Russian Mafia and Godfather Vladimir Putin?

You Can Get Anything You Want If Know A Certain Arms Dealer in Mother Russia


A Russian weapons smuggler was arrested at a children’s resort in the Pocono Mountains this past week. Even the Russian mafia needs the warm and fuzzy feeling on occasion. What could be more benign than a vacation at the Great Wolf Lodge, a Poconos resort that caters to families with children?

A reported criminal associate and local gun dealer was also arrested by federal agents in conjunction with the arrest of Sergey Korznikov of Moscow, Russia. The man, identified as Mark Komoroski, aged 45, is the owner of D&R Sports, a gun shop in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. Komoroski says he had a license from the “government” to sell the weapons and high-tech military devices like face shields and night-vision scopes but the federal agents, having arrested Komoroski, are obviously not in accord with this view.

A larger and more insidious picture of illegal arms dealing may emerge when federal prosecutors develop their case. Sergey Korznikov is the owner of a Russian company called Tactia. The Philadelphia Inquirer report says that Komoroski’s D&R Gun Shop shipped night vision rifle scopes and other assault weapons components to Korznikov’s company, Tactia. The documents accompanying the shipments were falsified and indicated that clothing, not war materiel, was inside the shipping containers.

The arrests came partly as the result of the renewed vigilance of the U.S. government after the 9-11 attacks. While government monitoring of financial and other data has come under criticism from some quarters, the increased security measures have yielded results. The U.S. intelligence watch list contained the name of Russian company Rockman EOOD. This is where the case becomes larger than would first appear; Sergey Bout is the owner of Rockman EEOD and he is the brother of a former KGB officer named Victor Bout.

Federal agents have not said publicly whether they have concluded that Sergey Bout was a single tributary among the many tributaries in the cascade of arms being shipped to combat hot spots around the world. No particular ideology can be observed from the pattern of Victor Bout’s arms dealings—he has sold weapons and war materiel to the Taliban and to its enemies, to African warlords and their enemies, and to anyone with enough money to purchase them.

Victor Bout has been the subject of books like the “Merchant of Death” and other books which describe Bout’s activities in international arms trafficking. While Victor Bout enjoys the protection of Russian citizenship, the U.S. and Interpol have tried unsuccessfully to capture him and bring him to justice. However, the Russians refuse to extradite Bout, currently living comfortably with his family in Moscow.

This is not the only instance in which the Russian refusal to extradite has impaired international criminal investigation. Russian president Vladimir Putin recently refused to surrender the men suspected of the murder by poisoning death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. Putin has refused repeated requests by Britain’s Scotland Yard to interview the suspects. The common suspicion in Russia and in some quarters of the international press is that Putin, a former KGB agent himself, enriches his friends and protects them from political, legal, and business enemies.

Bush Signals Fair Warning to Iranian Gamers

Former Iranian Speed Boat Number One
Former Iranian Speed Boat Number 2
Iranian Mosquito Boat Cruising for a Bruising

It was interesting to see the tapes of those Iranian speed boats taunting U.S. ships in the Straits of Hormuz. It really would have been excellent if someone on the Navy ship had pulled the trigger but now President Bush has given fair warning. Next time it happens, the radio communication will be something like this:

Iranians: YOU WILL BLOW UP IN THIRTY SECONDS.


(a nano-second later)

U.S. Warships: KA-BOOM! The tiny atoms of your debris will float to the surface of the sea in about three minutes.

Well, we can dream, can’t we? It may have been better to let them off the hook, depending on the distance. I hope the Navy would never let them approach within a distance capable of inflicting any damage at all on our ships or personnel.

Joe Scarborough Disses New Hampshire Winner John McCain

The Morning Joe program on MSNBC was once more intensely fascinating if only for the speed in which its “reporters” can change direction. Sucked up by preliminary projections and polls, Joe Scarborough led the cheering section for Billary Clinton’s three point “comeback” in New Hampshire and did his best to suck the air out of the much wider margin John McCain victory. There was a bit of role reversal in Scarborough’s testy exchange with David Shuster this a.m. and Scarborough had to pull rank (he clumsily called it “hitting the ejection seat”) on Shuster who sharply disagreed with Scarborough’s interpretation of the results. The only "ejection seat" Scarborough ever hit would be in the bathroom. Shuster was right in saying the pundits and the pollsters “screwed up” in their assessment of the Clinton win. Scarborough heaped obsequious and fawning praise on Clinton for what everyone knew to begin with.


• Clinton has strong support among women who think breaking the “glass ceiling” is more important than other issues facing the country.

• The Clintons live everywhere in the U.S. That means short supply lines which can be managed with the same degree of efficiency with which General Petraeus delivers firepower and humanitarian aid according to where and when it is needed.

Scarborough was un-American in dumping his rancor on McCain’s victory talk. No doubt there is some long ago political slight aggravating Scarborough’s old bedsores. What other reason could there be for decrying the American service achievements of John McCain? Deeply cynical and disillusioned ideologues like Scarborough can only diminish their own meager records of public service by such petty malingering.

Dicksville Notch Sinks Hillary Clinton, Chooses McCain

If Davy Crockett were rinnin' in Dicksville, he'd be sure-fire winner...





The results from Dicksville Notch are in and John McCain’s won it with 10 votes. Ha-ha.

A more interesting story comes from today’s RCP poll which, if validated by the results, shows Obama about 10 points ahead of Billary. I’ve never been a Bill Clinton hater and I always thought there was a better man in him than the one who balled a teenage apprentice. The real Bill Clinton came out swinging at Barak Obama. There were no “dirty tricks” about it—Bills’ attack was frontal. He went at Obama with hard body blows and didn’t pull his punches. His punch went something like this:

“Not one time has Obama been asked about his flip-flop on the Iraq war. At one time, Obama even said he supported President Bush’s policy.”

That was the drift of it. But it was good to see Big Bill back in center ring, feet set like a heavyweight fighter, defending his wife with the passion of any primitive. One of the biggest turn-offs about most Democratic candidates is their wormy, back-door conniving and pretense. Bill said that Barak was living a “fantasy” but he should kick some ass in the Democratic Party and get it back to its basic function and roots.

Speaking of worms, there was that Ron Paul character threatening to sue Fox News because he won’t be in the Republican TV debates. Hell, why not let me pontificate? I’m just as popular a candidate as he is (nil) and there’s the added premium that I’m not yet off the rails. Well, he is the favorite of many Democrats, as is Governor Huckleberry. If the Democrats are successful in nominating Governor Huckleberry, they will be able to validate all those “right-wing conservative Christian-sans-separation-church-and-state” placards they’ve already bought.

Vote for Laughing Boy: The Bill Richardson Presidency

I had trouble sleeping and watched the Democratic forums in the hopes of getting a soporific buzz from the proceedings. Admittedly, my sleepy pattern was jarred when moderator Gibson mentioned the 30% to 50% likelihood that a nuclear bomb would explode in an American city. Did he really say that?

Wide awake suddenly, I looked at the man who had the dais, a rotund, roly-poly guy who was identified as the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson. Hey, I love New Mexico! It’s beautiful and enthralling. They should keep their governor. I didn’t know he was running for president, anyway, and neither did Mr. Gibson. The next thing I heard Gibson ask is why Richardson was running for the presidency. Yeah, why?

If ever an avalanche of cozy bromides left a political lip, it was next on the Democratic forum. Billary Clinton watched bemused, certain that her domain wasn’t threatened by the porky fireplug who would be president only if hell really did freeze over. I had an unusual thought at that moment. Was the Richardson guy rich, with a lot of money in his coffers, or was he supported by a fund created by the other candidates? Let me get this straight:

He was a Bill Clinton appointment to Energy, I know, but what did he do there? I would love to have a car with a sail, at least. Or a windmill project off Cape Cod that wouldn't offend the Kennedy clan.

Richardson kept jawboning about how he faced down the North Koreans but then why is Jong-Il such a pain in the ass any more? I'm sure the North Korean dictator was really intimidated by that steely Richardson stare.

running his mouth like he’s this great envoy and world ambassador. He doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut about the plum jobs he’s landed just to nail down political support from Hispanics.

It was really embarrassing how Richardson answered the nuclear explosion question. He kept saying he would want to be sure who it was who did it. He wouldn’t just “react”. He’d wait until the offenders confessed and then he’d invade Pakistan. A very reasoned approach from a highly entertaining and likeable buffoon. Why doesn’t he just drop out? Who’s giving him money? Why doesn't he get his own television show?

Davy Crockett's $550,000 Last Letter (Or Not)

Today's spotlight on History:


Gregory Curtis writes a fascinating account of the meandering path of Davy Crockett's purported last letter in "The Texas Monthly." The state of Texas takes its history seriously enough to have offered $550,000 for the 1836 document, pending authentication. Curtis provides substantial detail, telling why this version of the often-quoted Crockett letter is neither a forgery nor the real thing -- it's most likely a genuine copy of the original, transcribed by a family member of Crockett's for sentimentality's sake. This is great historical sleuthing, colorful, and with a tinge of scandal.
in Texas Monthly by Gregory Curtis, January 2008
Read more here...

The LA Times Touts Barak Obama Victory

Wallsten reports the stunning upset engineered by Barack Obama in the Iowa caucuses, tracing how a man who "just three years ago held an office no higher than a state legislator" beat more entrenched, moneyed Democrats. Wallsten tells how independent and first-time voters were drawn to Obama and how the sentiment for change propelled Obama forward. Obama was also strong with traditional Democrats, splitting the vote among them with Hillary Clinton. Wallsten describes Obama's win as a "rebuke" to the Clinton campaign and a bad omen for candidate John Edwards, who failed to pull the expected support from his base.
in Los Angeles Times by Peter Wallsten, 4 January 2008
Read more here...

After Hillary Loses New Hamshire: Campaign 2008

A distorted view of the Iowa defeat...

I was talking to a friend the other day and the subject of Billary Clinton’s third place finish in Iowa came up. My friend pointed out that the Clinton “dirty tricks squad” would soon emerge from the woodwork. If so, that’s going to have to be a dirty tricks squad that leaves no forensic evidence lying about. I don’t see how that’s possible since Obama supporters will quickly find any roads or bread-crumb trails that lead to Billary Clinton. No matter what, though, there’s no time for dirty tricks between Iowa and New Hampshire except for the clumsiest of efforts. The sort of blunt re-statements of political realities that we’ve already heard by Clinton supporters (and by Hillary herself) is already too surreal for pundits and voters to believe. No, I’d guess we’ll soon be seeing more of the “nice Hillary” until Jan 8. Billary’s only chance is a solid and miraculous showing in the Feb. 5 Super-primaries. That would prove, once and for all, that the moon really is made of cream cheese.

Primary 2008: Bloody Iowa -- On to the New Hampshire Primary

It’s already old news, just one day after Iowa. There’s no sense repeating that Huckabee was the favorite saint of Midwestern Evangelicals. There’s no denying that he has an amiable demeanor and disposition, too, and a personal style that passes muster with the Harper Valley PTA. But Iowa is Iowa and the primary process is ahead of us.

The story so far:

John McCain’s newly discovered popularity shouldn’t be newly discovered. It was only the drive-bys who were so quick to count him among “yesterday’s men.” It’s a bit like boxing—the truth always emerges after the fight starts, not before.

I wouldn’t make such a big story about Mitt Romney’s “defeat”. He came in second with a wide gap between himself and Huckabee, sure, but 2nd best in Iowa isn’t bad. Not when you consider that 40 % of the state is Evangelical. The real story there, unfortunately, is that Romney’s going to have to knock back on McCain and it’s going to be bloody. He’ll hit the headline stories:

• McCain’s vote against the Bush tax cuts.
• McCain’s compromise with the failed immigration bill.

People ought not to forget that McCain’s vote against the tax cuts was actually a vote against excessive pork-fat expenditures. He wanted the R’s to get their spending in line before the tax cuts were in place.

McCain’s support of the Immigration Bill was pure realism. Anyone can demagogue the issue, and most people are. Spare me the spectacle of a mass deportation of 12 million men, women, and children herded across the border to Tijuana. McCain supports stronger immigration enforcement and border security. The failed immigration policies we inherited over the years cannot be ameliorated with cattle prods and a Bataan style death march.



Which brings us to Billary and Barak. Obama’s great success in Iowa is not so much surprising as the degree of it. Obama’s strength is that he’s not a reactionary, and not interested in letting himself be pigeonholed into representing a mere slice of America’s Democratic Party political establishment, as Billary does. I also can’t help thinking that Michelle Obama helped Barak out a great deal. Her late appearances in Iowa were as hot as an Iowa wood stove in winter.

Billary lost big in Iowa. It’s a bad sign for her that she finished such a distant third. Lanny Davis couldn’t think of anything to say about it except that Obama negelected to kowtow to Billary in his victory speech. Is that some kind of joke? Or a veiled threat? Let me translate Lanny Davis:

“You can’t get anywhere, Barak, unless you bow to the nice love-me-liberal plantation owners in Massachusetts and New York.”

Which is what makes me puke about a certain contingent of today’s Democrats. They’re so phoney-baloney.

Editor’s note: The “baloney” reference is due to the Romney influence.

Iowa Primary 2008: The Gospel Truth (not)

Here’s my capsule version of the Iowa Campaign of today, 01/3/2008:

The drive-by media is hammering the note that, if Romney wins in Iowa, it’ll be because he’s rich and has spent a lot of money. This view would have you believe that nobody actually likes Romney. Romney’s a winner, smart and charismatic. People who dismiss or underestimate Romney are engaged in fanciful thinking.

If Hillary doesn’t come in first in Iowa, it’ll be because John Edwards has been campaigning there for many years. This view would have you believe that nobody likes Edwards and that Iowa does not have a populist bent.

Iowans truly like Barak Obama but its mostly the younger voters who will support him, but not to the point of going out to vote on a cold night when they could be partying. This view ignores the Michelle Obama factor. Her recent appearances in Iowa were sensational and lit up the older crowd but her appearance on the scene may be too late.

Rudy Giuliani stands no chance of winning in Iowa. The liberal media is right on with this one but faces a real hammering when Super Tuesday arrives. Giuliani knows his own weaknesses among Republicans but you don’t prosecute the mob and then become mayor of New York City by quitting in the early rounds. Rudy Giuliani isn’t the shot fighter some pundits would have you believe he is.

John McCain went to New Hampshire to nail down his “must-win” support there. That seems to be an effective strategy. He’s jetting back to Iowa to make a last-minute push for a good showing. McCain will finish stronger than the pundits predict in Iowa. If McCain finishes third in Iowa, that’ll be a huge victory for a guy who knows how to both talk and fight. Unlike the other candidates, McCain can do both at the same time. While chewing gum, too.

Love and Hate on MSNBC

Give The Morning Joe credit for luring me away from Fox News a.m. I can hardly stand the rest of the MSNBC programming day and that goes well into the evening. I sometimes spin the channels to Chris Motormouth Matthews just to get reinforcement for what not to think. I can take Keith Obermann, former sportscaster, for about three seconds on a good day. His combined un-funny choice of material and Big Loser-Little Loser Boredom Segment is aimed at the parasitic tranche of American voters who never committed the unforgivable sin of acting out of anything but self-interest.

The crew managed by Joe Scarborough is balanced. By that I mean that Joe is a Republican and all the other crew members are Democrats. As a general formula: 1R = 4D unless the 1R = RP (Ron Paul) or CH (Chuck Hagel). Anyway, it is my considered opinion that The Morning Joe is doing a fairly effective job in its 2008 primary reporting.

Mika Brezinski is a liberal, a fairly honest one. She acknowledged this a.m. that her father, a former Carter advisor, is working for Barak Obama. Her brother, she says, is working for McCain. I feel her pain. David Shuster seems to have joined the “team.” I hope that’s not permanent. He’s not bashful about bashing any Republican and cheerleading for any Democrat with particular devotion to Billary Clinton, formerly known as Hillary Clinton. Shuster’s bias is just too much, his schtick too corny, his smug solipsism too ugly.

Joe Scarborough said one-half a smart thing about the current primary campaign, comparing it to his own experience in the 1990s. Back then, says Scarborough, the 1994 elections were a refutation of the sixties. He said the current campaign is more about the future but clearly, with Billary Clinton as the leading Democrat, you’d have to say this one is about the sixties, too.

Okay, so this is weird, but my favorite candidate on the Democratic side is Barak Obama. I don’t agree with Obama about most things, especially the war, but he has been an honest and consistent candidate. Obama’s done his time in the trenches, I respect that. Obama’s wife, Michelle, is a real asset to the campaign. I’d vote for her in a hot minute except for her opposition to the war. That’s why I wouldn’t vote for Obama—it’s a Democratic disease—foreign policy consists of much palaver and little reality. Foreign policy for the democratic candidates seems to be: sue them, subpoena them, and soothe them.

It’s as if they’re campaigning for chairmanship of the U.N. If Obama wins or has a strong showing in Iowa, the entrenched Democratic political machine will have a giant task in undermining Barak while “making nice” with him. Terry McAuliffe’s Billary Worshippers will play upon the reservations of cultural bigots in the Democratic Party, of which there are legion.

Billary Clinton and Kelsey Clinton: Campaign in Iowa

In Iowa, Hillary Clinton order the "Ole Iowa Breakfast" with eggs, buttered toast, and hash browns. Reporters said she took two bites. Chelsea was a lot more nutrition minded and had the egg-white omelette, clearly showing the pedegree of private high schools and Stanford University. And now, to the roll of drums, we continue our saga:


During our last series episode, we anxiously awaited Billary's appearance on Pablum TV, the highest rated liberal talk show in America. Prior to that interview, Billary was chided by her alter-persona BILL CLINTON (no relation to the former U.S. President) for her indecisiveness. Reacting in anger, BILLARY CLINTON threatens her Spanish maid with termination. Having composed herself, however, she is driven in a black carbon-emitting large-footprint stretch limousine to Pablum TV headquarters in Fort Lee, New Jersey where she appears on the set with PETER PUNDIT and GROTILDA.

PETER PUNDIT (smiling)
So glad you could be with us here today, Billary.

BILLARY CLINTON
Thanks for having me.

GROTILDA
Let me begin by asking you a tough question, Billary....
(pauses for effect)
You have often been criticized for your lack of fashion taste, yet we can see that your hair is freshly combed and your pantsuit is tasteful, though a bit understated....

BILLARY CLINTON (tight-lipped)
That's right....

GROTILDA
I'm sorry, Billary, but I've got to ask you...what are your favorite colors for the outfits you wear on the campaign trail?

Billary raises her eyebrows and smiles, surprised by the question. She waits exactly 2.5 seconds and then begins to laugh heartily.

BILLARY CLINTON
Well...ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.... I've got to admit I'm taken a little back by your question. I'd have to think about that one...ha-ha-ha... And I know that my opponents have refused to answer that very question. Mr. Edwards often wears blue and often says he likes blue but then again he was head of the Trial Lawyers Federation so...
(pausing, leans toward Grotilda)
Well I'll let you in on a little secret about Mr. Biden's favorite colors...he always wears that nauseating red tie...but I've heard from...uh....

OFF SCREEN V.O:

VOICE OF BILL CLINTON
Unnh-uunnh!..Billary!...You didn't hear it from me. Big mistake!...Don't say it! It'll play on an endless loop 24/7 and will put your panties into a bunch...

PETER PUNDIT
Yes, Mrs. Clinton...we are here.

GROTILDA
Yes, Billary...we're listening.

PETER PUNDIT
Can you hear us okay, Mrs. Clinton?

GROTILDA
Is your mike working?

BILLARY CLINTON
Yes, yes...oh, well...we were momentarily disconnected. But now I can hear you fine. We were talking about....

PETER PUNDIT
Mr. Biden's nauseating red ties, I know, but let me interject with one question, this one from a viewer in...
(looks to Grotilda)
The viewer from...

GROTILDA
Wisconsin...The viewer from Wisconsin asks this question: Was it your idea to have Kelsey working the campaign trail with you in Iowa this morning? Or was it...
BILLARY CLINTON
Oh!..Oh!...Poor child. I couldn't stop her. Kelsey, she just glued herself to my side and said "Mom, I want to help." She insisted on Iowa...poor child...our only child, in fact. I'm not a breeder like that Mormon character...he's got a regular dynasty in the making there. Christ, I don't bake cookies, either...I think I already told you that...

GROTILDA
Yes, you did. That was during your husband's...

BILLARY CLINTON
Who?...You mean, Bill? When Bill was President? So what of it?

PETER PUNDIT
We have some clips of Kelsey talking to a group in Iowa.
(looks out off-camera)
Can we roll that clip right now?

DISSOLVE TO:

A meeting hall in Iowa. The room is filled with social workers and retired librarians. There are a few children. Billary is working the crowd, talking, shaking hands. Kelsey is right beside her, a smile frozen in place and her hands on the shoulders of a blonde, ten-year-old girl facing front.

BILLARY CLINTON
George Bush has said that Democrats don't have a foreign policy. Well, I'll tell you about George Bush. George Bush has been a disaster for America. America is no longer loved in the Middle East as it was loved when Bill Clinton was president. America is no longer loved by the North Koreans nor by the Iranians.

KELSEY (muttering)
I can't say anything.
BILLARY CLINTON
When I'm president, I promise I'll restore the love that America had from the governments in Germany, and in Spain, and in Syria, too.

KELSEY
I'm told not to say anything.

BILLARY CLINTON
As for Al Qaeda, I'm going to show them another way, the way of diplomacy. The Bush administration has given Al Qaeda no choice but to fight. George Bush says they want to establish a Caliphate which extends from Kabul to Kokomo. Is that any way to conduct foreign policy?

KELSEY
The Bush girls can talk all they want but I can't talk. The Romney boys can talk all over the place but I can't talk.

BILLARY CLINTON (aside)
Shut up, Kelsey...stop muttering!

KELSEY
Mommy and Daddy told me not to talk, not to say a word.
(sadly)
I can't give you an interview, little girl. Mommy's orders. Daddy's orders. Trippi's orders. Howard Dean's orders.

GROTILDA (gushing)
Well...Kelsey sure does seem to add youth to your campaign. What exuberance!

PETER PUNDIT
My, what a precocious child! And at the tender age of 27....

FADE OUT:

To be continued. Any resemblance to characters living or dead is purely coincidental. The "Bill Clinton" referred to in the current production is not the former "Bill Clinton, President of the United States."

Nashuatelegraph.com: McCain our choice for GOP nomination#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710

Nashuatelegraph.com: McCain our choice for GOP nomination#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710#comment-51710: "nomination"

Billary Clinton Searches Her Soul for Answers to Tough Questions

Scene I

A television anchor team consisting of a man and a woman. The women is pretty. The male anchor is pretty, too.

PETER PUNDIT (smiling)
Good morning. I'm glad you could join us here on Pablum TV.
(turning to female anchor)
And a good morning to you, too, Grotilda. My, you're looking sexy today.
(leering, Peter turns to Grotilda)

GROTILDA (smiling)

GROTILDA faces the camera but she has one arm extended beneath the desk. She appears to be struggling but forces the smile into the camera. PETER'S face is flushed.

GROTILDA (smiling)
Good morning, Peter, and good morning, America. We're glad you could be here with us today. Also with us a little later on will be Billary Clinton, presidential candidate and we'll be discussing the new book "Why America Needs Billary Clinton."

CUT TO:

Billary Clinton sitting in a hall of mirrors. Her reflection is multiplied a thousand times. Interspersed with the visage formerly known as the "first lady" is another male visage who looks oddly enough like the "former president."

BILLARY CLINTON (soliloquizing)
Well, if I say that then somebody will say this. If I say this, somebody will say that. On the other hand, if I say nothing, no one can say anything.
(pausing)
But if I say nothing, my opponents might say something and I'll be screwed...damn it all!
Billary Clinton pats her cheeks tentatively and frowns. A Spanish maidservant rushes up to her from off-camera with a hairbrush and begins brushing Billary's hair. Meanwhile, a sonorous male voice is heard off-screen.



OFF SCREEN V.O:

VOICE OF BILL CLINTON
Dang it, Billary...you're beginning to sound like John Kerry.

BILLARY CLINTON
Ouch!

VOICE OF BILL CLINTON
Why don't you just tell them you have a headache? That's what you always told me.
(chuckles)
I din't mean that, Billary...Shucks, I was joshin' ya' and I just know that sounds slippery as deer-guts on a door-knob.

BILLARY CLINTON
But who am I? Where am I going? Why am I here? And with whom?

SPANISH MAID (entreating)
Can you please sit straight, Senora?

BILLARY CLINTON (suddenly wild with anger)
Sit straight? You mind your manners if you want to get paid! I'll have you sitting straight on a steamship heading back to Argentina.

SPANISH MAID
Oh!...Aieee...Lo siento!..so sorry...
(to be continued)

The Battle for Iowa : Caucus Count

The Battle for Iowa falls strangely silent except for John McCain’s even-toned frontal assault on the issue of Benazir Bhutto’s murder. It’s a good time to listen to a presidential candidate, with the crucial moments of world history, yet the Democratic candidates are unable to come up with anything that passes for a leadership statement.

Billary Clinton remarked that Bhutto was her friend and she had lost someone akin to a sorority sister.

Barak Obama was smart enough to issue a canned statement since anything he might say would have the decided ring of irrelevancy. Billary Clinton recently referred to Obama’s “naivete” in a recent barbed statement.

I haven’t been able to find anything about John Edwards’ comments—John Edwards…call me!....

The clearest statement on the Republican side, of course, comes from John McCain. Maybe you’re not voting for McCain (as I am) but let’s admit that we need a president whose experience of foreign affairs hasn’t come from a college textbook (otherwise, I might be president) or from riding the coattails of a president with a failed foreign policy. According to a recent book, it was Billary who made Hill Clinton appoint Madeleine Albright as Secretary of State and Janet Reno as AG. No matter that Madeleine Albright blew the communications so much that Saddam Hussein thought she’d given him the green light to invade Kuwait (precipitating the 1st Gulf War). You didn’t know that? You’ll find corroboration in Newsweek magazine of that era if you really need to know.

Bhutto Assassinated: Cui Bono?

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has all the markings of a right-wing Islamic fascist attempt to destabilize western leaning governments. Having seen the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat by right-wing Islamic fascists after he’d signed a peace treaty with Israel, you already know this. Yet, there are elements in the world media who would rather play into the politics of the day than face the facts. This assassination is for you, says Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The idea that Musharraf might have aided the assassins in any way is patently absurd, and the only people who won’t admit this are outright liars and propagandists. To believe this, you have to believe that Musharraf is about as dumb as a turnip. And you have to be naïve enough to believe that a turnip seed will grow into a Crown Prince. How will the death of the popular opposition leader help Musharaff stay in power? By causing widespread unrest?

Benazir Bhutto was warned away from the area where she was murdered, along with 15 or 20 others. It should come as no surprise that parts of Pakistan, especially the part in the North which is close to the Taliban sanctuaries, cannot be effectively controlled by any military force. Bhutto survived an assassination attempt by suicide bomber on the day she arrived in Pakistan. The Islamo-fascists thrive on the divided factions of the western democracies who are more inclined to shoot at each other than the real enemies of freedom. Do the right thing—don’t play into it.

Christmas Come and Gone

 

Is it Billary Clinton or Hillary Clinton? Presidential Race 2008

Hillary’s Hidden Hand | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 | Newsweek.com

Are Billary Clinton and Hillary Clinton one and the same person?

CNBC Interview with Senator Charles Schumer of New York

The following interview dates from November 27, 2007 and features my reporters Mark Haynes and Erin Burnett who also moonlight on CNBC (first in business). This clip got my attention because, as Joe Schmuck American, I am often baffled by government policy advocates and representatives who seem to contradict themselves, especially in the area of foreign ownership of American assets like banks, ports, investment firms, and stock markets (NASDAQ). Mark Haynes noted the contradiction, too, and he asked Senator Schumer about it. It's the kind of stuff I didn't pay attention to for about two centuries. These two reporters know how to double-team a broken-field runner like Schumer. Watch how's he's checked by Erin Burnett and forced to run into a strong tackle by chubby-cheeked, sarcastic, but jolly Mark Haynes. Click the link below:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=600173497

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The Battle of Algiers - Associated Content

How to Survive College: A Guide for Prospective Parents - Associated Content#comment

How to Survive College: A Guide for Prospective Parents - Associated Content#comment

Neo-Jesus: Huckabee is Thee

I got a Christmas card from Mike Huckabee. It was on TV. In a seasonal red sweater and with a camera shot passed through a warm filter, Neo-Jesus looked like the kind of guy you could trust to watch your kids while you were out to caucus in Iowa.

With a cross in the background of the campaign ad, the Arkansas governor entreats you to forget all about the nastiness of politics. Don’t get turned off by the process. Focus on warmth and the Christmas season. Iowa next stop, don’t worry about it.

Neo-Jesus saves. Neo-Jesus forgives. As governor of Iowa, he’s issued over a thousand pardons or commuted sentences. It’s in the Bible—remember Barabbas? Barabbas was a burglar. Neo-Jesus goes one step further than Real Jesus and pardons a murderer and a rapist, the papers say. Neo-Jesus is a nice guy. He forgives and spends money. The Morning Joe cast on MSNBC adores him. Democrats adore him because they can beat him down later when it counts.

Neo-Jesus is with me always...

Neo-Jesus: Huckabee is Thee

A Christmas card from presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

Election 2008: Billary Leads in New Hampshire

If Billary wins the presidency, it’s going to be very weird. The media will have to separate itself into two separate armies. One media army will cover actual news events while the other will be assigned to the permanent job of sorting out the origins of any ideas which emanate from the Office of the President. Did such and such idea come from Bill? Or was that Hillary? Both will be interrogated in separate interrogation rooms but, engaging the political acumen for which they are both renowned, neither will confess. America will be doomed to a harmonious fictional concordance the real danger of which will be mostly to the American psyche. If the Clintons can stand it, they will not go mad. America may bristle at government by a committee of two but, in the end, they will accept Billary as a single monoorganism capable of expressing both the Yin and the Yang of government. All will be well in America. All will be twice as good as things were before. There will be no need to worry. Billary will be there for you.

Election 2008: Painting Targets on Your Toes

Election Year 2008 is dismal if not completely depressing. The Democratic candidates are adrift in a sea of pacifism and the Republican candidates (with one exception) are busy painting targets on their toes.

That Huckabee guy creeps me out a little bit with his insinuations about Romney’s religion. And Romney creeped me out with that televised speech about how we should look at him no differently than JFK with his Catholicism. I wasn’t, I wouldn’t, I’m not interested in any of that. But the whole thing makes you feel uncomfortable.

I could get along with that Obama guy if he weren’t such a pacifist. I expect his foreign policy would be much like Hillary’s or Chris Dodd’s or Biden’s or Bill Clinton’s. I could suffer just about any one of those Democrats in terms of domestic policy (even Lawyer Edwards) but I positively freak at the things they want me to believe about foreign affairs. If I were an Al Qaeda operative, I’d be putting my money behind one of them for sure. I’d be planning my next move during the Democratic administration, after they’ve stopped the Feds from bugging the phones when I’m contacting my peeps in the U.S. terror cells.

I’d vote for any Republican who supports the war on terror, even if a gay black female Republican was top of the ticket. Actually, a gay, black female Republican who understood foreign policy and understands that we need to fight the phony Islamo-nazis would probably really kick some ass.

Just about every president has faced a military test in the early months of the presidency. What would Hillary do? Asking Bill won’t help much, considering how he played it during his presidency. Edwards will worry about messing up his hair.
Dodd will offer some kind of financial deal.

I have trouble seeing anyone except McCain as a war president. Besides, Senator McCain seems very sensible. He has lots of government experience. Plus there’s the added benefit he’s not a punk. The bastard enemies who want to kill us know that. They’ll think…McCain, hmmmh….

I Like You But Not After I Get to Know You

Krakovsky muses about a Harvard Business School study of online dating, which found that first impressions are generous and that second looks change considerably -- for the worse. During first impressions, daters usually responded positively because the information they received is ambiguous. Later, when they get to know their mates better, they tended to give lower grades. However, college-age research subjects bucked the trend, mostly saying they'd like someone more after getting to know them. Krakovsky gets to the crux of the research quickly in this bare-bones summary.
in The New York Times Magazine by Marina Krakovsky, 9 December 2007
This abstract was edited by Brijit. Read more here...

Maureen Dowd Plays Dowdy Dorothy in Wizard of Washington

Maureen Dowd wrote an almost-good article about Mitt Romney’s recent speech regarding Mormonism and how it should or shouldn’t figure into the vote for the U.S. president. Not wanting to take the weight of opinion entirely upon herself, she quoted some lines from a conversation she had with John Krakauer , the best-selling author of a book about the Mormon religion called “Under the Banner of Heaven.”

“J.F.K.’s speech was to reassure Americans that he wasn’t a religious fanatic,” she quotes Krakauer. “Mitt’s was to tell evangelical Christians, ‘I’m a religious fanatic just like you.’

The drift of Dowd’s editorial was that Romney wasn’t exactly like the first Catholic president, JFK, who also faced religious disapprobation. That’s true if you interpret the concept as narrowly as she does, but it’s an interesting editorial nonetheless and makes for interesting reading.

The reason Dowd’s article is not entirely good is that all of the Jacks Jump Out of the Boxes when she attacks Republicans by declaring:

“The world is globalizing, nuclear weapons are proliferating, the Middle East is seething, but Republicans are still arguing the Scopes trial.”

Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t Democrats (with the notable exception of Joe Lieberman) embarked on a campaign of appeasement, acquiescence, and surrender on nuclear weapons and the Middle East? As to why “globalizing” is a demon which must be addressed, I’m completely puzzled by her inclusion of that concept in the same breath and sentence as nuclear weapons. Doesn’t a rising tide lift most, if not all, boats? Maybe Maureen’s the Dowdy Dorothy from the Backward Province she mentions in the first line of her partisan attack.

As for the Scopes trial illusion, I would say that arguing about Surrender Monkeys is not the same thing as arguing about evolution.

Someone should tell her.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/opinion/09dowd.html?em&ex=1197435600&en=cdb5632d6325115b&ei=5087%0A

Is Voting for President Anything Like On-Line Dating?

I was reading about a study conducted regarding on-line dating attitudes. Endemic to the research conducted by Michael I. Norton of the Harvard Business School is the conclusion that first impressions are generous and that second looks change considerably--for the worse. The research indicates that, during first impressions, we tend to respond positively because the information we receive is ambiguous. Later, when we experience the person, we tend to give them lower grades. No matter what, though, college age research subjects are optimistic about future prospects. We’re always hoping that our new acquaintances will turn out to be just like memory of that close friend we met a long time ago and with whom we are still friendly. Think about that when you’re voting for president.

"Pound Puppy" Robert Hawkins Kills Eight

Duh on me! I just learned that mall security in Nebraska is unarmed. Or perhaps it was just that particular mall where a “pound puppy” of a teenager killed eight people with a rifle he took from his father’s house.

No doubt the kid was a lost soul but it sounds as if there are other lost souls involved in the incident. A New York Times story has it that Robert Hawkins got the rifle from his dad’s house. Another story had it that he got the rifle from his step-dad’s house. There’s not much difference there, certainly, but the fact is that Hawkins had been kicked out of the family home and had been living at the home of a friend.

According to the New York Times story, Hawkins told the people he was living with that he’d got the rifle to go target shooting. Apparently, this didn’t raise any red flags with anyone, nor were there any behavioral alerts which might have alarmed anyone. Of course, there was the last minute phone call, some cryptic notes, and a forlorn sort of apology to Mrs. Kovacs, the householder where Hawkins was living. No red flags there, either. We’re all just grooving along, minding our own business.

That’s the trouble with the way we do things these days. It’s another form of post-traumatic-stress-disorder only this form of it afflicts the media, parents, educational institutions, and society in general. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings so we gild the lily.

The “pound puppy” murdered eight people. Can we assume Hawkins hurt their feelings as well? Hawkins’ parents probably had to kick him out but then, knowing their progeny was such a piece of work, why didn’t they lock up the family arsenal? It is implied, but never stated, that Mrs. Kovacs knew that Hawkins brought the rifle to her house. So you have a kid whom she knows is troubled bringing an AR-15 into her house and you do nothing about it? The cryptic phone call and goofy notes certainly must have given everyone a clue but, never mind, let’s make nice.

Contrast this to another mall shooting earlier this year where five people were killed in February. In that one, mall security was unarmed, too, but not an armed off-duty cop in civilian clothes who engaged the killer in a gunfight which kept the body count from mounting even higher. In that mall shooting, eighteen year-old Sulejman Talovic was said to have “no motive” though some reports say that the Bosnian refugee acted out of “Sudden Jihad Syndrome” inasmuch as he is said to have chanted a Muslim phrase while he was shooting people.

The point is not that Talovic was a Muslim but that the environment in which we currently live is such that we must always be spoon-fed a great deal of euphemistic Pablum. No problems are ever addressed by not speaking plainly. On the contrary, the lack of truth-telling in the media and elsewhere means we have a smile on our face while we have bad faith in our minds and hearts.

Supreme Court and The Supreme Clown Protest

Inexplicably, the Supreme Court is now listening to arguments that it had previously ruled out with regard to closing Guantanamo. It’s a brilliant idea, so brilliant that protesters outside the Court wore hoods over their heads so that they could remind us of the Salafist propensity for anonymous head-chopping. Apparently, two of these creeps in their orange suits have copied the Vietnam-era insignia for heroes missing in action. C’mon, take off your masks so that your mommies can see you. Or are you afraid you’ll have your weekly allowance cut back?

There’s a cop in the background. I wonder what he’s thinking. Give him my best wishes for exercising self-restraint. Maybe the protestors should be dropped off at Al-Qaeda headquarters with Teddy Bears named Mohammed.

The photo is from the Washington Post. Photo credit is to the New York Times.

Gillian's Island: A Sudanese Prison

British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons is back in the U.K with some kind words to say about the Sudanese. I suppose the diplomacy will be appreciated by the government of a country where extremists try to exterminate people of more diverse beliefs. The real tragedy of Gibbons plight is that it’s not exactly helpful to improving conditions in the beleaguered countries of the Third World. Idealists like Gillian Gibbons will have think twice before going to parts of the world where their abilities and compassion are sorely needed. Imprisoning Gillian and threatening to chop off her head doesn’t help Sudanese school children.

Erin Burnett

Morning News Blitz

Morning News Blitz: Top Headline

New York’s mayor Bloomberg meeting with Barak Obama this morning. One of the tv’s talking heads was fueling speculation that Obama and Bloomberg might be hooking up some sort of political plan but she must have been desperate for ratings. More likely, Barak’s trying to get ahead with New York’s largely Democratic voters. The Clinton’s, of course, have established a fortress in New York—there’s Bill’s digs in the fashionable part of Harlem and of course Hillary is everywhere in NY. Barak’s behind Hillary in support, even among black voters. Hillary’s taking haircuts to a new level with her campaign plan to reach black voters in minority hair salons. It’s not a bad idea.

ABC was carrying the story about Amanda Knox, the American college student living in Italy who is accused of murder. Bizarre doesn’t begin to describe what happened to the young British victim. She had her throat slit after refusing to participate in group perversion activities. Yes, that’s a euphemism. The whole thing makes me too sick and I don’t want to lose my breakfast. There was nothing new about the ABC “news”—they focused this a.m.’s story on Amanda’s rough jail accommodations.

Sometimes those three on the Morning Joe are hitting things pretty well. Willie Geist and Joe Scarborough were burning up the track in the low key sort of way they have decided is “cool.” What really is “cool” about MSNBC is that they have Erin Burnett who makes cameo appearances and makes a lot of hearts beat. I couldn’t describe exactly why Erin Burnett is such a boy magnet but check her out. The voice, the tone, the facial expressions, the modest but slightly suggestive couture, coupled with a sublime intelligence…ah, my heart !…I need to get back to business….



Among the things the Morning Joes were talking about were Rudolph Giuliani’s long ago peccadilloes and fast play with the NYC budget. It wasn’t illegal stuff, I don’t think, but it was a little screwy. Apparently Rudy would get his bank accounts mixed up when he’d zip up to Long Island to visit his main squeeze, currently his wife. He billed the trips to the city budget and then the police budget would replenish the city fund. No doubt, there was a little “duck and cover” in Rudy’s actions but fast play in NYC is the rule. So if Rudy was playing a mayor’s version of three-card monte with the media, people should keep their eyes on everybody over there: Rudy, Hillary, Bill, Reverend Al….everybody! And while we’re doing that, a whole lot other crap will be going on there by people whose names we don’t know. The Post does a great job and so does the NY Daily News, but you can’t cover corruption in the NYC metropolitan area enough, and that includes NJ. And the Eastern part of Pennsylvania.

CNN Blows the Big One

At a time when voters need to hear the candidates, a lot of attention is instead focused on a Hillary implant into the Republican presidential debate process. CNN, sometimes referred to as the Clinton News Network, failed to properly screen members of the audience when it permitted a gay retired military general who worked for the Clinton campaign to draw the candidates toward a discussion on Gay and Lesbian rights. There was nothing wrong with questioning the candidates about Gay & Lesbian rights, of course, but the gay reserve brigadier general in question, Keith Kerr, is on the gay and lesbian steering committee for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Acknowledging that our gay brothers and sisters have made a large contribution to our society in a variety of ways, I think the retired general’s work for the Hillary campaign should have been up-front, especially when they were tipped off to the Mr. Kerr’s political affiliations beforehand.

You wonder what kind of low-jinks the Hillary Network CNN will try to pull off next. Maybe James Carville disguised as a gay Santa Claus will team up with Anderson Cooper to kick off the next CNN debate.

Bernard Lewis Commentary in the Wall Street Journal

Bernard Lewis Pops the Question

One of my least favorite people in all the universe is Iran's Ahmadinajad. A true-to-form Nazi copy, Iran's president felt compelled to negatively comment on the Annapolis Mideast Peace Conference--to no one's surprise. He's a complete idiot. No one expects any conventional progress on the issues, whatever they are. The real accomplishment is that Syria attended along with the other Arab states. Which brings me to one of my favorite people, professor emeritus of Princeton University, the aged sage, Bernard Lewis. Lewis had a short piece in the Wall Street Journal the other day. You should read the entire article; I'll put in the link at the end. Lewis' greatest contribution to Middle Eastern difficulties is his clarity of thought. Here's a the nutshell view:

Herewith some thoughts about tomorrow's Annapolis peace conference, and the larger problem of how to approach the Israel-Palestine conflict. The first question (one might think it is obvious but apparently not) is, "What is the conflict about?" There are basically two possibilities: that it is about the size of Israel, or about its existence.

If the issue is about the size of Israel, then we have a straightforward border problem, like Alsace-Lorraine or Texas. That is to say, not easy, but possible to solve in the long run, and to live with in the meantime.

If, on the other hand, the issue is the existence of Israel, then clearly it is insoluble by negotiation. There is no compromise position between existing and not existing, and no conceivable government of Israel is going to negotiate on whether that country should or should not exist.

And now you must go on to read the entire article. It is short but here is an area where greater mind's than pea-brain Ahmadinajad must prevail.

Hillary Stalls: Zogby Polls Indicate ABH (Anybody But Hillary)

Democrats have a problem. The latest Zogby poll shows that Hillary Clinton falls behind every single one of the Republican candidates by significant margins.

http://www.zogby.com/Soundbites/ReadClips.dbm?ID=16107

Worse, the polls show that Barak Obama is the candidate who would defeat Republican Party frontrunners. It’s not only Barak who runs first in the latest polls against Republicans; John Edwards’ numbers show that he would also defeat the Republican candidates.

So don’t shoot the messenger. It’s not my fault that a fanatical group of Democrats runs the party as a closely held cabal which ostracizes maverick social Democrats like Joe Lieberman. I said long ago that Hillary was ordained, anointed, chosen by the divine right of queens to be the candidate. Terry McAuliffe is reported to have wet the bed at hearing the news of the latest Zogby polls. Now the problem is this:

1) How to foist candidate Hillary upon naïve democrats who believe that their opinions matter to Democrat cabalists in New York.

2) How to get Barak and John Edwards to lie down and acquiesce to the party’s pre-ordained Hillary-choice for “the good of the nation”.
Democrats have a problem. The latest Zogby poll shows that Hillary Clinton falls behind every single one of the Republican candidates by significant margins.

Blackboard Jungle

Attempting to make contact with a sense of humor, I've obtained permission from the editor to repeat a joke which was sent to me. You've probably heard it before in some version or other:

A grade school teacher in upstate New York asked her class how many of them were 'Hillary fans'. All the kids raised their hands except one boy named Johnny. The teacher asked Johnny why he decided to be different.

Johnny: 'I'm not a Hillary fan.'

Teacher: 'Why aren't you a Hillary fan?'

Johnny: 'I'm a George Bush fan.'

Teacher: Can you tell the class why you are a George Bush fan?

Johnny: 'Well, my mom's a George Bush fan and my dad's a GeorgeBush fan, so I'm a George Bush fan!'

Teacher (sardonically) : 'If your mom was a moron and your dad was an idiot ,what would that make you?'

Johnny: That would make me a Hillary fan.

Taking a Leak and Turning It into a Flood

Our era is a bit confused and journalists often see themselves as representatives of countries without borders. Naturally, I appreciated reading a story in The Weekly Standard (Oct 22 2007) by Gabriel Schoenfeld. Coming out of congressional committees are versions of a journalist's "shield law" which might be more properly called "license to betray" legislation. The "free press" is afflicted by group-think and is not so free at all as they jump off journalistic cliffs with the enthusiasm of lemmings.

You ought to read the story yourself but the jist of it is that:

a) Bureaucrats in Washington illegally leak stories to the press to further their own agendas.

b) In their hunger for journalistic fame, reporters are only too anxious to rush such stories into print no matter who gets whacked.

c) Foreign intelligence services and terrorist enemies would wrap themselves in the cloak of a journalistic shield law to "turn" disloyal Americans into collectors of information for adverse interests.

Is there anything so dumb as that. If you're finding this writing too blunt and perhaps simple, read the article yourself to discern the subtle distinctions.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/229mqmdz.asp

George Will Gets a Star in his Bonnet

Media watching me enjoyed the view in The Washington Post 'Outlook' section. George Will's column is worth reading. It's called Setting the Bar for Corruption .


The column begins with an unkind cut at John Edwards’ “slight public career” and pillories indicted law firm Milberg-Weiss, a “racketeering enterprise” accused of bribery, perjury, and fraud. This sardonic and biting piece details a scam wherein corrupt lawyers pay phony plaintiffs to file class-action lawsuits against companies whose stocks have lost value. The companies are forced to “settle”, avoiding costly legal battles. Guilty pleas and jail sentences await Milberg-Weis attorneys like Bill Zerach who contributed $100,000 to the Clinton Library and raised money for Edwards bid. “Democrats were rewarded for their devotion to trial lawyers,” Will writes, “when Clinton vetoed legislation that would have restricted class-action lawsuits.”

For perspicacious reporting of an unusually high standard, Will gets a star in his bonnet from me.

Bunker Hillary

I was drawn to a story in New Republic. The title is eponymous and the subtitle equally blunt. Michael Crowley describes how Clinton campaigners have interposed an aggressive strategy for deflecting negative press. Crowley details accounts of bruised reporters who get in the way of the Hillary press express, led by fuzzy attack dog Howard Wolfson. Crowley tells how Senator Clinton’s publicity team joins the battle, refusing access to some reporters, punishing others by rapid backspin and complaints to editors. This acrid account comes from a publication having a center-left orientation, making it all the more interesting. If what Crowley says is true, the Clintonites threaten, the press collaborates.



http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=6e01fdce-ad97-4dab-a07d-bf98dc52f681

CNN means the Clinton News Network?

"How do we beat the bitch?" asked a female South Carolina voter of John McCain at a campaign event.

That sally into the unexpected gave the Clinton News Network incentive to dutifully step up its attacks on John McCain, a man of unquestionable honesty and integrity. McCain recovered from laughter and embarrassment sufficiently to announce his respect for Hillary but it's really not his job to carry water for the Democrat's presidential bid. If CNN wants so much to pander and patronize Hillary Clinton, they should leave McCain out of it. The way the played the incident, CNN reporters sounded like a bunch of defiant bed-wetters, peeing their pants in their petulance.

Here's the clip. Take a look. It's kind of funny. If you haven't heard one woman calling another woman a bitch ever in your life, you're living in an ivory tower. I wouldn't use the word to describe Clinton. John McCain wouldn't use the word to describe Clinton. The point is not whether Hillary Clinton is a bitch. The real issue is why CNN is acting like such a bitch....

Tipped Toward Recession?

James C. Cooper's article in Business Week caught my eye as the stock market dips, rallies, and dips again. It's only the brave who can weather the current volatility on Wall Street. For the rest of us, it's just an interesting academic game. Hell, the business economy affects us in invisible ways, doesn't it?

Whereas you don't have to have graduated from the Wharton School of Business to know what the Dollar Dive means. Means you can't buy nuttin'.


Cooper reads the economic indicators and concludes that the scales have tipped toward recession; the view is contrary to the Federal Reserve's view that risks to the economy are balanced. Cooper implies the Fed may shift its stance on December 11, basing his forecast on labor-market trends and rising oil prices. He points to job growth continuing, but at a slower pace than the rise in unemployment claims; other downdrafts on the economy include tighter credit markets and the prospect of oil at $100 a barrel. Cooper's is a sobering outlook, and a convincing one.
in BusinessWeek by James C. Cooper, 19 November 2007
Read more here...

Legislative "Stagflation" is Embarrassment to Democratic Congress

Pay-as-you-go legislation was the rallying cry of the new Democratic congress but the legislation, designed to shrink budget deficits, hamstrings the congress. Fiscal discipline ala pay-go has prevented the passage of renewal energy bills and jeopardized Democratic Party legislative priorities. Lawmakers of both parties face a Sophie’s choice: spending cuts or tax increases. A third choice seems to be winning: doing nothing. Legislative “stagflation” has prompted angry outbursts in Congress. An encapsulated story in the Wall Street Journal tells it all with some deft flourishes. Stalled legislation includes SCHIP, AMT, and higher payments to Medicare doctors. The story's called : Fiscal Responsibility Proves Costly. You can check it out online for free (I think).

Lions for Lambs, Goddam!

Top Gun Tom Cruise is now a producer and has a starring role in the breast-beating liberal piety called "Lions for Lambs."



One film I can’t wait to miss for reasons of predictability is Lions for Lambs, starring the great Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, and Robert Redford. If the New Yorker Magazine can say about this film that it “winces with liberal self-chastisement”, then you’d better believe it. Anthony Lane is the reviewer, and no one’s ever accused him of being a Republican Party shill.

You’ve got every liberal ingredient imaginable: a ranting anti-war former college professor of two young men caught on a hillside in Afghanistan as the Taliban attacks. You’ve got wide-eyed liberal reporters (played by Streep) being afflicted with guilty liberal self-aggrandizement. And you’ve got the screw-up pal from college who does “yeah, whatever”….

Tom Cruise plays a warmongering congressmen and that’s the single person whom Lane compliments for a searing performance in the role.

Incidentally, Lane does a nice review of “No Country for Old Men”, based on the Cormac MacCarthy novel of the same name. Gee, maybe I’ll subscribe to the New Yorker for a change.

Giuliani Trips on Firm's Secrecy

The entanglements of running a private sector legal firm may trip up Rudy Giuliani. Republican candidate for presidents who bill themselves as “anti-terror” foes can expect questions about their legal representation of the Qatar government. Qatar has had a checkerboard relationship with U.S. Qatar is ambivalent in its cooperation with U.S. anti-terror initiatives. Neither Giuliani nor his law firm is answering questions about Giuliani Partners’ arrangement with state-run Qatar Petroleum. Watchdogs groups worry about influence-peddling from former business clients. The WSJ pinned down Chase Untermeyer and asked him about the Giuliani firm’s involvement in “important contracts” in Qatar. All that’s in the Wall Street Journal today.

Mount Airy Casino: A Pocono Gamble

At the risk of shameless self-promotion, I mention that I write occasionally for other internet websites. Here's a story I wrote recently about the new Mount Airy Casino. Click on the headline (Mount Airy Casino: A Pocono Gamble), why don't you? Thanks. Feel free to comment on the Associated Content site. Or on here if you like.

Waiting for a Slow Train: The Poconos Today

There’s an old David Mamet play called “Things Change.” Nowhere have things changed so much as in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Bucolic, serene, gentle on the eye and sparsely populated has given way to population growth, traffic, long commutes and the attendant problems. The New Poconos is characterized by rising crime, larger police departments, high real estate taxes due to overburdened schools, and a rudeness and lack of civility which would have been unthinkable thirty years ago.

The forces of economics and human nature which have catalyzed this change are a story in themselves but let’s cut to the chase. It is estimated that about twenty to thirty thousand people commute by car or bus every day to New York City or to the nearby metropolitan communities in New Jersey.

The Poconos long ago had excellent train service to Hoboken, NJ and from there it was easy to take a ferry or other transport to NYC. The trains went bust in the sixties, but now the stopped trains have been recognized as a misstep and several groups are pushing hard for renewed train service. That’s so far been a matter of putting your shoulders to the Rock of Gibralter bureaucracy and pushing hard against the immoveable object: federal and state bureaucracy. It’s also touched off some conflict between different factions, including some who oppose the resurgence of public transportation in the form of trains. Here’s a sampling of public opinions in regard to train service from the local newspaper, the Pocono Record:

Guess Who posted: Everyone's' learned to play the "game" and now everything's caught up in unprecedented layers of inefficient bureaucracy. It's hard anymore to tell the forest from the trees. Or the pork-barrel projects from the ones that really ought to be done. Harry Reid doesn't have any trouble building a pork-barrel road through the desert so that his real estate properties can have access to the casinos, but over here where we have thousands of people who have to get to NY and NJ for work, it will take about 20 years to do what simply needs to be done. As sniper says, gas prices will go to $4.00 per gal but I'd have no trouble believing you're looking at $5.00 per gallon gas a year from now. Outside the U.S., people have been paying those high petrol prices for years. There's no hope in the bio-fuels direction, either, since ethanol producers are competing with cereal producers.

This from a poster named “cabin”: Rip up 80 and 33 and put high speed trains in the right of way. The highway right of ways were designed for higher speeds then the rails.

And this from “Reyered”: If we ever get a train it will be no good the bad guys from Bloombergs ville will come up to sell there drugs and steal our cars for the trip back to the city to sell them and get ready for there next trip up on the train.The train will cost to much and be to slow so if it was any good the slot and turnpike sellers would be pushing it.

Not to leave out OICDB: Well at least you commuters will have an option other than driving your gas guzzelling SUV's 100 miles to work everyday. If you weren't squandering fuel maybe our kids wouldn't be over there dying.

Or Wazup: Has anybody factored-in that global warming will cause the east coast (incoluding Hoboken) to be under water within 20 years? I for one do not want to fund a train to nowhere.


So there you have it…in a nutshell, so to speak. With the emphasis, of course, on “nutshell.”

Economics: The Silent Killer

Some of the most entertaining television these days has been coming from the business sector. Having ignored economics for so many years, I slowly began to realize how much it affects us in our daily lives. Make fun of me if you need to, but that's how it is for many people who come from a state of what some erudite writers have called "chill penury." There's little sense in studying what your belly tells you. So the thinking goes...

But now things are much better for us in this great country of ours, and I'm having to play catch-up ball with the rest of world. So I'm fascinated by the DJIA which went over the 14,000 mark a few months ago, dipped, bounced, dipped, and then was buoyed up by a half-percent cut in the federal rate, followed by another quarter point cut just two days ago. Yesterday, there was a fast and sudden drop which triggered a tradiing halt on Wall Street.

The Wall Street Journal broke it down pretty well and I'll paraphrase:

* The down pressure on Wall Street was caused by worries about the credit markets. With so many investment vehicles bundled from mortgages and other credit financing, the effect of irresponsible loans in the credit markets was widespread.

* Having seen the credit markets buoyed up by the half-percent cut, the Wall Street money-lenders expected further support from the Fed. One WSJ writer said that the expectation of another quarter point cut was so great that Fed Chairman Bernanke was locked into it. Otherwise, the thinking goes, the sky would fall. That writer commented to the effect that the Fed had to give in to Wall Street's "tantrum" in order to prevent larger and more violent tantrums later.


Overall, the big picture is fuzzy to me as it is to everyone else. The third quarter growth is up in the U.S, counter to the last quarter point cut. Global growth remains strong. Bernanke told the world that inflation and growth were in balance. Bulk oil prices are heading toward the one hundred dollar mark. Consumer spending has been reasonably strong. Many think that these factors will cause the economy to veer away from the big "R" that some bear market types see tatooed into the ghost of the economy. Others think that high oil prices and geopolitical instability (that's what they call it, honest!) will put a dent into consumer spending in the fourth quarter. A sharp decline in consumer spending followed by an well-timed terror threat (or actuality) could cause serious havoc and have a large impact on the impending presidential elections.

What I really think is that people should start paying more attention to economics. The poor as well as the middle class. The deeper the understanding one has of the forces influencing one's life, the less likely it will be for us to be enslaved by the machinations of demigods.

Something to Cheer About

I'm full of joy today that a judge awarded an $11 million settlement to the parents of a marine who was killed in Iraq. The organization which must pay calls itself a church but it must be the Church of the Poisoned Mind. They're the characters who show up at military funerals to harrass and taunt the grieving relatives. Long live that judge.

It's important for families which have sacrificed so much to know that there is a remedy in law for dealing with such morons. The legal judgement won't compensate for the loss of a son in the cause of freedom but it may be some small comfort to know that American law won't tolerate the psychological torture of those who have given so much.

Moeursalen Rails Against Big Cliche: The Democratic Debate

I watched part of the Democratic forum last night on MSNBC. As many of you know, I’m virtually clueless when it comes to the politics of the presidential primaries, but I was an English Major and I have stayed at a Holiday Inn.

Both those things, of course, qualify me to render this commentary on the use of cliché. The first thing an English Major is taught is to avoid the cliché in writing and in oratory.

“Walk through the world of the cliché as you would a minefield,” said my 8th grade English teacher.

So I noticed that many of the Democratic candidates must have taken electives (in social activism?) in lieu of English. And the unfortunate thing is that all these viral clichés are now spreading through the universe of media.

CNN reports one of John Edwards’ clichés:

“The American people ... deserve a president of the United States that they know will tell them the truth…blah, blah, blah….etc. “

We’ve heard that one before. God, I hope he’s not serious though. Telling the American people the truth is likely to cause mass hysteria.

Hand it to Hillary, though. She knows the power of the cliché. I don’t know how many times she used the now time-worn and dusty phrase “George Bush and his failed policies.” Taking the advice of her handlers, she repeatedly bludgeoned the high notes in a broad attempt at spiritual communion with the nutty Bush haters.

That roly poly and jolly guy from New Mexico, Richardson? He knows how to turn a phrase, excoriating the other candidates for their “holier than thou” attitudes in daring to criticize Hillary C. Wow, exhilarating. Philologists are still dazzled by the subtle irony of the governor’s verbal flourishes.

That horrid little dwarf, Kucinich, was not to be outdone in reciting his litany against “Big Health, Big Oil, Big Banking, Big Legal, Big Polluter, Big Everything” but you’ve got to hand it to him. There was nothing cliched in his thrilling narrative of chilling at Shirley MacClaine’s house and watching Big Flying Saucers hover in the sky. Where does Shirley MacClaine live anyway? Was that in Big Hollywood?

Hillary Clinton Documentary Part II

Hillary Clinton Documentary Part I

Million Dollar Woodstock Memorial Project Okayed By Hillary Clinton

I guess I would still be a Democrat if the party I had supported for many years would have made Joe Lieberman their candidate for president. However, the fuzzy drift that was occurring in the Dem Party was not what I signed on for.

Yeah, now I'm registered Republican and supporting John McCain for President. McCain's tough. You've got to be tough to be president. Every president since I've been alive has been challenged in the first months of their term. Who's going to answer the call? Who's going to talk tough, fold the cards, and then spoon-feed you pablum? Some of the dinosaurs on the Democratic side are showing signs of soft-headedness. They're hoping that the millions of baby-boomers set to retire just next year will wax nostalgic about their lost youth and vote for a "return to Woodstock..wooohooo!" Cut us a break, Hillary...we're not ready for Pampers-Gate, not just yet. We don't need to spend a million dollars of tax money for a monument to a music concert a couple of million people couldn't go to because they were in the Army or the other military services.

Besides, John McCain's funny as hell. I got a big kick out of his response to Hillary's support of the Woodstock monument. McCain didn't make it to Woodstock.

"I was tied up at the time," said the presidential candidate wryly.

Tied up in the Hanoi Hilton, the notorious North Viet communist prison camp. Tortured.

McCain's his own man. He likes the things I like: Boxing. Serving his country. America. He's always been inclined to go his own way. As a tortured prisoner of war, he's vocal about decent treatment of prisoners. He's even inclined to poke fun at President Bush when the conditions warrant it. He recently jabbed at the President for the Bush comments about "looking into Putin's eyes and into his soul."

"I looked into Putin's eyes, too," he says, "and I saw three letters: K - G - B."

If McCain's service to America isn't enough for y'all, you ought to donate him some money just so he can keep those wry remarks coming on an otherwise dull campaign trail. Get on over to johnmccain.com and help yourself and America out.

Bank Smelli and the Russian-Iran Pact

Melli Bank in London: Proudly Supporting Terrorists Since 1967

What’s up with Comrade Putin? Yesterday, when the U.S. announced new sanctions against Iranian banks, companies, officials and agencies, Putin mounts the dais in some kind of hyperbolic diatribe to attack the U.S. for “running around like a madman with a razor blade, waving it around” and saying the new sanctions are “not the best way to resolve the situation."

Putin ought to have a shot at the Jerry Springer show in reaching for that metaphor. Since when is applying financial pressure akin to “running around like a madman with a razor blade…” ? Apparently, he’s worried about an interruption off trade and weapons deals with the Iranian Nazi Party and its Revolutionary Guards and Quds Subsidiaries.

You’ve got to get a big kick out of the Iranian denials of active support of terrorism and the killing of U.S. troops. A recent ABC Frontline special featured an interview with an Iranian propaganda flak. When questioned about Iran’s pernicious and murderous meddling, the guy just clams up and tells the interviewer that the question wasn’t in the agreed upon script. A highly indignant little prig, too. Of course, they can afford to be smug, having no queers in Iran as Ahmadinajad said during his U.N visit. I suppose that’s why the Iranian government is so stupid, dull, and Soviet looking. If they’d let personal freedom ring in Iran, perhaps some persecuted people would emerge to lend some creativity to governance. Of course, they’d have to begin worshiping life instead of death.

Another fine result would be if Comrade Putin and his FSB/KGB cronies were to take his money out of Bank Smelli.

Wall Street: Which Way are the Bulls Running?

The big news over the last week has been Wall Street and the World Markets. Investors who enjoy roller coasters have gotten lots of thrills lately as the investor market dropped in July, rebounded in August, and now is heading once again for the tank.

Self-annointed predictive geniuses have been talking up how America’s influence in world markets has diminished. Well, yeah!... I guess it’s that diminished influence which pulled down stock markets around the world from London’s FTSE to Tokyo’s Nekkei.

The big difference between the July drop and last Friday’s close was that the July drop was mostly blamed on the credit mortgage meltdown, slow housing starts, and defaulted home loans. Friday’s drop of 366 Dow points was indicative of a deeper worry, that the economy is slipping toward more permanent status in the form of recession. For the week, the Dow was down about 500 points. The air is full of dire predictions and people are worried.

As of this moment, the Dow’s down another 100 points and investors are on the sideline, withholding actions until they’re more certain of the direction.

Fox News picked a great time to launch their new business network. I guess Roger Ailes must be a fortunetelling genius of JIT, or “just-in-time” production. That’s a corny joke, I’m sure, but the Fox network financial news is aimed at a market that CNBC Squawk and the Bloomberg channels often ignore. Bloomberg and CNBC Financial are aimed at a small but wealthy demographic whereas the common people (me, for example) need to learn about what they can do protect themselves in a fast-changing world economy.

Fox has some financial mainstays like Neil Cavuto and Charles Payne. But while it has a bevy of unknown but entirely competent (and sometimes pretty) heads, it does not have Street Sweetie Erin Burnett or Money Honey Maria Bartiromo. Not yet, at least, but you can expect some engaging and comely woman of finance to emerge foremost from the pack.