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 19, 2012

Hillary Clinton, incompetent, tummy ache, responsible (sort of), dizzy, touch of diarrhea, smug and still SOS and unable to testify before Congress


Benghazi attack inquiry harshly criticizes US State Dept. 

ARSHAD MOHAMMED, ANNA YUKHANANOV AND TABASSUM ZAKARIA, REUTERS
FIRST POSTED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2012 02:04 AM EST | UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2012 02:12 AM EST
TORONTO SUN
WASHINGTON - Security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya was grossly inadequate to deal with a Sept. 11 attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three others because of failures within the State Department, an official inquiry found on Tuesday.
In a scathing assessment, the review cited “leadership and management” deficiencies at two department offices, poor coordination among officials and “real confusion” in Washington and in the field over who had the responsibility, and the power, to make decisions that involved policy and security concerns.
The attack killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans and set off a political furor as Republicans used the issue to attack President Barack Obama before the Nov. 6 election in which he won a second term in office.
The report’s harsh assessment seemed likely to tarnish the four-year tenure of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said in a letter accompanying the review that she would adopt all of its recommendations.
“Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department ... resulted in a special mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place,” said the unclassified version of the report by the official “Accountability Review Board.”
The board specifically faulted the department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the regional office which is responsible for the Middle East and North Africa, and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, its law enforcement and security arm.
The five-member board said U.S. intelligence provided no “specific tactical warning” of the attack and that there was “little understanding of militias in Benghazi and the threat they posed to U.S. interests” in the eastern Libyan city, where the central government has little influence.
The incident has raised questions about the adequacy of security at U.S. embassies around the globe and where to draw the line between protecting American diplomats in dangerous places while giving them enough freedom to do their jobs.
Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the assessment reflected poorly on Clinton and its recommendations would probably make life harder for diplomats in the field
“This is a mark against Secretary Clinton. While she was not singled out, the report highlighted the lack of leadership and organization on security issues, and those fall into her bailiwick,” Alterman said.
“The report, however, relies a little too much on bureaucratic fixes,” he added. “Sprinkling people throughout the system who are not only empowered to say ‘no,’ but have an institutional interest in doing so, will make it harder for diplomats to get out of tightly guarded facilities.”

How are things going in Libya since the glorious intervention of the US military and Nato? How has US security been improved?


DID LOCAL GUARDS LEAVE GATE OPEN?
The report faulted as “misplaced” the mission’s dependence for security support on the “armed but poorly skilled” Libyan February 17 Martyrs’ Brigade militia members and unarmed guards hired by State Department contractor Blue Mountain Libya.
No Blue Mountain guards were outside the compound immediately before the attack to provide early warning, which was their responsibility. The report raised the possibility that Blue Mountain guards left the “pedestrian gate open after initially seeing the attackers and fleeing the vicinity. They had left the gate unlatched before.”
The board found little evidence that the February 17 guards alerted Americans to the attack or swiftly summoned more militia members to help once it was under way. There had been questions of reliability in the weeks preceding the attack.
“At the time of Ambassador Stevens’ visit, February 17 militia members had stopped accompanying special mission vehicle movements in protest over salary and working hours,” the report said.
The board recommended that the State Department create a new, senior position to oversee security at “high threat” posts, to strengthen security at such posts beyond what is usually provided by host governments, and to consult outside experts on “best practices” for operating in dangerous environments.
The department should also hire more security personnel at dangerous posts, ensure key policy and security staff serve there for at least a year and consider making it easier to punish those who perform poorly in future security incidents.
The political uproar in the United States over the Benghazi attack has already claimed one victim.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, widely tipped as a front-runner to replace Clinton when she steps down as secretary of state early next year, last week withdrew her name from consideration, saying she wished to avoid a potentially disruptive Senate confirmation process.
Republican lawmakers had blasted Rice for comments she made on several television talk shows in the aftermath of the attack in which she said preliminary information suggested the assault was the result of protests against an anti-Muslim video made in California rather than a premeditated strike.
The review, however, concluded that no protest took place before the attack. Rice has said she was relying on talking points drawn up by U.S. intelligence officials.

Watch this  one more time!


106 comments:

  1. Barack Obama - Person of the Year

    ReplyDelete
  2. For sure of the decade, possibly the millennium, with an outside maybe of galactic time. Chance of all time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah, how sweet it is, Fox News is now all over the 'scathing report' on Hillary's and Barky's Most Excellent Big Fuck Up Adventure on Benghazi.

    'Systemic failures of leadership and management at the top most levels'

    'gross mismanagement deficiencies'

    Fox is voicing the hope that Hillary recovers from her tummy ache, feint faint, and concussion, so she can testify.

    She ought to sober up, too.

    Benghazi review finds systematic State Dept. failures... Developing...Drudge

    Occam's Razor says she was simply spending way too much time drinking with Huma Abedin.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I vote for Pussy Riot as the People of the Year.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Smith & Wesson up 700% since Barky first elected.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Though down a little after this latest incident, which the investors seem to fear will be bad for the company down the road.

      Delete
  6. How goes the war?

    Bad guys are winning.



    HOW TO WIN AT FORECASTING

    About 30 years ago I started my work on expert political judgment. It was the height of the Cold War. There was a ferocious debate about how to deal with the Soviet Union. There was a liberal view; there was a conservative view. Each position led to certain predictions about how the Soviets would be likely to react to various policy initiatives.

    One thing that became very clear, especially after Gorbachev came to power and confounded the predictions of both liberals and conservatives, was that even though nobody predicted the direction that Gorbachev was taking the Soviet Union, virtually everybody after the fact had a compelling explanation for it. We seemed to be working in what one psychologist called an "outcome irrelevant learning situation." People drew whatever lessons they wanted from history.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (bad html coding omitted first paragraph which I thought important)

      A Conversation with Philip Tetlock

      There's a question that I've been asking myself for nearly three decades now and trying to get a research handle on, and that is why is the quality of public debate so low and why is it that the quality often seems to deteriorate the more important the stakes get?

      Delete
    2. Recall Charlie Wilson's "War" (the real life story not the movie version.)

      The people involved in supplying the Afghan mujaheddin with Stinger missiles to defend themselves against the Russians were committed and proud of their efforts.

      It's a tough audience. Not a good place to "make your bones."



      Delete
  7. There's been a tremendous amount of bad reporting in the wake of Newtown and I may have missed a correction but it's my understanding that the Bushmaster was found in the trunk of the car. Did Lanza use the Bushmaster in the school or not?

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  8. With the Bushmaster left in the trunk of the car it is obvious that the capability of weapon does not matter. Lanza could have killed those children with a pencil if he chose. Guns don't pull their own triggers only people can. Lock up all the mentals!

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  9. It is obvious to those of us that can see that the Newtown massacre was not done by Lanza HIS BUSHMASTER WAS IN THE TRUNK OF THE CAR for gods sake. It was a false flag operation and I bet Obama was behind it. He wants our guns and not only does he love Muslims but he will do anything to get our guns. Fight the tyranny of the FEDS!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup, Lanza is the hero of the piece. He went there knowing what was going down, and, trying to expose it, and stop it, got mown down by the Federales.

      Look, the kids aren't even all buried yet, why not knock the mockery off?

      Next month might be better. Or, better, not at all.

      Delete
    2. You were the first to enlighten me Bob that first day when you so brilliantly noted the Obama was jerking a tear. He pushes abortion down our throats it is obvious he feels nothing for children. It is but a tiny step from those core beliefs in favor of abortion to putting an operation in motion that will lead him to his higher goal of getting our weapons. The evidence is there for all to see can you not see it Bob?

      Delete
    3. Nope, can't see that far. But you can send a check for $500 for the enlightenment. The wizard can't work for free, not for long.

      Delete
    4. Is Ashley now adopting what he called 'chickenshit Arab street' tactics?

      Delete
    5. eh? I'm not acting like a big tough man with my face hidden in fear like you anon.

      Delete
    6. That's your face?

      No wonder you're such a snarky asshole.

      Delete
    7. :) And it is such a cute one at that.

      Delete
    8. Hard to miss a tater walking down the street. No aninimity for me.

      Delete
  10. Everything Obama touches turns to shit, doesn't it? -

    Treasury announces GM exit strategy; taxpayers to lose billions...

    Uncle Sam Books 50% Loss!

    Will pay inflated stock price...drudge

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just got an e-mail from Sunny! She's back! After 38 days in the hospital. Stomach something, from a camping trip. Hooray she's on the mend!

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  12. Instead, the report concluded that the response by all agencies involved was "timely and appropriate," and despite speculation to the contrary, "there simply was not enough time given the speed of the attacks for armed U.S. military assets to have made a difference."

    Another accusation rebutted by the report was the notion that senior-level officials had in some way refused to permit CIA operatives working out of a nearby annex to travel to the main compound to assist in repelling the attack.

    That detail, first reported by Fox News, was not correct, the report said.

    Instead, a "team leader" at the annex had "decided on his own" to delay leaving the facility briefly to see if local security elements would arrive with reinforcements. After "a brief delay," and determining that they would not, the team leader made the decision to move some units toward the compound, the report said.

    It is also not clear from the report if the attackers of the compound were aware that Ambassador Stevens was there on the night of the attack, or if he was their target.

    The night before the attack, the report notes, local media turned up at an event that the embassy had believed to be an undisclosed meeting with the Benghazi City Council, meaning that at least some people in town were aware of Stevens' visit.

    But amid the frenzy of the attack on Sept. 11, the report found that Stevens did not appear to have been captured by the militants at any point, despite early photographs that appeared to show his body being dragged through the streets.

    Instead, the report said that "to the best knowledge of the Board" he was delivered, unresponsive, to a local hospital by six "good Samaritans" who were among . . . . .

    Other parts of the report

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  13. It looks like we'll end up losing $12 or $13 Billion on GM when it's all done, but that will still make the TARP Program a huge sucess (we made $26 Billion on AIG, alone.)

    So, we made money, kept the financial system afloat, and kept the American Automobile Manufacturers alive, saving millions of jobs, and keeping the U.S. out of Great Depression II.

    Pretty good job, I'd say.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rufus you are truly great at making a silk purse out of sow's ear.

      Delete
    2. I jes reads the mail, boss; I donts write it.

      Delete
  14. Maybe if that Bullet Resistant Glass was embedded with Solar Cells I could get some interest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just pay attention. I am getting to that. Remind me.

      Delete
  15. If you really want a Manchurian Candidate, I give you Neel Kaskari:

    2002 (age 29): Wharton MBA

    2002-2006 (age 29-33): somewhere in this time frame, became VP Goldman Sachs

    2006 (age 33): Special Asst to Treasury Sectry, Hank Paulson

    2008 (age 35): Head of the new Office of Financial Stability which designed and implemented TARP

    2009 (age 36): PIMCO Managing Director of new investment initiatives

    Meteoric is hardly an adequate description, but he certainly demonstrated a knack for being the right person in the right place at the right time.

    2010 (age 37): Entitlement reform advocate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great article, D. I never did like the looks of the bald-headed fuck.

      Delete
  16. Cellulosic Biofuels - Industry Progress Report


    Movin' right along. Notice that the Ineos Commercial Refinery in Vero Beach is already up, and running.

    Also, note how many of these companies have gone through the whole process of "Pilot Plant, Demo Plant, and now, Commercial-sized Plant."

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  17. He argues in the letter that the ethanol coproduct, distillers grains, needs to be properly evaluated in how it fits into livestock feed values. “To date, few have considered that a bushel of corn produces ethanol, plus nearly 18 pounds of 28 percent protein distillers grains, or a bushel can produce 9 pounds of 20 percent (uncooked) protein pork or beef,” Swayze reasons. “Compared to meat production, arithmetic reveals that ethanol doubles corn’s food production and nearly triples corn’s protein production.”

    “Critics will argue that meat can be used for direct human consumption where distillers’ grains cannot,” Swayze continues. He argues the ethanol industry is a major supplier of protein, producing the protein equivalent of nearly half of the entire U.S. soybean crop. That makes “soy’s high-protein flour, meat and milk substitutes more available and at lower cost,” he said. “This direct human consumption of plant protein rich foods is by far the lowest-cost pathway to deliver proteins to diets,” he writes, adding that distillers proteins are beginning to enter that market also.

    “Importantly, distillers and soy proteins are easily transported to impoverished populations,” Swayze says, pointing out that starches are typically more available, while protein is expensive and in short supply. “It should surprise no one that the food chain is critically short protein,” he says, “as evidenced, also, by protein supplement prices that are approximately double the price of starch-based grains.”

    The Saudi Arabians down at the American Petroleum Institute didn't mention this, did they?

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  18. December 21 down here tomorrow. I'll let y'all know how it plays out. If it all goes tits-up, it's been nice knowin' ya. Thanks for everything, Deuce. Hope to be able to key something in the ol' Elephant comment box on the 22nd.

    Them Mayans give an hour of the day that it's all supposed to crash in a heap o' shit? Or is it just 'sometime' on the 21st? Be nice to narrow it down a bit.

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  19. Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Your Prime Minister is fighting for you, Sam, "until the very end".

      This tends to make me think you're doomed, like Jenny says, "and deserve to be".

      So I guess wishing you the luck is out of the question.

      I can however offer you bon voyage to the other world, "and don't come back", as Charlie Brown once said.

      Later, dude.

      Delete
  20. Apple Inc. is grappling with fresh trademark battles overseas for its popular mobile devices, this time for the rights to the "iPhone" name in Latin America.

    This week, IGB Eletrônica SA, a Brazilian electronics maker popularly known by its brand name Gradiente, launched a smartphone called the "IPHONE Neo One." The move came less than a week after Apple unveiled its new iPhone 5 here in Brazil.

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  21. Germany's Solar Capacity is already at 50% of Peak Demand.


    We, on the other hand, are at 0.5% of peak demand.


    Germany, as in, you know, same lattitude as Quebec . . . . ?

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

      Delete
    2. It's too late, Rufus.

      "A dollar short and a day late" as has been well said.

      See above.

      You best fill the remaining time with nothing but energy posts.

      Because soon, you will be living "breathlessly", as the poet Wallace Stevens has very well said.

      Later, dude, to you too, as with Sam.

      Delete


  22. Obama Shooting Blanks?
    Smith & Wesson shares spike during Obama presser
    Smith & Wesson

    BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
    December 19, 2012 12:41 pm

    Gun stocks have taken a beating in the wake of last week’s school shooting in Newtown, Conn. Private equity firm Cerberus has moved to sell the Freedom Group, a consortium of companies that manufacture guns and ammunition, including the rifle used in last week’s shooting.

    Meanwhile, Sturm, Ruger & Company (RGR) and Smith & Wesson (SWHC), two publicly traded gun manufacturers, have seen share prices decline more than 20 percent over since the Friday shooting as gun control advocates have called for new firearm regulations that would restrict the sale of popular firearms like the AR-15, as well as so-called high-capacity magazines.

    Today those stocks are bouncing back. Smith & Wesson was up 5 percent as of noon Wednesday when President Barack Obama started speaking about new gun control initiatives his administration will pursue. However, shortly after Obama declared that Vice President Joe Biden would lead a commission to look into remedies to the rash of school shootings, the stock began to spike.

    By the end of Obama’s press conference, Smith & Wesson was up 8.34 percent for the day and Sturm, Ruger & Company was up 6.03 percent.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Replies
    1. Good God, wouldn't that scare the hell out of you.

      Maybe that's how it all ends, and that was just a practice run for the final "swoop of eagles".

      Jesus, that would just scare the hell out of a person, to see your child almost clutched away like that.

      That one gave me the willies.

      Delete
    2. UPDATE: A blog post on the Montreal animation school Centre NAD website claims that the video was a hoax created by their students. The post states:

      The “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” video, uploaded to YouTube on the evening of December 18, was made by Normand Archambault, Loïc Mireault and Félix Marquis-Poulin, students at Centre NAD, in the production simulation workshop class of the Bachelors degree in 3D Animation and Digital Design.


      According to the post, "Both the eagle and the kid were created in 3D animation and integrated in to the film afterwards."

      Delete
  24. NASA got anything to say about big bright objects in the sky heading our way? Is there a site anywhere that tracks that shit?

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  25. I mean we're getting down to crunch time here.

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  26. You guys are lucky way over there on the other side of the planet. You got an extra day up your sleeve. This just ain't fair.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Keep your eyes on the sky, that's for sure. Nukes floating down from Iranian missiles, large objects crashing through the atmosphere, solar flares, eagles swooping.

      I hope it goes easy on you, Sam.

      Delete
  27. A manhunt for two bank robbers who used a makeshift rope to pull off a daring escape from a high-rise Chicago lockup pushed into a second day Wednesday, with authorities offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the men's apprehension.

    ...

    Joseph "Jose" Banks, 37, and Kenneth Conley, 38, were unaccounted for during a 5 a.m. headcount, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. An FBI affidavit says the men were in their assigned areas for a head count around 10 p.m. Monday and that jail employees noticed the makeshift rope around 7 a.m.

    ReplyDelete
  28. 19 December 2012
    Pakistan killings near Peshawar disrupt polio campaign


    test of a spate of deadly attacks.

    The shootings in the Peshawar region left a vaccination supervisor and her driver dead, and injured a volunteer.

    The deaths brought to eight the number of health workers killed in this week's anti-polio drive. The three-day drive is now over.

    No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have issued threats against the UN's anti-polio efforts.

    The militants have accused health workers of working as US spies and say the vaccine makes children sterile.

    Pakistan is one of just three countries where the disease is still endemic

    ReplyDelete
  29. Euthanasia was allowed to an Alzheimer's patient for the first time in the Netherlands last year.

    In Belgium, some 1,133 cases -- mostly for terminal cancer -- were recorded in 2011, about one percent of all deaths in the country, according to official figures.

    A seriously ill prisoner serving a long jail sentence this year became the first inmate to die under Belgium's euthanasia laws.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Replies
    1. Australia - gotta love it.

      Delete
    2. .

      Of course, they will be the first to go on December 21.

      :)

      .

      Delete
    3. God takes His most loved ones first, Quirk.

      You'll be going at 23:59:59.

      Delete
  31. Hormones and/or hormone-mimicking chemicals are omnipresent environmental contaminants. Already found in places as varied as our teeth (dental sealant) to our paper products (receipts, money), our meat to our canned foods, new research now indicates that even fresh, whole vegetables and fruits are no longer immune to this growing biological and chemical threat.

    ...

    How Did These Chemicals End Up In Our Food?

    The answer is wastewater and sewage sludge — two things that, as many would be surprised to find, are commonly used to grow our food. While wastewater may contain as much as 95% water, the other 5% remaining is a biological and chemical atrocity.

    ...

    Wastewater may contain human sewage, industrial site drainage, toxic waste (e.g. pesticide manufacturing), petroleum waste products or byproducts, for instance.
    Other wastewater constituents include:

    Pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, parasites
    Soluble organic materials such as urea, drugs, pharmaceuticals
    Macro-solids such as condoms, needles, diapers, sanitary napkins

    ReplyDelete

  32. Great article, D. I never did like the looks of the bald-headed fuck.

    :) now, now

    I did - at one point, when he was defending the government "bailout." Technical ability aside, I thought he demonstrated professional courtesy and poise far beyond his youthful years. Professional people that age - and in that environment - finance - tend to be - what's the word I'm looking for? - insufferable.

    But once becoming a PIMCO boy, he wasted no time in joining the "entitlement reform" chorus.

    I'm seeing two larger clouds of thought emerge from the troubled rhetorical rubble of the new century: the entitlement reform crowd and the policy reform crowd, as per your best run countries link (quite some grist for the thought mill.)

    Another "brick in the wall" that led me to abandon the school of thought promoted by sites like BC was the utter contempt for policy. Policy wasn't the problem. Policy was nothing but central planning by an intrusive state. The central problem was, as Romney made the mistake of articulating in a public forum, the entitlement-seekers who are responsible for (1) increasing the size and power of the State while (2) reducing the resource allocation effectiveness of the markets.

    In short, "we don't need no policy." What we need is less government - and fewer poor, sick, handicapped, and elderly people. The eternal barriers to a Perfect (Efficient) Market Paradigm.

    At any rate, just out of curiosity, do you have an opinion of the other PIMCO guy always behind the microphone, Mohammed El-Erian, or even the bond market icon, Bill Gross?

    .............

    It seems that it was never factually established that Amb. Stevens was sexually assaulted. Snopes rates the story as indeterminate.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I don't pay any attention to either one, D. The two words that always pop in my head when they come to my attention is: "Spectacularly Wrong." To add a third word, "Consistently."

    The old boy that retired, MacCauley (sp?) was, I think, the brains.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BTW, about that 9 best countries link. I realize there are a ton of caveats that could be thrown in there. It was simply, as you put it, a food for thought piece.

      Delete
    2. Bill Gross is having a rough time. Not a market-friendly time for bonds. PIMCO moving into equity portfolios, presumably one reason why Kashkari was brought on board. El-Arien seems to try to navigate a moderate course. I have heard nothing I would consider extreme from him. But Kashkari, I think, is potentially more interesting - or maybe, like the mathematicians, he burned bright and early.

      .........

      RE best run countries: painful as it is for the rest of the world to acknowledge, and even some here, USA is unique.

      Very much so.


      Delete
    3. The USA is unique, sure, but is it better?

      Delete
    4. Yeah, there's an awful lot unaccounted for in those lists, BUT we definitely have room for some improvement.

      As for Kashandcarry? Eh, we'll see.

      Aw, scratch that; he's an asshole. You'll be disappointed.

      Delete
    5. Sometimes it's not a matter of "better." Sometimes it's just a matter of "it is what it is."

      Delete
    6. We were pretty unique when our troops were isolated in Berlin, and we were staring down the Soviets.

      Delete
    7. A brief read of the referenced blog post and I'd say the results of the'best' reflects the author's predelictions.

      Delete
    8. I am not a political scientist (nor do I play one on TV) so I don't want to dive too deep into the subject, but the one thing I do know, and will so state before returning to my movie, is that the superficial rhetorical angst and hand-wringing between political left and right would be orders of magnitude muted by a frontal assault on corruption. The fraudsters "go where the money is" and it's not Norway or Switzerland or Australia, etc. USA needs to start dealing with that. Big Boy on the Block Syndrome.



      Delete
    9. When the Iranians tried to shut down the shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf it wasn't the Norwegians, or the Canadians that went in and kept the lanes open, and the oil flowing.

      Delete
    10. Kashandcarry?

      Rufus!! That's an old buddy larsen label. Looks like it acquired "legs."

      Delete
    11. Although, to be fair, the Canadians and Aussies would have helped. I probably couldn't say about many of the rest on that list.

      Delete
    12. And your 09:04:00 is the key.

      Big Bad Ass Military. Maybe we should tax the Norwegians.

      Back to my movie.

      Delete
    13. Really? I always like Buddy. Thought he was a pretty smart man. :)

      Delete
    14. A "Big, Bad-Ass Military IS a good thing.

      However, we could stand to be a little more judicious in its use, I think.

      And, something that I think might be just as important. A Whole Bunch of Big, Bad-Ass Universities, and Colleges.

      Delete
    15. Well, if that is what turns your crank, what gives you 'quality of life' - kicking world wide butt with a bad ass military - then you go ahead and spend your life pushing the rock up the hill to achieve that goal.

      Delete
    16. You know, that "potato-head" fits pretty well. Good choice.

      Delete
  34. Connecticut has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, yet it also has a strong gun culture, especially in the rural areas and small towns beyond comparatively wealthy coastal cities such as Stamford.

    The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun group, is based three miles from Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, where gunman Adam Lanza burst in Friday and killed 26 people, including 20 pupils. Several big gun makers have had a big presence in the state.

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  35. You are going to get deleted soon as Deuce gets back.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Reprieve!

    http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/nasa-makes-prediction-on-end-of-the-world/

    ReplyDelete
  37. John Bolton is a wonderful man. Speaks true.

    The State Department slammed former United Nations envoy John Bolton over his suggestion that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton falsely claimed a concussion to avoid a potentially embarrassing appearance before Congress to explain the deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

    In an appearance on Fox News, Bolton said that Clinton’s claim that she had fainted because of the flu, hitting her head and suffering a concussion, was what foreign service officers call a “diplomatic illness,” intended to free a diplomat from an unpleasant duty. Clinton was supposed to appear before congressional foreign affairs committees on Thursday to respond to questions about whether security failures opened the way for the Sept. 11 attack.

    “This is a diplomatic illness to beat the band,” said Bolton, who served during the George W. Bush administration. “I mean, I hope it’s nothing serious. But this was revealed in a way that I think was not transparent and I think there is an obligation here.”


    Clinton accused of faking illness to avoid Benghazi testimony

    http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-clinton-faking-illness-benghazi-20121219,0,5649917.story

    Of course she is faking it. Like an orgasm will Bill. It's what she has always done. From the day she claimed to be named after Sir Edmund Hillary, he the climber of great cliffs. She knows nothing else. None of this is surprising to those who have followed her career.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Remember when she said she had to dodge incoming at the airport in Afghanistan? Video showed that to be totally false. They were standing around there having a nice chat.

      The old smelly twat is, and has always been, a pathological liar. It's why she gets along so well with Barky.

      Delete
  38. Worcestershire-based Design Q says the A380 is “not only the most luxurious aircraft in existence, but also reflects the cultural values and status of its owner”. It does not name the prince directly but says its Middle Eastern client’s plans include a conference room, four luxury suites, a parking area in the plane’s underbelly and a lift that ferries passengers between the three decks.

    The concert hall will have space for a grand piano and 10 spectators, while a sweeping white spiral staircase will greet passengers in the entrance hall.

    An Airbus spokeswoman confirmed the delivery but said “the client has asked us not to say anything else”.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Miss USA hottest babe in the universe! Fuck yeah!

    ReplyDelete
  40. The Dutch government's financial think-tank has joined the central bank in forecasting a recession in 2013 as a result of waning global trade prospects.

    ...

    If the Dutch economy shrinks again in the fourth quarter following the 1.1 percent quarterly contraction recorded in the third quarter, it will be in recession, officially defined as two straight quarters of negative growth.

    ReplyDelete
  41. .

    The board found that although there were serious management flaws and lack of proactive action and four people died, not one American should be blamed or disciplined for security failures. In fact, the official board placed all blame for the attack "solely and completely with the terrorists..."

    Bottom Line: Although it ardently sold the phony video meme idea for weeks, the Obama White House was not implicated in the official report. Although she's been in charge of the State Department for the entire term, Clinton was not implicated in the official report...



    Benghazi Requiem

    .

    ReplyDelete
  42. The Kind Biker



    On June 29, a group of Orlando, Fl bikers were riding south on I-275 when

    They saw a girl about to jump off the Skyway Bridge. So they stopped.





    George, their leader, a big burly man of 53, gets off his Harley, walks

    Through a group of gawkers, past the State Trooper, and says, "What are you

    Doing?"



    She says, "I'm going to commit suicide."



    While he didn't want to appear "sensitive," he didn't want to miss a

    Be-a-legend opportunity either so he asked ... "Well, before you jump, why

    Don't you give me a kiss?"



    So, with no hesitation at all, she leaned back over the railing and did

    Just that ... And it was a long, deep, lingering kiss followed immediately

    By another one.



    After they finished, George gets approval from his biker-buddies, the

    Onlookers, and even the State Trooper, and says, "Wow! That was the best

    Kiss I have ever had Honey! That's a real talent you're wasting Sugar

    Shorts. You could be famous if you rode with me. Why are you committing

    Suicide?"



    "My parents don't like me dressing up like a girl."



    It's still unclear whether she jumped or was pushed.

    ReplyDelete
  43. They say swearing is due to a limited vocabulary. I know thousands of words, but I still prefer 'Fuck off' to 'Go away.'

    ReplyDelete
  44. Signing off for the 20th. I'll sign in tomorrow if I'm able. All the best to you and yours.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Did I ever tell you about my cousin that drives the cement truck?

    The Cement Truck Driver

    ReplyDelete




  46. Home » IBD Editorials » Andrew Malcolm »
    Andrew Malcolm
    Political News & Commentary


    The Benghazi Report: How smoothly Washington washes away its scandals

    Read More At IBD: http://news.investors.com/politics-andrew-malcolm/121912-637604-state-dept-benghazi-report.htm#ixzz2FZ7TKj6s


    It's whitewash this time, whitewash next time, whitewash all the time in D.C.

    Nothing ever sticks anymore....

    ReplyDelete
  47. Days before the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, a boy in Milwaukee confessed to one his teachers that he had been troubled by voices and delusions. The voices were insisting that he do harm, that he shoot people.

    He told the teacher that he had access to a gun at home. He said that he was prepared to bring the gun to school.

    This is a scenario that unfolds thousands of times every year across the U.S. It may not involve a school like the high school in Milwaukee or an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. But the catalysts are all hauntingly familiar -- isolation and a troubled teen or young adult in crisis.

    { . . }

    That Milwaukee teacher did not call the police. Nor did the teacher ignore the boy. The high school knew exactly how to get the teen immediate help.




    School officials dialed Milwaukee's Mobile Urgent Treatment Team, recalled its director, Dr. Chris Morano.

    "We knew this was a high risk," Morano explained. His team went to the school, where they assessed the boy on the spot. With the mother's help, the team's clinicians surrounded him with services. He was temporarily hospitalized and began taking medication to help beat back his inner demons, hush his impulsiveness and stamp out his turn-on-a-dime aggressiveness. He and his family began developing a treatment plan with county workers.

    The team then assigned him a sort of mental-health bodyguard as someone he or his mother can call 24 hours a day, Morano said. The boy would continue getting services for as long as needed.

    Morano's team is just one of the entry points into Milwaukee County's social services program, known as Wraparound Milwaukee.

    The program, started in 1995, aims to treat the city's . . . .

    This Problem can be (largely) solved.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The need doesn't go away. Back in Milwaukee, Morano said he gets calls from high schools all day long. Earlier this week, a kid walked into his office with a care coordinator. He was struggling with violent hallucinations. "He was so distraught by what he was thinking and experiencing," Morano said. "He couldn't bring himself to tell me the details. But he wanted help."

      His team, Morano said, also assessed a youth who talked about wanting to replicate Sandy Hook.

      "He gestured with his hands about shooting people in class," Morano said.

      Delete
  48. Why Are Some People Prone to Obey?


    Moreover, from "the outset, the Obama administration's handling of the most sensitive secrets of the war on terror has been worrisome." On the one hand, our enemies learn about our intelligence. On the other hand, a cloud of secrecy and obfuscation lingers over the serious Fast and Furious agenda and the Benghazi events. Astonishingly, Congressman Jason Chaffetz has been "thwarted" by the State Department in contacting the survivors of the Benghazi attack. Thus, Congress has been denied access to these people, and the American public continues to be kept in the dark notwithstanding the alleged transparency claimed by the Obama administration.......

    .......What to do? Fromm maintains that "in order to disobey, one must have the courage to be alone, to err, and to sin. But courage is not enough. The capacity for courage depends on a person's state of development." By constantly coddling this new generation through the entitlements mentality -- e.g., affirmative action -- we have effectively created a not fully formed citizenry, just ripe for the likes of Obama.

    As Fromm notes, "[a]t this point in history the capacity to doubt, to criticize, and to disobey may be all that stands between a future for mankind and the end of civilization."

    It must be an unrelenting act of disobedience that will rein in the excesses of the Obama machine of many "man-made disasters"


    http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/why_are_some_people_prone_to_obey.html


    Robots! I hate robots!




    ReplyDelete
  49. Guess it was in Bosnia that Hillary didn't take incoming, not Afghanistan.

    A partial listing of Hillary's Big List of Lies -


    Admitted Lies

    • Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (She was in bed watching it on TV.)
    • Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. (She admitted she was wrong. He climbed Mt. Everest five years after her birth.)
    • She was under sniper fire in Bosnia. (A girl presented her with flowers at the foot of the ramp.)
    • She learned in The Wall Street Journal how to make a killing in the futures market. (It didn’t cover the market back then.)

    Whoppers She Won’t Confess To

    • She didn’t know about the FALN pardons.
    • She didn’t know that her brothers were being paid to get pardons that Clinton granted.
    • Taking the White House gifts was a clerical error.
    • She didn’t know that her staff would fire the travel office staff after she told them to do so.
    • She didn’t know that the Peter Paul fundraiser in Hollywood in 2000 cost $700,000 more than she reported it had.
    • She opposed NAFTA at the time.
    • She was instrumental in the Irish peace process.
    • She urged Bill to intervene in Rwanda.
    • She played a role in the ’90s economic recovery.
    • The billing records showed up on their own.
    • She thought Bill was innocent when the Monica scandal broke.
    • She was always a Yankees fan.
    • She had nothing to do with the New Square Hasidic pardons (after they voted for her 1,400-12 and she attended a meeting at the White House about the pardons).
    • She negotiated for the release of refugees in Macedonia (who were released the day before she got there).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Remember that famous testimony before the Whitewater grand jury?

      __________________________
      QUESTIONER:
      Uh, well let’s get started.
      [singing]
      Try to remember when you were a member
      Of Rose Law Firm and worked Whitewater.

      MRS. CLINTON:
      [singing]
      I don’t remember that big money launder.
      I was, um, baking cookies for my daughter.

      QUESTIONER:
      But Mrs. Clinton,
      [singing]
      Don’t you remember that illegal tender
      And your shady friend that McDougal fellow?

      MRS. CLINTON:
      I’m sorry,
      [singing]
      I can’t remember; my brain’s in a blender.
      It’s Jell-o!

      QUESTIONER:
      Ha ha, that’s pretty good.

      MRS. CLINTON:
      Could we get on with this, please? I, I have to get back to my book tour.



      Has anyone else noticed that Hillary always coughs when in a tight spot, or is lying outright?

      Dead give away.

      Delete
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