Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Huckabee Wants Us To Be Forced To Listen To David Barton, At Gunpoint

Huckabee Wants Us To Be Forced To
Listen To David Barton, At Gunpoint



http://www.thethinkingblue.com/gun.jpgDavid Barton, one of the many aberrations from the right-wing stockpile
of Batshit Crazy People, now has a USA presidential contender,
HuckaBB, ballyhooing for him, (We need to listen to Barton's concocted American history, AT GUNPOINT, so we can learn historical facts).


THE FAUX FACTS, according to the dishonest, pernicious bullies in the Republican Party.


America certainly needs a good dose of 101 in reality if they
choose to follow this band of GOP charlatans. thinkingblue



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





David Barton introduced Mike Huckabee at the Rediscover God In
America conference, praising him as the epitome of the "Black Robe Regiment" mentality of seeking to apply the Bible to every aspect of the culture.


Huckabee, in turn, repaid the compliments to Barton, calling him
one of the most effective communicators in America and wishing that every American would be forced, at gunpoint, to listen to every Barton broadcast:

MORE HERE

---The Right’s Library of Fake Quotes


Putting words in dead people’s mouths


By Steve Rendall


Abraham Lincoln despised class warfare, Thomas Jefferson detested
bailouts and the founders of the nation were all Bible-believing
Christians. These are among the historical “facts”
you’ll learn as a regular consumer of talk radio, Fox News
and other conservative sources.


While non-conservatives have been known to misquote historical
figures to add credibility to their own views, the right seems to
have a special enthusiasm for putting words in dead people’s mouths.


Take what has become known as the “The Ten Cannots,” a
list repeatedly misattributed to Abraham Lincoln. It begins:


You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You
cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot
help little men by tearing down big men. You cannot lift the wage
earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor
by destroying the rich. You cannot establish sound security on
borrowed money. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by
inciting class hatred.…


And so on. These words were actually written by William J.H.
Boetcker, a conservative minister who published them in a 1916
pamphlet along with some actual Lincoln quotes (Snopes.com,
8/19/09). Almost a century and many well-documented debunkings
later (e.g., the 1989 Oxford Press book They Never Said It), some
conservatives still insist on assigning them to Lincoln.


The canard is a staple of rabidly anti-Obama right-wing media
such as Newsmax, where it has been repeated by columnist
Geoff Metcalf (1/20/09) and radio talkshow host Al Rantel
(3/1/04). This past summer, a flurry of letters to the editor
citing Lincoln’s supposed remarks coincided with right-wing
Tea Party demonstrations across the country (e.g., Charleston,
S.C., Post and Courier, 8/8/09; South Florida Sun Sentinel,
9/18/09).


Rush Limbaugh (Rush Limbaugh TV show, 2/19/96)
acknowledged falsely assigning the remarks to Lincoln in a 1986
speech he gave honoring the 16th president’s birthday. This
admission came four years after former President Ronald Reagan
misattributed the quote in his speech at the 1992 GOP convention
and the New York Times (8/19/92), CNN (8/19/92) and NPR (8/20/92)
ran stories disproving the Lincoln connection.


Current Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele used
to include “Lincoln’s” advice in his boilerplate
speech. It was in the pre-published text of his 2004 GOP
convention speech, but not in the version Steele delivered;
perhaps someone remembered Reagan’s RNC woes 12 years
earlier (PR Newswire, 8/31/04). (Steele continues to use
the quotes from the “Ten Cannots,” now saying that he
learned them from his mother—e.g., Your World,
1/5/10.)


Putting the Founders to Work

When widely syndicated columnist Cal Thomas posted a commentary
on his website (1/15/09) opposing federal bailouts, he cited
quotes from Thomas Jefferson to bolster his argument: MORE HERE


“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from
those who are willing to work and give to those who would
not”; It is incumbent on every generation to pay off its own
debts as it goes. A principle, which, if acted on would save us
one-half of the wars of the world”; “I predict future
happiness for Americans if they can prevent government from
wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking
care of them”; and, “My reading of history convinces me
that most bad government results from too much government.


Thomas described these quotes as “ancient wisdom,”
which, he said, “is almost always better than what people
come up with today. Consider that it became ancient because it
was wise.”


But consulting The Works of Thomas Jefferson available in full at
the Online Liberty Library, as well as the Library of
Congress’ online Jefferson site, Ed Darrel of Millard
Fillmore’s Bathtub
(2/1/09) could find no evidence
authenticating any of the quotes. As Darrel, whose website
targets historical falsehood, observed, “Jefferson seem[ed]
oddly prescient in these quotes, and, also oddly, rather
endorsing the views of the right wing.”


None of the quotes could be authenticated on the Jefferson
Library website (www.monticello.org) either, which includes the
first and the last quotes in Thomas’ column in its list of
frequently cited “Spurious Quotations.”


In a syndicated column (Washington Times, 1/25/01), right-wing
economics professor and Limbaugh stand-in Walter Williams used
purported remarks by Jefferson and George Washington to argue
against gun control. Gun control proponents were constitutionally
ignorant, Williams wrote, because they didn’t understand the
intentions of framers like Jefferson, who Williams claimed once
wrote: “No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The
strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and
bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against
tyranny in government.” That quote can be found in the
Spurious Quotations list on the Monticello website.


Williams also quoted Washington: “Firearms stand next in
importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American
people’s liberty teeth and keystone under
independence.” Five years earlier, after Playboy
magazine (12/95) ran a longer version of that same quote, the
magazine had to run a lengthy retraction (3/96) that cited George
Warren, editor of the Papers of George Washington project at the
University of Virginia, who called it “either a complete
fabrication or a case of misattribution.” Williams and the
Washington Times apparently found the quote too useful to fact
check—or to retract.


Founders as ‘Bible-Believing Christians’

Over the last two decades conservatives have waged a war on the
“wall of separation between church and state,” arguing
that the United States was founded on Christian principles by
deeply religious men who intended to enshrine their beliefs in
its founding documents. As Rush Limbaugh (or ghostwriter Joseph
Farah) wrote of the founders in his 1994 book See, I Told You So,
“Don’t believe the conventional wisdom of our day that
says these men were anything but orthodox, Bible-believing
Christians.” The book cited constitutional architect James
Madison as saying: “We have staked the future upon our
capacity to sustain ourselves according the Ten Commandments of God.”


In reality, several founders (including Madison) were not
Christians, and Limbaugh’s Madison quote is a fraud, as
revealed in FAIR’s 1995 book, The Way Things Aren’t:
Rush Limbaugh’s Reign of Error. Furthermore, independent of
his religious views, Madison was a staunch proponent of
separation, arguing in his 1785 essay “A Memorial and
Remonstrance”: “During almost 15 centuries has the
legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been
its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in
the clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both,
superstition, bigotry and persecution.”


But despite conclusive debunkings, the bogus Madison passage
lives on, cited alongside other fraudulent founders’ quotes
by conservatives who care less about history than ideological
expediency. Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby has cited a
version of the bogus Madison quote on several occasions,
including a column (6/5/00) chiding the ACLU for constitutional
ignorance. A version of the “Madison” quote also
appeared recently in an op-ed (Tulsa World, 6/30/09) written by
U.S. Rep. Sally Kern (R-Okla.).


One of the most prolific purveyors of bogus founder quotes is
Christian theocrat David Barton. Though not a household name,
Barton’s tireless efforts to construct a Christian origin
story for the United States have been praised by the likes of Pat
Robertson and Newt Gingrich (Church & State,
7–8/96). His 1989 book The Myth of Separation attributed
bogus quotes to Washington (“It is impossible to rightly
govern the world without God and the Bible’’),
Jefferson (“I have always said and always will say that the
studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better
citizens”) and Patrick Henry (“It cannot be emphasized
too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not
by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the
gospel of Jesus Christ”). Barton has also misattributed the
“Ten Command-ments” quote to Madison.


In 1996 Barton admitted that these and nine other quotes
he’d been circulating in his writings, videotapes and live
appearances were either false or unverifiable (Church &
State
, 7–8/96). But Barton’s reputation suffered
little from the fraud, according to Rob Boston of Americans
United for Separation of Church & State. “He’s
doing better than ever,” Boston told Extra!, noting that
since 1996 Barton has served as vice-chair of the Texas GOP, and
now sits on the Texas state committee advising the state’s
board of education on history and social studies curiculum,
“despite no history credentials.”


Meanwhile, the bogus quotes Barton helped to popularize continue
to make the rounds. In a 2007 column in the far-right World
Net Daily
(1/29/07), conservative activist and actor Chuck
Norris used “Washington’s” passage about the
impossibility of governing without “God and the Bible”
to argue for teaching the Bible in schools. A Human Events
profile (7/1/02) singing the praises of president of the Council
on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools used the
“Jefferson” quote about the need to study the sacred
volume. The “Patrick Henry” quote on the U.S. being
founded “on the gospel of Jesus Christ” has been
repeated in numerous newspaper op-eds (e.g., Fond du Lac, Wisc., Reporter,
5/1/09; Wichita Eagle, 5/27/06; Columbia, S.C., State, 9/21/04).


Making fake history every day

You can’t expect a culture that conveniently fabricates
history to restrict that practice to the distant past. So
it’s not surprising to see conservative opinion leaders
arguing, contra history, that Nazism is a liberal ideology
(Extra!, 3/10) or that government spending made the Great
Depression worse.



Nor is it surprising to see such commentators ignoring facts to
distort current events. Witness the trend among conservatives who
dismiss global warming science, fantasize imaginary “death
panels” in healthcare legislation, or declare Barack Obama
to be a Kenyan, a Muslim or maybe even the Antichrist (CNN,
8/15/08).



Indeed, the ascendance of a black, Democratic president seems to
have sent irrational conservative tendencies into overdrive.
Commentators Rush Limbaugh (10/23/09) and Michael Ledeen (Pajamas
Media, 10/21/09) heatedly pointed to a socialist thesis they said
was written by Barack Obama while a student at Columbia
University. Like one of the the fake Lincoln or Jefferson quotes,
the thesis was a hoax (St. Petersburg Times, 10/26/09), but it
met the contemporary conservative standard: If it makes your
point, run with it.


Appropriately, upon learning later in the show that the thesis
might be a hoax, Limbaugh responded, “I don’t care if
these quotes are made up. I know Obama thinks it.”
See FAIR's Archives for more on: Religion


Previous Posts


"Jesus Christ? Hey Hi, Scott Walker Here."


Michael Moore Let The Cat Out Of The Bag!


Egypt, Out Of Unthinkable Cruelty, Comes Courage


MORE THETHINKINGBLUE HERE


Keith Olbermann Interview's Kevin Spacey
OLBERMANN - VOICE OF REASON, tax breaks for the rich

Repeal health care? Give up your own first!


He's Back, Good Ole, Keith Olbermann is back on MSNBC


Phil Griffin's Kangaroo Court Suspends Keith Olbermann


DST Ends More Darkness Begins


Why Do Americans Have Amnesia At
Election Time


Chilean Miners Were Rescued But
The Truth Remains Entombed


Ahhh, a return to the Good Old Days


Am I My Brother's Keeper?


Here's what a genuine rally looks like.


AND SO MUCH MORE



Hold on to your hats while you watch an interview with some of Glenn Beck's Followers.


Watch A Fracking Mess 'GASLAND' here

PLEASE SIGN PETITION HERE


RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on 'Fear'

New Robes For SCOTUS

Please sign this very important
petition "demand question time" (of our political
leaders)
HERE..
We really need more dialog from those at the top... The
Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind
"NO" any longer! thinkingblue

Let's keep our heads, while we continue
to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Who's In Hell?

Why Must Life Be So Complicated When In Reality

IT'S QUITE SIMPLE?

Amplify’d from www.thethinkingblue.com

As a non-believer (I gave up believing in fairy tales a long time ago) coming across this article Who's in hell? Pastor's book sparks eternal debate and video (below) was an enormous Breath Of Fresh Air.


As I watch and read the latest events going around upon our globe, I shake my head in disbelief at all the unnecessary suffering that permeates our world because of caustic religious beliefs.


Being privy to objectivity while watching the hateful goings on, makes me want to caterwaul these words at those who partake in bigotry, fear and hate via religious doctrine… “WAKE UP people this is not what religious dogma was meant to do. Don't follow those who advocate
HATE, it's toxic and will not make you ever feel contentment.
Peace cannot ever be obtained through fear and hate.” (DUH!)


It sounds so simple because IT IS SIMPLE! But it appears people would rather go through their short lives feeling fear, afraid to die, afraid to live but not afraid to HATE.


Life is HELL but through common sense thinking, we all have it in our power to make existence A SOMEWHAT PLESANT (at least a non-antagonistic) EXPERIENCE.

There I go again... DREAMING!


Please read the article and watch Bell's enlightening video.
Thinkingblue



Read more at www.thethinkingblue.com

Sunday, March 20, 2011

1, 2, 3, SCREAM! Jim DeMint's Theory Of

The video says it all!

Amplify’d from www.thethinkingblue.com

There is only one word to describe this lunacy... SCREAM!

'The Bigger Government Gets, The Smaller God Gets'

It is nothing new for conservatives to dress their political
ideology in religious language. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) justified
his opposition to controlling greenhouse gases because "you
can't regulate God." Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) accused Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) of "disrespecting"
Christians by considering keeping Congress in session in order to
overcome GOP obstructionism. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) even went so
far as to compare Democrats to Pontius Pilate, the ancient Roman
official who sentenced Jesus to be crucified.
For someone supposedly espousing Christian ideals, DeMint's
notion that God's power can be limited by the federal government
is a surprising argument.
Indeed, one of the main tenets of
Christian belief is that God is all-powerful -- Matthew 19:26
DeMint is
vastly exaggerating the nominal increase in the size of
government over the past two years.
Read more at www.thethinkingblue.com

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Jesus Christ? Hey Hi, Scott Walker Here.

"Jesus Christ? Hey Hi, Scott Walker Here."

Scott Walker, Another Crackpot Who Talks To A God "Lord, I’m ready


HOLY SANCTIMONY BATMAN… It all fits together for me now… How
this idiot never seems to get upset; How he never seems to use
reason; How Stepford Wife he looks when he speaks (looking afar
as his mouth moves with emphasis on certain words)… Another
NUTBALL at the helm… If he could preempt wars… Oops, I
forgot he has… WAR ON THE MIDDLE-CLASS… It is beyond
disgusting! thinkingblue


PS: I wonder who is his higher power, HIS GOD OR DAVID KOCH?




Scott Walker Believes He’s Following Orders from the Lord

By Matthew Rothschild


March 09, 2011 "The Progressive" - -The dogmatic unwillingness of Wis. Gov. Scott Walker to negotiate or to compromise with Democrats or unions has surprised many people
in the state. One explanation for his attitude may be found in
his religious convictions.

In a talk to the Christian Businessmen’s Committee in
Madison on November 13, 2009, Walker, who was raised by a Baptist
preacher, spoke about his personal relationship with God, his
“walk to Christ,” and his belief in the need to
“trust and obey” the Lord.

He told the group that when he was thirteen, he committed himself
to Jesus. “I said, ‘Lord, I’m ready . . . not just
in front of my Church and the world but most importantly at the
foot of your Throne, I’m ready to follow you each and every
day. . . . I have just full out there said, ‘I’m going
to trust in you Christ to tell me where to go. And to the best of
my ability I’m going to obey where you lead me,’ and
that has made all the difference in the world to me, for good
times and bad.”

Walker said that God has told him what to do every step of the
way, including about what jobs to take, whom to marry, and when
to run for governor.

When he had first met his wife, he said, “That night I heard
Christ tell me, ‘This is the person you’re going to be with.’ ”

He said he was trusting and obeying God when he took a job at IBM
and then at the Red Cross. ““Lord, if this is what you
want, I’ll try it,” he said. It was all about “trust and obey.”

Then he recalled how he got into the race for governor in 2006,
only to withdraw, which he said was a difficult decision.

“My wife and I prayed on it,” he said. “I remember feeling so torn: I just didn’t want to let people down. I said, “Lord, I can’t do this. I can’t let people down.”

But he says he found divine guidance from the daily devotion,
which “was about a guy who was a sailor. One of his buddies
came along, they were in choppy waters, and the guy was throwing
up. He was told, stop looking at the waves, find a point on the
horizon. And he did this and it worked.”

Walker explains the meaning: “I was focused all too much on
the choppy waters of my life, about how uneasy it would be to
look people in the face. I wasn’t trusting and obeying my
Savior. That morning Christ said to me through that devotion,
‘This is what you’re going to do. Look at me. Find that
point on the horizon, and you’re going to be just fine.’ ”

He added: “God had a plan further down the road. Little did
I know I just had to trust in Christ and obey what he calls me to
do and that was going to work out.”

He then qualified that statement a little: “I don’t
mean that means it’s going to work out for a win. . . . I
don’t believe God picks sides in politics. I believe God
calls us to be on His side.”

He urged everyone in the room “to turn your life over 100
percent to what Christ tells you what to do.”

Once you do that, he said, your life will be complete:

“The way to be complete in life is to fully and
unconditionally turn your life over to Christ as your personal
lord and savior and to make sure that every step of every day is
one that you trust and obey, and keep looking out to the horizon
to the path that Christ is calling you to follow and know that
ultimately he’s going to take you home both here at home and
ultimately far beyond.”

Fourteen months later, at his inaugural prayer breakfast, Walker
said, “The Great Creator, no matter who you worship, is the
one from which our freedoms are derived, not the government.”

Walker’s views disturb Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of
the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“It is frightening that the highest executive in our state
suffers from the delusion that God dictates his every move,”
she says. “Consider the personal and historic devastation
inflicted by fanatics who think they are acting in the name of
their deity.” MORE HERE

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Jobs returning but good ones, NOT!

Welcome to the United Corporations of America, home of the pittance wage!



Jobs returning — but good ones, NOT!



Isn't it amazing, when an informative but startling article (Below) like this is
written about the fast decline of the middle-class...?
Astonishing, that there’s not a conservative snarky comment
to be found (I did not go through the 4192 responses but past
articles would be full of tea party delusional mind-set
verbiages, right from the get-go) I wonder why that is...?
Perhaps (for those who wear rose colored glasses 24/7) these
reality fact-checks, (opposed to the Fox News misinformation
type) are a little too close to what they are feeling in their
real lives, just too damn outright, to scribble nasty things all
over the comments portion. It must be painful for these people to
confront the dire straits we Americans are in, due to the
Billionaires with pockets full of politicians doing their bidding
to get them even more wealth and power… I fear for us
Americans, who use to fancy ourselves middle-class, we are a
dying breed and it may take years (longer than one's lifetime) to
get back any resemblance of our past when it took only one person
per household to bring home the bacon. Welcome to the United
Corporations of America, home of the pittance wage and corporate
personhood! thinkingblue




Jobs returning — but good ones not so much


By Zachary Roth

When it comes to jobs, it's not just quantity that matters--it's
also quality. It's great news that the economy is finally
producing jobs again--even if it'll take another few years of
this kind of growth to get us back to where we were before the
Great Recession. But that also means it's now time to ask what
kind of jobs are being created. And on that front, things are a
lot less encouraging.

Several recent studies suggest that the new jobs pay less and
offer fewer work hours than the ones they have replaced. Let's
look at the numbers:

• Lower-wage industries -- things like retail and food
preparation -- accounted for 23 percent of the jobs lost during
the recession, but 49 percent of the jobs gained over the last
year, a recent study (pdf) by the National Employment Law Program
found. Higher-wage industries, by contrast, accounted for 40
percent of the jobs lost, but just 14 percent of the jobs gained.
In other words, low paying jobs are increasing as a percentage of
total jobs, while high-paying jobs are on the decline.

• Meanwhile, the percentage of those working who have
part-time jobs and want full-time ones surged in mid-February to
19.6 percent -- almost as high as it was a year ago before the
recovery began, according to Gallup numbers. That suggests, of
course, that a large number of the new jobs created over the last
year are part-time.

• And a recent Wall Street Journal analysis found that even
though productivity rose 5.2 percent from mid 2009 to the end of
2010, wages increased by just 0.3 percent. That means only 6
percent of productivity gains were shared with workers. In past
recoveries, that figure has averaged 58 percent. This time
around, far more of the gains went to shareholders, in the form
of profits, which are at record levels.

There are no easy answers for how to fix the problem. Some argue
that workers need more clout in their relationship with
employers, something that would require a renaissance of
private-sector labor unions, which have been on the decline for
the last half-century. But that prospect looks unlikely: Indeed
efforts are underway in several states to make public-sector
unions as weak as their private-sector counterparts.

Still, as the economy continues to add jobs in the coming months,
it's worth keeping the issue of quality in mind. An economy with
a glut of low-paying and part-time jobs isn't an economy that's
working for most Americans. COMMENTS HERE


Now please listen to Michael Moore's passionate oracle about the
Corporatehood Shenanigans’ that have happened in Wisconsin.
tb





MICHAEL MOORE LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG...

AMERICA IS NOT BROKE!

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Michael Moore Let The Cat Out Of The Bag

Michael Moore Let The Cat Out Of The Bag

AMERICA IS NOT BROKE!



I don't know about you... but the words Michael Moore's conveying on the steps of the Capital in Madison, Wisconsin ring so clear to we Americans who think and are beyond the reach of the Billionaire Propaganda Machines... i.e. Fox News, American For Prosperity (Koch Brothers Think Tank), Tea Party (Also a Koch Brother creation) the many conservative/wealthy lobbies and The United Corporations of America... It's emotional and inspiring and makes you almost believe there is hope for America. But, since wealth seems to trump common sense, (I love you Michael) but I am not sure we will win this battle of so many battles the Republicans throw our way.


Again, please forgive my cynical nature and watch Mr. Moore pour his heart out over Union Busting that is just one of the many Republican plans to dismantle our Democracy and turn our Nation into a Plutocracy. thinkingblue



MICHAELMOORE.COM





http://thinkingblue.blogspot.com

Saturday, March 05, 2011

The Wars That Keep On Giving

The Wars That Keep On Giving - How On Earth Did We (USA)Get Saddled With Such Creepy Clients...



When Bush and his MERRY BAND OF NEOCONS set out, blood in one eye and $$$ in the other, to start (preempt) the wars they had craved, for so many
years; they acted as though they had a crystal ball and could see into the future.



Picture "BOOTS" From Ward Reily Facebook Collection

{This is how we (USA) need to spread Democracy (Free Trade), since WE are the grownups upon the globe, it is up to us to tell those too immature to understand how to live (deregulatorily) ... Even if it takes pre-emptive wars to make them wise up, that is what we must do...} was the Neocon mantra.


I wonder what Bush/Cheney and devotees, who were (and are) too big for their BOOTS thinking now, witnessing how wrong they were and how many lives that they were directly responsible for losing due to their immoral supercilious actions?


Never mind, I already know, ARROGANCE OUTMANEUVERS THINKING!


Let us hope that We-The-People will never have to be a party to such horrendous decisions made on our behalf from an unscrupulous few who have the power (GIVEN BY US) to use us to fulfill their sick fantasies. (Forgive me for my cynicism but I really believe it will never end, we will always be used by the powers that be.)


Please read the article below for enlightenment on: “How on earth
(did) we (USA) get saddled with such creepy clients as Karzai and
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, over and over again?”


thinkingblue



Lessons from Egypt: Does Safety Trump Democracy?
By Joe Klein Feb 14, 2011 Time Issue

There was some awful news from Afghanistan last week,

overlooked in the midst of Egypt's tectonic eruption. Kabul Bank
is near collapse. Apparently the owners — who include
President Hamid Karzai's brother Mahmood and other assorted
political cronies — had, among other nefarious activities,
taken the bank's assets and speculated in Dubai real estate,
which promptly crashed. The Afghan government does most of its
business through Kabul Bank; if the bank fails, the government
won't be able to pay its workers, including the army. Millions in
international aid may be washed away.

And so, a familiar dilemma: Bail out the bank or let it collapse?
My first thought was that the situation might provide the NATO
coalition with some leverage: we could offer to bail out the
bank, but only if Karzai stepped aside and allowed an esteemed
technocrat — like Ashraf Ghani, who ran for President
against Karzai and was crushed — to run the show in the
interim. But this was no leverage at all, as I learned in
conversations with several Afghan sources. Karzai would just as
soon allow the bank to collapse. "Then he could say [to the
Americans]," a Western diplomat told me, "You figure
out a way to pay the army."

How on earth do we get saddled with such creepy clients
as Karzai and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, over and over
again?
In large part, it's a vestige of the Cold War,
when all the world was a potential theater in the struggle
against communism. Afghanistan was certainly one; the Soviet
departure created a vacuum, and the Taliban rushed in. The
Kissingerian effort to transfer Egypt from the Soviet account to
the American side in the 1970s, later perfected by Jimmy Carter,
was certainly another.

Our adventures in the world have been accompanied by a
never-ending tug-of-war between U.S. foreign policy realists and
idealists. Through much of the 20th century, the idealists tended
to be liberals in the spirit of Woodrow Wilson, who wanted World
War I to make the world "safe for democracy." Since
Vietnam, however, liberals have been more pessimistic. They
winced when Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an "evil
empire," fearing a nuclear confrontation. They were
infuriated by the naiveté and hubris of George W. Bush's
"Freedom Agenda," which was promoted as a rationale for
the invasion of Iraq after that country's weapons of mass
destruction turned out to be a mirage. They are increasingly
skeptical about the war in Afghanistan and appalled by the
prospect of a pre-emptive war with Iran.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2045878,00.html#ixzz1FjD4Fd27

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

In Wisconsin, What Is It That Does Not Stink?


In Wisconsin, What Is It That Does Not Stink?


There is a vulgar expression from days of old that was applied to those who thought themselves to be superior to others. If one acted condescending and snobbish, people would say of them…
“They think their S**T doesn’t stink!” Well, last night on ‘The Last Word’ with Lawrence O’Donnell one of his guests absolutely suited this nasty verbalization like a tailor-made piece of clothing.



WI State Senator Glenn Grothman Calls Protestors "A Bunch of Slobs"…



In my arrogant opinion, this is so typical of the Republican/Conservative Mind-Set. They reveal this often in their every utterance. Just listen and hear some of them as they refer to free thinkers or anyone who disagrees with their political (or religious) views as a… Commie, pinko, tree-hugger, faggot, hippie, socialist... (From This Site: You Might Be A Dittohead Conservative)



The very essence of these jeers directed at those who do not share any of their Belief Systems show they think themselves to be superior to you and to me.



As far as I’m concerned State Senator Glenn Grothman (R-Wi.)spoke on behalf of all the people who consider themselves to be a High-caliber, Sanctimonious, pecksniffian Republican dolt.



Please watch the video below and judge for yourself. thinkingblue




Also View This Link:


Wisconsin GOP state senator on overnight Capitol protests: ‘The building’s becoming a pigsty’