Monday, April 5, 2010

On Suicide Bombers, Boer Me To Death, I Am Not a Maverick, Either...

Paul Krugman
Marc Thiessen
E J Dionne Jr
Judith Miller
"The message for the GOP establishment is clear -- be careful what you wish for. For too long, it turned up its nose at the grassroots activism of social conservatives and said they should focus on fiscal issues that unite the party. Now, the grassroots activism of fiscal conservatives is driving the debate in races across the country." - Marc Thiessen
"But between now and then lies an election season likely to be characterized more by anger than reason, and in which the opposition has the advantage of not being in charge at a moment of great discontent. " - E J Dionne Jr
"You guys hear about this? Sarah Palin has a new Fox News series, which is being described as a show about people with real-life tales of overcoming adversity. Hey, she should do a story about that guy who became the first black president. That would be a good story. Think about that one." - Jimmy Fallon

In the links above, two are about politics, blah, blah, blah. The real dirt is in Judith Miller's piece about a case that is soon coming to trial in Israel, dealing with bad behavior in the Israeli Defense Force's top brass, and the woman who photocopied the documents on them and turned them over to the press. The come-on is Israel becoming just like Iran in censoring the press and hounding journalists?... One thing that has happened in the aftermath of the Israeli - US flap, is that the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are negotiating a truce and finding a way to present a united front towards Israel.

But the focus in the news has been on Bagdad, where another round of suicide bombers attacked areas near foreign embassies: "Two were suicide attacks against the Egyptian and Iranian embassies, Iraqi security forces said, while the third struck close to the German, Spanish and Syrian missions. No deaths were reported among any of the embassies' foreign staff, although several Iraqi guards at the German and Egyptian missions were killed." Al Qaeda in Iraq has been credited with the bombings, and two other would be bombers were captured. One was a 17 year old boy who was stoned out of his mind, strapped into a van full of dynamite. One bomber had to cross four checkpoints without being searched, so he must have had a good story, or the guards are just as lazy as anywhere else...

Suicide bombs are used to create chaos; the destruction, noise, and fear they create sends an unmistakable message to those in power. The targets here pose more questions than give answers. Why Egypt? Germany is a foreign power, but has had little to do in Iraq except let their forces sit around and drink beer. Maybe send a message to Iran and Syria not to meddle with their affairs, but they are more allied to al Qaeda in terms of support,the bombs were probably made with material from Iran, so it doesn't make sense. I guess the real meaning lies in the vast amount of conspiracy theories that spring up after an act of callous destruction... The ease of obtaining the materials to build the bombs in Iraq is what bothers me. Why haven't the borders been sealed off more, or do smugglers cross the deserts like Mexican immigrants? Maybe criminal cartels smuggle this stuff in because it is more popular than drugs, sells better than Disney DVD's or Pakistani porn...

But this was probably in retaliation for the government capturing and killing some top al Qaeda officials in Mosul a few days ago. We'll soon see how strong the al Qaeda organization is, if Osama bin Laden takes up the invitation of the Somali rebels and travels to Somalia to help their fight in Africa. We'll see if he stops in Tehran along the way to pick up members of his family that have been held hostage for at least 8 years...

boer me to death...
One interesting or frightening fact came to light in the aftermath of the killing of the acknowledged White Supremacist is that over 900 white farmers have been killed in South Africa since 2001... Will the upcoming South African race wars spark ones here in the US? Especially if global warming is taking effect and we will have another long, hot Summer, with the heat setting everyone's nerves on edge... Riots never happen in the Winter...

I often confuse the terms White Supremacist with Christian Extremist, the two often having overlapping beliefs and premises. David Kurtz, in TPM, had this amusing ditty that was revealed about one of the Hutaree, the comic-book fantasy parading as a Christian Militia in Michigan: "It's not easy being a Christian militiaman.


One of the nine alleged Hutaree militia members charged in Michigan for plotting to kill police there reportedly became irate at police in Ohio police last year when they refused to press charges against his mother, who had confiscated his AK-47 and pistol -- which he said he desperately needed to protect himself from an Ohio crime family whose bad side he was on because he had tried to marry a Macedonian woman who was supposedly held captive on an island in Lake Erie by another crime family.


Got all that?


His mom, god bless her, took his guns away because she thought he was mentally unstable." If only we would listen more to our mothers, this worl might be a safer, saner place. Unless mom is a founding member of one of these groups...

dear john...
John McCain seems to be living in his Winter of discontent. I don't know if it's just a function of old age, but he is forgetting things more often, and publicly embarrassing himself during his re-election campaign in Arizona. Newsweek just published an article following him around, where: "Maverick" is a mantle McCain no longer claims; in fact, he now denies he ever was one. "I never considered myself a maverick," he told me. "I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities." Yet here was Palin, urging her fans four times in 15 minutes to send McCain the Maverick back to Washington."

If I lived in Arizona, I would probably vote for him and send him back to the Senate, even if I think it's better if he retired. His opponent is a slick, corrupt, and intolerant person, who claims that McCain isn't conservative enough for Arizona. I would vote for him hoping that he could bounce back and become the moderate maverick that he once was, despite the short temper and often vicious backbiting he displays. "With no prominent Democrats in the race, a win in the Republican primary will almost certainly return McCain to Washington. But which McCain? On that, Hayworth and McCain agree. "It'll be a lead-pipe cinch that John will go back to being John, and taking delight at poking conservatives in the eye," says Hayworth. "He'd like to have that status that a Ted Kennedy had as 'lion of the Senate,' doing those things that win him praise in the eyes of the Washington press corps." "The fundamentals of my character were formed a long, long time ago under sometimes difficult circumstances," says McCain. "I'm not going to fundamentally change."


But, of course, that's what they'd both say. Others believe it's simply too early to tell. McCain always goes with his gut, they note, and he's too intent now on surviving to know what he'll do once he has. Others wonder whether, after all this hyperpartisanship, he could snap back into being a maverick, even if he wanted to. Still others point to his ambitions. McCain himself says he'd love to serve as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. But that can happen only with a Republican majority. And that won't come from crossing any aisles."

2 comments:

  1. I love that they asked for “Public Defenders” (and they thought they could bring down our government), undercover FBI agent, sweet. The simpleton Tea baggers keep missing the point. These are the same whiners that were crying when the McCain/Bailin ticket lost. Now they are crying again because their yelling and screaming (because they are haters not debaters or as others have dubbed them screamers not dreamers) did not stop the health care debate or the bill from passing. They think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something they are not the only ones that are armed and not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. Do not cry when regular people openly laugh at your group when they see on TV that your leaders are Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and your own turn coat Glenn Beck from the LDS. They do more to discredit you group on TV (powerful) than any of comments on the blog sphere. Yee Haw!

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  2. simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. Do not cry when regular people openly laugh at your group when they see on TV that your leaders are Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and your own turn coat Glenn Beck from the LDS. They do more to discredit you group on TV (powerful) than any of comments on the blog sphere. Yee Haw! If I lived in Arizona, I would probably vote for him and send him back to the Senate, even if I think it's better if he retired. His opponent is a slick, corrupt, and intolerant person, who claims that McCain isn't conservative enough for Arizona. I would vote for him hoping that he could bounce back and become the moderate maverick that he once was, despite the short temper and often vicious backbiting he displays. "With no prominent Democrats in the race, a win in the Republican primary will almost certainly return McCain to Washington. But which McCain? On that, Hayworth and McCain agree. "It'll be a lead-pipe cinch that John will go back to being John, and taking delight at poking conservatives in the eye," says Hayworth. "He'd like to have that status that a Ted Kennedy had as 'lion of the Senate,' doing those things that win him praise in the eyes of the Washington press corps." "The fundamentals of my character were formed a long, long time ago under sometimes difficult circumstances," says McCain. "I'm not going to fundamentally change."

    ReplyDelete

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