Just a thread number nine thousand whatever……….

Just a thread number nine thousand whatever………. 22 March 2008

Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, WAR!.
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Hopefully we have a couple days off the chorus of denounce, reject, repudiate, and whatever else.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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1. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2008: Iran: Danger and Opportunity;
Polk Guest Op-Ed

The article curiously passes over in silence the much more impressive build-up of naval power in the Persian Gulf. As of the last report I have seen, a major part of the U.S. Navy is deployed in and around the Persian Gulf. The numbers are stunning and include not only a vast array of weapons, including nuclear weapons, cruise and other missiles and hundreds of aircraft but also “insertion” (invasion) forces and equipment. Even then, these already deployed forces amount to only a fraction of the total that could be brought to bear on Iran because aircraft, both bombers and troop and equipment transports, stationed far away in Central Asia, the Indian Ocean, Europe and even in America can be quickly employed .

Of course, deploying forces along Iran’s frontier does not necessarily mean using them. At least that is what the Administration says. However, as a historian and former participant in government, I believe that having troops and weapons on the spot makes their use more likely than not. Why is that?

It is because a massive build-up of forces inevitably creates the “climate” of war. Troops and the public, on both sides, come to accept its inevitability. Standing down is difficult and can entail loss of “face.” Consequently, political leaders usually are carried forward by the flow of events. Having taken steps 1, 2 and 3, they find taking step number 4 logical, even necessary. In short, momentum rather than policy begins to control action. As Barbara Tuchman showed in her study of the origins of the First World War, The Guns of August, even though none of the parties really wanted to go to war, none could stop the process. It was the fact that President Kennedy had been reading Tuchman’s book just before the Cuban Missile Crisis, I believe, that made him so intent on not being “hijacked by events.” His restraint was unusual. More common is a surrender to “sequence” as was shown by the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It would have taken a major reversal of policy – and considerable political bravery — to halt either invasion once the massive build-up was in place. No such effort was made then. Will it be now? I think the odds are against it.

Found via Chris Floyd’s Empire Burlesque.

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2008: Who Needs Tasers? Let’s Just Ram Em with Our Patrol Cars

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3. marisacat - 22 March 2008: I saw the film lst night of the cop car chasing down the suspect and hitting him. Heard the voice of the cop too.

If these things don’t bring to mind the old slave patrollers (that one happened to be a white sheriff and a black suspect) I don’t know what does.

Of course Iraq brings to mind slave patrollers too.

Trapped forever.

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4. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2008: ‘America is run by gangsters,’ he said

I have been over to the USA four times and travelled around the back blocks a bit, including your area. I feel a sadness for the average citizen there. They haven’t got a clue as to what’s going on. I feel the USA has become a giant military camp to protect world capitalism and the citizens are not aware they have been conscripted. I have also travelled around Asia a bit. I’ve had deeper conversations about world affairs with Indonesian fishermen, Thai taxi drivers and even Tibetan peasants in far western China than I could get out many of the “middle class, educated” people I have met in the USA.

It is pretty humbling when a fellow in Laos running a small tourism venture can talk about world and local politics, exchange rates, government policies (including European and American) and how this will affect his plans, and, he can do it in at least three languages — Lao, French and pretty good English. It is tme to shut up and listen. The Thai taxi driver in Chiang Mai just about spat out the window on US policies and politics. “America is run by gangsters,” he said.

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5. marisacat - 22 March 2008: well… Al Schumann over at SMBIVA says it succinctly:

[T]he Kos diarist’s cri de couer is the usual empty, almost pitiable dithering. Going by the track record of such things, it’s one last banal protest before knuckling under. There’s little harm in it by itself. The fatuous oneupsmanship and inane, posturing pragmatism vented in herding him back into the fold him are another story. It’s the way liberals bully each other into supporting hand-wringing, excuse-making, treacherous politicians. One liberal gets doubtful and loud about it. Along comes a vigilante snarker to discipline him. The only beneficiaries of this kick-the-dog exercise are careerist hacks who demonstrably have every intention of offering exactly one dime’s worth of difference, no more, with the definition of the difference and the sum off which it’s shaved left as a collegial courtesy for the Republicans. This reflexive, communal infantilization is the process liberals have used to badger each other into support of the deregulatory zeal of Jimmy Carter, straight through to the mercenary accommodationism of the Clinton claque and the Pelosi vichy, with no end in sight. When they’re not eagerly letting their Republican enemies define them, they’re using the same style of argument those enemies use, the same bullying sanctimony dressed up as pragmatism and they’re doing it to each other. Any expression of conscience from one, however hedged and tepid, is sophomorically ridiculed by a parlor Nietzschean; derided as an effort to “suckle your pride and idealism”. Lord have mercy! All the angry right wing nut faction of the elite has to do to hold power is avoid excessive public cannibalism. ::snip::

ha haha ahahahahah ha ha ha. And then some.

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6. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2008: Sheriff Joe Arpaio uses Easter weekend to round up brown people in Phoenix

It’s a little after four in the afternoon, and I’m standing in the blazing heat, in a parking lot at the Northwest corner of 32nd Street and Thomas in Phoenix. Most of the parking lot is roped off with yellow police tape, a dramatic move by perhaps the most dramatic sheriff in American history. Inside the taped area are deputies. Lots of deputies. Lots of sunglasses. And big, big trucks housing mobile jail cells. Lots of TV news crews. Lots of hatred. Ah, Arizona, how do I love thee? Let me count the deputays.

I am here as an editor, as a reporter, and as a citizen observer. But I don’t go inside the roped off area with most of the other reporters. They’re here from all the TV stations, from the newspapers. Sheriff Joe Arpaio farts in Phoenix, and many in the corporate media here come running to celebrate it against a backdrop of American flags and tough-guy scowling. There has never been a more lauded scoundrel than this, I think. Question is: Will they celebrate this day as well? After all, Arpaio is here today, on Good Friday, to tell the people of Maricopa County that he has begun another weekend of “patrols” in predominantly Latino neighborhoods. For Easter Weekend. The last time he did this, it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Nice timing, from a man who bragged on CNN that he found being compared to the KKK to be a compliment. Ah, Arizona.

In Arpaio-speak, this “patrol” thing means claiming that crime is up in the neighborhood, when, in fact, it is down. It means claiming that people in the neighborhood have called his offices to ask for more patrols, when in fact no one I talked to in the neighborhood has anything but fear and loathing for the sheriff. It means arresting people for minor offenses, such as a cracked windshield or mild speeding, offenses that in Scottsdale or Cave Creek would get the offender a ticket at the most.

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7. marisacat - 22 March 2008: LOL Obamamama and Billary BOTH voted for that dmaned wall.

And both decried the wall and tried not to mention their votes when in So Texas…

Gotta love pols, always washing their hands with bleach.

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8. Miss Devore - 22 March 2008: how can you not vote?:

http://tinyurl.com/29y7df

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9. melvin - 22 March 2008: Oh brother.

We finally get a break from everyone and her dog being Hitler: Richardson is Judas!;

“Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Mr. Carville said . . . .

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10. marisacat - 22 March 2008: The dioramas are fabulous!

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11. marisacat - 22 March 2008: HA! Both Angry Arab and Stop me before I vote again loved this photo.

Must say I am rather fond of it myself. What a hoot! Plus i noticed she had her California Beloveds along for the trip, I spied Miller and Eshoo among others………..

I would add that Nancy knows him quite well, he is a constant fixture around town.

While I was at SMBIVA, I noticed a very astute take on Hillary from Owen Paine, he calls her Ma Scorpion, which is very on target…

I suspect her best chance is still what it was before Jeremiah — keep up the 24/7 race ragging, and poll his ass off till the numbers start to show he’s just plain ‘unelectable’. Then step back, shake the old albino coconut, and blame his fall from grace on the bone-deep ‘race hate’ of Mr and Mrs Threewide. Hey, what can ya say — the people have spoken.

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12. melvin - 22 March 2008: I liked the Running of the Peeps and what I took to be an homage to The Birds.

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13. marisacat - 22 March 2008: 9

The other thing that both sides have pulled out is Joe McCarthy.

Riding at the top of the The Page

http://thepage.time.com/ :

Clinton campaign says Obama supporter retired Air Force Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak comparing Bill Clinton to Joe McCarthy is “an outrage” and “ought to be retracted.”

On Saturday conference call with media, Clinton advisers repeatedly point press to Obama campaign attacks on H. Clinton’s character — contrasted with Obama’s pledge to change the tone of U.S. politics. Permalink

I particularly noted that Eleanor Clift raised McCarthyism (two weeks ago on McLaughlin) as did Clarence Page, they mouthed it in unison! there had to be memo! (these are nto great thinkers, they are mouthpieces), charges of it, in that Rezko was being delved into wrt to obama. WTF? Welcome to Politics. Stop pretending to be innocents or to frankly GIVE A SHIT.

I think both sides are ridiculous. And, GOOD LUCK.

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14. Miss Devore - 22 March 2008: 9. I posted a pff piece on the Judas thang. First the Clintons owned the AA’s, then they owned the Hispanics.

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15. bayprairie - 22 March 2008: marisa cited Al Schumann sayin’

It’s the way liberals bully each other into supporting hand-wringing, excuse-making, treacherous politicians. One liberal gets doubtful and loud about it. Along comes a vigilante snarker to discipline him. The only beneficiaries of this kick-the-dog exercise are careerist hacks who demonstrably have every intention of offering exactly one dime’s worth of difference, no more, with the definition of the difference and the sum off which it’s shaved left as a collegial courtesy for the Republicans. This reflexive, communal infantilization is the process liberals have used to badger each other

josh marhall today

…So I see most of these promises (saying they wouldn’t be able to vote for the donk opponent in the general election) as the emotional equivalent of things friends or lovers can say in the midst of heated fights — the vast number of which they recant later and wish they’d never said.

Clearly though there are some people who really do mean it. A very small fraction I think, but there nonetheless. And there’s really no better example of emotional infantilism that some people bring to the political process . One can see it in a case like 1968 perhaps or other years where real and important differences separated the candidates — or in cases where the differences between the parties on key issues were not so great. But that simply is not the case this year. As much as the two campaign have sought to highlight the differences, the two candidates’ positions on almost every issue is extremely close (one dime’s worth of difference?). And the differences that do exist pale into insignificance when compared to Sen. McCain’s.

That’s not to say that these small differences are reasons to choose one of the candidates over the other. But to threaten either to sit the election or vote for McCain or vote for Nader if your candidate doesn’t win the nomination shows as clearly as anything that one’s ego-investment in one’s candidate far outstrips one’s interest in public policy and governance…

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16. marisacat - 22 March 2008: zzzzzzzzz

Meet the Press: CNBC reporters Maria Bartiromo, Erin Burnett

Fox News Sunday: Richardson, PA Gov. Ed Rendell, Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, economic advisor Glenn Hubbard

This Week: Sens. Chuck Schumer, Jon Kyl, Chuck Hagel

Face the Nation: Sens. Lindsey Graham, Jack Reed

Late Edition: Mark Halperin

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17. liberalcatnip - 22 March 2008: 13. More fainting couches & popcorn!

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18. liberalcatnip - 22 March 2008: Sully defends Bill until he doesn’t:

And yet Clinton in the exact same situation carries on, with a minimal chance of victory,and actually had the gall to offer Obama a veep slot. Who on earth does she think she is? At best it’s pure Clinton entitlement. At worst it’s white entitlement.

Oh, well, I tried to defend the Clintons and look where I ended up. Better luck next time.

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19. cad - 22 March 2008: Bless Wolcott. It’s great to have a real media voice smack down the site’s increasingly infantile dramatics. And Kos watches, smiling.

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20. marisacat - 22 March 2008: LOL Well Sully should know about WHITE entitlement.

what a fucking joke.

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21. Miss Devore - 22 March 2008: “one’s ego-investment in one’s candidate far outstrips one’s interest in public policy and governance…”

so the voters are on the same level as the politicians.

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22. liberalcatnip - 22 March 2008: 19. They just don’t see how they’ve morphed into some of the most hysterical wingnuts. And yet they claim they’re different because they’re “progressives”. Right. Sure.

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23. liberalcatnip - 22 March 2008: Following on that Vanderhei/Politico post yesterday that it’s “virtually” impossible for Clinton to win, DHinMI posts That it’s “almost” impossible for her. Well, “virtually” and “almost” aren’t certainties, yet they still want to throw her off the bus.

I hope this Democratic Death Match ’08 lasts until the convention. The longer it goes on, the more those “progressives” show their true colours. The colour of “status quo” appears to be quite orange.

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24. liberalcatnip - 22 March 2008: hope she stays in till convention. n/t (1+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
darwinism

by Zain on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:27:05 PM MDT

*
Of Course You Do (11+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
Joe Willy, cookiesandmilk, bumblebums, Eternal Hope, peraspera, dmsilev, Flippant, Samwoman, crabbytom in md, cybrestrike, Tortmaster

Of course nothing is accomplished by that if it’s clear there’s absolutely no way she can get the nomination, but you’ve never shown any political acumen or concern with the higher imperative of defeating John McCain and regaining the White House.

The revolution will not be televised, but we’ll analyze it to death at The Next Hurrah.

by DHinMI on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:28:30 PM MDT

o
i have shown that acumen (0 / 0)

thats why is support HRC.

by Zain on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:29:19 PM MDT

Acumen? (2+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
cookiesandmilk, bumblebums

Yours is fucked up, seeing that you are Iranian, yet you would support John McCain over Obama. John McCain, remember, would bomb Iran. So, I don’t see how you are going to face up to friends and family after you vote for John McCain.

Conservatism is Dead!

by Eternal Hope on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:32:14 PM MDT

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25. liberalcatnip - 22 March 2008: He’s Not Concerned with Political Reality (5+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
Eternal Hope, DH from MD, jds1978, Tortmaster, BA BarackUS

He just wants to cause a ruckus on the site. Check out his brilliant retort above.

He’s just a contrarian.

The revolution will not be televised, but we’ll analyze it to death at The Next Hurrah.

by DHinMI on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:30:24 PM MDT

*
it may be difficult for you to understand (0 / 0)

but i support my candidate.

YOU sound alot like the people who told gore it was impossible to win and that he should just step aside.

by Zain on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:31:57 PM MDT

o
Not only that; (0 / 0)

You support McCain over Obama. It is difficult to understand how you can be Iranian and support McCain over Obama when he would attack your country.

Conservatism is Dead!

by Eternal Hope on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:33:22 PM MDT

+
my country is the same as your country (1+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
beijingbetty

i am an american my heritage is iranian, and save your outrage for your fellow obama supporters who have for months on this site been saying they would vote for mccain over obama.

by Zain on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:36:28 PM MDT

#
Error: over clinton not obama (1+ / 0-)

Recommended by:
beijingbetty

by Zain on Sat Mar 22, 2008 at 01:37:14 PM MDT

So much for their Iranian-American Outreach Program.

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26. melvin - 22 March 2008: 25 DH really needs to expand his vocabulary. I think that’s the exact same comment he made about me 7 or 8 hundred times.

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27. liberalcatnip - 22 March 2008: 26. lol…maybe he’s a bot. 😉

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28. cad - 22 March 2008: Dumbhini’s favorite retort is basically, “You must not have reading skills. I have told you so. Obviously you don’t listen. Perhaps you should graze elsewhere.”

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29. marisacat - 22 March 2008: I have never understood the facile retreat to making supposed reading skills or reading comprehension an insult, kinda dull imo.

So, I guess it fits DHinMI.

LOL

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30. diane - 22 March 2008: Hi to you also Marisa!………..

Take Good Care!

Hugs to ya!

(and also to all the males I might have appeared to snub yesterday, ya’ll just get on my fuckin Nerves!)

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31. Miss Devore - 22 March 2008: diane–you should post at pff. most women just ignore the assholes there. just doing what we’ve been doing most of our lives.

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32. diane - 22 March 2008: and so does that devious fucker “Eternal Hope” who the fuck, old enough, names themselves that…and yet leaves a thread of bleakness behind them?

like you’re in it by yourself…and they’re just there to “assist”….

no real hugs…..no nuthin!

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33. diane - 22 March 2008: not the jesus I live for….

and will, in fact, die for…..

cae sera

there is still that burning hope in us for bliss, kindness….and we’ll ride it out till it quits.

ha!

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34. marisacat - 22 March 2008: LOL

I just read that Instapundit is doing up T Shirts with

Typical White Person

on them.

Ive not bothered to go to Glenn’s site to see if it is true……………….

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35. liberalcatnip - 22 March 2008: The Crucifixion of Christ, American Style

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36. Miss Devore - 22 March 2008: I had a t-shirt idea:

Just a black man walking down the street.

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37. marisacat - 22 March 2008: LOL I just heard Art Torres on the radio, BIll is coming out to the Cal Dem party convention next week to speak.

I say he should wear a TWP Tshirt.

Works for me!

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38. Miss Devore - 22 March 2008: miracles galore:

” VATICAN CITY (AP) — Italy’s most prominent Muslim commentator converted to Roman Catholicism on Saturday during the Vatican’s Easter vigil service presided over by the pope.

An Egyptian-born, non-practicing Muslim, Magdi Allam has infuriated some fellow Muslims with his criticism of extremism and support for Israel.”

give him a peep. a papal peep.

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39. bayprairie - 22 March 2008: i get a kick out of the whack front pagers’ attacks on Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her support of Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart.

the whacks disrespect everysinglething about balart/lehtinen they can think of except, of course, their greatest offense against basic human rights, their support and protection of right wing anti-castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, child murderer.

won’t hear a jesus-easter “peep” about that though.

whacks. go figure.

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40. marisacat - 22 March 2008: hmm VertheVik has a diary up, with photos of Kos, currently in a magazine. LOL I recognise the location of the second pic, Polk Street.

Shouldn’t he be… you know, tense? Worried who is looking at him, or at his camo shorts?

He is catty corner from a pretty famous bar on Polk at California, Kimo’s, and the street heads up the hill toward Nob Hill. I don’t know who owns it now, but the original owner, Kimo, used to claim to be a “semi-retired fire eater from Hawai’i”.

LOL

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41. Hair Club for Men - 22 March 2008: VATICAN CITY (AP) — Italy’s most prominent Muslim commentator converted to Roman Catholicism on Saturday during the Vatican’s Easter vigil service presided over by the pope

Done in a very public and propagandistic way.

Compare to Tony Blair, who waited until he left office than quietly converted to Catholicism.

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42. Miss Devore - 22 March 2008: 41. too bad Oriani Fallaci isn’t around to be godmother at his baptism.

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43. wu ming - 22 March 2008: in taiwan, hong kong-born guomindang presidential candidate ma yingjiu just stomped the ethnic taiwanese DPP candidate frank hsieh, 60-40. should be interesting to see how china reacts (ma was the more rhetorically friendly candidate to beijing and international finance, but in terms of actual policy would have been more or less the same as hsieh); my hunch is that beijing’s rhetoric cools down a bit, deals get cut, and speculative investment/corruption booms in taipei. with any luck, they’ll iron out some better transportation and visa agreements without getting hung up on demanding that taipei kneel in obeisance as a prerequisite.

lots of interesting repercussions for taiwanese domestic politics, probably not all that much internationally, unless china decides to use this as an excuse to improve their relations with taiwan without losing face by looking like they’re changing policy.

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44. Miss Devore - 22 March 2008: 43.only wu ming can understand that.

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45. marisacat - 22 March 2008: Not saying I agree, as I don’t know enough, but Orville Schell seemed to think the years of getting Macao, HK back has stirred China. They DO want Taiwan back and unless some fortunate god intervenes will crack down hard on Tibetan ‘Real Estate’, as he called it.

Here is hoping.

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46. Hair Club for Men - 23 March 2008: too bad Oriani Fallaci isn’t around to be godmother at his baptism.

The Christian equivalent of the Danish cartoons would have been for a British PM to go to one of the Protestant sections of Belfast at the height of “the troubles” and have himself baptized a Catholic.

Too bad Maggie Thatcher had never tried that, without security. After all, Christians are peaceful, right?

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47. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: 43.

I heard some interesting man-on-the-street interviews about the Taiwanese election on NPR the other day done in Taipai (IIRC), and the common theme seemed to be “it would be good for business” to get closer to China.

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48. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation

WASHINGTON — New government research has found “large and growing” disparities in life expectancy for richer and poorer Americans, paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades.

Life expectancy for the nation as a whole has increased, the researchers said, but affluent people have experienced greater gains, and this, in turn, has caused a widening gap.

One of the researchers, Gopal K. Singh, a demographer at the Department of Health and Human Services, said “the growing inequalities in life expectancy” mirrored trends in infant mortality and in death from heart disease and certain cancers.

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49. marisacat - 23 March 2008: gah you wonder if the Democrats have ears, along with all the other body parts missing in action.

Listening to Shumer and Kyl (TW). And Shumer bleating that McConnel will not allow a Dem package on some sort of economic aid package (my mind drifted) be brought to the floor.

Beyond pathetic.

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50. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: Israel “Cachao” Lopez has died in MIami at 89

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51. wilfred - 23 March 2008: lol, Buchanan on McLoughlin: “Jesus would be for the Death Penalty”. If only there was a hook to yank these asses off the stage.

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52. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: Child Bankrupts Make-a-Wish Foundation

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53. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: 51

Well, he did ask Judas to facilitate his own …

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54. NYCO - 23 March 2008: Wu Ming, maybe you can educate me… is mainland China’s desire to reclaim Taiwan, at this point, anything but political? I admit to knowing not very much at all about modern Taiwan… but really, what is in it for China? Taiwan doesn’t have any massively valuable natural resources remaining as far as I understand. I also don’t really understand what industrial resources Taiwan might have today that are better than China’s. So I have to assume Taiwan is of some strategic military importance (for bases and so forth)? If not… is it really just an ethnic/nationalistic dispute?

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55. liberalcatnip - 23 March 2008: The beaver and the stallion. Umm…

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56. liberalcatnip - 23 March 2008: Wolcotte responds: “Flying Mane, Crouching Beaver” lol

Perhaps Ms. Jong should do what I do and have a small pillow handy near her desk and lay her head upon it whenever she feels an inspiration coming on. Immediate rest is the best remedy for a bad idea insisting to be blogged.

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57. marisacat - 23 March 2008: LOL catnip

If you have the HuffPo / Jong open, would it be possible for you to cut and paste and send to me?

HuffPo crashes my computer badly… sigh. Not sure what it is.

Will go to Wolcott and get the gist.

I have felt for osme time that HIllary should have cmapaigned wearing a strap on.

LOL.

I know one thing, the reading / listening women of America are not soon, whether for HIllary opposed to her or dissafected from the actual vote (opposed/dissafected, that would be me) going to forget the hideous sexism thsi run exposed.

Racism is hushed up, coded, apologised for, denied, and USED (that in my opinion would be the Obama camp) but Sexism is a form of god in thsi country.

And i believe you have to just ignore a lot, just keep moving but at some point……… it is just too rank.

I seem to recall some nasty anti woman call out that Gilliard mounted, might have had something to do with Dowd (I am not a fan, she is a weak poison pen, LOL) and damn if Wolcott was not right there with his buddy.

So yeah, Hillary needed a strap on for this run.

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58. wu ming - 23 March 2008: it’s a mess, but mostly about nationalism and face in china (ie. not wanting to be embarrassed by taiwan defying them in public), and completely about ethnic domestic politics in taiwan, where the two main parties are each based upon one chinese ethnic group (the guomindang is backed by the descendants of those who fled from the mainland in ’49, and the democratic progressive party by those whose ancestors moved to taiwan from the coastal province of fujian in the 18th and 19th centuries). each taiwanese party owns their own TV and newspaper mouthpieces, and relations with china end up being a bit of an ethnic proxy battle, with mainlanders accusing the DPP of being needlessly incendiary and fixated on their (small, lesser) ethnic nationalism, while taiwanese accuse the guomindang of being traitors to taiwan and secret collaborators with the chinese who are using cover of closer ties with china as a way to undermine taiwanese democracy.

for mainland china, part of it is wanting to bring together all the old parts of the qing dynasty’s territory that was lost to foreign colonial powers during the 19th century (taiwan, which was only brought under qing administration in the 19th century, was ceded to japan in 1895 after the qing lost a war with japan); part of it is about getting backed into a corner with popular nationalist sentiment in a manner akin to orwell’s “shooting an elephant”; part of it is several decades of seeing taiwan as a cat’s paw for american hegemony in china’s sphere of influence; part of it is just red-faced empty rhetoric; and part of it is just not wanting to look like they’re backing down.

i suspect that a concern with the taiwanese model of chinese democracy sort of unsettles the chinese authorities as well, but not in the manner that most taiwanese assume. most chinese get a picture of taiwan from mainlander media that portrays taiwanese democracy in negative jacksonian democracy hues of utter plebian chaos, which plays into educated chinese opinion that giving any political power to the uneducated unwashed masses would be an utter disaster. rural migrants to chinese cities tend to play the same economic and social role that immigrant labor plays in america, europe or the middle east, with similar prejudices.

at any rate, my guess is that while china will probably crush tibet yet again, an invasion of taiwan will remain extremely unlikely. china has far too much to lose from attempting such a thing (amphibious landings are very difficult, and losing such an attempt would be a domestic political disaster), and very little to gain (taiwan’s already the biggest investor in china; why disrupt a good deal?).

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59. liberalcatnip - 23 March 2008: If you have the HuffPo / Jong open, would it be possible for you to cut and paste and send to me?

Done!

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60. liberalcatnip - 23 March 2008: And you don’t put together Erica Jong, beavers and stallions without it being an exercise in sexual imagery – that’s for sure. Some commenters there are not pleased that Obama is characterized as a “stallion”. The “beaver” thing? No big deal, apparently.

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61. marisacat - 23 March 2008: catnip

thanks… !

Read the Wolcott. Poor Erica. Hwat a messy metaphor. She won with Zipless Fuck, shoulda stuck with what she knew. All those years ago.

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62. Miss Devore - 23 March 2008: 55. from the replies:

“Yes, these were painful analogies.

First of all, she called the woman a “beaver” and the black guy a “stallion”.

Yikes.

And speaking of extending them to the nth degree…

Bet she didn’t know that beavers eat their own feces.”

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63. marisacat - 23 March 2008: While I was there, I poked around a bit. Wolcott had a pretty good column on our longitude and latitude, a couple back from beavers and stallions.

LOL I think we are dripping in bullshite… but what the hell. Nothing new there.

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64. liberalcatnip - 23 March 2008: 63.

I honestly have no idea how secure is his hold on Democratic voters and how much of it is a passionate infatuation that could end in an epic bout of bitter disappointment that would convert the Kos Diaries into a primal-scream clinic, with one diehard after another having to be dissuaded from flinging himself under the nearest Greyhound. I detect a scratchy, needy note of desperation beneath the Obama-ites’ audacity of hope.

Absolutely. Just look at ko’s latest. If that isn’t desperation, I don’t know what is.

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65. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: The sexism is depressing, and I wonder myself sometimes whether my deep-seated loathing for Senator Clinton is fertilized by some misogyny I’ve absorbed myself. I tell myself that it’s because of her sellout of healthcare to the HMOs, her and her husbands sellout to Wall St on bank regulations and NAFTA, her sellout of women’s reproductive health (and reproductive freedom in general) with her “safe, legal & rare” rightwing talking points and mostly her unrelenting militarism and mindless support of Israel. I TELL myself that, but to be honest the lecturing, hectoring, overbearing schoolmarm bit (the word “bitch” echoes in my mind) is there too.

It’s part of who many of us are, living in this culture.

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66. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: There was an interesting, scary, disturbing, exciting story on CBS Sunday Morning today:

“When people ask me ‘what do you do,’ we grow tissues and organs,” he said. “We are making body parts that we can implant right back into patients.”

Dr. Atala, one of the pioneers of regeneration, believes every type of tissue already has cells ready to regenerate if only researchers can prod them into action. Sometimes that prodding can look like science fiction.

Emerging from an everyday ink jet printer is the heart of a mouse. Mouse heart cells go into the ink cartridge and are then sprayed down in a heart shaped pattern layer by layer.

Dr. Atala believes it’s a matter of time before someone grows a human heart.

“The cells have all the genetic information necessary to make new tissue,” Atala explained. “That’s what they are programmed to do. So your heart cells are programmed to make more heart tissue, your bladder cells are programmed to make more bladder cells.”

Atala’s work with human bladder cells has pushed regenerative medicine to a transformational breakthrough.

In this clinical trial at Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, Dr. Patrick Shenot is performing a bladder transplant with an organ built with this patient’s own cells. In a process developed by Dr. Atala, the patient’s cells were grown in a lab, and then seeded on a biodegradable bladder-shaped scaffold.

Eight weeks later, with the scaffold now infused with millions of regrown cells, it is transplanted into the patient. When the scaffold dissolves, Dr. Shenot says what’s left will be a new, functioning organ.

“The cells will differentiate into the two major cells in the bladder wall, the muscle cells and the lining cells,” he explained. “It’s very much the future, but it’s today. We are doing this today.”

Every month, it seems another thing I read in science fiction or a comic book when I was a kid is echoed in the real world.

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67. marisacat - 23 March 2008: the lecturing, hectoring, overbearing schoolmarm bit

well sure that is there too. No question. Still does not account for the reams pages masses construction upon construction of sheer hate for as a woman. With no hiccup, no apology no thought for what is said.

Not as an awkward woman (at times, and often on the stump, tho her most recent appearance on SNL was quite another representation) not as a nepotism, patronage candidate, and so forth, she is attacked for merely being a woman.

And it goes over jsut fine.

I laughed out loud when I read Josh Marshall comment on a R retreat being tevelised on Cspan, that they sat around openly denigrating Hillary in sexist terms. And he commented they had no problem in public doing that. Tsk Tsk.

HELLO!?

Get out and about more in the fetid so called liberal climes.

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68. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: British M.P. George Galloway debates with a caller regarding a possible attack on Iran.

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69. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: Security Perception: Fear vs Anger

If you’re fearful, you think you’re more at risk than if you’re angry:

The results mirrored those of our lab studies. Specifically, people who saw the anger-inducing video clip were subsequently more optimistic on a whole series of judgments about the future — their own future, the country’s future, and the future of the world. In contrast, the people who saw the fear-inducing video clip were less optimistic about their own future, the country’s future, and the world’s future. Policy preferences also differed as a function of exposure to the different media/emotion conditions. Participants who saw the fear-inducing clip subsequently endorsed less aggressive and more conciliatory policies than did participants who saw the anger-inducing clip, even though the clip was only a few minutes long and participants had had weeks to form their own policy opinions regarding responses to terrorism.

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70. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: He rose from the tomb to eat people’s brains!

Zombie Jesus!

(That’s when he’s not appearing as Cheeto Jesus, anyway.)

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71. marisacat - 23 March 2008: LOL

Throw this in the Democratic Easter basket:

Rasmussen: McCain Beating Hillary In Arkansas, Swamping Obama

By Eric Kleefeld – March 22, 2008, 8:48PM

A new Rasmussen poll of Arkansas shows John McCain taking the lead over Hillary Clinton for the general election, after Hillary had been in the lead in most polls throughout this cycle for the state where she had previously served as first lady.

McCain leads Hillary 50%-43%, with 50% of likely voters saying they view Hillary favorably to 47% unfavorable, compared to McCain’s 66%-30% rating.

McCain does even better against Barack Obama, trouncing him 59%-30%, with Obama having a 35%-62% favorable rating.

What a hoot!

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72. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: for you cat lovers.

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73. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: Audio Tapes Raise Questions On Hillary Clinton’s Right-Wing Cult Associations

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74. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: Stuff White People Don’t Like

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75. marisacat - 23 March 2008: 73

well very sober round up on The Family. I hve no problem with calling it a conspiracy, however, unlike Clarkson (or whomever wrote the article).

I think tho that the hard core conservatives who back The Family (a partial roster has kicked around for years) will never allow any more exposure than it gets now, which is alternative, or online, media discussion.

And until there is a photographic depiction of what I have read about, that images of Jesus as well as Hitler and even Osama are at the Arlington compound (and hopefully pics with people kneeling in front of the depictions) to support what Sharlet has said (iirc) that The Family venerates ultimate leadership .. no matter who is the leader… well until there is that in hand…

The conservatives will jsut bleat “supports the National Prayer Breakfast” and show pics of Bono (and others) whooping it up for JEESUHS! at thsoe breakfasts.

In case anyone thought Bono was all good. Or harmless… Can’t tell me he has not visited out at The Family. Care to speculate about Obama? My guess would be a big fat YES.

I doubt The Family would care a hoo hoo about anything Wright preached, they’d look at him as being a leader of 8000 votes.

And so on.

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76. marisacat - 23 March 2008: I see Bruce Wilson wrote the article on The Family at Talk2Action.

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77. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: Yup, just various flavors of authoritarianism.

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78. JJB - 23 March 2008: So, how’s that surge working?

Not too well:

Militants target Green Zone in Baghdad
Violence kills at least 57 throughout Iraq; deadliest attack strikes Mosul

Rockets and mortars pounded Baghdad’s U.S.-protected Green Zone Sunday and a suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army post in the northern city of Mosul in a surge of attacks that killed at least 57 people nationwide.

The latest violence underscored the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups as the war enters its sixth year and the U.S. death toll in the conflict approaches 4,000.

Attacks in Baghdad probably stemmed from rising tensions between rival Shiite groups — some of whom may have been behind the Green Zone blasts. It was the most sustained assault in months against the nerve center of the U.S. mission.

[snip]

In Baghdad, rockets and mortars began slamming into the Green Zone about sunrise, and scattered assaults persisted throughout the day, sending plumes of smoke rising over the heavily guarded district in the heart of the capital.

A U.S. public address system in the Green Zone warned people to “duck and cover” and to stay away from windows.

U.S. spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said four people were wounded in the Green Zone, which includes the U.S. and British embassies as well as major Iraqi government offices. She gave no nationalities.

But Iraqi police said 10 civilians were killed and more than 20 were injured in rocket or mortar blasts in scattered areas of eastern Baghdad — some of them probably due to misfired rounds.

Also in the capital, seven people were killed and 14 wounded in a suicide car bombing Sunday in the Shiite area of Shula in the capital, police reported. Such attacks are the hallmark of Sunni religious extremists.

Mind, you, even with US fatalities having been reduced considerably, we’re still losing on the order of 25-30 a month. That it would seem is as good as it’s going to get, and it appears from what I’ve been reading lately that the Sunni guerrillas we’ve been paying not to attack us are starting to feel betrayed by us because we haven’t used our influence to integrate their people into the official Iraqi government security forces. Also, it seems we’ve been delinquent in paying them.

My guess is things will be back to being as bad as they were a year ago in short order.

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79. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 March 2008: A GOP strategist said he alerted the FBI months ago that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer hired prostitutes.

Almost four months before Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in a sex scandal, a lawyer for Republican political operative Roger Stone sent a letter to the FBI alleging that Spitzer ”used the services of high-priced call girls” while in Florida.

The letter, dated Nov. 19, said Miami Beach resident Stone learned the information from ”a social contact in an adult-themed club.” It offered one potentially identifying detail: The man in question hadn’t taken off his calf-length black socks “during the sex act.”

Stone, known for shutting down the 2000 presidential election recount effort in Miami-Dade County, is a longtime Spitzer nemesis whose political experience ranges from the Nixon White House to Al Sharpton’s presidential campaign. His lawyer wrote the letter containing the call-girl allegations after FBI agents had asked to speak to Stone, though he says the FBI did not specify why he was contacted.

”Mr. Stone respectfully declines to meet with you at this time,” the letter states, before going on to offer ”certain information” about Spitzer.

”The governor has paid literally tens of thousands of dollars for these services. It is Mr. Stone’s understanding that the governor paid not with credit cards or cash but through some pre-arranged transfer,” the letter said.

”It is also my client’s understanding from the same source that Gov. Spitzer did not remove his mid-calf length black socks during the sex act. Perhaps you can use this detail to corroborate Mr. Stone’s information,” the letter said. It was signed by attorney Paul Rolf Jensen of Costa Mesa, Calif.

The letter also notes that while Stone believes the information is true, he ”cannot swear to its accuracy” because it is second-hand.

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80. Miss Devore - 23 March 2008: “did not remove his mid-calf length black socks during the sex act.”

disgusting! an aesthetic turn-off, for sure. she should have charged another thousand.

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81. marisacat - 23 March 2008: Seems to be the reverse of the possible condom problem.

Socks off, condom on would be better.

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82. marisacat - 23 March 2008: 78

Long 7 months ahead.

Monica Crowley let loose with a tidbit on McLaughlin, that the JCs went to both O and H, with an adivory (and was reflected in O’s big Iraq speech this past week, and the blog ‘left i on the news’ noted it) to hush up with the Big Promise to pull out on some schedule.

Maybe Americans could grow up and fathom that none fo the grilled meat patties on offer is going to get us out of Iraq. Ever.

The righties have pulled up, from 2003, an interview that McPeak gave to the Oregonian, also promising / endorsing / embracing a ”100 year” reign in Iraq. Evoking troops in Korea, Japan, Germany etc.

Of course their purpose is to show that McCain is not off his rocker with the hundred years business.

No, but the god damned nation is (not endorsing Wright EITHER).

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83. liberalcatnip - 23 March 2008: Oh mon dieu:

At Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, the Rev. William H. Curtis said: “At the end of the day, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ makes it possible for even an African-American and a female to articulate the hopes and dreams of America, and do so with the hope of becoming president. Isn’t that wonderful?

Or isn’t that just wishful thinking?

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84. liberalcatnip - 23 March 2008: skippy: cc drudge, taylor marsh, huffpo, josh marshall; bcc rove, stone, penn; cya atwater

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85. wilfred - 23 March 2008: It looks like we hit that awful 4,000 number in Iraq, and on Easter no less (found it on BBC news of course).

Can’t imagine they’ll intrude on all that papal coverage today to slip this piece of news in here.

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86. marisacat - 23 March 2008: nu thred

LINK

8)

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