From the ending of Sydney Pollack’s 1975 movie Three Days of the Condor:

TURNER:
Jesus, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same as not telling the truth.

HIGGINS:
It’s simple economics, Turner. There’s no argument. Oil now. Ten or fifteen years it’ll be food or plutonium. Maybe sooner than that. What do you think the people will want us to do then?

TURNER:
Ask them!

HIGGINS:
Now? (shakes head) Huh-uh. Ask them when they’re running out. When it’s cold at home and the engines stop and people who aren’t used to hunger — go hungry. They won’t want us to ask. (quiet savagery) They’ll want us to get it for them.

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I’ve been reading blog after blog after blog after blog about any number of topics. On any number of issues. My mind was reeling after attempting to process all this information. Perhaps a bit of sensory overload occurred, but I attempted, actually on my off-duty day (and not at work), to step back and see if there was any form of commonality to these seemingly divergent threads.

And you know what? There was.

Globally. Then nationally. And it got down to this:

We did what we did because we could.

Everyone does.

It’s as simple as that.

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This cuts through any and all arguments. Who. What. When. Where. Why. How.

It’s all about PITAP. PITAP?

I call this: Positioning In Time And Place.

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I challenge you: prove me wrong.

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A nation, a people, a community, a group, a click, even an individual, does what it can when it can because it can.

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What does this have to do with you? With me? With us as a nation? With us as divergent political groups? With us as a planet?

Everything.

Recognition is power. As is realization.

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Let us consider, for just a moment, and as an example, the indigenous American Indian. Many persons ascribe glorious and positive aspects to this culture; in truth, in many cases Native Americans were overbearing, repressive, female-suppressing warmongers. Do you think that, for example, if they had experienced their Bronze Age first, and then their Industrial Age, they would have embraced Euro invading forces from overseas? I submit they would have slaughtered whom they could, when they could, to stem these assailing forces.

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And this brings me back to today.

It is easy to blog and write about the hideous travails and ideosyncratic ideations, documentations, abrogations and simulacrums of that which we hold normal. We generally write about what we consider to be something disparate from the norm. War. Injustice. Violence. Right. Wrong. All within the context of our cerebral and idealogical interpretations and, more importantly, our primal and base beliefs.

What do I define as normal? In my ideom, I define normal as those who read me within the continental United States, who can read and interpret English, and who are sufficiently educated to find a computer, seek the internet, log on to same, and then purposely, PURPOSELY, seek my website.

There are literally millions and millions of websites. Why have you sought mine? What brought you to my poor, miniscule slice of the web today?

It would be: that which you find normal within your sphere of relativity.

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So what is normal? Is it normal to find a porcelain bathroom with a toilet?

Is it normal to find a table in a restaurant where you can be assured there will not be an IED affixed to its base?

Is it normal to enter Nordstrom and find the socks you wanted?

Is it normal to take your 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe and fill its tank with $2.49/gallon gas for $74 and then complain?

Is it normal to wash your clothes and bedding every week with Tide and wish the Kenmore washer had more settings?

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What would you do without oil?

What would you do without your connection to the internet?

What would you do without this Winter’s depletion of your wood or heat?

Take away your car. How would you get around? How would your life change?

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The United States is repressive. Horribly repressive.

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It’s easy to criticize the United States.

Whilst enjoying free universites. On student loans. Embraced by the Constitution. On various forms of welfare.

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H.R. 1606 is not yet in effect. So I can write this. I can have an opinion. I can make my website as attractive as, say, that of General Motors.

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To those who would want to destroy the United States:

You set this goal at your own peril. You make your comments, rally the populace, circle the weakest-minded of our genetic pool.

If the shoe were on the 1975 foot, no matter the political leaning, I would bet this would equal the belief: get what you need to get when you need to get it.

It’s funny: hunger and darkness tends to cut through the most base of political leanings.

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Why does the United States do what it does?

Because it can because it can. Because, quite frankly, we have God beside us.

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And because it’s right.

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Period.

Thus endeth my blog post.

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IF YOU ONLY READ ONE POST ON ONE BLOG TODAY, IT SHOULD BE THIS ONE. AND YOU’D BETTER PAY ATTENTION.

There’s a knock on the door and you answer. Two men in dark suits and ties stand at the threshold. They’re from the federal government. And you’re under arrest. Out come the handcuffs. You’ll have to sit in the back seat of their plain blue Ford Crown Victoria. You’re booked. Fingerprinted and photographed. Your bail is $125,000.

It’s a bad dream; this can’t happen! You live in America!

Think again, fellow blogger, think again.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Online political expression should not be exempt from campaign finance law, the House decided Wednesday as lawmakers warned that the Internet has opened up a new loophole for uncontrolled spending on elections.

“Online political expression?” Who, me? I’m just some little person sitting at my home posting on the web. Sure, I like the (Green, Republican, Libertarian, Democratic, Independent) party, who doesn’t? Campaign finance law? H.R. 1606? What is all this?

The vote in effect clears the way for the FEC to move ahead with court-mandated rule-making to govern political speech and campaign spending on the Internet.

From RedState.org:

Make no mistake – the Democrats killed The Online Freedom Of Speech Act last night. At the same time, we did get a majority in favor of the bill, but since it was brought under special rules – it needed 2/3rds to pass. Where do we go from here?Well – the first thing we need to do is pay close attention to the Republicans who voted against the bill. We need to do some more education. Let me say – some of these members may have voted against HR 1606 because of the procedure that brought it to the floor. Others may well have been swayed by the patently dishonest arguments from folks like Democracy21 and the Campaign Legal Center. Some may well have believed that HR 1606 was going to open the gates of soft money once again. That’s not true. That’s not true. That’s not true.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Last night, the House voted 225-182 for a bill that would have excluded blogs, e-mail, and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments.

The vote in effect clears the way for the FEC to move ahead with court-mandated rule-making to govern political speech and campaign spending on the Internet.

Before the vote, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas), the main sponsor of the legislation, said: “If bloggers are compelled to hire lawyers to navigate this complex, gray, murky world of federal regulation, many would simply cease to operate. That would only leave the wealthier participants in this blogosphere.”

He warned that without his bill, bloggers could be fined for linking to campaign Web sites or forwarding candidates’ news releases to e-mail lists.

Bradley Smith, one of the six commissioners sitting on the Federal Election Committee, says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over. He warns that bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign’s Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate’s press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

Licensing bloggers? You don’t think that’s coming?

“Okay, fine, waitaminnit ol’ BZ,” you say. “Take a big breath. Bring things down from 210/190. Take a large hit of CTFD. Think about it: what’s the big deal about not being able to link to a campaign website. That’s not so bad, is it? Certainly not! And forwarding some political hack’s press release to others? Yeah, like you’ll ever get that chance! What’s the loss?”

Every loss! The crushing of our very US Constitution. Do the logical extension: the nature of any human being is to push and then push some more. So it is with government. I am all, and I mean ALL about free speech. I take the strictest constructionist view on the First Amendment. Free speech means just that. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have served or laid down their lives to protect that very concept. Why would any US citizen even remotely wish to consider the limiting of free speech? The internet is the very embodiment of same — which is why relinquishing control of the internet to the United Nations scares me blue.

This wouldn’t be just a Republican loss — oh, no. It would be a Democratic loss, a Libertarian loss, a Green loss, a Tory loss, and a total abrogation of the First Amendment.

Hey, hold on a minute, will you? There’s a knock on my door just now. . .

French Riots: Who is Rioting?
In the title link, Yahoo writes about the Parisian riots. Not until the 12th written paragraph do you discover that the rioters are Muslim. Very interesting comments by Robert Spencer and bloggers at Jihad Watch.

Three Christian Girls Beheaded: Buried by DEM:
JAKARTA, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Men in black clothes and masks beheaded three teenage Christian girls on Saturday in eastern Indonesia as they walked to school near the Muslim town of Poso, officials said. Security experts have said local Islamic radicals may have been responsible for the bombings in Tentena.

Or Did You Even Read:
From the AP:

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (AP) — Five Muslim football fans were detained and questioned during a game at Giants Stadium because they were congregating near an air duct on a night former President Bush was in the stadium, the FBI said Wednesday. Some of the Muslims said they did not know they were in a sensitive area, and they complained that they were subjected to racial profiling while they were praying, as their faith requires five times a day. “I’m as American as apple pie and I’m sitting there and now I’m made to feel like I’m an outsider, for no reason other than I have a long beard or that I prayed,” said Sami Shaban, a 27-year-old Seton Hall Law School student who lives in Piscataway. At a news conference Wednesday, Shaban said he and four friends had just gotten to the September 19 New York Giants-New Orleans Saints game when they left their seats to pray. Around halftime, 10 security officers and three state troopers approached the men and told them to come with them, Shaban said. The men were questioned and then were not allowed to return to their seats, but were instead assigned to seats in another section, Shaban said. Three guards stood near them, and escorted them to their cars when they left the stadium, he said. FBI agent Steven Siegel, a spokesman for the bureau’s FBI office, said the men had aroused suspicion because they were congregating near the main air intake duct. Bush was in the stadium that night as part of a fundraising campaign he and former President Clinton were leading for victims of Hurricane Katrina. “You had 80,000 people there, Bush 41 was there, and you had a group of gentlemen gathering in an area not normally used by the public right near the main air intake duct for the stadium, and a food preparation facility,” Siegel said. “It was where they were, not what they were
doing.” The site is now fenced off and is no longer accessible to fans. “We do not profile anyone that comes into our arena, stadium or racetrack on any basis,” said George Zoffinger, president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which operates the stadium. “There was no profiling of our customers. I want to make that clear.”

Beating Your Muslim Wife In Australia: No Problem
Can wife-beating be justified under any circumstances? According to some in Australia, yes — if the couple is Muslim.

Just a few incidents of note in a literal world of many.

We’re Just Right:
I don’t customarily resort to abject name calling but, following a move that hasn’t been pulled in roughly 25 years (the Democrats having slammed the senate door and entered into closed session yesterday), the Left revealed their colors to such an unprecedented degree that I thought: these guys are nothing but puerile, petulant pansies. And thus P-Cubed was born. Or if I could write superscript: P3.

As I wrote in response to a recent post and on a number of other blogs:

Here’s what I think is actually starting to happen to the Dems: they really ARE starting to fray. They’ve tried just about every move possible to this point and, despite the fact they perceive GWB to be quite stupid, he’s just not giving up and his entire regime hasn’t fallen in flames. Michelle Malkin calls them Unhinged, and I really believe they are beginning to completely unravel — despite the fact they are shouting the GOP is in tatters — which it is not.

What the GOP recently showed is this: it can disagree with itself, make adjustments, and come right back. The GOP is NOT in tatters. Karl Rove was NOT indicted, nor was Libby on the original charge. Delay got a different judge (they do things like that in Texas) and Frist isn’t giving interviews behind bars.

The Dems are beginning to act like cornered animals, and the Rule 21 invocation is, I think, just the beginning.

I believe we should be prepared to have every card pulled, every trick played, every lie told.

They’re Just Wrong:
A few minutes ago, I happened to catch a bit of Randi Rhodes from Air America. She said the Democrats had been more than patient insofar as they have been awaiting apologies from Dick Cheney and GWB, but to no avail. They waited and waited and waited! So they couldn’t take it any longer and boom, Rule 21!

And, of course, she says today is the anniversary of the stealing of the second Presidential election.

Weapons of mass destruction! she said. Smallpox! she said. And that ridiculous bird flu! she said. How can you believe it? she asked.

About this time Gen. Honore’s phrase “stuck on stupid” comes to mind.

Where Are The Solutions?
This is a Democratic Party in disarray, in tatters, whose future seems to brighten for just a moment and then, the air is released. I posted about this yesterday. But here’s the rub: the GOP is the party of solutions. Of ideas. Let’s try this; let’s do this; let’s see if this works. No, the Democrats say, no, you can’t do that. We don’t want this. No. No.

They remind me of a two-year-old with folded arms: no, I won’t, and you can’t make me (note the out-thrust and quivering lower lip).

On one hand, this is getting tiring. On the other hand, it’s kinda fun watching them implode and crumble, brick by brick.

Guys: BABAGOI. By the way, Alito is going to be confirmed.

Yeah — you can drag it out.

But you can’t stop it.

I’ve written about this three or four times, but a Michelle Malkin article I recently discovered confirmed my thoughts.

But first, let me step back a bit.

For the past few years the basic battle cry from the Dems via the DEM is: “there has never been this much hate, dissension and discontent between the aisles.” And then, naturally, the finger gets pointed at the GOP for their alleged stirring of the pot. It’s the GOP’s fault; they are the obstructionists. More specifically: it’s George Bush. He’s uncooperative. What’s happened to the Republicans under Bush? They’ve never been this disagreeable before! It’s not us; we haven’t changed!

To a degree, I would concur. But it’s larger than just GWB: the Republicans (and more importantly, their supporters) have changed.

So what happened to “create” this so-called hate and discontent? What has changed?

In a word: information. And the dissemination of and access to information.

Because it’s all about the power and, for the first time in recent political memory, the Democrats don’t have an absolute stranglehold on the control of information and, consequently, their power has diminished. Because, after all, information is power and where politics are concerned, it’s always about power and money.

When did this begin? What dynamic changed the situation?

In my opinion, it wasn’t a dynamic, it was a person. One little bitty radio person who started a talk show on KFBK in my home town, Sacramento, Fornicalia. Rush Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh gave voice to an entire generation, an entire strata of persons who thought they had no voice, who had no idea there were so many others just like themselves. Conservatives began to realize: I’m not alone. Perhaps I’m simplifying things but I think not; Rush started an actual revolution of conservative self-realization — a very important concept and a base upon which was built a subsequent generation of conservative talk show hosts attempting to capitalize on Rush’s success, his cash and, more importantly, fundamentally conservative leanings.

Now don’t go thinking this is a post all about Rush; it’s not. It’s simply a starting point for a trend that has mutated into an entirely new paradigm of how we, as Americans, access and process our news and information. And how we have become much more politically aware of what goes on about us.

Perhaps this would be a good place to hand my blog, temporarily, over to Michelle Malkin:

The 2004 election gave syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin an up-close view of unhinged liberals. In fact, she received so much hate mail and witnessed so many loony acts by the left that she wrote a scathing book, “Unhinged,” about the tirades. She shared her reasons for writing the book with Human Events’ Robert Bluey.

BLUEY: Why are liberals so unhinged?

MICHELLE MALKIN: I think a lot of the left has been off the rail since the monopoly on the control of information was broken by conservative media. There was a time when they had a complete grip on how news and information was disseminated. And thanks to conservative talk radio, the rise of the Internet and blogs, and, of course, Fox News, that monopoly has been completely shattered.

Because they don’t control how news is framed, I think what we see on a daily basis–when conservative media call them on their lies and propaganda–are their fits. They can’t get away with it any more. Just like my 5-year-old and my 2-year-old, when they don’t get what they want, we see the results of that-a lot of whining and foot stomping. That’s the most benign example.

As I show in the book, they’ve really crossed the line. Certainly, the presidential losses in 2000 and 2004 exacerbated their condition. I think also the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it difficult for them to cope with the fact that we live in a time of war, and the kind of non-leadership the Democratic Party had been offering before September 11 is unacceptable now.

First there was talk radio. Then there were more political magazines. Then television. Then the internet and political websites and information sources like WorldNetDaily and NewsMax. Then, of course, blogs. In the meantime, the alphabet TV DEMs continue to hemorrhage viewers, newspapers bleed readers, circulation drops, and the ratings for Fox skyrocket.

What to the uninitiated (or those with an underlying agenda) looks like rancor on the right is simply the right being better organized, distributing information and allowing more and more people to stand up and give voice to their concerns and issues. The left’s reaction is essentially continued shock at the backlash and the ongoing loss of power and prestige, for which they were unprepared and had not foreseen.

Even now it rankles horribly: Bush is in his second term, he hasn’t been impeached, the GOP holds the majority in Washington, we’ve drawn worldwide lines in the sand, John Roberts will be seated as SCOTUS Chief Justice and Karl Rove walked into his office today minus handcuffs.

I see the Dems just pulled Rule 21. More to follow. . .