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."

Friday, February 17, 2012

Obama in 2010: "As long as I’m your President I’ll make sure the most important voice in Washington belongs to you."

That was then:



This is now:

38 comments:

  1. The President isn't supposed to be a voice, that's what we got Congressment for. He's supposed to be a stick. Instead, we got a president who wants to borrow $800 million from China and give it to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

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  2. The bureau disclosed initial findings from its months-long review during a meeting at FBI headquarters on Wednesday with several Arab and Muslim advocacy groups, attended by Director Robert Mueller. So far, the inquiry has uncovered and purged over 700 pages of documentation from approximately 300 presentations given to agents since 9/11 — some of which were similar to briefings published by Danger Room last year describing “mainstream” Muslims as “violent.”

    Imagine that. Violent Muslims. Really?

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  3. The gummint says:

    The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression.

    Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014.

    The official unemployment rate excludes those individuals who would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks as well as those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work; if those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent.

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  4. .

    Underwear bomber: No remorse


    Detroit— Defiant underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab called Thursday "a day of victory" as he was sentenced to four life sentences for trying to destroy a Detroit-bound airliner carrying 289 people on Christmas Day 2009.

    During a minutes-long rant in federal court, Abdulmutallab was remorseless and said the bomb attack was justified by U.S. military actions against Muslims worldwide.

    "The mujahedeen are proud to kill in the name of God and this is exactly what God told us to do in the Quran," he said, reading from a handwritten script...


    Life X 4

    .

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  5. .

    Abdulmutallab will appeal his sentence today, according to legal adviser Anthony Chambers.

    The sentence came four months after Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to trying to blow up the airliner. The device, built by a Saudi Arabian bomb maker, malfunctioned...



    When it comes to Muslim terrorism, Iran is not the biggest threat facing the US. It is Saudi Arabia.


    .

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  6. Defiant underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab called Thursday "a day of victory" as he was sentenced to four life sentences for trying to destroy a Detroit-bound airliner carrying 289 people on Christmas Day 2009.

    Let's give these modern day Pyrrusoi more such victories.

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  7. Obama is a liar. It comes with the job.

    Liar in chief.

    There is a long list of them.It starts with Washington chopping down a cherry tree.

    Bill Clinton was the best at it, though, at least in my lifetime. Of course we still have 4.5 years to go with Obama, he can still win the prize.

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  8. I enjoyed the Quirk and Bob battle over what the Romans would do a couple of threads back.

    I decided a year or so ago to start reading up on the Roman Empire. I chose what was billed as a definitvie work - Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". It has been a tough slog reading an 18th century view of the Roman Empire but if there is one thinkg I've learned is that the Roman Empire was one complex beast spanning a whole bunch of years (like, about, 2 thousand of them) so when Boob, sorry, bob, starts waxing on about what the Romans would do I can quickly realize that he's referring to the cartoon version.

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  9. Mark Levin gets canned from WSPD radio for lies about Ron Paul, hilarity ensues.

    The neo-cons really don't want the good doctor anywhere near the levers of power.

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  10. quirk: When it comes to Muslim terrorism, Iran is not the biggest threat facing the US. It is Saudi Arabia.



    It aint a contest sparky...

    BOTH are significant threats to the USA.

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  11. Mark Levin ’s apogee has come and gone.

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  12. The only threat to the United States is if they would run out of oil.

    Minas Crude (Indonesia) sold for $132.90 last night.

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  13. For Melody.

    This is Goldfrapp, "The Hunt",...very goth, could be the soundtrack to an Underworld Movie.

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  14. Rufus II said...
    The only threat to the United States is if they would run out of oil.

    Minas Crude (Indonesia) sold for $132.90 last night.



    Only?

    How does one actually response to something like that?

    Energy independence is VERY high on the list.

    However a LIST does exist.

    From Wheat rust to Iranian/Nkor Nukes from illegal gangs from central america to killer strains of viruses...

    The list is long and complicated.

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  15. Also, Mel, when you come up I'll put you on the passenger side and take you up to Sunrise but you need to bring an extra pair of shorts

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  16. Life after Death an why you want your own currency:

    CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Fitch Ratings has upgraded Iceland's long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'BBB-' from 'BB+,' the firm said Friday. The outlook is stable. The upgrade "reflects the progress that [Iceland has] made in restoring macroeconomic stability, pushing ahead with structural reform and rebuilding sovereign creditworthiness since the 2008 banking and currency crisis," said Paul Rawkins, Senior Director in Fitch's Sovereign Rating Group, in a statement. "... A promising economic recovery is underway, financial sector restructuring is well-advanced, while public debt/GDP appears to be close to peaking on the back of a robust fiscal consolidation programme" he added.

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  17. Don't fergit the Holy Roman Empire, Ashlikins. Twern't holy, twern't Roman, and twern't an empire though.



    2,000 years? Jeepers, that's a long time. Heck, you must be including Bizentum. The emperer played golf there, and other games.

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  18. Iceland turning around is about as big a news story as Pittsburg turning around. Same number of folks.

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  19. This is a company that needs to be gelded

    MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb 17, 2012 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Google secretly tracked millions of people's iPhone and computer Web browsing until a U.S. researcher discovered the scheme, The Wall Street Journal reported.

    Google Inc. and other advertising companies used special computer code that tricks Apple Inc.'s Safari Web-browsing software into letting them monitor users' Internet habits, even though Safari, the most-widely used smartphone Web browser, is designed to block such tracking by default, the Journal said.

    Google, of Mountain View, Calif., disabled its code after the Journal contacted it, the newspaper said.

    The Google code was first spotted by Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer, a graduate student in computer science and law, United Press International confirmed.

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  20. Iceland is interesting in that it is about as small a country as is possible to be a free and sovereign state. I envy them.

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  21. Yeah, Bob, about 2000 years. Here is a timeline for you:

    http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/romans.html

    According to that one 753 BC through 1461 AD.

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  22. Google secretly tracked millions of people's iPhone and computer Web browsing until a U.S. researcher discovered the scheme, The Wall Street Journal reported.

    Willam Gibson saw this coming.

    "They set a Slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair. It caught up with him on a street called Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystallized hexogene and flaked TNT."

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  23. Pat Buchanan gets the ax at MSNBC. Maddow won't have Pat to kick around anymore.

    First female Air Force pilot to fly in combat says she wants to kick Santorum 'in the jimmy'.

    Government Motors reports record profit of $9 Billion, pays zero taxes, and hands out a $7K bonus to every UAW member.

    Jesus was a Capricorn, he ate organic foods, he believed in love and peace, and he never wore no shoes.

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  24. Hypnotized, pre-Steee-e-e-e-evie Fleetwood Mac.

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  25. Italy police seize $6 trillion of fake U.S. T-bonds.

    It is not known if any trillion dollar coins were included in the haul.

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  26. Washington (CNN) -- U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI on Friday arrested a Moroccan man who was planning a suicide attack on the Capitol, police and a federal law-enforcement official said.
    The man received what he thought was a vest with explosives, but the materials in the vest had been rendered inoperable by law enforcement, Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said.
    The man was arrested as soon as he accepted the vest from undercover officers, the federal law-enforcement source said.
    The man had been closely monitored as part of a lengthy and extensive undercover operation, police said, adding U.S. Capitol Police had been "intimately" involved in the investigation.
    The public was never in danger, police said.
    The official said the person is not connected to a terrorist organization and was acting alone.

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  27. Let's give them 800 million more a year and find an additional 11 billion too!

    Iranian naval ships enter Mediterranean via Suez
    (2012-02-17)
    (REUTERS) -
    ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Two Iranian naval ships have sailed through Egypt's Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, in a move likely to be keenly watched by Israel.

    "Two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal (on Thursday) following permission from the Egyptian armed forces," a source in the canal authority said Friday.

    The destroyer and a supply ship could be on their way to the Syrian coast, the source added. Iran and Syria agreed to cooperate on naval training a year ago, and Tehran has no naval agreement with any other country in the region.

    Two Iranian warships sailed along the strategic waterway on February 17 last year, in a move that Israel called a "provocation."

    Syria and Iran are hostile to Israel.

    Egypt's military, which has a close defense ties with the United States, has been governing the country since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak a year ago.


    That old saying applies..

    If you lay down with dogs? You get up with fleas...

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  28. AP Sources: Ohio AG DeWine to back Santorum

    By JULIE CARR SMYTH, Associated Press – 1 hour ago

    COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine was ready to switch his endorsement from Mitt Romney to Rick Santorum on Friday.

    The former U.S. senator was expected to make the announcement at a news conference at the statehouse in Columbus, Republicans with direct knowledge of the pending endorsement told The Associated Press only on condition of anonymity.

    DeWine had endorsed Romney in the Republican presidential race after his initial choice, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, withdrew.

    The defection comes as a sting to Romney, though he still has some major names in Ohio Republican politics behind him heading into the March 6 primary. They include Sen. Rob Portman, Reps. Mike Turner and Jim Renacci, and the former senator and governor, George Voinovich.

    DeWine successfully pushed for Ohio to join 25 other states in a lawsuit to block the new federal health care overhaul. The lawsuit claims the law violates people's rights by forcing them to buy health insurance.

    He served four terms in the House and two terms in the Senate before losing his re-election bid to Sherrod Brown in 2006. He was chairman of Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign in Ohio and won a close election for state attorney general in 2010.

    Republican Gov. John Kasich doesn't intend to endorse any of the candidates. Kasich initially favored former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour for the presidency. After Barbour decided not to pursue the nomination, Kasich was among those who urged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to enter the race. He didn't.

    No Republican nominee has reached the White House without winning Ohio.


    DeWine follows the lead of my wife who was once a Mittens supporter.

    Mittens is making a mistake assuming he has our state all wrapped up. I want to see him out on that course teeing off towards the floating green just like all the other candidates. And in this weather too.

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  29. WASHINGTON—Federal agents on Friday arrested a man who they allege planned carry out a suicide bombing at the U.S. Capitol, part of a sting operation in which undercover agents posing as al Qaeda operatives provided fake explosives.

    More workplace violence.

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  30. Jesus was a Capricorn, he ate organic foods, he believed in love and peace, and he never wore no shoes.



    Are you spying on me again Ms Wasp?

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  31. For some reason I just can't call you Wasp, and you're not using your normal screen name , T, so I will now call you Bea.

    B, it is.

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  32. Their hearts are in the right place, but their brains have deserted them.

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  33. Wasp is a unisex name. Some people here seem to need to pigeonhole other people.

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  34. The Capitalist Bomb destroys people but leaves property intact. The Communist Bomb destroys property but leaves people intact. So after an exchange, we all move over to Russia.

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  35. Bob-al-Harb is a proud member of D.A.D.D.D — Dads Against Daughters Dating Democrats!

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  36. Thousands of corrupt Chinese government officials have stolen more than $120bn (£74bn) and fled overseas, mainly to the US, according to a report released by China's central bank.

    Between 16,000 and 18,000 officials and employees of state-owned companies left China with the funds from the mid-1990s up until 2008.


    Greed is good.

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  37. Man with split personality confesses to robbery

    ...other personality might have committed crime


    Married woman with split personality confesses to lesbianism, says other personality slipped the marital bed, insists the real me is straight, and works on torpedoes for the Navy.

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