tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post3207179410904758184..comments2024-03-28T06:32:24.557-04:00Comments on The Elephant Bar: Joke of the day: Pay as you Go.Deuce ☂http://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-90052956432947751192009-12-11T19:35:20.118-05:002009-12-11T19:35:20.118-05:00Hello!!! 2164th.blogspot.com is one of the most ou...Hello!!! 2164th.blogspot.com is one of the most outstanding innovative websites of its kind. I take advantage of reading it every day. All the best.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-47290563363701188482009-06-10T21:44:02.000-04:002009-06-10T21:44:02.000-04:00China wants the USA to pledge 1% of our GDP to hel...China wants the USA to pledge 1% of our GDP to help them clean up their pollution mess. heh<br /><br />and<br /><br />That report of a couple terrorist names on the passenger list of the French flight sure does sound suspicious.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-49557570557999588002009-06-10T21:32:24.089-04:002009-06-10T21:32:24.089-04:00Fox News--
The move is reportedly creating chaos ...Fox News--<br /><br /><i>The move is reportedly creating chaos in the field among the CIA, FBI and military personnel, according to Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. The soldiers, especially, he says, are frustrated that giving high value detainees Miranda rights — the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney — is impeding their ability to pursue intelligence on the battlefield, according to a story first reported by the Weekly Standard. …<br /><br />Rogers, a former FBI special agent who served in the U.S. Army, just returned from Afghanistan and a visit to Bagram Air Base, where he said the rights are being read.<br /><br />“I witnessed it myself, talked to the people on the ground,” he said. “What you have is two very separate missions colliding in the field in a combat zone. Again, anytime that you offer confusion in that environment that’s already chaotic and confusing enough, you jeopardize a soldier’s life.” U.S. commanders told FOX News soldiers are not reading Miranda rights to detainees, but those commanders could not speak to whether the FBI was doing so. …<br /><br />Asked if the Obama administration had ordered that Miranda rights be read to certain detainees, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “I have no reason to disbelieve a member of Congress. But I don’t know any of the circumstances that are involved around it.” But Gibbs acknowledged that it wouldn’t be a surprise to find out that it was happening.</i>--'<br />-/<br /><br />What's next, search warrants signed by a stateside judge?Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-9103445318052036482009-06-10T21:27:11.868-04:002009-06-10T21:27:11.868-04:00von Brunn probably subscribed to the view that all...von Brunn probably subscribed to the view that all the Jews evacuated the World Trade Center, or didn't go to work that day, that Israel was behind the whole thing. He was going for the Federal Reserve a decade ago.<br /><br />Let's not forget the muslim that shot the recruiters.<br /><br />All of them motivated by some 'cause' or other.<br /><br />If they'd just shoot one another, the country might be better off. Would be better off.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-41397967811985634902009-06-10T21:04:39.720-04:002009-06-10T21:04:39.720-04:00Read an article just yesterday maintaining that O&...Read an article just yesterday maintaining that O's speech had zero impact on the Lebanese elections, they being totally focused on their own internal problems. And it was the Christian vote, not the muslim vote, that was a little something of a surprise. The situation seems to have changed not so much.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-35525685257631428842009-06-10T20:39:20.098-04:002009-06-10T20:39:20.098-04:00Or was it the Treaty that Jefferson signed?
I thi...Or was it the Treaty that Jefferson signed? <br />I think that is it.<br /><br />Expediency and a differece of perspective, even then.desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-34179503850614532022009-06-10T20:37:31.136-04:002009-06-10T20:37:31.136-04:00But the US could be on the cusp of policy success,...But the US could be on the cusp of policy success, at last. Built upon the foundations of neo-con idealogy, finished with a hint of Muslim populism from the President of the United States.<br /><br />Much as President John Quincy Adams renounce the tenents of the Treaty his father signed, with the Muslim pirate fiefdoms. <br /><br />Diplomatic "untruths" spoken to gain political advantage and expediency on the ground. False praise of the target and humility for past "errors", we've made.<br /><br />If that attitude brings out the urban vote, in Iran, negotiated moderation may just win.desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-62803366128355433592009-06-10T20:29:37.320-04:002009-06-10T20:29:37.320-04:00If President Ahmadinejad doesn’t steal Iran’s pres...<i>If President Ahmadinejad doesn’t steal Iran’s presidential election on June 12, and if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei doesn’t overturn the results, that tumultuous country could be on a path to becoming America’s most important partner in the region. Those are big ifs. And the road forward will be most difficult. But so far, the electioneering has probably been the freest ever in that part of the world, and the leading challenger, Mir Hussein Mousavi, talks like a man the White House could work with on some of the most vexing and dangerous regional issues.<br /><br />Whatever happens this time, Americans will finally be able to see clearly that Iran is not a monolith totally dominated by crazy clerics dedicated to Western destruction. They’ll see an Iran split between the familiar Islamic revolutionaries uniting clerics and the poor, on the one hand, and the commercial classes now allied with the educated, women and youth, on the other. They’ll see that the crazies, even if they hold on to power this time, are losing their grip. They’ll see other Iranian leaders who want to rejoin the world and will adjust their nation’s policies accordingly</i>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-06-09/will-iran-become-our-ally/?cid=hp:mainpromo3" rel="nofollow">A different perception presented at the Daily Beast</a>, then at the NYTimes, as to the value of Iranian elections.<br /><br />Could Obama score the hat trick for Bush policy success, across the board?<br /><br />Oh, the irony of that.<br /><br />Success achieved, two years late.desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-40919297500467140202009-06-10T20:23:46.065-04:002009-06-10T20:23:46.065-04:00While others speak of the elections in Iran as the...While others speak of the elections in Iran as the source of a new beginning, as well.<br /><br />To suggest that President Obama "went over the heads" of the Mullahs, speaking directly to the great mass of moderate Muslims that inhabit the Iranian segment of the Islamic Arc.<br /><br />Will Obama's public diplomacy weaken the Mullahs, too? Will pigs fly, or crash on take off in Tehran? <br />Regardless of the outcome, it will be benficial to the US cause to have a viable opposition to Abracadbra appear in Iran, and the oil will still flow.desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-57097439072986957932009-06-10T20:15:41.216-04:002009-06-10T20:15:41.216-04:00So I came to Lebanon on Sunday to watch the Lebane...<i>So I came to Lebanon on Sunday to watch the Lebanese hold their national election. It was indeed free and fair — not like the pretend election you are about to see in Iran, where only candidates approved by the Supreme Leader can run. No, in Lebanon it was the real deal, and the results were fascinating: <b>President Barack Obama defeated President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran</b></i>.<br /><br /><i>O.K., I know. Neither man was on the ballot, but there’s no question whose vision won here. First, a solid majority of Lebanese Christians voted against the list of Michel Aoun, who wanted to align their community with the Shiite Hezbollah party, and tacitly Iran, because he viewed them as being best able to protect Christian interests — not the West. The Christian majority voted instead for those who wanted to preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence from any regional power.<br /><br />Second, a solid majority of all Lebanese — Muslims, Christians and Druse — voted for the March 14 coalition led by Saad Hariri, the son of the slain Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. This U.S.-supported coalition sees Lebanon’s future as a state independent of Syrian and Iranian influence and committed to its pluralism, modern education, a modern economy and a progressive outlook</i>. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/opinion/10friedman.html?_r=1" rel="nofollow">The NYTimes</a>desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-53752922163058592862009-06-10T19:48:07.688-04:002009-06-10T19:48:07.688-04:00The idea is beginning to perculate, but remember, ...The idea is beginning to perculate, but remember, we had it pegged, here at the EB, before the Lebanese even had heard the speech, in Cairo.<br /><br />Heard Chris Mathews mention the theme, yesterday, then this in the <a href="http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/tucker/stories/2009/06/10/tucked_0610.html" rel="nofollow">Altanta J-C</a>.<br /><br /><i><b>Obama changed Lebanese minds</b></i><br /><i>Wednesday, June 10, 2009<br /><br />Osama bin Laden was so worried that President Obama’s<br /><br />Cairo speech might win over Muslim hearts and minds that the jihadist sent out a pre-emptory audiotaped message denouncing the United States and warning against Obama’s “new beginning.”<br /><br />It turns out that bin Laden was right to be worried: The president did, it seems, change some minds in the Middle East.<br /><br />On Sunday, an American-aligned coalition won a surprising victory in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections, pushing back a challenge by Hezbollah, which had been widely expected to win a majority of seats. There were undoubtedly many factors at play — Lebanon’s politics are fractured and Byzantine — but Obama’s well-received speech has been credited with making a difference.</i>desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-38044632969365083152009-06-10T19:41:17.872-04:002009-06-10T19:41:17.872-04:00The NYTimes, on topic
Mr. Obama — responding to r...<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/business/economy/10leonhardt.html?_r=2&ref=business" rel="nofollow">The NYTimes</a>, on topic<br /><br /><i>Mr. Obama — responding to recent signs of skittishness among those lenders — met with 40 members of Congress at the White House on Tuesday and called for the re-enactment of pay-as-you-go rules, requiring Congress to pay for any new programs it passes. <br /><br />The story of today’s deficits starts in January 2001, as President Bill Clinton was leaving office. The Congressional Budget Office estimated then that the government would run an average annual surplus of more than $800 billion a year from 2009 to 2012. Today, the government is expected to run a $1.2 trillion annual deficit in those years.<br /><br />You can think of that roughly $2 trillion swing as coming from four broad categories: the business cycle, President George W. Bush’s policies, policies from the Bush years that are scheduled to expire but that Mr. Obama has chosen to extend, and new policies proposed by Mr. Obama. <br /><br />The first category — the business cycle — accounts for 37 percent of the $2 trillion swing. It’s a reflection of the fact that both the 2001 recession and the current one reduced tax revenue, required more spending on safety-net programs and changed economists’ assumptions about how much in taxes the government would collect in future years.<br /><br />About 33 percent of the swing stems from new legislation signed by Mr. Bush. That legislation, like his tax cuts and the Medicare prescription drug benefit, not only continue to cost the government but have also increased interest payments on the national debt. <br /><br />Mr. Obama’s main contribution to the deficit is his extension of several Bush policies, like the Iraq war and tax cuts for households making less than $250,000. Such policies — together with the Wall Street bailout, which was signed by Mr. Bush and supported by Mr. Obama — account for 20 percent of the swing.<br /><br />About 7 percent comes from the stimulus bill that Mr. Obama signed in February. And only 3 percent comes from Mr. Obama’s agenda on health care, education, energy and other areas. <br /><br />If the analysis is extended further into the future, well beyond 2012, the Obama agenda accounts for only a slightly higher share of the projected deficits.<br /><br />How can that be? Some of his proposals, like a plan to put a price on carbon emissions, don’t cost the government any money</i>.<br /><br />Anyone that could seriously make the case for this economic carbon emission tax gibberish should not be elected, but they are, time and again. Or appointed to jobs in the Federal Bureaucracy<br /><br />Even when the Republicans controlled the Government, they did not change the scoring methods at the CBO. They just redefined unemployment and inflation. In each case lowering the number that was reported to the public. Not by changing the reality of the situation, but by changing the reported standard of measurement.<br /><br />Comparing apples to oranges and declaring that scurvy won't be problem.desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-34943810562397219232009-06-10T19:27:04.908-04:002009-06-10T19:27:04.908-04:00Congressman Mark Kirk.
Well, they already are be...<a rel="nofollow">Congressman Mark Kirk</a>. <br /><br /><i>Well, they already are beginning to hedge. I think they expect quite a bit of inflation in the United States next year. So they made a major investment. They funded a second strategic petroleum reserve, and they plan to buy $80 billion worth of gold. That's two Fort Knoxes. Both of those investments only make sense if you expect significant dollar inflation.</i>desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-85828029766312586222009-06-10T18:41:47.929-04:002009-06-10T18:41:47.929-04:00As I have said, more than once, there is a continu...As I have said, more than once, there is a continuity of policy and purpose, in the administration of the Federal government.<br /><br />Now, it seems, even John Bolton agrees.<br /><br /><i><b>Obama continues Bush's 2nd term -- badly</b></i>.<br /><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/10/obama-administration-continuation-of-second-bush-t/" rel="nofollow">By John R. Bolton | Wednesday, June 10, 2009</a>.<br /><br /><i>Former President George W. Bush's mistakes resulted from sleep-walking away from conservative values, whereas President Obama openly repudiates them, both believing in and fully understanding what he is doing. Accordingly, conservatives need engage in no "agonizing reappraisals" of their fundamental views. They need to adjust to being in opposition, but that is the purest kind of opportunity, not a burden. Mr. Obama's wearying and unpresidential refrain of blaming his predecessor is implicitly a trap, an effort to entice us to reflexively defend the Bush administration. Instead, we should forthrightly explain where Mr. Bush went wrong, when he did, repudiating his errors as cheerily as Mr. Obama does, and then, agreeably to conservative principles, just as cheerily critiquing Mr. Obama's even more egregious mistakes</i>. <br /><br />Mr Bolton discounts the pigs achieving orbit, in Lebanon, but that is his perogitive. There is truth in his under lying tenent, though.<br /><br />.<i><b>.. we should forthrightly explain where Mr. Bush went wrong, when he did, repudiating his errors as cheerily as Mr. Obama does ..</b></i>.<br /><br />This is true in both the domestic and foreign policy arenas, or Mr Bush will personify "conservatives". Which, while I find it both funny, inaccurate and sad, will come to pass regardless.desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-37633537586462849012009-06-10T18:29:54.954-04:002009-06-10T18:29:54.954-04:00Peter Allen, in Paris
Two passengers with names ...<i>Peter Allen, in Paris <br /><br />Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.<br /><br />French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31.<br /><br />Flight AF 447 crashed in the mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.<br /><br />While it is certain there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out.<br />...<br />There is a possibility the name similarities are simply a "macabre coincidence", the source added, but the revelation is still being "taken very seriously".<br /><br />France has received numerous threats from Islamic terrorist groups in recent months, especially since French troops were sent to fight in Afghanistan.<br /></i>desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-4073751604974090142009-06-10T18:24:20.870-04:002009-06-10T18:24:20.870-04:00First the abortion Doc, now this lame brain.
That...First the abortion Doc, now this lame brain.<br /><br />That DHS report on domestic terrorism more accurate than one may want to believe. Homegrown extremists, on te Left, Right and Religious extremes.<br /><br />If this von Brunn is what he claims to be, then the pudding is none to tasty, really.<br /><br /><i>Von Brunn, who claims on his own website to have been a decorated PT-boat captain and lieutenant in the US Navy during World War II, has written a book entitled ‘Kill the Best Gentiles!” According to its preface, its purpose it “to present WHITE YOUTH” with factual information to explain that an “age old CONSPIRACY does exist to destroy Western Civilisation.” <br /><br />Von Brunn also has a Wikipedia user profile in which he champions the virtues of Western culture and the practice of eugenics. In another article he claims that Holocaust history is destroying Western civilization. <br /><br />He is clearly a Holocaust denier – a belief decried by Mr Obama during his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo last week. Von Brunn bemoans that “Jews control all important sources of information”, and claims that there is a Jewish conspiracy to destroy the white gene pool. He also wrote: “America is a Third-World racial garbage-dump – stupid, ignorant, dead broke, and terminal. Whites LOVE their Enemies. Prepare to die, Whitey.</i>”desert rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02369546288659566961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-1292143384795114552009-06-10T17:51:20.373-04:002009-06-10T17:51:20.373-04:00When we're all driving Tattered Nanos or Gover...When we're all driving Tattered Nanos or Government Motors BunnyMobiles, the death toll in an accident chain like this will be about 100--<br /><br /><i>SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - About 30 vehicles piled up in chain-reaction crashes in heavy morning fog on a Southern California mountain highway Wednesday. At least 15 people were injured, and wreckage was scattered for a half-mile. <br />Conditions at the scene on Interstate 15 near the Cajon Pass summit were too foggy for helicopters to fly, so ambulances took the injured to hospitals, said Tom Barnes, a San Bernardino County fire dispatch supervisor. <br /><br /><br />He said 10 people were taken to hospitals and five were assessed by paramedics. California Highway Patrol Officer Daniel Hesser said none of the injuries appeared life-threatening. </i>--<br />-/<br /><br />But, it will keep medical expenses real low.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-72308856601121210592009-06-10T17:44:22.921-04:002009-06-10T17:44:22.921-04:00White, Federal Reserve Hating, Anti-Semitic, 9/11 ...<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6473316.ece" rel="nofollow">White, Federal Reserve Hating, Anti-Semitic, 9/11 Truther Attacks Holocaust Museum</a>Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-19408167153253998112009-06-10T17:40:18.199-04:002009-06-10T17:40:18.199-04:00Keep spending:
U.S. stocks pared their losses We...Keep spending:<br /><br /><br />U.S. stocks pared their losses Wednesday as hopes for economic growth were tempered by fears of rising interest rates.<br /><br />Major indexes were more or less flat for much of the session, but fears about creeping interest rates choking off the incipient economic recovery heightened when yields rose in the wake of an auction around 1 p.m. EDT.<br /><br />Long-dated Treasurys bore the brunt of the selling, pushing the yield on the 10-year note to as high as 3.996%, the strongest level since mid-October and approaching the psychologically important 4% level. The last time the 10-year note's yield rose above 4% was in October. A 30-year Treasury sale is scheduled for Friday.Deuce ☂https://www.blogger.com/profile/13472858446242700869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-6042288616422140512009-06-10T16:35:58.184-04:002009-06-10T16:35:58.184-04:00What did Adam Smith say?
There's a lot of rui...What did Adam Smith say?<br /><br />There's a lot of ruin in a nation.<br /><br />We're an exception to some things, but not that.trishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14139410627244875589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-71012450195135752302009-06-10T16:27:25.738-04:002009-06-10T16:27:25.738-04:00Remember how the German bimbos swooned over Hitler...Remember how the German bimbos swooned over Hitler?<br /><br />Lord, some of those old films are scary.Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-19175290729264881222009-06-10T16:23:42.754-04:002009-06-10T16:23:42.754-04:00Oh, bob, there are probably bunches and bunches of...Oh, bob, there are probably bunches and bunches of political groupies in the US who would gladly, deliriously have an Obamababy.<br /><br />Remember the swooners/screamers/criers, like early Beatles fans, back during the campaign?trishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14139410627244875589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-8326672395634733312009-06-10T16:19:36.623-04:002009-06-10T16:19:36.623-04:00Thanks for the offer of the plate, linear. Funny, ...Thanks for the offer of the plate, linear. Funny, my mother was just discussing spending money for souvenir ticky-tacky.<br /><br />How much spending money covers ten ports of call?<br /><br />The expedited tourist passport and visas alone are five hundred bucks.<br /><br />Books another thousand, easily.<br /><br />Road trip to Maine...who knows?<br /><br />And that's before we bite into the meat of the thing.<br /><br />Good thing her grandparents have some deep pockets and adore her. (My mother: "Deep what? Excuse me?")trishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14139410627244875589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-84084698337975655282009-06-10T16:15:38.421-04:002009-06-10T16:15:38.421-04:00I wonder how many women in America want to have an...I wonder how many women in America want to have an Obamababy? :(Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21297199.post-28701448827052659202009-06-10T16:14:45.948-04:002009-06-10T16:14:45.948-04:00Mysterious Car Crash In Illinois<a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/burris/1614432,w-john-ruff-roland-burris-death-060909.article" rel="nofollow">Mysterious Car Crash In Illinois</a>Bobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04145155737835511824noreply@blogger.com