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March 27, 2011

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Flee the shores of Tripoli.

From the Persian Engulfment......
===========

Ignatz

Since Muammar has seemingly pretty much retired from the terrorism business and since eastern Libya sent more terrorists to Iraq and Afghanistan per capita, how de we know, on balance, he isn't doing us a favor by killing rebels?

bgates

It will be interesting to hear Barack explain all this on Monday night.

Gosh, his brackets are so bad he's turning back to playing Commander-in-Chief?

His basic point will be that doing nothing was not an option, and I think he is right

Could you flesh that out a little more, TM? He won raves just two years ago for proclaiming that "no nation can or should try to dominate" a government insistent on utilizing military aircraft against protesters, or revolutionaries, or folks out for a nice stroll after Friday afternoon service at the mosque. Personally, I'd be in favor of taking any opportunity that presented itself to kill Khadaffy, and repeating the exercise with the head of the next government should he turn out to be anything like as much trouble for us, but I don't understand why doing nothing - continuing to do nothing, really - was unthinkable.

Neo

Some are speculating that Biden opposed the Libyan "kinetic military action" and has been "sent to Coventry". Biden took a phone call about Libya from Obama while the president was on his Spring Break trip to Latin America and later had lunch with Obama when he returned to the White House. Biden's total lack of public comment on Libya is striking.

matt

Neo, you can't say much when there's not much to say (but then, that doesn't apply to Biden). I don't think they have a clue to what they are doing.They will inform us when they do, I'm sure.

In the meantime, I'm sure the people at the sharp end of the stick are fully confident Barry Basketball has their 6.

MayBee

By way of comparison, would Iraq have stayed in the news if a stable goverment had emerged and US troops were substantially home by Christmas of 2003? Doubtful. With that in mind, how likely is it that a stable, non-demented government of Libya will emerge by the end of 2011?

That's why it is so important Obama flesh out his thoughts about how Gadhafi must go and we aren't going to fight to make that happen as well as who it is we are aiding.

Iraq went wrong because the post-war effort didn't go as planned, and a vast number of people inside the country (and from outside) didn't act the way we thought they would. Instead, they started killing Iraqis. Will we be happy with that in Libya? Would we just walk away if that were the outcome?

narciso

TM, Tripolitana and Cyrenaica, not to mention
Fezzan, didn't stop Karamanli, (an Albanian, must like Mohammed Ali, in Egypt) from running the place, for the Ottomans, The former, I had read about in Hitchen's book on the special relationship. Just like the three vilayets of Mesopotamia, doesn't serve as an excuse for Iraq.

Captain Hate

Is there a Chinese embassy to blow up?

Danube of Thought

A bit cut off down here (which is just ducky, mind you), and so have no clue as to Enterprise's movements. If I had a dirty mind I would think that there was no purpose behind it other than to further Obama's studied effort to demonstrate that we are bit players in Libya.

I doubt that either Enterprise or Vinson is "in" the Straits of Hormuz, which is not a healthy place for a carrier to be. Whatever is their mission in the region, it can be accomplished with the carriers themselves at considerable distance.

Minus 16 at Raz today.

Cecil Turner

US casualties will be low to non-existent if we transition to supporting the air effort, so the public will be inclined to move on.

Not sure I entirely agree with this one. The surprising thing (so far) is the lack of aircraft shot down (except possibly one). Not that the old radar missile sites ever had a good chance (especially if we're willing to tomahawk them and the surrounding environs), but the ubiquitous IR systems have a better than fair likelihood of eventually downing something, and the odds get better as the war continues, as we concentrate on surface targets, if we transition to daylight attacks, and if we deploy slower-moving aircraft like the A-10. And while the casualties in numbers of personnel lost will almost certainly stay very low, the chances of losing some very expensive aircraft (and possibly having a captive or two) is actually growing. And I suspect the public will react very negatively when and if this happens.

clarice

Thanks, DoT. It's a puzzlement. I suspect zerohedge's take is a bit hyperbolic and that the movement is fairly normal.

"Fucking illegal"

Maguire's schadenfreude continues to spin
in circles of political narcissism.

Actually, the defensiveness of the Right on the question of the run-up to war and it's failed execution prior to the 'Surge' is a hopeful sign.

Your twaddling about Obama and Libya is redolent of the stench in your nostrils about the war of choice, Iraq. Your 'unpublicized' opinions on your secret posting site are no doubt full of criticisms of Bush and his war minions.

The legend of your criticisms lives on.

BTW; I finally saw the Tillman Story.
Disgusting is the only word I have for the cowards in the chain of Military command who found their low=level fall guy. (But he was just as culpable on the P4 memo, so no tears will be shed.)

anduril

U.S. Has Earth’s Largest Energy Resources. No other country except Russia is even remotely close to the US. Our energy resources "eclipse Saudi Arabia (3rd), China (4th) and Canada (6th) combined – and that’s without including America’s shale oil deposits and, in the future, the potentially astronomic impact of methane hydrates."

Have a nice day.

"Fucking illegal"

"and that’s without including America’s shale oil deposits and, in the future, the potentially astronomic impact of methane hydrates."

Don't forget natural gas and 'fracking' set to full=speed by Cheney.

You too, can find gas burning in your tap water.

PD

Dateline NBC filmed a truck exploding once, too.

bolitha

Is anyone ever banned from posting here? Just wondering.

anduril

"You too, can find gas burning in your tap water."

Great party trick.

anduril

"Is anyone ever banned from posting here? Just wondering."

no

bgates

I've seen references to Iraq and Yugoslavia, but isn't the better comparison to the Libyan no-fly zone the Iraqi no-fly zone? I don't remember that upsetting Clinton's popularity (or his predecessor's for that matter). We remember the circumstances under which Bubba had to ramp up the shooting, and probably the only way I'm confident Barry can't disappoint me is that I'm sure he won't be the subject of any rape allegations. Wouldn't it be nice for him, though, to be able to look into the cameras and calmly explain the gravity of the situation which required him to order the deployment of lots of American air power in, say, 17 months from today?

jimmyk

All that homogeneity was facilitated (as alluded to in the sidebar of the history article) by effectively forcing out the substantial Jewish population (Tripoli was 25% Jewish in 1940), as described in the LUN. Most fled to Israel, and Khaddafi confiscated everything from those who remained. One rarely hears that side of the story (which was repeated in most ME countries).

anduril

Phily and Aly (with piano accompaniment by Violet Tulloch, Queen of Lerwick} play two Cajun waltzes: Scottish Tradition : Aly Bain & Phil Cunningham 3.

anduril

Uh-huh, and in 1947-1950, and again in 1967, the Israelis did their best to replicate the process in reverse. And they're still at it with the illegal "settlements."

clarice

Some of those forced out were Gaddafi's relatives. His maternal grandmother was a Jewish woman who left her husband to run off with a Libyan sheikh---and the rest is history.

hit and run

"Is anyone ever banned from posting here? Just wondering."

no

Try typing the word seman-ti-cleo without the dashes.

Gmax

I see we have a rabid antisemite amounst us. The tell? Calling settlements built on land taken after being attacked without provocation, not once but at least three times, ILLEGAL. It takes a certain hubris to twist the English language in such a manner. I wonder if a Wagner melody was playing the background whilst he did type?

anduril

I stand corrected. Tried twice.

anduril

"amounst us" slanderous name calling substitutes for rational discussion.

anduril

Per Wikipedia:

An Israeli settlement is an Israeli civilian community on land that was captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank. Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and communities in the Golan Heights, areas which have been annexed by Israel, are considered settlements by the international community, which refused to recognize Israel's annexations of these territories. Settlements also existed in the Sinai and Gaza Strip before Israel evacuated them.

The International Court of Justice and the international community say these settlements are illegal, Israel disputes this. The United Nations has repeatedly upheld the view that Israel's construction of settlements constitutes violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Gmax

Inability to respond? Or just nailed to the wall?

jimmyk

His maternal grandmother was a Jewish woman

Clarice, I had forgotten that story. If it's true, then he's technically Jewish and could make his exile in Israel.

hit and run

Not that that bans a person -- just use of a name. Hence we get posts by "No Fucking Clue" or whatever he calls himself at any given time.

Gmax

slander btw is spoken. Maybe you were looking for a more German phrase?

anduril

I call illegal what is illegal. Inability to respond? No, refusal to descend into your gutter.

Frau Atomkraft Ja!

"Is anyone ever banned from posting here? Just wondering."

And ruin the social networking?

anduril

OK, defamation. Why would I look for a German phrase?

Gmax

The Hague and the UN? You dont say. Perhaps you could quote the PLO too, and/or Amnesty International and thereby hit the Trifecta? LOL

anduril

Fine, I'll bite: what, in your opinion, would constitute a valid authority on those issues?

Gmax

I dont dialogue with rabid antisemites. Sorry.

anduril

Unable to respond. Nailed to the wall.

Gmax

for the edification of non antisemites here, I will post this ( well and as a way of tweaking of the nose again of our anti semite by showing him hoisted upon his own petard):

Stephen Schwebel, formerly President of the International Court of Justice, notes that a country acting in self-defense may seize and occupy territory when necessary to protect itself. Schwebel also observes that a state may require, as a condition for its withdrawal, security measures designed to ensure its citizens are not menaced again from that territory.

Sound at all familiar? LOL
S

Gmax

Its the Joooooos. Cmon you know you want to say it.

Danube of Thought

You can impose your own personal ban with the felicitously-named Narcisolator. You'll be amazed at what a joy this site once again becomes. The post-adolescent who lives in his mother's basement and can't get laid, the low-level FBI bureaucrat with the never-visited blog--they disappear with nary a trace. Excelsior!

Army of Davids

ObamaCare favor waiver for NYC?

Weiner The Future.

Army of Davids

ObamaCare favor waiver?

Weinning.

Cecil Turner

I've seen references to Iraq and Yugoslavia, but isn't the better comparison to the Libyan no-fly zone the Iraqi no-fly zone?

I don't think so. The Iraqi no-fly zone was subsequent to a properly authorized military action, after disrupting or destroying the bulk of the Iraqi armed forces, and after the stated war aims were complete. The Libyan "no-fly zone" in fact targets ground forces (a la Kosovo), is a stand-alone effort (a la Kosovo), and was not authorized by Congress (which is closer to Kosovo than the others).

Gmax

OK found the script. Need to figure out how to add the names to block. Is there a cheatsheet someplace? Thanks a bunch.

centralcal

Gmax: I found an old comment by Rick Ballard that gives step-by-step directions (actually, the whole thread in this section discusses how to do it.)

Danube of Thought

My recollection is that the no-fly zone in Iraq was a term of the truce. Regrettably, it neglected to proscribe flights by helos, which Saddam the used to inflict substantial slaughter.

VCU by ten with under nine minutes left...

By whom or how, even kim doesn't know.

I was banned for over a year.
===============

centralcal

Is that why you disappeared for so long, Kim? You couldn't access JOM? how weird is that!

hit and run

The "Snows of Kilimanjaro" thread will always be my favoritest. Read it all to the end.

But I also was off the net for awhile last year.

Yeah, right through the Libby trial. I was at Maine Web Report, liveblogging JOM.
========

centralcal

O/T. Residents in a Vacaville, CA neighborhood have been evacuated because pipe bombs were placed inside their Sunday newspapers. One poor fellow injured and flown to hospital.

Good grief, what is wrong with people?

anduril

Cmon you know you want to say it.

You appear to be the one who gets the jolly out of saying it.

Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet

OT:

VCU is about to oust Kansas from the bracket. 10 points ahead with 26 seconds to go.

clarice

big fur hat has fun
http://www.americanthinker.com/ishtar1.jpg

Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet

VCU and Butler in the final four. And one of them is going to play for the championship. Whodathunkit. Bet this throws the Obomba picks in a cocked hat. His performance there is similar to his command of strategery.

Danube of Thought

No number one seed in the Final Four. First time ever, I think.

centralcal

The "Snows of Kilimanjaro" thread will always be my favoritest.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha . . . some jokes just never get old! (that would be sylvia)

Danube of Thought

Wrong: it's the third time.

Gmax

OK anyone with a sharp eye tell me what I have missed, as I am not quite there yet. This is a cut and paste from the script text:

var knownTrolls = new Array();
knownTrolls[0] = /add JOM user name here/;
knownTrolls[1] = /anduril/;
knownTrolls[2] = /Sylvia/;
knownTrolls[3] = //;


Thanks for the assist.

hit and run

centralcal:
(that would be sylvia)

The proper appellation (for me anyway),is "my dear friend sylvia".

I am on tenterhooks hoping to hear from her. I am worried what the super moon might have done to her.

I won

I just want to know why nobody told me about the secret posting site.

bgates

You convinced me, Cecil.

VCU beats Kansas by 10.

The President, who was widely celebrated for picking 29 of 32 games in the first round, has slid since then: 9 of 16 right in the second round, 4 of 8 in the third round. None of his Final Four picks were correct.

A game of college basketball lasts 40 minutes of game time, has a simple binary outcome, and involves no more than 25 men (counting players, coaches, and referees).

By the time the whole thing is finished, rounds 2-6 of the tournament will have involved 31 such games, and the President - who has spent literally thousands of hours watching and playing basketball over the past 35 years - will have correctly predicted the outcomes of 13 of them.

His failure to make a handful of correct predictions about a group of relatively simple situations in a subject he's very familiar with will not shake his confidence in his ability to dictate the efforts of the tens of millions of people who spend their working lives in the myriad of occupations involved in providing health care across this country.

pagar

"gates-no-vital-us-interests-at-stake-in-libya/"

LUN

Amazing!

hit and run

"He'll be the worst chief executive on the North American continent since Montezuma."
--stuff bgates said on the day of Obama's inauguration

Well. Away we go:

Montezuma Asks: Miss Me Yet?

Cecil Turner

OK anyone with a sharp eye tell me what I have missed . . .

I don't know much about this, but my script looks slightly different. Here's a paste:

var knownTrolls = new Array();
knownTrolls.push("anduril");
knownTrolls.push("bunkerbuster");

don't know if it's a different version (mine's on a PC, using notepad as an editor), or if the parentheses and quotes are necessary, but mine works.

centralcal

Another fun flashback to an earlier fun thread:

Actually one time I won big in small claims. No use to talk about it because no there was no need to complain about it. I had a smart judge that time, which encouraged me to try again, however, I learned later on that a lot of judges were not as good. A lot weren't even lawyers. So now I can pretty much look at a judge and tell whether I will win or lose by seeing how smart he seems.

However, in the meantime, I have made more legal contacts and have gotten more legal knowledge about taking it to the next step. Next time I will be more prepared.

This is when she sent her "threatening" letter to Tom Maguire.

Good times, good time.

centralcal

Cecil: that is what I typed into my array too. But, now with the new Firefox version 4.0 I can't find it (luckily it is still working, but what if I want to add another name?)

PD

Wow, he's gone.

(Installed narcisolator, edited, restarted FF, bingo.)

Unfortunately, I prefer Safari...

So, if the U.S. has no strategic interests in Libya, we're there ... why?

Danube of Thought

If you download FF 4.0, do you lose the text-formatting toolbar? If so, is there a way to get it back?

hit and run

Up with Baja!

PD

I went to Tools -> Add-ons, typed in "format" in the search field and the toolbar came up as one of the possibilities.

centralcal

Yes, DoT. You can add Text Formatting Toolbar in FF 4.0. It is now included as a regular Add-On, like PD says.

MaryD

I downloaded the narcisolator, but there is no edit function. The only buttons are remove and disable. FWIW, I just upgraded to Firefox 4. Any ideas?

caro

Wow! Ayers says he wrote Dreams. Video at AT.

PD

Let's try it out: bold ital strike

Hmm. It's just as easy to type the tags manually.

Then again, I prefer editing DocBook in vi, so maybe it's to be expected I'd come to that conclusion.

PD

MaryD, you could try your computer's search function to locate "narcisolator.user.js" and open that with your favorite editor.

PD

So Ayers says this last Thursday and we're just hearing about it now?

Guess it's not important, MFM?

centralcal

Oh. Dear. God! This is NOT a photoshop.

Where does Narciso keep the "goggles" and eye bleach?

PD

That man needs to run for president.

centralcal

I have the same problem, MaryD. Cannot find a way to edit the Narcisolator script. Search function as recommended by PD returned zilch.

Sara (Pal2Pal)

DOT: Just be sure you are using version 0.1.4.10 for the Toolbar. It is so nice to have it back.

centralcal

I should mention that the Bloomberg photo comes via NYDN via Weasel Zippers.

Sara (Pal2Pal)

Have I mentioned that it is CADBURY EGG TIME! And honor of cathyf's birthday, I went and bought two boxes just for me. Happy Birthday Cathyf!

Jim Ryan

caro, Ayers has said that before, to a blogger (I forget which) in an impromptu exchange last year. At the time, I got the impression the story didn't have legs because people thought Ayers was being flippant and was simply angry at Obama.

(Another) Barbara

The video at AT shows Ayers making that "admission" sarcastically, following with a jibe about waiting to collect royalties. He's done the same thing in the past, so for once I can't blame the MFM for failing to report it.

I have little doubt that Ayers wrote "Dreams," (boring, humorless, self-aggrandizing book I could not finish)but I'm afraid that video didn't provide the confession.

Don't you hate it when a middle-aged male adult wears earrings in both ears? One is bad enough.

Rick Ballard

MaryD - CC,

You have clicked Tools - Greasemonkey - Manage User Scripts from the FF toolbar, right? Narcisolator should show up in a pop up box with an Edit button on one side and Disable and Uninstall buttons on the other side.

Yeah it's me Cleo

Sorry, I took a handful of downers, drank a large glass of Popov and barfed on some lady at the grocery store. Really cranky because of, well, the whole personality disorder thing is, let's just say, not getting any better.

Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet

I found it interesting that when Ayers said that he wrote Audacity, a female voice in the (presumably lefty) audience shouted "yes, we know". 'Sup with dat?

Melinda Romanoff

I run on Opera for a browser and the grasemonkey script is called Tumblr Savior.

It has entry fields for your personal Blacklist.

Most convenient.

I use Opera for the "Speed Dial" feature at launch, a 5 X 5 grid of selected favorites to launch immediately from a new tab. Very fast and a major time saver, for me.

maryrose

I am excited about VCR and Butler in the Final Four.Now it looks like Kentucky and UConn unless UNC makes a run.

daddy

Captain Hate,

Help. I can't get the darn game on TV over here. Am limited to an ESPN spot Ticker that only posts the score.

47- 41 with 14 minutes to go and Kentucky over the Heels.

Quick, I need a synopsis. What's going on? Are we playing lousy and tentative, or is Kentucky pounding us down low?

Frau Atomkraft Ja!

"Up with Baja!"
Terrific, hit. I have a sweat shirt with "Free Tectonic Plates" on it.

Ah, Jim Ryan! When do we get to see the photos of you "After" the 90-day plan?

DebinNC

Kentucky up by 4 with 8 minutes to go. Now a timeout.

Agent J. (formally known as "J"..

Daddy it looks like NC has the same problem that Kansas had earlier.Can't get the ball in the basket, or to go thru.

MaryD

PD, tried your suggestion and got nowhere. The file wouldn't open. Rick, I don't get a pop up or an edit button, even after temporarily disabling popups.
Thanks for your help.

MaryD

Should say thanks for your help, but I must be doing something wrong.

scott

"I took a handful of downers, drank a large glass of Popov and barfed on some lady at the grocery store"

Hey, You're reading Keith Richards "Life" too? Great book.

clarice

AP says Pentagon admits carrier moved away from Libya diminishes our firepower there.

http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap_us_us_libya.html

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