Thinking Right

By Peter

December 6, 2007 8:32 AM | Link to this

The lessons of the Roman Empire have been lost so far on this Administration !

By Aquagirl

December 6, 2007 8:33 AM | Link to this

the U.S. should be wary of deeper involvement there.

Not as wary as the Africans should be.

By jbmlaw

December 6, 2007 8:37 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. The key phrase in Jim’s morning essay is, “we should have no sizeable military presence on the continent.” That statement is true for all continents, save North America. I am not an advocate of using our noble military to “deliver the pizza.” The purpose of our military is to kill non-US citizens, and/or to persuade people to not molest citizens of the United States. A “presence” is not justifiable in any other circumstance.

To apply that standard to current world events, the recent report by the leftists in our CIA tell us that Iran bowed to “international pressure” in 2003 and unilaterally terminated efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. (For the moment, assume the UN’s statement, disagreeing with the breadth of that of the American bureaucrats, is not true.) A quick review of “international pressure” in 2003 reveals only one event remotely fitting that description, a short US deployment in a nation adjacent to Iran that scattered the defensive military and deposed the sitting government in a month. (Notably, the same effort produced a similar effect in another long-time international troublemaker, Libya.) Thus, the US presence in the nation adjacent to Iran (usually called “Mesopotamia” by the New York Times) had the unmitigated benefit of neutralizing three hostile nations.

So far as I can tell with my limited intelligence, beyond Iran, only North Korea – long time negotiating partner of US democrats - has both intention and capacity to harm US interests in any notable manner, such that it requires US military presence. I think we would be well advised to dispatch US democrats to handle the African problems.

By Peter

December 6, 2007 8:53 AM | Link to this

Hi All I wanted to make sure all understood the Hatred inside Dusty’s heart……..so here was her last comments from yesterday….

“By Dusty

December 5, 2007 4:33 PM | Link to this

Liberals and satanists are all the same. They hate all that is good and wholesome in this world. I don’t care if liberals are responsible for the end of Jim Crow laws, for the spread of rural electrification and running water, for public schools, women’s suffrage, MediCare, Social Security, and the Peace Corps. I hate them all! I’m going to go pray for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ now — but not for the liberal ones of course since they are no good rotten scoundrels determined to end Western Civilization and Judeo Christian values with their crazy do-good projects.”

Please note she actually believes folks that do good things like bring about “Woman’s Suffrage, public schools, Medicare, and especially the Peace Corps…… are ALL to BE HATED!

Imagine accusing other folks of HATE, then saying she hates as well!

My friends, we have the true meaning of BEING a RIGHT WINGER, as Praying and HATING are HER “Family Values” !

Imagine if the whole world was like this…..hating others that don’t agree with you……

She sounds just like Osama Bin Laden doesn’t she !

By Dirtty

December 6, 2007 9:05 AM | Link to this

Who was the 25 year old German leader who traped and exterminated two Roman Legions, some 20,000 of Romes finest, and 30,000 camp followers in 10 AD at the peak of Roman power, shaking Rome to its core? Armenius? Osama? What is the equivalent today? The sinking of the Truman Battle group?

By TW

December 6, 2007 9:06 AM | Link to this

Gee, Mr. Wooten, I’m shocked that a George Bush Republican like yourself would reference no humanitarian interests in Africa. Be careful, an attitude like that could lead to an unwarranted invasion of a country one day, and possibly the killing of thousands of their innocent civilians…wouldn’t want that…would we?

By deegee

December 6, 2007 9:20 AM | Link to this

The US under this administration is a warrior nation that foolishly sees a military solution to every problem, and terrorist behind every rock. NEWSFLASH!!! - China is investing money and human resources in Africa in order to secure oil and natural resources for an expanding Chinese economy. What are we going to do about it, start shooting?

“Chinese government firms have invested billions of dollars in foreign exchange and have used Chi­nese engineering and construction resources on infrastructure for developing oil, gas, mineral, and other natural resources in dozens of African coun­tries, including Algeria, Angola, Gabon, Nigeria, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. The PRC’s new African energy investments are clearly intended to supple­ment its Middle Eastern oil imports.”

http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/bg1916.cfm

By Dennis

December 6, 2007 9:21 AM | Link to this

By jbmlaw December 6, 2007 8:37 AM “Good morning all. The key phrase in Jim’s morning essay is, “we should have no sizeable military presence on the continent.”

jbmlaw, let me disagree with you. The ‘key phrase’ in Wooten’s artice is “strategic interest” - meaning that the U.S. needs to control the natural resources of Africa and nations elsewhere in order to maintain the lifestyle that you and I are use to.

But if you feel I’m wrong, then help me with your usual wisdom to understand what you mean by “harm US interests in any notable manner…” if that “interest” is not a natural resource.

If not that, then what “US interest” are you talking about?

Wooten is right that if the US has bases there, the “Islamo-fascist” will be targeting us.

But perhaps we can combat those in the same manner that we are combating them in Iraq; let them kill off (sacrifice for oil)a few American soldiers everyday in order to keep them from attacking the US.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By getalife

December 6, 2007 9:26 AM | Link to this

“Yesterday, the White House’s story changed.

President Bush was told in August that Iran’s nuclear weapons program “may be suspended,” the White House said Wednesday, which seemingly contradicts the account of the meeting given by Bush Tuesday.

Adm. Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, told Bush the new information might cause intelligence officials to change their assessment of the Iranian program, but said analysts needed to review the new data before making a final judgment, White House press secretary Dana Perino said late Wednesday.

“Director McConnell said that the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment of Iran’s covert nuclear program, but the intelligence community was not prepared to draw any conclusions at that point in time, and it wouldn’t be right to speculate until they had time to examine and analyze the new data,” Perino said in a statement issued by the White House.

The new account from Perino seems to contradict the president’s version of his August conversation with McConnell and raised new questions about why Bush continued to warn the American public about a threat from Iran two months after being told a new assessment was in the works.

Of course it contradicts Bush’s version. On Tuesday, the White House line was that Bush wasn’t given any sense of what the latest Iranian intelligence said. On Wednesday, the White House line was that Bush was told the latest Iranian intelligence suggested Iran’s nuclear program might not exist.

The president is stuck in a lie he can’t get out of.”

Just resign in disgrace.

Geez.

By Redneck Convert

December 6, 2007 9:31 AM | Link to this

Well, me and my buddy Jim Earl was talking about that Nebraska guy that kilt all the shoppers in a mall in Nebraska. We decided he only got 9 because he was using a old Rooshian army rifle. If he would of used a good American army rifle that fired as fast as he could of pulled the trigger he could of got maybe 50.

Anyway, I know the libruls will be using this as a way to try to take my two machine guns and my antitank weapon away from me. I need those guns for hunting and to pertect my property, but they don’t care about that. They will do anything to make sure the criminals are the only ones that have guns. If I had my way we would all be packing heat when we drive around or go into places. The criminals would think twicet before they tryed anything then. Take that bank robber they caught the other day. If the customers in the banks he robbed would of been packing heat, he would of went down in a hail of bullets the first time he tryed to rob a bank. And if you are in a Waffle House and some guy starts getting on your nerves, you could just pull out a gun and settle things right on the spot. No need to get the cops involved. This is one reason its important to vote for godly Republicans next fall. To pertect our right to bare arms.

Anyway, I still think my idea of using the toll booths on GA 400 as ammo stations is a good one.

I ain’t too intrusted in what we do in Africa. Its a long way off and don’t have nothing to do with me. The place is full of Those People and the terrists can have it as far as I’m concerned. Wooten is just wasting our time if he thinks us rednecks care about Africa.

I was awful glad to see Sister Dusty come out with some old fashioned hate for the libruls yesterday. Good for her. You can’t reason with them so you might as well just unload on them. Course, you have to do it with your keyboard or your mouth now cause they won’t let you carry your gun everywhere.

Have a good day everybody.

By jbmlaw

December 6, 2007 9:36 AM | Link to this

Good morning Dennis @ 9:21. You properly chide me for failing to define “US interests” as I used that phrase in my final paragraph @ 8:37. Had I been diligent, I would have used the penultimate sentence in my first paragraph to define the phrase.

Otherwise I suspect we will have to disagree on Mr. Wooten’s key phrase. If, as you would have it, “strategic interest” is the more relevant, that would be incompatible with his conclusion, military disengagement. I really think you have to embrace my view for Mr. Wooten’s logic to work.

By Truthifier

December 6, 2007 9:39 AM | Link to this

jblmaw: “the recent report by the leftists in our CIA”

HUH?! jbmlaw, you have spent a lot of time in the past defending the CIA because they were providing the President with reports supporting his position. Now that they provide a report that goes against his goals the CIA is full of Commmies and fellow travelers??

However, you’re right about US troops abroad. We would never allow another nation to station their troops in the US and it baffles me that we expect other nations to allow us to do so in their’s.

By Dennis

December 6, 2007 9:56 AM | Link to this

By jbmlaw December 6, 2007 9:36 AM | “I really think you have to embrace my view for Mr. Wooten’s logic to work.”

I fear that I gave up on Mr. Wooten’s “logic” a long time ago. One has to grow up and embrace reality.

But I am not as interested in his logic at the moment as I am with yours.

Since you disagree with my statement, The ‘key phrase’ in Wooten’s artice is “strategic interest” - meaning that the U.S. needs to control the natural resources of Africa and nations elsewhere in order to maintain the lifestyle that you and I are use to”, would you enlighten me with your intent of the words, “deliver the pizza”.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Peter

December 6, 2007 10:06 AM | Link to this

Wow crazy folks on this Blog……

OK now……”I have to apologize to DUSTY”….. because obviously someone stole her identity, and made some pretty terrible comments on her behalf.

“By anonymous

December 6, 2007 9:44 AM | Link to this

Peter, I must confess that I was channeling Dusty yesterday with my comments about liberals and satanists. I’d hate for you to have a bad taste in your mouth about Christians because of my posting — but that Dusty is still an uptight know-it-all who knows nothing about the true message of Christ or of true patriotism for that matter. Thankfully, there are in fact many liberal or even just common sense Christians who do not take the hard line judgemental viewpoint that she regularly spews on here.”

Well Mr. Anonymous…..

I am NOT Liberal, I am a “free thinker”……I don’t agree with many of Bush’s policies, especially the WAR, or 1/2 of what you Liberals say.

Also YOU obviously have ZERO idea what being a Christian means as well.

Sorry Dusty, as this “Person” spoke on your behalf, and I blasted you for their remarks !

By Captain Freedom

December 6, 2007 10:09 AM | Link to this

THE Captain notes with dismay a recent interview with Dan Bartlett, a longtime Courtier to Our Leader. Bartlett reveals the Administration’s view of Mighty Keyboard Warriors like Myself, Mr Wooten, the Powerline guys, and Malkin (Our Lady of Perpetual Hate).

That’s what I mean by influential. I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.

Well, it is certainly nice to be appreciated! But THE Captain is concerned that Bartlett’s intemperate remarks might somehow dilute the effectiveness of jbm, Van, Dusty, and Myself as we save apostate liberals from the jaws of their dismal beliefs.

Specifically, THE Captain objects to the blanket characterization of Our Work as “regurgative”. Bartlett somehow conflates all of us Noble Keyboardists with the emetic disgorgings of Sister Dusty, who is working valiantly to displace Ann Coulter as the Chief Bulemic of the 101st Fighting Keyboard Brigade.

However, it is not true that THE Captain eructates the ideological cookies in the manner described by Bartlett. THE Captain, along with other bright lights like jbm and Van, actually fully digests the information Our Leader wishes us to impart. Then, when the time is right, we come here and squat astride the Wooten blog where we can “pinch off a loaf” of True Belief and finely filtered Right Thinking.

THE Captain trusts that this clears any confusion regarding this matter, and notes that Dan Bartlett will likely awaken next to a severed horse’s head as a result of his immoderate revelation.

By Aquagirl

December 6, 2007 10:16 AM | Link to this

To heck with buying the vent collection for Christmas gifts, where’s the Redneck/THE Captain collection?

By anonymous

December 6, 2007 10:19 AM | Link to this

Peter - Dusty makes some “pretty terrible comments” on here everyday so I’m sure she can take it as well as she can give it. However, I have apologized to you for being duplicitious and extend my apology to Dusty as well.

By Anonymous

December 6, 2007 10:23 AM | Link to this

Truthifier: Glad to see I’m not the only one impressed with JBM’s, err, “flexibility” in speculating on “leftists in the CIA.”

Apparently, he adopts the current defintion of conservatism—“Whatever serves the interests of G. W. Bush”—in order to employ its logical corollary: “Anything that disagrees with G. W. Bush is therefore leftist.”

Funny stuff!

By ron

December 6, 2007 10:24 AM | Link to this

Jim,I don’t care if we ever send any troops to Africa.

By getalife

December 6, 2007 10:44 AM | Link to this

“Bush has made a big mistake, and he’s not responding in a way that gives confidence that he’s on top of this,” said David Albright, a former weapons inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency and president of the Institute for Science and International Security. “He isn’t able to respond because he’s not able to say he’s wrong.”

At least Nixon was man enough to resign in disgrace.

By IMPORTANT MESSAGE

December 6, 2007 10:44 AM | Link to this

MESSAGE TO SO-CALLED JOURNALISTS:

Thanks, “news” people for encouraging the next troubled, lonely young man to become famous by destroying innocent lives. It is appropriately newsworthy to mention his name ONCE. His picture, feelings, hopes & dreams, troubles, etc., should never ever be shown. You REWARDED the murderer at Va. Tech, and the time before that, and the time before that. Guess what: THIS IS YOUR FAULT. Wh-o-res.

By Shar

December 6, 2007 10:52 AM | Link to this

I recall reading, in the last year or so, of the intelligence successes that have been made by US troops as a consequence of small scale humanitarian missions in African countries. I am very fuzzy on the details, but I remember being impressed at how effective small groups of soldiers (and, as I recall, sailors) could be at “winning hearts and minds” (our current mission in Iraq) when called in by tribal groups to assist with projects such as wells or a medical unit, and how much intellegence (later borne out to be true) they received in return.

I don’t remember whether these groups were actually stationed in-country or if they were based elsewhere, but if the mission in Iraq represents a new deployment objective for the Pentagon, African bases used for this kind of work may well be worth consideration.

By Captain Freedom

December 6, 2007 11:08 AM | Link to this

Aquagirl,

THE Captain offers a Captain Kudo for your attentive use of capitalization.

By TW

December 6, 2007 11:18 AM | Link to this

Certainly if Romney is big enough to come on air and apologize for being a Mormon, Bush ought to step up and show he’s man enough to admit he blew it with Iran.

By floatin left

December 6, 2007 11:58 AM | Link to this

Seriously, though, why did we invade Iraq?

By floatin left

December 6, 2007 12:00 PM | Link to this

Seriously, though, why did we invade Iraq?

By floatin left

December 6, 2007 12:00 PM | Link to this

Seriously though, why did we invade Iraq?

By floatin left

December 6, 2007 12:02 PM | Link to this

Seriously though, why did we invade Iraq?

By jbmlaw

December 6, 2007 12:07 PM | Link to this

Dear Truthifier @ 9:39 and Anonymous @ 10:23, you falsely accuse me of respecting the CIA (and the allegation would be false if you named any other bureaucracy.) Quite the contrary, I have previously argued that the Clinton years so imbued the agency with marginal-competent and highly-politicized leftists that I believe one should go to the window if they say it is raining. To your point, however, please review the analysis @ http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010946. To give you a flavor of what you will find:

“Our own “confidence” is not heightened by the fact that the NIE’s main authors include three former State Department officials with previous reputations as “hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials,” according to an intelligence source. They are Tom Fingar, formerly of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research; Vann Van Diepen, the National Intelligence Officer for WMD; and Kenneth Brill, the former U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).”

You suggest I should honor the bizarre change in direction in CIA reports because they are now authored by leftists. Doesn’t your argument strike you as strange? I rarely accept anyone’s conclusions – not George Bush, not even the sainted Milton Friedman - without the argument; I acknowledge observing that leftists routinely so subordinate their own free-logic to the conclusions of currently-fashionable “experts,” e.g., global warming.

Dear Dennis @ 9:56, “would you enlighten me with your intent of the words, “deliver the pizza.” Certainly. That would be any extra-territorial mission assigned to the military other than those cited in the sentence following my use of the phrase “deliver the pizza.” And don’t give up on Mr. Wooten’s logic, it is there and well-developed, but you may need to release your own biases to see it. Read as a “Wootenista” rather than as Dennis.

Dear Shar @ 10:52, while I do not dispute your observations, I disagree with your argument that such efforts should ever be the mission of the military. I see such missions as the essential purpose of the Peace Corps, and believe we should not confuse the two.

Dear repetitious floatin @ various times, please refer to my second paragraph @ 8:37.

By ron

December 6, 2007 12:07 PM | Link to this

Floatin Left—-Have you ever read about the Crusades?

By Shar

December 6, 2007 12:13 PM | Link to this

Dear jbmlaw@ 12:07 - I, too, have strong reservations about using the military to “win hearts and minds”. However, the Pentagon and the Administration have incorporated that mission into the military’s central goals in Iraq. If that is now a legitimate use of military personnel, it may be worthwhile to consider in the context of African bases.

By TW

December 6, 2007 12:30 PM | Link to this

ron - Have you ever read about the mafia?

By Drive-by Media

December 6, 2007 12:37 PM | Link to this

Yeah, why should our war with whoever names teddybears wrongly be limited to one continent? Lets have a war with all seven continents!! A seven front war! You see, there are countries on all seven continents that could start up a nookyoolar weapons program. That makes all seven continents a threat.

So that’s why I’m beating the drum for war with the continent of Atlantis. It could rise up from the sea, and radical amphibians could evolve into al queda and get a nuke. So, They’re a threat. Support the troops, (navy seals)

By Truthifier

December 6, 2007 1:00 PM | Link to this

jbmlaw, everything in this world that you disagree with surely cannot be traced back to the Clinton administration? If these guys were “hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials” I seriously doubt that they would be allowed to have such high profile roles at the CIA. I’m curious to know though what your “intelligence source” is for this information.

By Glenn

December 6, 2007 1:06 PM | Link to this

What turns this column on its head is Jim’s assertion that our interests in Africa are minimal. In reality our interests there are greater than our interests in any region other than the Middle East, and for the same reason: “it’s all about the oil.”

Africa possesses reserves of oil greater than all those found, but now diminishing, in all the Persian Gulf. The untapped oil lies offshore the Horn, within the territorial waters of the coastal nations of West Africa. The oil was discoveredy at great expense to American corporations, which alone possess the technologies necessary to fetch it.

With the quiet and multiform assistance of the U.S. government, it is agreed that American corporations are to provide African interests with the werewithal to retrieve and refine the crude, which will go first to American markets. The Chinese have failed to get in on the deal.

Thus, America is poised to shift a sizeable portion of its considerable wealth to that region which historically it has most savaged. Even allowing for a fitful awakening from the nightmare that has been post-colonial West Africa, it is within the bony and bloody grasp of West Africa to decide whether it will have, at last, the best of all worlds.

For now the interests of the United States lie in the following:

• Ensuring the unterrupted flow of African oil from source to American markets;

• Stabilizing—and, where possible, democratizing—unstable governments in West Africa;

• Preventing those governments from so collectivizing as to form an African OPEC.

The litany cultivated by the Make-Compost-Not-War crowd—that Bush & Co. know about oil and its uses; that their foreign policy is petrocentric; that they pursue long-range interests at the expense of short-term economic relief—this same litany of factors is what has enabled, is enabling and will enable the West African strategic objective to go forward despite those who, like Jim, would hold that, in Africa, “Our interests are minimal.”

[Rudy 08]

By Dennis

December 6, 2007 1:09 PM | Link to this

By jbmlaw December 6, 2007 12:07 PM Dear Dennis @ 9:56, “would you enlighten me with your intent of the words, “deliver the pizza.” Certainly. That would be any extra-territorial mission assigned to the military other than those cited in the sentence following my use of the phrase “deliver the pizza.”

I suppose you mean by “deliver the pizza” a willy-nilly use of the military, which is a ‘strange’ turn of phrase to say that. Still, I would suppose you have something a little more concret to help me understand that? How exactly do you connect “deliver the pizza” with a willy-nilly use of the military?

“And don’t give up on Mr. Wooten’s logic, it is there and well-developed, but you may need to release your own biases to see it. Read as a “Wootenista” rather than as Dennis.”

Thank you for your concern, however having converted over a long and thoughtful period of time from a conservative political/religeous life to a more open and accepting one, I prefer Dennis’ non-conformity over Wooten’s being just another neocon, go along, conforming, good ole boy. (I wonder if he, like Imus, was hired to write things just to “shock” people? Btu I don’t think so, I think he believes what he writes).

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By off topic

December 6, 2007 1:18 PM | Link to this

There truly will be no way to please all the leftist wingnut environmental wackos. Now these nut jobs are belly aching over wind farms and their danger to migratory birds. Oh good God. What’s next, forcing road closures for deer? The stupidity of liberalism truly knows no limits.

A good cereal box read: When the Clintons were in office, we were constantly being bombarded with pictures of them coming out of church will Wild Bill clutching a bible. The media fawned and wet their pants and skirts. Now, Republican candidates cannot escape a constant bombardment of religious questioning by the same media. Here’s how said same media asks Democrat candidates about their religion: [chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp] Now just who the hell do they think they are kidding?

It’s fun watching politics and how the liberal lame stream media portrays it depending on an “R” or “D” after the name of a politician.

By Glenn

December 6, 2007 1:20 PM | Link to this

jbm, on CIA, you’re dead on pt.

By Brad

December 6, 2007 1:24 PM | Link to this

Dennis wrote:

(I wonder if he, like Imus, was hired to write things just to “shock” people? Btu I don’t think so, I think he believes what he writes).

Your blatant stupidity doesn’t shock anyone here, Dennis. At least not contributors to this blog who are meant to be here.

By Dennis

December 6, 2007 1:27 PM | Link to this

By Glenn December 6, 2007 1:06 PM What turns this column on its head is Jim’s assertion that our interests in Africa are minimal. In reality our interests there are greater than our interests in any region other than the Middle East, and for the same reason: “it’s all about the oil.”

Makes you wonder how Wooten missed this.

“With the quiet and multiform assistance of the U.S. government, it is agreed that American corporations are to provide African interests with the werewithal to retrieve and refine the crude, which will go first to American markets.”

Now, hey!, if you missed out in Iraq, this is a ripoff you don’t want to miss, folks.

Few Africans will ever see a dime of this.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Captain Freedom

December 6, 2007 1:40 PM | Link to this

A Captain Kudo to Glenn @1:06 for keenly recognizing the real game afoot in the coming struggle for dominance over the Dark Continent. But it is not just oil. Africa is awash not just in natural resources, but also boasts a plentiful supply of human capital in the form of strong-backed natives to help Us extract the Earth’s Bounty for Our (and by extension, God’s) Glory.

Of course We need Our Troops in Africa. To suggest otherwise is to cede the continent’s treasures to the savages that live there, or even worse, to the Islmunistofascists of China.

What if King Leopold had not kept troops in the Congo to hold a firm foot on the necks of the darkies? Well, look at Zaire and you have an answer. Petty corruption and the sickening sight of black men killing other black men, women and children. It is unseemly. Better that the extermination of the brutes come from a steadier, more enlightened, Christian hand.

Domination of the African continent. Once again, it is the Right Thing to do.

By The AD

December 6, 2007 1:47 PM | Link to this

Africa is corrupt. Strongman governments, monarchies, and tribalism are the norm.

We need oil.

Your point is….

By Glenn

December 6, 2007 1:51 PM | Link to this

Hi Dennis.

Yes, I too wonder why Jim’s extra-loop[ic] on this. Perhaps it’s Ram Das KosPink et al constantly pointing to the wrong oil that’s thrown him off the scent.

There’s already some serious money being made by Africans in African oil. A great deal more of that to come.

The objective is for the U.S. to withdraw entirely from Middle Eastern dependency in favor of a mixture of new alternatives, from African oil to non-petroleum fuel sources, with, in between, continued heavy investment in conservation technologies.

Should only a few Africans see the benefits of these events, then in my view it will not have been the fault of the U.S., which has taken and is taking great pains to ensure that its contributions to the West African economy are felt on the ground.

By Like an expectant father ...

December 6, 2007 2:01 PM | Link to this

… I wait hopefully for news that Georgia Tech has hired a perfectly healthy, 10-finger, 10-toe 50-year-old named Paul Johnson. If Dan Radakovich doesn’t make that happen, he should be stationed in Africa.

By Glenn

December 6, 2007 2:08 PM | Link to this

Capt,

Thanks. What is it that the U.S. personnel are perpretating that is reminiscent of the Belgian Empire of Mark Twain’s day? If you’ll provide the crimes I’ll provide the names of the units.

AD,

Welcome to foreign affairs. That’s why may people find it easier to duck it, citing Washington’s Farewell as their authority.

By jm

December 6, 2007 2:13 PM | Link to this

before anyone gets too carried away one way or another on the latest NIE report, know this. Intelligence work is like taking pieces from a million different jigsaw puzzles, putting them all in a box (leaving out a good number of pieces) and trying to put a puzzle together from the pieces in a short time period, and then guessing what the final picture is. There is a very good chance that different people see different results (especially if you have already made up your mind in advance).

By Glenn

December 6, 2007 2:21 PM | Link to this

jm,

How is it that anyone here knows of the contents of this morning’s NIE?

By jm

December 6, 2007 2:32 PM | Link to this

Uh? That’s not … Um. Huh. Hey, how ‘bout them Dawgs, huh?

By jm

December 6, 2007 2:38 PM | Link to this

Glenn,

I doubt anyone here does have the latest contents. I am just saying don’t take what is in any NIE (or any other type of intelligence) report as gospel. At best any intelligence report is well backed upon based upon documented facts, at worst it is nothing more than a SWAG.

In most cases, there is either too much or too little information to sift through to come up with a good analysis.

By Dennis

December 6, 2007 3:00 PM | Link to this

By Glenn December 6, 2007 1:51 PM Hi Dennis. Should only a few Africans see the benefits of these events, then in my view it will not have been the fault of the U.S., which has taken and is taking great pains to ensure that its contributions to the West African economy are felt on the ground.”

Admittedly, I’m not up on African oil as you are. The only view I have presently is that “Nigeria…has set ambitious producttion goals as high as 5 million barrels per day over the coming decade,” more than twice as much as in 2000”…and Angolas’ growing offshore oil industry, with participation by U.S. and international oil firms, is also a major source of growth [and] is thought to have the potential to double its exports over the next ten years…”Angola has proven reserves of 5.4 bbl, and Nigeria at 24.0 bbl.”

This from Michael T. Klare’s book, “Blood and Oil”.

I’m really interested in this, tho, “the U.S., which has taken and is taking great pains to ensure that its contributions to the West African economy are felt on the ground.” Can you tell me where to read up on that?

And I’m like a few others, I can’t imagine how Wooten says our interests are “minimal”.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Redneck Convert

December 6, 2007 3:10 PM | Link to this

Well, I been thinking all afternoon about what jbmlaw said about this NIE and what this Captain guy said about Africa. I thought so hard it like to took me two hours to bring in five cases of Bud Light to this little store run by one of the Indian illegals.

Anyway, I think jbmlaw is right. If the US spy people bring up stuff that supports My President’s acts, well that’s what they are suppose to do. But if they bring up stuff that makes My President look bad, well, they are nothing but a bunch of traders and ought to get the Death Penalty. What good is a bunch of spys if they won’t bring in stuff a president will like?

I guess I could see sending some of the sorriest soldiers to be stationed in Africa. If they keep messing up and not doing what their SGTs want them to do, then ship them off and let them fight the bugs and snakes and such. It will sure straighten them out fast. Anyway, it would sure make a good threat for a SGT to hold over a screw-ups head: “Straighten out or you’ll be on the next plane to the Congo tomorrow.”

By jm

December 6, 2007 3:15 PM | Link to this

for the jm impostor @2:32 - go Rainbow Warriors would be more appropriate.

By Captain Freedom

December 6, 2007 3:16 PM | Link to this

Glenn,

US personnel are not yet in position to pay homage to Leopold’s enlightened approach to handling the locals. However, given Our success in supporting the missions of Chevron/Exxon etc in such places as Indonesia and Timor, THE Captain has full faith in Our ability to live up to the standards set by ole Leo. (drat! that’s almost palindromic, but not quite. stun nuts!!)

By jm imposter

December 6, 2007 4:02 PM | Link to this

Why, do you have a rainbow sticker on your Volkswagen new Beetle?

By Jim's a Cherry Picker

December 6, 2007 4:06 PM | Link to this

Ahahahahahahahahah

Bush announces plan to freeze mortgage rates:

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of thousands of strapped homeowners could get some relief from a plan negotiated by the Bush administration to freeze interest rates on subprime mortgages that are scheduled to rise in the coming months.

“There is no perfect solution,” President Bush said Thursday as he announced an agreement hammered out with the mortgage industry. “The homeowners deserve our help. The steps I’ve outlined today are a sensible response to a serious challenge.”

What a Liberal Pinko Commie Nanny State Whiny Defeatocrat Bedwetter!

He thinks that government is the answer for everything…especially enriching himself and his corporate buddies!

Liberal Scum!

By Tiny Tim

December 6, 2007 5:13 PM | Link to this

Does everyone have a yellow hue in your name and E-mail box where you post a comment? What up widdat?

Africa? Sure why not, lets invade africa, any excuse to bail in Iraq.

Gates is giving a rosey picture of Iraq to play down the WMD lie Bush just was caught in.. Gates was the head of the CIA, remember? Doesn’t that tell you all you need to know about what’s really happening in Iraq? That Gates would say, against the pleas for more troops from his generals, that we might be able to send even more troops home than the most wildly optomistic projections last summer?

Read between the lines.

The news is easy to decipher if you’re not a full time partisan hack.

By Glenn

December 6, 2007 5:28 PM | Link to this

I’ve got no quarrel with jm or Capt or Dennis or anyone on Africa, but merely disagree with Jim’s categorical statement that our major interests lie elsewhere: so they do, and most of them point to Africa.

Agreed that our intelligence analyses are cubist portraiture, but we do try hard to get it right. Al Gore notwithstanding, we even invented the “Computer” for that very purpose. (And, for defense contract work and emergency command-and-control, a thing called DARPAnet.)

Agreed also that Americans do engage in Africa in America’s interest, and also in the interest of Africans. This has been so at least since the founding of Liberia. The first thing Nelson Mandela did when he was free to travel was to come to the United States to thank those here who helped South Africans to regain the democracy they lost in 1948. He knew the U.S. as coldly as Douglass knew Lincoln, but both had the honor to pay tribute where due.

All Africans know of the multiply redoubled and then quadrupled public/private American initiative against African AIDs, though presumably very few know how badly and how consistently the UN under the African Kofi Annan screwed them on every front, as it did hideously on Somalia and Darfur, and as it consistently has done on the African slave trade.

The U.S., by contrast, has done a lot of good in Africa, both because of, and in spite of, what America is. (For that matter the same may be said of the American missional organizations, who’ve had a time-honored presence there.) We do maintain a military presence there, and ought to increase it, not least because the need remains to chase Communists out of the region.

Castro and the Russians remain meddlesome; China, anew; and now Chavez wants in on the act. To say nothing of Africa’s having been the cradle of Al Qaeda, which is quite active in the West Africa/East Africa boundary region.

In spite of Jim’s addressing Africa from a Kiplingesque remove, a great many people in the Atlanta region, black and white, have family and friends in Africa. It is not esoteric to us, or to them.

And then there are the stately Masai and their offer of ceremonial gifts, including the head of Osama bin Laden, upon the loss of American life on 9/11…

By Tiny Tim

December 6, 2007 5:45 PM | Link to this

Sure, glennduhng, we followed THAT along. What a clod. Honestly.

Now answer me. Does everyone have a yellow hue in their name and email block that wasn’t there before?

A stopped clock is correct only once a day, if’n you use military time.

A stick in the ground is a sundial, which is never, ever wrong and which is so accurate that you can determine not just the time, but the curvature of the earth, the composition of the moon, and even how the planets were formed; just by studying the shadow of the little stick. (Unless you’re blog-simple and short-bus, in which situation you would go around saying, “Duh, a stopped clock is right twice a day, duhhhh.”

RETARDS!!

Just kidding. God Bless Us Everyone.

By Captain Freedom

December 6, 2007 5:45 PM | Link to this

THE Captain arrives just in time to apologize for all the mean things He has written about Mitt Romney and his Mormontology cult problem.

In what has been described as his “JFK” moment, Mitt spoke proudly today of his religious foundation, and never once mentioned the abomination that is Mormonism. This is an overt rejection of the bizarre Smithian apostasy that has heretofore kept True Believers from embracing this most electable of candidates.

Clearly, he of the perfect hair and manly shoulders has been successfully de-programmed of his peculiar fringe beliefs and is now an able and pure representative of White American Christianity. And while Mitt stopped disappointingly short of endorsing the idea that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a dinosaur, We of True Belief can rest easy that We at last have a candidate and political saviour who never pressed for the early release of a homicidal rapist.

By Dusty

December 6, 2007 5:52 PM | Link to this

Well, I’d better hurry. Just came in and find that trouble had been brewing. Hmmmmm

Peter, you and Anonymous are gentlemen and scholars and I accept your honest apologies. Thank you. BUT……both of you are still flaming liberals or free thinkers or something! You thought I’d forget ! Ha..no way. But it is almost Christmas sooooo Peace, brothers!! Until tomorrow~~

By the way, I am waiting on the apologies of RedNeck and Captain for spreading mal vox and other superficialities. Their literature of the libs is laughable but libelous, lost but never found. Get with it, guys. Your undercover is undercovered or something. Yes…

By Glenn

December 6, 2007 5:52 PM | Link to this

No, Mimesis, no jaundiced name & address boxes.

Why do you lag behind in class so? Is it time for you to see the school nurse for a corrective?

[R&Out]

By RealRep

December 6, 2007 5:53 PM | Link to this

Notice that Mike doesn’t need to explain his faith?

Huckabee ‘08