Author Archives: OGHD

Either Hal Rogers Goes, or John Boehner Does

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Get an axe.
[Update: This post is already half obsolete.  It appears that the fiscal hawks succeeded in getting the big spenders’ attention, who now swear, swear that they will cut $100 Billion from 2011.  I still say it’s too late for Representative Hal Rogers, whose quote about federal layoffs indicates that he does *not* get it, and that he never will.  Fiscal conservatives pointed out his unsuitability for the Chairmanship of the Committee on Appropriations when his name first came up for it, and they have been proven right.

I do not advocate a “reign of terror” wherein our own party must run each day fearing the gong, but the combination of timing, importance, centrality to our whole GOP effort this session, and the flaming disconnection … Continue reading →

Why I Support The Egyptian Protesters

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I am a Tea-Party conservative, and I support the Egyptian protesters.

First, I refer you to my motto: Freedom is wasted on him who will not make others free.  Everything else is details, which begin here:

  • I feel that for the United States to not support the protesters is morally repugnant and strategically counterproductive.
  • I feel that President Mubarak should step down, that an experienced interim, caretaker successor should succeed him, and that neither man should stand in the regularly scheduled election next September.
  • I feel that this will create an opportunity for (not guarantee) a real democratic structure to emerge and solidify over time.
  • I feel that the immediate threat to Egyptian liberty is their current government which the United States seems to support but I do … Continue reading →

President Obama, say the 'D-Word' – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

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President Obama, say the ‘D-Word’ – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

This is the conclusion of an article by Mark Levine, Professor of History at UC Irvine. The point he makes is the point I have been making all across Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/afghanmoon), which is that America is failing its first test of Global Counterinsurgency, handed to us at a cost of zero. If we cannot bring ourselves to take the plunge and support the citizens in Cairo and Alexandria struggling to shake off their dictator, then nowehere in the world for a quarter century will our words of “freedom” or “democracy” be believed. We are losing the Long War right now in Egypt, not Afghanistan, not Iraq.

A gift that won’t be offered again
The … Continue reading →

NaNoWriMo Defibrillator

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Alan, the protagonist for my novel A Rain of Dust, is modeled on Arkady Renko from Martin Cruz Smith’s awesome Gorky Park books. I was stuck hard on the writing, until I let Alan call Major Pribluda, one of the characters from Gorky Park for a bracing picker-upper. It worked–there’s a sprint in this phone call which eluded me in RL, and I went on to add another thousand words in the hour after I wrote this:

He looked at the progress bar in its agonizing crawl across the screen, and realized that all this database work was just slowing dow the novel. Fuck this too.
On the drive back north he used the hands-free for his cell phone.
“Misha, pick up the phone if you’re in. I … Continue reading →

Welcome to Kabul

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On the 25th, the chief Soviet advisers to the Afghan military met in Kabul. They were ordered to prevent any Afghan units, which were opposed to the Soviet presence, from approaching Kabul. Those military advisers and technicians who worked with the DRA air defense forces were directed to prevent actions against the air movement of the paratroopers by taking control of all the air defense systems and their ammunition storage bunkers. The advisers temporarily disabled some air defense systems by removing the sights or physically locking them. Consequently, the Soviet air armada flew into Afghanistan unopposed. Continue reading →

What Really Happened 02 NOV 2010

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Americans know what the plebes around the world can only guess at–that the Constitution makes each American sovereign. Deep down, it was ramming bills through without even reading, much less explaining them, and anti-Constitutional shenanigans such as “deeming” passed a bill which had plainly not passed as an end-run against well-designed safeguards, which cost the Democrats this year.

Most Americans cannot explain this, but they know it in their bones. If the Constitution is not the supreme law of the land, then nothing is, and we refuse to devolve into a mob, which is where we were headed under the feckless bungling of the last two years.

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Stunner: Bill Maher Not Wrong For Once

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Bill Maher Afraid Mohammeds, Islam Taking Over Western World | Mediaite: “I don’t have to apologize, do I, for not wanting the Western world to be taken over by Islam in 300 years?”

How is it that I agree with Bill Maher on anything? I am not anti-Islam. I am not pro-Islam. I have friends who are Muslim and I wish harm upon no Muslim simply for his religion. I am a big fan of western civilization, which, for all its warts, is pretty damned good. The only problem I have with a live-and-let-live agreement is where basic human rights such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are infringed. We have made great progress in securing these rights for an ever-increasing percentage of people in … Continue reading →

Careful With That Axe, Cee-Lo Green

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What is Cee-Lo Green playing at?  Perhaps the smart kids are already all over this, but Cee-Lo Green’s fantastic single has a troublesome title.  The song is called Fuck You, and it is worth every bit of the vulgarity.  Great song, great lyrics, great video, so get past the F-bomb.  It Happens.  The thing is huge.  I challenge you to watch the original “not so clean” version and not love it:

Now he has come out with a “clean” version, below, which is poorly done.  It is obviously poorly done.  It is obviously intentionally poorly done.  Don’t take my word for it; watch the bleeping video:

So is this just a petulant Cee-Lo acceding to a record company demand?  I doubt it.  He would … Continue reading →