an Italian from Brooklyn...

During World War II, 2 percent of Americans lived in Brooklyn, and if read the whole little bit and down a bit below my bit that I'm quoting, you'll see that that urban megapolis that stretches from New York down through Jersey and Connecticut and Pennsylvania still to this day contains 6 percent of our population. Now, I'm not trying to quote Barone word for word, who better to quote word for word if I were to actually do so, but my point is that a lot of people live in that great big giant urban insanity in what I like to call, that place way up there North that unless I one day have to play a show there I never intend to visit.
But honestly I think that we need is someone who can take the experience of having lived, managed, directed, improved, and even surpassed what any of thought possible in that vast urban tract and through whatever means necessary, elect him President in 2008.
I'm talking about Rudolph Guiliani, an Italian from Brooklyn, and I can hardly believe that we have to wait three and half more years until he's the next President, along with Condi as his VP.

Sigh.

Until that time though, it's time for Karl Rove to get his head out of ass and for Dubya to forget about every appealing to the Left side of the aisle and focus on what we thought this Presidency was about: winning the war against the Islamofascists. I don't understand why nobody else has noticed that George's domestic policy successes came only when he was putting pressure on the enemy. Instead, we have come to this strange equilibrium of virtually inviting the Islamofascists into Iraq to do battle with them there instead of continuing to push the fight against them. Dubya still wants private social security accounts and genuine tax reform? He better get out there and starting kicking some serious ass, and the way that I see it, there's only two options remaining:

1. Cordon the borders of Syria and Iran off and begin a massive troop build-up on both sides. Let the Iranians and the Syrians make of it what they will but only say that the added troops are there to protect the territorial integrity of Iraq. Do we not have a shred of capacity for subterfuge and counterintelligence operations? Sheesh.
2. Bomb the hell out of Sryia and overthrow Assad's regime. Let the Iranians make of it what they will, especially since they'll realize....Israel now has a direct flight path to Iran. Hmmmm.

There are only three, no, four options remaining! The four options remaing to us are...(if you didn't get that...I don't know what to do say)

With Syria out of the way all of the sudden the shining light of truth will now be solidly fixed on the location that has spawned this evil: Saudi Arabia. The Wahhabit interlocutors know that they are not the true heirs of Islam and that if the rest of the Islamic world knew the full truth about their hedonistic activities, the sickness of their massive welfare state, and their inability to stem the flow of billions of dollar to the worldwide network of madrassas means that a realpolitik situation exists. A situation that must be exploited.
The Iranians believe they are the rightful heirs of the Islamic culture, fine whatever. They can believe that they are the heirs to the Zoroastrians for all I care. What I do care about is that the Iranians can potentially be turned into allies, especially given the unstable status of Pakistan and the fact that there will be a democratic Iraq sitting on Iran's borders. Removing the Syrians from the equation will only put the pressure directly on the Iranian government, which is caught in the middle of what they perceive as a lethal situation: they are surrounded by nuclear powers. Pakistan, a Sunni majority state, India, a secular though largely Hindu state, Russia, a secular but largely Christian state, and Iraq, a secular though currently under our protection state. Everywhere the Iranians leaders look, they see states with nuclear weapons. Well, why can't we have one? they whine. Boo hoo.
Big ideas people. You can't win if you don't play. We need to develop the ability to place human intelligence into every country and be able to direct covert activities that can change the tide from within. Even if a democratically elected government of Iran isn't the best of friends with everyone else, we might be able to offer them say, a nuclear security guarantee so long as they don't develop nuclear weapons. Nothing scares the hell out of non-nuclear armed states more than saber rattling from nuclear armed states, that is, unless they're backed up by the US. Look at the security relationship between the US and Japan. They make cheap consumer electronics and we protect them with nuclear weapons. Great isn't it?
Big ideas, I'll say it again. We need to see more than just the picture. We need to realize that there is a big picture. And most people just haven't even thought about it. They don't care. They're big idea is trying out one of Rachel Ray's new recipes. I swear to you that woman's smile is not natural. No one should be able to smile from one side of the face to the other and have it appear that her teeth stretch the same distance. It just freaks me out. And the nation loves her. Wow, I am so out of the loop.