When She Whose Name Is Not Spoken (The Hildebeast, Hillary Clinton) was Secretary of State, she was supposed to only use a government email account, and nothing but a government email account. You know, hackers, spies, terrorists, and the like could possibly hack into her Hildebeast@aol.com emails without anyone being the wiser.
She was not about to let investigators, oversight committees, or even historians have a look at what she's doing for foreign governments to generate money for the Clinton Foundation (and the $$$'s came rolling in, BTW.)
This is supposed to be a scandal.
But let's look at this from the point of view of a Martian, or someone who has been living under a rock for the last 30 years. Or just because it would be a new experience, let's really think about this thing....
This is the person who was involved in:
*Whitewater
*Travelgate
*Filegate
*Chinagate
*Vince Foster dying for her sins
*Benghazi
*The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (LOL)
and....
*The Great Cattle Futures Scandal
All of which prompted the late great William Safire to solemnly intone that "Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad realization that our First Lady -- a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation -- is a congenital liar.
This was in the New York Holy Times, BTW. So should this email thing be viewed as a legit scandal, or not? I say no. The scandal is that Barack Obama wanted to give this lying twit a government email account.
For legal, personal, ethical, campaign finance, and ridicule-protection reasons, most 2016 presidential candidates are not yet saying that they are a 2016 presidential candidate.
But political operatives are already producing attack videos cleverly designed to hurt the other side.
The actor in this video is a guy named Jason Tobias. Nobody knows who really did the singing, but it wasn't Tobias. I don't know who had the idea to produce this thing. I don't know who gathered the background shots. Whoever did it was a genius.
Republicans will be playing this thing at parties and rallies for decades. Hell, I might start a Libertarian PAC to have it aired during the Super Bowl.
She Whose Name Is Not Spoken will never, ever recover from this. This is the dirtiest trick I've ever seen.
Behold: The redneck, white trash, Ford F-150, bulldozer, soccer mom-country, flies on the baby, ticks on the dog, "Stand With Hillary" campaign video.
This morning's Google logo features a heartwarming drawing by Sabrina Brady called "Coming Home".
I can't imagine what this feels like for a kid - being reunited with a parent who has been in harm's way for months and months.
But it's getting to the point where you can't go to a football or baseball game without seeing an orchestrated surprise reunion between a soldier/sailor/airman and his family. These things are great. But they distract us from the bigger issue.
We have enough Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine and Coast Guard personnel on active duty to put a soldier, sailor, pilot, marine or coast-guarder at every 20 feet of the U.S.'s borders. I figured it out the other day. Every 20 feet.
On the other hand, we have Secretary's Of State like John Kerry, She Whose Name Is Not Spoke, Condi Rice and Colin Powell wandering the earth, sticking our noses into other people's bidness, drumming up more and more business for Lockheed and General Dynamics.
Do you think that maybe, just maybe, fewer soldiers would experience tearful reunions if we kept John Kerry at his house for a couple of years?
Tonight the Liberty Book Discussion Group will study Hillary Clinton's inspirational classic "It Takes A Village".
Join us as we discuss why it's best that Washington's charismatic social-climbers join with you in raising your children, planning their diets, providing their healthcare, evaluating their fitness, dominating their educations, and teaching your little offspring to work for them and only them.
While this is a departure from our usual "free minds and free markets" approach, it's time that we opened our minds to the concepts that have made Europe the creative and economic hotbed that we see today.
So come and learn more about self-enrichment through "public service". 7:00 p.m. tonight. Feel free to bring your own children to this event. We will arbitrarily appoint someone from the group to provide childcare.
And please join us next month as we discuss Ms. Clinton's investment masterpiece "How I Turned One Grand Into A Hundred Grand By Betting On Cattle Futures", co-authored by her supporters who just happened to lose $100,000.00 at the same time.
We'll be meeting 7:00 p.m. April 1st, at the Border's Books & Cafe at 1996 Vince Foster Lane, Whitewater Arkansas.
We don't talk much anymore.
I acknowledge that I'm a sinner.
Except for Christmas and some Youth Sundays, I haven't made it to church in about three years.
I've said horrible, horrible things about three of my Brothers In Christ, George W. Bush and Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Perhaps I've made Gary Johnson into a false idol.
But I've worked really hard to get our children and grandchildren some relief from their parents' and grandparents' ridiculous government debts. I've worked hard for gay marriage. I've led discussion forums about the right of self-defense and gun rights and the 2nd amendment. I've advocated the complete and utter destruction of Ben Bernanke's government money printing press on Blue Mound Road, mostly because inflation hurts poor people so much.
I've even tried to be Moses. I've taken a look at the number of black men that Barack Obama keeps in steel cages for marijuana offenses, and I've said "BARACK OBAMA!!! YOU HYPOCRITICAL POT-SMOKING S.O.B. !! LET YOUR PEOPLE GO !!"
I recently acted as preacher/priest/rabbi in a secular wedding. I bet you were proud.
Balance all that Libertarian Goodness against my continued violations of almost every known commandment, and it probably comes up even. That's the only reason I'm coming to you, asking just one little favor.
This website (do you have to hit links if you're God?) says that Jeb Bush, who is George W.'s brother and GHW Bush's son, will probably be the Republican nominee for President in 2016.
This website says that She Whose Name Is Not Spoken will probably be the Democrat nominee for President in 2016.
Please let this happen, God. Please, please, please. I'll go to church every Sunday for one complete calendar month. Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. Please, please, please.
If voters are given the choice between Gary Johnson and the princelings from a couple of entitled hereditary monarchies, life will be almost too good for words. Gary Johnson vs. Bill Clinton's wife vs. George Bush's brother. Can you imagine those two royal families arguing that a commoner should be excluded from the presidential debates???
In spite of today being Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, I'm going to go to work. Please don't hold that against me.
Here's the print that our Narcissist In Chief is peddling on his campaign site.
I'm not the first person to notice the similarities to another image that's been in the media lately. Here are the hand prints of our Libyan embassy staff.
Way to go with that "Smart Diplomacy", guys.
What in the hell made anyone think Bill Clinton's wife would be any better at representing us and keeping a lid on this mess than, say, Sarah Palin's husband?? Four years working from a safe Congressional seat in upstate New York??? Sitting through HillaryCare meetings? Making up fantasies about running across Serbian airfields under fire (along with the comedian Sinbad and Chelsea and some random singers?)
Don't bother praying for the troops.
Don't go to the hassle of putting a yellow ribbon sticker on your car.
Discontinue your practice of going nuts every time an army reserve unit unrolls a giant USA flag before a NFL or MLB game.
If you really want to support the troops, vote Libertarian.
We'll get their feet back underneath their Mamas' tables.
We are the only party that wants to bring the troops home NOW.
We have no business over there. We're making things worse. If you had to get past Chinese checkpoints and barracks to get home from work, you might be bombing attacking some embassies yourself.
Long-time readers of these pages and my Facebook rants often assume that I have a deep and abiding hatred of Barack Obama.
It ain't so.
Obama promised to "spread the wealth around", and he's done his best to fulfill that promise, even though it has been disastrous for the economy overall. The Porkulus bill was insane, but it hasn't cost any more than our recent wars against people who didn't attack us.
I can quibble over Obama's broken promises to shut down Gitmo, his failure to bring home all the troops, and his general squishiness on gay marriage (until recently).
Compared to the Republicans, though, Obama has been a George Washington of honesty. How the GOP can call itself "small government" after one Reagan and two Bushes remains a mystery. In 2010, for the offices where we didn't have a Libertarian candidate on the ballot, I voted Democrat. I'm sick, sick, sick of Republicans giving "small government" a bad name, especially the Republicans who are affiliated with the Religious Right.
So let me know what you think of these suggestions for next week's Democrat Convention at Bank Of America Arena. These are listed only as a public service.
1) Ron Paul supporters are pissed. I mean they are royally pissed. They've been kicked out, shown the door and dumped on.
Ron Paul is anti-war, pro-gay/lesbian marriage, anti-drug war, and anti-Federal Reserve. It wouldn't hurt Obama to come out swinging against any more overseas adventures, and he could pledge to bring Hillary back to the house. He could promise to legalize weed. He could personally invite Ron Paul to speak at the Democrat convention !! Who knows what would happen??
It would be difficult for Obama to speak out against Bernanke's counterfeiting operation at the Fed, but he could let Biden do it, since nobody takes Biden seriously anyway.
All of this would be total B.S., but how many pledges and promises made at conventions and State Of The Union events are anything else?
2) Trot out Bill Clinton as much as possible. Clinton (and Gingrich) turned in a few years of balanced budgets. He semi-reformed welfare. He introduced NAFTA. Yeah, he made a few failed stabs at an early version of ObamneyCare, but that was just to keep Hillary out of his hair so he could mess around with interns.
Al Gore banished Clinton during his presidential run. But the man has now been reformed and rehabilitated. We did well while Bill was in office. Obama should simply pretend that Clinton is the candidate.
3) Keep Elizabeth ! Warren !! out of the convention hall. Disinvite the woman from her current prime-time slot. Obama was channeling Warren when he uttered his disastrous "You Didn't Build That" line. That stuff probably plays well wherever Warren teaches, but it doesn't resonate with the folks who are having to pay ridiculous taxes to pay government contractors too much money for substandard services. Have her call in with diarrhea.
4) IMHO, Joe Biden is now officially stark, raving mad. Paul Ryan is a bailout loving and TARP loving and stimulus loving Republican who has repeatedly voted for disaster while campaigning for sanity. All that having been said, nobody cares about those votes except Libertarians.
Despite his inconsistencies, Paul Ryan is also going to rip Joe Biden's head off.
It's going to be brutal. There is no point in it, no reason to broadcast this massacre during prime time when some of our children might still be awake.
Biden couldn't even put away Sarah Palin.
The Democrats don't want Biden going up against Ryan. It's gonna be ugly, ugly, ugly.
For a while, there was a "Draft Hillary" movement floating around, but she's even more polarizing than Biden.
What to do, what to do.....
How about this: Barack Obama should have Biden appear on Day One of the convention, and have him make his standard, goofy speech. Then Biden should claim that he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Express regret that he can't continue to carry on the fight against the other side. The press won't demand a medical diagnosis from anyone; Hell, they print every word that Obama/Biden say without skepticism.
Day Three: Obama comes out, makes his speech, and declares that ________ __________ is now his choice for Veep.
I think these four proposals would work for him.
He'll never do any of this.
There's no money in it for his supporters/owners.
So in the meantime, I hope you'll support a candidate who has pledged to give us the small government that Republicans have failed to provide, and the civil liberties that Democrats have failed to provide......
From the New York Holy Times. I've inserted ONE paragraph into this ridiculous story that is not authentic. Most of this story is genuine State Department / Military Industrial Complex bullshit excuses for making money at the world's expense.
Only one paragraph was inserted to ridicule these war profiteers. Can you find it?
U.S. Restores Aid to Egypt in Move Favoring American Industry
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: March 24, 2012
WASHINGTON - An intense debate within the Obama administration over resuming military assistance to Egypt, which in the end was approved Friday by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, turned in part on a question that had nothing to do with democratic progress in Egypt but rather with American jobs at home.
A delay or a cut in $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt risked breaking existing contracts with American arms manufacturers that could have shut down production lines in the middle of President Obama's re-election campaign and involved significant financial penalties, according to officials involved in the debate.
Since the Pentagon buys weapons for foreign armed forces like Egypt's, the cost of those penalties - which one senior official said could have reached $2 billion if all sales had been halted - would have been borne by the American taxpayer, not Egypt's ruling generals.
The companies involved include Lockheed Martin, which is scheduled to ship the first of a batch of 20 new F-16 fighter jets next month, and General Dynamics, which last year signed a $395 million contract to deliver component parts for 125 Abrams M1A1 tanks that are being assembled at a plant in Egypt.
"In large part, there are U.S. jobs that are reliant on the U.S.-Egypt strong military-to-military relationship," a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under rules set by the department. In deciding how to proceed, the official said, Mrs. Clinton and her colleagues "were looking at our overall national security goals, as well as any domestic issues."
Mrs. Clinton's decision to resume military assistance, which has been a foundation of United States-Egyptian relations for over three decades, sidestepped a new Congressional requirement that for the first time directly links arms sales to Egypt's protection of basic freedoms. No new military aid had been delivered since the fiscal year began last October, and Egypt's military has all but exhausted funds approved in previous years.
Mrs. Clinton's decision provoked sharp criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum, as well as human rights organizations. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, criticized it as "beyond the pale."
Referring to Egypt's recent decision to prosecute four American-financed international advocacy organizations, Mr. Paul added, "It sets a precedent that America will not punish its aggressors but instead give them billions of our taxpayers' dollars."
Mrs. Clinton used her authority under the new law to waive a requirement that she certify Egypt's protection of human rights. That she would not certify that the military had complied was in itself a rebuke to Egypt's transitional military leaders, who have moved slowly to yield power and to lift a decades-old state of emergency, but it nonetheless allows the Egyptian military to continue to arm and equip its forces.
"The secretary's decision to waive is also designed to demonstrate our strong support for Egypt's enduring role as a security partner and leader in promoting regional stability and peace," the State Department's spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said in a statement. Both the military assistance and an additional $250 million in economic and political assistance also required Mrs. Clinton to certify that Egypt was upholding the Camp David peace accords with Israel, which she did on Friday.
The statement and continuing military and other assistance to Egypt, senior administration officials said, rewarded the extraordinary progress the country has made since the overthrow last year of its autocratic president, Hosni Mubarak. Egypt has elected a new Parliament in a vote widely seen as free and fair, and it has scheduled a presidential election in May, with a runoff to follow in June.
"We've seen more progress in 16 months than we've seen in 60 years," the senior State Department official said.
Even so, the debate within the administration was unusually fraught, officials said, especially after Egypt had imposed a travel ban on seven Americans who were charged as part of the case against the American organizations.
Some in the State Department, echoing the concerns from Capitol Hill and human rights advocates, argued that the administration should have withheld new military aid until the case was fully resolved and the presidential election held.
Mrs. Clinton, officials said, favored a partial waiver, allowing some, but not all, of the assistance to begin. That would maintain leverage over Egypt's generals to transfer political power to a newly elected government without jeopardizing existing military contracts.
A looming deadline for payments, however, forced the issue before then, and the White House and Pentagon pressed for a waiver, officials said. A White House spokesman referred questions to the State Department, and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.
The military assistance to Egypt underscores a point Mrs. Clinton and other officials have made when it comes to foreign aid in general: much of it comes back to American corporations and organizations for equipment or services.
"Lockheed Martin values the relationship established between our company and the Egyptian customer since the first F-16s were delivered in the early 1980s," said Laura F. Siebert, a spokeswoman for the company, which is based in Fort Worth.
The M1A1 components are built in factories in Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, several of them battleground states in an election that has largely focused on jobs. Because the United States Army plans to stop buying new tanks by 2014, continued production relies on foreign contracts, often paid for by American taxpayers as military assistance.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, who added the certification requirements to legislation authorizing military aid to Egypt, called the decision to waive them regrettable, and the resumption of aid "business as usual."
Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting.
Here's Eddie Vedder and PearlJam doing Bob Dylan's "Masters Of War".
The last three Democrat adminstrations have produced three Nobel Peace prize winners.
Carter/Mondale - Carter won it, and then went off into full-time Foreign Policy interference.
Clinton/Gore - Gore won it, and then went off to be a Green Scam Billionaire.
Obama/Biden - Obama won the Peace Prize, and then went off to bomb the crap out of Libya, get involved in Pakistan, and then carefully maintain the other wars that we had on our plate.
So....There's long been talk of replacing Biden on the 2012 ballot with someone who is marginally sane. Now there's talk of replacing Obama on the 2012 ballot with someone who is marginally electable.
If this happens, and the new Democrate Duo happens to win, is the Nobel automatically awarded to one of the new Statists? Should it be, just to save time?
Ron Paul has a reputation amongst The Statists as being totally naive on foreign policy.
This means he is always right.
Not just kinda right, but gloriously validated and vindicated. You don't earn a bad reputation in Big Government circles by being wrong.
Here's a little dustup that Paul had with our Secretary Of State, also known as She Whose Name Is Not Spoken:
“A lot of people in this country have come to the conclusion that our policy overhaul has been inconsistent; that sometimes we support the bad guys and the bad guys become our enemies,” Paul told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a hearing of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Rep. Paul pointed to America’s support for Osama bin Laden when he was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, its collaboration with Saddam Hussein against Iran in the 1980s, and its propping up the Shah in Iran for decades before that.
“But we keep supporting Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, all these dictators, and yet we pretend that as soon as, well, it looks like the dictator might fall, we're all for democracy and we're for freedom and we're against these dictators,” he said.
To which The Hildabeast responded:
“Congressman, you make a very passionate argument, and my response is that, you know, the United States, over the course of its entire diplomatic history, has had to make some very difficult decisions,” she said.
“We try to balance what we believe to be in our interests. Sometimes, and I would argue most times, we get it right. Sometimes we don't,” America’s top diplomat conceded.
You can go here for a partial list of dictators that we've supported, and that most sane and sober people would examine and say "Dang, Hillary. You sure got that one wrong. What possessed you folks to give that dictator a bunch of money?"
So here's today's update: Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi is now on the run. Rebels have almost taken Tripoli, and our State Department will soon be able to claim that our military involvement in Libya was justified. But what about this, from 2009 ??
The State Department has designated $400,000 in international aid funds for two foundations run by the children of Libyan dictator Muammar Kaddafi, a move that two Republican members of Congress today called a misuse of taxpayer funds that should be immediately cut off by President Obama.
The Congress members’ complaints on Thursday came just a day after Kaddafi delivered a bizarre speech to the United Nations in which he suggested the Israelis may have been behind the Kennedy assassination and the swine-flu virus was cooked up in a corporate lab. It also comes amid mounting international criticism of Kaddafi’s regime after it provided a hero’s welcome to Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence officer convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 that killed 270 people.
Ironically, one of the groups designated for $200,000 in State Department funds is the Kaddafi Development Foundation, headed by Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the Libyan leader’s son who personally arranged for Megrahi’s flight back to Tripoli last month after the convicted terrorist was released on “humanitarian” grounds from a Scottish jail. Another $200,000—part of $2.5 million in State Department economic-support funds for Libya—is slated to go to an organization headed by Kaddafi’s daughter Aisha, to promote “women’s economic opportunities.”
“This waste of taxpayer dollars is particularly outrageous following the hero’s welcome given to the Lockerbie bomber,” said Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Relations Committee. Ros-Lehtinen wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to cut off the entire $2.5 million designation for Libya, noting that it was provided by Congress in order to “promote democracy and human rights” in Libya. “How could this assistance effectively promote democracy when entrusted to the dictator’s family?” she asked.
Yeah. Good question. I think that funding got blocked, but I don't have time this morning to research it properly. But how about this later attempt to give Qaddafi some money? Not just some money but an increase in his allowance? This was going on in March of this year !!!!
While President Obama calls Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi a threat to his own people, just one month before attacking Libya the president asked Congress to increase U.S. aid for Qaddafi's military to $1.7 million.
According to State Department figures, the money was earmarked to train Libyan military officers, improve its air force, secure its borders and to counter terrorism.
If this seems contradictory, welcome to the world of U.S. foreign aid, where billions of tax dollars go to people we don't like and nations some say don't need the help. The latest unrest has drawn renewed scrutiny to these policies.
Hell, by the way they keep trying to throw money at him, you would think that Qaddafi worked for SEIU or ACORN or maybe the Wisconsin Teachers' Union. If time permitted, I'd check to see if he got any stimulus funds.
If you have time and don't mind getting depressed, you can go here and see that, through various aid organizations, we've given Libya $176 million since Qaddafi took over as dictator.
Good job, Hillary.
*********************
I think my next Dictator Du Jour will be Spain's Francisco Franco or Cambodia's Pol Pot. We supported both of them until we were against them. Or I can take nominations for other dicatators from you folks. The floor is open, and there are plenty of candidates.
The pic of our man in Libya came from here. The Aid Trap picture came from here, and that entire article should be tattooed on Hillary's thighs.
It's the opposite of the Code Pink idea that women bring the peace. How long have I heard this feminist plaint: If only women had the power, we would have peace, not phallocratic war.
Well, Ms. Althouse doesn't agree to let an interesting theory get in the way of some cold hard facts:
In a Paris hotel room on Monday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton... changed course, forming an unlikely alliance with a handful of top administration aides who had been arguing for intervention.
Within hours, Mrs. Clinton and the aides had convinced Mr. Obama that the United States had to act...
... Mrs. Clinton joined Samantha Power, a senior aide at the National Security Council, and Susan Rice, Mr. Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, who had been pressing the case for military action, according to senior administration officials speaking only on condition of anonymity. Ms. Power is a former journalist and human rights advocate; Ms. Rice was an Africa adviser to President Clinton when the United States failed to intervene to stop the Rwanda genocide, which Mr. Clinton has called his biggest regret.
Now, the three women were pushing for American intervention....
Is this kinda like Bush being led into war by Rumsfeld and Cheney? I'm sure that the facts will come out later.
Here's the latest zinger from Ms. Althouse:
To ally with Power and Rice, Clinton had to make "an unusual break with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, who, along with the national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and the counterterrorism chief, John O. Brennan, had urged caution." Oh, timid men. Step aside! Yield to the boldness of women.
Ouch.
She Whose Name Is Not Spoken has already announced that she doesn't want to be Secretary Of State any longer. I'll bet dollars to donuts that she's going to run against The Teleprompter next year.
To the eternal credit of the Code Pink group, they did design this little gem of a poster:
That was before we opened a 3rd front in the Middle East.
Code Pink doesn't have anything condemning this latest "intervention" on their website yet. We'll see.
They do have a bookmark that you can slip into copies of Don Rumsfeld's biography that accuses him of being a war criminal.
Here's the bookmark that stealth shoppers can slip into unsold copies of George Bush's "Decision Points".
And here's a handy link telling readers how to execute a citizen's arrest, just in case they want to detain one of the warmongers from the Bush administration.
I'm looking forward to seeing the bookmark they design to slip into copies of "Dreams From My Father", by Barack Obama.
I'm looking foward to seeing these ladies take to the streets in protests next week.
Or not.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex, has made a career out of being the contrarian in Congress, and with uprisings sweeping across the Middle East he took the opportunity today to point out one of the inconvenient truths of American foreign policy: its support across successive administrations for key Middle East leaders who ally themselves with the United States in a difficult region, yet do not respect basic human rights and democracy in their own countries.
“A lot of people in this country have come to the conclusion that our policy overhaul has been inconsistent; that sometimes we support the bad guys and the bad guys become our enemies,” Paul told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a hearing of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Rep. Paul pointed to America’s support for Osama bin Laden when he was fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, its collaboration with Saddam Hussein against Iran in the 1980s, and its propping up the Shah in Iran for decades before that.
“But we keep supporting Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, all these dictators, and yet we pretend that as soon as, well, it looks like the dictator might fall, we're all for democracy and we're for freedom and we're against these dictators,” he said.
Here's the money quote from She Whose Name Is Not Spoken:
“Congressman, you make a very passionate argument, and my response is that, you know, the United States, over the course of its entire diplomatic history, has had to make some very difficult decisions,” she said.
“We try to balance what we believe to be in our interests. Sometimes, and I would argue most times, we get it right. Sometimes we don't,” America’s top diplomat conceded.
Precisely. That's why James Monroe came up with something eventually known as The Monroe Doctrine. We're going to stay out of everyone else's business, because we "sometimes don't" get it right. In fact, I'm going through a mental list of dictators, trying to think of one we've supported and got it right by doing so.
Can anyone out there help me out? How many of these guys were instances where we got it right? I've swiped a list of dictators supported by the U.S. from this dude.Lord have mercy, I wish that the Congressman had done a roll call through the list, asking when we "got it right".
{Update from 3-3-2011, to eliminate any confusion....If you follow all of the links back to the originator of this list, his basis for inclusion is"rulers who received aid (economic/military), training of military/intelligence/security forces, and/or political support from the US". It's freakin' terrifying. See the comment field below about Pol Pot.}
Please respond with the names that give you that warm, fuzzy feeling of supporting a great cause.
Africa
MOBUTU SESE SEKO
Dictator of Zaire 1965-1997
MOHAMMED SIAD BARRE
President/Dictator of Somalia 1969-1991
GEN. IBRAHIM BABANGIDA
Military Dictator/President of Nigeria 1985-1993
GEN. SANI ABACHA
Dictator of Nigeria 1993-1998
HASTINGS KAMUZU BANDA
Dictator of Malawi 1966-1994
LAURENT-DÉSIRÉ KABILA
President/Dictator of the Democratic Republic of the Congo 1997-2001
GNASSINGBE ETIENNE EYADEMA
Dictator of Togo 1967-2005
FELIX HOUPHOUET-BOIGNY
Dictator/President of the Ivory Coast 1960-1993
HASSAN II
King of Morocco 1961-1999
TEODORO OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO
President/Dictator of Equatorial Guinea 1979-present
ZINE EL ABIDINE BEN ALI
President-Prime Minister/Dictator of Tunisia 1987-2011
ANWAR EL-SADAT
President/Dictator of Egypt 1970-1981
HOSNI MUBARAK
President/Dictator of Egypt 1981-present
IAN SMITH
Prime Minister of Rhodesia (white minority regime) 1965-1979
PIETER WILLEM BOTHA
Prime Minister of South Africa (white minority regime) 1978-1984, President 1984-1989
DANIEL ARAP MOI
President/Dictator of Kenya 1978-2002
HAILE SELASSIE (RAS TAFARI)
Emperor of Ethiopia 1928-1974
WILLIAM J. S. TUBMAN
President/Dictator of Liberia 1944-1971
SAMUEL KANYON DOE
Dictator of Liberia 1980-1990
Asia
MOHAMED SUHARTO
Dictator of Indonesia 1966-1998
NGO DINH DIEM
President/Dictator of South Vietnam 1955-1963
GEN. NGUYEN KHANH
Dictator of South Vietnam 1964-1965
NGUYEN CAO KY
Dictator of South Vietnam 1965-1967
GEN. NGUYEN VAN THIEU
President/Dictator of South Vietnam 1967-1975
TRAN THIEM KHIEM
Prime Minister of South Vietnam 1969-75
BAO DAI
Emperor of Vietnam 1926-1945, chief of state 1949-1955
LEE KUAN YEW
Prime Minister/Dictator of Singapore 1959-1990; behind-the scenes ruler since then.
EMOMALI RAHMONOV
President/Dictator of Tajikistan 1992-present
NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV
President of Kazakhstan 1990-present
ISLAM A. KARIMOV
President/Dictator of Uzbekistan 1990-present
SAPARMURAD ATAYEVICH NIYAZOV
President/Dictator of Turkmenistan 1990-2006
MARSHAL LUANG PIBUL SONGGRAM
Dictator of Thailand 1948-1957
FIELD MARSHAL THANOM KITTIKACHORN
Prime Minister/Dictator of Thailand 1957-58, 1963-1973
CHIANG KAI-SHEK
President/Dictator (Nationalist) of China 1928-1949
President/Dictator of Taiwan 1949-1975
CHIANG CHING-KUO
President/Dicator of Taiwan 1978-1988; Prime Minister 1972-1978
DENG XIAOPING
De facto ruler of China from circa 1978 to the early 1990s
FERDINAND MARCOS
President/Dictator of the Philippines 1965-1986
SYNGMAN RHEE
President/Dictator of South Korea 1948-1960
GEN. PARK CHUNG HEE
President/Dictator of South Korea 1962-1979
GEN. CHUN DOO HWAN
President/Dictator of South Korea 1980-1988
SIR MUDA HASSANAL BOLKIAH
Sultan of Brunei 1967-present
GEN. LON NOL
Prime Minister/Dictator of Cambodia 1970-1975
POL POT
Dictator of Cambodia 1975-1979
MAJ. GEN. SITIVENI RABUKA
Dictator of Fiji 1987-1999
ASKAR AKAYEV
President of Kyrgyzstan 10/27/1990-2005
Europe
FRANCISCO FRANCO
Dictator of Spain 1939-1975
ANTONIO SALAZAR DE OLIVEIRA
Dictator of Portugal 1928-1968
COL. GEORGIOS PAPADOPOULOS
Prime Minister/President/Dictator of Greece 1967-1973
Latin America
ANASTASIO SOMOZA GARCIA
Dictator of Nicaragua 1937-1947, 1950-1956
ANASTASIO "TACHITO" SOMOZA DEBAYLE
Dictator of Nicaragua 1967-1972, 1974-1979
MANUEL ESTRADA CABRERA
Dictator of Guatemala 1898-1920
GEN. JORGE UBICO CASTANEDA
Dictator of Guatemala 1931-1944
COL. CARLOS ENRIQUE CASTILLO ARMAS
Dictator of Guatemala 1954-1957
GEN. JOSE MIGUEL YDIGORAS FUENTES
President/Dictator of Guatemala 1958-1963
COL. ENRIQUE PERALTA AZURDIA
Military Junta, Guatemala 1963-1966
COL.CARLOS ARANA OSORIO
Dictator of Guatemala 1970-1974
GEN. FERNANDO ROMEO LUCAS GARCIA
Dictator of Guatemala 1978-1982
GEN. JOSE EFRAIN RIOS MONTT
Dictator of Guatemala 1982-1983
MARCO VINICIO CEREZO ARÉVALO
President/Dictator of Guatemala 1986-1991
MAXIMILIANO HERNANDEZ MARTINEZ
Dictator of El Salvador 1931-1944
COL. OSMIN AGUIRRE Y SALINAS
Dictator of El Salvador 1944-1945
CIVILIAN-MILITARY JUNTA, EL SALVADOR
1961-1962
COL. ARTURO ARMANDO MOLINA BARRAZA
Dictator of El Salvador 1972-1977
JUNTA, EL SALVADOR
1979-1982
ALFREDO FÉLIX CRISTIANI BUKARD
President/Dictator of El Salvador 1989-1994
TIBURCIO CARIAS ANDINO
Dictator of Honduras 1932-1948
COL. OSWALDO LOPEZ ARELLANO
Dictator of Honduras 1963-1975
ROBERTO SUAZO CORDOVA
President/Dictator of Honduras 1982-1986
GEN. OMAR HERRERA-TORRIJOS
Dictator of Panama 1969-1981
GEN. MANUEL ANTONIO MORENA NORIEGA
Dictator of Panama 1982-1989
AUGUSTO PINOCHET UGARTE
Dictator of Chile 1973-1990
GEN. JORGE RAFAEL VIDELA
Dictator of Argentina 1976-1981
COL. MARCOS PEREZ JIMENEZ
Dictator of Venezuela 1950-1958
GEN. ALFREDO STROESSNER
Dictator of Paraguay 1954-1989
ALBERTO FUJIMORI
Dictator of Peru 1990-2000
FRANCOIS "PAPA DOC" DUVALIER
Dictator of Haiti 1957-1971
JEAN-CLAUDE "BABY DOC" DUVALIER
Dictator of Haiti 1971-1986
MILITARY JUNTA / LT. GEN. RAOUL CEDRAS, GEN. PHILIPPE BIAMBY and LT. COL. MICHEL-JOSEPH FRANCO
Haiti 1991-1994
GEN. RENE BARRIENTOS ORTUNO
President/Dictator of Bolivia 1964-1969
GEN. HUGO BANZER SUAREZ
Dictator of Bolivia 1971-1978
DR. GETULIO VARGAS
Dictator of Brazil 1930-1945, 1951-1954
GEN. HUMBERTO DE ALENCAR CASTELLO BRANCO
Dictator of Brazil 1964-1967
CARLOS PRIO SOCARRAS
Dictator of Cuba 1948-1952
FULGENCIO BATISTA
Dictator of Cuba 1933-44, 1952-1959
GERARDO MACHADO MORALES
Dictator of Cuba 1925-1933
RAFAEL LEONIDAS TRUJILLO
Dictator of the Dominican Republic 1930-1961
Middle East
MOHAMMED REZA PAHLAVI
Shah of Iran 1941-1979
SADDAM HUSSEIN
Dictator of Iraq 1969 (1979)-2003
GEN. MOHAMMED AYUB KHAN
President/Dictator of Pakistan 1958-1969
GEN. AGHA MUHAMMAD YAHYA KHAN
President/Dictator of Pakistan 1969-1971
GEN. MOHAMMAD ZIA UL-HAQ
President/Dictator of Pakistan 1977-1988
PERVEZ MUSHARRAF
Dictator of Pakistan 1999-2008
ABDUL IBN HUSSEIN I
King of Jordan 1952-1999
TURGUT ÖZAL
Prime Minister of Turkey 1983-1989, President 1989-1993
SHEIK JABIR AL-AHMAD AL SABAH
Emir of Kuwait 1977-2006
Prime Minister of Kuwait 1962-1963, 1965-1978
FAHD IBN ABDUL-AZIZ AL SAUD
King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia 1982-2005
We've been putting in 60-70 hour weeks at Jukt Micronics. We've worked all weekend, and I'm working a small crew today (Memorial Day) getting a major project out the door.
Assorted Vice Presidents and Operations V.P.'s have come by every day bringing lunch for my crews.
The Sales V.P. who came by today didn't bring enough ice so I went a few miles up the road to a convenience store to pick up some. Since I'm fundamentally a lazy person I took my time getting back to the warehouse, driving through a couple of Richland Hills TX industrial parks to see if anyone else was working on the holiday.
Instead of the hundreds and hundreds of cars and trucks outside the warehouses, this is what I saw:
In front of one warehouse I saw a Mercedes-Benz.
Parked in front of another was a Jaguar.
Further down, nobody was working except one more Mercedes owner.
In the next row of warehouses, there was one beautifully restored 1960's (?) era Cadillac.
Finally, there was a Ford F-250 with all the bells and whistles, the kind I'm going to buy if The Aggie ever gets out of college.
I get a feeling that these vehicles don't belong to the forklift drivers.
So here are some hypothetical questions for your holiday weekend.
1) Do you think there is a correlation between working ridiculous hours (like holidays) and getting to own a Mercedes, Jag, Cadillac, or mid-life crisis F-250?
2) Chances are, these Mercedes, Jag, Cadillac, and F-250 owners are the ones who took the risk of starting the companies where they're now spending their holiday today. What do you think?
3) And finally, since the Mercedes, Jag, Cadillac and F-250 owners are "more fortunate", how much do they owe the people who are spending their holiday in their back yards or at the lake?
Here's our Secretary Of State on that subject:
I hope you'll ask yourself how much longer the Mercedes, Jag, Cadillac, and F-250 owners will continue working holidays if a larger and larger percentage of their potential profit is going to be confiscated by this idiot.
Have a good holiday ! Some of us are still out there SAVING AND CREATING JOBS ! ! !
Let me get this out of the way first.....
If it weren't for the entitlement giveaways that our politicians throw out as if every day were Mardi Gras, I would favor "open borders".
(Yeah, we would have to stop pissing off the rest of the world, which would greatly reduce the chances that someone would bring in a nuke from Toronto. And we would have to reduce the size of government by about 90%, so the Statists would have nothing to gain by importing more Statist voters. Probably a fantasy, but it would be nice. The #1 predictor of whether you'll be wealthy or miserable? The lines of latitude and longitude where you happen to be born. That ain't right.)
Anyway, because of the Arizona's recent crackdown on illegal immigrants, the city of San Francisco is banning travel by all of their city employees to Arizona. Here's the San Francisco Chronicle's City Insider Blog:
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced today a moratorium on official city travel to Arizona after the state enacted a controversial new immigration law that directs local police to arrest those suspected of being in the country illegally. The ban on city employee travel to Arizona takes effect immediately, although there are some exceptions, including for law enforcement officials investigating a crime, officials said. It's unclear how many planned trips by city workers will be curtailed.
I like that a lot. I hope that Los Angeles, San Diego, Fresno, and Long Beach do the same thing. And on the other hand, I hope that Phoenix, Tucson, Tempe, and Tombstone Arizona retaliate by not allowing their employees travel to anywhere in California. Or anywhere else.
I hope the Fort Worth, Texas, City Council doesn't allow its city employees to travel anywhere at all. I hope that they tell all city employees to stay their asses at home and repair the potholes that are all over the East Side.
It would be nice if the Booger Den, Mississippi, City Council declared that there would be no more travel on the government tit. Never ever.
Why restrict this protest to the city and town level? I think the world would be a better place if Obama had a sit-down with Hillary and told her something like, "Mrs. Clinton, they've passed a racist, fascist, hate-filled anti-immigration law in Arizona. And in protest, I need you to stay out of Arizona, China, Israel, Jordan, Africa, and Mexico. Stay home."
Would we have more money in the Treasury if we told our defense employees that they couldn't spend any more time defending, say, Germany and Japan, and that those nations were going to have to provide their own defense? Would our boys and girls currently fighting in the Middle East Sandbox be better off it we told them to come home and get their feet back under their Mamas' kitchen tables? Let's get them back to defending the borders, and nothing else. That would solve any and all immigration "problems" right there.
The San Francisco Government Travel Boycott - may it spread far and wide.
Dr. Ralph, who is the Laurel to my Hardy on this site, enjoys asking "where were The Libertarians?" back when G.W. Bush was blowing the budget, trashing the constitution, and generally behaving like a John The Baptist forerunner of The Obamessiah Who Did Not Yet Dwell Among Us.
While researching the answer to that thorny question, I stumbled across this, one of my live-blogs of the Democrat Presidential Debates. I think it's worth revisiting. Lordy, they all seemed so innocent then.
And yes, I really did think that Joe Biden won it.
That's Mike Gravel on the far left (figuratively, not literally.) There's Obama, waiting to be annointed. Then Chris Dodd, waiting to be indicted. Next is John Edwards, smiling and pointing at his videographer. Dennis Kucinich, if you read my link, is trying to find the right combination of hand claps that will allow him to once again commune with The Mother Ship. Joe Biden is standing back, aloof, wondering who all those other guys are pointing at. Bill "Pay To Play" Richardson is protecting his crotch against a possible upcoming FBI investigation. On the far right (figuratively, not literally) is the 2012 Democrat candidate, patiently waiting her turn.
