COLLECTIVE MADNESS


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

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Obama spreads the word of his own awesomeness

Nile Gardiner

Nile Gardiner is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. He appears frequently on American and British television and radio, including Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News, and NPR.

Barack Obama pays tribute to himself during Angela Merkel's White House visit

Obama spreads the word of his own awesomeness
Obama spreads the word of his own awesomeness
The visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Washington has attracted little attention in the US media, perhaps further proof that Berlin barely ranks as a world power these days, and consistently punches under its weight in international affairs. Compared to both David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel is a remarkably low-key figure when it comes to global impact, despite the size of the German economy.
Judging by the content of today’s joint press conference in the White House East Room, which has to rank as among the most dull in recent memory, almost nothing of any real substance come out of the US-German discussions. Merkel gave no ground on Berlin’s refusal to join the NATO-led military operation in Libya, and bizarrely championed the cause of European integration while the EU economic project is going up in flames back home.
Obama declared that he wasn’t concerned about the prospect of a “double-dip recession”, while noting that “we’re experiencing some headwinds”, i.e. some catastrophic bad news on the economic front. He also gave Iran yet another half-hearted warning over its extremely well-advanced nuclear programme, threatening “additional steps, including potentially additional sanctions” – whatever that means. In the meantime, Germany remains a huge trading partner with Tehran, actually increasing its trade with the Islamist, terrorist-supporting regime in 2010.
By far the most telling part of the day’s proceedings came in the president’swelcoming address for his German counterpart on the South Lawn of the White House, where he could not resist a reference to his own rise to the highest office in the land, even comparing it with the momentous changes in eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War. Here is what he said:
And finally, as people around the world imagine a different future, the story of Germany and our alliance in the 20th century shows what’s possible in the 21st. Wars can end. Adversaries can become allies. Walls can come down. At long last, nations can be whole and can be free.
Madam Chancellor, the arc of our lives speaks to this spirit. It’s obvious that neither of us looks exactly like the leaders who preceded us. (Laughter and applause.) But the fact that we can stand here today as President of the United States and as Chancellor of a united Germany is a testament to the progress, the freedom, that is possible in our world.
In 2009 Barack Obama shamefully declined to attend the celebrations in Berlin commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, sending his Secretary of State in his place, which National Review appropriately described at the time as “the most telling nonevent of his presidency.” In his White House remarks today, Obama had another opportunity to remind America’s German friends of the great role played by Ronald Reagan and the United States in defeating Communism, ending the Cold War and liberating hundreds of millions from tyranny, but egotistically chose instead to talk about his own personal achievement in becoming president – hardly a stirring example of world leadership from a president who all too often prefers “leading from behind”.

112 comments:

  1. Another example of the sick bastards that we choose to lead us.

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  2. Not much longer. Romney's already out-polling him, and the economy can only get worse from here.

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  3. You might see a little sell-off in oil tomorrow, as OPEC (the Sauds) vote to raise the "Quota." (bizarrely, enough, almost all the way up to where they're producing already.)

    Anyway, by evening, or thursday morning, it will be right back to $100.00, and ready to fly.

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  4. I responded to your dialog with Wio on the previous post.

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  5. Someone has convinced the powers that be that the price of oil is going to come down. That's the only thing that explains their repeated insistence that the slowdown due to high oil prices is "transitory."

    Maybe the Sauds have promised them more production. We'll see.

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  6. I hate that subject. Of all the serious stuff coming at us (or, already on top of us,) to get sidetracked on that idiocy is just inane.

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  7. Bernanke seemed unusually nervous, today. Auston Goolsby "unexpectedly" quit.

    hmmm

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  8. I wonder if Goolsby wanted to compromise with the Pubs, and Obama overruled him?

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  9. .

    I hate that subject.

    Then why join in?

    The rat has a ready reference regarding Israel for every subject that comes up here. To which WiO is more than willing to reply.

    They are perfectly capable of carrying on their own dialogue without help (something I do on occasion myself) from others.

    It's is our own version of the ME conflict. Just as stupid and just as enduring.

    .

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  10. Romney owes his relatively good standing against the president to support from independents. He and Obama garner roughly equal percentages from those in their own parties.

    But independents split for Romney 50 percent to 43 percent.

    The president continues to receive positive marks as a strong leader, but the 55 percent rating marks a low point of his presidency. He gets mixed reviews on empathy and on sharing the same values as respondents.


    Romney On Move

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  11. Just a slow "newnight," I suppose.

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  12. .

    Bernanke did look kinda nervous. Something I hadn't noticed in previous appearnces. And, to me, he looked pretty defensive. Half his speech was made up of pointing out and defending against what 'others' were saying about the FED actions.

    Hadn't heard about Goolsbee. Don't know the actual reason he quit; but he looked awfully uncomfortable in an interview I saw him give yesterday (think it was on CNBC). He was especially defensive and kind of stuttered when asked about jobs.

    Maybe he just got worn down.

    .

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  13. Other than that nonsense I was sitting here, thinking about Richard Fisher. Just strange. One of us is really off. Common sense says it's gotta be me. But, . . . . . . .

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  14. Just a thought, if the Fed balance sheet is over $3 trillion, what are they doing with the interest, dividends and capital gains on their assets?

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  15. The Goolsbe thing just came out of the clear, blue sky. No, "leaving at the end of the month, or, whatever; just, "he's gone."

    Not the way it's usually done.

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  16. .

    Other than that nonsense I was sitting here, thinking about Richard Fisher...

    Good lord, Ruf.

    You are losing it.

    :)

    .

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  17. :) careful. Someone might be listening.


    They're supposed to return any (certain?) profits back to the government, right?

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  18. I thought it was such a strange call, delivered with such "certitude" by a Fed President, Q.

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  19. Makes one wonder. Could we put an end to Asian mercantilism and have the Fed buy up all the Asian held US debt at a discount? A real twofer.

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  20. Instead of giving cash, give them mortgages and deeds on foreclosed real estate.

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  21. I know this is almost impossible to believe, Deuce, but there is a whole big, old chunk of people that read a book by Hayek, once, that thinks having Japan, and China own all that paper is the greatest idea in the history of check-kiting.

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  22. I saw the same interview and thought it curious.

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  23. Somebody told'em that if the interest rate is right you're supposed to borrow all the money you possibly can. It's bizarre, but that seems to be an ascendant idea of some. They're all over blogs like Carpe Diem.

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  24. I know Fisher has a tendency to look at everything through a prism of "what's good for Texas," but still . . . .

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  25. Pure genius, almost as smart as destroying American industrial jobs, which provided salaries which could buy houses, send children to college, pay for private health care and pension benefits so the shit birds on Wall Street could make a quick buck feeding Asian mercantilism which fed the housing bubble with cheap financing and ultimately ends with 15% unemployment and a broke federal government. Fucking genius.

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  26. Deuce: The land seized by the israelis after the 1967 war was a result of a war between two states.


    No, it was a war between the Israelis and the attacking 5 arab nations that attacked. The 1967 was are a defensive war and by all rights the lands seizes were never part of any nation.


    Deuce: The Palestinian farmers who owned the land hardly had much to do with starting the war or ending it, but they had their land seized by Europeans, to them little different from the land seizures of the British and the Turks.



    In 1967 a sizable population of Israel was born in Israel or driven from the arab world. Not from Europe.



    Deuce: The Sudetenland was part of Germany until 1806. Austria owned or claimed parts of Poland and Ukraine. Moldova was part of Romania. Care to guess which parts of the US were owned by Mexico in 1806?



    The arabs currently occupy 899/900 of the middle east. they have driven the jews from their historic lands INTO israel. Most of the lands taken in the 67 war were NEVER populated. They were empty lands.

    The lands of the west bank are "disputed territories", not "palestinian territories".

    In 1973 Israel offered to give back all captured lands for peace, the arabs famous for their 1974 answer was the 3 no's.

    All in all the entire displacement of Jews verses arabs, jews had about 100,000 MORE refugees driven from the arab world INTO israel.

    Today in the disputed west bank the arab population from 1948 til today has added several HUNDRED towns, villages and cities.

    Deuce: Israel has the problem, not the US.

    YOu really dont understand the problem if you dont understand that America is the BIG satan and Israel is the little satan

    Deuce: The Jewish diaspora would have been smarter to set up a new homeland in Florida. Everyone would be safer and happier except the Florida Republican Party.


    Nonsense.

    Without Israel?

    Jews would be stacked like cordwood in even MORE nations than it's legal to now...

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  27. I missed the class in college where they taught manufacturing did not matter, where the answer to everything was building another bank.

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  28. Well, the belief is alive, and well. And, heavily subscribed-to.

    It's bizarre.

    I don't pay much attention to people like Orlov; but his observation on "Denial" is, absolutely valid.

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  29. They really do see No danger in having 40 Million Bubbas out there wandering around with no job, and no way to feed the Bubbettes, and little Bubbas.

    Some economics book they read, somewhere, told them that that would all work out. Something about an "invisible" hand, or somesuch.

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  30. I'm a Big believer in the ubiquitous "invisible hand." No one can observe agriculture in America, and not be.

    However, Magical thinkin' will only get you so far. Then, you need a job.

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  31. Someone noticed that middlemen and retailers made more profit per unit than the manufacturer and thought they could subcontract the manufacturing to Asian factories. They forgot that Henry Ford had figured if manufacturing salaries were high, the workers could buy the cars they made in the company store.

    I figure we have one last chance to fix this and save the present US dollar. If we don't we will end up with drawers of old dollars and precious few of new ones.

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  32. It will be another General Motors on steroids. Bondholders and savers get wiped out. Stockholders of US securities join them and the people with hard assets survive.

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  33. Watching these guys get their wheat out the last couple of days. Not like it used to be.

    Was going down to Tunica. Guy was starting in on what looked like maybe 100 acres. Had his sixteen row planter right behind the combine planting beans. Might have taken him a day. Don't take many Bubbas for that kind of operation.

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  34. They're not figuring the "Societal" Cost of 40 Million unemployed Bubbas, and Jeromes out there wandering around.

    The five dollars you save on that pair of shoes made in China might be the most expensive five dollars you've ever seen.

    The thing is, you've gotta have "some" progress. You've gotta import "some" stuff. It's finding the balance. That magical, invisible hand might take a hundred years too long.

    True Believers, and idealogues aren't good for anything but getting you broke, and/or killed.

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  35. Smoot-Hawley was a disaster. The mirror image, unfettered access to our markets for a country like China, is just as big a disaster in the making.

    Churchill said, "The Americans always get it right, after they've exhausted All other possibilities."


    His mother was American, right?

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  36. Well, the sooner I go to bed, the sooner I'll see what disaster the morrow may bring. G'nite.

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  37. And we allow all that to be forgotten at our own peril. How can our children write the next chapter of a story they don't even know?

    So, while it is comforting to think Palin's gaffe speaks only to her own considerable limitations, it is also short-sighted. The evidence suggests she is less an exception to, than a reflection of, a nation that is in the process of forgetting itself.

    Heck, we are all Sarah Palin now.


    Forgetting Itself

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  38. An old guy (not in the best of shape) was working out in the gym when he spotted a sweet young thing .

    He asked the trainer that was nearby, "What machine in here should I use, to impress that sweet young thing over there?"

    The trainer looked him up and down and said, "I’d try the ATM in the lobby"

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  39. The $61.6 trillion in unfunded obligations amounts to $527,000 per household. There are about 111,000,000 households in the US.

    There are up to 20,000,000 illegals. Any form of amnesty will create at least 13-15 million new households all entitled to the same amount of underfunded entitlements. The numbers are probably higher at most of the illegals are poor from Latin America and Africa. Their household creation potential is hard to fathom, but assume that they ultimately match their population of 20 million new households.

    Here is the scary part:

    20,000,000 X $527,000 is TEN TRILLION DOLLARS

    Amnesty will cost the US Taxpayer TEN TRILLION DOLLARS.

    Amnesty will ruin the savings and promised benefits of every retail saver and middle class 401K holder in the US .

    This is where our Rules and Masters are taking us.

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  40. The vast American Middle Class as docile as they have been will reach a point where they will have had enough. No justice. No Peace.

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  41. …and don't tell anyone, but there is no justice.

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  42. Look at the of the Middle Class:

    1. Private Employer Pensions, mostly gone.

    2. Private Employer Provided Healthcare. going fast.

    3. Private Home Ownership, diminishing.

    4. Job creation, falling.

    Where are all these people going to go? Who will they turn to?

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  43. Deuce said...
    Look at the of the Middle Class:

    1. Private Employer Pensions, mostly gone.

    2. Private Employer Provided Healthcare. going fast.

    3. Private Home Ownership, diminishing.

    4. Job creation, falling.

    Where are all these people going to go? Who will they turn to?




    Maybe they will invade Canada?

    What's a few hundred thousand angry pissed Americans invading Canada going there to TAKE what SHOULD be theirs: the wealth and space of Canada!

    Yes Maybe the America Middle Class will turn into "peaceful protesters" and invade another nation!

    See how that works for you....

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  44. Now here is a FINE example of MURDER...


    Pro-Syria fighters kill Palestinians
    By Anissa Haddadi

    Gunmen from a pro-Syrian Palestinian organization shot at people during a protest at a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus on Monday, WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency, reported on Tuesday. A reported 14 people died in the attack.

    According to WAFA and other reports, the fighters belonged to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine of Palestine General Command (PFLP). The gunmen allegedly clashed with mourners in the Yarmouk refugee camp, in Syria after funerals for Palestinian protesters who were killed on Sunday at the border between Syria and the Israeli-held Golan Heights.

    Also, according to Reuters, the shootings took place on Monday after mourners accused the organization of sacrificing Palestinian lives by encouraging protesters to demonstrate at the Golan Heights.

    Witnesses explained that following the burial of seven people who were killed in the border protest, by Israeli forces, mourners started to march towards the organisation's headquarters. While the protesters started to throw stones at the building, security guards allegedly came out and starting shooting at crowd.

    On Tuesday, commentating on the incident, the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank condemned what it called the "crime" by what it said were "armed groups" of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and confirmed that the Popular Front's fighters had fired live ammunition into crowds of young demonstrators at the camp.

    This incident will further deepen divisions that are emerging in the camp between those who support President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and those who sympathize with the Syrian opposition as many says the protests were backed by the al-Assad regime.

    On Tuesday, Syrian police and security officers visited and searched the headquarters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General command while people hoped an investigation would be launched despite the protests against the regime, on which the security forces focus.

    People that said they saw the attack claim the security guards responsible of the shootings were all Palestinians and many believe that the demonstration at the border was organized to serve the interests of President Assad to distract international attention from the on-going uprising in the country. Many also deplore the fact that the protest had nothing to do with seeking justice for Palestinian refugees and displaced Syrian residents of the Golan Heights.



    Notice who did the shooting...

    Notice no outrage at the Bar....

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  45. Oil moved $1.50 on the news that the OPEC Meeting broke up w/o any resolution.

    This is really silly. They're producing just about what they can produce (or, what they want to produce.) They're already producing way above the stated quotas.

    Basically, the meeting is like a marketing/advertising meeting. They get together and decide how to "spin" the story.

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  46. Evidently, Saudi wanted to jawbone the price down, if they could; Iran/Venezuela/Algeria didn't.

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  47. Saudi has Always produced exactly what they wanted to produce, when they wanted to produce it. It's crazy to think they won't, now, just because Iran doesn't want them to.

    The fact is, about the only stuff Saudi Arabia has left is some heavy, sour crude that most refineries can't process.

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  48. Now this is MURDER...

    Close to 100 killed in Sudan army takeover of Abyei says region’s ex-adminstrator

    June 2,2011 (JUBA) - The ousted head of the Abyei administration Deng Arop Kuol, said on Thursday he believes that close to 100 people have been killed in the fighting that saw the northern military take control of the disputed border region.


    An internally displaced child from Abyei cries as he waits for food aid in Turalei

    Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir announced that Abyei’s civilian administration had been abolished shortly after taking control of the oil-producing region on May 21.

    In Juba on Thursday youth groups from the contested border region called for foreign military intervention to end the occupation of the area by Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) commanded by Khartoum.

    The SAF’s seizure of Abyei, sparked international condemnation and raised fears the military action would provoke return to war between north and South Sudan. According to the UN tens of thousands have fled south to escape the fighting.

    In an interview with Sudan Tribune on Thursday from an area around Agok, south of Abyei town, Kuol said that he believed nearly 100 people had died in the violence.

    "A lot of people have been killed. We are waiting for final information with names from individual family members and clans, but death toll is currently close to 100," said Kuol in an interview with Sudan Tribune on Thursday from an area around Agok.



    Yep, real murder...

    and it's about OIL too (shout out to rufus and his OIL expertise)

    Yet the bar is silent...

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  49. Now for some real murder...

    Kurum, NIGERIA, West Africa — As she lay on the ground after being shot and then slashed with a machete, Dune J. Rike looked into her husband’s tear-filled eyes and asked, “Is this the end between us, so we shall not be together again?”

    Pastor James Musa Rike said he held the hands of his dying, 35-year-old wife and told her, “Hold on to your faith in Jesus, and we shall meet and never part again.”

    In retaliation for the US killing of Osama bin-Laden, Muslims attacked Christians from three churches in Kurum village in Nigeria’s Bauchi state, at midnight May 4th, killing 16. Nearly all the killed were children, including three from the Rike family. The jihadists also stole money and valuables and burned 20 homes before leaving the village.

    Nigeria’s population of more than 158.2 million is almost evenly divided between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north.


    A destroyed home in Kurum
    As armed attackers entered Pastor Rike’s home and tried to force their way into their bedrooms, he said, “I opened a backdoor, and we ran out into the dark night while the militants pursued us. They shot my wife and two of our kids as they tried to escape,” killing Rike’s daughter Faith and 1-year-old son Fyali, and cutting his wife’s abdomen with a machete.

    "I was shocked at what I saw,” he said. “I knew my wife would not last long, and the only thing I did was to encourage her to hold on to her faith in Jesus.”

    Rike, pastor of a 30-member Church of Christ congregation in Kurum, next heard the cries of his 13-year-old daughter, Sum, a few yards away. “I rushed to my daughter, only to discover that she too was cut with a machete on her stomach, and her intestines were all around her,” he said. “I held her hand and began to pray, knowing she too was about to die.



    Funny Christians being slaughtered because of America, in Africa, by Moslems....

    Real murder all the time..

    I doubt those christians were throwing rocks, fire bombs or doing anything aggressive...

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  50. The topic is not all Israel, all the time.

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  51. For those who cheapen the word "murder"

    Reap what you sow.....

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  52. Is this murder?

    Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) — An investigation was underway Sunday into allegations that a coalition airstrike in southern Afghanistan killed a dozen children and two women, Afghan and NATO officials said.
    In a statement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the airstrike, saying he was warning the U.S military and government “for the last time” on behalf of the Afghan people about civilian deaths. He called the operation a mistake, but offered a different death toll, saying 10 children, two women and two men were killed.
    The civilians were reportedly killed Saturday during an airstrike against insurgents who were attacking NATO-led International Security Assistance Force troops in the Nawzad district of the Helmand province, according to a spokesman for the provincial governor.
    The death toll, if confirmed, would make it the largest loss of civilian life this year as a result of an ISAF airstrike.
    ISAF confirmed there was an attack against its troops, though it did not know whether civilians were killed.
    “We do know about the allegations,” Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ronald Flesvig, an ISAF spokesman, told CNN. There was no mention of possible civilian casualties on ISAF’s daily operational update posted daily on its website.
    Both ISAF and Afghan investigators were looking into the claims, which came from residents as well as the district governor, said Daud Ahamadi, the ISAF spokesman.




    If Israel is accused by this Blog for murder when used against thousands of PAID protesters, paid to violated and fight thru an international border, then what is this?

    America is blowing up homes 10,000 miles away from it's border...

    Are the innocent babies and women not murdered?

    Or are they collateral damage?

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  53. Good God, give it a rest wio. For crying out loud.

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  54. This is an older bit of MURDER by those friendly Turks.

    It involves the Kurds.


    ERDOGAN GIVES LICENCE TO KILL KURDISH CHILDREN AND WOMEN
    In recent days violent confrontations and clashes between Kurdish citizens and the Turkish army and authorities have erupted in several Kurdish and Turkish cities including Diyarbakir, Batman, Siirt, Mardin, Kiziltepe, Istanbul and Yüksekova. Turkish police and military have attacked Kurdish civilians using tear gas, batons, firearms and tanks.

    The names of the Kurds shot by Turkish police and military are as follows: Fatih Tekin (three years old), Enes Ata (six years), Abdullah Duru (nine years), Mehmet Akbulut (18 years), Mehmet Isikci (19 years), Tarik Atakaya (22 years) and Mustafa Eryilmaz (26 years).

    Preceding these murders were the peaceful funeral and mourning processions for members of the Kurdish Peoples Defence Forces (HPG) who were killed with poison gas by the Turkish army during one of its most recent military operations in the region of Mus-Bingöl. Just days before these attacks, the Kurdish guerrilla forces announced another unilateral truce to ensure peaceful celebrations of the Kurdish New Year, Newroz.

    In addition to these developments, it is alarming to see the Turkish state’s response to legitimate demands and democratic actions of the Kurdish people. On the one hand special fighting units of the Turkish army are increasingly deployed in the Kurdish regions in order to crush the people’s protest and uprising. On the other, attacks on Kurdish institutions, organisations and politicians are intensifying. Blaming the Kurdish TV-station ROJ-TV for the current developments and events, Turkish political and military authorities now try to achieve their long-standing goal of closing down the popular Kurdish TV-station. The repression of Kurdish political representatives is taken to another level as Turkey is threatening legal action and court cases as well as open violence against Kurdish mayors and parties such as the Party for a Democratic Society (DTP).



    Hmmm...

    Sounds like murder to me...


    But then again, what do I know...

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  55. Rufus II said...
    Good God, give it a rest wio. For crying out loud.

    Wed Jun 08, 10:23:00 AM EDT


    According to you Rufus:

    There is no God

    If there was he aint good....

    After all, all that bullshit god stuff, jesus crap, moses shit?

    all fairy tales...

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  56. Let's see, I'll give it a rest when people set up ONE standard of judgement for all, not one standard for israel and none for anyone else...

    All I am is a mirror....

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  57. No, wio, that's not what I said. I said I hate organized religion, mostly, and "Preachers," almost always.

    Big Difference.

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  58. If the economy is "growing," it's doing it while using 4% Less Diesel than the same time last year.

    That seems extremely unlikely, to me.

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  59. It's worse than anyone can imagine, according to Fred Thompson, worse than anyone an imagine. That's pretty bad.


    Massive Elk caused environmental damage in Yellowstone National Park

    We - the two legs - just let half the park burn some years ago is all.

    dwr

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  60. The Federal Reserve is a private company, a national bank, chartered by the Federal government.

    It is not a branch of the Federal government. It cannot even be audited by the Federal government.

    Its' profits are not turned over to the Federal government.

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  61. Thus the Federal Reserve has both private and public aspects.[12][13][14][15] The U.S. Government receives all of the system's annual profits, after a statutory dividend of 6% on member banks' capital investment is paid, and an account surplus is maintained. In 2010, the Federal Reserve made a profit of $82 billion and transferred $79 billion to the U.S. Treasury.

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  62. Completely unremarked upon is that IRAQ Sided with Iran, Venezuela, and the other "hawks."

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  63. Oh no, the Bushies and Neocons were wrong about our oil payoff from Iraq! Whoda thought it?

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  64. They stated that $100.00 to $120.00 is a totally reasonable price.

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  65. Saudi Arabia said, "Look, demand in the last half of the year is going to be 1.5 Million barrels/day Higher than present output.

    Iran, Iraq, Venezuela weren't interested.

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  66. Unemployment will stay where it is as long as the government makes it easy for a certain sector of our population to get extended unemployment benefits, welfare,and food stamps. Plus, if you have mo babas, you get mo money from da guvamint. Dats why Nobama will get re-elected, cause all them peoples vote.

    Do you not see the irony?

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  67. I'm sayin' Obama is toast. That's my firm prediction.

    dwr

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  68. To those keeping score, please note that my entry did not mention
    Jews, Israel, or Palestine.

    Thank you, thank you very much.

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  69. I must say, though, that I have been to Palestine, TX and Palestine, AR. They are both pronounced differently, and they are both dreadful places.

    I once had a Harley T Shirt that said it came from the dealership in Bumfuck, Egypt, but I haven't been there. I heard it was also a dreadful place.

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  70. Gag Reflex said...
    To those keeping score, please note that my entry did not mention
    Jews, Israel, or Palestine.


    Did you mention Zionism?

    Just checking...

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  71. .

    Unemployment will stay where it is as long as the government makes it easy for a certain sector of our population to get extended unemployment benefits, welfare,and food stamps...

    Unemploymnt will stay where it is at as long as there are five people looking for every job that becomes available.

    It will stay high as long as jobs are generated at a pace that doesn't even keep up with the growth in the working age population. You need at least 150,000 new jobs a month to keep up with population growth much less to cut into the millions who are out of work. Today that percentage is falling not rising.

    It will stay high as long as people with college degrees who were previously earning $100k per year year are taking jobs making $12 to $14 per hour.

    It will stay high as long as those same people (one would assume Gag's idea of the 'right kind of people') are competing with teenage kids and recent college graduates for jobs flipping burgers and cutting lawns.

    It will stay high as long as the GOP insist that giving addditional tax breaks to the richest people and companies in America will actually result in the creation of new jobs. This in spite of the fact that many of these are currently paying less percentagewise in taxes than that 'certain sector of our population' is. And in spite the fact that these same companies and corporations are sitting on trillions in profits rather invest them in additional jobs.

    And who would invest in new workers at this time given that there is no demand to justify it. And there wll be no new demand until more of the unemployed get jobs. And the unemployed can't get jobs until...well, you get the picture. A vicious circle.

    It will stay high as long as the average time for getting a new job continues to grow and the long-term unemployed eventualy give up on getting a job.

    It will stay high as long as the jobs that are created are for highly skilled or specialized positions. This at a time when loans, grants, and budgets are being cut for education at both the state and federal levels.

    It will stay high as long as you have people out there spouting the same old bromides about the unemployed without realizing that this is different. It's something that has been building for a long time and it's something that is going to be with us for a very long time.

    .

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  72. That's really funny, you really believe all that, don't you?

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  73. .

    Cervus canadensis versus canis lupis. The marauding elk destroy whole stands of aspen.

    The question. Do they deserve to live?

    Evidently not.

    While some suggest that wolves be encouraged to do what wolves have been doing for their entire existance, others argue that the proper way to control these pesky behemoths is to let hunters blow them away for fun and profit.

    Perhap areas can be baited with aspen. Sure most professionals say that baiting is bad in that it concentrates populations and spreads desease but it sure makes it a lot less work taking these beasties to task.

    One wonders how the conflicts will resolve themselves for those members of PETA who are also members of the Arbor Society.

    Oh gee I forgot. You also have the Idaho farmer who proposes that man is the problem, the canis lupis vs cervus canadensis vs homo sapian conflict if you like.

    One wonders what his solution is to the problem of man. Poison perhaps?

    .

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  74. .

    That's really funny, you really believe all that, don't you?

    Good lord, Gag. What planet have you been on for the past two years?

    I thought your comment was just a shoot from the hip slam conditioned by years of listening to GOP talking points and Rush Limbaugh. I am astounded that you actually believe it.

    Jesus, try doing a little reading instead of having your world outlook shaped by Hannity and Field and Stream

    Un-fucking believable.

    .

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  75. That's even funnier. Thanks, Q, you made my day.

    Wow, if we could only bring those over paid under producing union jobs back! That would solve everything!

    unfucking believable is right....

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  76. Free Food!
    Free Housing!
    Free Healthcare!
    Free Clothing!
    A government check every month!

    Who needs a job?

    ReplyDelete
  77. one of the most common "headlines" of the 21st Century has been 5,000 line up for 350 Walmart Jobs,

    and, 2,500 Apply for 50 McDonalds Jobs.

    The problem ain't "welfare."

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  78. When I was growing up it seemed like every little town had a "shoe factory." You could still say that, but you'd be talking about China.

    We got out of school for two weeks in the Fall for "Cotton-picking" vacation. Now, a guy rolls in with a couple of custom cotton-pickers, and he's gone the next day.

    Those textile mills in S. Carolina would have 500 cars in the employee parking lot; now they produce 10 times as much, and there are 50 cars in the parking lot.

    What were all those people supposed to do? Become Brain Surgeons? Software Engineers?

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  79. .

    That's even funnier. Thanks, Q, you made my day.

    You've indicated your easily amused, something I've never doubted.

    However, I don't recall saying anything about union jobs (and going back over the posts I don't see that you did either). More non-sequiters?

    I didn't say anything about union jobs. I talked of jobs, jobs wth decent pay.

    The fact that you now appear willing to see a good portion of the US workforce become gardeners and burger pushers is telling. But the fact is there are not even enough of those jobs around right now.

    Do you actually dispute the fact that there are multible unemployed job seekers out there for every job that becomes available?

    The media, from business channels to the main stream networks and papers to the blogs to the commentators on MSNBC and FOX talk about it daily. Ben Benanke talked about it yesterday. Both political parties recognize it and pay lip service to it though they seem unwilling or unable to do anything about it.

    Are you bubble boy?

    .

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  80. U.S. Corporations, in the first 8 months have paid a whopping effective tax rate of 7%.

    They have accomplished this by transferring almost all of their profits to Overseas Affiliates, and leaving the money There (they don't have to pay taxes until the money is "repatriated."

    Meanwhile, all the money that would have gone to Investment in Jobs in the U.S. is spent on investment in jobs in China, and Brazil, etc.

    They send some of it back to the U.S. as a Dividend to Warren Buffet, who pays 15%. He turns around and buys a company in Mexico that utilizes $2.00/hr labor, and has Free Access to the U.S. Market.

    CNBC, and Washington think this is just hunky-dory.

    Meanwhile, Bubba, and Jerome are fucked. They line up with 4,998 other folks to try to get one of those 300 Walmart jobs.

    Unemployment ain't the problem here.

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  81. I should have said, unemployment "Benefits" ain't the problem, here.

    ReplyDelete
  82. .

    Who needs a job?

    There are millions of workers out there looking for jobs. Workers who before the recession had good paying jobs many of them paying in excess of $100k per year. Workers with homes and families. Families that have to have clothes and food and send their kids to school.

    To hear you tell it most of these workers are just sitting around drooling at the prospect of getting their hands on $400 per week in unemployment. Easy street. The big question, do we eat, make a partial payment on the mortgage, or go to the casino? Man it don't get much better than this.

    Gag, you've been spending too much time out in the fields laying bait and hunting the beasties. You need to revisit the real world once in a while just to see what's going on.

    .

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  83. Q

    You need to get with the program. The program of HOPE and CHANGE. Don't be a victim.

    What goes around comes around, and it's coming back around, some say it's already here! Enjoy the ride.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Bubble boy signing off. I have to work.

    ReplyDelete
  85. .

    Don't be a victim.

    I'm beyond the point of being a victim Gag. Luckily, I'm little effected by what's going on right now. But I do worry for my grandkids.

    Your right when you say what goes around comes around but I suspect our opinions on what started this particular cycle are widely divergent.

    Have fun on the afternoon shift.

    .

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  86. .

    Some things never change.

    Progress in Afghanistan called hard but not ‘hopeless’

    President Obama’s nominee to become the new U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan told lawmakers Wednesday that the death of Osama bin Laden last month marked “an important step” toward core U.S. goals in the country but that more hard work lies ahead to prevent al-Qaeda from regaining its safe havens there...

    We Gotta Keep On Trucking

    Taking the nominee's argument to its logical end, we will never leave Afghanistan. Ten years and running (currently at a $100 billion per year), little measureable progress, but we must stay the course to assure al-Qaeda, whoever and wherever they may be these days are not allowed to scurry back into Afghanistan once we are gone.

    .

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  87. Neither woman has formally announced they are running for president.

    While Mrs Bachmann, a foster mother for 23 teenagers, is virtually certain to enter the race this month at an event already planned in Waterloo, Iowa, doubt surrounds Mrs Palin's true intentions.

    Most senior Republicans believe Mrs Palin will not run but her Memorial Day appearance at the "Rolling Thunder" rally in Washington and a high-profile national tour that has confirmed her star power have left open the door to an unconventional presidential bid.


    'Cat Fight

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  88. .

    The following is from The Fact Checker column in the NYT. It is the column someone here called a mere summation of liberal talking points when it recently questioned some of Sarah Palin’s latest comments. I like to read this column and Politifact because they provide observations on things I may have missed or hadn’t thought of.

    President Obama’s phony accounting on the auto industry bailout

    We take no view on whether the administration’s efforts on behalf of the automobile industry were a good or bad thing; that’s a matter for the editorial pages and eventually the historians. But we are interested in the facts the president cited to make his case.

    What we found is one of the most misleading collections of assertions we have seen in a short presidential speech. Virtually every claim by the president regarding the auto industry needs an asterisk, just like the fine print in that too-good-to-be-true car loan.


    BHO: I saved the World when I Saved the Auto Industry

    While I personally think bailing out the auto companies was a net positive thing, exaggerating what was done, though typical of the political posturing we see today, doesn’t help.

    .

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  89. GREAT CHART, SAM!

    BTW, that Red (2011) line has, now, dipped slightly below the 2010 line.

    ReplyDelete
  90. “We will be able to replay our favourite dream from a menu just like choosing a movie. Also, we will be able to link into dreams with our partner or family and friends and enjoy a shared dream experience."

    Remote virtual love making would allow individuals to “connect with their partner” while away from home, although lenses could be worn to adjust how their partner looks.

    “This will enable people to change the image of their partner on a regular basis, and only they will be aware as their lover will not be able to tell what they are looking at,” the report added.

    ReplyDelete
  91. Will scientists find any evidence of asymmetry? It's not clear, just as it's not clear what it will mean if they do or don't.

    ...

    For now, though, simply being able to produce and capture the exotic anti-stuff is achievement enough. It may lead to profound breakthroughs at the very edge of physics.

    Or it may not. But there is only one way to find out – as Prof Hangst says: "My philosophy is, if you get hold of some antimatter, you should take the chance to look long and hard at it."


    Antimatter Should Matter

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  92. Doctor asks a pregnant prostitute..

    "Do you know who the father is?"


    "For goodness sakes, if you ate a tin of beans

    would you know which one made you fart?"

    ReplyDelete
  93. I'm, obviously, not Nearly smart enough to understand all this. For ex. the article says:

    Every kind of particle has an associated antiparticle with the opposite electrical charge – electron and positron; proton and antiproton etc.

    But then, it says This:

    At the birth of the universe, matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts. One of the great unsolved mysteries of modern physics is why antimatter was almost entirely destroyed.


    Okay, so they started off in "equal" amounts. But most of the anti-matter was destroyed, but there is "still" an anti-particle for every matter particle.

    Huh?

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  94. Obama is the antiparticle of Lincoln.

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  95. Mr. Harithi, the militant killed on Friday, was an important operational figure in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and was believed to be one of those responsible for the group’s ascendance in recent years. According to people in Yemen close to the militant group, Mr. Harithi travelled to Iraq in 2003 and fought alongside Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian operative who led the Qaeda affiliate in Iraq until he was killed in an American strike in 2006.

    ...

    Even as senior administration officials worked behind the scenes with Saudi Arabia for a transitional government to take power in Yemen, a State Department spokesman on Wednesday called on the embattled government in Sana to remain focused on dealing with the rebellion and Qaeda militants.

    “With Saleh’s departure for Saudi Arabia, where he continues to receive medical treatment, this isn’t a time for inaction,” said the spokesman, Mark Toner. “There is a government that remains in place there, and they need to seize the moment and move forward.”


    Yemen Airstrikes

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  96. Always take Field and Stream over Hannity and either over Quirk.

    dwr

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  97. They was more matter than they was anti-matter. Stephen Hawking told me so his very self.

    dwr

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  98. Here's the problem. That Doctor is saying, "If we have 32 Million more patients we are going to have to ration care."

    Think about it.

    Those 32 Million are being "Rationed OUT," NOW.

    What about them?

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  99. What he's really saying is, "I'm going to have to treat 10% more patients, and probably for less money."

    Don't get me wrong. No one wants to be told "you're going to have to do more work, and probably get less money." I don't blame him for not being crazy about the idea. But, let's at, least, try to get the definitions correct.

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  100. "What he's really saying is, "I'm going to have to treat 10% more patients, and probably for less money.""

    ---

    Yessir, 3,000 pages of "healthcare legislation" written by the best totalitarian crooks DC has yet produced, calling for tens of thousands of additional regulations overseen by politically chosesn boards will IMPROVE healthcare.

    ...just ask your local, irredemably stupid, socialist true believer.

    Jeeze, look at what I've missed.

    not

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  101. Here I am being thankful for 5 entrepreneur doctors putting their asses on the line to rip off us patients.
    (While delivering first class healthcare)

    Wife's (Japanese) doctor,
    and my (Black) doctor holding a free healthcare clinic next week for those without insurance.

    ...like they have in the past.

    Greedy, Capitalist Pigs!

    Never could live up to Pelosi Obama unionized, federalized standards of care and excellence, I betcha.

    Fuckin Pigs

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  102. How the Fuck could we expect small entreprenurial groups to ever match the professionalism, efficiency, and CARE that the healthcare guided by faultless, topdown oversight from our betters in DC will provide?

    ReplyDelete
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    Houston Alarm

    ReplyDelete