Obama wouldn't show his birth certificate for 3 years, but makes his tax return an issue. Obama ducks taxes by transferring money to his children and makes an issue that Romney doesn’t doesn’y pay enough. Obama beat down his effective tax rate but not as much as Romney. ..and then we have Michelle, who signs her occupation as “First Lady”. Could someone please explain to her highass that “first lady" is her honorary title. It is not a job or an occupation. In fact, the title is offensive to the republic. The term is for one of privledge, the female variant of being a lord. The US President is not a lord and his wife is not a lady.
His birth certificate is a fraud. His selective service application is a fraud, His social security number doesnt match the location of the great state of HI.
His college transcripts are no where to be found.
His former girl friends are absent.
His voting record is "present"
His leadership style is that of "from behind" (let others take the lead)
In short?
The man is a shadow.
We really dont KNOW anything of substance about him except he hates Israel, White people and western accomplishment.
At Woodstown High School in Salem County, Derek Kerns wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life. He seemed a "little directionless," Principal Scott Hoopes said.
Kerns "had his ups and downs," said Christopher Snyder, the assistant principal. "He was a skinny kid with long, shaggy, red hair and relaxed, slouchy gait."
All of that changed in 2008 after Kerns graduated and entered the Marine Corps. The young man who returned to the school after boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., bore little resemblance to the one who left. He had been transformed and wanted his teachers and friends to see him in the impressive dress-blue uniform.
"He walked upright, chest out," Snyder said. "You could tell he had put on weight and muscle. He had a great sense of pride."
On Friday, high school students observed a moment of silence and wore blue ribbons to honor the alumnus after his death Wednesday during a training exercise dubbed African Lion southwest of Agadir, Morocco.
Kerns, 21, of Woodstown, and Cpl. Robby A. Reyes of Los Angeles - both MV-22 Osprey crew chiefs with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261, Marine Aircraft Group 26 - were killed when their aircraft crashed in a Royal Moroccan military-training area.
A Marine Corps MV-22 costs about $67 million and an Air Force CV-22 about $78 million. It took 25 years to devlop at a cost of $22 billion. The albatross is a fiasco.
The marines would lie about the Osprey? There have been a few honest honest generals, take Smedley Butler,1881-1940. Butler was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.
In 34 years of Marine Corps service, Butler was awarded numerous medals for heroism including the Marine Corps Brevet Medal also the Medal of Honor twice. He said:
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
Why is it that Iran has no need for a nuclear program….
How is it that (US, Israel) decides/defines what Iran needs ? Isn't this patronizing ? or delusional ? World's nuclear powers (including Israel) all obtained these weapons first and foremost for deterrent purposes (i.e., because they faced significant external threats and wanted a way to guarantee their own survival). Iran has good reason to worry: It has nuclear-armed states on two sides, a very bad relationship with the world's only superpower, and more than three dozen U.S. military facilities in its neighborhood. Prominent U.S. politicians repeatedly call for "regime change" there, and a covert action campaign against Iran has been underway for some time, including the assassination of Iranian civilian scientists. Bad, bad Iran.
Why is it that Iran has no need for a nuclear program….
I thought Iran's Official Story was that they were developing nuclear power without weaponizing. I guess it doesn't matter since apparently no one believed the Official Story.
While American and European officials believe Tehran is planning to build nuclear weapons, Iran’s leadership says that its goal in developing a nuclear program is to generate electricity without dipping into the oil supply it prefers to sell abroad, and to provide fuel for medical reactors.
......................................
In November 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency released a trove of evidence that they said makes a “credible” case that “Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device” at Parchin and that the project may still be under way.
They're sitting there on top of 3 Million Barrels +/Day of oil, a resource the rest of the world desperately wants, observing the action in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, knowing all they need to guarantee their sovereignty is a fairly small investment in something they are thoroughly capable of doing. If they Don't build a few nukes the people ought to shoot them for "treason."
The senior official, Ferydoon Abbasi, the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted by Iranian news agencies as saying that Iran was prepared to enrich uranium to a maximum 20 percent purity just to meet the needs for a medical research reactor.
Mr. Abbasi was further quoted as saying that other uranium enrichment activities would be restricted to much lower levels of purity needed to fuel power generation reactors.
But in what appeared to be another set of mixed signals from Iran ahead of the talks, another high-ranking figure, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iran would not accept preconditions.
.....................................
The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted him [Abbasi] as telling a television station that Tehran “does not require to enrich uranium higher than 20 percent” — possibly a reference to Western concerns that, by processing uranium to that level of purity, Iran has taken an important technological step toward enriching to levels of more than 90 percent needed for a nuclear weapon.
But, he said, Iran had “decided to improve its capabilities” in producing 20-percent-enriched uranium. He did not specify how.
It's squarely a leadership problem (thank you - I know my insight is invaluable.)
Anon makes the argument that the Iranian "people" "deserve" autonomy to self-govern and make such decisions independently of the rest of the world. IOW, without acknowledging the responsibility of belonging to this particular club.
The Iranian people need to have a serious dialogue with their leadership first to move the leadership into a position of greater respectability (read: reliability) on the world stage (thank you again.)
I had posted some excerpts from This Link that got chewed up. It demonstrates the kind of negotiating skill that the Iranians must bring to the table - sans the coy veil of the non-weaponization issue.
Another point: the NORK's got Madeleine Albright. I have nothing against her but I wonder to what degree the physical presence of the chief negotiator factors into the success of the agreement. Will never forget the look of disbelief on her face when she declared "The North Koreans lied!!" Well yes, they do that. So do the Iranians. hat needs to be fixed before granting entry into the nuclear club.
(T)hat needs to be fixed before granting entry into the nuclear club.
Granting entry? Does membership require you be nominated and seconded? Is it like Augusta, where the rules exclude an entire class of people, or as in this case, countries?
As for lying, what country doesn't lie? There are lies of omission as well as lies of commission.
Yes. It is a club and there are rules for entry. The survival of the planet depends on it. It's a serious major-league adults only ready for prime-time playground. Don't like it? Take your rattle and go home. Come back when you're ready to play.
Rules created (and ignored) by the 'big boys'. Rules that have been ignored by many others prior to entry. Rules that are flaunted by those who are de facto members but choose not to accept the responsibilities of membership.
I'm pushing the "don't make perfect the enemy of the good" case.
Just because "they all do it," just because "rules are for the little guys," etc doesn't mean the objectives should mutate to accommodate past failures. Religion is all about encouraging man into the safer and better, kinder and gentler world of "should." What we aim for is seldom what we achieve. The target stays put. Or at least it should.
Let’s think. The first member of the nuclear club, in fact the founding member may have set a precedent on how much publicity is necessary when developing nuclear weapons:
In late 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States government developed a top-secret plan. The goal: to develop atomic bombs -- and beat Nazi Germany in doing so. The name: The Manhattan Project. The unprecedented scientific project would span 4 years and 14 sites nationwide, with famous names like Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, and ultimately lead to the creation of the atomic bomb. It was to include 130,000 workers, 6,000 scientists -- and one young physicist named Robert Carter.
All done without one official announcement or any international inspectors.
Because "A" does "Y", that makes it acceptable for "B" to do same.
The concept is embedded in several of Bill Ayers' rules of engagement for activists.
Once again, you confuse argument with my statement of fact. No one is arguing that Iran is right in pursuing nuclear weapons or that it is 'acceptable'. The fact is one has to accept the facts on the ground. As noted above, temper tantgrums won't do much, severe sanctions have some (miniscule) possibility of working. What is your bottom line action plan for when/if Iran crosses the red line?
Arguments used to be comprised of "statements of fact." I believe the issue under dispute is causality.
What would I do? Pretty much what the Obama administration is doing (plus whatever Petraeus is doing) - bring them into the formal inspection program, the theory being use of environmental pressure to encourage responsible behavior in the global forum.
What I would do is not something I would advertise vis a vis the Israeli/USA stuxnet.
:)
In other words, "I could tell you but then I would have to kill you."
Funny.
[IMO, the conversation up to this point amounts to "Iran's pursuit of the bomb is bad or if you choose 'unacceptable' (something I doubt anyone here would dispute)." But when it comes to what to do about it, the answer is "I have a secret plan, but I'm holding my cards close to my vest. With that, I am leaving to watch the Tigers game.]
The post 9/11 buzz was the failure of human intelligence (plus the foolish power plays resulting in Gorelick Wall which history may prove to be more venal than we currently know.) Petraeus knows the players and where the bodies are buried as they say. I believe he is well positioned to dramatically improve the HUMINT angle which is of course done ... quietly.
In the meantime the rest of the DIME team is tasked with the assignment of making life miserable for the nuke owner/operator wannabee's.
This week's blather over Hilary Rosen's never-worked-a-day comment regarding Ann Romney wasn't so much a battle over substantive issues as a "peashooter contest in the Twitter Lounge," writes Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post. Start with the basics: Rosen spoke the truth in that Romney has never held a job outside the home. She wasn't trying to insult but to question whether Romney—and by extension, her husband—could relate to the everyday problems of most women. (Parker, for the record, gives Ann Romney the benefit of the doubt: Her lack of a job "has no bearing whatsoever on her ability to empathize with the challenges of others or whether she is attuned to women’s concerns.")
Feminism is a religion of the left. According to its orthodoxy any woman who doesn't agree with its tenets is judged by its hierarchy to be either a heretic or an apostate subject to ridicule or worse. It is the same with many religions.
Which has frayed around the edges since Gloria and Betty and that red head from Australia whose name I keep forgetting - the one who made Bill Buckley squirm.
Lots of people these days are turning away from large-scale meat farms and toward smaller, organic farms. It's better for the animals and for the environment, right? Not nearly as much as most locavores think, writes James McWilliams in the New York Times. He's not defending factory farms—he hates them, too—but he argues that the logistics of small-scale "natural" farming will never cut it. (For example: We'd need mind-boggling amounts of land to raise all the nation's cattle on grass, and those cows in turn would emit more methane gas.)
"Nothing about this is sustainable," he writes. Those truly worried about the animals, the planet, and their own health should think bigger, argues the vegan author. "Opponents of industrialized agriculture have been declaring for over a decade that how humans produce animal products is one of the most important environmental questions we face. We need a bolder declaration. After all, it’s not how we produce animal products that ultimately matters. It’s whether we produce them at all."
blert@BC makes the IQ argument (apparently IQ can be tested among the illiterate.) He alleges a 20 point deficiency. Throw in Deuce's quote above. Foot soldiers in plenty.
In late 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States government developed a top-secret plan. The goal: to develop atomic bombs -- and beat Nazi Germany in doing so. The name: The Manhattan Project.
Wretchard calls it "the agency problem" - the lost-in-translation messaging between the people and their leaders. It's a problem in China, Russia, USA, all of Africa - and Iran. Funnily enough, the agency problem seems less pronounced in Europe.
Rufus - the Iranians you knew had the means and the motive to get into USA (I am assuming) which doesn't make them representative any more than my clanship maps into the Wall St demographic.
I honestly can't get very interested in the whole subject. I can't imagine a time when the U.S, or Israel couldn't shoot down anything Iran could throw at us.
Yep. Washington has morphed into one giant supra-organism, a giant hive mind like the Borg. Really not a dime's worth of difference any more.
What might be interesting is how Romney's advisers shake his etch-a-sketch policy platform in order to differentiate him from Obama. I don't know if they'll go with social issue or economic issues. It's hard to see an edge in either one for Romney. Second potential point of interest will be fate of Tea Party in Congress and their influence with Romney. I hope they go quietly into the night. This country can only absorb so many election cycles of extremist ideologues.
Well, there is Iran and Afghanistan; although both O and Romney are as likely to change their mind (or perhaps admit the truth) on any subject at any time.
It's a crap shoot with either of them.
With regard to tax policy, we probably should ignore the presidential race and start focusing on the Senate and House.
The more I think about this, the more Romney is starting to look like a lock if he doesn't do something stupid, and Romney can't usually be relied on to do "something stupid."
The other differences are how to cut the deficit and how to move the recovery, both of which default to tax policy. I fear that the best program ever offered by government, SS, will be privatized as they cut future budget deals. And I'm not sure I have the stomach for following the details of tax reform. What I didn't know but I learned from the lovely Lauren video was that the current proposal doesn't touch the 15% tax rate for "carried interest." Sonsabitches.
The race may still be a toss-up but I doubt anything Hillary Rosen has to say will affect the result.
The only people who have a clue as to who Rosen is are the kool-aid drinkers on both sides (who have already determined who their vote will be for) and old farts who sit around reading the news and blogging all day.
The Dems in the Senate will remain strong enough to block any privatization of SS (it just takes 40.) And, yeah, "carried interest" is probably safe.
Probably the most that you can hope for is some work on Corporate Taxes, and "Overseas" Profits. But, I wouldn't hold my breath for even that - GE, Exxon, and Microsoft/Apple like it just the way it is.
World financial leaders gathering in Washington next week will focus on proposals for countries to contribute more money to the IMF so it is better prepared in case of fallout from any further escalation of Europe's debt problems.
Emerging market countries like China, Brazil and Russia are willing to provide more money for the IMF, but they want something in return: greater voting power.
The IMF and the World Bank are already on the quota system. the more you pay the more you vote.
I say if they want to pony up, more power to them.
Both the IMF and WB were formed at Bretton Woods. The quota system on both assure that the big contributors call the shots. However, as we have seen from the IMF and the EU recently it's just another example of colonialism. "Sure, we'll give you that loan but you have to do this and this and this even if the net result is to stunt your GDP growth. Just do what we say not what we do."
The US should welcome any moves that allow us to gradually back out of both organizations, especially when the money we contribute for other countries to borrow is itself borrowed by us in the first place.
With heroin becoming cheaper than a six-pack ($6 for a "button") and as easy to obtain as pot, police and prosecutors are turning to more aggressive tactics against the drug, dusting off little-used laws to seek murder charges against suspected dealers and provide for longer prison sentences. The more assertive approach is not entirely new to the drug war, but it's being adopted more widely and in more areas that have rarely been so bold—comfortable residential communities.
"We are going to treat every overdose scene like a crime scene. We are going to treat every overdose as a potential homicide," says the US attorney for southern Illinois. "Heroin is the bullet." Once associated with rock stars and inner-city junkies, heroin has become far more dangerous and accessible in recent years. Mexican cartels a half-decade ago created a form of the drug so pure it can be snorted or swallowed instead of injected, making heroin more appealing to teenagers and suburbanites who don't want the stigma of shooting up. The extreme purity means today's heroin is far deadlier than in the past. As a result, heroin deaths have spiked.
Which makes his (Romney's) choice for VP more significant. If I had a megaphone, I would advise him to Go Solid (plaid even) and forget the ticket balancing act. But then again two boring white guys - maybe they could get an updated "two wild and crazy guys" schtick going?
I thought I heard that Obama was expected to drop Biden.
According to CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante, a source in the Secret Service told CBS News that one or more of the officers was involved with prostitutes and that there was a dispute over payment. One prostitute went to the police, who notified the State Department.
How about, we get dumb fucking ignorant drunk and fall off the bar stool and join the military and call the people that have given us our rigths and taught us TO SPEAK if they can and tried to teach them to read and to think and vote something the had never knew of before.
All Hail, bob the Lawgiver. Swam the mighty Mississippi, rowed up the Missouri, traipsed across the Prairie, Climbed the Mountains, A Lawbook in his hand, bringing the Law, and potry to the heathens.
Oh, what was that? Ol' bob dint do all that? He inherited land that was stolen from the Natives, and given to the Swede squatters?
Well, I'll be. It made a good story, though, didn't it? Even if it Was a fairytale.
I had a friend who was a sniper in Viet Nam. He had 14 kills. He did not wear the scalps but he counted and recounted. He said that after two, three don’t mean nothing. I believed him.
The Europeans believed that a crime committed belonged to the perp. The Indians believed that a crime was tribe against tribe. Retribution was not personal and justice could be had by striking back at the tribe. You can see where that cultural clash would go.
Bob is upset with the wolves because he considers they are attacking his elk on his turf. His answer is to kill,shoot or poison the invading wolves. You can extrapolate from there.
Negotiators on all sides are saying nice things after Iran and six world powers began nuclear talks with a meeting in Istanbul today, the New York Times reports. The discussion was "useful and constructive," said European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, leader of the talks. “We want now to move to a sustained process of dialog." But the only accomplishment they announced was agreeing to another round of talks in Baghdad on May 23.
Britain said there was "a long way to go," and France urged Iran "to make urgent and concrete gestures to establish confidence" that its nuclear program is peaceful, the BBC reports. The White House praised Iran's "positive attitude" and called today's meeting a "first step." Hopes are running high that these negotiations—the first in a year—may prove fruitful because Iran is creaking under the strain of sanctions. But Iran will not allow preconditions for talks and said it will bring its own proposals in May.
Health insurance mandates—unconstitutional? That's what the opponents of ObamaCare are arguing, "but there’s a major problem with this line of argument: It just isn’t true," writes Einer Elhuage in The New Republic. In fact, the founding fathers passed more than one mandate in Congress in the 1790s. To wit:
The first Congress (including 20 framers) passed a law mandating that ship owners buy medical insurance for seamen. Even President George Washington signed it. "That's right, the father of our country," writes Elhauge.
Two years later, Congress passed another statute "that required all able-bodied men to buy firearms. ... only one framer voted to repeal it." Washington signed that one too. In 1798, Congress enacted a mandate that seamen buy their own hospital insurance (as separate from drugs and physician services). President John Adams, a founding father, signed it into law.
"There is no evidence that any of the few framers who voted against these mandates ever objected on constitutional grounds," Elhauge writes. "The framers thought not just purchase mandates but medical insurance mandates were perfectly proper indeed."
Most wolf deaths are attributable, I believe, to other wolves. Some 90% of wolf mortality occurs within a half mile, or so, of the boundary between different packs.
fulsome·ness n. Usage Note: Fulsome is often used to mean "offensively flattering or insincere." But the word is also used, particularly in the expression fulsome praise, to mean simply "abundant," without any implication of excess or insincerity. This usage is etymologically justified but may invite misunderstandings in contexts in which a deprecatory interpretation could be made. The sentence I offer you my most fulsome apologies may raise an eyebrow, where the use of an adjective like full or abundant would leave no room for doubt as to the sincerity of the speaker's intentions.
the sanctions are being watered down to the point of meaningless, thanks to Obama.
if you do not want a hot war with iran, sanctions should have been applied years ago.
this shit has been going on since 1978.
obama is only the latest and most dangerous of the lot.
it will be on his watch that America's enemy, Iran will go hot.
Solar activity, which usually runs in 11-year cycles, has been so sluggish of late that space weathermen are worried we might be entering a mini-ice age. They expected to see sunspot activity pick up about last March, to peak in 2012; if the sun stays this sluggish for another year or two, it could trigger a prolonged period of massive snowfall and severe cold across the Northern Hemisphere, Popular Mechanics reports.
Trees here started to bud around first of April (!!) Some perennials have blossomed as well. The worry is that a late storm/freeze will kill the early growth.
Regarding the Trump boys: most regulars here know I Bowhunt big game. For the meat, for the opportunity to be outside, and mostly for the sheer pleasure of it and make no other excuses. I don't condone canned hunts or lazy waste nor Anything done outside the game laws. I think the writer of the article is an anti hunter period whether that person is criticizing the Trump boyss or anyone else. I do know about Africa and I can tell you the money those boys spent would not have otherwise gone to that country. If the game they killed had not been preserved for them to kill, those animals would not have existed in the first place due to generations of poaching.
I have been to Africa many times. The local tribes aren't allowed to eat meat of any kind unless it is killed by those who Pay to do it. It is a vicious circle like it or not. And when they do get to eat meat, they are very grateful.
A lot (and, I mean "a lot") of farmers have rolled the dice, and planted really early. If they get "snapped off" it's going to turn a potentially great year into a gut-check.
Rufus - don't those farmers get government compensation when that happens? I know that the North Dakota farmers got compensation when the Red River flooded their crops last year. Two different category of events, but how big really is their risk?
It runs about 3 Long Cycles (approx. 12,5 years,) and 3 short cycles (11 yrs,) Max. Sunspot activity doesn't tend to hit as high a peak in the long cycles as in the short cycles. Usually temps tend to drop a bit along about the second long cycle.
Crop Insurance doesn't cover "Frost Damage" if they plant before a certain date, Max. For instance, I think it's along about Apr 6 in Central Illinois.
They'll have time to replant, but they'll be starting off the year over a hundred dollars/acre in the hole.
I'm trying to distract myself from Other Things so I'll break out of mold (this once) and ask a pointed question (no, I'm not baiting a hook, just digging): I can understand the challenge of the hunt, how does the killing fit in? (FWIW I'm ambivalent about the Trump story but not about hanging body parts on the rec room wall. Something about mounting a stuffed head on a wall that works me the wrong way.)
Obama wouldn't show his birth certificate for 3 years, but makes his tax return an issue. Obama ducks taxes by transferring money to his children and makes an issue that Romney doesn’t doesn’y pay enough. Obama beat down his effective tax rate but not as much as Romney.
ReplyDelete..and then we have Michelle, who signs her occupation as “First Lady”. Could someone please explain to her highass that “first lady" is her honorary title. It is not a job or an occupation. In fact, the title is offensive to the republic. The term is for one of privledge, the female variant of being a lord. The US President is not a lord and his wife is not a lady.
“The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
ReplyDeleteMaximilien Robespierre and “Love Buzz” coffee go so well together.
Yes of course....
DeleteHis birth certificate is a fraud. His selective service application is a fraud, His social security number doesnt match the location of the great state of HI.
ReplyDeleteHis college transcripts are no where to be found.
His former girl friends are absent.
His voting record is "present"
His leadership style is that of "from behind" (let others take the lead)
In short?
The man is a shadow.
We really dont KNOW anything of substance about him except he hates Israel, White people and western accomplishment.
Enough of this already.
Vote for ANYONE but this imposer in chief
I'm not worried about the taxes. Just the two planes and $10,000,000 in tax payer money to go on vacations.
ReplyDeleteAt Woodstown High School in Salem County, Derek Kerns wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life. He seemed a "little directionless," Principal Scott Hoopes said.
ReplyDeleteKerns "had his ups and downs," said Christopher Snyder, the assistant principal. "He was a skinny kid with long, shaggy, red hair and relaxed, slouchy gait."
All of that changed in 2008 after Kerns graduated and entered the Marine Corps. The young man who returned to the school after boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., bore little resemblance to the one who left. He had been transformed and wanted his teachers and friends to see him in the impressive dress-blue uniform.
"He walked upright, chest out," Snyder said. "You could tell he had put on weight and muscle. He had a great sense of pride."
On Friday, high school students observed a moment of silence and wore blue ribbons to honor the alumnus after his death Wednesday during a training exercise dubbed African Lion southwest of Agadir, Morocco.
Kerns, 21, of Woodstown, and Cpl. Robby A. Reyes of Los Angeles - both MV-22 Osprey crew chiefs with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 261, Marine Aircraft Group 26 - were killed when their aircraft crashed in a Royal Moroccan military-training area.
A Marine Corps MV-22 costs about $67 million and an Air Force CV-22 about $78 million. It took 25 years to devlop at a cost of $22 billion. The albatross is a fiasco.
I could have said “the fiasco is an albatross."
ReplyDeleteThe marines would lie about the Osprey? There have been a few honest honest generals, take Smedley Butler,1881-1940. Butler was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.
ReplyDeleteIn 34 years of Marine Corps service, Butler was awarded numerous medals for heroism including the Marine Corps Brevet Medal also the Medal of Honor twice. He said:
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
Why is it that Iran has no need for a nuclear program….
ReplyDeleteHow is it that (US, Israel) decides/defines what Iran needs ? Isn't this patronizing ? or delusional ?
World's nuclear powers (including Israel) all obtained these weapons first and foremost for deterrent purposes (i.e., because they faced significant external threats and wanted a way to guarantee their own survival).
Iran has good reason to worry: It has nuclear-armed states on two sides, a very bad relationship with the world's only superpower, and more than three dozen U.S. military facilities in its neighborhood. Prominent U.S. politicians repeatedly call for "regime change" there, and a covert action campaign against Iran has been underway for some time, including the assassination of Iranian civilian scientists. Bad, bad Iran.
MAybe Iran should not murder Americans and export and support terror across the globe?
DeleteI guess you support Islamic Jihad for the world?
If so? You are an enemy of the collective west...
Which of these countries has Not started a war, or invaded another country in over 2,000 yrs?
ReplyDelete1) United States
2) Israel
3) Iran
certainly not Iran no matter what the propagandists say...
DeleteRufus, ever the apologist for the Islamic Republic of Iran
DeleteWhy is it that Iran has no need for a nuclear program….
ReplyDeleteI thought Iran's Official Story was that they were developing nuclear power without weaponizing. I guess it doesn't matter since apparently no one believed the Official Story.
Yep. I was right. Iran is lying. From a week ago:
ReplyDeleteWhile American and European officials believe Tehran is planning to build nuclear weapons, Iran’s leadership says that its goal in developing a nuclear program is to generate electricity without dipping into the oil supply it prefers to sell abroad, and to provide fuel for medical reactors.
......................................
In November 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency released a trove of evidence that they said makes a “credible” case that “Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear device” at Parchin and that the project may still be under way.
Link
They would have to be crazy not to develop nukes.
ReplyDeleteThey're sitting there on top of 3 Million Barrels +/Day of oil, a resource the rest of the world desperately wants, observing the action in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, knowing all they need to guarantee their sovereignty is a fairly small investment in something they are thoroughly capable of doing. If they Don't build a few nukes the people ought to shoot them for "treason."
They seek the destruction of the west. They seek to replace the world's nations with an Islamic Revolution.
DeleteRufus, I personally hope your children and their children have the luck to live under an Islamic Revolutionary nation, why not move there?
I hear they love pagans like you...
The world of diplomacy:
ReplyDeleteThe senior official, Ferydoon Abbasi, the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, was quoted by Iranian news agencies as saying that Iran was prepared to enrich uranium to a maximum 20 percent purity just to meet the needs for a medical research reactor.
Mr. Abbasi was further quoted as saying that other uranium enrichment activities would be restricted to much lower levels of purity needed to fuel power generation reactors.
But in what appeared to be another set of mixed signals from Iran ahead of the talks, another high-ranking figure, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, said Iran would not accept preconditions.
.....................................
The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted him [Abbasi] as telling a television station that Tehran “does not require to enrich uranium higher than 20 percent” — possibly a reference to Western concerns that, by processing uranium to that level of purity, Iran has taken an important technological step toward enriching to levels of more than 90 percent needed for a nuclear weapon.
But, he said, Iran had “decided to improve its capabilities” in producing 20-percent-enriched uranium. He did not specify how.
Link
If they Don't build a few nukes the people ought to shoot them for "treason."
ReplyDeleteThen I think they need to stop lying, if that's genetically possible, and make the case.
Is anyone seeing comments flash before your eyes?
ReplyDeleteI'm getting some breakfast.
Why tell the truth? That would guarantee an invasion. Who needs that?
ReplyDeletePakistan didn't "tell the truth." Nor did India, or Israel (still don't.)
ReplyDeleteTurkey doesn't talk about their capabilities, nor does Japan.
ANd yet Iran is the only one whose official policy is a world without America.
DeleteBlind and stupid is rufus and iran
True, but the IAEA knows what they have.
ReplyDeletethat’s weak.
DeleteIt's a statement of fact.
DeleteIt's squarely a leadership problem (thank you - I know my insight is invaluable.)
ReplyDeleteAnon makes the argument that the Iranian "people" "deserve" autonomy to self-govern and make such decisions independently of the rest of the world. IOW, without acknowledging the responsibility of belonging to this particular club.
The Iranian people need to have a serious dialogue with their leadership first to move the leadership into a position of greater respectability (read: reliability) on the world stage (thank you again.)
I had posted some excerpts from This Link that got chewed up. It demonstrates the kind of negotiating skill that the Iranians must bring to the table - sans the coy veil of the non-weaponization issue.
Another point: the NORK's got Madeleine Albright. I have nothing against her but I wonder to what degree the physical presence of the chief negotiator factors into the success of the agreement. Will never forget the look of disbelief on her face when she declared "The North Koreans lied!!" Well yes, they do that. So do the Iranians. hat needs to be fixed before granting entry into the nuclear club.
.
Delete(T)hat needs to be fixed before granting entry into the nuclear club.
Granting entry? Does membership require you be nominated and seconded? Is it like Augusta, where the rules exclude an entire class of people, or as in this case, countries?
As for lying, what country doesn't lie? There are lies of omission as well as lies of commission.
.
Yes. It is a club and there are rules for entry. The survival of the planet depends on it. It's a serious major-league adults only ready for prime-time playground. Don't like it? Take your rattle and go home. Come back when you're ready to play.
DeleteAs for lying, what country doesn't lie?
DeleteYou sure you want to make that your argument?
It is, after all, a decidedly "liberal" argument.
Delete.
DeleteYes. It is a club and there are rules for entry.
Rules created (and ignored) by the 'big boys'. Rules that have been ignored by many others prior to entry. Rules that are flaunted by those who are de facto members but choose not to accept the responsibilities of membership.
Adults only?
:)
.
.
DeleteYou sure you want to make that your argument?
It's not an argument, merely a statement of observable fact.
Liberal argument? You will need to explain that a little more. I have only had one cup of coffee this morning.
Now, cynical argument. I would agree with; although IMO, again one rooted in fact.
.
The one and only "rule" is fait accompli!
DeleteI'm pushing the "don't make perfect the enemy of the good" case.
DeleteJust because "they all do it," just because "rules are for the little guys," etc doesn't mean the objectives should mutate to accommodate past failures. Religion is all about encouraging man into the safer and better, kinder and gentler world of "should." What we aim for is seldom what we achieve. The target stays put. Or at least it should.
Let’s think. The first member of the nuclear club, in fact the founding member may have set a precedent on how much publicity is necessary when developing nuclear weapons:
DeleteIn late 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States government developed a top-secret plan. The goal: to develop atomic bombs -- and beat Nazi Germany in doing so. The name: The Manhattan Project.
The unprecedented scientific project would span 4 years and 14 sites nationwide, with famous names like Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, and ultimately lead to the creation of the atomic bomb. It was to include 130,000 workers, 6,000 scientists -- and one young physicist named Robert Carter.
All done without one official announcement or any international inspectors.
The world was a different place 70 years ago.
DeleteLiberal argument?
DeleteBecause "A" does "Y", that makes it acceptable for "B" to do same.
The concept is embedded in several of Bill Ayers' rules of engagement for activists.
.
DeleteDon't like it? Take your rattle and go home. Come back when you're ready to play.
And what do you do if they say, "I don't like it but I have no intention of taking my ball and going home so what are you going to do about it?"
.
.
DeleteBecause "A" does "Y", that makes it acceptable for "B" to do same.
The concept is embedded in several of Bill Ayers' rules of engagement for activists.
Once again, you confuse argument with my statement of fact. No one is arguing that Iran is right in pursuing nuclear weapons or that it is 'acceptable'. The fact is one has to accept the facts on the ground. As noted above, temper tantgrums won't do much, severe sanctions have some (miniscule) possibility of working. What is your bottom line action plan for when/if Iran crosses the red line?
.
What I would do is not something I would advertise vis a vis the Israeli/USA stuxnet.
DeleteBut I have high hopes for Petraeus. Right man in the right job.
Arguments used to be comprised of "statements of fact." I believe the issue under dispute is causality.
DeleteWhat would I do? Pretty much what the Obama administration is doing (plus whatever Petraeus is doing) - bring them into the formal inspection program, the theory being use of environmental pressure to encourage responsible behavior in the global forum.
.
DeleteWhat I would do is not something I would advertise vis a vis the Israeli/USA stuxnet.
:)
In other words, "I could tell you but then I would have to kill you."
Funny.
[IMO, the conversation up to this point amounts to "Iran's pursuit of the bomb is bad or if you choose 'unacceptable' (something I doubt anyone here would dispute)." But when it comes to what to do about it, the answer is "I have a secret plan, but I'm holding my cards close to my vest. With that, I am leaving to watch the Tigers game.]
.
The Tequila Defense expanded:
DeleteThe post 9/11 buzz was the failure of human intelligence (plus the foolish power plays resulting in Gorelick Wall which history may prove to be more venal than we currently know.) Petraeus knows the players and where the bodies are buried as they say. I believe he is well positioned to dramatically improve the HUMINT angle which is of course done ... quietly.
In the meantime the rest of the DIME team is tasked with the assignment of making life miserable for the nuke owner/operator wannabee's.
This week's blather over Hilary Rosen's never-worked-a-day comment regarding Ann Romney wasn't so much a battle over substantive issues as a "peashooter contest in the Twitter Lounge," writes Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post. Start with the basics: Rosen spoke the truth in that Romney has never held a job outside the home. She wasn't trying to insult but to question whether Romney—and by extension, her husband—could relate to the everyday problems of most women. (Parker, for the record, gives Ann Romney the benefit of the doubt: Her lack of a job "has no bearing whatsoever on her ability to empathize with the challenges of others or whether she is attuned to women’s concerns.")
ReplyDelete.
DeleteFeminism is a religion of the left. According to its orthodoxy any woman who doesn't agree with its tenets is judged by its hierarchy to be either a heretic or an apostate subject to ridicule or worse. It is the same with many religions.
.
.
DeleteI should have added IMO.
:)
.
The devil being the definition.
DeleteWhich has frayed around the edges since Gloria and Betty and that red head from Australia whose name I keep forgetting - the one who made Bill Buckley squirm.
I liked "peashooter contest in the Twitter Lounge[,]"
DeleteAnd you thought they were after your guns.
ReplyDeleteLots of people these days are turning away from large-scale meat farms and toward smaller, organic farms. It's better for the animals and for the environment, right? Not nearly as much as most locavores think, writes James McWilliams in the New York Times. He's not defending factory farms—he hates them, too—but he argues that the logistics of small-scale "natural" farming will never cut it. (For example: We'd need mind-boggling amounts of land to raise all the nation's cattle on grass, and those cows in turn would emit more methane gas.)
"Nothing about this is sustainable," he writes. Those truly worried about the animals, the planet, and their own health should think bigger, argues the vegan author. "Opponents of industrialized agriculture have been declaring for over a decade that how humans produce animal products is one of the most important environmental questions we face. We need a bolder declaration. After all, it’s not how we produce animal products that ultimately matters. It’s whether we produce them at all."
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Nuclear "Club" is like the Millionaires' Club - no one wants you in it, but you make your money, and, ipso presto, you're a "Member."
ReplyDeleteThe only way we'll stop Iran from going nuclear is to invade Iran. And, we're not going to invade Iran. Ergo, make room for another "member."
Nuke them.
DeleteThat will slow them down...
I should have said, "Invade, and Occupy" Iran.
ReplyDeleteAin't gonna hoppen.
Better to fund an insurgency
DeleteErgo, make room for another "member."
ReplyDeleteDoesn't mean we can't make them sweat every step of the way. Slogging towards Armageddon.
The one indisputable fact: None of the Mullahs have ever "blowed themselves" up. I'm sure they've all had their opportunities.
ReplyDeleteno, that's what they have 60,000,000 idiots for
Deleteblert@BC makes the IQ argument (apparently IQ can be tested among the illiterate.) He alleges a 20 point deficiency. Throw in Deuce's quote above. Foot soldiers in plenty.
ReplyDeleteIn late 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States government developed a top-secret plan. The goal: to develop atomic bombs -- and beat Nazi Germany in doing so. The name: The Manhattan Project.
ReplyDeleteI've known a "few" Iranians. They were, mostly, nuts; but they weren't stupid.
ReplyDeleteThey were, mostly, nuts; but they weren't stupid.
ReplyDeleteThat describes almost everyone I've ever known.
Wretchard calls it "the agency problem" - the lost-in-translation messaging between the people and their leaders. It's a problem in China, Russia, USA, all of Africa - and Iran. Funnily enough, the agency problem seems less pronounced in Europe.
Rufus - the Iranians you knew had the means and the motive to get into USA (I am assuming) which doesn't make them representative any more than my clanship maps into the Wall St demographic.
ReplyDeleteI guess you have a point there, Max.
ReplyDeleteI honestly can't get very interested in the whole subject. I can't imagine a time when the U.S, or Israel couldn't shoot down anything Iran could throw at us.
ReplyDeleteBasically, I'm interested in Domestic issues this go-around. I'm pretty tired of the ME, and our hyper-involvement, there.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly (to me,) now that Romney is the lock for Nominee, I'm not nearly as interested in the Election. There's not much difference in'em.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteA View From Space
.
they were, mostly, nuts; but they weren't stupid
ReplyDeleteGiving them a leg up on the Bar's resident philosopher.
There's not much difference in'em.
ReplyDeleteYep. Washington has morphed into one giant supra-organism, a giant hive mind like the Borg. Really not a dime's worth of difference any more.
What might be interesting is how Romney's advisers shake his etch-a-sketch policy platform in order to differentiate him from Obama. I don't know if they'll go with social issue or economic issues. It's hard to see an edge in either one for Romney. Second potential point of interest will be fate of Tea Party in Congress and their influence with Romney. I hope they go quietly into the night. This country can only absorb so many election cycles of extremist ideologues.
I would just as soon vote for Romney as Obama, except I enjoy the angst, and rending of garments in some quarters when I say I'm voting for the Dem.
ReplyDeleteThe only real difference between'em is in "Tax" Policy, and that is pretty well set in stone with the Bush Tax Cuts expiring.
ReplyDelete.
DeleteWell, there is Iran and Afghanistan; although both O and Romney are as likely to change their mind (or perhaps admit the truth) on any subject at any time.
It's a crap shoot with either of them.
With regard to tax policy, we probably should ignore the presidential race and start focusing on the Senate and House.
.
The more I think about this, the more Romney is starting to look like a lock if he doesn't do something stupid, and Romney can't usually be relied on to do "something stupid."
ReplyDelete.
DeleteHe already did it. Poor Seamus. Vote NLP!
Jack Seplar's neologism:
romney v.t. = "to defacate in terror"
.
.
.
The other differences are how to cut the deficit and how to move the recovery, both of which default to tax policy. I fear that the best program ever offered by government, SS, will be privatized as they cut future budget deals. And I'm not sure I have the stomach for following the details of tax reform. What I didn't know but I learned from the lovely Lauren video was that the current proposal doesn't touch the 15% tax rate for "carried interest." Sonsabitches.
ReplyDeleteRE doing something stupid
ReplyDeleteThere's a distinct possibility that Hilary Rosen may have handed the election to Romney with her pound-sand stupid comment.
.
DeleteThe race may still be a toss-up but I doubt anything Hillary Rosen has to say will affect the result.
The only people who have a clue as to who Rosen is are the kool-aid drinkers on both sides (who have already determined who their vote will be for) and old farts who sit around reading the news and blogging all day.
.
Her name isn't household but her words had visceral traction, threatening to throw the election into a "I have more pain than you" contest.
DeleteThe Dems in the Senate will remain strong enough to block any privatization of SS (it just takes 40.) And, yeah, "carried interest" is probably safe.
ReplyDeleteProbably the most that you can hope for is some work on Corporate Taxes, and "Overseas" Profits. But, I wouldn't hold my breath for even that - GE, Exxon, and Microsoft/Apple like it just the way it is.
Welcome to The Club:
ReplyDeleteWorld financial leaders gathering in Washington next week will focus on proposals for countries to contribute more money to the IMF so it is better prepared in case of fallout from any further escalation of Europe's debt problems.
Emerging market countries like China, Brazil and Russia are willing to provide more money for the IMF, but they want something in return: greater voting power.
Link
.
DeleteThe IMF and the World Bank are already on the quota system. the more you pay the more you vote.
I say if they want to pony up, more power to them.
Both the IMF and WB were formed at Bretton Woods. The quota system on both assure that the big contributors call the shots. However, as we have seen from the IMF and the EU recently it's just another example of colonialism. "Sure, we'll give you that loan but you have to do this and this and this even if the net result is to stunt your GDP growth. Just do what we say not what we do."
The US should welcome any moves that allow us to gradually back out of both organizations, especially when the money we contribute for other countries to borrow is itself borrowed by us in the first place.
.
With heroin becoming cheaper than a six-pack ($6 for a "button") and as easy to obtain as pot, police and prosecutors are turning to more aggressive tactics against the drug, dusting off little-used laws to seek murder charges against suspected dealers and provide for longer prison sentences. The more assertive approach is not entirely new to the drug war, but it's being adopted more widely and in more areas that have rarely been so bold—comfortable residential communities.
ReplyDelete"We are going to treat every overdose scene like a crime scene. We are going to treat every overdose as a potential homicide," says the US attorney for southern Illinois. "Heroin is the bullet." Once associated with rock stars and inner-city junkies, heroin has become far more dangerous and accessible in recent years. Mexican cartels a half-decade ago created a form of the drug so pure it can be snorted or swallowed instead of injected, making heroin more appealing to teenagers and suburbanites who don't want the stigma of shooting up. The extreme purity means today's heroin is far deadlier than in the past. As a result, heroin deaths have spiked.
If Obama wants to win the election he needs to stop letting lesbians and black militants be his mouth piece.
ReplyDeleteObammie's in a bind. Unemployment and the price of gas is high, and wages are stagnant.
ReplyDeleteAs ol' BB would say, "The Thrill is Gone."
I expect the religious iconography will be retired if not burned.
ReplyDeleteMitt Romney is going to benefit greatly from the "hell, might as well give the other guy a chance" mindset.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to spend a lot of time hearing Romney say, "that's the business of the States."
ReplyDeleteWhich makes his (Romney's) choice for VP more significant. If I had a megaphone, I would advise him to Go Solid (plaid even) and forget the ticket balancing act. But then again two boring white guys - maybe they could get an updated "two wild and crazy guys" schtick going?
ReplyDeleteI thought I heard that Obama was expected to drop Biden.
Hell, Obama will drop Michelle if necessary to win re-election.
Delete:)
DeleteI have to go pretend I have another life now.
From high-rent corruption to low-rent corruption.
ReplyDeleteHe really, really Needs Fla. I gotta think, "Rubio."
ReplyDeleteHe really, really needs Ohio, also, but God, Romney and Portman on the same ticket? All the Republicans will sleep through the election.
:)
ReplyDelete:)
Don’t you just hate when this happens:
ReplyDeleteAccording to CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante, a source in the Secret Service told CBS News that one or more of the officers was involved with prostitutes and that there was a dispute over payment. One prostitute went to the police, who notified the State Department.
Bad service, No secret.
Know what happens when you don't pay your exorcist?
ReplyDeleteYou get repossessed.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteGod Bless America, where we have total morons like a red skin like Rufus being able to vote.
ReplyDeleteThe Land of the Idiots.
That is Bob but things is fucked up.
ReplyDeleteI made a wonderful post earlier on taking Rufus to task about his comment about the Iranians.
God Bless America, where we have old fools that can speak every day!!!!!!
Who would have guessed.
DeleteThis is really not which we wished to do, when we brought the law to the land.
ReplyDeleteWe made a real mistake, when we taught them to speak, and to vote.
Bob
Let us see now, what we should do our life?
ReplyDeleteHow about, we get dumb fucking ignorant drunk and fall off the bar stool and join the military and call the people that have given us our rigths and taught us TO SPEAK if they can and tried to teach them to read and to think and vote something the had never knew of before.
Rufus, you are an IDIOT.
And it wasn't worth it.
bob
It was a mistake, not worth it at all.
ReplyDeleteBut we tried.
Fall off the bar stool and kill.
Rufus can't even read a book.
It was not worth it.
Let them live in ignorance. Some of the profs here came to this conclusion a long time ago.
Right here in Idaho.
Let them live in ignorance. But we tried.
And so, it is true, like the old and wise said, long ago, when they wrote their books, it is a mistake, what we are doing, in our academy.
bob
Them Ideehoe folks is nothin' if not downright articulate, eh?
ReplyDeleteAll Hail, bob the Lawgiver. Swam the mighty Mississippi, rowed up the Missouri, traipsed across the Prairie, Climbed the Mountains, A Lawbook in his hand, bringing the Law, and potry to the heathens.
ReplyDeleteOh, what was that? Ol' bob dint do all that? He inherited land that was stolen from the Natives, and given to the Swede squatters?
Well, I'll be. It made a good story, though, didn't it? Even if it Was a fairytale.
Very much so than you.
ReplyDeleteYour claim to fame is you got drunk, slipped off a bar stool, and killed some people. You are disgusting
And I am ashamed we 'educated' you.
It did not take.
You can't even read the Bible and get any meaning out of it.
But Shakespeare did, and Whitman, and John Donne, and Milton, and we have to listen to you, you absolute dumb fuck.
Go back to your bottle.
It is wasted on you you stupid red skin who fell off the bar stool
The natives were savages, just like you.
ReplyDeleteWhen Lewis and Clark came back up the rivers, they met wahtisname, at Asotin, and he had a necklace of human skins around his neck.
You are the dumbest fucker I have ever met
The reds here, even here, are smarter than you.
Mississippi deserves it's reputation.
I have news for you. With the proper provocations we are all savages.
ReplyDeleteThe American Indians discovered killing well before the white man dropped anchor.
ReplyDeleteOl bob, who's never worn a uniform, surely wants him some of that War with Iran, don't he? Sorry, bobbo; it just ain't going to happen.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend who was a sniper in Viet Nam. He had 14 kills. He did not wear the scalps but he counted and recounted. He said that after two, three don’t mean nothing. I believed him.
ReplyDeleteThe Europeans believed that a crime committed belonged to the perp. The Indians believed that a crime was tribe against tribe. Retribution was not personal and justice could be had by striking back at the tribe. You can see where that cultural clash would go.
ReplyDeleteOne thing we do know about "teaching" - and every self-help program requires it - you walk in on your own two feet. Nothing else ever "takes."
ReplyDeleteBob is upset with the wolves because he considers they are attacking his elk on his turf. His answer is to kill,shoot or poison the invading wolves. You can extrapolate from there.
ReplyDeleteThe Trump boys recently got caught up in a Trophy-taking scandal.
ReplyDeleteOne opinion here.
Negotiators on all sides are saying nice things after Iran and six world powers began nuclear talks with a meeting in Istanbul today, the New York Times reports. The discussion was "useful and constructive," said European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, leader of the talks. “We want now to move to a sustained process of dialog." But the only accomplishment they announced was agreeing to another round of talks in Baghdad on May 23.
ReplyDeleteBritain said there was "a long way to go," and France urged Iran "to make urgent and concrete gestures to establish confidence" that its nuclear program is peaceful, the BBC reports. The White House praised Iran's "positive attitude" and called today's meeting a "first step." Hopes are running high that these negotiations—the first in a year—may prove fruitful because Iran is creaking under the strain of sanctions. But Iran will not allow preconditions for talks and said it will bring its own proposals in May.
because Iran is creaking under the strain of sanctions. (link)
Europe is one economic disaster away from a depression. We have our election. The war drums have lost a beat. Time to talk.
ReplyDelete***********************
ReplyDeleteHealth insurance mandates—unconstitutional? That's what the opponents of ObamaCare are arguing, "but there’s a major problem with this line of argument: It just isn’t true," writes Einer Elhuage in The New Republic. In fact, the founding fathers passed more than one mandate in Congress in the 1790s. To wit:
The first Congress (including 20 framers) passed a law mandating that ship owners buy medical insurance for seamen. Even President George Washington signed it. "That's right, the father of our country," writes Elhauge.
Two years later, Congress passed another statute "that required all able-bodied men to buy firearms. ... only one framer voted to repeal it." Washington signed that one too.
In 1798, Congress enacted a mandate that seamen buy their own hospital insurance (as separate from drugs and physician services). President John Adams, a founding father, signed it into law.
"There is no evidence that any of the few framers who voted against these mandates ever objected on constitutional grounds," Elhauge writes. "The framers thought not just purchase mandates but medical insurance mandates were perfectly proper indeed."
***********************
.
DeleteThat was before Marbury vs. Madison. It was (and is) a whole new ball game after 1803.
The Supremes will decide if it's constitutional.
.
Good point.
DeleteThere is no doubt the Iranians are hurting. This is one situation where everyone stands to lose and that is probably a good thing.
ReplyDeleteMost wolf deaths are attributable, I believe, to other wolves. Some 90% of wolf mortality occurs within a half mile, or so, of the boundary between different packs.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt...
ReplyDeleteSeems to be some dispute about that but in my view sanctions work - to a degree contingent on specific circumstances but they do work.
We're going to make Iran swear that they'll still love us in the morning. :)
ReplyDeleteSanctions do work "up to a point." Where's the "point?" I don' know; maybe we could ask Fidel.
ReplyDeleteIt almost looks as if the Obama team gets credit for shaping the Iranian mess into something more solution-amenable.
ReplyDeleteOr that the Petraeus team is starting to get results.
ReplyDeleteI am astonished by the fulsomeness of the Sanctions Regime they've managed to get other countries to go along with. It's really quite impressive.
ReplyDeletenot sure of your meaning....
Deletefulsome·ness n.
Usage Note: Fulsome is often used to mean "offensively flattering or insincere." But the word is also used, particularly in the expression fulsome praise, to mean simply "abundant," without any implication of excess or insincerity. This usage is etymologically justified but may invite misunderstandings in contexts in which a deprecatory interpretation could be made. The sentence I offer you my most fulsome apologies may raise an eyebrow, where the use of an adjective like full or abundant would leave no room for doubt as to the sincerity of the speaker's intentions.
the sanctions are being watered down to the point of meaningless, thanks to Obama.
if you do not want a hot war with iran, sanctions should have been applied years ago.
this shit has been going on since 1978.
obama is only the latest and most dangerous of the lot.
it will be on his watch that America's enemy, Iran will go hot.
Make the men get a head-to-toe "boyzilian."
ReplyDeleteAmazing things happening outside The Twitter Lounge.
ReplyDeleteTime for ice cream. later. :)
ReplyDeleteSolar activity, which usually runs in 11-year cycles, has been so sluggish of late that space weathermen are worried we might be entering a mini-ice age. They expected to see sunspot activity pick up about last March, to peak in 2012; if the sun stays this sluggish for another year or two, it could trigger a prolonged period of massive snowfall and severe cold across the Northern Hemisphere, Popular Mechanics reports.
ReplyDeleteWe have had the best winter and spring ever. All we need now is some rain,
ReplyDeleteWe're due for a period of low solar activity. We get'em about every thirty or forty years. Pop mech is mostly full of bull.
ReplyDeleteTrees here started to bud around first of April (!!) Some perennials have blossomed as well. The worry is that a late storm/freeze will kill the early growth.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Trump boys: most regulars here know I Bowhunt big game. For the meat, for the opportunity to be outside, and mostly for the sheer pleasure of it and make no other excuses.
ReplyDeleteI don't condone canned hunts or lazy waste nor Anything done outside the game laws. I think the writer of the article is an anti hunter period whether that person is criticizing the Trump boyss or anyone else. I do know about Africa and I can tell you the money those boys spent would not have otherwise gone to that country. If the game they killed had not been preserved for them to kill, those animals would not have existed in the first place due to generations of poaching.
I have been to Africa many times. The local tribes aren't allowed to eat meat of any kind unless it is killed by those who Pay to do it. It is a vicious circle like it or not. And when they do get to eat meat, they are very grateful.
A lot (and, I mean "a lot") of farmers have rolled the dice, and planted really early. If they get "snapped off" it's going to turn a potentially great year into a gut-check.
ReplyDeleteWe get'em about every thirty or forty years.
ReplyDeleteThe sunspot cycle is 11 years.
The local tribes aren't allowed to eat meat of any kind unless it is killed by those who Pay to do it.
Might want to back that up with something. First I've heard of "not allowed."
Rufus - don't those farmers get government compensation when that happens? I know that the North Dakota farmers got compensation when the Red River flooded their crops last year. Two different category of events, but how big really is their risk?
ReplyDeleteThe local tribes aren't allowed to eat meat of any kind unless it is killed by those who Pay to do it.
ReplyDeleteNeed to back that up. First I've heard of "not allowed."
Rufus - the sunspot cycle is 11 years, not 30/40 yrs.
Time for a break. Comments getting chewed up.
ReplyDeleteIt runs about 3 Long Cycles (approx. 12,5 years,) and 3 short cycles (11 yrs,) Max. Sunspot activity doesn't tend to hit as high a peak in the long cycles as in the short cycles. Usually temps tend to drop a bit along about the second long cycle.
ReplyDeleteCrop Insurance doesn't cover "Frost Damage" if they plant before a certain date, Max. For instance, I think it's along about Apr 6 in Central Illinois.
ReplyDeleteThey'll have time to replant, but they'll be starting off the year over a hundred dollars/acre in the hole.
I'm tired of Rufus.
ReplyDeleteHis people were slavers.
Look it up/
Cherokee.
We never had slaves in Idaho.
Gag: mostly for the sheer pleasure of it
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to distract myself from Other Things so I'll break out of mold (this once) and ask a pointed question (no, I'm not baiting a hook, just digging): I can understand the challenge of the hunt, how does the killing fit in? (FWIW I'm ambivalent about the Trump story but not about hanging body parts on the rec room wall. Something about mounting a stuffed head on a wall that works me the wrong way.)
Have at it.
You are a moron Rufus.
ReplyDeleteCrop insurance covers everything, all depending on what you buy.
Free market.
I know, having bought it for years.
Rufus is a moron.
AnonymousApr 14, 2012 07:31 PM
ReplyDeleteYou are a moron Rufus.
Crop insurance covers everything, all depending on what you buy.
Free market.
I know, having bought it for years.
Rufus is a moron.
And the Cherokee were slave holders.
There was never any slavers in Idaho.
That was a Mississippi deal.
The worst we did was not let the Mormons vote, for a very few years.
Rufus is an idiot.
Reply
I guess Mr and Mrs Smith it is, unless I can find something on Netflix.
ReplyDeleteTo be perfectly fair to Rufus, I think, but do not know, that the USDA has cut off date on their policies.
ReplyDeleteThat is not true in the free market up at Nez Perce,
where you can buy anything, three or five day notice, but it can get pricey.
bobbo
To be perfectly fair to Rufus, I think, but do not know, that the USDA has cut off date on their policies.
ReplyDeleteThat is not true in the free market up at Nez Perce,
where you can buy anything, three or five day notice, but it can get pricey.
I know, cause I did it, when I was worried about protecting my bank loan.
bobbo
We were always hoping for the big hail storm, cause then you don't have to cut the crop.
ReplyDeleteThe one time I had hail, we got in a big argument with the insurance guy, that would probably be your Rufus.
He was just doing his job, trying to short the farmer, and I really don't hold it against him.
I hired a lawyer out of Nez Perce, who had been through it twenty times or more, this scam of the insurance companies trying to short the farmer.
After a lot of talking we settled out.