Open Thread

I am busy today and tomorrow and you will have to entertain each other.  pl

Comments

[greg0]

I'm currently reading the Allan Eckert books about frontier America. The Indian tortures are a bit much for sharing these with my 12 year old grandson! They were recommended to me after I had read A.B. Guthrie's books The Big Sky, and The Way West. There are memorable characters in all, but not necessarily nice. War time activities aren't too nice either.

[Fred Strack]

McCaffrey had a bullet point in his 'report' about the number of aircraft sorties and included a line about the Navy flying from the Arabian Sea. Why are they engaged in flying over 1,000 mile round trip just to get in-country when all the airbases are under our control? Isn't this a misuse of the Naval air arm? Shouldn't these squadrons be land based with a marine detachment guarding them? Other than some 'go Navy' cheer leading this seems like a waste of fuel and engine run hours, not to mention mal-deployment of one or more carrier battle groups. If there is any true concern over cost then we could leave the planes on land and bring a carrier to home waters.

[dilbert dogbert]

I just came over from the blog "Lawyers, Guns and Money. To my surprise there was a post about Col Langs posts on COIN. I had assumed that SST had a small readership and certainly not readers of the type that run LGM.
Comments, Col Lang?

[Poicephalus]

Col. Lang,
maybe I should talk about this at the Athenauem, but here goes

http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2009/12/sometimes-success-means-success.html

I look forward to your clarifications.

C

[YT]

Quagmires? More like horns of a dilemma from the looks of it all...

[William R. Cumming]

A rush order to produce 10,000 medium trucks for Afghanistan deployment has now been tied up in a bid protest.

Also logistical support for Afgahanistan now being revealed as a highly difficult task and probably newly deployed troops will not have the comforts of those already in AF-PAK theatre. What would several billion in road building do for the AF-PAK theatre? Hey maybe improve the efficiency of getting the poppy harvest to market?

[Charles I]

Early Dismissal.

(With apologies to little girls and women everywhere.)

It is near the Christmas break of the school year. The students have turned in all their work and there is really nothing more to do.

All the children are restless and the teacher decides to have an early dismissal.

Teacher: "Whoever answers the questions I ask, first and correctly can leave early today."

Little Johnny says to himself "Good, I want to get outta here. I'm smart and will answer the question."

Teacher: "Who said 'Four Score and Seven Years Ago'?"

Before Johnny can open his mouth, Susie says, "Abraham Lincoln."

Teacher: "That's right Susie, you can go home."

Johnny is mad that Susie answered the question first.

Teacher: "Who said 'I Have a Dream'?"

Before Johnny can open his mouth, Mary says, "Martin Luther King."

Teacher: "That's right Mary, you can go."

Johnny is even madder than before.

Teacher: "Who said 'Ask not, what your country can do for you'?"

Before Johnny can open his mouth, Nancy says, "John F. Kennedy."

Teacher: "That's right Nancy, you may also leave."

Johnny is boiling mad that he has not been able to answer to any of the questions.

When the teacher turns her back Johnny says, "I wish these bitches would keep their mouths shut!"

The teacher turns around: "NOW WHO SAID THAT?"

Johnny: "TIGER WOODS. CAN I GO NOW?"

That's all I got, although its good to see the air cleared at Copenhagen about any misconception that action would be forthcoming.

Aside from this from Debkafile.

Just as its anti-semitic to criticize Israel's behaviour, its now "immoral" to do anything about it, according to "Netanyahu's national security adviser Uzi Arad [who]summoned British ambassador Tom Phillips and informed him that the UK was expected to put an end to an immoral practice. . ."

The immoral practice being the issue by a British Court of an arrest Warrant for former Israeli FM Tzipi Livni (although the article repeats that the warrant was issued by "by pro-Palestinian campaigners") for her part in Operation Cast Lead.

Elsewhere, the article snivels on about how "Two British premiers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, promised her to amend the law which has never been used against any other world politicians, even tyrants like Zimbabwe's Mugabe, but they never did anything about it."

http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6419

Um, where was General Augusto Pinochet arrested and detained for months on end again, starts with a B. . . Botswana, Borneo, Brazil?

[Jim]

Okay - if no one is going to start, then I will:

A local United Way office realized that the organization had never received a donation from the town's most successful lawyer. The person in charge of contributions called him to persuade him to contribute.

"Our research shows that out of a yearly income of at least $500,000, you give not a penny to charity. Wouldn't you like to give back to the community in some way?"

The lawyer mulled this over for a moment and replied, "First, did your research also show that my mother is dying after a long illness, and has medical bills that are several times her annual income?"

Embarrassed, the United Way rep mumbled, "Um ... no."

The lawyer interrupts, "or that my brother, a disabled veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair?"

The stricken United Way rep began to stammer out an apology, but was interrupted again.

"or that my sister's husband died in a traffic accident," the lawyer's voice rising in indignation, "leaving her penniless with three children?!"

The humiliated United Way rep, completely beaten, said simply, "I had no idea..."

On a roll, the lawyer cut him off once again, "So if I don't give any money to them, why should I give any to you?"

[curious]

Note to everybody. Times is owned by Murdoch.

Should put a tap to record Israel intel posers in all Murdoch publication instead.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6958217.ece

The Obama Administration said yesterday that it will investigate a report in The Times on Monday which said that Iran had been working on a trigger for a nuclear weapon, one of the final stages in the production of the atomic bomb.

[Cieran]

Colonel:

From the picture you've posted, I take it that you are favoring Texas over Alabama in the BCS national championship...

Hook 'em, Horns!

[JM]

A rabbi walks into a bar in Brooklyn, and he's got a frog on his shoulder.

The bartender looks up and says, "Where'd you get that?"

The frog says, "In Brooklyn...there are hundreds of them!"

[par4]

Mess with the bull
You get the horn

[Cold War Zoomie]

This is how I feel most days...

My Brain Hurts!

And you can learn Spanish, too!

[WP]

Expanding on earlier issues of where we are and where we have been, Bill Moyers did a documentary on Secret Government that is more instructive now than in the 80s when it was made.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3505348655137118430#

[JP]

I think it might be entertaining to consider how much work is involved in maintaining a blog as active as SST. Thanks, Colonel.

[Charles I]

JP, I think it would be entertaining to consider the following. One time Pat winged a bit about the burden & server cost, etc, he had a thread, would we pay, subscribe, etc, and pikers we are, the overwhelming consensus was No Way.

It never happened. But when he went offline there for a couple of weeks in September, threatened to pack it, we stricken, No No Pat say It Ain't So from one and all.

I had the Delirium SST's myself, it was awful.

The tip jar's at the upper right there, under the Recent Comments pane, button marked Donation Voluntary.

Like everything here. What a lucky bunch we are.

Ditto WP on Bill Moyers.

I see that 22 millon of missing Bush WH emails have been found stashed on some server. So we can eagerly anticipate. . . . the interminable delay while the trove is classified, sorted, shredded, whatever the vetting process is by whatever agency does that, and followed perhaps by a dash of litigation or three. . .

[Castellio]

So the poor stricken woman, not knowing where else to turn, when up to the lawyer and asked if he'd be willing, pro bono, to answer two brief questions.

"Of course," he replied, "now what's the second question?"

[optimax]

I heard a good idea for ending all suicide bombings: distribute pictures of Susan Boyle and say this is what a virgin looks like.

[confusedponderer]

I saw a woman on the tram yesterday who wore grey, fluffy woollen gloves, which at the tips were punctured by her long ivory coloured fingernails that stuck out like claws from grey, furry paws. Gross.

Maybe there are witches. I ought to have thrown her into the river, just to find out.

[N. M. Salamon]

ALL:
Please peruse Asia Times today:
Taliban offer to USA, health or lack of of troops, possioble measures against Iran

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page.html

Enjoy!

[WP]

I earlier posted a link the the Moyer's piece on secret government. The issues of balancing human rights, individual freedom, open governmnet, raw power, and government secrecy are constantly with us. An interesting look into the current process is the

Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9 Circuit Case Number:08-15693EB where a decision you can read at http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/08/31/08-15693.pdf. A motion for an en banc hearing before the entire court was granted. The audio of the en banc is available at http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/view_subpage.php?pk_id=0000004702#

Reading the case and Listening to this audio, one gets a look into the judicial decision-making process that seems entirely unable to confront the basic illegality of Bush's rendition and torture program, fully adopted in principle by the Obama administration that is rotting the core of our national identity.

[Charles I]

N.M. Salamon, Bush refused an early offer by the Taliban to hand Bin Laden over to a 3rd country for trial.

The proposal to leave Afghanistan to the Afghanis on the understanding that another attack will mean the nuclear destruction of it and the ISI to boot is so appealing on the face of it so as to beyond consideration.

[Redhand]

Gleen Greenwald's post, http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/ > White House as helpless victim on healthcare, is a good if Über-depressing read.

I can't wait to see what Obama agenda is with "Comprehensive Immigration Reform."

[SubKommander Dred]

Entertain each other, eh? Well, I do a pretty good Nixon impersonation. It went over great in elementary school. In fact, the late Dick Nixon and I share the same birthdate, along with Joan Beaz and Bart Starr, former quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.
OK then. Get on with it...
4 doctors are sitting in a duck blind; An internist, a psychiatrist, a trauma surgeon and a pathologist. The first flight of ducks comes along, and the Internist stands up, takes careful aim with his shotgun and says to himself "Rule out hawk. Rule out sparrow. Rule out chicken...It's a duck!" He fires and brings down a duck. The next doctor, the psychiatrist, stands up, takes careful aim with his double barrel shotgun at another flight of ducks, says to himself "It looks like a duck. It sounds like a duck. It flies like a duck...So it's a duck!" then pulls the trigger, bringing down another bird. The 3rd doctor, the surgeon, jumps up, not with a shotgun but with an AK 47 with a 100 round drum clip, and immediately pulls the trigger, blasting another flock of ducks overhead. The air is filled with the bursting of gunfire, smoke, the entrails and parts of various waterfowl falling here and there. This goes on for a few minutes, until the surgeon finally runs out of ammo. Just then, a dead bird lands right at his feet. He picks the carcass off the ground with the still smoking barrel of his assault weapon, tosses it over to the pathologist and says, "what is it?"

[Annie]

Grego---You and your boys might enjoy THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE MCPHEETERS.