Stayin’ Alive
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery the best gauge of what the Obama administration thinks best defends civilians against armed assailants has recently been revealed.
Armed guards.
U.S. embassy security in the post-Benghazi era is shaping up to be a financial bonanza for security contractors … both the influential independent commission on the September attacks in Benghazi and a Senate hearing on Thursday pointed to flooding the State Department’s security corps with money …
At the State Department, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton asked Congress to reroute $1.3 billion in unspent Iraq reconstruction cash for enhancing embassy security. According to congressional sources who’ve seen the request, that cash takes a variety of forms: hiring 150 more Diplomatic Security agents for the State Department; funding an additional deployment of 225 Marines comprising 35 teams; and approximately $700 million to bolster the exterior defenses of its diplomatic buildings. A letter Clinton sent to her legislative oversight committees urged legislators give her “authority to streamline mandatory processes for faster results.”
Yes they are hiring more men with shades and assault rifles. The irony is that the beneficiary of this budgetary largesse is an agency which was just raked over the coals for its incompetence. The Associated Press reported that the State Department was criticized for “systematic failures” which allowed the attack on its Benghazi consulate to take place.
As punishment it will now receive a huge infusion of money. Wired writes, “The bureau [of Diplomatic Security] may have been burned by the Benghazi commission, but it’s about to have a lot more cash on its hands.”
Those calls for added cash were blessed by a key legislative panel, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at a Friday hearing. Senators of both parties repeated the mantra “resources matter” and decried recent cuts in the State Department’s operations budget, a perspective cheered by Clinton deputies Thomas Nides and William Burns. “Just to build a wall at an embassy could potentially take months to go through a contracting process,” Nides lamented.
A civilian contractor blog writes that the first and fatal link in the chain of events which led to the Benghazi incident was the idea that private guards were bad things.
The slapdash security that killed Stevens, technician Sean Smith and CIA guards Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty started with a seemingly inconsequential decision by Libya’s new government. After the fall of Muammar Qaddafi, Libya’s interim government barred armed private security firms – foreign and domestic – from operating anywhere in the country …
Once the Libyans took away the private security guard option, it put enormous strain on a little-known State Department arm, the Diplomatic Security Service. This obscure agency has been responsible for protecting American diplomatic posts around the world since 1916.
The nominee for Secretary of State, John Kerry, is not entirely happy with turning his cathedrals of diplomacy into forts. The Guardian reported his remarks at a Senate Foreign relations committee meeting:
“There will always be a tension between the diplomatic imperative to get outside the wire and the security standards that require our diplomats to work behind high walls, concertina wire and full body searches. We do not want to concertina wire America off from the world,” he said. “We need to be safe but we also need to send the right message to the people that we’re trying to reach.”
“As you pass through a village with masses of guns and big armoured personnel carriers and Humvees, the look of confusion and alienation from average Iraqis or Afghans, who just don’t understand why we’re rumbling through their streets that way, is unmistakable.”
To his credit, Kerry admitted that some degree of risk had to be accepted for simply living in the world as it was, diplomats included. You could defend yourself with words, conciliatory action and law. But by voting the State Department more money for guards the Senate came to the reluctant conclusion that when words and warnings had failed the ultimate protection was what it always was: actual physical security.
The irony, according to civilian contractors, is that when you really, really have to stay alive and political correctness must take a back seat the government often hires the armed private sector, at least until the crisis is over.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the State Department relied on hundreds of security contractors to guard American diplomats. At times, they even hired private security guards to protect foreign leaders.
After Afghan President Hamid Karzai narrowly survived a 2002 assassination attempt, the State Department hired security guards from DynCorp, a military contractor, to guard him. Their aggressiveness in and around the presidential palace, however, angered Afghan, American and European officials. As soon as Afghan guards were trained to protect Karzai, DynCorp was let go.
Can’t blame them.
And we’re stayin’ alive, stayin alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive.
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Kerry is in for cognizant dissonance.
In his youth, he was on the same side of the barricade as those dissidents, throwing things over walls.
Forty years ago he was also actively working to undermine US Diplomatic negotiations with the enemy taking place in Paris.
Instant Karma’s gonna get you, Kerry…
A letter Clinton sent to her legislative oversight committees urged legislators give her “authority to streamline mandatory processes for faster results.”
After the processes are streamlined are they still mandatory? Or have they become womandatory?
In the bad old days it took time to construct the bidding process so that your cronies won the contract. After it is streamlined you can just go ahead and give it to them. That will be more efficient and fair.
So, when it comes to protectig State Dept. diplomats, armed security guards are OK, but when it comes to protecting American Children, well, the best defense is a gun-free school zone? Good to know. Its a good thing I am a cynic, otherwise the hypocrisy would be quite disgusting.
Every situation must be approached on its own merits. The ideal situation is of course that every embassy should simply be protected by the flag and by minimal security. Maybe this is possible in some countries. But it was evidently not workable in Libya.
Hillary gave away the game when the day after Benghazi she expressed amazement that the consulate was attacked in a ‘city she helped free’ or words to that effect. Her idea was that the militias should forbear for old time’s sake. Out of a sense of decency. From gratitude even.
But should and ought are not the same as will. So the hard lesson of Benghazi is that whatever the ideal should be, reality rules.
In the end the world will not bend to our preconceptions. One must bow to reality for reality will not bow to you.
Long, but the best dismantling of the usual gun control arguments i have ever read.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/catntyr
Please pass it on.
The busybody self-righteous arses at the YMCA have jumped on the “destroy the Bill of Rights” bandwagon: I sent them a tart reply.
Armed guards are only needed by the important people in DC and NY. No expense will be spared, as they cannot take any chances with our lords and masters.
School children?
Mom and Dad at home?
The guy or girl at the 24 hour gas station?
They are just peasants, not important people.
They do not deserve the ability to protect themselves. They get to take their chances. There are plenty of peasants and serfs, and it will keep them in their places.
Besides, after they are robbed, beaten, raped or killed, the police will show up 20 minutes later and investigate. They may even find the criminals, and if they do, the criminals might even get punished.
Hdgreene #2:
Note that when it came to building the pipeline from Canada, Hillary gave the excuse that the required diplomatic process was so lengthy and complex that it could not be sped up. I thought that statement was worthy of her being fired right there. In the USAF I became somewhat famous (or notorious) for my response to that kind of a statement, “Is that what you are going to tell the 60 Minutes news team when they show up in your office?”
When the argument was going on over the TSA workers right to unionize and to strike, I could only think how at Cape Canaveral AFS and the Kennedy Space Center we use civilian contractors, not direct government employees. No one seemed to think of this, neither the Des who were agitating for the right to unionize nor the Repubs, who were opposing it for TSA workers. Why doesn’t someone suggest that the State Dept installations be guarded by Fed Govt employees, who have the right to unionize and go on strike? And if the reason is that contractors are better for the job, why is the traveling public worthy of less protection – and at a higher cost – than State employees?
In the end the world will not bend to our preconceptions. One must bow to reality for reality will not bow to you.
I had a thought the other day.
(please hold the applause)
Let us assume that the practices and philosophy of jihad precede Islam by thousands of years, they comprise a rational game-theoretic approach for subsistence tribes with excess population, and regardless of the environment no doubt can become cultural memes and practices beyond necessity. Where, besides the middle of nowhere, can they succeed? Why, in an environment of law and order, say that established by the Roman Empire. The trick of course is to offend, and then have the law prevent response. You always seek to go first, and find the penalty of the law much less than the penalty you impose on your victims.
So, how is that working for modern Islam? It fails when the west responds with something like all-out war, so the trick is to find the largest attack Islam can make, without drawing in the B-52s. As in, say, Benghazi.
Islam has lost against Israel for the last 60++ years, but is still in there pitching, ankle-biting, back-stabbing, and breaking any and all agreements. The west probably gets a win in Iraq on points, but that’s as of today, the game continues – endlessly. I’d suggest we’re getting no better than a draw in Afghanistan, that one may take another few years to score. And to our host’s disappointment the Arab Spring is not even our game except indirectly, though if it falls to the ground at our feet we may pick it up and claim it as an indirect victory.
Of course the Hildabeast’s disappointment in Libya is what passes in her pantsuited mind as a diplomatic nicety, I don’t suppose she really understands or perhaps cares that it also falls under her concerns to have worried about such things proactively, before fatalities, in other than rhetorical, “aspirational”, or symbolic manners.
I despise Hillary, and I feel only a little better about the State Department. But I don’t remember them being the ones who torpedoed Keystone. That blame lands squarely on the EPA. They required recommendations from the State Department, replete with environmental impact studies. State submitted its recommendations twice, and both times recommended “yes” to the pipeline. Both times the EPA sent it back to state, calling for more environmental studies. Now, why the hell the State Dept was in the business of doing environmental studies at all, much less ones for the environmental department itself, is beyond me, and it’s a measure of the folly that continually emantes from DC. What a crazy place.
But yes, you can bet that whenever politicians or diplomats travel it’s an oversight if they are aren’t accompanied by men armed to the teeth. Automatc weapons? Check. Large capacity magazines? Check. Flash suppressors, barrel shrouds, hollowpoints? Check, check, check. Only the best in self defense will do, when their butts are on the line.
And nothing for the peasants. That’s the mentality of our betters.
Let’s not forget the time SENATOR Ted Kennedy’s personal bodyguard – who was not on this occasion even traveling with his employer – was arrested when he tried to check into the Russell Senate Office Building with several fully automatic machine pistols in his possession, along with a substantial amount of ammunition for them. He had California permits, but none for D.C. He was supposed to be preparing to accompany Senator Honorable Kennedy and two of his sisters on a trip to South America.
Wonder if the countries on their itinerary allow the commonvolk to own or carry guns.
…
Meanwhile, there NEVER was a bill to reduce U.S. citizen’s gun rights that the Honorable Mr. Kennedy would vote against.
…
And some may need reminding that in 1969 at Chappaquiddick The Honorable Ted demonstrated emphatically that one does not need to depend upon a firearm – legal or otherwise – to kill another human.
It is obvious to all that Hillary Clinton is playing a deeper game than the militarization of our embassies and consulates. The person she is most interest in keeping alive is herself. The whole purpose of stonewalling the Congress on testifying about Benghazi is stayin’ alive for 2016.
Mrs. Clinton thinks Benghazi
Rhymes with simple words like hazy
Because hazy is her memory of events
Yes it happened on her watch so
The mere fact it was a botch no
Blame can be placed on her fair head or on the gents
Who while under her direction
Undertook with circumspection
To be guileless as a baby’s dreams in bed
With results that were most tragic
But the press through lefty magic
Has erased the memory that four guys are dead
A concussion is the cause she
Cannot testify a pause she
Thinks will get her off the hook on 20 Jan
In addition a bad cough is
Bound to last till she leaves office
To begin her campaign where last time she ran
Yes the Clinton wheels are spinning
This is only the beginning
For when Bubba gets involved he’ll give ‘em hell
But they can’t count out Obama
Who has promised his sweet mama
That the next prez of the US is Michelle
to W.
”One must bow to reality for reality will not bow to you.”
Maybe, just maybe that’s what we are witnessing :
http://youtu.be/9WlqW6UCeaY
Just a thought
Minor point of order; there is no right for federal employees to strike, as Ronald Reagan reminded PATCO after their illegal strike. But you knew that, RWE.
The Left has taken such control of “the Narrative” that they have not only unhinged themselves from reality but openly mock it. When reality intrudes, or even the words hot off their lips get in the way, they’ll deftly twist the narrative.
Consider: last Wednesday Barbara Boxer suggested that to protect schools we should post armed guards there. Everybody applauded. On Friday, Wayne LaPierre suggested the same thing, and they’re still spitting at him. One hapless John Boehner threw up several things during the Fiscal Cliff “negotiations” including: plans from the Simpson/Bowles Committtee, a position Obama held only last June, and a plan put forth by Nancy Pelosi. But he, who moved to their position (at considerable and ongoing risk) is labeled the obstructionist.
We’re looking at a bizarre Borg-like Hive Mind here. Last week on Tuesday Obama gave a press conference and reporters on hand pursued questions regarding the fiscal cliff during their question-and-answer period with him. Their colleagues pounded them mercilessly for it on Twitter as it happened, too, on the grounds that they should stick with Newtown and gun control questioning. To keep striking while the iron was hot! So now they are looking to guide policy even where Obama comes up slacking. To prod him towards the goal!
This is nothing less than hubris, over-confident pride. Those guys just won an election that, by rights, should have handed them their heads. Yet they squeaked by. I fear they are unconcerned by realities in the slightest. Those are things they’ll just overcome case by case, or so they reason. Day by day. One day at a time, maximized for political gain.
That’s how they think. Those are our leaders.
The problem is obvious, thought the State Department is too stupid to see it.
1) Never, ever, hire Muslim bodyguards to protect Americans. I guarantee those Muslim bodyguards the State Department hired cooperated with the attackers in Benghazi, perhaps even killed some of our people themselves.
2) Any country who demands our embassies go unguarded is nuts. Such demands should never be obeyed, and any country who won’t accept that our embassies may hire any armed security as they deem appropriate should be diplomatic persona non grata.
(I just posted this on the last thread but oddly it doesn’t seem too far out of place here. So I’ll repost it here.)
We’re actually at a unique and historical turning point. A historical paradigm shift of future history.
Modern liberal culture that is — the culture of death, is based on an assessment of the future of expanding population stressing limited resources on an island planet in a vast deserted empty universe. This culture started in the 1960′s 70′s as the outer limits of the technology of the 2nd industrial revolution (begun about 1890)were reached . (The mirror image of the culture of death is the Chinese PLA who have bought into the culture of death and have based their expansionist militarist policy on one of limited resources. similar to the Japanese Imperial Navy in the 20′s and 30′s.)
There are models for this death culture in the past.
The most interesting thing about the Mayans was their demise. Archaeology shows that in good times they warred between each other and sacrificed rival kings and warriors to their bloody gods. In bad times, that is when the rains stopped, they sacrificed their own princes and then their own children to their gods before dispersing and letting their cities return to the jungle.http://bit.ly/Y1dWGg
The Moche in Peru are another model for this culture of death. their civilization died for the most part about 630 AD during an el nino. 30 years of drought followed by 30 years of rain. Archaeologists have found silted in temple tops strewn with the bodies of nobility with their heads bashed in and their throats cut. They were sacrificed vainly during monumental decades long rains so as to get the rains to stop. http://bit.ly/Wy3eYB
The third culture of death model is the story of the inhabitants of Easter Island. Easter Island is about 1500 miles west of Chile out in vast Pacific. Polynesians coming from north of there — in one of the last pulses of Polynesian migrations–first settle Easter Island about 1000 AD. They brought rats with them. The island was covered with trees when they arrived. But after 400 years or so they chopped down all the trees so as to provide transport for their stone idols. as a result they cut themselves off from escape by sea and cut off a food resource. There were no animals on the island and apparently without boats their ability to fish was limited as was their knowledge of farming. As a result, in the 1600′s they resorted to cannibalism. The island has numerous caves with the cave fronts nearly sealed to keep human predators.http://bit.ly/USxfB0
Easter Island is probably the most Iconic for the liberal culture of death–because it represents the island earth being steadily depleted of its resources while surrounded and cut off by limitless deserted uninhabitable space.
In the last several weeks, I have seen on tv channels stories about the Maya, the Moche and the Easter Islanders.
However, things are changing. We are in the middle of a third great technological revolution. This information revolution is changing future history from one of famine to one of abundance.
The next thing this information revolution will do is provide orders of magnitude more energy and water at cheaper rates than previously known just as the internal combustion engine, the electrical motor gasoline and electricity dams and viaducts and pipelines provided several orders of magnitude more energy and water for the 20th century. In the 20th century this meant that patches of the world’s deserts were turned green and the great plains were farmed. In the 21st century this will mean that all the world’s deserts will be turned green.
This third great technological revolution will not just double the size of the habitable earth by turning the deserts green. This third great technological revolution will turn the deserts of space green.
Water on the moon and mars is important because water can be split for energy, drunk for water and used to grow crops. Also, discovered on the moon is plenty thorium and H2. Both elements can be used for nuclear energy –they’ll have a handy local supply. Complex robots and 3D printing will enable frontiersmen there to create their own parts and tools on the spot. Companies have already been formed in the USA and elsewhere for space mining. They’ll spend the next decade or three surveying the local area and the asteroid belt for the richest planets–so that when the technology becomes available — they’ll know the best places to mine.
There are yet thousands of small pieces that have to be fitted together before men can permanently settle in space. But that is what’s happening now.
The discovery of thousands of exoplanets is a world beater and may in the future define this age — but its barely noted because the technology to get there is yet far out in science fiction.
Likely, the first half of the 21st century will be about the greening of earth’s deserts. The second half of the 21st century will start the great greening of space. Then sometime between the 22nd century and the 25th century–depending on how long the current technological acceleration lasts– the great leap to the stars will begin.
Today in Salon online they revealed that in the negotiations between Obama and Boehner, Obama demanded his tax hikes and Boehner asked, “What do I get for that?” Obama’s reply:
“You get nothing. I get that for free.”
Oh really? He gets the entire GOP caving on taxes for free, because he says so? He’s displaying not only an imperious mind but also one totally unconcerned with reality. Republicans haven’t voted as a group for tax hikes since “Read My Lips”, and they still rue that day. Does that matter? He’s not a man who cares what the reality is on the ground. He’s a man confident that he’ll shape the new reality. He’ll overcome the ground truth. It’s all about political savy and the blame game.
He’s the magic Negro. The seas really will subside. He’s gonna pull off ObamaLand (TM). Or maybe God Himself is to blame if it doesn’t work out.
He is doubly dangerous now that he’s been re-elected. He’s learned that it really doesn’t matter what a slob and louse he is as president. He’s unaccountable to reality. He’s his own time-space entity. Just great. That’s all we need for such a narcissist.
Obama does have some magic Boehner doesn’t: captive state-controlled (if not owned) media. No matter what happens it will cover for him and demagogue the GOP. No matter which way taxes go, and which way the GOP votes on them, the GOP will be deemed wrong and Obama right, our savior. Count on it.
The GOP, unfortunately, still hasn’t learned that trying to get positive press is futile. They keep trying and trying to “get the message out”, never realizing that the media will never get their message out. The definition of insanity.
Also, too many members of the GOP are too desirous of public acclaim (a character flaw suffered by all too many politicians) to reject the insidious siren song of the media. That’s why you see so many corrupted by the “Beltway effect”. It’s nice to receive positive press, get invited to parties, not have people talk behind your back, and not be shunned. I don’t care if my political enemies shun me and don’t invite me to their parties, but I’m not the type to crave attention and validation no matter who gives it to me. I’m certain that’s why federal judges get less reliably conservative the higher they’re promoted, no matter how conservative they start out. SCOTUS appointments seem to be the worst, in terms of what a Republican President expects vs how they actually end up ruling.
Cowboy @9…
Our dear leader said that he’d HAVE to run the Keystone issue past the State Department because it involved foreign relations.
So, the Wan did let the Saudis weigh in on their economic rival.
http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/12/the-us-probably-passed-saudi-arabia-for.html
And now you know why…. ^^^^^^^^^
Never Reinforce Failure.
Diplomatic security failed. People at the State Department were responsible for the failure. Therefore the structures institutions and most of all the people responsible should not be reinforced. Sending money to the structures institutions and people responsible is reinforcing failure.
First Congress should identify all persons responsible for the disaster at Benghazi, up to and including Hillary. Second every person on that list should be fired. Then and only then could money be entrusted to them.
As soon as the mice realize that there will be no cheese as long as the rats are in residence the bureaucrats will turn on the regime. The Republicans do not realize how strong their position can be. They have the House and most of the states. Their strength can only work on offense. Sometimes it is better to play defense but not now for the GOP. They should revolt. They should refuse to fund any Czar or other office improperly created. They should refuse funds to any agency or office that does not honor a House subpoena. They should refuse to pay any judge who violates their oath.
New Orleans Times-Picayune http://preview.tinyurl.com/c72uzq4
Federal judge signs off on $7.8 billion BP settlement
So Tony Hayward told the truth, BP would settle all legitimate claims.
Now the trial will consider the subsea well intervention operations. On May 1, 2010 President Barack Hussein Obama II took control, declared a “Spill of National Significance” and appointed a “National Incident Commander”, Admiral Thad Allen.
Tony Hayward told the TRUTH.
But you BC’ers know this too…
CHU LIED, DOLPHINS DIED!
Isn’t anyone even the slightest bit curious as to why the trial lawyers claimed, as part of this settlement, BP’s rights to sue Halliburton?
The fun has not yet begun! Progressives may not believe in God, but they do believe in KARMA!
A lack of foresight by union leaders and the benefits of crony capitalism on display…
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cfbmfcc
United Steel Workers Union boss Savage and his Democrat congressman conspiring with Obama as documented by the Washington Post
TEAPOT DOME REDUX, ANYONE?
The true power on the left remains the media. Obama is little more than a lamp stand. The pathway to preserving our liberty lies in defeating the media.
Charles @ 16: “Likely, the first half of the 21st century will be about the greening of earth’s deserts. The second half of the 21st century will start the great greening of space.”
Nice idea — but that is a low probability scenario. Not technically; if we consider past rates of technological progress, it is definitely doable. But first we have to sort out our political problems, where we tax the productive to hire regulators to make them less productive — while promising everyone unsustainable benefits.
The Israelites had to wander in the desert for 40 years to let most of a tainted generation die off. First Israel, now the western world. Mankind’s upward ascent to the stars will resume around the middle of the 21st Century AD. And it will be a smaller human race by that time.
The ultimate solution to embassy security is to hold the host nation accountable for their end of the deal. This slide started with the Iranian embassy takeover during the Carter regime. The Muslims noticed they could hit embassies, up to that point considered sovereign territory, and escape the consequences. We need to re-instill the fear of God with these assholes.
I still maintain that the Iranian hostage event constitutes an act of war for which Iran has yet to be held accountable. It gives us the latitude to move against them militarily at a time of our choosing.
According to John Kerry, ““We need to be safe but we also need to send the right message to the people that we’re trying to reach.”
If we need to send the right message to the people and groups who might oppose us and wish us harm, namely, that we’re a serious people, the very worst thing we can do is elevate the perpetually unserious John Kerry to Secretary of State.
Doing so will only reinforce their view that America is weak.
Marsh Arab @23
Right on.
In the interest of expanding our ability to better glean useful targeting information from amongst the chaff exuded by the insatiable blob:
The nearly opaque gristle which serves to define the appetites of the Federal Leviathan -that is consuming the remains of our tasty Republic while crapping out uniform misery for the commoners to pick through for sustenance- is the Dem/socialist-indoctrination-propaganda complex…A shiny new feedback loop of plain old lust, greed, and power which provides the motive ‘intellectual’ force and defense reflex embedded within an otherwise thoughtless being whose obese body is largely composed of networked Nomenklatura fed by a vast gelatinous bureaucracy which constantly funnels the product of capital/work/man-hours into its gaping maw.
Unfortunately for us [food], but maybe good for our grand children’s children, the Beast is nearly at the point of having to sustain itself wholly upon imaginary food…Having consumed nearly every last bit of the golden goose.
23. Mash Arab, Absolutely! How?
I thought of copying (quoting) comments from PJM to AP, CNN, MSNBC, WAPO, NYT comment sites.
Awesome Link Beverly,
“The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by law enforcement: 14. The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by civilians: 2.5. The reason is simple. The armed civilians are there when it started.”
Ka-Boom. That should be game, set and match right there. The debate should be over. Bev’s link does prove the Left is right on one thing – gun control laws need to be changed – there should conceal carry laws everywhere.
The post at Monster Hunger Nation just about takes a Thompson Submachine Gun to the Gun Control Advocates’ arguments and shoots, no riddles them, full of holes.
Oops, I ‘m sorry for the inflammatory metaphor.
bs @ 18: The GOP, unfortunately, still hasn’t learned that trying to get positive press is futile.
The GOP barely tries.
A better MSM than we have, would respect the Republican position, give them equal time, and not have know-nothing, unelected moderators evaluating the representatives’ statements. That’s pretty much what they did through the 1960s, even the 1970s and 1980s, but it died out during Monica-gate.
However, even when they do that now, the Republican messages are leaden, inactive, antique. I think the Republicans had better “messaging” twenty years ago, and that’s why they did better. Look at Mitt the Idiot Romney, whose entire campaign was NO MESSAGE AT ALL. Give him infinite press exposure and all he’d say is, “Hi, I’m Mitt not Obama, vote for me!” then he’d grin silently into the camera for the rest of his slot. I can understand why people would find that repellent. It provides no context, no message, no motivation, it’s an insult to the listener’s intelligence.
–
c @ 17: “You get nothing. I get that for free.”
Nauseating, isn’t it?
Isn’t this exactly why all negotations should be live on camera, wasn’t that one of Obambus’ great ideas in 2008? He should take himself up on it, and Boehner should insist, and also Boehner should have a response ready for that.
A “reasonable” response would be, “No, Mr. President, nobody gets anything for free, please try again.” An “unreasonable” but more effective response would be, “OK, then it’s off the table, Sparky. So, your turn, what do YOU propose?”
We are not told what Boehner’s *actual* response was, but I’m assuming he was flustered or broke into tears or something.
–
an @ 25: The ultimate solution to embassy security is to hold the host nation accountable for their end of the deal.
Well, but we can’t, cuz in places like Libya there is no real host nation government as such. This is a strategy of Islam from ancient times, it is decentralized, like the Internet, no single point of failure. Of course, in Islam there is also no single point of success, it is distributed failure, but hey they are happy like that. I’m just saying, we have to be realistic about it, they are not Westphalian nations that can be held responsible. We should plan and act accordingly, whatever you believe that should entail.
23. Marsh Arab: “The true power on the left remains the media. Obama is little more than a lamp stand. The pathway to preserving our liberty lies in defeating the media.”
Part of the solution is to take a page from Alinsky: ridicule. Start referring to them as the LRMC — the Leni Riefenstahl Media Complex. Keep pointing out their hagiographic treatment of all things Obama.
24. Kinuachdrach
Charles @ 16: “Likely, the first half of the 21st century will be about the greening of earth’s deserts. The second half of the 21st century will start the great greening of space.”
Nice idea — but that is a low probability scenario. Not technically; if we consider past rates of technological progress, it is definitely doable. But first we have to sort out our political problems, where we tax the productive to hire regulators to make them less productive — while promising everyone unsustainable benefits.
…………….
Agree that there is a world of political and economic stupidity/problems constraining growth in the USA.
However, the because of technological changes the USA just added a 100+ year supply of oil and gas to the inventory. That represents somewhere in the range of 50-100 trillion dollars backing up the dollar. There are no energy independent countries with weak currencies. Even the socialist/communist Brazilian government governs a country with a strong currency. Energy independence covers a world of economic mistakes.
The Israelis are going to the same place as the USA. They have discovered massive deposits of natural gas offshore and more hydrocarbon deposits onshore. In roughly the same time frame that the USA is headed for energy independence–the Israelis will get there too.
Plus their desalination program is growing so rapidly that within ten years they will get almost all their fresh water from the sea.
The Quatars are going to the same place from the opposite direction. they already have energy independence. They’re working on food independence–which they intend to gain in the next 10 years with the help of the technology showcased by
sundrop. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/24/growing-food-in-the-desert-crisis
I wish I had saved it–but I saw recently a program that showed the sheer number of research programs at MIT on reducing the cost of desalination that are being funded by numerous countries around the world.
………………..
The Israelites had to wander in the desert for 40 years to let most of a tainted generation die off. First Israel, now the western world. Mankind’s upward ascent to the stars will resume around the middle of the 21st Century AD. And it will be a smaller human race by that time.
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This time its the Egyptians that have to do the wandering. But the answer to their problem is already held by the brackish water work of the Israelis and to some extent the Jordanians. (ie much of the water flowing north from the Sudan under the sahara is brackish.)
If Goldman is right then Egypt is going to starve and the Islamists are going to be severely embarrassed. They will need to do something to remain in power. What did Nasser do to cement his power. He built a dam on the Nile.
The MB/islamists will need to do something to feed the Egyptians besides embarrass themselves by begging from people they hate. The answer for them will come from beneath the Sahara.
But first the MB/Islamists will have to wander the desert.
Marzouq @28
Good question – but I think the answer is for conservatives to take every opportunity to undermine the media credibility. Trumpet their mistakes, their double standards, and their hypocracy. It shouldn’t be hard – it’s a target rich environment. No discussion of gun control should occur without questions being raised about fast n furious and why the media has ignored it. No discussion about foreign policy should take place without questions being raised about the media’s non-coverage of the administrations botched cover up of Benghazi.
The last time a republican won the whitehouse we had swiftboat vets and rathergate. The media credibility was at a low point. We need a permanent campaign against the leftist media.
c @ 32: But first the MB/Islamists will have to wander the desert.
But they already have been since before the beginning, and I mean since before Abraham wandered into town, and I mean both figuratively and literally.
(ok literally literally they couldn’t wander thus before Mohammed but obviously so much of Islam is just codification of ancient Arab ways)
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ma @ 33: The last time a republican won the whitehouse we had swiftboat vets and rathergate. The media credibility was at a low point. We need a permanent campaign against the leftist media.
It’s much worse now, the Democratic opposition is more blatantly dishonest, and MSM can’t see a fact stuck in their faces, Stalinist Pravda wasn’t more biased, 1984′s press wasn’t more delusional, but what neither of those cases ever made clear is how much the public loves it and laps it up. Arguing with a democrat today, your crazy neighbor or David Plouffe, is like talking to a 5 year old pathological liar with ADD. The press reports the democratic spew without a blink, but excoriates La Pierre from the NRA for proposing exactly what Bubba Clinton proposed twenty years ago. OK, maybe it’s not the best idea, but the knee-jerk reaction is abominable.
Nice think tank here.
Charles (#16) Wishful thinking about traveling beyond the moon, as with the end of the Apollo missions we learned “Man” is far too fragile to travel beyond our magnetic shield and the Gravitational effects that have shaped our whole body to bone and organ functions, we are hardly any wiser in space travel today then we were in the 1970′s and the most obvious reason we won’t go into space is “risk” the current legal system totally voids any such risk.
Besides being an abortion survivor I am now a proud Mayan Apocalypse survivor! Happy Revelations (all the keys are present, the clock can start any time now)!
blert @ 19:
The Saudi angle on Keystone is definitely a factor. But they had a bunch of bedfellows: rich Democrat donors organized by Susie Thompkins Buell of San Francisco.
http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Obama-losing-financial-backing-of-big-S-F-donor-3334655.php
They threatened a mutiny on Obama over Keystone, during the big fundraising push of the late campaign.
Key quote from the moron heiress with unearned, outsized influence we could only dream of, “Isn’t it sad, that it’s all driven by money?”
Cowboy…
I forget where I saw it, but one pro-Keystone lobby group peeked under the covers WRT the opposition.
They claimed that, deep in the bowels of the oppositions reports, they found KSA funding up and down the line for any number of ‘Green’ organizations/ anti-domestic oil fronts.
While, a cynic wouldn’t be too shocked; it is surprising just how much the King is willing to kick into the Green movement. No Green goes ‘untouched.’
All of which makes Susie a naif of the first water.
Of course, it’s all a vanity project for her.
She fits Whiskey’s template, for sure.
BTW, he has a post up on anarchy and American historical reactions thereto.
I see that PJM still has to re-establish W’s blog roll.
I keep thinking about Woodward’s comment that Obama can put the blame for the fiscal cliff on the Republicans…but only for about two months.
He who lives by misleading the low information voters will die at their hands?
38. blert
……
She fits Whiskey’s template, for sure.
BTW, he has a post up on anarchy and American historical reactions thereto.
I see that PJM still has to re-establish W’s blog roll.
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Richard, could you find a way to get a link to Whiskey’s place. Somewhere around here. He provides a needed piece of the puzzle from time to time.
http://whiskeysplace.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/americas-gun-culture-and-anarcho-tyranny/
CharlesWhite @ 36 said:
“… with the end of the Apollo missions we learned “Man” is far too fragile to travel beyond our magnetic shield and the Gravitational effects that have shaped our whole body to bone and organ functions, we are hardly any wiser in space travel today then we were in the 1970′s …”
Recent results from the Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover currently on Mars indicates that the radiation levels on Mars are acceptable for a long-term, roundtrip Mars mission, refer to:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50072690/ns/technology_and_science-space/
For colonization of Mars, one would need to use Martian regolith as a shield against secondary cosmic radiation, e.g. pile Martian “dirt” around the habitat.
34. Josh
c @ 32: But first the MB/Islamists will have to wander the desert.
But they already have been since before the beginning, and I mean since before Abraham wandered into town, and I mean both figuratively and literally.
(ok literally literally they couldn’t wander thus before Mohammed but obviously so much of Islam is just codification of ancient Arab ways)
…………
What was the line of Brer Rabbit: “Do anything you like but Please Please don’t throw me in the briar patch.”
Then when he gets thrown in the briar patch brer rabbit says.. I wuz born and raised in the briar patch”
Here’s the segment from Disney’s Song of the South
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7tyhpWiZyM
So yeah you’re right wandering in the desert has a different meaning to the arabs than it does to the Israelis. For the Israelis it means weeding out the weak slave ways from their people. For the Arabs it means going home and hanging out in the living room. You can see that with Moses encounter with his father in law Jethro? Jethro–in the desert as he’s wandering around. There’s something deeply humorous about that encounter. But its old testament yuks.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+18&version=NIV
Now the second biggest business in Saudi Arabia is not desalination related but rather the Haj biz– which I think is getting the upper hand in Saudi Arabia again as their oil clout starts to weaken.
That said Gulf Royals are way ahead of the egyptians in the water business. They are not inventors themselves but they have money funding all manor of desalination research all over the world –including MIT –which I mentioned earlier. They’re attendees at all the big international water desalination conferences. They are already making promises to their people in Arabic that one day their deserts will be green. It wasn’t just the Sahara that has ancient stone pictographs of animals that inhabit grassy savannahs. Saudi Arabia has them too.
When the Egyptians know who they are–remember they called Mubarak the Pharoah– sufficiently to calculate intelligently their own interests in terms of who they are–they’ll look to Gulf Arabs for not just the correct interpretations of the Koran but also examples of technology transfer.
In the mean time –if Goldman is right –they’re likely to stumble from pillar to post as the MB struggles for control of the purse with Mubarak’s old military bureaucracy.
(imho the really queer thing is that the Muslim Brotherhood has become a tool of the Haj interests in Saudi Arabia rather than serving as a conduit for modern technology as they originally founded to do. that is I think the MB–as opposed to the salafists– was originally founded to be a conduit for modern technology.
I would like to see someone sometime do a series on the Haj business in Saudi Arabia. Its just enormous.
To get a handle on the Haj business you have to read the story of Jesus overturning the money changers tables in Herods temple about 30 AD. The Haj business is the largest modern example of the way the temple business in Jerusalem was done at the time of Jesus. Jesus overturned the money changers tables because it was a big extortion racket. The people were required to pilgrimage to the temple to make sacrifices. They could not buy sacrificial sheep goats or doves or grain with roman or even Jewish money. They had to use special temple money. So they first had to exchange their money for temple money and then after they made their purchases — they had to exchange whatever they had leftover back into their original currency–because the temple money could not be used anywhere else. Needless to say, there were huge mark ups going both ways–with the temple authorities and the romans each getting a cut.
Matthew 21
12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[e] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’[f]”
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21&version=NIV
The numbers I’ve heard on the Haj business in Saudi Arabia are something like 100 billion annually. I don’t know any of the details of how that business is organized. Because Islam leaves Moslems deeply uncertain as to whether or not they’ll go to heaven–even if they participate in Jihad–they are hugely open to emotional extortion by their immans on this point. And because their eternal destiny is open to human extortion. Likely extortion takes place all along the line–because they like the Jews of Jesus time are required to make pilgrimage.
(and of course the more moslems there are–the larger the Haj business.)
41. Eggplant
For colonization of Mars, one would need to use Martian regolith as a shield against secondary cosmic radiation, e.g. pile Martian “dirt” around the habitat.
………….
Or just burrow into the ground.
Israeli National News
Businessman: Europe Preparing Holocaust for Muslims
Religious entrepreneur Moti Zisser says Europe feels threatened: “This time there will be 60 million people killed.”
By Gil Ronen
First Publish: 12/23/2012, 9:12 PM
Well-known religious businessman Moti Zisser predicted Saturday evening that Europe will unleash a second Holocaust – but this time, the victims will be Muslims, not Jews.
“I think another Holocaust is brewing in Europe,” he told congregants at Bnei Brak’s Heichal Shlomo synagogue, according to Maariv-NRG. “I said it five years ago and everyone laughed at me. Today nobody is laughing; today they only argue with me over when it will happen.”
The entrepreneur, who has businesses in Israel as well as Poland and other European countries, explained that Muslims are increasingly gaining control of the European economy, and that the Europeans are bound to lash out at them. He said that he meets businessmen in Europe who ask him how he thinks the “Muslim problem can be solved.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163478#.UNf5HXexntE
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In the decades that precede the Moslem expulsions from Europe–Americans of all strips must make all efforts to ensure that those Muslim populations are returned to their original countries of origin. Which in time may not be a bad thing if the cost of desert farming collapse –as seems likely to be the case.
Forbes has the first review of the Egyptian Constitution. That constitution, it appears provides for and enshrines every known corruption under the sun.
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Bill Frezza
|
12/19/2012 @ 9:48AM |4,357 views
Forget Sharia, The New Egyptian Constitution Enshrines Socialism
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrezza/2012/12/19/forget-sharia-the-new-egyptian-constitution-enshrines-socialism/
Long War Journal does a good job of showing how Al Queda is working in Egypt and Syria. Interestingly, AQ thinks the MB is part of the enemy too.
Report: Al Qaeda emir’s hand in Egypt and Syria
By Thomas Joscelyn December 20, 2012 6:33 AM
Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2012/12/die_welt_al_qaeda_emirs_hand_i.php#ixzz2Fyp34j00
And now it turns out David Gregory sends his kids to a school with armed guards. I think he should win a nice prize for this one, maybe some bullet cuff links.
Charles, interesting perspective on The Magic Kingdom’s tourism biz. And I guess they’ve been dabbling in desalination tech for a long time, but they’ve never really gone for it big time, have they, I mean too much water will kill all those giant worms and all. The idea of SA setting an example in technology for anyone, well, I just dunno about that.
HELP IS ON THE WAY!!!!
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/track.html
Santa’s still got it!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WGXhhcN7Uk
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL YOU BC’ers!
47. Josh
And now it And I guess they’ve been dabbling in desalination tech for a long time, but they’ve never really gone for it big time, have they, I mean too much water will kill all those giant worms and all. The idea of SA setting an example in technology for anyone, well, I just dunno about that.
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The Saudis are the biggest consumers of desalination in the world. They may have got their ideas about turning the deserts green from me–however unlikely–but do I do see Saudis on my site from time to time. You can see some round green fields already from space in SA. As for setting an example, the Israelis set better examples. Singapore may be best example setter. At any rate their desal plant is epected to record a record low for desalinization costs when it opens in 2013. http://sgforums.com/forums/3545/topics/424508
The Saudis mostly just throw their money around. But, as they say, money talks.
“If we could produce fresh water from salt water at a low cost, that would indeed be a great service to humanity, and would dwarf any other scientific accomplishment.”
- President John F. Kennedy, 1962
http://www.cleantechblog.com/2012/04/low-cost-desalination-call-off-the-hunt-we-are-there.html