There may be correlation, but is there causation?
Fear of hell makes us richer, Fed says

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Tanker sent me this link from Iraq the Model. Those brothers are smart cookies:

This reveals the fact that the terroristsÂ’ resources are no longer sufficient to their expenses and this is what made them seek financial support through these criminal operations.
Ok, we know now that theyÂ’re close to bankruptcy and here come two countries to reinforce the terrorists position by withdrawing from Iraq. And people here in Iraq believe that Manilla paid several millions of dollars to free the hostage just like what the Egyptians did when the Egyptian embassy announced that the operation was more about money than about politics.
Do you know what this means?

Millions of dollars mean hundreds of victims. TheyÂ’re funding terror in one way or another and I find it very stupid that negotiations take place through the help of a highly under suspicion-group like the "Sunni Muslim Cleric Council".

ThereÂ’s a deal to fund terror in a different way than before and there are groups and countries who support this and maneuver to override the obstacles.
Negotiating with those thugs provides them with legitimacy let alone submitting to their demands and funding them.

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Hilarious Bleat today. Trip to IKEA: done it myself, many times. Chili Cheese Burrito petition: signed it with my husband's name, since it's his favorite Bell item. And I can't decide if I laughed harder at this paragraph

This is why I am not completely undone by the news that it may take a while to fully electrify Iraq. It took DirecTV ten attempts to fix one dish, and no one was shooting at the techs.

or this one

I like my union; they've backed me up when I was in a corner. I just wish they didn't force me to subsidize pictures of the president standing in a sack of shit, that's all. Is that too much to ask?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm hooked on Lileks.

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Just a quick link via RWN: Bush-haters do Kerry no favors

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Mark Steyn is on:

And here's where I have some sympathy with Sandy Berger and his overloaded pants. By his own words, he's guilty of acts that any other American would go to jail for. He "inadvertently" shoved 30-page classified documents down his pants and then "inadvertently" lost them at home and then "inadvertently" returned to the National Archives to "inadvertently" take another draft of the same 30-page document and "inadvertently" lost that, too. He "inadvertently" made forbidden cell phone calls from the room with the classified documents, and he "inadvertently" took more suspicious bathroom breaks while in the Archives than that Syrian band took on that L.A. flight that was in the news last week. If the former national security adviser has an incontinence problem, that at least explains where he was during the '90s when Osama bin Laden was growing bolder and bolder on his watch.

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And when I got to the end, I realized I was crying.
We'll miss you, Tim.

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A soldier wrote a letter in response to a Ben Stein column.
Ben Stein responded.

(via Greyhawk)

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Fahrencrap 9/11 will be shown free-of-charge in Seoul in an effort to get more Koreans to see the movie and oppose the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq. Mission accomplished, Michael Moore.

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Some good stuff on Instapundit today. First, a quote from reader David Pinto:

We've done a pretty good job of surrounding potential trouble makers. Pakistan has the US on one side and India on the other. Iran has the US on two fronts. And Syria has the US and Israel on two fronts. Not a bad strategic maneuver.

Indeed, as Glenn would say. And then there's this link on what really happened to the oil-for-food money...

Ain't that a kick in the pants?

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This is when I let out a huge incredible-hulkish growl.
Germany to Drop Charges Against 9/11 Plotter

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According to Garrison Keillor, the definition of a Republican is

...hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, see-through fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, hobby cops, misanthropic frat boys, lizardskin cigar monkeys, jerktown romeos, ninja dittoheads, the shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, taxi dancers, grab-ass executives, gun fetishists, genteel pornographers, pill pushers, chronic nappers, nihilists in golf pants, backed-up Baptists, Crips and Bloods of the boardroom...

Wow, those are some fun descriptions. Though try as I might, I just can't fit myself into any of those categories, despite the fact that I have met many cats that I would've liked to have strangled. If he added war cheerleaders and clueless fucktards, then I'd fit right in...

(Via Powerline)

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1 Unless someone will own up to having put LSD into Keillor's coffee, he should see his brain-care specialist at once!

Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at July 18, 2004 08:37 AM (MzH7h)

2 Maybe we aren't as divided as we think. I could name a Democrat that fits each of those descriptions! In fact, John Kerry is trying hard to be all of them this year!

Posted by: Mike at July 18, 2004 01:27 PM (tJNpU)

3 I'm a Republican. And I'm also an American of Mexican descent, a woman, a writer, with two degrees both in American and English Literature, a wife, an ex-liberal and ex-democrat. Geez my list is less exotic than Keeler's, but much more honest, and I bet there are many more out there that fit my list rather than Keeler's stereotypical rant that use words to confuse and label rather than illuminate and define. To a writer from a writer: never abuse the truth with words that attempt to sound like the truth, because when you do you reveal the soul of your pen and the ink becomes the blood that spills rather than keep the arteries of truth alive.

Posted by: Moor at July 18, 2004 05:51 PM (xvwyL)

4 Keillor is an ass. I refuse to listen to him on AFN on Sundays anymore.

Posted by: richard at July 19, 2004 01:32 AM (dY+QS)

5 Glad to see you recovering from the troll attack of a couple weeks ago...

Posted by: Princess Jami at July 20, 2004 05:46 PM (0gPLe)

6 I read recently that the difference between the Left and the Right is that the Right thinks that their opponents are mistaken, wrongheaded or unrealistic while the Left thinks their opponents are stupid, corrupt and evil. Keillor expresses that latter sentiment well, but he goes over the top. It feels as though he is desperate to prove something. Who's he trying to convince-- himself?

Posted by: Louis Wheeler at July 24, 2004 01:19 AM (mYqjP)

7 http://make.imoney555.com/8kbb/ pathspuffedwalked

Posted by: salty at July 24, 2005 09:17 PM (PlaNP)

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I found this blog post via Annika's comments section, which made me think of this post I read a long time ago. Do we need to pay more attention to the semantics of this war?

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Some interesting Stars and Stripes articles this morning:
Keane: U.S. 'seduced by Iraqi exiles,' didnÂ’t plan properly for insurgency
Iraqi soldiers take pride in learning U.S. military skills

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I read about this story on a billion blogs today. I finally read the whole thing, and my stomach is a mess. I felt scared to death.

Oh yeah, Mama, don't read it. I'll never get you on a plane in September.

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Den Beste has a good post about the difference between "Can I?" and "May I?" At the end he touches on persuading vs bullying; what I want to know is why so many in this world point a finger at the US as the world's bully, when France is the one telling other nations to shut up...

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Lileks is also cool.

I hate this; God I hate this. But I don’t have any longing for normalcy, as Noonan put it the other day, because normalcy was a delusion, a diaphanous curtain draped over the statue of Mars. Nor do I want a time out, a breather, an operational pause. I want to cut to the chase. I want Iran in the hands of its people and leaning to the West again, I want Lebanon independent of Syrian rule, I want Syria isolated and cowed, Arafat dead and buried in the land of his birth – or Paris, symbolically – and the Saudi Civil War done and over with pragmatists in power. I'd like this all tomorrow please.

Noon is fine, if it works for everyone else.

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I read Robert Jensen's article Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore Misses About the Empire via Hud. I certainly don't agree with many things in this article, but at least Jenson and I can find some common ground:

And what of the analysis of Iraq? Moore is correct in pointing out that U.S. support for Iraq during the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein's war on Iran was looked upon favorably by U.S. policymakers, was a central part of Reagan and Bush I policy up to the Gulf War. And he's correct in pointing out that Bush II's invasion and occupation have caused great suffering in Iraq. What is missing is the intervening eight years in which the Clinton administration used the harshest economic embargo in modern history and regular bombing to further devastate an already devastated country. He fails to point out that Clinton killed more Iraqis through that policy than either of the Bush presidents. He fails to mention the 1998 Clinton cruise missile attack on Iraq, which was every bit as illegal as the 2003 invasion.

Jensen lost me when he spoke ill of the military, which is not surprising given my admitted knee-jerk love of all things camouflage, but at least I could read the article and try to see his point.

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Kerry vs The War

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Two Johns, Two Positions

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Hey, look! I'm in CPT Patti's window!
(right side, bottom left corner)

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