John Berlau, a hack journalist with Reason and Insight got fascinated with this and for all anyone knows maybe he had already been fascinated with her, hard to say at this point in time.

No matter why, he did his own investigation of a sort.  He went after people who knew her and posted on various prostitution related web sites.  I don’t know where this got him but it may have been the beginning of his association with the so called sex trade.

John Berlau has worked with the police at least once and maybe more.  He did this in the DC area.  He helped set up both prostitutes and their customers.  

When you got busted the way it worked was that if you would work with John on some book or project he is doing, the police would let you go, but, if you would not work with Berlau, you would be arrested on a prostitution or soliciting charge.

So this is just some friendly advice and stay away from anything that seems to be tied up to this guy Berlau or any of a number of conservative projects.  Some of them are REASON magazine and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. At least once he’s worked with a woman posing as a prostitute. Two likely ones are Solveig Singleton and Julie DeFalco, both at CEI right now. But both are brunettes and the rumor is that the woman was a blond but that’s what wigs are for I suppose!

Sleipnir has a good point about this having roots back over 50 years. I’d say it’s more like 1300 years, but the point is that the roots are deep and it’s going to take a long time before we can attain any assurance of peace. The question, to me, is whether we bar the doors in the meantime and accept the occasional losses or whether we take the fight to the enemy. I happen to believe it’s better (in simplistic terms) for our troops to bear the brunt of the fight “over there” rather than our civilians “over here.” Given that the situation isn’t quite so simple as “over here” vs. “over there”, though, I can see how others would disagree.

A few simple questions demonstrate our lack of movement away from oil-based energy:

1. How much does the US government currently spend on tax breaks and incentives to oil companies?

2. How much does the US government currently spend on all renewable and/or green energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, wave power, etc. combined? Hell, I’ll even throw in nuclear.

How much you wanna bet #1 is WAY bigger than #2? Despite how many hundred billion in profits those companies raped from America last year?

Actually I must agree, my interpretation of neocons was a bit off. Most don’t really believe in the fundamentalist bullshit they’re pushing off on everyone else, they just use it to “appease the whackos to get votes”. Priceless, Scanlon!

As for leaving them alone – somehow, given the escalation in incidents since, ohh, say, 1970, the wars started since, ohh, say, 1967, and the boxcar loads of statements pledging death to the US and Israel, I’m not inclined to think they’re going to stop.

Meanwhile, your silly misinterpretation of neocons is hardly worth a response.

In addition, they would be far less focused on us as the Great Satan if we had not continually been trying to tell them how to run their lives, usually in ways antithetical to or at least foreign to their belief system. Instead, they would likely be more focused on trying to mold their own societies into the repressive fundamentalist dictatorships they desire, similar to what the neocons are trying for in America.

Perhaps snake charming was a poor extension of my analogy, a more appropriate way to phrase it is to stop poking the pissed off snake with a pointy stick and leave it alone to cool off.

The absolute best way to deal with terrorism in the long term is to move the world as quickly as possible to renewable, non-oil based energy sources so that these medieval countries no longer have access to the sole source of their influence and power – oil money. Of course with the oil companies owning 2/3 of Congress and the President that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

Great. Just great. “I’m not saying we should try a bad thing. I just think we need to try the (synonym for bad thing).”

And what exactly is involved in charming the “snakes”?

Just to confirm my understanding of your post – we are the ones responsible for terrorism?

In addition, the groundwork for terrorism was laid by our political intrusions of various sorts throughout the middle east and the world during the past 50 years, supposedly fighting the “communist threat” or protecting our oil, so most of these countries remember the US as being an imperialistic force that continually intrudes into their sovereignty, arms and funds rebel forces, assists in the overthrow of governments, etc. They do NOT see us as a “liberating force” from the “evils of dictatorship.” In fact, many of the regimes we’re fighting now are ones we helped put into power.

I’m not saying we should resort to tactics of appeasement. I just think we need to put the stick away for a while and try the snake charmers.

Are you familiar with the story of the boy who cried wolf. Bush has been crying “Terrorist” for 6 years now. There’s only so much fearmongering most of us can take before we decide that either A – Bush & Co. don’t know what the hell they’re talking about, B – They’re doing a really crappy job of protecting us if we still have to live in constant fear, or C – Bush & Co are lying through their teeth.

I’m a fairly charitable guy, so I’m going to go with B. Bush & Co. have done a horrific job of making us safer and I’m genuinely pissed about it. So don’t waste my time telling me about Clinton or how evil terrorists are. I know all of that already. If I’m being asked to trade freedom and a stable economy for security, then I damn well want security.

It’s been 6 years and I don’t feel safer. In fact I feel less secure knowing that there are a lot more terrorists now than 6 years ago, our army is tied down in a bloody atrition in Iraq, and Iran and North Korea are pretty much free to go on building nukes.

I agree with you that Republicans do present the Democrats as weak on National Security but I also see that the Dems consistently hurt themselves on the National Security issues by playing opposition politics ALL THE TIME. Apparently being the minority party requires that one always be in opposition of the majority party – but this is a freaking war. A war! Opposition just for the sake of opposition doesn’t work for me. I guess if I hated the Repubs, it might – but I don’t hate any party.

I saw a Dem on the news yesterday saying that if they were to get in office they would focus their attention on getting OBL. I nearly screamed out of frustration. Yes getting OBL would be great – but this war is far bigger than OBL and for that to be a Dem focus is laughable.

I take the war very seriously (obviously). I think the Repubs have made a lot of bad moves and if I were asked how I thought the war was going I would say “pretty shitty” (that doesn’t mean I’ve given up), but at a minimum I at least feel like the Repubs are in the fight. The only fight I see the Dems in is against the Repubs and that just isn’t enough for me.

My hope is that Dems will figure out that if they spent half the time they currently spend on being anti-Bush/anti-Repub and spent it instead on how they intend to fight this war against Islamic terrorism then they would have a much better chance of winning in ‘06 and ‘08. I for one would be more likely to vote for them.

What I see is someone pointing out to me that this bully is going to keep poking me, and poking me, and poking me, and he’s not going to stop if I just give him my lunch money, or do nothing and tell myself, hey, it’s just poking, it’s not like it’s -really- harming me. No, he’s going to poke me HARDER. If I give him my lunch money, he’s going to demand double that tomorrow. Sure enough, I rolled over, and he did it.

And now I feel like I’m trying my best to put my fist in that face, to demonstrate to the bully in the only terms he’ll understand that that won’t fly, only to have several people hold my arm back. And the bully, seeing that, thumbs his nose at me, and keeps right on poking.

The solution is not more damn appeasement. The solution is to -pound that guy’s face into the ground-. Don’t you people get it? Have you all simply never had this experience in any social environment, anywhere?? This isn’t about the damn oil, it’s not about minimizing terrorist activity while tolerating the level that’s there, it’s not about our reputation in the stupid UN, and it’s not about us failing to understand some headchopper’s noble plight. TERRORISM IS AN AFFRONT TO RATIONAL BEHAVIOR.

What the hell has happened to this website?

And yes, Bush’s policies directly created the atmosphere in which many more terrorists are available for recruitment. Terrorists were (of course) around prior to that, but there are many, many more of them now, and also many more people pissed off at America enough to fund them.

Did Bush’s policies recruit the terrorists who we face today including those who plotted to blow up airliners with liquid bombs? Your answer: Yes.

Did Clinton’s policies recruit the terrorists who we faced during his administration including the 9/11 hijackers who panned the attack in the mid-90’s? Your answer: …

Just one question. Since you claim that Bush’s foreign policies are responsible for recruiting the terrorists we are facing today, does that mean that Clinton’s policies were responsible for recruiting the 9/11 hijackers since the plot was hatched during his administration?

(cough**Not to mention the ‘93 WTC attack, Moghadishu, Khobar Towers, Operation Bojinka, Kenya, Tanzania, USS Cole ect…**echem)

These Republicans are not experts, except in their own minds, in fighting terrorism, or in keeping us safe, or in fighting them there so that we won’t fight them here. They have been unable and unwilling to work within the bounds of our laws and constitution, which are fairly liberal in regard to fighting terrorism within legal limits. The rubber stamp Republican congress should be indicted and run out of office at the polls for being an enabler of an incompetent bunch of power grabbers who talk the big propaganda talk but have not walked the real mission accomplished walk.

The Bush Administrations deserves to be the lamest of lame ducks for the balance of its second term.