COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
絶妙なクラフ
ReplyDeleteトは、シャネルのハンドバッ
グを作るものすべての女性が欲しがる
であろう所持です
My blog post - アリュール シャネル
You really sell condoms made of hog guts?
DeleteAs a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a
ReplyDeletefuneral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless
man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a
pauper's cemetery in the back country. As I was not familiar
with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a typical man,
I didn't stop for directions.
I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently
gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the
diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch.
I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the
side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in
place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.
The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around.
I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends.
I played like I've never played before for this homeless man.
And as I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept,
I wept, we all wept together. When I finished I packed up my bagpipes
and started for my car.
Though my head hung low, my heart was full.
As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say,
"I never seen nothin' like that before and I've been putting in
septic tanks for twenty years."
Apparently, I'm still lost... It's a man thing.
:)
DeleteGood video!
ReplyDeleteWas able to watch it all.
Excellent discussion! (except Pepe talks too much, and too fast)
I noticed at least two of these gentlemen, and maybe three, supported Bob's Most Excellent Idea of dividing the damn place up if there were to be an intervention.
A Syria of three or four parts, they said.
This really didn't surprise me, as I, while Quirk is walking his dog to the fire hydrant, or driving round and round drinking and 'thinking', or listening to other people's adventures at the mafia barber shop, am in daily discussions with sensible people such as these on the internet.
I noticed also that the idea of a Kurdish area received a lot of support. One fellow said the Kurds there were really nearly an autonomous region already.
DeleteTo anyone who has been around a divorce lawyer much none of this is hard to understand.
The only fellow really knowledgeable about the mid east here at this blog, WiO, has been talking about the Kurds repeatedly, to the benefit of those who actually listen to what he says.
.
DeleteMr. Green Jeans' Divorce Court Rules. Ya'all bring your magic markers.
Pure farce brought to you by the Idaho potato head.
.
MrGreen Jeans' and the quot, avatar by classroom committee, the Knowledgeable ones.
DeleteWants to emulate Churchill, draw some lines, watch the people within them burn.
.
DeleteThe vapid musings of an insipid hick.
Kurdistan, an area not a state, is part of four current sovereign states, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria. It hasn't been a national entity for over 1300 years. Arguing their right to a state on historical grounds is absurd. The Kurds are an ethnic minority but there is little agreement on their history before their being conquered by the Arabs.
To make Kurdistan in toto a new country would require a re-drawn map encroaching on four countries, two purported allies of the U.S. and two puported enemies. Those that argue for a Kurdistan in Syria forget that the suggestion of an independent Kurdistan in Syria would put us at odds if not at war with three other countries in the area. Beyond that it would require that we 'again' pick sides. There are currently three or more groups claiming to respresent the Kurdish independance movement. They hate each other more than they hate the four countries they are fighting.
Yet, it is suggested we merely re-draw the map and all will be well. Easy-peasy.
The fact that the idea is not feasible in the first place and unworkable if it were is one thing. The hutzpah and arrogance incorporated in the notion that the U.S. has the right to dictate to foreign states is beyond belief. The muchkins of OZ supported by the witless sheeple of Idaho.
Lordy.
.
.
DeleteAnd the ultimate response rising from the alfalfa fields of the northwest, "Well, gosh it worked fine when Judge Lynn Toler did it on Divorce Court."
A few 'snap' gestures, a head role, a few jokes, easy-peasy.
.
Benghazi note: Whistleblower Greg Hicks voted for Shillary in the primary, and for Obama twice.
ReplyDeleteFYI:
ReplyDeleteIraqi AQ jihadists have been documented as adding Sarin to IED’s targeting US troops.
This is well documented and proven. It didn't work too well because they did it wrong, which is why the bombs could be inspected.
Al Nustra is aligned with who? That is correct, AQ in Iraq.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4997808/ns/world_news-Mideast_n_africa/t/bomb-said-holddeadly-sarin-gas-explodes-Iraq/
Posted your clip. Thanks
ReplyDeleteSarin, Mustard Gas Discovered Separately in Iraq
ReplyDeletePublished May 17, 2004
FoxNews.com
A roadside bomb containing sarin nerve agent (search) recently exploded near a U.S. military convoy, the U.S. military said Monday.
Bush administration officials told Fox News that mustard gas (search) was also recently discovered.
Two people were treated for "minor exposure" after the sarin incident but no serious injuries were reported. Soldiers transporting the shell for inspection suffered symptoms consistent with low-level chemical exposure, which is what led to the discovery, a U.S. official told Fox News.
"The Iraqi Survey Group confirmed today that a 155-millimeter artillery round containing sarin nerve agent had been found," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt (search), the chief military spokesman in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad. “The round had been rigged as an IED (improvised explosive device) which was discovered by a U.S. force convoy."
The round detonated before it would be rendered inoperable, Kimmitt said, which caused a “very small dispersal of agent."
However, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the results were from a field test, which can be imperfect, and said more analysis was needed. If confirmed, it would be the first finding of a banned weapon upon which the United States based its case for war.
A senior Bush administration official told Fox News that the sarin gas shell is the second chemical weapon discovered recently.
Two weeks ago, U.S. military units discovered mustard gas that was used as part of an IED. Tests conducted by the Iraqi Survey Group (search) — a U.S. organization searching for weapons of mass destruction — and others concluded the mustard gas was "stored improperly," which made the gas "ineffective."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120137,00.html#ixzz2SnQtIk5C
Has that appeared in any of the US media?
ReplyDeleteGreat catch Aquillium!
ReplyDeleteWho are the puppet masters behind this? Who benefits?
ReplyDeleteSyria's main armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), is losing fighters and capabilities to Jabhat al-Nusra, an Islamist organisation with links to al-Qaida that is emerging as the best-equipped, financed and motivated force fighting Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Evidence of the growing strength of al-Nusra, gathered from Guardian interviews with FSA commanders across Syria, underlines the dilemma for the US, Britain and other governments as they ponder the question of arming anti-Assad rebels.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said that if negotiations went ahead between the Syrian government and the opposition – as the US and Russia proposed on Tuesday – "then hopefully [arming the Syrian rebels] would not be necessary".
The agreement between Washington and Moscow creates a problem for the UK and France, which have proposed lifting or amending the EU arms embargo on Syria to help anti-Assad forces. The Foreign Office welcomed the agreement as a "potential step forward" but insisted: "Assad and his close associates have lost all legitimacy. They have no place in the future of Syria." Opposition leaders were sceptical about prospects for talks if Assad remained in power.
Illustrating their plight, FSA commanders say that entire units have gone over to al-Nusra while others have lost a quarter or more of their strength to them recently.
Who is behind and who benefits from destabilizing Syria and the Middle East?
ReplyDeleteUNITED NATIONS - Syria has accused Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar of running military operation centers in Turkey to support the rebels by overseeing battles in Syria’s 17-month conflict.
In a letter to the UN Security Council released on Friday, Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari also again blamed Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia of "harboring, funding and arming the armed terrorist groups."
"Turkey has established within its territory military operations centers that are run by the intelligence services of Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar," Ja'afari wrote in the letter dated Aug. 2.
"Those centers are being used to oversee battles that are being waged by the terrorists against Syrian citizens in Aleppo and other Syrian cities and the massacres the terrorists are perpetrating after entering Syria in large numbers," he said.
.
DeleteNo wonder the best the rebels have been able to accomplish is a draw.
.
: )
DeleteFrom:
ReplyDelete'US, Israel supporting Syrian rebels from Turkey' By REUTERS08/11/2012 00:39
Syrian envoy claims Israel, US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar intelligence running military operation centers in Turkey; used to oversee rebels’ battles.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOf course you should always trust the US Government, an honorable and noble institution.
ReplyDelete(GMT/UTC): 06.05.2013 15:04
The United States says it is doesn't believe the rebels in Syria have used chemical weapons.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that it was more probable that government forces had used such weapons.
"We are highly skeptical of any suggestions or accusations that the opposition used chemical weapons," he said. "We find it highly likely that chemical weapons, if they were in fact used in Syria - and there is certainly evidence that they were - that the Assad regime was responsible."
Carney was speaking on May 6 after an investigator with a UN inquiry said evidence gathered so far suggested the rebels, not the government of Bashar al-Assad, had used such weapons.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, however, distanced itself from the remarks made by Carla Del Ponte to Swiss TV on May 5, saying it had not reached any conclusions yet.
Del Ponte, one of the investigators on the commission, said interviews with victims and doctors treating them indicated the rebels had used sarin gas.
The rebels rejected the claim.
Jay Carney:
ReplyDelete"We are highly skeptical of any suggestions or accusations that the opposition used chemical weapons," he said. “We find it highly likely that chemical weapons, if they were in fact used in Syria - and there is certainly evidence that they were - that the Assad regime was responsible.”
Why would the Assad regime use chemical weapons? Such use would be inviting the United States in and they certainly don't want that.
DeleteI think the idea is bullshit. Maybe Saudi cooked up a small batch and gave it to the rebs to use and then accuse Assad. Maybe this or some other scheme....who knows?
The UN?
hardeharhar
The answer is in Aquillium’s link. Old habits die hard. The evidence of the attempt by the US ,UK, France, Saudis and Israel to manipulate the facts to justify their cynical destabilization is staggering.
ReplyDeleteExactly what do you mean by "destabilization"?
DeleteDo you mean the whole mid-east
At any rate, when was the region stabile?
DeleteWhen ruled by tyrants?
IMO, the only force available for stability in the mid-east is Israel.
It is all about their aggression against Iran.
ReplyDeletehardehar
DeleteBradley Manning stared this war. He touched off the Arab Spring. One of your videos said so.
By the way, in your video, at least two of the experts said Israel was simply defending itself with its air strike against Syria arms being sent to Lebanon.
Why leap to unwarranted conclusions when nobody really knows yet who used sarin, or if anyone actually did use sarin?
DeleteLogically I can't see why Assad would do that. Other than that I've no idea.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete.
DeleteBradley Manning stared this war.
and
A magic marker will end it. [slight paraphrase]
From The Tao of Mr. Green Jeans, first (and only) edition available in the remainder bin of the Captain Kangeroo Book Store and Warming Center at the Inner City Mall in downtown Moscow, Idaho.
.
hardehar
DeleteBradley Manning stared this war. He touched off the Arab spring. One of your videos said so.
By the way, in your video, at least two of the experts said Israel was simply defending itself with its air strike against Syria arms being sent to Lebanon.
I thought RT had no credibility. It certainly is better than “Meet the Press”.
I have said many times, you have to consider all points of view to come up with your own analysis.
Read ALL the reports ..
DeleteThen decide.
Bradley Manning stared this war. - I was 'funning' Quirk
Deleteand
A magic marker will end it. [slight paraphrase] - not slight, quite a paraphrase, totally pulled out of you ass, as usual
>I thought RT had no credibility< - Don't think I ever said it had no credibility. I recall making a statement about RT, but I think it was along the lines of saying one can look until one finds what one wants somewhere. I also recall saying somewhere RT WAS better than some of our outlets. I thought these guys were pretty good. Not one thought there was any 'magic marker' to use to fix things, which, they said again and again, can get A LOT worse. I got the idea most were for the 'just let it play out' plan.
.
DeleteBradley Manning stared this war. - I was 'funning' Quirk
Gee, sorry Bob, my bad.
While I usually don't take much of what you say seriously, sometimes it is difficult to tell when your comments are 'intentionally silly' as opposed to 'just silly'.
:)
.
:)
ReplyDeleteWhere should Tamerlan Tsarnaev be buried?
Cambridge, of course!
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/send_his_body_to_cambridge.html
Unemployment Claims hit 5 year low - 323,000.
ReplyDeleteI think Micky D's, etal, are moving more employees to part-time status. "Don't fire'm, just put'em on part-time."
They've been doing that, trending towards more employees working part time for years.
DeleteI know Walmart has been, knew some folk that worked at the local store. They all were initially cut to 32 hours a week.
they were making between $8 and $12 an hour. Single mothers and kids, mostly. Most of the single mothers were kids, come to think of it. Those that were not kids, managed the registers, checkout lines and customer service.
The salaried managers worked about 60 hours a week, or so they said.
(Reuters) - A Philadelphia jury started its eighth day of deliberations on Thursday in the murder trial of a doctor accused of killing babies and a patient during late-term ...
ReplyDeleteSome one wrote that if what occurred at that clinic was not murder, nothing was...
Eight days in, someone, at least one person, on the jury does not think it murder.
If the jury hangs, a mistrial occurs, will the government prosecute again?
I've wondered about the composition of that jury.
DeleteMaybe they are sitting around trying to decide when life begins.
>If the jury hangs, a mistrial occurs, will the government prosecute again? <
Have wondered about that, too. If we get a hung jury with Zimmerman, what will the government do?
Federal, State or Local?
DeleteThe Federals will charge him with a Civil Rights violation.
The State ... Not sure they have any jurisdiction.
The Locals, who knows, guess it would depend, in both cases, on how the jury "breaks".
ReplyDeleteWashington — The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control — and, if necessary, launch — nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a remarkably dim review of their unit's launch skills. The group's deputy commander said it is suffering "rot" within its ranks.
"We are, in fact, in a crisis right now," the commander, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email obtained by the Associated Press and confirmed by the Air Force.
Asked about this at a Senate hearing Wednesday, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, the service's top official, explained the problem by stressing that launch control officers are relatively junior in rank — lieutenants and captains — and need to be reminded continually of the importance of "this awesome responsibility" for which they have been trained.
What is more dangerous ..
DeleteAn incompetent captain with access to the nuclear launch codes or a PFC with top secret clearance and e-mail access?
How many of PFC Mannings' superiors were relieved?
DeleteI'm extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it's rare to see a nice blog like this one today.
ReplyDeleteHere is my blog post http://www.mknet360.com/wiki/index.php?title=Usuario:JamaalCha
Sunny Wins Video Contest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I knew she would)
ReplyDeletehttp://houseofsunny.tv/2013/05/09/house-of-sunny-wins-video-contest/
Yeayeayeayeayeayea.....
.
ReplyDeleteTelling. I went to the NYT online homepage and there wasn't a word about the Congressional hearings on Benghazi.
.
Are many organizations putting info on those congressional hearings on their homepages? I really don't think most Americans give a shit other than those out to play 'gotcha'.
Delete.
DeleteYou would do well here, Ash. You would fit in comfortably with the sheeple, more interested in reality TV than in what your country is doing across the globe.
Gee, should I worry about four Americans killed by terrorists 8 months ago and the cover-up that followed or instead concentrate on whether to get the wife roses or carnations for Mother's Day? It's a toughy.
.
.
welcome to America!
Delete.
DeleteYes. 'God Bless America'
and
'God Help Canada.'
.
.
ReplyDeletePreviously, I had said that Hillary was a 'slam dunk' to win if she ran for the presidency in 2016.
Now, I'm not quite as positive. At a minimum, her part in the Benghazi affair as well as her video where she asks "What does it matter now? will fill up a lot of negative ads.
.
.
ReplyDeleteFrom Swanpland
Still, despite repeated discussion about what Clinton knew and when she knew it, no smoking gun emerged from Wednesday’s hearing, leading one Congressional Democrat to dismiss questions about her role as a “witch hunt.”
Unfortunate wording coming from a democrat.
.
heheheheheh :)
DeleteThe ass stabbers step in.
ReplyDeleteTurkey’s prime minister is charging that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its people and has called on the U.S. to take stronger action, he told NBC News' Ann Curry in an exclusive interview Thursday.
“It is clear the regime has used chemical weapons and missiles," Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Erdogan gave no specifics about when and where the weapons were allegedly used, but he said he believes President Obama’s "red line" for the U.S. in deciding whether to take action has been crossed.
“It has been passed long time ago," said Erdogan, who is meeting with Obama on May 16.
"We want the United States to assume more responsibilities and take further steps. And what sort of steps they will take, we are going to talk about this.”
US asks Russians not to sell defensive ground to air missiles to Syria. US does not want the Syrians to harm Israeli planes during Israeli attacks on Syria.
ReplyDeleteROME — The United States opposes the sale of advanced surface-to-air missiles to Syrian government forces, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Thursday, calling such weapons a potential threat to U.S. ally Israel.
“We’ve made it crystal clear that we prefer that Russia would not supply them assistance,” Kerry said during a news conference with Italy’s new top diplomat. “That is on record. That has not changed.”
Kerry declined to denounce the reported agreement between Russia and Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad directly, but his warning to Russia was unmistakable.
The United States has long said that the proliferation of surface-to-air missiles “is potentially destabilizing with respect to the state of Israel,” Kerry said. “We have made it very clear historically that that is a concern of the United States.”
In Washington, officials echoed the concerns about any transfer of weaponry to Syria.
“The United States has consistently called on Russia to cut off the Assad regime’s supply of Russian weapons, including air-defense systems that are destabilizing to the region,” Defense Department spokesman George Little said.
Russia has long supplied Assad’s forces, but the potential sale of antiaircraft weapons reported Thursday by the Wall Street Journal threatens to undermine the agreement Kerry won in Moscow this week to press jointly for peace talks between Assad and his U.S.-backed opponents.
Kerry also declined to draw a comparison between the military aid coming from Moscow with what has, until now, been the U.S. choice to send only humanitarian and nonmilitary aid. President Obama is considering reversing that decision and beginning to arm the Syrian rebels, as some Arab states are doing.
.
DeleteAir-defense systems that are destabilizing the regions?
More oxymorons from the oxymoron-in-chief.
.
.
DeleteAir-defense systems that are threatening Israel? Logically, one must assume that by providing Patriot Missiles, the U.S. is threatening everyone in the region.
.
Quirk,
Deletetry learning about the air defense system in question before spouting off.
.
DeleteSorry, WiO, I just assumed that since these surface to air systems were identified by our SOS as air-defense systems that they were designed to take down air planes that were attacking you.
.
.
DeleteAlso, I thought spouting off is what we do here.
.
ah...
DeleteS-300's are a game changer.
.
DeleteHell, what aren't these days. Some would say bunker buster bombs and F35's are game changers.
.
It is only a game changer if the game is to attack another country with impunity. How rude of those Syrians to object to the Israelis killing their people.
DeleteIt seems like a perfectly reasonable position.
ReplyDeleteHow do you do that with a straight face?
ReplyDeleteDid you know who have to be 'death qualified' to sit on the Arias jury?
ReplyDeleteNever heard of that before, 'death qualified'.
You have to state under oath that you could vote for the death penalty.
This seems to me to water down the meaning of 'a jury of one's peers' as there are plenty of people out there opposed to the death penalty under any circumstances. They are peers too.
I think Arias was badly served by her lawyer. Instead of claiming self defense, they should have pled crime of passion. Which it seems to me like it was, 27 knife wounds, 1 bullet, 1 slit throat, ear to ear.
The guy had dumped her, and she was pissed.
I have not heard that she had any prior problems with the law.
What is this but a crime of passion?
It seems like a one time thing.
She might have gotten off with 25 years or something.
Now it's life, or death.
This Castro fellow deserves the death penalty. Not nearly as certain about Arias.
And I realize there was an element of premeditation. Yet and all.......
DeleteAlso I think a convicted defendant, as in her case, ought to have the option of choosing the death penalty instead of life. Along with being high minded, it might save the tax payers a lot of money, and would free up prison space.
Delete.
DeleteAnd I realize there was an element of premeditation. Yet and all.......
Good lord, Bob, you continue to amaze.
I think Arias was badly served by her lawyer. Instead of claiming self defense, they should have pled crime of passion. Which it seems to me like it was, 27 knife wounds, 1 bullet, 1 slit throat, ear to ear.
Premeditation? Hell, she needed a checklist and likely had to stop for lunch.
You are precious.
:)
.
I get it that your understanding of the law is precarious at best, except for the laws on petty theft and minor frauds, and over drafted checks.
DeleteAnd does not this -
27 knife wounds, 1 bullet, 1 slit throat, ear to ear<
...indicate passion?
And what do you call this?
I know you are rather passionless, always criticizing others for not doing anything, while you sit on your rear end and moan, and are unlikely to be involved in a crime of passion yourself, but there is such a thing and she has no other run ins with the law of which I have heard.
All crimes involve the forming of an intent and a plan, however briefly held. Her passion drove her to do the things she did do.
I hear on Fox all sorts of opinions about how she ought to be left to rot, if that is what she fears most. This is disgusting IMO.
This is low minded. She ought to have the option in my opinion. If she really wants to die, and it is hard to tell, and it may be momentary, she should be granted her wish, after maybe a year to think about it. That is high minded. Otherwise, it is the warehouse.
She was poorly represented by her lawyer.
.
DeleteAnd does not this -
27 knife wounds, 1 bullet, 1 slit throat, ear to ear<
...indicate passion?
To me it indicates she came prepared and had an awful lot of time on her hands; and, just possibly, that it was the wrong time of the month.
.
.
DeleteThat is high minded.
:)
Stop it, you're killing me.
:)
.
Fannie Mae to pay Fed $59.4 Billion. Freddie Mac is paying up, also. Way above expectations. Take all "projections" with a truckload of salt.
ReplyDeleteBig-time profits
.
DeleteIt seems easy to make a profit when you get money for nothing and the chicks are free.
Likewise, being able to bring forward all your reported losses from the beginning of the crisis doesn't hurt.
.
Oh, yeah, no argument about all that. Not making a case "for, or agin" the GSEs. Not trying to pretend that what we really have is a "strong" economy.
DeleteJust a recognition that there are a few good things lurking out there, and that, although we'll all most likely end up in hell, eventually, we might have a few sunny days before we get there. :)
.
DeleteWell at least we might finally meet.
:)
.
(1) Career diplomat Gregory Hicks was ordered not to cooperate with Congressional investigators by Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff, a move that he said was unprecedented over 22 years of service.
ReplyDelete(2) Hicks went from hero to “effectively demoted” pariah once he started raising objections to the administration’s patently false talking points.
(3) Sec. Clinton was personally informed that the assault was a terrorist attack as it unfolded. The YouTube video tale was a complete red herring, and a “non-event” in Libya. And top administration figures knew it — days before Sec. Rice’s infamous talk show rounds.
XXXXXXXX(4) A small American fighting force in Tripoli was twice ordered to stand down as they prepared to deploy to Benghazi during the eight-hour attack. Who grounded them, and why, remain mysteries.
(5) The State Department’s chief of security in Libya, Eric Nordstrom, testified that Sec. Clinton was “absolutely” aware of his team’s repeated requests for more security assets in the months leading up to the attack, all of which were denied.XXXXXXXXXX
(6) Amb. Chris Stevens was in Benghazi on 9/11 at Clinton’s behest; she wanted to make the Benghazi compound a permanent diplomatic post.
(7) Some of the Libyan guards at the consulate were “certainly complicit” in the attack.
(8) Amb. Stevens was dragged to a hospital under the control of Ansar al-Sharia, the radical Islamist group primarily responsible for the attacks. US officials didn’t go to retrieve him because they believed they’d be walking into a trap.
(9) The US government didn’t request permission to fly any aircraft into Libyan airspace during the attack, perhaps suggesting that no rescue mission was ever seriously considered, let alone triggered.
(10) It was (again) definitively established that budget shortfalls had absolutely nothing to do with the lax security situation on the ground in Libya, despite claims from committee Democrats.
(11) Whistle-blower Mark Thompson offered to testify before the administration’s internal (ARB) investigation, but was not invited to do so. The leaders of the ARB were invited to participate in House hearings, but they declined. Committee Democrats asserted the opposite of the truth in both cases.
(12) Two whistle-blowers responded to Sec. Clinton’s infamous question about the administration’s bogus talking points, “what difference does it make?”
Damning Dozen: Yesterday’s Benghazi revelations
posted at 1:12 pm on May 9, 2013 by Guy Benson
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2013/05/09/damning-dozen-yesterdays-benghazi-revelations/
Read #4 and #5, Rufus, and try to c o n c e n t r a t e.
Tripoli to Benghazi - one hour or less.
DeleteSacrificed to a campaign slogan.
Who ordered them to stand down?
DeleteWhat if Chelsea Clinton had been visiting Ambassador Stevens?
Would there have been a stand down then?
Read the following sentence, Bob; and try to concentrate.
DeleteNobody cares.
Flying into a hot LZ, without air support to provide suppressive fire, suicide.
DeleteUse your memory, go to Afpakistan and recall Seal Team 6 being shot to pieces, in their helicopter, going into a hot LZ to support ground troops in contact with the enemy.
Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite unit as the Navy SEALs who killed former Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden, U.S. officials said Saturday. It was the deadliest single loss for American forces in the decade-old war against the Taliban.
One current and one former U.S. official said that the dead included 25 Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six, the unit that carried out the raid in Pakistan in May that killed bin Laden. They were being flown by a crew of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because families are still being notified.
A total number of 38 people died in the crash, killing 7 Afghans and one interpreter.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/06/afghan-president-31-americans-killed-in-helicopter-crash/#ixzz2SpykZm34
A "firefight" in an Urban neighborhood - a death trap for helicopter insertions.
DeleteA snap decision to insert a "handful" of rescuers into such a scenario? Out of the question.
.
DeleteIf you saw the testimony from the three guys who testified yesterday, it was clear that they (and it should now be clear to everyone) now know ecactly where they stand. If you are a diplomat who is sent into a location, even one designated hi-risk as both Tripoli and Benghazi were, and the world suddenly goes to shit, you are on your own.
All three witnesses testified to the same thing.
.
Those folks are well outside the wire.
DeleteSome things are just the way they are.
Transport helicopters are not well suited for close quarter combat
Recall Blackhawk down in Somalia.
Sometimes it just happens that there ain't much anyone can really do.
.
Delete"Nobody cares."
"I really don't think most Americans give a shit other than those out to play 'gotcha'."
"What difference does it make..."
Yep, that about says it all.
.
Why do helicopters keep coming up? What was needed was a C-130 gunship, or some jets. It wasn't Somalia. It was a limited local contained action. A fly-by even might have scared them away. After all, Woods and the other guy fought for a long time against overwhelming odds before they died.
Delete.
DeleteThe hearing yesterday gave the perspective from the people on the ground in both Tripoli and Benghazi rather than from the political appointees and generals thousands of miles away from the scene. There were a few new things added but not a lot. It merely confirmed the gigantic clusterfuck that was Benghazi.
Issa has indicated the hearings will continue. Future hearings will center on at least three main areas.
1. The security status of both the Tripoli and Benghazi facilities at the time of the attack. Who was responsible for that security status. What was the reason the security situation at both facilities didn't meet the standards demanded by law for hi-risk locations.
2. Who did what during the attack? Who was in the loop and when? What support was or was not provided and why?
3. Was there a political cover-up after the attack. If so who was involved. How high up did it go?
It's highly unlikely there will be any legal ramifications coming out of any of these hearings. There is no law against being incompetent or a political hack. The only ones likely to suffer are the whistleblowers.
The political ramifications are hard to judge at this point. Normally, we could say that there probably wouldn't be any; however, the atmosphere has changed a little recently. One, the GOP seems energized by the latest hearing and are likely to push this investigation as far as they can. Two, the IG at State is now investigating the Clinton appointed ARB board to see if it actually questioned the appropriate witnesses in the affair. And in a timeline scheduled for publication May 13, The Weekly Standard, will outline how Deputy CIA Director Mike Morrell cut or changed four of the six paragraphs - removing 148 of the 248 words - in a classified assessment of what happened in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.
Interesting stuff. Well, at least to some of us.
But of course in the land of the sheeple what difference does it make, no one really cares.
.
Delete>Rufus IIThu May 09, 06:08:00 PM EDT
Read the following sentence, Bob; and try to concentrate.
Nobody cares.<
No, lots of people care.
It's old men like you who have become sickened unto death that don't.
the 10-page report began by questioning the "widespread assumption" that the Bible supports a Jewish state because that "raises an increasing number of difficulties and current Israeli policies regarding the Palestinians have sharpened this questioning".
ReplyDeleteIt asks whether "the Jewish people today [would] have a fairer claim to the land if they dealt justly with the Palestinians?" and suggests some Jews believe they have a right to the land of Israel "as compensation for the suffering of the Holocaust".
It concludes: "From this examination of the various views in the Bible about the relation of land to the people of God, it can be concluded that Christians should not be supporting any claims by Jewish or any other people to an exclusive or even privileged divine right to possess particular territory.
"It is a misuse of the Bible to use it as a topographic guide to settle contemporary conflicts over land."
But of course the Bible supports a Jewish state, nincompoop. What else would it do? It is of course written from that point of view.
DeleteThe Koran supports killing all the Jews, even the ones hiding behind that tree over there. What else would it do? It is written from that point of view.
The point of view of the subordination of women, and all 'unbelievers'. ((((The point of view that wants to Impose Itself On The Entire World.)))) On you too, Anon. That is what it is, a male supremacist arab supremacist tract that gives green light to all sorts of wickedness.
That is what it is.
Someone is buying electric cars.
ReplyDeleteThey just have to be good cars.
May 9 (Bloomberg) -- Tesla Motors Inc., the maker of electric cars run by billionaire Elon Musk, surged 24 percent after posting a first profit, beating estimates and earning a top evaluation for its Model S sedan from Consumer Reports.
Tesla reached $69.40 at the close in New York. Its market capitalization totaled $8 billion, exceeding the $7.8 billion for Turin, Italy-based Fiat SpA, the majority owner of Chrysler Group LLC.
First-quarter net income totaled $11.2 million from a loss of $89.9 million a year earlier, Palo Alto, California-based Tesla said in a statement on its website yesterday. Excluding some items, the profit was 12 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of 76 cents. The average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for a profit of 4 cents.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Tesla-Surges-to-More-Than-Fiat-Value-After-4503669.php#ixzz2SpwKoWHE
.
DeleteNice car.
If you've got $100k to spend on it.
.
Wife drove in to the library, came back with 'Detroit: An Autopsy' by one Charlie LeDuff. Fact filled fun tour of a horror show. Half way through now, she has been sitting there astounded all afternoon.
ReplyDeletePlace has been run by Ruf's Democrats for decades.
She described it to me as a graveyard without ghosts, or some such phrase. A graveyard with walking zombies but no ghosts, something like that.
She couldn't believe it. When she's done, I'll take a read of it myself, try to find the worst thing about Detroit, and report.
Put into some kind of receivership by the State Legislature now, I believe.
DeleteUnable to govern themselves after long decades of not trying, they have an overseer.
That's Ruf's Democrats.
Unable to govern themselves, always whining about how unfair everything is, always stealing from the City Treasury and milking funds from the Feds, that is the Rufus Democrats governing of Detroit, Michigan.
They got so good at it they finally thought it normal.
Our great Community Organizer in Chief, President Obama, should concentrate on Detroit - he can fix it if anybody can! hooray! - instead of letting our people die for his campaign slogan, and generally mucking around in the middle east, supporting whatever sunni happens by.
Ruf's contribution to a solution is to legalize heroine and crack and sell the drugs to the folks through the drive in windows at the pharmacies.
Delete