Drawing parallels with the end of the Roman empire, Mr Walker warned there were “striking similarities” between America’s current situation and the factors that brought down Rome, including “declining moral values and political civility at home, an over-confident and over-extended military in foreign lands and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government”.

At least we have our McDonalds and American Idol! All Rome had was bread and circuses!

FT.com / World - Learn from the fall of Rome, US warned

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also postponed deportation of immigrants on active duty until they are discharged.

You can fight and die for us, but when you're done, get the fuck out.

Troops Worry Relatives Could Be Deported - The Huffington Post

George W. Bush becomes Managing Partner

Meanwhile, in April of 1989, the Rangers' owner, Eddie Chiles, sold the team to an investment group headed by future President of the United States George W. Bush. Bush would serve as the Rangers' managing partner until he was elected Governor of Texas in 1994. During this time, the Rangers and the City of Arlington decided to construct a new stadium to replace the aging Arlington Stadium. Ground was broken on October 30, 1991 on what would become The Ballpark in Arlington (now named Rangers Ballpark in Arlington).

So there's this great story about how W took control of the Texas Rangers and turned a crappy team around. Let's take a look at that. W runs the team from 89 to the end of the strike shortened season in 94. Starting in 1993, baseball expanded to its current format of three divisions in each league, with the Rangers in the AL West. To put this another way, Bush's teams for the first three years finished no better than third, but hey, we'll cut him some slack, he's taking over from the previous guys, and when the split happens, he finishes second (of four teams) and was #1 in the division! Oh wait, he was #1 with a LOSING RECORD! Well that doesn't look all that good all of a sudden.

So let's take a look at the roster. Palmiero, he was pretty good right? Trade made by the prior owners. Kevin Brown? Already there. Juan Gonzalez? Already there. Pudge Rodriguez? Already there. Julio Franco? Already there. Sierra? Same. Nolan? Yep, he was there too. Hey Jamie Moyer! He was there! Yep, and the team gave him an outright release.

Now, W did bring in Will Clark, but wait, he also brought in Jose Canseco.

Forget it. He built a loser just like every other thing he put his hands on.

Texas Rangers (baseball) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Presidents should be very careful at all times in discussing the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons. ... I don't believe that any president should make any blanket statements with respect to the use or nonuse of nuclear weapons," Clinton said.

No, this is just flat wrong. In the current global environment, about the only time to use them is if your intent is to blow up the whole damn world. Nukes are not scalpels, they're a nukes, and for just about any task that the US would be involved in, there are better tools available. Want to blow up a large area? FAEs aka Daisy Cutters are great for that. Underground bunker? We've got penetrators, or if you want to got old school, break out something like Barnes Wallis' Tallboys or Grand Slams. Take out an individual? Nukes pretty much guarantee you'll do it, but take every man, woman and child in the area with them. Laser guided bombs are the way to do that one.

And oh yeah, "tactical nukes?" In theory, you can "dial-a-bomb" a nuke down to 10 tons, but at that point you're talking about a fizzle, and a very dirty bomb. More realistically, you're talking something in the 10-20 kiloton range, and that's Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Tactical? Sure, if your tactic is genocide.

Obama: Nukes 'Not on the Table'

Walking through the bazaar it takes less than 10 minutes for a vendor in his early 20s to step out and ask, "You want whiskey?" "No, heroin," I tell him. He ushers me into his store with a smile.

And this is winning???

It's easy for soldiers to score heroin in Afghanistan | Salon News

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he did not believe that senior Justice Department officials had attended such briefings. But he clarified his testimony yesterday in a letter to Congress, emphasizing that the briefings were not held at the agency's offices.

No, we didn't have anything like that... Well okay, we did, but it wasn't at the office... Well okay, maybe it was, but I swear! I never fucked that porcupine!

Now that would be something from Fredo that'd be believable, except for the quills stuck to his pants...

Gonzales Now Says Top Aides Got Political Briefings - washingtonpost.com

But the salon never opened. Douthitt couldn't get the proper permits and neighbors complained that they didn't want that type of business in their neighborhood.

"Since it's been going through the courts, since it's been going through a bunch of stupidity, he's taking it out on the neighborhood," Herbst said.

Douthitt said he feels railroaded by both the city and his neighborhood. He said he was trying to open a legitimate business and he wasn't allowed. He said the displays are his way of protesting.

Ah, comedy!

Man Uses Mannequins In Pornographic Protest Against City - News Story - WFTV Orlando

Disclaimer #1, I'm not a structural engineer. That said, this photo along with the security cam footage of the collapse indicate the collapse started on the south side of the bridge which this photo is facing (and if the link isn't working right, it's frame 49, also the description from CNN showing the bridge collapse is wrong, the footage is from the south end of the bridge, closer to downtown, not the north side as they describe it here).

What the photo, combined with the video are making the non-engineer ask is, "See that section on the bank that points towards the south at about a 20 degree angle? That section of bridge did not fall down, like the rest of the bridge, it fell sideways. Why?" I'd start looking there.

35W Bridge collapse by jpiehowski

"If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina," the GOP presidential candidate said. "That is the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they would otherwise do. If I am wrong fine, tell me, and I would be happy to do something else. But you had better find a deterrent or you will find an attack. There is no other way around it. There have to be negative consequences for the actions they take. That's the most negative I can think of."

Yes Tom, because blowing up the Golden Dome in Samarra was such an effective means of deterring attacks in Iraq, we should be considering blowing up the their holiest of holies. Tom Tancredo is out of his mind, and the country would be much better served if he went hunting with Dick Cheney.

Tancredo Says Bomb Mecca

"Of course, times were different. To be honest, I was born at an early age. Things are much more confiscated now. It seems like a nickel ain't worth a dime anymore. But let me tell you, if the world was perfect, it wouldn't be. Even Napoleon had his Watergate.

Ain't nobody out there anymore who mangles 'em like Yogi.

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