Out With The Strong, In With The Wrong

The NY Times discovers the dark side to the Arab Spring:

Jihadists’ Surge in North Africa Reveals Grim Side of Arab Spring

By ROBERT F. WORTH

WASHINGTON — As the uprising closed in around him, the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi warned that if he fell, chaos and holy war would overtake North Africa. “Bin Laden’s people would come to impose ransoms by land and sea,” he told reporters. “We will go back to the time of Redbeard, of pirates, of Ottomans imposing ransoms on boats.”

In recent days, that unhinged prophecy has acquired a grim new currency. In Mali, French paratroopers arrived this month to battle an advancing force of jihadi fighters who already control an area twice the size of Germany. In Algeria, a one-eyed Islamist bandit organized the brazen takeover of an international gas facility, taking hostages that included more than 40 Americans and Europeans.

Coming just four months after an American ambassador was killed by jihadists in Libya, those assaults have contributed to a sense that North Africa — long a dormant backwater for Al Qaeda — is turning into another zone of dangerous instability, much like Syria, site of an increasingly bloody civil war. The mayhem in this vast desert region has many roots, but it is also a sobering reminder that the euphoric toppling of dictators in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt has come at a price.

Interestingly, their presumably careful reporting is careful not to mention either Hillary or Barack, for either credit or blame. Late in the story we do get this suggestion of Western culpability:

The Algerians also have little patience with what they see as Western naïveté about the Arab spring, analysts say.

“Their attitude was, ‘Please don’t intervene in Libya or you will create another Iraq on our border,’ ” said Geoff D. Porter, an Algeria expert and founder of North Africa Risk Consulting, which advises investors in the region. “And then, ‘Please don’t intervene in Mali or you will create a mess on our other border.’ But they were dismissed as nervous Nellies, and now Algeria says to the West: ‘Goddamn it, we told you so.’ ”

Oh, well - a bunch of cranky Algerians who don't understand modern kinetic military actions.

While on the topic, let's revisit this Times account of America's role in the utter debacle in Mali:

For years, the United States tried to stem the spread of Islamic militancy in the region by conducting its most ambitious counterterrorism program ever across these vast, turbulent stretches of the Sahara.

But as insurgents swept through the desert last year, commanders of this nation’s elite army units, the fruit of years of careful American training, defected when they were needed most — taking troops, guns, trucks and their newfound skills to the enemy in the heat of battle, according to senior Malian military officials.

“It was a disaster,” said one of several senior Malian officers to confirm the defections.

Then an American-trained officer overthrew Mali’s elected government, setting the stage for more than half of the country to fall into the hands of Islamic extremists. American spy planes and surveillance drones have tried to make sense of the mess, but American officials and their allies are still scrambling even to get a detailed picture of who they are up against.

Now, in the face of longstanding American warnings that a Western assault on the Islamist stronghold could rally jihadists around the world and prompt terrorist attacks as far away as Europe, the French have entered the war themselves.

...

Some Defense Department officials, notably officers at the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command, have pushed for a lethal campaign to kill senior operatives of two of the extremists groups holding northern Mali, Ansar Dine and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Killing the leadership, they argued, could lead to an internal collapse.

But with its attention and resources so focused on other conflicts in places like Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, the Obama administration has rejected such strikes in favor of a more cautious, step-back strategy: helping African nations repel and contain the threat on their own.

Over the last four years, the United States has spent between $520 million and $600 million in a sweeping effort to combat Islamist militancy in the region without fighting the kind of wars it has waged in the Middle East. The program stretched from Morocco to Nigeria, and American officials heralded the Malian military as an exemplary partner. American Special Forces trained its troops in marksmanship, border patrol, ambush drills and other counterterrorism skills.

But all that deliberate planning collapsed swiftly when heavily armed, battle-hardened Islamist fighters returned from combat in Libya. They teamed up with jihadists like Ansar Dine, routed poorly equipped Malian forces and demoralized them so thoroughly that it set off a mutiny against the government in the capital, Bamako.

A confidential internal review completed last July by the Pentagon’s Africa Command concluded that the coup had unfolded too quickly for American commanders or intelligence analysts to detect any clear warning signs.

FWIW they don't blame Bush. But they could! Here is a poignant December 2008 flashback to the start of our program in Mali:

U.S. Training in Africa Aims to Deter Extremists

By ERIC SCHMITT

KATI, Mali — Thousands of miles from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, another side of America’s fight against terrorism is unfolding in this remote corner of West Africa. American Green Berets are training African armies to guard their borders and patrol vast desolate expanses against infiltration by Al Qaeda’s militants, so the United States does not have to.

...

American officials say their strategy is to contain the Qaeda threat and train the African armies, a process that will take years. The nonmilitary counterterrorism programs are just starting, and it is too early to gauge results.

“This is a long-term effort,” said Colonel Connors, 45, an Africa specialist from Burlington, Vt., who speaks French and Portuguese. “This is crawl, walk, run, and right now, we’re still in the crawl phase.”

With the benefit of hindsight we think he meant "Crawl, walk, stage coup".

Comments

[rse]

Ugh. How do we square a world that needs a continuously deployed military with an administration determined to shrink forces?

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

Biden is being sworn in this morning because Sonya Sotomeyer has a conflict this afternoon. She is scheduled to be at a book signing in NY.

Priorities.

[centralcal]

Disturbing and somewhat frightening Pieces by Clarice this morning. Do read her commenterss too - there are some excellent ones.

[Cecil Turner]

Interestingly, their presumably careful reporting is careful not to mention either Hillary or Barack, for either credit or blame.

I'm surprised they even use the term "Al Qaeda" . . . what with them being "decimated" and all after the great accomplishment of tracking down Bin Laden. And the Administration can't seem to capitulate fast enough everywhere we're still fighting the WoT (or "kinetic military irrelevancies" or whatever it is we're doing).

All this looks like a cautionary tale about pinning your national strategy against a coalition adversary on the killing of one man. It was stupid then, it's stupid now, and they can't afford to admit it didn't work (and try something new). Now that would be a gutsy call.

[Extraneus]

What would they do differently if they were trying to usher in a new caliphate?

What's our objective in the Middle East, anyway?

[Extraneus]

Gun control group selectively edits out 'stop a lynching' line in attack ad

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence targeted Georgia [Democrat] Rep. John Barrow, dusting off and re-airing parts of a 2012 campaign ad that shows Barrow holding up his family's guns.

The video shows the congressman saying: "I'm John Barrow, and long before I was born, my grandfather used this little Smith & Wesson here."

The video, though, left out the last part of that sentence, which was "to help stop a lynching."

Instead, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence cut to spliced-together footage of Connecticut massacre coverage.

Likewise, the video showed Barrow holding up a rifle and saying: "And for as long as I can remember, my father always had this rifle real handy."

The video cut the quote before he concluded, "just to keep us safe."

[Extraneus]

Click for full size.

[peter]

Centralcal, perfect review of Clarice's piece this morning. Soros continues to drop billions to destroy us.

[hit and run]

“Their attitude was, ‘Please don’t intervene in Libya or you will create another Iraq on our border,’ ” said Geoff D. Porter, an Algeria expert and founder of North Africa Risk Consulting

Don't trust him, dude's a narc.

[David]

Creating another Iraq on the border would have been an optimal outcome.

What has been created is something else - more like total chaos.

But it wasn't war, just a time limited kinetic action.

North Africa Risk Counseling; sounds like some storefront shakedown outfit. Is Thomas Friedman involved?

[narciso]

'You rang'

Worth, is one one of Carlos Slim's more amusing chimps, going back to his covering of the Iraq war.

[narciso]

Here it is, the Democracy Initiative, is really the new shell of Soros's Democracy Alliance, with some new players, they are surprising unaware of their own players, as Brune seems to be:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01
/the_democracy_initiative_a_coup_in_plain_sight.html

[narciso]

The good professor, seems to be a little unselfaware, from this piece last year;

[narciso]

Sorry, a better link,

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/the_democracy_initiative_a_coup_in_plain_sight.html

[narciso]

He showed more insight, in other pieces, like this LUN

[narciso]

A year and a half out, he was very perceptive in deed;

http://www.ctc.usma.edu/posts/the-impact-of-bin-ladin%E2%80%99s-death-on-aqim-in-north-africa

even naming the unit, that would carry out the attack on Al Amenas

[Jane (A dog in the crate is better than one on the plate)]

Clarice,

As CC said, today's Pieces is both great and scary.

Bill Whittle does a decent job of rallying the troops (I haven't figure out if there is an easy way to link in Safari - anyone know?)

I do think the biggest problem we have now, is not giving up, and finding some energy to go on fighting. If it wasn't for JOM I would have dropped out on election day.

[Captain Hate]

David Plouffe on FNS with much unintentional hilarity and general waste of time. What an insignificant little maggot.

[narciso]

He also appears in Lake's very good piece,
note the contrast between him and the anonymous CIA officer, who thinks he knows
the jihadist scene better then the Algerians;

Geoff Porter, the president of North Africa Risk consulting, who has advised U.S. government clients and oil companies about political and security risks in Algeria, recalled a meeting in 2006 with Ali Tounsi, who was the director general of Algeria’s national police until he was murdered in 2010. Porter recalled how Tounsi said the U.S. “keeps extending invitations to visit Quantico or Paris Island, but they have nothing to offer that we don’t already know.” Porter added, “The view was Algeria had an extremely bloody counter-insurgency, and then after September 11, the United States launches its war on terror and comes parading all these goodies like counterterrorism cooperation.”

[clarice feldman]

Thanks, Jane. The fight for freedom is never over. It's something you can't run from.

[David]

So Geoff Porter is not a handmaiden of the Thomas Freidman school of know-it-all. Thank you Mr. Narciso for the education.

[narciso]

You can see, what a cafe con leche, can do in the morning. The administration brandishes UBL's head (or the notion of same)like a talisman, seemingly unaware of what he represented, I say seemingly because AQ arose right under Brennan's eye when he was station chief in Riyadh.

[narciso]

As bad as NY SAFE was, we cannot forget it could have been worse;

http://weaselzippers.us/2013/01/19/video-shows-democratic-attempt-to-hide-their-list-of-proposals-attacking-2nd-amendment-confiscation-release-of-permit-holder-names-database-of-all-guns/

[Captain Hate]

Disturbing and somewhat frightening Pieces by Clarice this morning. Do read her commenterss too - there are some excellent ones.

Yes to all of this, especially the comments that point out how hopeless the situation is with a gutless drone like Boehner leading the opposition.

[peter]

You really can't even call the Boehner brigade opposition. Dhimmis would more appropriately explain the role they are playing.

[henry]

Well narciso, they had IL's recent universal confiscation as a template.

[narciso]

And they had to pull even, even in the Lannister stronghold of Illinois (Game of Thrones) has some relevance, on occasion,

[narciso]

When you have a leadership that doesn't understand the opposition, that has no vision,
well we know what they said about that.

[Captain Hate]

Bill Kristol: When Americans were taken hostage there was no heads up for the US by Algeria on the "rescue" or even a request for help. Think about the implications of that.

[narciso]

I reviewed the incident that Lake referred to,
in the above Beast piece, back then, they really bought the story, it was an 'act of madness';

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE61O3IS20100225

The Huffington Post by contrast, suggested it was out of issues arising from a corruption investigation, but even seemed an incomplete conclusion

[Cecil Turner]

Think about the implications of that.

Yeah, they think we're feckless. Wish I could say they were misguided.

Still can't figure why intervention in Libya (or, for that matter, support for the ouster of Mubarak) was in our national interest. Whatever the reason, the lack of a follow-on plan for the obvious ramifications (and sequels, like Mali) is inexcusable. This may be simplistic and a bit paranoid:

Just one of those strange accidents and coincidences that only a crazy conspiracy theorist who believes that Islamists are setting the country’s foreign policy would assign any meaning to.

. . . but it's hard to argue that it's obviously wrong.

[narciso]

Interesting the late police director, appears in a cable by the US Ambassador in Algeria, Robert Ford, who is now our man in Damascus, who doesn't seem to have learned the lesson of 'playing with scorpions'

[AliceH]

O/T: Though I have essentially washed my hands of any interest in sports, I make an exception for the truly exceptional: Stan the Man.

Former Cardinals manager Tony La Russa used to get excited the few times he got to see Musial every year. “It’s a combination of as great a player you have and then, once you get to know him, he’s just as great off the field,” said La Russa. “That combination not only is to be admired and respected, it is to be loved.”

RIP, Stan.

Rest of (long) St. Louis Post-Dispatch article LUN.

[Rick Ballard]

What benefit could the Algerians have hoped for by discourse with the Lead From The Behind administration? They (and most of the world) give His Impotence the full measure of respect which he has so manifestly earned.

[narciso]

It's interesting, that some years ago, Stephen Coonts, described an ambitious Algerian jihadist with wider Continental ambitions

[Jim Miller]

Cecil - Years ago, I observed that many on the left think that we should usually not act in our national interest.

(This makes sense if you believe -- as many of them do -- that the United States is a too powerful nation, with much to be guilty about.)

So, for many leftists, the fact that there was no US national interest in the Libyan intervention was a plus, and for some leftists, almost a requirement.

Suppose that the Libyan rebels had offered us something in return for our intervention. Would that have made our intervention more attractive, or less attractive to our leftists?

I think less is the correct answer.

[narciso]

Well consider who the Libyan rebel top men, were, Bel Hadj, who was the head of AQ's lead franchise in the country, Hasady who had run the insurgent contingents into Iraq, and a Gitmo detainee, with ties to the Taliban, The notion you could rely on any deal with them, was a fool's game.

[Captain Hate]

So, for many leftists, the fact that there was no US national interest in the Libyan intervention was a plus, and for some leftists, almost a requirement.

Exactly; that's why the MFM blatantly shilled for the Bosnian war.

[narciso]

Bosnia, was where I first encountered the charming countenance of Mrs. Amampour, it's also where we found many of AQ's management team, apprenticed themselves.

[matt]

I wonder if they realize that this is some of the most godforsaken land on earth?

The Algerians have more experience in civil war and counterinsurgency from both/all sides that just about anyone in the world. Their strategy has always been a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to the face. They play for all the marbles.

And to call anything in Mali an elite force ignores the realities on the ground. Yes, they may have training, but they do not have the infrastructure nor the depth.

Giving them 20 Land Cruisers will have the same effect that it did in Afghanistan. 6 months later, 14 of them will be broken because of a lack of spare parts.

Besides, what they really need are probably what we here call sand rails, which are off road vehicles specifically designed for deep sand and flats. And oh yeah. Gas out in the middle of the endless desert is hard to find too.

And there seems to be little differentiation between Tuareg or other tribal groups who have been at war with central governments and the rag tag AQ's now proselytizing an already deeply religious audience.

Not a lot of depth to the analysis, it seems.

[bgates]

Why is it an "unhinged prophecy" when Ghadaffi predicts the same fate for Libya that the entire foreign policy establishment predicted for Iraq? And speaking of Iraq, since when did readers of the NYT need reminders sobering or otherwise that the euphoric toppling of dictators can come at a price?

[narciso]

One dissappointing realization from McCrystal's memoir is that he not only assiduously reads the Times, and actually takes it to heart, from what he includes in his footnotes.

[Danube of Thought iPad]

Smart diplomacy.

And Hillary will be the Dem nominee in 2016 because of her "qualificaions."

[narciso]

You know, even the Times is not totally useless,just mostly, from that Schmitt piece;

Two Defense Department officials expressed fear that a main leader of the Qaeda affiliate in Mali, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, was under growing pressure to carry out a large-scale attack, possibly in Algeria or Mauritania, to establish his leadership credentials within the organization.

[narciso]

Shirley he can't be serious;

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/01/david-plouffe-obama-is-going-to-push-his-ban-on-assault-weapons-through-congress-video/

[Jim Miller]

narciso - I'm not saying we should have made a deal with the Libyan rebels; I'm just using that hypothetical to illustrate my point.

[narciso]

I'm sure there were some deals, like those speculated upon Jim, probably by that Oil Minister, who ended up in the Danube, somewhat
like the fellow in that KillShot novel.

[Janet]

...been cleaning out some of my old papers...

It is just sickening to relive the caterwauling from the MFM over every event during the Bush administration.
Look at the fiascoes happening now. I can't believe Obama was reelected. What would the Dems do without the MFM propaganda machine?

Here's one from 2009 on enhanced interrogation techniques -

"And here's the list of all the lousy rotten liars aka members of the Congressional Democrat Caucus who were BRIEFED on EI:

Nancy Pelosi
Bob Graham
John Rockefeller
Jane Harman
Harry Reid
*Full Committee
John Murtha
Evan Bayh
Russ Feingold
Diane Feinstein
Carl Levin
Barbara Mikulski

Posted by: verner | May 07, 2009 at 10:25 PM "

Sultan Knish has another good post today - The Authenticity of Fake

"Obama is truly fake. He is authentically unreal. There is absolutely nothing to him. If you take away all the work that was done to make him famous, there would be nothing there. And that is exactly why he is the perfect avatar for the media age."

bold mine

[Captain Hate]

Oh this is wonderful: http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2013/01/18/west-point-center-cites-dangers-of-%E2%80%98far-right%E2%80%99-in-u-s/

[narciso]

Oh, we covered this earlier in the week, Captain, Perliger, the study's author, has got a bug up his butt, about most 'bitter clingers' across the board, including Israeli settlers, but unexpectedly not others,

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

--The NY Times discovers the dark side to the Arab Spring:--

There's a good side?

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

I love this story:

I hope there are lots more of them.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

I never thought nation building in Iraq was a good idea, but its strategic importance is undeniable.

It takes a certain genius to make the country which holds the town used worldwide as a joke for remote uselessness, Timbuktu, into the center of jihadi expansionism and world attention even while Iraq devolves into a virtual Iranian client and the tribes of Afghanistan run us out of town on a rail.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

BTW, OT but I was hanging ten whilst surfing channels this morning and stopped for moment on Lifetime when I saw this aged, stout gal who seemed vaguely familiar in a commercial for some gawdawful Lifetime was-she-justified-in-shooting-her-worthless-cheating-dog-of-a-husband murder movie.
Imagine my surprise when it said one of the stars was Kathleen Turner. A true horror flick.
What is it about LA that makes aging gracefully impossible?

[Captain Hate]

Kathleen Turner is barely more feminine than Truman Capote these days and scarcely more alive.

[lyle]

Ouch, CH!

[sbw]

Ig:I never thought nation building in Iraq was a good idea

Our goal should not be to "build" nations but rather clear exposition of what constitutes a functional nation and why.

Hell, we don't teach that in school and, as a result, professors don't know what to teach, pundits don't know what to report, and politicians don't know what constitutes disservice to the country.

[Jack is Back]

Clarice's article is very disturbing but not surprising.

Her commenters and their perspective are also disturbing but not surprising. The older the individual American experience the more patriotic and pessimistic for the future you seem to be. The biggest problem I see is what rse continues to beat the drum about - the degree and level of education our young are receiving about their country, its past and why we are exceptional (or should that be "why we were exceptional"?).

If we had a generation coming up that pesonified the same patriotic spirit and love of the Constitution that my Dad's "greatest generation" represented I would feel more secure for the future but I don't see it coming out of public education.

Its almost as if Social Security is funding the last patriots.

[Jack is Back]

iggy,

The University of Timbuktu was the oldest in the world and had over 25,000 scholars in every area of study, albeit priinciples of the Koran but also literature, medicine, mathmatics, arts, etc.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

Exceptional Pieces Clarice.
I well remember the overthrow of the old NRA guard in the 70's even though I was only in High School.
Cincinnati has the same meaning to a gun rights activist that Lexington and Concord do to a Revolutionary War buff.
There were many good people in leadership rolls but the organization as a whole was remarkably like, or in danger of becoming like the comfortable, accommodationist Republicans.

Neal Knox and his views were anathema, but he didn't give up and though he never made it to the top of the place himself [which was probably a god thing] and was eventually purged by his own allies because he could be extremely difficult, his and his cohorts efforts transformed the NRA into the juggernaut it became.

He also founded the excellent Rifle magazine.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

--The University of Timbuktu was the oldest in the world and had over 25,000 scholars in every area of study, albeit priinciples of the Koran but also literature, medicine, mathmatics, arts, etc.--

I have bolded the keyword, Jib.

Did Bugs Bunny even make it there on one of his wrong turns at Albuquerque?

[Jack is Back]

iggy,

Sorry. Mean't to add that is why the Jihadi's chose Timbuktu. It has the same reverance in those circles that Medina and Mecca have in Saudi Arabia. For the Islamists, Timbuktu, is where the holy grail is located.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

I probably didn't make myself too clear JiB.

I was trying to describe the special genius of an administration which can make bad situations in vital strategic areas like Iraq and Afghanistan much worse while unnecessarily destabilizing and elevating to importance the vast and utterly useless wasteland of the central and western Sahara.

[Captain Hate]

Our goal should not be to "build" nations but rather clear exposition of what constitutes a functional nation and why.

Hell, we don't teach that in school and, as a result, professors don't know what to teach, pundits don't know what to report, and politicians don't know what constitutes disservice to the country.

Spot on as usual, sbw.

[rse]

Clarice-I had read the original article and saw how it all fit. I even recognized how important the UN's Broadband Initiative that was financed here in ARRA like Race to the Top was to the Communications Worker.

But I had not read the Protein Wisdom link. Thanks. A lot of my initial insights were from tracking down the real definitions of terms being used duplicitously.

In fact I had planned to write this morning and was finishing up and saw a phrase my Gypsy Principal uses but this time it had the original theorizing psychologist attached. That has released a torrent of additional supporting docs. If I thought the story was tied with a bow on top before, looks like a could now make a mummy of ribbons.

That was a seminal name. Thanks Gypsy Super for sending in a moronic ideological fanatic thinking nothing could stop him now that you controlled local school board.

For the 2nd Amendment fans here all this impacts on precisely what drives the Joyce Foundation to push hard in its financing of certain ideas. I will explain that too. But not today.

ATL is nuts this afternoon. All the gated communities seem to have the front gates open to allow easy access to parties. You can find parking for Target because there's a wing factory with TVs there too that I'd never seen anyone in.

And I had to ask what time game was.

[Jack is Back]

Iggy,

I understood your point but wanted to point out Timbuktu's importance to the Jihadi community. The Arab Spring may have been Odummies coup d etat for true liberating democracy but it also created the incentive for AQIM to finally realize its formenting desire to retake Timbuktu and restore it to the centewr of Koran scholarship.

Some of these AQ types know there history and should not be discounted as stone-age mongrels. In fact, they know more about their history than Odummy knows about ours. That and what Clarice wrote about today is our biggest problem = people who hate us and a government who gives a flying f**k abou that.

[Jack is Back]

rse,

Mike Smith is a local guy, from Daytona and went to Father Lopez (the Daytona catholic high school). For that reason I am a Falcon's fan today. They better play the defensive game of their lives if they intend to win.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

While it is very possible that "turfmann" who wrote the first comment at Clarice's Piece's is squaredance's long lost twin, I have a hard time disagreeing with anything he said; worth reading.
With the rise of the Soros's, the Pelosi's and the Barry's of the world to the top of one of the great political parties in the US and the vanquishing of the Scoop Jackson-Hubert Humphrey-Sam Nunn, hell even the George McGovern wing of that party, it's clear what the endgame is.
They aim by hook or by crook to eventually assume complete power.
We all agree they have no respect for and despise the Constitution. It borders on the insane to think their intention is to replace it with something only slightly different.
It may take decades, even generations, for the thing to come to a head when the inevitable conflict arises and it is even possible it can still be corrected peacefully via the political process.
But things have a tendency to slide along seemingly stable until with a sudden rush all of the weaknesses and stresses converge and the dam breaks.
The USSR circa 1988 comes to mind, but there are a thousand other examples.
If it does we're going to find out what those millions and millions of guns are for.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

Just in case I'm seeming a little grim today, it has come to my attention that someone I've never heard of, a certain Jennifer Nicole Lee lost her bikini down narciso's way.
Not sure if she's famous for anything besides losing her bikini but what the heck, who cares? Plenty of people are famous for less useful talents.

[Danube of Thought iPad]

If I were like Al Sharpton, I'd announce that if semi-automatic weapons are banned I can't guarantee that some lawmakers won't be shot.

[hit and run]

Ig:
it has come to my attention that someone I've never heard of, a certain Jennifer Nicole Lee lost her bikini down narciso's way.

Purely accidental, to be sure. If we even speculate that an attention-seeking bikini model would ever purposely let her top come off to garner attention, the terrorists will have won.

[Cecil Turner]

If we even speculate . . .

Well, I certainly don't support mere speculation. However, I for one am willing to go over the photographic evidence very carefully in order to make an informed assessment.

[narciso]

The Daily Mail, always comes through in the link, for their diligence investigative skills,

[narciso]

I go the extra mile,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2180078/Jennifer-Nicole-Lee-just-manages-cover-ample-assets-bikini-slips-ocean-dip.html

[Frau Hab' es satt]

Commenter fron Clarice's sobering article:

What if 2,000,000 American citizens marched on Washington, D.C. this spring to let our wannabe lords and masters know we've had it up to here and we're not going to take it any more? Can you think of a good reason not to take back our nation from the "progressive" gangsters?

Janet, when the call goes out, tell Jess I'll be there.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

--Plenty of people are famous for less useful talents.--

--Purely accidental, to be sure.--

Trying to decide if a talent can be accidental.
I'd say the terrorists are in the lead by a nose.

[hit and run]

DoT:
If I were like Al Sharpton

I'd be lying if I said I didn't set out to photoshop Al's forehead and hair together with your face to illustrate just such a thing.

The effort was met with what could never be called success. Maybe "mildly entertaining" could be reasonably used to describe it.

In the end, I find myself gravitating toward helping Cecil reach an informed assessment regarding Ms. Lee.

To thwart the terrorists.

[Jack is Back]

So far, it looks like the Falcons want this one more. They are confusing young Mr. Kaepernick with their multi-look defenses and Matt Ryan is en fuego with Julio Jones and Tony Gonzalez is so far more spectator than factor. I like that - save him for when the Niners forget him then make the big play with him.

Of course the preceding is subject to the JiB rule - I am usually mostly wrong than right.

[narciso]

It would seem so, JiB, Falcons up 15-0, so far,
but maybe the Niners get their second wind, later in the game.

[Beasts of England]

Julio Jones is something special. And a fellow Alabamian. Wonder where he played college ball?

[narciso]

The Tide, Beasts,

[Jack is Back]

News you can use:

"Because of a flub at his first swearing-in, Obama will be the only president sworn in four times by the same Chief Justice, with Franklin Delano Roosevelt being the only president sworn in for four terms."

The Progs even lead in this record.

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

What if 2,000,000 American citizens marched on Washington, D.C. this spring to let our wannabe lords and masters know we've had it up to here and we're not going to take it any more?

We did that in 2009. The press reported a few thousand in attendance.

[narciso]

Btw, as someone who has followed Julianne's career, since the 'Hand that Rocks the Cradle, with exceptions, off course, she is becoming increasingly nazgul like, in the LUN, her zombified portrayal seems to be a feature, not a bug,

[Jack is Back]

Good thing his gun jammed.

And it involves Muzzies, Leftists and Bulgarians.

[caro]

Wonderful, Clarice. And thank you for giving a boost to that important article by Matthew C.

I read it so early this a.m. I have to go back and read the comments.

[narciso]

I noticed this other piece, illustrating the general denial of both papers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2265053/Julianne-Moore-52-heats-chilly-Sundance-racy-trousers-Don-Jons-Addiction-premiere.html

[maryrose]

Caro:
Glad to see you posting. How is the skiing your way?
CH: Kathleen Turner has MS and so that is taking its toll on her.
I hope the Atlanta Falcons win.
clarice: Another excellent article and hopefully a wake-up call.
Turning 63 isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Obama not having the big Inauguration hoopla on January 20th is in itself a great present.
Downton Abbey tonight. I've set a new record. I've been out to lunch or dinner three days in a row!

[narciso]

Soory, I meant this piece, and the fact that he used to be McClatchy, means brainslugs can be removed;

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/01/ny_times_and_wapo_islamist_terrorists_at_algerian_gas_complex_were_just_militants.html

[Jack is Back]

So far it iooks like the JiB rule has kicked into another gear.

BTW, who said government employees usually make more than their private sector counterparts? Well, duh, sure they do especially when their employee lets them steal at will.

They probably have the $30 I have paid for parking there two times.

[Beasts of England]

narciso@3:51 - Indeed. Word around the campfire is that he may have played only one or two games at his full capabilities whilst at The Capstone. Scary...

[daddy]

Well the story that caught my eye this morning is this one in the NYTimes:

Please Take Away My Right to a Gun

It's from some moron chick who suffers from "Depression."

Please take away my Second Amendment right. Do more to help us protect ourselves because what’s most likely to wake me in the early hours isn’t a man’s body slamming at my door but depression, that raven, tapping, rapping, banging for relief.

I have a better chance of surviving if I never have the option of being able to pull the trigger.

I personally would be glad to take away all her Amendments, not just the Second, because at the very bottom of the story the Times tells us:

Wendy Button is a former political speechwriter.

Nothing former about it. She's still thick in the political speechmaking business, and being given the biggest soapbox in the world to do it.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

A defensive slugfest.

[Jack is Back]

Told you they'd save Gonzalez for something special. But how can you lose a guy that big, that dangerous, that notable?

[narciso]

Well consider, there was little practical chance she would make any sense;

http://www.redstate.com/kowalski/2013/01/19/wendy-button-weighs-in-at-the-new-york-times/

[Captain Hate]

CH: Kathleen Turner has MS and so that is taking its toll on her.

Are you sure about that, maryrose? The wikitards don't have that and said she's suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and often drinks to excess to "deal with it". Every time I've heard her speak without the benefit of a script she sounds like she's in the bag.

Happy birthday; you're slightly younger than I.

[Frau Hab' es satt]

Jane, I suggest that we surround the WH this time and make sure we have our numbers even larger. Surely the threat against our liberties is even larger now.

[narciso]

She reminds me, of that crazy person, that James Fallows, used to validate his delusional asssessment of Obama's performance in office, no it wasn't Sullivan this time,

[rse]

Boy I turned tv on and the 49ers started to score. I am not sure I should watch the 2nd half.

I hate to think how many Atlantans started drinking by two.

Going to be a dangerous evening to drive around this town.

So I am making meat loaf later. I do have a missing spouse though.

[maryrose]

CH:
I always thought I was older than you.You are probably right about her illness. I also noticed her slurry speech and general looser demeanor. There is good medicine available for rheumatiod arthritis.
Who do you like in the Ravens/Patriots game?I just don't want the Ravens to win.