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236 comments on DrumBeat: September 17, 2008

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PaulusP on September 17, 2008 - 9:24am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

I read in the WPIR thread, that memmel expects an attack on Iran.
I agree.

“Israel to Acquire GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs”
http://www.defencetalk.com/news/publish/missiles/Israel_to_Acquire_GBU-3...
See also http://www.thailandnews.net/story/406111

“the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued a new report that while confirming the agency's full-scope inspection and verification of Iran's nuclear activities, discovering no evidence of any military diversion, is permeated with "serious concerns" and "outstanding questions".”
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JI17Ak03.html

Stefan Simanowitz Westminster Committee on Iran: “Bush could still attack Iran”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/17/iran.usa

“Iran 'sending weapons to Taleban' “
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7616429.stm

“The United States has not yet issued a visa for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend the United Nations General Assembly later this month in New York”
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/231777,still-no-us-visa-issued-f...

“Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday, "We know that certain players are planning an attack against Iran.”
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1020706.html

“And, perhaps, it is a prelude for more serious and dangerous actions in the near future, above all a naval blockade of Iran to choke off its access to, among other things, imported fuel.” (A naval blockade is an act of war)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JI13Ak01.html

Would appreciate your view, memmel.

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Zadok_the_Priest on September 17, 2008 - 10:57am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Coupled with today's embassy attack in Yemen, http://news.aol.com/article/attack-on-us-embassy-in-yemen-kills-10/17736...
which incidentally appeared at the same time as AOL/Netscape homepage feature's Propeller's quote by Palin's that she expects to see Jesus' return in her lifetime,
http://www.propeller.com/story/2008/09/16/palin-quoti-will-see-jesus-com...
may I suggest that any October surprise by this White House administration would be right in keeping with the bizarro world that's unfolding (and has been unfolding) under their watch.

Note to PaulusP & memmel, an attack on Iran would serve as a nice distraction from Wall Street, a full meal deal dished up hot to satisfy the hungry appetites of every nut-case in America.

B/c if the GOP can get every nut-case to vote for them, four more years. Yippeeeee....

Hold on folks, this could be quite the ride.

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Black_Dog on September 17, 2008 - 11:27am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

It's rather obvious that Palin is a fundamentalist nut case. I'm sure she would like nothing better than to replace McCain as Fearless Leader.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/15/bess/index1.html

She is quoted as thinking Jesus will return during her life time and that the Earth is very young. Maybe she thinks she can walk on water too. I suggest she give it a go, preferably in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Woops, I forgot, there's still some whales left out there which could do a Jonah and gobble her up, spitting out the leftovers back on land. Darned.

E. Swanson

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Geckolizard on September 17, 2008 - 1:13pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Meanwhile, the state of Alaska celebrates it's 50th birthday by drilling into ANWR...

Peak Oil averted (for, oh, about 3 months)

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Paleocon on September 17, 2008 - 9:37pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

This is not an unusual belief framework. You'd probably be happier too, if you believed the same. If ignorance is bliss, and what you don't know can't hurt you, isn't knowledge best avoided?

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super390 on September 17, 2008 - 12:00pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Certainly it distracts conservatives from annoying questions about why their government is nationalizing businesses left and right and far right.

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Geckolizard on September 17, 2008 - 1:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Certainly it distracts conservatives from annoying questions about why their government is nationalizing businesses left and right and far right.


"Please, feel free to take a page from my handbook."

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calgarydude on September 17, 2008 - 2:14pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

...the newly elected mayor spent more than $50,000 in city funds to redecorate her office, without the council's authorization.
...
...Palin's office makeover included flocked, red wallpaper. "It looked like a bordello."
...
"I told her it was against the law to make such a large expenditure without the council taking a vote. She said, 'I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.'"

Palin as Mayor

If she didn't listen to city council, why listen to Congress?

And just wait until this lady is commander of the armed forces.

American Democracy: R.I.P. (1776-2008)

It almost worked...

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PeakOil Tarzan on September 17, 2008 - 2:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The picture that is beginning to emerge is of someone who is very ambitious, demands complete loyalty of her staff, punishes anyone who disagrees with her, and doesn't care much for public scrutiny (Palin routinely uses a private Yahoo e-mail account to conduct state business because she believes that personal emails are not subject to subpoena).

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BOP on September 17, 2008 - 2:43pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top



Are we sure that Bush II did not have any illegitimate offspring that relocated to Alaska?

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embryonic on September 17, 2008 - 5:47pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Unfortunately it appears that this is a common practice: the current administration took a working e-mail archive system and ditched it for one that doesn't work, canceled the program for a law-conforming "replacement for the replacement" at the point it when it looked like it would actually get implemented, and as added defense has government business conducted via non-governmental accounts so that "auto-delete after 30 days" policies can be used:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/bush-lost-e-mails.ars

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080512-white-house-insists-it-has...

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rainsong on September 17, 2008 - 8:45pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Pallin is on record for her support of a $600 million dollar bridge from the mainland to her little town of 7,000 people.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PALIN_BRIDGE_TO_WASILLA?SITE=VANO...

One of the busiest bridges on the East Coast is the I-95 Woodrow Wilson Bridge across the Potomac a few miles south of D.C. It is a new bridge yet under construction, but carrying a full load of traffic, projected to cost 2.5 billion and to provide passage of as many as 225,000 cars a day. It is six times the cost of Pallin's projected town bridge but might carry 70 times as many cars.

Pallin's town cannot afford to pay for the bridge with its small number of wage earners. It is a political project.

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rainsong on September 17, 2008 - 8:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The math is a bit fuzzy. Probably the Woodrow Wilson bridge costs four times the amount of Pallin's bridge as there will likely be a wee bit of cost over run there and this Woodrow Wilson is almost finished and carries a hundred times more than the amount of traffic estimated to move in and out of Wasilla to Anchorage.

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TrueKaiser on September 17, 2008 - 10:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Which was recently hacked into by the hacker group Anonymous.
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/17/1949222

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NeverLNG on September 17, 2008 - 4:31pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

...red wallpaper...

commander in chief of the Red army? Closer every day

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memmel on September 18, 2008 - 1:45am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

As far as I can tell everything is in or very close to in place for and attack on Iran. Hostilities could break out any day now. On the election side and attack before the election would be beneficial to Mcain given that Obama is a controversial choice for change. You don't change horses at the beginning of a shooting war and if anything Mcain is a far better choice than Bush for waging war.

On the financial side although the connections are probably convoluted the recent spate of financial problems at the same time that we had a major drop in oil prices and unwind of the carry trade from a strong dollar have to be playing a strong supporting role. I don't think anyone knows how all this is related but the drop in the price of oil was a strong earthquake happening to a weakened financial system.

The point of this is that my opinion is that this drop was not and accident of the market but instigated in conjunction with the Saudi's we are paying a heavy price for it and will pay and unknown price in the future since it acts like a moral hazard in many ways. This was not done just so a few Americans could feel better during the election.

So if war does not happen very soon with Iran probably before the elections we will be very lucky. After Mcain takes office it would simply take time to reset up the current military forces and financial matters may overwhelm any misguided moves with Iran and barring a war I think that Obama stands a very good chance at winning.

So the good news is its probably now or never the bad news is its probably now or never.

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PaulusP on September 18, 2008 - 7:25am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Thanks for this. As I see it "now" is until the end of next month, or perhaps till middle of Oct. , as it seems unlikely that an attack would be carried out very near election time.

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236 comments on DrumBeat: September 17, 2008

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