Gabriel Rotello: Cheney Pacemaker Shocker: Docs Can't Find Heart - Politics on The Huffington Post

on the Google news site.. it will be gone when the day crew comes on. so i
though i would send it along.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabriel-rotello/cheney-pacemaker-shocker_b_58224.html
And i have seen some negative remarks directed at P's and VP's but this one
has a different flavor.
In a Christian country indirectly labeling the VP a smoking devil is getting
him where it hurts.

Paul Craig Roberts syndicated columns -- It's the third down

When Barry Goldwater decided enough! and then went and told Richard Nixon to
get up, get out and go home. Those where some what scary times. A sitting
president getting the boot and by his own former supporters and party
members that indicated the boat was with out a rudder or oars.

But it worked because Nixon had no grand plan. He was not going to create a
new empire with himself as emperor. He just wanted to flame his enemies and
go on with bottle in hand. And of course spend his spare time listening to
himself as "Mr. President". Nixon apparently when discussing issues would
frequently refer to himself as: The President's position on this issue. Or
the President's decision was .....

Times have changed big time with the neo-cons in the front office.
They have grand plans both abroad and at home for themselves.
Loosing two wars and the planning of a third in the bomb sights is not and
endorsement to foster confidence even amongst die hard establishment
Republicans like P.C. Roberts from the former Reagan administration. When
Orin Hatch is openly critical we can conclude their Senatorial support is
really zilch.
Though Fox Media gives Bush it's full support never forget it is also on
...excellent terms... with the Chinese rulers.
Murdock also has a history of supporting repressive regimes around the
world. Why? It makes his business easier if he doesnt have to answer for
anything he does with regards to his business. "One call does it all" in a
controlled state ask the Exxon/Mobil or Shell executive in Africa.

And also Roberts was a very creditable statesman from the South and carries
some weight when he tells us he is expecting a 'false flag' attack so the
neo-cons can implement repression at home and not just with the go to work
type Muslims who are now living in the U.S.
But this will include all of their political and personal enemies as well.
Some senators and congress people are on this list. Especially if they are
now nolonger cleared to fly. And i would assume they will be heading for the
camps as well.

And walking around the local city hall carrying a flag just aint gonna bring
your civil liberties back. As Kissinger remarked concerning those protesting
the Vietnam 'war'.
"They are the equivalent of throwing cream pies at the swat team.

Also Roberts who speaks for some of the party insiders is now calling for a
Bush/Cheney replacement before they can act and bring down the Republic.
They are even offering a plan so they are not just fishing and besides by
poll stats they have the support of the public.

Apparently the conservative political Republican establishment doesn't think
they can wait it out until 2008 and both for the nation, the economy and
also if the Republicans are going to survive as a functional party they have
to abort the neo-cons now is what i am reading as to their strategy.

These are the moneyed decision makers in the Grand Old Party and not the
come lately born again's. Or for that matter people who have dropped in
because Clinton's romp offended their personal values of getting caught
screwing the secretary.
Sex it seems is still the greatest crime...and again that's if you get
caught. Yeah, it comes under that special category of "it's OK if u are
discreet like me!"

The neo-cons are VERY aware of this and though they hardly fear the
Demarcates who are at this point just "waiting them out" .
The old line Republicans know they have the most to loose from the neo-cons
in the White House as the tumor will be seen as them... as well as the
neo-Nazis.

The south it seems has now assessed that Bush and company where never their
standard bearers.
As they have done very little for the people and even businesses in the
Katrina disaster areas. It seems even in the south the major contractor is
Halliburton and clones. The work is going nowhere and they don't seem to
care what those potential voters are experiencing and from my continued
monitoring it is a lot. Those four states are getting screwed and then
paying for it. I see the National Geographic featured the plight of the
hurricane victims in a recent edition. It's sure not what mom and pop middle
class would be expecting to read.

And for Texas it is little better. That's of course with the exception of
Huston and Dallas. Those people are considered their base and oil is their
God!

So either pack your bag for a camping trip or pass it on because none of us
will be sitting this out at home.
The first wave of round ups would involve less than a hundred thousand is
what i read recently and those numbers would be used to expand the camps
'storage' facilities.

War is a snake and has no friends and will bite anyone who comes near.

What a difference a Week Makes! Peter Schiff 321gold . . . Inc s

At some point it is important to acknowledge that bright light that's
growing larger maybe a train coming down the tracks and maybe it's time to
move aside.
Not all gloom and doom is a personal expression of primordial fear as we are
also equipped with a functional warning system that can be adapted to the
environment we are currently experiencing.

So when really perceptive and seasoned analyst such as Schiff or Benson to
name a couple yell: LOOK OUT. It may be time to jump rather than wait for
the Lemmings to collectively ...change course.

FW: the most frightening thing I've ever read

No, it's not Steven King who could always get to me. This is more
collectively mindless poison.
And this narrative made me wonder did the Nazis and later the Zionist have
ocean cruises for dinning and conformation that hate and fear can be a tasty
added morsel on the menu at a cruise banquet?


----- Original Message -----
From: olcharlie
To: irene zupko ; larrylewis ; dave ; skip&linda
Sent: Saturday, July 28, 2007 1:13 PM
Subject: the most frightening thing I've ever read


Neocons on a Cruise: What Conservatives Say When They Think We Aren't
Listening


By Johann Hari, Independent UK
Posted on July 17, 2007, Printed on July 25, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/57001/


I am standing waist-deep in the Pacific Ocean, both chilling and burning,
indulging in the polite chit-chat beloved by vacationing Americans. A sweet
elderly lady from Los Angeles is sitting on the rocks nearby, telling me
dreamily about her son. "Is he your only child?" I ask. "Yes," she says. "Do
you have a child back in England?" she asks. No, I say. Her face darkens.
"You'd better start," she says. "The Muslims are breeding. Soon, they'll
have the whole of Europe."


I am getting used to these moments - when gentle holiday geniality bleeds
into… what? I lie on the beach with Hillary-Ann, a chatty, scatty
35-year-old Californian designer. As she explains the perils of Republican
dating, my mind drifts, watching the gentle tide. When I hear her say, " Of
course, we need to execute some of these people," I wake up. Who do we need
to execute? She runs her fingers through the sand lazily. "A few of these
prominent liberals who are trying to demoralise the country," she says.
"Just take a couple of these anti-war people off to the gas chamber for
treason to show, if you try to bring down America at a time of war, that's
what you'll get." She squints at the sun and smiles. " Then things'll
change."


I am travelling on a bright white cruise ship with two restaurants, five
bars, a casino - and 500 readers of the National Review. Here, the Iraq war
has been "an amazing success". Global warming is not happening. The solitary
black person claims, "If the Ku Klux Klan supports equal rights, then God
bless them." And I have nowhere to run.


From time to time, National Review - the bible of American conservatism -
organises a cruise for its readers. I paid $1,200 to join them. The rules I
imposed on myself were simple: If any of the conservative cruisers asked who
I was, I answered honestly, telling them I was a journalist. Mostly, I just
tried to blend in - and find out what American conservatives say when they
think the rest of us aren't listening.


From sweet to suicide bomber


I arrive at the dockside in San Diego on Saturday afternoon and stare up at
the Oosterdam, our home for the next seven days. Filipino boat hands are
loading trunks into the hull and wealthy white folk are gliding onto its
polished boards with pale sun parasols dangling off their arms.


The Reviewers have been told to gather for a cocktail reception on the Lido,
near the very top of the ship. I arrive to find a tableau from Gone With the
Wind, washed in a thousand shades of grey. Southern belles - aged and
pinched - are flirting with old conservative warriors. The etiquette here is
different from anything I have ever seen. It takes me 15 minutes to realise
what is wrong with this scene. There are no big hugs, no warm kisses. This
is a place of starchy handshakes. Men approach each other with stiffened
spines, puffed-out chests and crunching handshakes. Women are greeted with a
single kiss on the cheek. Anything more would be French.


I adjust and stiffly greet the first man I see. He is a judge, with the
craggy self-important charm that slowly consumes any judge. He is from
Canada, he declares (a little more apologetically), and is the founding
president of "Canadians Against Suicide Bombing". Would there be many
members of "Canadians for Suicide Bombing?" I ask. Dismayed, he suggests
that yes, there would.


A bell rings somewhere, and we are all beckoned to dinner. We have been
assigned random seats, which will change each night. We will, the publicity
pack promises, each dine with at least one National Review speaker during
our trip.


To my left, I find a middle-aged Floridian with a neat beard. To my right
are two elderly New Yorkers who look and sound like late-era Dorothy
Parkers, minus the alcohol poisoning. They live on Park Avenue, they explain
in precise Northern tones. "You must live near the UN building," the
Floridian says to one of the New York ladies after the entree is served.
Yes, she responds, shaking her head wearily. "They should suicide-bomb that
place," he says. They all chuckle gently. How did that happen? How do you go
from sweet to suicide-bomb in six seconds?


The conversation ebbs back to friendly chit-chat. So, you're a European, one
of the Park Avenue ladies says, before offering witty commentaries on the
cities she's visited. Her companion adds, "I went to Paris, and it was so
lovely." Her face darkens: "But then you think - it's surrounded by
Muslims." The first lady nods: "They're out there, and they're coming."
Emboldened, the bearded Floridian wags a finger and says, "Down the line,
we're not going to bail out the French again." He mimes picking up a phone
and shouts into it, "I can't hear you, Jacques! What's that? The Muslims are
doing what to you? I can't hear you!"


Now that this barrier has been broken - everyone agrees the Muslims are
devouring the French, and everyone agrees it's funny - the usual suspects
are quickly rounded up. Jimmy Carter is "almost a traitor". John McCain is
"crazy" because of "all that torture". One of the Park Avenue ladies
declares that she gets on her knees every day to " thank God for Fox News".
As the wine reaches the Floridian, he announces, "This cruise is the best
money I ever spent."


They rush through the Rush-list of liberals who hate America, who want her
to fail, and I ask them - why are liberals like this? What's their
motivation? They stutter to a halt and there is a long, puzzled silence. "
It's a good question," one of them, Martha, says finally. I have asked them
to peer into the minds of cartoons and they are suddenly, reluctantly
confronted with the hollowness of their creation. "There have always been
intellectuals who want to tell people how to live," Martha adds, to an
almost visible sense of relief. That's it - the intellectuals! They are not
like us. Dave changes the subject, to wash away this moment of cognitive
dissonance. "The liberals don't believe in the constitution. They don't
believe in what the founders wanted - a strong executive," he announces, to
nods. A Filipino waiter offers him a top-up of his wine, and he
mock-whispers to me, "They all look the same! Can you tell them apart?" I
stare out to sea. How long would it take me to drown?


"We're doing an excellent job killing them."


The Vista Lounge is a Vegas-style showroom, with glistening gold edges and
the desperate optimism of an ageing Cha-Cha girl. Today, the scenery has
been cleared away - "I always sit at the front in these shows to see if the
girls are really pretty and on this ship they are ug-lee," I hear a Reviewer
mutter - and our performers are the assorted purveyors of conservative show
tunes, from Podhoretz to Steyn. The first of the trip's seminars is a
discussion intended to exhume the conservative corpse and discover its cause
of death on the black, black night of 7 November, 2006, when the treacherous
Democrats took control of the US Congress.


There is something strange about this discussion, and it takes me a few
moments to realise exactly what it is. All the tropes that conservatives
usually deny in public - that Iraq is another Vietnam, that Bush is fighting
a class war on behalf of the rich - are embraced on this shining ship in the
middle of the ocean. Yes, they concede, we are fighting another Vietnam; and
this time we won't let the weak-kneed liberals lose it. "It's customary to
say we lost the Vietnam war, but who's 'we'?" the writer Dinesh D'Souza asks
angrily. "The left won by demanding America's humiliation." On this ship,
there are no Viet Cong, no three million dead. There is only liberal
treachery. Yes, D'Souza says, in a swift shift to domestic politics, "of
course" Republican politics is "about class. Republicans are the party of
winners, Democrats are the party of losers."


The panel nods, but it doesn't want to stray from Iraq. Robert Bork, Ronald
Reagan's one-time nominee to the Supreme Court, mumbles from beneath
low-hanging jowls: "The coverage of this war is unbelievable. Even Fox News
is unbelievable. You'd think we're the only ones dying. Enemy casualties
aren't covered. We're doing an excellent job killing them."


Then, with a judder, the panel runs momentarily aground. Rich Lowry, the
preppy, handsome 38-year-old editor of National Review, says, "The American
public isn't concluding we're losing in Iraq for any irrational reason.
They're looking at the cold, hard facts." The Vista Lounge is, as one,
perplexed. Lowry continues, "I wish it was true that, because we're a
superpower, we can't lose. But it's not."


No one argues with him. They just look away, in the same manner that people
avoid glancing at a crazy person yelling at a bus stop. Then they return to
hyperbole and accusations of treachery against people like their editor. The
ageing historian Bernard Lewis - who was deputed to stiffen Dick Cheney's
spine in the run-up to the war - declares, "The election in the US is being
seen by [the bin Ladenists] as a victory on a par with the collapse of the
Soviet Union. We should be prepared for whatever comes next." This is why
the guests paid up to $6,000. This is what they came for. They give him a
wheezing, stooping ovation and break for coffee.


A fracture-line in the lumbering certainty of American conservatism is
opening right before my eyes. Following the break, Norman Podhoretz and
William Buckley - two of the grand old men of the Grand Old Party - begin to
feud. Podhoretz will not stop speaking - "I have lots of ex-friends on the
left; it looks like I'm going to have some ex-friends on the right, too," he
rants -and Buckley says to the chair, " Just take the mike, there's no other
way." He says it with a smile, but with heavy eyes.


Podhoretz and Buckley now inhabit opposite poles of post-September 11
American conservatism, and they stare at wholly different Iraqs. Podhoretz
is the Brooklyn-born, street-fighting kid who travelled through a long phase
of left-liberalism to a pugilistic belief in America's power to redeem the
world, one bomb at a time. Today, he is a bristling grey ball of aggression,
here to declare that the Iraq war has been "an amazing success." He waves
his fist and declaims: "There were WMD, and they were shipped to Syria …
This picture of a country in total chaos with no security is false. It has
been a triumph. It couldn't have gone better." He wants more wars, and fast.
He is "certain" Bush will bomb Iran, and " thank God" for that.


Buckley is an urbane old reactionary, drunk on doubts. He founded the
National Review in 1955 - when conservatism was viewed in polite society as
a mental affliction - and he has always been sceptical of appeals to " the
people," preferring the eternal top-down certainties of Catholicism. He
united with Podhoretz in mutual hatred of Godless Communism, but, slouching
into his eighties, he possesses a world view that is ill-suited for the
fight to bring democracy to the Muslim world. He was a ghostly presence on
the cruise at first, appearing only briefly to shake a few hands. But now he
has emerged, and he is fighting.


"Aren't you embarrassed by the absence of these weapons?" Buckley snaps at
Podhoretz. He has just explained that he supported the war reluctantly,
because Dick Cheney convinced him Saddam Hussein had WMD primed to be fired.
"No," Podhoretz replies. "As I say, they were shipped to Syria. During Gulf
War I, the entire Iraqi air force was hidden in the deserts in Iran." He
says he is "heartbroken" by this " rise of defeatism on the right." He adds,
apropos of nothing, "There was nobody better than Don Rumsfeld. This
defeatist talk only contributes to the impression we are losing, when I
think we're winning." The audience cheers Podhoretz. The nuanced doubts of
Bill Buckley leave them confused. Doesn't he sound like the liberal media?
Later, over dinner, a tablemate from Denver calls Buckley "a coward". His
wife nods and says, " Buckley's an old man," tapping her head with her
finger to suggest dementia.


I decide to track down Buckley and Podhoretz separately and ask them for
interviews. Buckley is sitting forlornly in his cabin, scribbling in a
notebook. In 2005, at an event celebrating National Review's 50th birthday,
President Bush described today's American conservatives as "Bill's
children". I ask him if he feels like a parent whose kids grew up to be
serial killers. He smiles slightly, and his blue eyes appear to twinkle.
Then he sighs, "The answer is no. Because what animated the conservative
core for 40 years was the Soviet menace, plus the rise of dogmatic
socialism. That's pretty well gone."


This does not feel like an optimistic defence of his brood, but it's a theme
he returns to repeatedly: the great battles of his life are already won.
Still, he ruminates over what his old friend Ronald Reagan would have made
of Iraq. "I think the prudent Reagan would have figured here, and the
prudent Reagan would have shunned a commitment of the kind that we are now
engaged in… I think he would have attempted to find some sort of assurance
that any exposure by the United States would be exposure to a challenge the
dimensions of which we could predict." Lest liberals be too eager to adopt
the Gipper as one of their own, Buckley agrees approvingly that Reagan's
approach would have been to "find a local strongman" to rule Iraq.


A few floors away, Podhoretz tells me he is losing his voice, "which will
make some people very happy". Then he croaks out the standard-issue
Wolfowitz line about how, after September 11, the United States had to
introduce democracy to the Middle East in order to change the political
culture that produced the mass murderers. For somebody who declares
democracy to be his goal, he is remarkably blasé about the fact that 80 per
cent of Iraqis want US troops to leave their country, according to the
latest polls. "I don't much care," he says, batting the question away. He
goes on to insist that "nobody was tortured in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo" and
that Bush is "a hero". He is, like most people on this cruise, certain the
administration will attack Iran.


Podhoretz excitedly talks himself into a beautiful web of words, vindicating
his every position. He fumes at Buckley, George Will and the other apostate
conservatives who refuse to see sense. He announces victory. And for a
moment, here in the Mexican breeze, it is as though a thousand miles away
Baghdad is not bleeding. He starts hacking and coughing painfully. I offer
to go to the ship infirmary and get him some throat sweets, and - locked in
eternal fighter-mode - he looks thrown, as though this is an especially
cunning punch. Is this random act of kindness designed to imbalance him? "
I'm fine," he says, glancing contemptuously at the Bill Buckley book I am
carrying. "I'll keep on shouting through the soreness."


The Ghosts of Conservatism Past


The ghosts of Conservatism past are wandering this ship. From the pool, I
see John O'Sullivan, a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher. And one morning
on the deck I discover Kenneth Starr, looking like he has stepped out of a
long-forgotten 1990s news bulletin waving Monica's stained blue dress. His
face is round and unlined, like an immense, contented baby. As I stare at
him, all my repressed bewilderment rises, and I ask - Mr Starr, do you feel
ashamed that, as Osama bin Laden plotted to murder American citizens, you
brought the American government to a stand-still over a few consensual blow
jobs? Do you ever lie awake at night wondering if a few more memos on
national security would have reached the President's desk if he wasn't
spending half his time dealing with your sexual McCarthyism?


He smiles through his teeth and - in his soft somnambulant voice - says in
perfect legalese, "I am entirely at rest with the process. The House of
Representatives worked its will, the Senate worked its will, the Chief
Justice of the United States presided. The constitutional process worked
admirably."


It's an oddly meek defence, and the more I challenge him, the more
legalistic he becomes. Every answer is a variant on "it's not my fault" .
First, he says Clinton should have settled early on in Jones vs Clinton.
Then he blames Jimmy Carter. "This critique really should be addressed to
the now-departed, moribund independent counsel provisions. The Ethics and
Government [provisions] ushered in during President Carter's administration
has an extraordinarily low threshold for launching a special prosecutor…"


Enough - I see another, more intriguing ghost. Ward Connerly is the only
black person in the National Review posse, a 67-year-old Louisiana-born
businessman, best known for leading conservative campaigns against
affirmative action for black people. Earlier, I heard him saying the
Republican Party has been "too preoccupied with… not ticking off the
blacks", and a cooing white couple wandered away smiling, "If he can say it,
we can say it." What must it be like to be a black man shilling for a
magazine that declared at the height of the civil rights movement that black
people "tend to revert to savagery", and should be given the vote only "when
they stop eating each other"?


I drag him into the bar, where he declines alcohol. He tells me plainly
about his childhood - his mother died when he was four, and he was raised by
his grandparents - but he never really becomes animated until I ask him if
it is true he once said, "If the KKK supports equal rights, then God bless
them." He leans forward, his palms open. There are, he says, " those who
condemn the Klan based on their past without seeing the human side of it,
because they don't want to be in the wrong, politically correct camp, you
know… Members of the Ku Klux Klan are human beings, American citizens - they
go to a place to eat, nobody asks them 'Are you a Klansmember?', before we
serve you here. They go to buy groceries, nobody asks, 'Are you a
Klansmember?' They go to vote for Governor, nobody asks 'Do you know that
that person is a Klansmember?' Only in the context of race do they ask that.
And I'm supposed to instantly say, 'Oh my God, they are Klansmen? Geez, I
don't want their support.'"


This empathy for Klansmen first bubbled into the public domain this year
when Connerly was leading an anti-affirmative action campaign in Michigan.
The KKK came out in support of him - and he didn't decline it. I ask if he
really thinks it is possible the KKK made this move because they have become
converted to the cause of racial equality. "I think that the reasoning that
a Klan member goes through is - blacks are getting benefits that I'm not
getting. It's reverse discrimination. To me it's all discrimination. But the
Klansmen is going through the reasoning that this is benefiting blacks, they
are getting things that I don't get… A white man doesn't have a chance in
this country."


He becomes incredibly impassioned imagining how they feel, ventriloquising
them with a shaking fist - "The Mexicans are getting these benefits, the
coloureds or niggers, whatever they are saying, are getting these benefits,
and I as a white man am losing my country."


But when I ask him to empathise with the black victims of Hurricane Katrina,
he offers none of this vim. No, all Katrina showed was "the dysfunctionality
that is evident in many black neighbourhoods," he says flatly, and that has
to be "tackled by black people, not the government. " Ward, do you ever
worry you are siding with people who would have denied you a vote - or would
hang you by a rope from a tree?


"I don't gather strength from what others think - no at all," he says.
"Whether they are in favour or opposed. I can walk down these halls and,
say, a hundred people say, 'Oh we just adore you', and I'll be polite and
I'll say 'thank you', but it doesn't register or have any effect on me."
There is a gaggle of Reviewers waiting to tell him how refreshing it is to
"finally" hear a black person "speaking like this". I leave him to their
white, white garlands.


"You're going to get fascists rising up, aren't you? Why hasn't that
happened already?"


The nautical counter-revolution has docked in the perfectly-yellow sands of
Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, and the Reviewers are clambering overboard into
the Latino world they want to wall off behind a thousand-mile fence. They
carry notebooks from the scribblings they made during the seminar teaching
them "How To Shop in Mexico". Over breakfast, I forgot myself and said I was
considering setting out to find a local street kid who would show me round
the barrios - the real Mexico. They gaped. "Do you want to die?" one asked.


The Reviewers confine their Mexican jaunt to covered markets and walled-off
private fortresses like the private Nikki Beach. Here, as ever, they want
Mexico to be a dispenser of cheap consumer goods and lush sands - not a
place populated by (uck) Mexicans. Dinesh D'Souza announced as we entered
Mexican seas what he calls "D'Souza's law of immigration": " The quality of
an immigrant is inversely proportional to the distance travelled to get to
the United States."


In other words: Latinos suck.


I return for dinner with my special National Review guest: Kate O'Beirne.
She's an impossibly tall blonde with the voice of a 1930s screwball star and
the arguments of a 1890s Victorian patriarch. She inveighs against feminism
and "women who make the world worse" in quick quips.


As I enter the onboard restaurant she is sitting among adoring Reviewers
with her husband Jim, who announces that he is Donald Rumsfeld's personnel
director. "People keep asking what I'm doing here, with him being fired and
all," he says. "But the cruise has been arranged for a long time."


The familiar routine of the dinners - first the getting-to-know-you
chit-chat, then some light conversational fascism - is accelerating. Tonight
there is explicit praise for a fascist dictator before the entree has
arrived. I drop into the conversation the news that there are moves in
Germany to have Donald Rumsfeld extradited to face torture charges.


A red-faced man who looks like an egg with a moustache glued on grumbles, "
If the Germans think they can take responsibility for the world, I don't
care about German courts. Bomb them." I begin to witter on about the
Pinochet precedent, and Kate snaps, "Treating Don Rumsfeld like Pinochet is
disgusting." Egg Man pounds his fist on the table: " Treating Pinochet like
that is disgusting. Pinochet is a hero. He saved Chile."


"Exactly," adds Jim. "And he privatised social security."


The table nods solemnly and then they march into the conversation - the
billion-strong swarm of swarthy Muslims who are poised to take over the
world. Jim leans forward and says, "When I see these football supporters
from England, I think - these guys aren't going to be told by PC elites to
be nice to Muslims. You're going to get fascists rising up, aren't you? Why
isn't that happening already?" Before I can answer, he is conquering the
Middle East from his table, from behind a crème brûlée.


"The civilised countries should invade all the oil-owning places in the
Middle East and run them properly. We won't take the money ourselves, but
we'll manage it so the money isn't going to terrorists."


The idea that Europe is being "taken over" by Muslims is the unifying theme
of this cruise. Some people go on singles cruises. Some go on ballroom
dancing cruises. This is the "The Muslims Are Coming" cruise - drinks
included. Because everyone thinks it. Everyone knows it. Everyone dreams it.
And the man responsible is sitting only a few tables down: Mark Steyn.


He is wearing sunglasses on top of his head and a bright, bright shirt that
fits the image of the disk jockey he once was. Sitting in this sea of grey,
it has an odd effect - he looks like a pimp inexplicably hanging out with
the apostles of colostomy conservatism.


Steyn's thesis in his new book, America Alone, is simple: The "European
races" i.e., white people - "are too self-absorbed to breed," but the
Muslims are multiplying quickly. The inevitable result will be " large-scale
evacuation operations circa 2015" as Europe is ceded to al Qaeda and
"Greater France remorselessly evolve[s] into Greater Bosnia."


He offers a light smearing of dubious demographic figures - he needs to turn
20 million European Muslims into more than 150 million in nine years, which
is a lot of humping.


But facts, figures, and doubt are not on the itinerary of this cruise. With
one or two exceptions, the passengers discuss "the Muslims" as a homogenous,
sharia-seeking block - already with near-total control of Europe. Over the
week, I am asked nine times - I counted - when I am fleeing Europe's
encroaching Muslim population for the safety of the United States of
America.


At one of the seminars, a panelist says anti-Americanism comes from both
directions in a grasping pincer movement - "The Muslims condemn us for being
decadent; the Europeans condemn us for not being decadent enough." Midge
Decter, Norman Podhoretz's wife, yells, "The Muslims are right, the
Europeans are wrong!" And, instantly, Jay Nordlinger, National Review's
managing editor and the panel's chair, says, " I'm afraid a lot of the
Europeans are Muslim, Midge."


The audience cheers. Somebody shouts, "You tell 'em, Jay!" He tells 'em.
Decter tells 'em. Steyn tells 'em.


On this cruise, everyone tells 'em - and, thanks to my European passport,
tells me.


From cruise to cruise missiles?


I am back in the docks of San Diego watching these tireless champions of the
overdog filter past and say their starchy, formal goodbyes. As Bernard Lewis
disappears onto the horizon, I wonder about the connections between this
cruise and the cruise missiles fired half a world away.


I spot the old lady from the sea looking for her suitcase, and stop to tell
her I may have found a solution to her political worries about both Muslims
and stem-cells.


"Couldn't they just do experiments on Muslim stem-cells?" I ask. " Hey -
that's a great idea!" she laughs, and vanishes. Hillary-Ann stops to say she
is definitely going on the next National Review cruise, to Alaska.
"Perfect!" I yell, finally losing my mind.


"You can drill it as you go!" She puts her arms around me and says very
sweetly, "We need you on every cruise."


As I turn my back on the ship for the last time, the Judge I met on my first
night places his arm affectionately on my shoulder. "We have written off
Britain to the Muslims," he says. "Come to America."

Los Angeles Times: LA Land Blog : The rapidly changing landscape of the Los Angeles real estate market

This is not treasure as the deeper you dig on this R-E story (sub sites) the
more it seems to be composting.

Ole Charlie, kindly continues to send us good quotes from CBS bis/news rpts
indicating significant % disaster for areas in the San Joaquin valley. And
aswell the L.A. area which it seems now has the high body count.

Though i have seen some of this before on obscure R-E blogs.
But for a major news source to now be saying the same or worse indicates
it's big and getting badder and now too late to cover up and hope it will
turn around.

It seems today's DOW title flood has prompted other sources to spill the R-E
unfolding horror story. "Horror" to strong? We'll stick around as this is
where we live and with the kids and the four leggers.
This time it's not Daddy becoming a market guru while playing the NASDAQ and
then just loosing his shirt.

As to what's next and what they are not reporting is those folks who are
trying to sit it out on the couch (TeeVeen it) until the R-E mkt starts to
go up (lets us pray for the mentally impaired) will receive gods love while
waiting as they will be amongst the improvised and maybe homeless. Though
god may or may not talk to the corporate lenders and negotiate a 90 day
extension... on the eviction.
The exception from all this is those who have a fixed mortgage and no boat
in the driveway. And renting is coming back in the favor fashion. But don't
be smug as your silence will not make you free.

As to gods love and hearing voices. You know the one where the first law of
R-E was thundered from the mountain. "The poor shall inherit the earth."
And here I thought it already belonged to Big Mamma.
Most creditable reports regarding the R-E... blop, hit bottom... are well
south of 2010. Of course that's without complications such as i won't
mention here as i don't know if you are over thirteen.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2007/07/buyers-are-dryi.html
But prayer time is over and it's back to the board game at the casino.
Which means the Asian mkts will soon be open and they are not going to be
out done by the dogs of the DOW.
And then it will be the next players turn to steal from the pot... in Euros.
Cause this is Friday coming up and no one is going to leave anything on the
table for the janitorial crew that comes in to clean. Though they at times
are called the: After Market Bandits.

And a few more days of 'this' may bring the biggies back from the Hampton's.
And what will they do? We'll I suspect it will get down to fight fire with
fire. "And my fire is bigger than your fire."

And what will the Fed do? Do you remember that cute little boy in the garden
who was usually standing in the fountain? And it seemed that was about all
he knew how to do.
Though in the winter Daddy sometimes taught him how to write his name in the
snow.
We'll his name turns out to be Fed..and he is going to show us what he knows
when it comes to the house on fire.

Pondering Mass Migration

We are usually presented with stories of mass migrations happening on a
distant continent and involving "those people". Which maybe translated as
they are too dumb and primitive to deal with an impending crisis before it
happens and it then destroys their environment.
"But they probably got kids as they breed like rats so i will send them ten
bucks."

For most of us our environment is not a picture perfect national park. It's
our tech-know urban home turf.
So is it possible that we could soon experience our lives as a chapter out
of Jarred Diamonds..recent book: Collapse?
Diamond presented it in a historical and Empire grand view. That's other
than his references to the rural setting now experienced in Montana. Though
even that it seems is not for long. Since between mining, oil and grab what
you can any way you can. Land, water and sky are not what they used to be.
And of course this is all taking place while waving the flag and shooting
the Indians.

And as to environmental collapse in our high tech, highly educated and
affluent culture where we ALL view the environmental channels when not
watching 'animals in the wild' programs.

We most certainly are experiencing some of what he describes with regards to
environmental disaster leading to empires collapsing.
And we don't have to travel to.. burn baby burn Phoenix... to experience
part of the action.

Please consider that we living in California which it is rumored is what god
used as a mock up model when s/he later did heaven and stuck it behind the
Plaides. And it's primarily populated by all those dead animals that had
converted to cloths.
You may recall the scriptural quotation: Blessed be the dressed.
Which has brought many a wayward naked soul in to the fold and especially in
the depths of winter.

And as to the question: Is god really the devil? We'll if you are going to
go all theosophical on me. I can say it's also rumored s/he created pain of
course as a teaching tool and you wouldn't think their would be much left
for us to learn and especially since we also went all high tech like.

In California we experience enlightenment everyday anew and in the kitchen
when we brew our organic (fair trade) coffee. And of course we need cool
clear ...tap water. And so turning on the faucet which is equipped with an
electronic sensor and triple micro filtering... and then... Dam, if i
may..... nothing comes out.

Following the coffee brewers 24 hr on line problem solving instructions. We
then us a remote... to flush test toilet 'A'.
We have three to choose between toilets (A thru C) which are each equipped
with indicating lights as to the state of each flush. And A thru C is NOW
indicating ....FLUSH FAILURE.
We are left on our own to translate this test as indicative of no water is
available at this time and a couple of other options which of course we
would leave for Maria to technically clarify.
But we ..of course... respond to this indicated system failure by using our
Iphone to contact the web and then Googling: Flush failure. no water for
California coffee.

Parents sometimes try and teach their kids that food really doesnt come
packaged on the shelves at Safeway. Of course kids are usually too smart to
be taken in by adult fabricated stories like that as their experience tells
them if you want to eat you go to the frig. End discussion.
But it seems no one has taught the parents that water has a purpose and
source in nature and it has nothing to do with our human contrived needs.
Web search hint...When Googling: water.source or god...don't include any
reference to: Alhambra.

The up side of human is we get to wear clothes but the down side is we need
to drink water just like the other animals. And the expression "God!... Dam
You!", won't put the water back in the plastic bottles. Yes folks, we seem
to have created a problem even bigger than what God created when s/he put
clothes on animals.
Of course, it is again rumored clothes where really a kindness on god's
part. As s/he didn't want anyone embarrassed if they happen to look down.

The weather maps shows the nation on fire when we see it illustrated on TV.
But do we realize those brown dry mountains are the former water sheds...
and now the sheds are empty.

Will California from Monterey south have a mass ..human..migration and
exactly where too and how soon? The other animals (the naked ones) we are
told have been moving north for some time.

These issues are definitely being discussed over government kitchen tables.
And of course that's after us children are tucked in at night. And i suspect
the conclusions maybe grim.
We chose a Governor who can bend steel bars with his bare hands but we
forgot to check if he could fetch a glass of water.

And since we are children and want to continue to be children we won't be
told anything upsetting until we see mom and dad packing the station wagon
for our jaunt to our new home way up North.
(No, not the North pole as that's now under water). Even kids know that. But
u could Google/wikapedia it for conformation. Also check: Santa. change of
address.

And definitely don't head for Utah as they have a new spiritually charged
electric fence. They are checking for the LDS eye dee's going in. Another
rumor (just born... again) they the lds's recently turned the holy family
away as they where dressed funny and neither Christ nor s/he where wearing a
tie which of course is the sign of godly-less.
Apparently the lds's mistook them for the Simpson family playing dress up.

So set your 'dash-board directional finder's' destination as Cleveland. Yes,
for us the destination is tomorrows.... New America. And of course you can
take along a golf course.... as the children have to learn real American
cultural values and especially now since deer hunting involves walking.

SiFi? can't say!... But some questions to pose while talking it UP. Where
did the water for the California Delta aqueduct come from and where did it
go and how many 'make believe' oasis does the water splash on down in
southern California. And also how many clothed bodies are needed in S.
California to wash twenty five million cars? It seems even hybrids need
washing.
All the above may not follow the rules of grammar. But discussing our not
filling the glass with water makes for new rules.

The quest of the 'scientist of old' was Alchemy (lead in-to gold) But maybe
now with our computers and advanced degrees we will be able to turn the
oceans into fresh water and use the salt to make tofu.
Oops and darn that would take energy and that's something we no longer have
in any state of cheap and plentiful.