Sorry PW, but that’s about the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever read on firedoglake…

(Excluding the Comments, of course)

Please don’t spout bullshit about the American Civil War…The Neo-Confederates are doing a bang-up job of it without you…

Tug @ 21: You didn’t read all of my post, my friend.

I didn’t say that losing the Battle of Puebla made Napoleon III vacate Mexico immediately. As I noted (and note in more detail in a later post), he grimly hung on for another few years, then abandoned the puppet ruler he’d installed, Maximillian, to his fate.

The Battle of Puebla, as I said, threw said in N III’s gears. He wanted a quick takeover — he didn’t get it. And that paved the way for his leaving Mexico before the decade was over. Furthermore, instead of being able to turn over the northern and eastern parts of Mexico to the Confederates for use as staging areas for attacks on the Union, he was kept occupied trying to keep them under his control.

The Battle of Puebla showed the Mexicans that they could go toe-to-toe with what was the world’s mightiest and most technologically-advanced army of the time, and win. Yes, the short-term effect was (as I will point out in my later post) to make the stubborn Napoleon increase (or “surge”) his forces, but he wound up pulling out anyway.

But you knew all that, right? ;-)

I discuss the Battle of Puebla in greater detail later today, by the way. Hope you’ll be around to read that. (As for recipes: The one I used is pretty similar to others I’ve seen. So there!)

Pheonix Woman

I like you too much to argue with you in earnest.

I did read all of your post (not fair for you to say otherwise and a bad assumption on your part). In any event, we are missing each other’s points:

The French took over well before Maximilian actually showed up, so if it was Napolean’s intention to supply arms to the Southern states via Mexico through hostile and hard terrain in northern Mexico (as opposed to more direct shipment, give or take a Union blockade here and there), he could have done so without Maximilian being on the throne. Ok fine, maybe the battle of Cinco de Mayo slowed him down a little, but in the grand scheme of it all – I don’t think so.

I actually came to embrace Cinco de Mayo precisely because it is the celebration of the moment in a war that is ultimately lost. Again, you might as well celebrate the Alamo.

Ni modo – you write good stuff. Just stay away from history as told by those with a commercial interest, namely a chili-cook off that does not want to offend anyone…

Or…on the otherhand, I live close to San Marcos, so I could pass out fliers to the crowd on how you framed the Iraq War…which would not go over well – It is Bush territory as way, way too many friends of then Governor Bush made a killing by befriending him for land deals.

(incidentally, via the telephone Jane Hamsher gave a lecture about blogs at Texas State in San Marcos – we are all on the same team here ; )

Onward.

The portion of Reagan International Airpot I saw was a dump! An absolute dump. Seemed to be absolutely fitting and well named…

Yup. All the money is thrown at Dulles, even though National’s the one everyone uses.

By the way: To this day, the locals flatly refuse to call it “Reagan National”, even though it’s been well over ten years since the name change. They didn’t even appropriate money for new signage at first, which pissed off the Republicans in Congress so much that they threatened to cut off all of DC’s funding unless new signs with the “R” word were on them.

Newsweek: Bush approval hits all time low of 28 percent

GWB at 28 per cent? Starting to do the Snoopy Dance – but… Hillary beating out the Repub candidates?

Now I don’t trust the poll.

Instant Karma?

“Government is like a baby: An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibiliity at the other.” Could this have been prescient of our present prez?

katymine @ 69

ET…. I see all those FBI raids are bearing fruit with the arrests yesterday…. Any word if it will pull in some big fish?

Or else they are acclimating us to the notion that large numbers of Americans can be arrested at once. Probably for legitimate reasons.

I was referring to the Alaska VECO scandal. The FBI did their raid while I was in Anchorage last year and hearing all the local news and wondering if there are hopes of snagging the big fish.