Black XXV: "More Than $2 Trillion!!"

The MudCave | 17 March 2004 (Happy St. Patrick's Day!!) | Mudboy Slim

[Mudboy Slim]

The Hill
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Taiwan, the Pacific Israel
By David Keene

The idea of democracy may have its detractors in the Middle East and elsewhere, but in Asia it seems to be what an earlier generation once called communism -- "the wave of the future" -- and that is making many in the region very, very nervous.

The quasi-communists who run things on the Chinese mainland these days have been proceeding for more than a decade on the historically naive assumption that they can, in effect, have their cake and eat it too. In their desire to build a China that can compete in a world in which economic and military power are more interdependent than ever, they are trying to free up their country's economic system without giving up an iota of political power. The very idea of a free-market totalitarian state may be difficult to grasp intellectually, but that seems to be what the folks in Beijing are trying to build and hold together.

They are proceeding as they are not because they are born-again democrats but because they know from bitter experience that the economic system dreamed up by the Marxists of yore and bequeathed to them by Mao doesn't work. They know, too, that while modern world power may still emanate from the barrel of a gun, a nation wishing to wield it had better have an economy that allows it to buy the very expensive guns and other paraphernalia that a modern military demands.

The problem is that as people prosper, see how others live and begin to taste freedom, they want more -- and that's exactly what's happening in China. Beijing's mandarins have been forced of necessity to surrender power on some fronts but aren't interested in going as far as people are beginning to demand. A legal system is beginning to develop that offers some protection to the average citizen, but the state still wants to maintain the monopoly of power that allows despots to sleep comfortably.

That's why the fractious democracy and boisterous economy that have developed and are operating on Taiwan are so troubling. When I first visited what we then called the Republic of China on Taiwan in the '60s, people here snickered at the idea that the tiny garrison of anti-Maoist Chinese on the island would ever realize its oft-stated dream of "returning to the mainland."

I was struck during my first visit by a conversation I had with a senior government official who suggested that perhaps we were snickering because we didn't understand what he and his friends meant when they talked about returning to the mainland. He said they didn't necessarily mean that they would return at the head of an army bent upon liberation (though there were some among them who harbored that fantasy) but that their vision of a free and democratic China was superior to the vision of their communist enemies and it would one day be embraced by Chinese on both sides of the straits.

Even that seemed farfetched at the time. The Taiwan of the '60s was just beginning to develop into the economic behemoth we know today, and while democracy was much talked about then, it would be some time before the talk became the reality of today.

But it has become reality. The Taiwan some talk so cavalierly about abandoning to the tender mercies of Beijing is among the freest and most prosperous nations on the face of the earth. It is, in fact, perhaps the best example anywhere of what a people willing to embrace the democratic idea and free-market economics can achieve.

And its very existence is making Beijing more nervous by the day. China's rulers want Taiwan "back" not just because they consider the island a "renegade" province but also because the freedom its people enjoy presages a future that the rulers aren't eager to embrace.

When they got Hong Kong back some years ago, the optimists suggested that the rulers would do nothing to undermine the freedom that made Hong Kong unique. That has proved wrong, as Beijing has steadily moved to bring freedom on that tiny island to its knees.

Still, there are those here who would abandon the island in a heartbeat. In years past, they argued that we shouldn't support it because the government wasn't democratic enough; now they argue that we should cut it adrift because it is too democratic and therefore unlikely to do everything we want in the way we want it done.

Taiwan is not a client state or a nation that we support for the sake of convenience or realpolitik. It is a nation that has embraced the ideals for which we stand and turned them into a reality. For that, it deserves, and has earned, our support.

David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, is a managing associate with the Carmen Group, a D.C.-based governmental affairs firm

[Happygal]

Woooo-hooo! Black belt on the way, eh? ~swoon~

Hey Dan, I'd be kinda scared of ye now, only for I know yer are a wee pussy cat! ;-)

[Mudboy Slim]

Yep...the first BlackBelt on Black...quite impressive.

John O'Sullivan's "Left-Wing Bush Criticisms Fly in the Face of Reality!!"

"Most of the world — not excluding both coasts of the United States — seem to be taking the same not-very-helpful attitude to President Bush and the Iraqi crisis. It is universally acknowledged that the president alone wantonly plunged us into a needless war, lied about the basis for doing so, has united Iraq and the Islamic world against us, and is now recklessly taking us further into a quagmire without either a map or a paddle.

But is it a truth? To begin with, the president did not act alone — nor even accompanied solely by Tony Blair. Both parties in Congress voted for the war. (Democrats had second thoughts mainly when Howard Dean started winning primaries by attacking it.) Most European governments also supported the intervention. And in Britain, the war had the support of the Blairite majority in the governing Labor Party, the main Tory opposition, and a slight majority of public opinion.

Nor did Bush lie about weapons of mass destruction. Almost the entire intelligence world — including the French and German intelligence services — thought that Saddam Hussein retained weapons of mass destruction. Hans Blix, heading the U.N. inspection team, reported that Saddam could not account for some of the stockpiles known previously to exist. And the fact that the United States and allied soldiers suited up to protect themselves against chemical attack suggests that the military too believed that Saddam retained WMD. Even Saddam wanted the outside world to think he possessed such weapons. It increased his prestige in the Arab world and thus his power of blackmail."

FReegards...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

"Connecting the Dots in Locating Iraq' s WMDs!!"

"An al Qaida cell associated with Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian national thought to be masterminding al Qaida operations in Iraq, smuggled three cars containing 17.5 tons of explosives and a deadly chemical agent of an undisclosed type into Jordan early in April. Targets for the attack were Jordan's military intelligence headquarters, the prime minister's office, and the U.S. embassy, which are located close to each other in the Jordanian capital of Amman. Former U.S. weapons inspector David Kay told Congress last fall that U.S. satellite reconnaissance showed substantial truck traffic between Iraq and Syria in the weeks before Operation Iraqi Freedom began last March 19. A Syrian journalist who defected to Europe told a Dutch newspaper Jan. 5 that chemical and biological weapons developed by Saddam Hussein's regime were being stored in tunnels dug under the town of al-Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria; in the village of Tal Snan, near a big Syrian air force base, and on the Lebanese border south of the city of Homs. Nizar Najoef told the Dutch Telegraaf that the WMD transfer was organized by the commanders of Saddam's Special Republican Guard with the help of a cousin of Syrian strong man Bashir Assad. Najoef's remarks strengthen the view of some in U.S. and Israeli intelligence that many of Saddam's most deadly weapons were moved to Syria just before the war began."

FReegards...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

"Ain't Jokin'!!"
(To be sung to Steve Miller Band's "The Joker")

Dem sheeple call MUD a spaced-out boy.....yeah...
'Cuz I see a future that's Just.
Some FReepers call me Moe Reese...
'Cuz I seek the Imprisonment of S.C.U.M.**!!

Sheeple squawk, "Let Willie Be!!"
Say Right's tellin' you wrong, steerin' you wrong...
Well, don't you worry, Nation, don't worry...
Cause MUD's right here--fightin'--right here where he belongs!!

'Cuz MUD's a FReeper...MUD's a grinnin'...
Slick's a Felon...should be in prison...
We'll FReep Left's music 'gainst RATS' S.C.U.M.**!!

I ain't jokin'...Laws've been broken...
DemRATS' are misspoken...
Demand Justice fer Slick's TREASON!! Wooo Hooooo Wooo Hooo...!!

(CM and the BigMan workin' the guitars)

Slick's the cutest thing that Bill's cellmates'll see...
Prisoners LOVE DemPhatThighs...gonna make Slick SQUEEEEAL!!!
Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time...
Sue me, Willie...if MUD don't git this just Right!!

Folks, keep FReepin'...'gainst Bill Clinton!!
Slick's a Felon...must be imprisoned...
We'll sing MUD's music with Ol' Rush!!

I ain't jokin'...Truth's unspoken...
Slick's a Crim'nal Joker!!
Nation, REJECT RATS' Commie S.C.U.M.**!!

(Mo' funky guitar)

WOO HOOO WOOO HOOOO...!!
FReepers keep talking about Slick Willie...
'Cuz Ol' Slick did US all wrong-ong...
Well don't you worry, don't worry, no don't worry, Country!!
Cause MUD's right here...Slick's TOAST!!

Slick's the cutest thing that Bill's cellmates'll see...
Prisoners LOVE DemPhatThighs...gonna make Slick SQUEEEEAL!!!
Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time...
Sue me, Willie...if MUD don't git this just Right!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...MUD

RE-IMPEACH. CONVICT. DETHRONE.
DISBAR. DE-PENSION. DE-LEGITIMIZE.
INDICT. CONVICT. IMPRISON. DISCARD KEY.

Slick Willie's a Serial Rapist...MOVE ON, you say?! Over my dead body...MUD

1 posted on 06/12/2003

[Mudboy Slim]

"Lucky Man"
(To be sung to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's "Lucky Man")

He had the zealots, and harems by the score...
Osama bin Laden...the Islamic WHORE!!
Ooooooh, what a Lucky Man he was!!
Ooooooh, what a Lucky Man he was!!

"bin" had no conscience...to confuse his head.
No soul, no character. "So What?!" the Left said.
Ooooooh, what a Lucky Man he was!!
Ooooooh, what a Lucky Man he was!!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...!!

He was itchin' fer War, bombed our Country, thought we'd blink!!
Of his Brav'ry, and his Principle...Leftist Med'yuh would sing!!
Ooooooh, what a Lucky Man he was!!
Ooooooh, what a Lucky Man he was!!

But Dubyuh soon found "bin", found his patrons, BOTH ENTWINED!!
His zealots couldn't save him, so WE BOMBED "bin", and HE DIED!!!!
Ooooooh, what a Lucky Man he was!!
Ooooooh, what a Lucky Man he was!!

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh...Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!

Mudboy Slim (9/14/2001)

[Mudboy Slim]

"Iran: Iraq's Duplicitous Puppeteer!!"

"...the reporting of the Iranian news agency, Mehr News, whose recent story claims the US has a policy of "committing systematic sexual abuse against Iraqi civilians" and even celebrates its atrocities on the internet. In the Islamist world in the Middle-East, where grinding illiteracy is the norm and serves to tighten the grip of the ruling zealots on the people, these stories heighten and focus the anger created by the hopeless misery that helps to imprison them. That focus must be the eternal scapegoat so that, even with their diminished understanding of the world around them, they do not look within their own borders...for that path can lead to rebellion. But a bit more on that issue a little later on...

On the ground in Iraq there are really different two wars being fought...one with the Sunni Baathists and the other with Iran via proxies. Here is the Baathist situation in a nutshell: In Fallujah and indeed along the entire Euphrates river valley, the hard core of opposition is based on the Baathist army remnants. This is due to the fact that the Euphrates river valley was never cleared by US or Coalition forces a year ago and this created the relatively unmolested sanctuary where the Baathist Sunni regrouped and gathered munitions and arms from the stockpiles where they had cached them earlier. They have apparently designed their insurgency along the lines of strong points (such as Fallujah)... But the force they are using is comprised of former army veterans already in country. So, being insufficiently ruthless has once again come back to haunt us and now we have to do that job all over again. There is something to be said for doings things right the first time around.

The second front would seem to be from the rebellious Shiia in southern Iraq if you believe what you are routinely fed by much of the press. But, the Muqtada Al-Sadr's forces have appeared within a suspiciously short time and from a segment of the Iraqi population that was routinely denied much in the way of military training by the Baathists out of fear of creating a working core for a Shiia rebellion. So, just where did al-Sadr’s disciplined and well-equipped little army come from then? According to the London-based newspaper, Al-Sharq al-Awsat they came from Iran. Iran has created three new training camps along the Iraqi border specifically to train a few thousand Islamist Shiia volunteers. Out of a population of millions, this is not properly indicative of what has been termed a ‘popular uprising.’

Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran...MUD

[stand watie]

YEP!

sure does.

free dixie,sw

[Mudboy Slim]

"Thunderous Thighs"
(To be sung to the Rolling Stones' "Faraway Eyes")

I wuz drivin' home, early Sunday mornin', thru DeeCeeVille...
List'nin' to Ol' Mick Jagger on the AM radio station...
And the DeeJay said, "You know you always got the Left by your side!"
And I wuz so pleased to be informed of this...
That I drove thru Slick's Whore House with my four-wheel!!
Thank ya, Clinton!! Thank ya, Gore!!

Slick had an arrangement to meet a girl...
Another intern date...
But Bill thought by the time he got there...
She'd be off, she'd be doin' the nearest Senator she could find!!
Much to his surprise, there she wuz...pickin' at her thong-wear...
Big Mo' Lewinsky, blue beret on her head...
Justa girl...with thunderous thighs!!

So if Ol' Hell'ry won't suck...
'Cuz the First Beach don't do guys...
Find a girl with thunderous thighs!!
And if you're horny and dusty...
'Cuz your wife don't do the jam...
Getta girl with thunderous thighs!!
Well...

Well, the Lib'rals keep right on sayin'...
That all you need to do is send more tax money to the...
"Sacred" DeeCee Whores of Guv'ment...
Located somewhere in downtown District of Columbia!!

But next week, they'll play my songs on the ray-dee-oh...
And all Right's dreams will come true!!
Libs're dead...and next week, Lord hear my prayer...
Hear me, world...folks, you know what kinda lies Slick spouts...
But I'll tell ya...

So now Slick's down on his luck...
'Cuz Ol' Hell'ry don't do guys...
Hired a girl...with thunderous thighs!!
Now, if you're downright disgusted...
And you're tired of Slick's scam...
Hire a girl to prove that Slick lies!
Yes, now Bill's down on his luck...
In jail, Ol' Slick'll soon reside...
He'll be the "girl" with pasty white thighs!!

Mudboy Slim (9/29/2000)

[Mudboy Slim]

Hey Meeky, d'ya mind reposting yer "A Hero Will Rise" from Post #399 on Black XX?!!

Thanks in advance...MUD

[jla]

Tell the truth, Mud...you'd love to cut in, wouldn't you?

[GeorgeW23225]

I'll be there!! And I hope to see a LOT of other Freepers there also!!!

[GeorgeW23225]

Sometimes the moderators here do some strange things for strange reasons.......

[sultan88]

"Fought a kid 5 years your junior who I'd swear had pure testosterone for blood & successfully made his eyes water while preventing him from knocking me out with some mighty fancy flying kicks he'd -- *obviously* -- been practicing. Also broke both my required boards on the *first* of the three tries we get, too. Not an "easy" thing to do, y'know."

Man, I would have loved to have seen that. Congrats!!!

[sultan88]

"...you focusing yer considerable heft behind..."

Dru, I'm not sure and I don't want to make trouble, but I think ole Mud is insinuating that you got a big butt.

[MeekOneGOP]

Hey Meeky, d'ya mind reposting yer "A Hero Will Rise" from Post #399 on Black XX?!!

Happy to ! Here it is ....

[#3Fan]

Liberals are going to be mad that you hijacked on of their anthems and conservatized it. :^)

[Mudboy Slim]

Pissin' off Lib'rals is one of my favorite pasttimes...)8^D!!

FReegards...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

Muchas gracias...that's a good one!!

[Mudboy Slim]

"I think ole Mud is insinuating that you got a big butt."

I ain't insinuatin' nuthin'...MUD