Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is thankful that Jill Carroll has been released by her captors. He would comment further, but alas there is nothing he could put together himself that would equal the work that Dr. Rusty has already done over on The Jawa Report blog. So, go and read his stuff.

You should also be hopeful that the rumours that Castro is dead are true.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader read this post a few days ago over on Not Exactly Rocket Science. It is a very thought provoking issue, and one that doesn’t get lots of discussion in and around the chattering classes.

Your Maximum Leader remembers the Smallholder telling stories of when he used to teach in an inner-city school. Many of his experiences would seem to reflect the idea that black society is not putting value on traditional values in the same way white/hispanic/asian society does. Alas, your Maximum Leader doesn’t seem to have too many anecdotal stories to share on this subject. As it turns out your Maximum Leader’s black friends tend to be educated, married, and middle class… Hummm… They are remarkably like your MaximumLeader…

NB to Readers: Your Maximum Leader again apologizes for his Trackbacks and Comments acting a little funky. He doesn’t seem to be able to recieve or send Trackbacks. And if you are trying to post a comment, just click the post button once then navigate away from the comment entry screen. Somethin’ is goin’ on and he’s trying to figure out what it might be.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader knows that if you have a drop of sense in you then Beautiful Atrocities is part of your daily reading. If this is the case you likely know already that our friend Jeff is asking for a little help to keep him going.

Go. Now. Help. He is very worth it.

If you don’t… No more Hot Neo-Fascist of the Day posts.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sure that many of you (since he knows his readers to be the type of “plugged in” and “in-the-know” people who read fine blogs) have noticed the many new articles concerning the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. Here is a Yahoo news page with many links for you if you aren’t up to speed on this item.

So, in a nutshell, Charles Taylor led an armed rebellion against the government of Liberia. By the late 1990s Taylor came to control most of the country. A deal was brokered to stop the fighting. An election was held. Taylor became president of Liberia. In 2003, Taylor accepted exile to Nigeria to avoid war crimes charges being pursued against him. Rather suddenly and capriciously, Nigeria decided to turn Taylor over to the war crimes tribunal for trial. Taylor briefly escaped and is now on his way to trial.

Your Maximum Leader’s question to all dictators out there. Why? Why give up power when you have it? Why give up the power that (if you have a checkered past - as dos Charles Taylor) protects you from the international community? Why allow yourself to be talked out of power and into exile on the promise that some other nation will not turn you over to “authorities.” Why? Why? Why?

It is turns like this that make your Maximum Leader wonder why future Taylors (or Pinochet’s in Chile - remember his fight against the Spanish and then his subsequent trial by a later Chilean government?) would ever consider giving up power. If you can’t make a lasting immunity agreement in exchange for giving up power why ever make a deal? Robert Mugabe isn’t ever going to make a deal. Khadaffi isn’t ever going to make a deal. Castro isn’t ever going to make a deal. And as much as it pains your Maximum Leader to say it, at this point he would advise dictators around the world to fight it out to the bitter end… Because one way or another you are going to wind up dead or imprisoned. You might as well go out on your terms as opposed to someone elses…

NB to Readers: Your Maximum Leader started writing this post on Tuesday afternoon. Then he put it aside and forgot about it until this morning. Of course, other bloggers have beaten your Maximum Leader to restating this position - which by the way, he thinks he once heard someone like Henry Kissinger articulate. BTW, Kissinger himself is under threat of indictment in a number of nations for his role in the conduct of the Vietnam War.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader stayed up late last night to watch the Tonight Show on NBC. The reason for this. To watch the BigHominid’s friend, Thomas St. John, perform his Human Body Shot in a bit called “Does this Impress Ed Asner?”.

Lucky for your Maximum Leader, the segment was early in the show. Asner was introduced and looked sharp in his (not rented) tuxedo. Asner said he didn’t want to be impressed but titillated.

The first person on the segment was a Czech immigrant from Chicago. He played a piece using two trumpets, a pan flute made of Heiniken bottles, and cowbells. (Gotta have more cowbell!) He was okay. Your Maximum Leader was most impressed by the man playing two trumpets at the same time.

The second guest was an 8 year old girl who can blech like a champion. Her belches were louder and carried better than do your Maximum Leader’s. She was most impressive. And she was sooooo teriffically cute too. You just didn’t expect a huge belch coming out of such a slight little girl.

Then came Mr. St. John. He performed his human body shot. He took loose skin around his elbow and formed it into a small hollow. Then rum and coke were poured into the hollow. Then he drank it through a short straw. The mass of skin and forming it into the “shotglass” was pretty impressive.

Asner proclaimed that Tom “titillated” him.

Good show, ole boy! Good show!

Your Maximum Leader would have only changed one thing. When Leno asked Tom what he missed about the US, Tom (honestly) responded “Shopping.” That was sort of a metrosexual moment in an otherwise sort of manly exercise. He should have said something lecherous like “Blonde women with big boobs.”

But it is a family program… Sorta…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader hopes that you all have already read Brian’s little missive on illegal immigration over on Memento Moron. No? Here tis.

Brian and your Maximum Leader had a little chat yesterday in which we discussed the current immigration situation in the US - specifically illegal immigration issue. This is timely as our Congress continues to work on immigration legislation.

Brian correctly and accurately sums up the points made. To his points your Maximum Leader will add a few thoughts. Your Maximum Leader is all for immigration. He is all for immigrants. Frankly we should try to come up with a serious number of how many immigrants we can absorb into this country (a number that your Maximum Leader imagines if fairly large) and let that number in - legally. Your Maximum Leader further thinks that a “guest worker” program - if conceptualized correctly and implemented well - would be a good thing.

But no plan means anything until we can prevent illegal immigration. Frankly no plan or bill under discussion seriously addresses securing our borders. The President isn’t doing it. The Congress isn’t doing it. The states cannot do it. So all these competing plans and bloviation from the political classes and politicos themselves is worth about a bucket of warm piss. (Your Maximum Leader will provide bucket…)

Your Maximum Leader suggested in his chat with Brian that investment and economic development in Mexico would be the way to reduce immigration (of all sorts actually). On Brian’s site a commenter mentioned that investment in Mexican businesses is highly curtailed by the (corrupt) Mexican government. This is absolutely correct. That is why we need to try and lobby the Mexicans to loosen up their economy.

Perhaps carrot and stick approaches… Liberalie your economy and investment requirements and we don’t immediately crack down in the US and start shipping home piles of unhappy and unemployed Mexicans. Frankly the crack-down of rounding up illegals will not ever happen. (At least not in the draconian ways your Maximum Leader can imagine.) But what can happen is a serious crack-down on employers in the US who hire illegals. Some well placed work-shut-downs and heavy fines will work wonders.

That is not the only way, but it might be a start.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader regrets that he hasn’t had more time to blog over the past few days. But C’est la vie.

Sadly two great figures of the Reagan years have passed in the past two days. Word of Cap Weinberger’s passing is just making the news wires. And yesterday news of Lyn Nofziger’s passing made the news.

Both of these men played significant roles for Ronald Reagan. Although very different roles.

Your Maximum Leader has one Lyn Nofziger story to share. Waaaaaay back when, your Maximum Leader was an intern on Capitol Hill. He worked for a wonderful woman “M.D.” M.D. was from Oregon but had come to Washington DC as an aide to Lyn Nofziger when Reagan was elected in 1980. When Nofziger left the White House, M.D. moved into another political job. It was in this capacity that your Maximum Leader knew her. M.D. remained very close to Lyn through all his trials and tribulations after leaving the White House.

So… The story… On the day of the funeral of the Ayatollah Khomeini (June, 1989) your Maximum Leader and others wee standing in M.D.’s office. She had a tv on and it was tuned to CNN. (Back then tvs on Capitol Hill got three channels only C-Span, C-Span 2, and CNN.) We were all watching the live feed of the teeming masses of Iranians jumping up and down, hitting themselves, and generally wailing for the dead Khomeini. We were watching with mouths agape - as at that point one hadn’t become desensitized to mass demonstrations in the Muslim world. In the middle of watching the footage the phone rang. It was Lyn Nofziger calling to speak with M.D.. She picked up the line and listened. She started laughing. She asked Lyn if she could put him on the speaker and repeat what he just said. So, your Maximum Leader was watching the tv. He was watching images of young Iranians chanting something in Persian and beating their heads with rocks. Then came Nofziger’s voice over the speaker. “Are you guys watching CNN?” We responded that we were. Then Nofziger said, “You know what those guys are chanting?” We responded that we didn’t. Nofziger said, “They’re saying, ‘I should’a had a V-8.”

Heh. It was very funny at the time…

Anyho… Read some of the obits for Nofziger. They are here, here and here.

There are many more obits for Cap Weinberger (deservedly so for his much higher profile position). Read some here and here.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that the President’s second term shake up has begun. Andrew Card, the President’s Chief of Staff, has resigned. Your Maximum Leader supposes that this means that Sherman Adams, President Eisenhower’s Chief of Staff, will continue to hold the longevity record at that position.

Now-Former Budget Chief Joshua Bolten will take over for Card on April 14th.

The criticism over Bolten’s selection seems to have already begun judging from a paragraph near the close of this Washington Post peice. The quote:

In picking Bolten to replace Card, the current President Bush stayed close to home. Resisting Republican advice to pick a seasoned Washington veteran the way Reagan brought in former Senate majority leader Howard H. Baker Jr. when his own presidency was listing in his second term, Bush characteristically picked someone he knows well and trusts implicitly.

While advice from Republicans to bring in a seasoned vet might be good, your Maximum Leader thinks that it would have been completely out of character for the President. Once hopes that Bolten will bring the much needed “new blood” to the West Wing.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that it will be the Dolphins and the Steelers on NFL Opening Day this fall. Also there will be three (count ‘em - 3) games on Thanksgiving. The Manning Brothers will duke it out in the Meadowlands. The Redskins will be 9-7. And Brett Favre’s final season in the league as a starter will be lackluster…

Okay… Those last two items weren’t in the AP story. But your Maximum Leader prognosticates for you anyway.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is still in a rather foul mood.

But thanks to this post on a LiveJournal site, he is feeling a little better.

(doffing bejeweled floppy cap to Teafizz)

Carry on.
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Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader thought he had some pithy comments to weave into a post this morning. But he can’t think of a one of them. He’s had to deal with complete blathering idiots all morning and his blood pressure is so elevated he can hardly see straight.

Posting will have to wait a few hours.

At least.

Peruse the blogroll. Give some readership to the other quality blogs found there. Come back later. Your Maximum Leader might be in a better mood then.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sure that those of you inclinded to look for these types of stories have already seen that porn star Savanna Samson (real name: Natalie Oliveros) has her own brand of wine. And now her wine has been very highly rated by wine guru Robert Parker.

Your Maximum Leader, he will admit, has a rather unrefined wine palette. Indeed, his tastes in wine tend to run both red and rather acidic. (Remember his favourite wine is Hungarian Egri Bikaver.) So he wouldn’t know what to think about Ms. Samson/Oliveros’ wine. He is happy that the wine business is doing well for Ms. Samson. He hope that it continues to do so and that she wisely invests her earnings. He really passes along the whole article for the last two lines. He quotes:

Still, she never had her parent’s blessing for her career choice as an adult movie star. “They were so devastated. They were terribly, terribly upset.”

But while she will continue her film career, wine-making may offer some redemption. “I wanted to do something that my parents could be proud of,” she said.

Your Maximum Leader assumes that becoming a vintner is a reputable career… Although he is unsure of the redemptive qualities of wine-making. Last time he checked, redemption was more of a religious/spiritual and not commerical activity.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader will break with his normal practice of not really blogging about family. But he would like to welcome home his cousin (okay… Mrs Villain’s cousin in fact). We thank God for her safe return from Afghanistan. She just returned to her loving husband and two children who were waiting (at home) in Italy. She had been in Kandahar for about a year commanding a support group based near the Kandahar Airport. Welcome home Cindy!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has to gree with Loyal Minion Bill on this one. The Christian “Peacemakers” just rescued in Iraq are ungrateful bastards. You can read the press release for yourself. Your Maximum Leader was watching TV with Mrs. Villain last night. We were watching Fox News and during one of the news breaks they discussed the rescue of the hostages. Pointedly the reporter noted that the troops who risked their lives to save the hostages were not thanked by the freed people. Mrs. Villain was quite put out. “No thank you at all to the soliders? That is just rude!” Your Maximum Leader concurred. Then the report indicated that more peacemakers were on their way to Iraq. Mrs. Villain turned to your Maximum Leader and asked if we would rescue the new batch if they got taken hostage. Your Maximum Leader said that we would, because that is what our soliders do.

God Bless our troops.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that Howard Kurtz is out defending the Washington Post’s decision to hire Ben Domenech to opine on the WaPo’s new blog “Red America.” As many of you will no doubt know Ben Domenech is a founder of RedState.

Ben is a social conservative. Most of what he has written is pretty standard stuff from a social conservative’s viewpoint. Your Maximum Leader understands that particularly strident liberals might be offended by what Ben writes. But he is writing opinion. Last time your Maximum Leader checked, unless it was an editorial opinion, the opinion pieces published by a newspaper (or a newspaper’s on-line affliate) did not reflect the “official” opinion of the paper or its owners. It represented the opinion of the editorialist. So what is the big deal here?

Kurtz’s article makes note that Domenech was not hired to “balance” the staff in any particular way. Domenench’s voice on the editorial page provides an opinion from a social conservative that is not widely available from many newspapers. What is wrong with that? The many liberals and Democrats who are deriding the Post or attacking the decision to hire Domenech seem to be making arguments that can be boiled down to “I don’t like his opinion so don’t publish it.”

My! What an awfully open-minded position to take.

Your Maximum Leader has been annoyed for decades by the likes of Molly Irvins, EJ Dionne, Richard Cohen, and their fellow travellers. But you know, never once has it ever occured to your Maximum Leader to complain to the Washington Post for running their columns. Never. Indeed, some mornings your Maximum Leader jumps right to the liberal columnists first-thing just to get his heart racing for another day of villainy.

Your Maximum Leader thinks that those calling for Ben Domenech’s (proverbial) head should just take a deep deep cleansing breath. Then go to their local Starbucks and get a cup of whatever you like - decaf. Then remind themselves that if they don’t like what Domenech is writing they are free to write a letter to the editor expressing their displeasure and why their opinions might be superior - or start their own blog - or something. Trying to silence a man with an opinion is not going to benefit our republic.

Carry on.