. Obama's War to be Odyssey



Is anyone getting the impression that the Obama Administration is on the verge of an intellectual collapse?

Wrong about health care, wrong about TARP, wrong about foreclosures, wrong about global warming, wrong about cap and trade, job creation, fiscal stimulation and the bank bailouts, the community organizer once wrong about the surge in Iraq is now pitifully wrong about Afghanistan.

Within five days of Obama explaining his strategy for Afghanistan, he is contradicted about the time line by none other than his secretaries of state and defense. They were bobbing and weaving while their boss was shucking and jiving over just how long we will be in Afghanistan at the cost of one million dollar per year per man.

Now comes the comments of a man who should know more about Afghanistan than Obama, and that is the President, Hamid Karzai. Fifteen to twenty, he says.

106 comments:

  1. The O is going to the Big O
    to snatch and run his Nobel Peace Prize.

    Think anyone on the Nobel committee feels like a recently smacked ass?

    ReplyDelete
  2. And speaking of ass, I see that Robert Gibbs is adding Gallup to the White House enemies list since The Wonder Boy's tingle is tangling with reality.

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  3. Fifteen to twenty, that's just the warm-up. We're still in Germany, after SIXTY years.

    Embrace your Military Industrial Complex. Obama has. As predicted, after discovering that Lester Crown was his personal financier.

    General Dynamics needs the work.

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  4. Ike, who spent his life in the Federal system saw the danger and tried to warn US, but his warning was not heeded, by the general population of our great country.

    Instead we embraced our Military Industrial Complex, allowing it to gain ever more power in our society.
    To the point where we spend more on soothing our Complex, more than the other 97% of the whirled, combined.

    But our residents still retain a "Fear of Flying".

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  5. So that now, we look for military solutions to challenges that have no military solution, short of genocide.

    With few other arrows in our quiver.
    Piss poor prior planning leaves US with pitiful performance.

    A State Department that will not deploy. And an Army trying to do diplomacy.

    Cluster fucked from the get go.

    ReplyDelete
  6. After fifty years of political dominance by the Complex, even a communist, fascist, peace activist, community organizing Democrat, like Obama, is swept along in the current cultural norm of guns before butter.

    But, as so many of the moral cowards tell US, we are less secure than ever.

    Their solution, we need more of the same.

    Foolishness, at best.

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  7. The Complex is in search of an enemy, any enemy will do.

    We can take any piss ant country and magnify it into a threat.
    Especially if we refuse to squash the one that bit us. But, instead, spend all our energy chasing cockroaches, half a whirled away.

    That was the essence of the "long war".

    ReplyDelete
  8. A continuing argument against universal suffrage and the direct election of a US president.


    Support down for Obama's handling of economy: poll
    (AFP) –

    WASHINGTON — A growing number of Americans have lost confidence in President Barack Obama's handling of the economy, despite the apparent beginnings of a recovery, according to a poll out Wednesday.

    A Quinnipiac University survey found that 54 percent of respondents disapproved of Obama's handling of the economy, compared to 41 percent who approved.

    The finding was Obama's "worst score ever on this issue," the pollsters said in a statement. They said it also showed erosion of support even from just a month ago, when public opinion on his handling of the economy earned a 52-43 percent approval rating.

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  9. Long live the Electoral College, the fourth branch of our government!

    We should repeal the 17th Amendment to the Constitution and return power to the States.

    Which together could rein in the power usurped by the Federals. Another of the checks and balances that was designed into the System as a protection from the "mob", but now long discarded.

    The results are what we have, lifetime Senators, empowered by incumbency.

    But don't look for any reform that would take US back to our mythical past to happen.

    ReplyDelete
  10. We should also repeal the 16th Amendment and return to the people their property rights, unencumbered by Federal lien.

    ReplyDelete
  11. (from a previous thread)

    "The author behaved like a pussy, getting off that plane."

    Your a moron Rat. I plan on taking care of me and my own when I'm at home, not depending on the authorities who usually only respond after the crime is committed. However, when I take a plane, the "man" strips me of any advantage my ccl provides against 11 to 13 (depending on the story you read) morons out to scam a free lunch or worse.

    Therefore, when a gang of rag- heads assholes start acting like the assholes they are, you do what you got to do just as Sam and the other guy did. Especially when the airline and TSA won't do their job.

    Then after seeeing them taken off the plane to see them led back on a short while later so that the the pc, pencil-pushing pricks from the airline and their lawyers don't have to worry about a lawsuit? I don't think so. That's adding insult to injury.

    In the world I grew up in those jerks would have been kicked off the plane (and probably jailed) just for being rude.

    That you would stand by and take that bullshit from these guys, the airlines, and the TSA and meekly sit quietly in your seat with no protest instead of getting up and walking off the plane tells me that you are the pussy not these guys.

    .

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  12. A new Amendment should be offered and ratified, to outlaw "takings' as approved by the Supremes in Kelo v. City of New London.

    Now I've read that there has been no development on that property in New London, the land taken from the residents under the "Eminent Domain" of a projected increase in tax revenues.

    Revenues that have not been realized.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The authorities did do their job, Quirk, and found that there was no threat.

    If you give up your rights, because of assholes, you're a pussy.

    ReplyDelete
  14. "If you give up your rights, because of assholes, you're a pussy."

    The passengers demanded their rights and walked off the plane over the objections of the TSA and the airline (just as the original flight crew did.)

    As for who is the pussy, you or Sam, why don't you talk it over with those "vets and cowboys" you hang with and get back with us.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The author of that piece had every right to be a pussy, but it does not change his status.

    ReplyDelete
  16. DR: If you give up your rights, because of assholes, you're a pussy.

    You say "pussy" like it's a bad thing.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Sam was not on that plane, Tedd Petruna was.

    So the pussy was not Sam, but Teddy.

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  18. It is a word of many meanings. Ms T.

    ReplyDelete
  19. And some meanings are betther than others.

    ReplyDelete
  20. The lesson learned, 11 or 13 men in costume can disrupt US air traffic, without breaking a single law.

    Simply by showing up and being rude.

    ReplyDelete
  21. "So the pussy was not Sam, but Teddy."

    Irrelevant, since neither Sam nor Teddy were the pussies here.

    "The author of that piece had every right to be a pussy, but it does not change his status."

    Nor yours.

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  22. "Simply by showing up and being rude."

    By being rude.

    By breaking airline and federal rules.

    By inconveniencing an entire plane of fellow passengers.

    By being allowed to get away with it.

    ReplyDelete
  23. "In 2006, Ron Suskind published “The One Percent Doctrine,” a book about the U.S. war on terrorists after 9/11. The title was drawn from an assessment by then-Vice President Dick Cheney, who, in the face of concerns that a Pakistani scientist was offering nuclear-weapons expertise to Al Qaeda, reportedly declared: “If there’s a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists are helping Al Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response.” Cheney contended that the U.S. had to confront a very new type of threat: a “low-probability, high-impact event.”"

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/opinion/09friedman.html?_r=1

    This 1% rule Friedman talks about seems to have all sorts of applications. Even this blather about some Ayrabs scaring passengers. On the one hand you have individuals right to dress and speak as they please and on the other you have the fear that they may be the 1% who might initiate a 'high impact event'. I can see Q nodding his head in agreement with Cheney on this - fuck individual rights when you are scared about something bigger but what will Q say when the same argument is trotted out for something his gut tells him is wrong?

    Friedman goes on to write:

    "Soon after Suskind’s book came out, the legal scholar Cass Sunstein, who then was at the University of Chicago, pointed out that Mr. Cheney seemed to be endorsing the same “precautionary principle” that also animated environmentalists. Sunstein wrote in his blog: “According to the Precautionary Principle, it is appropriate to respond aggressively to low-probability, high-impact events — such as climate change. Indeed, another vice president — Al Gore — can be understood to be arguing for a precautionary principle for climate change (though he believes that the chance of disaster is well over 1 percent).”

    Of course, Mr. Cheney would never accept that analogy. Indeed, many of the same people who defend Mr. Cheney’s One Percent Doctrine on nukes tell us not to worry at all about catastrophic global warming, where the odds are, in fact, a lot higher than 1 percent, if we stick to business as usual. That is unfortunate, because Cheney’s instinct is precisely the right framework with which to think about the climate issue — and this whole “climategate” controversy as well."

    IBID

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  24. I think the ragheads did break laws. If you, or I, had disrupted the flight, and refused to turn off our electronic gizmos during takeoff we would have been charged with various Federal felonies.

    I think they were right to walk off the plane. It seems to me it was as much to "make a statement," as to preserve life, and limb.

    I gotta come down on the side of the passengers on this one.

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  25. Well, Quirk, the FEDERAL POLICE were there, searched the miscreants and found that there was NO THREAT.

    They're the professionals at threat assessment. If their assessment was wrong, therein resides the need for the "militia", the people in the general population.

    But the capable people bailed, as is their right, in the face of what they perceived to be a threat.

    So there stands a prime example of the status of the militia, in the United States, today.

    In the metaphorical rain barrel, safe and secure.

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  26. "Well, Quirk, the FEDERAL POLICE were there, searched the miscreants and found that there was NO THREAT.

    They're the professionals at threat assessment. If their assessment was wrong, therein resides the need for the "militia", the people in the general population.

    But the capable people bailed, as is their right, in the face of what they perceived to be a threat.

    So there stands a prime example of the status of the militia, in the United States, today.

    In the metaphorical rain barrel, safe and secure."


    Bullshit.

    Your rambling again Rat.

    If your going to start out calling people names, you can expect to be called on it.

    Get some perspective, go ask you cowboys who they think is the pussy here Teddy or the Rat, sitting meek and quiet in his seat, seat belt snug and secure, barely wincing as he shouts;
    "Thank you sir, may I have another."


    .

    ReplyDelete
  27. I have reason to believe the whole event was fabricated and didnt even happen. This would have been head-line news by MSM.

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  28. With you not only defending the passengers' "right" to get off the plane, which I do as well, but extolling that decision, which was counter to all things good for the social order of the United States.

    When the government fails, the people should step up, not off.

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  29. Any cowboy will tell you that, Quirk.

    ReplyDelete
  30. The cowboys I know would have relished the opportunity to stay on that plane.

    Hoping against hope that those robe wearers would give them an opportunity for some 9-11-01 payback.

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  31. They would not allow a bunch of rag heads to rob them of 5 hours of their lives.

    ReplyDelete
  32. But then again, the cowboys I know, they're not pussies.

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  33. And they definitely are not Federal employees, as is Teddy.

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  34. "When the government fails, the people should step up, not off."

    Geez, Rat. Did you even read the initial post? The people did stand up. Just as your cowboys would have done. It was only after they stood up that the government failed them by allowing the rag-heads back on the plane.

    Hwo many times do they have to throw these bozos off the plane before it is the passengers themselves that get thrown in jail.

    .

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  35. They stood up, until they stood down.

    After the "Professionals" decided there was no real threat, Teddy gave up his right to fly.

    Teddy believed there was a threat, regardless of the professional assessment.

    He then led a parade off the plane, rather than personally defend his and the other folks' right to fly, due to his private threat assessment.

    He was afraid.
    He stepped off, not up.


    If the story is not a fabrication.

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  36. One of the responsibilities of government is to create the perception of an environment conducive to interstate commerce. In the instance, the government failed (AGAIN).

    The whole idea of government presupposes the formulation and enforcement of rules, with consequences for breaking the rules. Otherwise, chaos would ensue, as was the case here.

    You can be sure that had a dozen Mormon missionaries refused to cooperate and follow Federal regulations and airline guidelines, the outcome would have been entirely different. I can just see SWAT, dogs, ATF, etc etc etc swarming that plane.

    Yep, when it comes to Muslims, the ROE are entirely different than for the rest of us. That's why we are going to get hit so hard that even the spin-meisters will be at a loss for words.

    We are engaged in WWIII, denial and the madness of krauts notwithstanding.

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  37. "He was afraid.
    He stepped off, not up."


    Based on his actions in contfronting 11 or so rowdy ragheads, I doubt that most people would agree with your assessment. However, if you have to denegrate this guy in order to rationalize the actions you would take in the same situation that is your issue.

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  38. By the way, nothing in the post suggested that the culprits were "ragheads", whatever that means. What is clear is that they were Levantines of the non-Isreali sort, with a plan in motion. Call it recon-in-force. The lessons learned will be incorporated into future operations.

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  39. Little sheets...they where little sheets on their heads. Therefore, called littesheetheads not towelheads or ragheads. Get with the program. Sheesh.

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  40. MLD,

    Re: littlesheetheads

    Well done! :)

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  41. ... 11 Muslim men got on the plane in full attire. ...

    Full attire for "Muslims" includes the obligatory Arabfat rag wrapped about their heads, does it not?

    Or you'd not know they were Muslims, would you?

    Or so the stereotype personifies.

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  42. Fifteen to twenty years.

    How many Friedman Units is that?

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  43. U.S. sees homegrown Muslim extremism as rising threat

    The Obama administration, grappling with a spate of recent Islamic terrorism cases on U.S. soil, has concluded that the country confronts a rising threat from homegrown extremism.

    Anti-terrorism officials and experts see signs of accelerated radicalization among American Muslims, driven by a wave of English-language online propaganda and reflected in aspiring fighters' trips to hot spots such as Pakistan and Somalia.

    Europe had been the front line, the target of successive attacks and major plots, while the U.S. remained relatively calm. But the number, variety and scale of recent U.S. cases suggest 2009 has been the most dangerous year domestically since 2001, anti-terrorism experts said

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  44. Meanwhile, Silber said in recent congressional testimony: "There have been a half-dozen cases of individuals who, instead of traveling abroad to carry out violence, have elected to attempt to do it here. This is substantially greater than what we have seen in the past, and may reflect an emerging pattern."

    Some feel radicalization in the United States has been worse than authorities thought for some time.

    "People focused on the idea that we're different, we're better at integrating Muslims than Europe is," said Zeyno Baran, a scholar at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington. "But there's radicalization -- especially among converts [and] newcomers, such as the Somali case shows. I think young U.S. Muslims today are as prone to radicalization as Muslims in Europe."

    In proportion to population, extremism still appears less intense in the United States. But the Internet functions as the global engine of extremism. Websites expose Americans to a wave of slick, English-language propaganda from ideologues such as Anwar Awlaki, the Yemeni American described as a spiritual guide for the accused Ft. Hood shooter and other Westerners.

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  45. doug cited:

    "a spate of recent Islamic terrorism cases"

    How many cases are we talking about? There was the wacko who killed all those soldiers...

    ...what other incidents occurred on US soil? Maybe it really is a 'law-enforcement' thingy?

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  46. Probly caused by Global Warming.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Bernake Comments on Mortgage Defaults and Subprime Abuse
    17 May 07

    While speaking at a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Bernake fielded questions about the increase in mortgage defaults nationwide, noting that defaults and foreclosures would likely rise throughout the year but probably won’t significantly impair the economy.

    He also felt that the emphasis should be on tackling bad lending practices that led to the meltdown, such as mortgage fraud and predatory lending.

    At the same, Bernake felt that there were many good borrowers who were facing an underwriting backlash as lenders nationwide tightened guidelines and denied more new loan applications because of the losses in subprime lending.

    He further added that the United States economy would be able to absorb the massive losses related to the subprime mortgage crisis and that the majority of home loans would continue to perform just fine.

    Bernake feels that strong job growth and income, coupled with past housing appreciation that has kept house values near record levels should allow the majority of homeowners to manage their mortgage, and avoid further financial difficulties.

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  48. "The Complex is in search of an enemy, any enemy will do."

    We get help from the Weekly Standard, the Hoover Institute, Commentary, Pajamas Media and such like outlets. Who needs IO when we've got that?

    Granted there is not, with exceptions, quite the enthusiasm that there was for, say, picking the "lowest-hanging fruit" in the Middle East ten years ago, but we can't have everything. That was an absolute marvel of salesmanship hitched to the most devastating act of terrorism the world has ever seen. (Show of hands: How many of you would do Iraq all over again?)

    On the other hand there aren't as many folks carrying Justin Raimondo/Pat Buchanan lunch boxes to work either. (I know mine's in storage. It'll be a collectors' item some day.) There's more weariness now than there is sheer, spitting anger.

    Good to remember, too, that when all's said and done, Ms. Palin is on our side. Until and unless she REALLY decides to go rogue. I don't anticipate it. Her sunny, outgoing, can-do spirit and embrace of American exceptionalism could, in fact, do wonders to remove fresh or lingering skepticism that attaches to our foreign (mis)adventures.





    I recall vividly the GOP's stab at opposition to MIC-friendly, open-ended, ambiguous campaigns and promiscuous intervention generally. I recall someone running on a platform of "a more humble foreign policy." I even remember certain segments of the MIC being very, very jazzed about that.

    Then everyone discovered - right on the heels of running to the rescue of a gang of Muslim con-artists in the Balkans - that the planet is crawling with assfucks who hate us and who would like to kill a lot of us. And, yes, some of them are right there in River City.

    Obama is doing exactly what Obama said he was going to do in re South Asia. To whatever extent he might have ended up holding a politically-motivated promise he discovered he'd rather not keep, he's certainly keeping it. The Good War marches on. And God knows it won't be the last.

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  49. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  50. "I can see Q nodding his head in agreement with Cheney on this - fuck individual rights when you are scared about something bigger but what will Q say when the same argument is trotted out for something his gut tells him is wrong?"

    Ash, normally I just scroll on by your posts, well, at least the long ones. However, in doing so today I noticed my name mentioned and thought I should comment.

    The only reason you can see Q nodding his head in agreement with Cheney is because you want to see Q nodding his head with Cheney. It goes along with that muddled PC mindset of yours. The fact is my conservatism runs to the libertarian side on a lot of issues including individual rights.

    I've denounced the degradation of those rights under Bush (and Cheney) with their war on terror and as continued under the big O's administration. As far as I'm concerned it's just more big government intruding on our lives. Having the government reading my e-mails and checking on my library books doesn't make me feel any safer. And as I've already said you have to look out for yourself as the cops only get there after the crime. In this sense I think Rat and I are probably in agreement. My only problem with the Rat was in calling Teddy a pussy for standing up for his rights.

    "On the one hand you have individuals right to dress and speak as they please and on the other you have the fear that they may be the 1% who might initiate a 'high impact event'."

    Here you've set up a false dilemma. I don't think anyone was complaining about these guy's dress only their actions. I can't say what was going through the minds of the passengers and whether they were thinking about a 'high impact event' or whether they were just pissed off by these goons.

    I also find it telling that the only individual rights you refer to are those of the troublemakers.
    What about the rights of the other passengers. Since 9/11, flying has become a highly artificial situation governed by 'rules'. By the time you get on the plane you've been hassled and prodded, had to remove your shoes, restricted on the amount of liquids you can carry, etc. Then you get on the plane and find there are more "rules" involving cell phones, electronic devices, being seated for takeoff, etc.

    The rules are for the safety of everyone so you decide you can live with them. However, then it becomes evident those rules while applying to you and most of the rest of the passengers do not apply to certain ethnic groups who might cause a fuss, launch a lawsuit, or worse; well, then you just might get a little pissed.

    Is it fear of a 'high impact event' or is it just that that your pissed at these arrogant jerks who think they have the right to ignore the rules, to be loud and obnoxious, insulting to the stewardesses, and delaying the flight when your anxious to get home?


    With regard to climate change:

    "Of course, Mr. Cheney would never accept that analogy."

    Of course not. No sane person would.

    .

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  51. trish wrote:

    "Her sunny, outgoing, can-do spirit and embrace of American exceptionalism could, in fact, do wonders to remove fresh or lingering skepticism that attaches to our foreign (mis)adventures."

    SAY WHAT?? If she, ever, fulfills the GOP rumps fantasy, got elected, I don't think the rest of the world would embrace her 'sunny exceptionalism' but rather, after dusting off form the rolling on the floor laughter, would quake in fear that the US would choose to elect someone even less intellectually astute than Dubya.

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  52. The story as provided by Sam was written, and thus viewed, through the eyes of that one passenger. Those guys were hauled off the plane, searched and whatever for violating the rules of flying. After the search, they were returned, cowed and obeying the rules it appears. It was then that the other passengers and crew refused to fly with them. According to the author it was because of their ethnicity and the appearance (at least through his eyes) of it being a "dry-run".

    I too share much of your libertarian views though I do believe there is a role for government.

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  53. I don't think the rest of the world would embrace her 'sunny exceptionalism'

    - Ash

    Well, who said anything about "the rest of the world"? Not I.

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  54. I guess you didn't. My bad - I forget there are a few in America who question foreign adventurism.

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  55. RE Flight 297 ATL to HST

    What a lost opportunity.

    After the luggage inspection, TSA should have returned the Muslim passengers to their seats - each accompanied by a pair of Marine guards reassigned to the flight at the last minute for reasons of National Security. That would be about 24 seats given up by passengers for another flight. Well make it just one guard each.

    Really big ones. Preferably black.

    Have a nice flight.

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  56. I forget there are a few in America who question foreign adventurism.

    Wed Dec 09, 03:03:00 PM EST

    Absolutely, there are.

    Some of it depends on whose "adventure" it is. But there certainly are those who question our comparative hyperactivity regardless of administration. We ARE the hyperpower. We hardly wind down one thing before moving on pretty briskly to the next. We take that for granted; even those who find it regrettable take it for granted. The rest of the WORLD takes it for granted.

    I remember - back during the draw down (post-Gulf, post-Soviet Bloc) - Powell testifying on our defense posture in the context of the global threat environment. "I'm down to North Korea," he said, encapsulating that brief moment in time when so many people in the Army were actually asking, "Well, shit. Now what do we do?"

    We found out "now what."

    But unless we go broke (perhaps a distinct possibility) it is as my father says, "Shitty little wars as far as the eye can see." (Not to say necessarily arbitrary, just shitty.) Unless we go broke we'll never be the guys who get to send a casserole, along with our regrets, to someone else's war or humanitarian intervention. I fantasized about that for about two months. Two months before 9/11.


    I really do look forward to being done with it and getting my DFH on. I'm going full love-beads-and-sandals.

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  57. Gore repeats lie three times!

    Q: How damaging to your argument was the disclosure of e-mails from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University?

    A: To paraphrase Shakespeare, it’s sound and fury signifying nothing. I haven’t read all the e-mails, but the most recent one is more than 10 years old. These private exchanges between these scientists do not in any way cause any question about the scientific consensus.

    And in case you think that was a mere slip of the tongue:


    Q: There is a sense in these e-mails, though, that data was hidden and hoarded, which is the opposite of the case you make [in your book] about having an open and fair debate.

    A: I think it’s been taken wildly out of context. The discussion you’re referring to was about two papers that two of these scientists felt shouldn’t be accepted as part of the IPCC report. Both of them, in fact, were included, referenced, and discussed. So an e-mail exchange more than 10 years ago including somebody’s opinion that a particular study isn’t any good is one thing, but the fact that the study ended up being included and discussed anyway is a more powerful comment on what the result of the scientific process really is.

    In fact, thrice denied:

    These people are examining what they can or should do to deal with the P.R. dimensions of this, but where the scientific consensus is concerned, it’s completely unchanged. What we’re seeing is a set of changes worldwide that just make this discussion over 10-year-old e-mails kind of silly.

    In fact, as Watts Up With That shows, one Climategate email was from just two months ago. The most recent was sent on November 12 - just a month ago. The emails which have Tom Wigley seeming (to me) to choke on the deceit are all from this year. Phil Jones’ infamous email urging other Climategate scientists to delete emails is from last year.

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  58. But I liked best his display of simpleminded ignorance when he solemly intoned that CO2 Greenhouse effect is scientifically established fact.

    ...and you can tell by the context and his demeanor that to the moron boy, that equates to man-caused global warming being established scientific fact!
    pathetic.

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  59. The latest from the "Federal Police", the TSA, those "Professionals" upon whom we depend for "professional assessments" to assure we remain safe.

    From today's WaPo;

    TSA Document Released to Web

    Comforting.


    .

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  60. "The president also recommended that Congress pass a "cash for caulkers" plan that would offer financial incentives for home weatherization. Senior administration officials said the program, based on the popular "cash for clunkers" automobile rebate program, would leverage hiring in construction and manufacturing -- sectors especially hard hit by the recession -- while promoting energy efficiency, resulting in long-term savings for homeowners."

    OK, so I planned on having additional insulation blown in along with a couple of new windows in order to take advantage of the tax credit (up to $1500) that expires at the end of the year. Now the question becomes should I wait to see if I can get a better deal under "cash for caulkers?"

    ReplyDelete
  61. Several women pay me tribute through the
    "Cash for Cockers"
    program.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Comment by dimwit
    @ doctor housing bubble
    December 9th, 2009 at 11:33 am

    i think we are all going to be living in trees in 5 years, throwing our feces at one another and.

    —————- it will be government mandated and controled.

    ReplyDelete
  63. "Several women pay me tribute through the
    "Cash for Cockers"
    program."



    Are there franchising opportunities available?

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  64. I'm still working on a quality control issue.

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  65. "Pakistan police officer Tahir Gujjar said five Americans were picked up in a raid on a house on Sarghoda in the eastern province of Punjab. He did not identify the five, but said three are of Pakistani descent, one is of Egyptian descent and the other has Yemeni heritage."

    Boys will be boys

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  66. We do have a program in which your women can send their tributes to me on a trial basis, to establish their bona fides.

    ReplyDelete
  67. I'm going full love-beads-and-sandals.

    Oh yeah, I can see that! Along with those form fitting Lillie Pulitzer sundresses. ;)

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  68. "The families, members of the local Muslim community, took their concerns to CAIR, which put them in touch with the FBI and got them a lawyer, Hooper said."

    Yeah, that's the American way: Your kid goes missing and you hire a lawyer.

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  69. "We do have a program in which your women can send their tributes to me on a trial basis..."

    Is that the "Baubles for the Kahuna" program?

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  70. Five Missing Americans suspected of links to terrorism aka Jihad.
    WASHINGTON – Five young Americans captured in Pakistan are under investigation for possible links to terrorism after their families found a disturbing farewell video the missing men left behind showing scenes of war and casualties and saying Muslims must be defended.

    Frantic relatives and worried FBI agents have been searching for the five men for more than a week, since their disappearance in late November. The missing men, ranging in age from 19 to 25, have family roots in the northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., area. One, Ramy Zamzam, is a dental student at Howard University.

    Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said the five are believed to be under arrest in Pakistan.

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  71. See, the Pakistani can find the foreign radicals, whenever they need to.

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  72. Full-on love-beads-and-sandals figuratively speaking.

    I'm going to liberate my inner peacenik.





    Fun DOD chart!

    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/afghanistan-1300.jpg

    Just think of it as Advanced Chutes and Ladders.

    Without the ladders.

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  73. Actually, you know what that chart looks like to me?

    Contractor heaven, that's what.

    If you have any inclination to do that on and off for the next, say, ten years, you will make money hand over fist.

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  74. If I squint my eyes and use just a little imagination, I can almost see a chart of the heavens.

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  75. I can also see a Gordian knot.

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  76. Change of plan. Heading to the signing in Sandpoint tomorrow. Sarah's here from noon to three, then Sandpoint from 6 to 9pm. Better chance there. Goin' be a mob scene here. Fred Meyers says not to line up before closing at 11:00 pm tonight!

    An overnight is too much for me, unless it was waitin' for Melody.

    I'll take my chance at the Event Center in Sandpoint tomorrow evening. Least I'll be standing inside. Heading up that way when the sun comes up.

    My daughter has this nifty little laptop I'm using.

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  77. We paid somebody to make that just for you, whit! Appreciate the artwork!

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  78. Professor Ash, are you listening to Lord Monckton?

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  79. It's gotta be cold over thataway Bob. We're in for another night in the teens. Fountains are freezing and stuff.

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  80. If even the great Petraeus can untie that Gordian knot of COIN dynamics, he too will deserve to be named the King of Asia.

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  81. Colder than islamic hell, Miss T.

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  82. Why bob, don't you know that this is one of the hottest years in the hottest decade on record. Come on, man, get a grip.

    You too, T.

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  83. Whit, Obama is losing his grip on reality and tightening it on my purse.

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  84. The slack water part of the Clearwater River was frozen all across when I left, an unusual event, and the lake is frozen here, much of it. Some years you can drive a car on it. This seem early for bitter cold to me. The winter wheat needs a snow cover.

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  85. That's a weird light over Norway on Drudge. Must be some prophetic omen, but of what?

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  86. Mysterious Spiral Over Norway

    Look to C2C for the answers to all things eerie.

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  87. Whatever it is, man made carbon did it. Hopenhagen says so.

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  88. The [JCS] chart lays out the counterinsurgency strategy to achieve three goals: "Influence insurgent-minded individuals to adopt a neutral disposition"; "Influence neutral-minded individuals to adopt a supportive disposition;" and "Retain supportive individuals."

    Emphasis on the latter, I would add.




    Stan was asked yesterday whether we'd be able to move across the Pak border in "hot pursuit."

    He didn't really want to answer the question, PakGov sensitivity being what it is. I get that.

    He could have but didn't say, "Why follow in 'hot pursuit' when we just drop them on the other side?"

    You would have been able to hear a fucking pin drop.

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  89. ...just another rainy night in Georgia...

    The five "Americanized" Muslim lads arrested in Pakistan probably left a paper trail that even our crack intel guys couldn't miss.

    I am sure there is a perfectly sound, reasonable explanation for their presence in Pakistan. Eagle Scout badges come immediately to mind.

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  90. Glad to hear you decided on the entirely indoor venue, bob. Better part of valor and all that.

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  91. Given the Paks' methods, a new waterboarding badge might have to be adopted by the Scouts. Pakistan is not Alexandria or Howard U.

    Reading between the lines, the lads may have attended the same mosque; but I am certain that played no part in their decision to join in the fray. Islam is, after all, "the religion of peace."

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  92. "...even our crack intel guys couldn't miss."

    Heyheyheyheyhey!

    Don't pick on the intel guys, man!

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  93. Sarah ought to think about hitting the administration where the public is most perplexed, un/underemployment. Recent polling indicates that this is where her adversaries are having the toughest time.

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  94. If I get my ten seconds with her, I'll say, "Hit them on unemployment."

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  95. When Stan goes out to visit the locals with his tail between his legs, anticipating having to grovel over the tanker truck bombing, only to discover that the locals applauded the carnage, something is missing in the intel department or Stan is just a PC suit.

    Feel free to enlighten me :)

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  96. "something is missing in the intel department"

    Ve haff horrrrror stories, darling! You vud not belief!

    Send us more mawny so ve can prrrocure vat's missink!

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  97. JihadWatch Report on the D.C. Five


    ....a Swede....

    That 'Swede' u know iss not real Svede, but recent immigrant.

    (I should hope)

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  98. My weather, BTW, has been splendid.

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  99. I hit the jackpot on a golden oldies station up here, 24 hours a day, 1080 am, stuff like This

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  100. Vell, I got to tell you, I may come up a crapper on this see Sarah deal. Daughter just drove by Fred Meyers and says the parking lot is filled with campers, vans, people in tents, campfires, and the TV vans. I'll go to Sandpoint but I'm beginning to wonder if a guy my age has any chance, camperless.

    I should have put an ad in the paper a week ago, and hired someone to stand in line for me.

    Something seems to be stirring in America.

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  101. Deuce: The O is going to the Big O
    to snatch and run his Nobel Peace Prize.


    Be ironic if BHO really is the second coming of LBJ and cranks up the US committment in 'Stan to 200,000 troops as everything goes to shit, maybe brings back the draft.

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