Christine Todd Whitman, James Woolsey, John Podesta and Karen Harbert recently debated energy policy and focused on the pros and cons of nuclear energy at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
I was channel flipping and caught this debate. I think a search of dee illuminati would find that I have always been appreciative of James Woolsey and Christine Whitman. What impressed me was that the two sides were essentially advocating the same goals.
I guess what was really different about the discussion is that it is so unlike what we consume on TV as news or what is politicized. Consider when Ann Coulter degenerates into her tourette syndrome attacks, where when she leaps off subject and just makes a statement that leaves you wondering if that crazed look in her eyes is an act? You appreciate a rational republican position, you like and trust Christine Todd Whitman. On energy, Woolsey doesnt need an introduction and mentioned "Peak Oil."
The irony of course is that there was oncensus on so many points when psychotic politicians are absent.
Worth catching and the link has a stream and download.
And the winner of the debate?? The audience, they were treated as adults instead of being fed WWF wrestling.
It is a damn shame these two don't run together for office
Friday, May 29, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
My Daddy blah blah is afraid of prosecution
This is why nepotism and torture doesn't work. I picked up both speeches on Thursday from C-span. I believe that the POTUS has handled the issue about as well as could be handled and that the reservations about a "lack of a plan" are a political red herring.
I will await the next election and attempt to ask as many Republicans as possible to support or repudiate the former VP's assertions about torture.
This clip pretty much sums up my previous posts.. nepotism and war crimes. Not pretty is it?
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Obama auto emmisions and efficiency controls
"The status quo is no longer acceptable," Obama said in an announcement that will pressure carmakers to transform and modernize the industry to produce more efficient vehicles. Barack Obama
Indeed the status quo is no longer applicable.
Plateau theory drives Total to oil sands
As I read the news I follow the news that matters, the policy that matters, and the facts behind modern economics. I follow oil in all it's permutations.
I liked the title: America’s Energy Future: The National Security Risks of Business as Usual
I feel a sense of urgency on this issue, and if the American people are called to responsible action will respond. The segment "A Direct Appeal" in the report must be made.
I feel that the auto emmisions standard was the beginning of this appeal and that this is the right direction.
This lifelong Republican calls that "change we can believe in."
I'm optomistic that after we perform allot of floundering about and allot of unnecessary pain as a culture western society will make the required changes... I just want to see those changes made as quickly and smootly as possible.
Our consumption habits and lifestyles must change pretty rapidly, it is as if this generation might be looked back upon as the 'greatest generation' not for what we asked of others, but what we offered of ourseleves.
This legislation should have passed years ago, it is a good day.
Indeed the status quo is no longer applicable.
Plateau theory drives Total to oil sands
As I read the news I follow the news that matters, the policy that matters, and the facts behind modern economics. I follow oil in all it's permutations.
I liked the title: America’s Energy Future: The National Security Risks of Business as Usual
I feel a sense of urgency on this issue, and if the American people are called to responsible action will respond. The segment "A Direct Appeal" in the report must be made.
I feel that the auto emmisions standard was the beginning of this appeal and that this is the right direction.
This lifelong Republican calls that "change we can believe in."
I'm optomistic that after we perform allot of floundering about and allot of unnecessary pain as a culture western society will make the required changes... I just want to see those changes made as quickly and smootly as possible.
Our consumption habits and lifestyles must change pretty rapidly, it is as if this generation might be looked back upon as the 'greatest generation' not for what we asked of others, but what we offered of ourseleves.
This legislation should have passed years ago, it is a good day.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Summing up the issue? Or prelude to an investigation?
There has been many books written after the congressional hearings into the "intel failure" that lead to the Iraq war. I see a trend; no matter what the fact: CIA is the dumping spot of the politicians. There is one thing to be learned here beyond the allegations and that is that intelligence is not a craft, science, or a programme but instead an art of politics.
I think the "facts be damned" and that it is the general rule that you stick your finger in the air, get a sense of which way the wind is blowing, and then create a product that reflects that concensus.
I often posted about the book by Hoffer the The True Believer. In that book there is a segment about the "after effects" of mass movements. In essence the identifying trend of a mass movement is that it is repudiated and the organizers of the movement "consumed" to use Hoffers words by the movement.
Why is that important? It is that society has a genetic drive to make sense of these events. And in history we do so. This whole issue is like a live-time unfolding Hoffer mass movement. And the fallout is still unknown.
It is a opportunity for education if one has the capacity to view it objectively.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
"Ultimately, it is up to Congress to evaluate all the evidence and reach its own conclusions about what happened,"
Quote: Leon Panetta
I posted on this topic previously, this issue is not going away.
Wilkerson "has made a cottage industry of fantasies about the vice president," she said on ABC's "This Week."
I think that Liz is responding to the assertions:
[E]ven when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney’s office that their detainee “was compliant” (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP’s office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa’ida-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, “revealed” such contacts. Of course later we learned that al-Libi revealed these contacts only to get the torture to stop.
And the story:
THE ISLAMIST terrorist who was the key source of the false intelligence used to trigger the US and UK 2003 military invasion of Iraq has been found dead in a Libyan prison cell.
Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi allegedly commited suicide by hanging in the prison where he was being held in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. His death followed a visit by a team from Human Rights Watch, one of the world's leading independent organisations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights.
The al-Libi affair opens a window on an extraordinarily close espionage link that existed between the government of the former US president, George Bush, and the authoritarian Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.
Al-Libi was the unnamed source that Bush, his former secretary of state, Colin Powell, and other administration officials relied upon prior to the Iraq invasion to assert that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was helping a terrorist organisation run by al-Qaeda. Al-Libi was known to Powell and Bush by the codename "Curveball".
And for clarification:
How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball'
This raises more questions than are answered.
An investigation by The Times based on interviews since May with about 30 current and former intelligence officials in the U.S., Germany, England, Iraq and the United Nations, as well as other experts, shows that U.S. bungling in the Curveball case was worse than official reports have disclosed.
Meanwhile (as the suicide occured) Woman in Rendition Case Sues for Immunity
The lawsuit asks the court to order the government to invoke diplomatic immunity, provide her with legal counsel in Italy and pay her legal bills and other costs associated with the case.
State Department officials declined to comment, noting that the case is at a highly sensitive stage.
I wonder what the former Deputy Secretary of State Elizabeth Cheney thinks of the case?
This ain't going away.............
I posted on this topic previously, this issue is not going away.
Wilkerson "has made a cottage industry of fantasies about the vice president," she said on ABC's "This Week."
I think that Liz is responding to the assertions:
[E]ven when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney’s office that their detainee “was compliant” (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP’s office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa’ida-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, “revealed” such contacts. Of course later we learned that al-Libi revealed these contacts only to get the torture to stop.
And the story:
THE ISLAMIST terrorist who was the key source of the false intelligence used to trigger the US and UK 2003 military invasion of Iraq has been found dead in a Libyan prison cell.
Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi allegedly commited suicide by hanging in the prison where he was being held in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. His death followed a visit by a team from Human Rights Watch, one of the world's leading independent organisations dedicated to defending and protecting human rights.
The al-Libi affair opens a window on an extraordinarily close espionage link that existed between the government of the former US president, George Bush, and the authoritarian Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.
Al-Libi was the unnamed source that Bush, his former secretary of state, Colin Powell, and other administration officials relied upon prior to the Iraq invasion to assert that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was helping a terrorist organisation run by al-Qaeda. Al-Libi was known to Powell and Bush by the codename "Curveball".
And for clarification:
How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball'
This raises more questions than are answered.
An investigation by The Times based on interviews since May with about 30 current and former intelligence officials in the U.S., Germany, England, Iraq and the United Nations, as well as other experts, shows that U.S. bungling in the Curveball case was worse than official reports have disclosed.
Meanwhile (as the suicide occured) Woman in Rendition Case Sues for Immunity
The lawsuit asks the court to order the government to invoke diplomatic immunity, provide her with legal counsel in Italy and pay her legal bills and other costs associated with the case.
State Department officials declined to comment, noting that the case is at a highly sensitive stage.
I wonder what the former Deputy Secretary of State Elizabeth Cheney thinks of the case?
This ain't going away.............
Thursday, May 14, 2009
More questions than answers on torture
I have to categorize the decision not to release photos of the abuse and torture as a pragmatic decision that will reduce the harm as a consequence of the acts. I see no reason to further exasperate the circumstances where soldiers and populaces meet and these photos would be circulated.
Do We Really Need To See Photos of Children Being Raped and Sodomized in Front of Their Mothers in Abu Ghraib?
For clarity to the reference above:
"Debating about it, ummm ... Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."
I don't think so. But I think that they should be used to investigate the decision to use torture. I think that the assertion that torture was used to make the case of non-existent WMD requires investigation.
We also now know that techniques, including waterboarding, had already been employed, and that those briefing me in September 2002 gave me inaccurate and incomplete information.
I think what I find interesting is that we cannot use the photos as part of a basis for an investigation to find out if all people were prosecuted as Cheney suggested, inquire if the torture was used to support claims of WMD, and finally establish a timeline of when legal briefs were offered, when torture began and under what directives, and finally: when the abuse was understood who called for an end to the activity?
JEDDAH, 16 November 2005 — Liz Cheney, US deputy
She claims that the rumors about torture in American prisons are untrue, the idea that American liberation of Iraq resulted in more terrorism is wrong, and that Afghanistan is “absolutely better” and the world safer after removing the Taleban from power. She said that Syria and Iran are a concern for the United States, that capturing Osama Ben Laden is not a key issue in winning the war on terrorism and that new methods need to be used in this war.
..................
On the reports about torture in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and violations of Geneva Convention, she said that what happened in Abu Ghraib was a crime and not America’s policy and those who perpetuated the crime were tried and will be punished.
......
Cheney defended the US success in the war on terrorism both in Afghanistan or Iraq. “What made Saddam dangerous was not only the stockpile of weapons he had but also he had the scientists who had the technology to make these weapons; we know that they were working with and training Al-Qaeda members. The danger was not necessarily of giving the weapons to the terrorists but that the technology would fall in the hands of terrorists,” she said.
I don't think this post could be complete without this observation.
Q Sir, taking on Charlie's question a bit -- and I can give you actual examples from coalition forces who talked to me when I was over there -- about excesses of the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, and that is in dealing with prisoners or in arresting people and how they're treated after they're arrested. What are the obligations and what are the rights of the U.S. military over there in dealing with that? Obviously, Iraq is a sovereign country now, but the United States is responsible for training and expects to turn over the security mission to them. So what is the U.S. obligation in addressing that, preventing that? And what can we do? And what are we doing?
SEC. RUMSFELD: That's a fair question. I'll start, and Pete, you may want to finish. But we are working very hard to train and equip the Iraqi security forces. So is NATO. So are some neighboring countries. There are a lot of people involved in this and dozens of countries trying to help train these Iraqi forces.
Any instance of inhumane behavior is obviously worrisome and harmful to them when that occurs. Iraq knows of certain knowledge that they need the support of the international community, and a good way to lose it is to make a practice of something that's inconsistent with the values of the international community. And I think they know that.
Now, you know, I can't go any farther in talking about it. Obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility when a sovereign country engages in something that they disapprove of; however, we do have a responsibility to say so and to make sure that the training is proper and to work with the sovereign officials so that they understand the damage that can be done to them in the event some of these allegations prove to be true.
Q And General Pace, what guidance do you have for your military commanders over there as to what to do if -- like when General Horst found this Interior Ministry jail?
GEN. PACE: It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it. As an example of how to do it if you don't see it happening but you're told about it is exactly what happened a couple weeks ago. There's a report from an Iraqi to a U.S. commander that there was possibility of inhumane treatment in a particular facility. That U.S. commander got together with his Iraqi counterparts. They went together to the facility, found what they found, reported it to the Iraqi government, and the Iraqi government has taken ownership of that problem and is investigating it. So they did exactly what they should have done.
SEC. RUMSFELD: But I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it.
GEN. PACE: If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it.
Q If I may follow up. To what extent do you think these allegations of abuses by the Iraqi security forces, particularly some of the complaints and allegations from Sunni Iraqis that the largely Shi'a security forces are engaged in abuses, to what extent do you think that's an indicator that the Iraqi military -- Iraqi security forces are not yet ready to assume control of the country?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I don't think it is. I mean, you're going to have allegations back and forth. We're deeply concerned by -- that there could be conflict among the various elements in that country after the end of major combat operations, and there hasn't been, and that's a good thing. First of all, what we're doing is we're prejudging these remarks and allegations and reports, and I just can't do that. And what's going to happen is the Iraqi government is going to be formed after the December 15th election in two weeks -- whatever -- and it'll be seated by the 31st of December. The --
Q So it's your sense that these abuses are not a widespread problem that threaten the --
SEC. RUMSFELD: I -- my sense is I don't know. And it's obviously something that one has to be attentive to. It's obviously something that the -- General Casey and his troops are attentive to and have to be concerned about. It -- I'm not going to be judging it from 4,000 miles away -- how many miles away? --
GEN. PACE: It's a long ways.
SEC. RUMSFELD: It's a long way -- 5,000, 6,000 maybe.
Yeah?
The point is that there was no "government" aside from the following:
Following the invasion, the United States established the Coalition Provisional Authority to govern Iraq.[35] Government authority was transferred to an Iraqi Interim Government in June 2004, and a permanent government was elected in October 2005. More than 140,000 troops, mainly Americans, remain in Iraq.
And for the record: I think the POTUS was wise to hold back the photos but needs to hold some invstigations.
So lets reiterate:
Elizabeth Cheney states that torture is a violation of the Geneva convention and should be prosecuted.
Rumsfeld wants it reported:
SEC. RUMSFELD: But I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it.
General Pace says there is an obligation to stop it.
GEN. PACE: If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it.
And I make the observation that Congress needs to investigate it.
Just too many unanswered questions about torture.
Do We Really Need To See Photos of Children Being Raped and Sodomized in Front of Their Mothers in Abu Ghraib?
For clarity to the reference above:
"Debating about it, ummm ... Some of the worst things that happened you don't know about, okay? Videos, um, there are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at Abu Ghraib ... The women were passing messages out saying 'Please come and kill me, because of what's happened' and basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children in cases that have been recorded. The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. And the worst above all of that is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking that your government has. They are in total terror. It's going to come out."
I don't think so. But I think that they should be used to investigate the decision to use torture. I think that the assertion that torture was used to make the case of non-existent WMD requires investigation.
We also now know that techniques, including waterboarding, had already been employed, and that those briefing me in September 2002 gave me inaccurate and incomplete information.
I think what I find interesting is that we cannot use the photos as part of a basis for an investigation to find out if all people were prosecuted as Cheney suggested, inquire if the torture was used to support claims of WMD, and finally establish a timeline of when legal briefs were offered, when torture began and under what directives, and finally: when the abuse was understood who called for an end to the activity?
JEDDAH, 16 November 2005 — Liz Cheney, US deputy
She claims that the rumors about torture in American prisons are untrue, the idea that American liberation of Iraq resulted in more terrorism is wrong, and that Afghanistan is “absolutely better” and the world safer after removing the Taleban from power. She said that Syria and Iran are a concern for the United States, that capturing Osama Ben Laden is not a key issue in winning the war on terrorism and that new methods need to be used in this war.
..................
On the reports about torture in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and violations of Geneva Convention, she said that what happened in Abu Ghraib was a crime and not America’s policy and those who perpetuated the crime were tried and will be punished.
......
Cheney defended the US success in the war on terrorism both in Afghanistan or Iraq. “What made Saddam dangerous was not only the stockpile of weapons he had but also he had the scientists who had the technology to make these weapons; we know that they were working with and training Al-Qaeda members. The danger was not necessarily of giving the weapons to the terrorists but that the technology would fall in the hands of terrorists,” she said.
I don't think this post could be complete without this observation.
Q Sir, taking on Charlie's question a bit -- and I can give you actual examples from coalition forces who talked to me when I was over there -- about excesses of the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Defense, and that is in dealing with prisoners or in arresting people and how they're treated after they're arrested. What are the obligations and what are the rights of the U.S. military over there in dealing with that? Obviously, Iraq is a sovereign country now, but the United States is responsible for training and expects to turn over the security mission to them. So what is the U.S. obligation in addressing that, preventing that? And what can we do? And what are we doing?
SEC. RUMSFELD: That's a fair question. I'll start, and Pete, you may want to finish. But we are working very hard to train and equip the Iraqi security forces. So is NATO. So are some neighboring countries. There are a lot of people involved in this and dozens of countries trying to help train these Iraqi forces.
Any instance of inhumane behavior is obviously worrisome and harmful to them when that occurs. Iraq knows of certain knowledge that they need the support of the international community, and a good way to lose it is to make a practice of something that's inconsistent with the values of the international community. And I think they know that.
Now, you know, I can't go any farther in talking about it. Obviously, the United States does not have a responsibility when a sovereign country engages in something that they disapprove of; however, we do have a responsibility to say so and to make sure that the training is proper and to work with the sovereign officials so that they understand the damage that can be done to them in the event some of these allegations prove to be true.
Q And General Pace, what guidance do you have for your military commanders over there as to what to do if -- like when General Horst found this Interior Ministry jail?
GEN. PACE: It is absolutely the responsibility of every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being conducted, to intervene to stop it. As an example of how to do it if you don't see it happening but you're told about it is exactly what happened a couple weeks ago. There's a report from an Iraqi to a U.S. commander that there was possibility of inhumane treatment in a particular facility. That U.S. commander got together with his Iraqi counterparts. They went together to the facility, found what they found, reported it to the Iraqi government, and the Iraqi government has taken ownership of that problem and is investigating it. So they did exactly what they should have done.
SEC. RUMSFELD: But I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it.
GEN. PACE: If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it.
Q If I may follow up. To what extent do you think these allegations of abuses by the Iraqi security forces, particularly some of the complaints and allegations from Sunni Iraqis that the largely Shi'a security forces are engaged in abuses, to what extent do you think that's an indicator that the Iraqi military -- Iraqi security forces are not yet ready to assume control of the country?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Oh, I don't think it is. I mean, you're going to have allegations back and forth. We're deeply concerned by -- that there could be conflict among the various elements in that country after the end of major combat operations, and there hasn't been, and that's a good thing. First of all, what we're doing is we're prejudging these remarks and allegations and reports, and I just can't do that. And what's going to happen is the Iraqi government is going to be formed after the December 15th election in two weeks -- whatever -- and it'll be seated by the 31st of December. The --
Q So it's your sense that these abuses are not a widespread problem that threaten the --
SEC. RUMSFELD: I -- my sense is I don't know. And it's obviously something that one has to be attentive to. It's obviously something that the -- General Casey and his troops are attentive to and have to be concerned about. It -- I'm not going to be judging it from 4,000 miles away -- how many miles away? --
GEN. PACE: It's a long ways.
SEC. RUMSFELD: It's a long way -- 5,000, 6,000 maybe.
Yeah?
The point is that there was no "government" aside from the following:
Following the invasion, the United States established the Coalition Provisional Authority to govern Iraq.[35] Government authority was transferred to an Iraqi Interim Government in June 2004, and a permanent government was elected in October 2005. More than 140,000 troops, mainly Americans, remain in Iraq.
And for the record: I think the POTUS was wise to hold back the photos but needs to hold some invstigations.
So lets reiterate:
Elizabeth Cheney states that torture is a violation of the Geneva convention and should be prosecuted.
Rumsfeld wants it reported:
SEC. RUMSFELD: But I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it's to report it.
General Pace says there is an obligation to stop it.
GEN. PACE: If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it.
And I make the observation that Congress needs to investigate it.
Just too many unanswered questions about torture.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Steele: On Moderates
All you moderates out there, y'all come. I mean, that's the message," Steele said at a news conference. "The message of this party is this is a big table for everyone to have a seat. I have a place setting with your name on the front.
"Understand that when you come into someone's house, you're not looking to change it. You come in because that's the place you want to be." .......
"That vote on the stimulus bill was the effectiveness of a party call," he said. "That was a stand-up moment for every Republican.... And so, you voted yourself out of the party. We didn't kick you out." ......
Steele - who appeared to be the only African-American in the room Friday - said when he visited a Maryland Republican Party dinner in the mid-1980s he was "obviously a stranger in the room." But he said he was quickly embraced and rose to county party chairman two years later. From there, he went on to become state party chairman and lieutenant governor. ........... "The problem isn't that Americans are less conservative," he said. "It's that our credibility with them is shot. It's that we left them along the side of the road on our way to drinking that Potomac River water, getting high on power and influence and forgetting how we got where we are."
Well I'm from Maryland, I'm a Republican, and I was active in the 80's as well. I also supported the stimulus plan under Bush and Obama. In fact as I read the article I thought back to those days in the 80's when we supported Wayne Gilchrest against Roy Dyson, when we offered a simple solution; heh lets run an honest person who will not get intoxicated by the Potomac waters. And years later Wayne was not drunk on personal power or corrupted and yet not Republican enough.
I wonder who the GOP thought was the door to door foot soldiers? Who were these people that drove Dorchester county and posted signs at the firehouse, psoted signs in yards, went door to door and on election day helped get out the vote of the elderly?
Let me say again, in this blog I stated that I would "hold my nose" and vote for the aid to the economy. I said this as an American and a pragmatist with experience in finance, brokerage trading, private sector business, and international finance. I did not vote myself out of the party.
As a matter of fact if Steele claims his start as I do at the same time in MD, I propose that he "vote himself out of the party" as this is still my party as well. My blog has long supported Sen. Warren, Sen McCain, Sen Hagel, Colin Powell, Wayne Gilchrest, and other moderate republicans. If truth be told the party has been hijacked by a segment of the party who were marginalized when we "built the party" back in the 80's and 90's.
I'm glad that there is a recognition that there was a "drinking of koolaid" an intoxication of power. And I still think that the GOP doesn't get it. I think the GOP "gets it" when they reconnect with the Mainstreet Republican's. I think the GOP gets it when they stop claiming a monopoly on the ideas of the party and what divides, but instead focus on a gameplan ahead that people can participate in.
But lets get real.. there is no litmus on being Republican and seeing the systemic default risk, seeing a crisis, acting decisively, and supporting the market intervention. As a matter of fact what was irresponsible was starting two wars and going on a drunken spending spree, what made that "republican?" I mean it took this "new type of republican" to suggest a pre-emptive war, tax cuts, and an expansion of police state powers while waving a fetus to bring the GOP where it is at today.
I just want to point out two things, I have been republican as long as Steele has, that we both have but one vote, and that the only real difference is that I'm not seriously advocating that Steele leave the party, or that he has "voted himself out of it."
There is a serious absence of ideas and pragmatic solutions and approaches to the challenges we face where we hear the same old tired out rehearsed wedge issues from the now fully discredited pundits of the right.
Yeah we need new faces, new attitudes, and a new approach to imagining that the GOP is a "house party being hosted at our house."
Lets try taking the party back into the public, back into the library meeting room, and lets stop pretending that the party is "owned" by the few and instead belongs to us all.
If you try that approach that worked close to a quarter century ago you will foind that it works and that the people who will be unwelcome are the ones that don't want to observe those observations made above.
It's not your party... It's our party.. get use to it!
"Understand that when you come into someone's house, you're not looking to change it. You come in because that's the place you want to be." .......
"That vote on the stimulus bill was the effectiveness of a party call," he said. "That was a stand-up moment for every Republican.... And so, you voted yourself out of the party. We didn't kick you out." ......
Steele - who appeared to be the only African-American in the room Friday - said when he visited a Maryland Republican Party dinner in the mid-1980s he was "obviously a stranger in the room." But he said he was quickly embraced and rose to county party chairman two years later. From there, he went on to become state party chairman and lieutenant governor. ........... "The problem isn't that Americans are less conservative," he said. "It's that our credibility with them is shot. It's that we left them along the side of the road on our way to drinking that Potomac River water, getting high on power and influence and forgetting how we got where we are."
Well I'm from Maryland, I'm a Republican, and I was active in the 80's as well. I also supported the stimulus plan under Bush and Obama. In fact as I read the article I thought back to those days in the 80's when we supported Wayne Gilchrest against Roy Dyson, when we offered a simple solution; heh lets run an honest person who will not get intoxicated by the Potomac waters. And years later Wayne was not drunk on personal power or corrupted and yet not Republican enough.
I wonder who the GOP thought was the door to door foot soldiers? Who were these people that drove Dorchester county and posted signs at the firehouse, psoted signs in yards, went door to door and on election day helped get out the vote of the elderly?
Let me say again, in this blog I stated that I would "hold my nose" and vote for the aid to the economy. I said this as an American and a pragmatist with experience in finance, brokerage trading, private sector business, and international finance. I did not vote myself out of the party.
As a matter of fact if Steele claims his start as I do at the same time in MD, I propose that he "vote himself out of the party" as this is still my party as well. My blog has long supported Sen. Warren, Sen McCain, Sen Hagel, Colin Powell, Wayne Gilchrest, and other moderate republicans. If truth be told the party has been hijacked by a segment of the party who were marginalized when we "built the party" back in the 80's and 90's.
I'm glad that there is a recognition that there was a "drinking of koolaid" an intoxication of power. And I still think that the GOP doesn't get it. I think the GOP "gets it" when they reconnect with the Mainstreet Republican's. I think the GOP gets it when they stop claiming a monopoly on the ideas of the party and what divides, but instead focus on a gameplan ahead that people can participate in.
But lets get real.. there is no litmus on being Republican and seeing the systemic default risk, seeing a crisis, acting decisively, and supporting the market intervention. As a matter of fact what was irresponsible was starting two wars and going on a drunken spending spree, what made that "republican?" I mean it took this "new type of republican" to suggest a pre-emptive war, tax cuts, and an expansion of police state powers while waving a fetus to bring the GOP where it is at today.
I just want to point out two things, I have been republican as long as Steele has, that we both have but one vote, and that the only real difference is that I'm not seriously advocating that Steele leave the party, or that he has "voted himself out of it."
There is a serious absence of ideas and pragmatic solutions and approaches to the challenges we face where we hear the same old tired out rehearsed wedge issues from the now fully discredited pundits of the right.
Yeah we need new faces, new attitudes, and a new approach to imagining that the GOP is a "house party being hosted at our house."
Lets try taking the party back into the public, back into the library meeting room, and lets stop pretending that the party is "owned" by the few and instead belongs to us all.
If you try that approach that worked close to a quarter century ago you will foind that it works and that the people who will be unwelcome are the ones that don't want to observe those observations made above.
It's not your party... It's our party.. get use to it!
Kryptos sculpture
The next clue will include geomancy and the celtic working cross, compass, rose cross, compass rose.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass_rose
See
Before the development of the compass rose, a wind rose was included on maps in order to let the reader know which way the cardinal directions pointed within the plan view. No differentiation was made between cardinal directions and the winds which blew from said direction. North was depicted with a fleur de lis, while east was shown as a Christian cross to indicate the direction of Jerusalem from Europe.[1]
The last clue is interactive and the coordinates were given for that purpose. A sculpture would take geomancy and those crafts into consideration and have knowledge "along those lines."
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