Osama, We Hardly Knew Ye

Dan Drezner describes the fade of Al Qaeda.  He does not emphasize the point but his argument is part of the case against the build-up in Afghanistan.

MY STRATEGY FOR REVIVING AL QAEDA: Kevin Drum explains that, as a member of the enlightened left, he realizes that this whole terror thing is overdone but really, the left must learn to pander to, or a least establish some rapport with, the Great Unwashed who don't want to get blown up.

Such equanimity!  Of course, the real issue is that Al Qaeda is a bunch of ethnics with anti-Western aspirations, so what's for a lefty to not to like?  But I know plenty of lefties who run in fear from apples or salad if you mention pesticides or preservatives, and where is the equanimity and calm assessment of risk there?

If Al Qaeda really wants to terrify the Enlightened Left they should announce their incorporation and declare some profit objectives.

Comments

[Clarice]

tea party supporters who are for Huckabee are certainly schizophrenic. Aren't they? What of this populist social conservative fits the mold of a party organized around cutting govt reach and spending and retuning to our roots as a federal republic?

[narciso]

He is the Republican version of Carter, or Dukakis, as the case may be.

[Pagar]

"as a member of the enlightened left, he realizes that this whole terror thing is overdone"

or

How terrorists infiltrate every aspect of US government.

Keep in mind that a Muslim (Rep Keith Ellison) now heads the largest leftist group in Congress, the 80+ member Progressive Caucus.

[Clarice]

Exactly--with a little Elmer Gantry and Ed Rollins thrown into the mix.
But Politico says we like him. HEH

[Danube of Thought]

If you pause and think about it for a bit, this administration's somnolence about Assange and WikiLeaks is the most astounding display of ineptitude we have yet seen. Just extraordinary.

[Ignatz]

About to leave for a few days so will be under radio silence, but in reading the thread just wanted to note that Dave Brubeck grew up about ten miles from where I live and Angelo Codevilla, I recently learned from a friend, currently lives about ten miles from me.

[Danube of Thought]

The L.A. Times tells us of the Mahometan mindset:

"Reporting from Beirut — A majority of Muslims around the world welcome a significant role for Islam in their countries' political life, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, but have mixed feelings toward militant religious groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah."

How lovely to discover that adherents of this barbarous faith have "mixed feelings" about a murderous terrorist organization.

[Janet]

He is the Republican version of Carter, or Dukakis, as the case may be.

So true. I consider myself an evangelical Christian, & Huckabee is the LAST Republican I would vote for out of who is interested so far.

[Clarice]

It's a religion tailor made for tyrannical rulers, I think.And the widespread illiteracy and poorly educated masses in Islamic countries make the populations ready targets for those espousing international mayhem.

[Clarice]

Thank you, Janet. I was hoping you'd agree.

[Uncle BigBad]

Phyllis Schlafly said, "Huckabee destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas."

[Janet]

The WaPo always loved Huckabee when he was Gov. of Arkansas...Style section full of humerus stories about him. That tells ya something right there....

[Rick Ballard]

TC,

Spengler rings the bell on the demographic shift. I believe his remarks regarding the Tea Party to be correct but I'm beginning to view it as an agent of change for the Republican Party rather than a truly separatist movement. It will be very interesting to see how many of the oligarchs will allow themselves to be beaten into swords versus the number who will be dragged kicking and screaming onto the tumbrels.

Maybe Jane can be persuaded to keep her own public Jane's List of those having assigned seating for the '12 Tumbrel Ride? I know that Lugar already has a seat reserved. Who's next?

[glasater]

Lookee here...

Obama's War on Chris Christie

[Porchlight]

I find Huckabee to be a likable guy, but I don't want him to be President.

Love Liz Cheney, but she hasn't ever been elected to anything. I've already had a dozen conversations with Republicans concerned about Palin's lack of experience, so I just don't see how that's going to fly.

[Old Lurker]

Damn. Lucky me I jumped to the last three posts and agree with Rick, Glasater and Porch (as usual).

Rick...if the Reps accept the TP as the agent of change they need, then the Reps will survive and thrive. If they do not, then the separist Constitutional Party will take root and in a decade or two it will thrive and the Reps will go the way of Whigs and Bullmooses.

Porch, I LOVE Liz C but as we were watching her last night my wife said EXACTLY what you said. To which I remarked that "of course we will elect, someone with no elected office, we just did". My wife cannot imagine falling for Sara for all the usual reasons, fair or not.

[Mark Folkestad]

Jane, it would be nice if an enthusiastic endorsement of Liz Cheney could transfer Sarah Palin's appeal. But then I have to agree with Porch that the critics would still dump on Liz for not having had elective experience, despite her wonderful service that was substantial, unlike the vague, phantom experience of Mr. "Present" Obama.

Clarice, and others, I'm at unease with Huckabee. My nostrils flare, as if I'm detecting the distant trace of skunk. That's not saying that he is one, of course, but something about him just doesn't sit right with me, a sense that he just isn't one of us at heart.

[Pagar]

Link for the 10:58 post by DOT.

A majority of Muslims around the world welcome a significant role for Islam.

Bonus question: Do you believe that the religion that Keith Ellison and Andre Carson represent is different than the religion of the people in the linked picture?

[Old Lurker]

Ditto that Mark re Huckabee. If the Reps go there, they have not a clue.

[Mark Folkestad]

Be prepared for flack from next Sunday's "Sarah Palin's Alaska". The episode features Sarah taking that ghastly Kate Gosselin with the eight kids. I'm sure that TLC demanded the tie-in with its reality show that does fit the scummy description of reality shows. I can't imagine that Sarah would want to be associated with such shallow, superficial trash.

[Sue]

Don Meredith died.

[Sue]

My gosh, I posted those words and it just now hit me how sad that makes me. Sort of like losing a member of the extended family. Rest in piece, my favorite Dallas Cowboy from the little town east of me that he talked about all the time. As late as last year he said his home was in NM but he would always be from Mt. Vernon. Rest in piece, fellow East Texan.

[Sue]

I should have said "turn out the lights, the party's over"... ::sigh::

[Sue]

Good grief...rest in "peace". That was a horrible typo.

[Cecil Turner]

I can't imagine that Sarah would want to be associated with such shallow, superficial trash.

Never watched K+8, but a quick check of the spoilers suggests it went about as well as could be expected . . . for Sarah. This bit had me chuckling:

Then Kate and her kids land at the campsite. Quickly, Kate proves to be a bigger pill than a horse tranquilizer.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Maybe Jane can be persuaded to keep her own public Jane's List of those having assigned seating for the '12 Tumbrel Ride? I know that Lugar already has a seat reserved. Who's next?

Rick, Just as soon as I figure out what you are saying, I will be happy to do it? Are you talking about tea party targets? Boy that's one job I'd happily assume. Who do we have so far?

it would be nice if an enthusiastic endorsement of Liz Cheney could transfer Sarah Palin's appeal. But then I have to agree with Porch that the critics would still dump on Liz for not having had elective experience,

And if one of those criticizing voted for Obama I would laugh at them until the tears flowed. Puhlease!

[Mark Folkestad]

RIP, Dandy Don.

[daddy]

Still no word yet on whether Kepler murdered Tycho in the Observatory with Mercury poisoning. But of interest was this bit from a current read today giving a little more background on Kepler.

When Bishop Ussher of Ireland was doing his calculations trying to figure out how old the Earth was (according to Scripture) he turned to Kepler for some professional advice.

Part of the equation turned on the birthday of Jesus. Dionysius Exiguus in the 600's had pegged Jesus's birthday as happening in 1 BC. By Ussher's time there were new guesses of 2 BC and 3 BC. But Kepler had noticed in the Historian Josephus the following:

"As for the other Mathias who had stirred up the sedition, Herod had him burnt alive, together with his companions. And that very night there was an eclipse of the moon."

According to Jposephus this eclipse took place in the spring, shortly before Herod died, so Jesus must have been born before it. Anyhow, Kepler was such a cerebral astronomical geek, that apparently from current astronomical phenomena, he was able to create a reliable table of Lunar eclipses back through history, and they days and times they probably occurred. He was able to determine that there were no Lunar eclipses in Judea in 3 BC. There was one in 2 BC, but it was in summertime, not in spring. But in 4 BC there was one at 3 am on the morning of March 13th, 4 BC. Kepler figured this had to be the one mentioned by Josephus, and Ussher ran with this new number that Jesus was probably born in 4 BC.

So Usher added a one to his chronology of the death of Nebuchadnezzar, carried the begots, and wound up with 22 October (6 pm) 4,004 BC.

Go Kepler!

[Hugh Dudgeon]

Who's next?
Miss Lindsey Gramnesty is top of my list.

[Captain Hate]

Style section full of humerus stories about him.

They have stories about his upper arm bone?

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

LOL

[Danube of Thought]

God bless the Danderoo.

[Dave (in MA)]

I don't watch much TV, but my wife had on the show last night and I managed to catch a few minutes. It kind of reminded me of that old Curt Gowdy show from when I was a kid.

[sbw]

DAG SINTERKLAASJE, DAG, DAG
dag, dag Zwarte Piet!
Dag Sinterklaasje, dag, dag,
luister naar ons afscheidslied

[Mark Folkestad]

"The American Sportsman" with Curt Gowdy. It was a great show, before the MSM decided hunting (especially) and fishing were politically incorrect.

[Sue]

There is another famous football player who played for Green Bay that is from my home town. He played about the same time as Dandy Don. Both came out of SMU. You would never know Forrest Gregg was from around here though. He never, ever mentioned his home town, even though we have athletic fields named after him, fighting heart awards named after him, yada yada. He wasn't and isn't as proud of his home town as Dandy Don Meredith was. So, I say Eff You Forrest Gregg and I shed a tear for Don Meredith.

[Captain Hate]

God bless the Danderoo

He wasn't a bad quarterback; in fact I cheered for him (don't tell any of my fellow Redskins fans) against the Packers because Green Bay was so gawdawfully boring, but that was in vain. He made a name for himself on MNF because he wasn't a bloviating windbag (was Cosell version 1.0 of Biden?) or a faceless see-no-evil shillboy (I'm ignoring that the great Keith Jackson briefly did play by play initially); in fact he had the right balance of insight and down-home humor.

[Janet]

Style section full of humerus stories about him.

"They have stories about his upper arm bone?"

Okay, so I misspelled it & then hit the wrong spell check "suggestion"...I refuse to correct it. That's how I roll. :)

[Danube of Thought]

I remember the night Cosell showed up for the MNF broadcast obviously shitfaced. During the first break ABC decided he had to be yanked, so after the commercial Meredith and Gifford were on the set alone and Dandy Don said "Well, Howard won't be with us the rest of the night--he's gotten sick. In fact, he got sick all over my boots."

[Captain Hate]

Janet, I wanted a non-troll to hit you with friendly fire.

DoT, Cosell tried to 'explain' being in the bag by claiming he had an inner ear infection. I guess that might be true in that his ear didn't hear the voice of his conscience saying "Don't have any more drinks" at least a half-dozen times.

Kathy Griffin was on a USO tour according to Tammy Bruce? WTF! She got booed by the troops for teeing off on Bristol Palin and reacted by chanting "War is Hell". Seriously, is there anybody that's a grownup in the civilian government?

[Porchlight]

Dandy Don was the best. RIP.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

I refuse to correct it. That's how I roll

You go girl! I wouldn't even have known it was misspelled which was why the Cap'n comment struck me so funny.

[Janet]

I know...I appreciate the friendly fire. I can't spell at all. Gave me a chance to use Jim Ryan's "That's how I roll!" Hah!

[Thomas Collins]

My memory of Dandy Don is that he had a great sense of humor, modest but not too self-deprecating, and, although he never talked tough, he was a really rugged guy with a solid arm who could take a hit in the pocket, get right back up and hit Bob Hayes or Lance Rentzel with a long pass on the next play. I always thought he was underrated as a QB because he never did anything with any angst.

[Pagar]

Ann @02:22 AM had a great Palin photo. Anyone know how I can find a 8 x 10 of that?

[Ann]

pagar:

I got it from twitter.

http://twitpic.com/3ddjt9

Artgal AZ

[Pagar]

Thanks Ann! I printed it, it came out in color and I have it framed and on the wall.

Wish I could get it in about 24 x 36 for the couple of liberals that show up here every once in a while.