Maggie's Farm

I worked for GHW Bush at CIA. Not directly but close enough so that our paths crossed. Very few of the old OSS men who had stayed through the disastrous Carter years ( and there were very few) did not like Bush. They saw him for what he was, a ticket punching politician grabbing credentials where they were available. But such is politics.

Then he became President after voodooing the greatest President of our time Ronald Reagan. Then he moved his lips on taxes, after buying a lie from the Democrats on spending reductions, and that opened the door for Bill Clinton.

George W. Bush had the unfortunate circumstance of 9-11 to deal with. Inarticulate and bumbling he at least knew how to war against Islam but could not overcome good intelligence weakened by it's abandonment and his failure to find the weapons that had been there and should have been there, even if the CIA had to place them there to be found. The cause of removing Saddam was worthy but ended up a folly because he misused his assets.

Between the impuissant two Bushes, H.W. and W. the Republican Party wilted. Gone was the firebrand of Gingrich and his energy and ideas, replaced with tired platitudes of past glories. The Bushes squandered all of the Reagan legacy, not the Democrats.

Now we will pay the price come November repeating the Dole is old, but due his turn error with John McCain, another inarticulate bumbler, not ready for the campaigns of the new millennium. Republicans need to find a new party, not try to rebuild one stuck so deeply in the past. I doubt if I will see it in my lifetime for what the Democrats can do will not be easily undone. I'm glad I still have the solitude of Montana with no TV or possibly Internet.

For as Brutus said to Caesar:

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures

It would appear the Republicans have lost their tide and their ventures.

Oh, you mean the tooth fairy.

The press is fully prepared, in fact more anxious than I have ever seen, to get a candidate,Obama, to the WH. The average Republican will be watching reruns on TV on election day rather than engage in the process. That's what the next six month beat down on McCain is going to do to morale. McCain will be unable and too feeble to get his message out and the grass roots Republican is now dwelling in the Jurassic period of Republicanism.

At this point Republicans would be better served to become Libertarians than remain Republicans.

If the Dems get it all, including a super majority the the ONLY way I see a way to stop things is for the Republicans not to show up so that a quorum will never be present in the House. But then the Dems will simple issue Presidential directives, ie edicts from on high.

If you want to look on the bright side look at all the new allies we'll have. Iran, Syria, Venezuela., North Korea, while going the way we did during the Prague Spring to our new allies who have bet everything going against the Soviets.

It use to be said that the US was a terrible foe but a worse ally...how true that's gonna become.

learn to embrace it ...Allah Akbar!

There is some truth in what you say but it is thin gruel. His economic policies produced the Clinton economy for those things take time to take hold.

He did, without firing a shot collapse the Soviet Union, largely because he walked away from Reykjavík, placed missiles in Europe, and sold Russia computer chips that were programmed to fail at a time in the future adn pursued the Strategic Defense Initiative which the Soviets could ot compete with...all master strokes.

Did he do away with some Secretary level departments, no, but he reduced by more than two thirds the federal registry of quasi authoritarian edicts.

His mere inauguration caused the release of American hostages in the US Embassy in Tehran after 444 days of Cater failure. He rebuilt the intelligence community that later Carter destroyed and he built a 600 ship US Navy to project US power, now only a shadow of that force.. His much maligned Strategic Defense Initiative we see now works and is operational in part. It was the Republican minions that were satisfied to bask in the reflected glory of Reagan's successes.

I could go on but other duties call. The failures were not Ronald Reagan's and his successes far outweigh any missteps.

Back from the grocery market.

I haven't given up all hope that McCain can win. His challenges however are mighty given the adversarial press he is going to face.

Obama has enough negatives to create an equation Einstein couldn't unwind but they are all now taboo to be talked or written about. The number of seedy friends and characters he has would be enough to disqualify any republican candidate, but that story is so old as to be known by all.

His Marxism is very disturbing and not being explored outside the Internet. The MSM will never touch it such is their love for poking all WASP's in the eye.

Once again quoting Albert Einstein:
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former

The American public is so utterly dumbed down that they simply lust after a nanny state to take care of every need. It is a disgusting display of slovenly thought and action, but it is America 2008.

Cardio and workout time....

Jim , if we follow your advice you're right, we won't have a chance..

So what's your alternative, not voting because it looks bad now? Telling all your friends the same plan...yea that'll help.

So it's 1775 and the colonials are getting their asses handed to them time and time again..what does Jim do?

"Well fellas you know the Brits have the largest Navy and Army in the world. They just sent the largest invasion force in history to our shores, along with some nasty Hessians..lets give up, surrender, and just do it their way"

That about it? Who would to be blamed for that? The Jims, that's who, but, but...... guess what..we won!

A few remarks fro the record. On more than one occasion the British , I believe under Lord William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, KB, PC, offered amnesty to all colonialists in and out of the army. Some took it , others not.

Washington was faced with a desertion rate of 25-50% at times, although many returned after going home. Enlistments were always a problem, in fact one of the major reasons for the attack on Trenton in December across the Delaware was that almost the entire Army had their enlistments up on Jan 1.
Washington was faced with having no Army at all.

The British did not hang captured colonialist with reckless abandon. Most were placed on prison ships and left to poor rations and disease to kill them.

Now the mercenary Hessians were a different story an after successfully attacking Fort Washington would have killed every soldier remaining but the Brits stopped them from doing so.

This was all about pay back.
After the routing with the Contract with America, ousting Jim Wright, impeaching Clinton, and the Dems losing control of Congress for the first time in over 40 years they grasped everything they could to hammer W, especially after no WMD's were found. That was hypocrisy at it's 24k gold best because as I pointed out before almost every leading Democrat said Saddam had them and needed to be dealt with.

But that's where the Dems win, in the trenches, down and dirty while the country club Republicans are satisfied to go to Embassy parties, do a little work and go back to the civilian world and cash in on the process they now know.