WASHINGTON -- Even Medea Benjamin was surprised she managed to get into President Barack Obama's major national security address at National Defense University on Thursday. The long-time Code Pink protestor (and HuffPost blogger) is a fixture on Capitol Hill and well known to most D.C. reporters.
"I had my head down for about two hours and was talking on the phone for about two hours. I tried to be inconspicuous. I think sometimes I must be invisible," Benjamin said. "There were a couple of journalists that came over to talk to me, but that's about it."
Benjamin, 60, was escorted out of the the hall after she repeatedly interrupted Obama's address, pressing the president on the use of drone strikes overseas, including the killing of a 16-year-old U.S. citizen.
In an interview with The Huffington Post afterward, at a Starbucks near National Defense University, Benjamin said someone had given her an invite to the speech.
"I had an invitation, somebody gave me an invitation who I'm not at liberty to disclose," Benjamin said, calling her protest "epic" when compared to her other demonstrations.
Benjamin was wearing a pink belt and a pink watch and even drove onto the military base in a car with a Code Pink bumper sticker. While several reporters knew and recognized her as they waited to pass through security, the event's organizers evidently didn't. (One photographer said Benjamin's badge indicated her first name was Susan, her given name.)
"To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to do anything," Benjamin recalled. "I was prepared if I wanted to, but I thought there might be some real significant things that came out of this, and I thought, well, I'm not going to say anything if it's a really good speech."
Benjamin said she was led out of the room and questioned by on-site Army personnel, as well as Secret Service and FBI agents, before she was let go.
"I was very forthcoming, gave my name, Social Security number, address and everything. They asked me what my motives were and I explained it all," she said. “It was very strange because I think when it’s the president ... they are oftentimes embarrassed to then have the media attention be that they arrested somebody for speaking out.”
Interesting, the woman was required to give her social security number for challenging Obama’s scripted speech, a lot more information than required from the voters that elected Obama.
Previous to this post of Obama being heckled while he read a speech from a teleprompter, a speech written for him, we had a post of an obviously intelligent man talking without notes making more sense than anything said by Obama.
Both videos were about drones.
Obama’s drones in the audience applauded to drown out the truth being told by heckler Benjamin.
The Chomsky post was heckled and interrupted by our own drones.
Deuce, if you would put up someone(s) a little more >>sane<< to make your points, it would help.
I could offer you some alternative names if you asked me to do so, but probably would decline.
Your sources are so outrageous, it makes it easy to debunk.
If a man has denied the Cambodian slaughter, questions Nazi Holocaust, the Communist genocides, the "peaceful" intentions of Hezbollah, and the alleged "war criminality" of every American president in recent memory, why should anyone listen to him about drones?
A man can be many things, I've always said, 'the world's greatest linguist' and a total fool.
Find better sources, then the duopoly of desertification of reason will be challenged and won't be so quick to hoot. It is awfully hard not to hoot when the ball drifts over the plate like that.
Put up a credible source, the hooting stops.
I have, by the way, seen both you and Quirk hoot an incredible source as well.
Americans building more settlements in all 50 states. Indigenous Americans say this is not helpful for peace and will respond.
Israel and the American Indians
A new connection was forged between Israel and American Indians.
Anne Richardson is the Chief of the Rappahannock Indians of Virginia. “…she has worked for the past ten years ministering reconciliation to tribal nations in America and established Restoring Nations International Ministries in 2007, teaching reconciliation, redemption and healing of land to indigenous people. This year, the Department of Labor gave her the ‘Chiefs Award,’ its highest, for her leadership and advocacy for the rights of Native Americans.”
“In 2006, Chief Anne Richardson renewed the covenant with the Queen of England. In 2005 she presented President Bush with a ‘Proclamation of Forgiveness’. She also presented him with a ‘Never Again’ pin asking him to always stand to ensure a holocaust would never again take place in America or in Israel.”
Now Chief Anne Richardson is coming to Israel, to present “…Minister Landau with a Native American headdress and a Declaration of Alliance signed by the Chief and her Tribal Council as a symbol of their covenant with Israel. The Chief will be bringing a message of support and solidarity to the State and people of Israel, while Minister Landau will be conveying the warm support of Israel with a message of hope and continuity.”
"’We love Israel and want to show your people the solidarity that we as Native Americans have with you’ says Chief Anne Richardson. Government Minister of National Infrastructure Dr. Uzi Landau, known as being deeply invested in reconnecting the people of Israel to the land of Israel, sees a natural parallel with the Native American peoples.” (www.imra.org.il, 10/1).
Palestinian Arabs have likened themselves to the American Indians, but the Palestinian Jews were in the situation that the Indians found themselves. Both Jews and Indians were the aboriginals conquered by foreign settlers, deprived of their rights, and suffered mass murder.
RAWABI, West Bank (May 17) -- While the building of Jewish settlements in contested east Jerusalem draws international controversy, bulldozers are hard at work clearing land for the first Palestinian planned city in the West Bank.
If entrepreneur Bashar al-Masri has his way, the first residents of his ambitious development will be moving in two years from now.
"I see this as helping to build Palestine," said George Rafidi, sales manager for the project, which plans for a population of 40,000 Palestinians living in 23 neighborhoods and served by a large town center with restaurants, shops, mosques, a church, schools and even a hotel.
Majdi Mohammed, AP A Palestinian surveyor works at the site where the first Palestinian planned city will be built in the West Bank.
"On a clear day you can see the high-rises of Tel Aviv from here," Rafidi added as a reminder of just how small the area of Israel and the West Bank are. The new town is about 12 miles north of Jerusalem, near the Palestinian Birzeit University.
so arabs building settlements on disputed lands is ok...
After taking control of the area, in 1967, and after building hundreds of thousands of homes for Euroeon immigrants, the Israeli have broken grown on a Arab settlement, in the illegally annexed portion of Palestine they captured in combat...
We should celebrate, according to quot, that the Israeli have broken ground on the first new legally authorized Arab home built in the potion of Palestine the Israeli illegally occupy and contol in 46 years...
Celebrate, celebrate, let's all dance to the music!
We entered a new era, sorry, but the door to Israeli territorial expansionism by military force to gain Lebensraum, is no longer an excepted practice in the modern whirled.
I know you disagree, but Hitler was wrong. Decidedly so.
BELLINGHAM -- Washington State Patrol Trooper Mark Francis confirmed late Thursday afternoon, May 23, that the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Burlington has collapsed.
Francis posted on his Twitter account at 7:19 p.m. "I don't have much info. N/B and S/B lanes of I-5 Skagit River Bridge collapsed. People and cars in water. I'm very far away. Will update."
Not to worry, Obama has requested an additional 450 million dollars for gitmo.
In London as in Boston, terrorist-killers were known to security services
The two Islamist terrorists who hacked a British soldier to death on a London street Wednesday, May 22, chanting Allahu Akbar, were born in Britain of Nigerian descent and known to British security authorities. Motivated by revenge for Muslem deaths in Afghanistan, they selected as their victim a soldier from the Woolwich barracks who had served there. One of the terrorists was identified as Michael Adebolajo, 28, a convert to Islam and self-styled Muslim preacher from a street stand, from which he handed out leaflets condemning the British government and troops fighting in Muslim lands. His stand was located in the southeastern London suburb of Woolwich, not far from the Royal Artillery barracks near which he committed his savage murder. Adelbolajo’s crime was long planned. He spent time watching the soldiers coming and going around the barracks. He may even have singled out his victim from a chance acquaintance.
But Israeli settlements are the real reason for the violence.
Syrian rebels: We downed Iranian plane landing in Damascus DEBKAfile May 24, 2013, 12:52 PM (GMT+02:00) Syrian rebels claimed to have downed an Iranian plane landing at Damascus airport Thursday and suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition for the Syrian army. They released a video they said showed the plane crashing and exploding upon landing after being hit by an anti-aircraft weapon. The claim denied by Syrian state media could not be independently verified.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has added to his pre-negotiations demands. After telling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to choose “between peace and settlements,” he has reiterated his demand for a full construction freeze, but has added demands that Israel release terrorists and add arms to the PA police force.
“We recently told them that if Israel accepted to free prisoners and allow us to re-arm the police then we would again sit at the same table as Netanyahu,” Abbas said at a press conference in France.
Abbas also defended his demand for a complete construction freeze, saying it was not a true precondition. Most of the world considers Israeli construction in Judea (Yehuda) and Samaria (Shomron) illegal, he said.
If his demands are met, the path to true negotiations is not yet over. “If Mr. Netanyahu agrees…. Then we will establish a dialogue, but that doesn’t mean a negotiation,” Abbas clarified.
Israeli spokesman Mark Regev said in response, “Israel remains ready for the immediate resumption of peace talks without any preconditions.”
Israel's illegal occupation of a portion of Palestine where the Israeli are not the sovereign polity, that is the issue. Not whether there are homes built on that land that is illegally occupied by the Europeon settlers.
Those homes will either be used by the true sovereign polity of that portion of Palestine, or destroyed.
If the US were end the subsidies to the Israeli, what lands they stole, would not matter to me. But that they defile Palestine and Palestinians, with the support of the United States, well ... of course the vilification of the Israeli is required, to end those subsidies and to make Israel truly sovereign.
Let Israel be the legend it is, in quot's mind, without US financial support.
To end the illegal activites done in the name of the United States,
ISRAEL FIGHTS CANCER: An Exclusive Report by United with Israel
Dr. Lior Carmon at Vaxil's lab in Nes Ziona, Israel (Nes Ziona, ISRAEL) An Israeli company is developing a new cancer drug which aims to stop cancer from coming back. Every year millions of people are diagnosed with cancer worldwide. Although modern medicine has made huge progress in treating this disease, what often happens is that the cancer is treated and the patient goes into remission or is even “cured” – but then it becomes a waiting game to see if the cancer comes back.
Imagine if there was a new treatment option that would stop cancer from returning! An Israeli medical team is attempting to do just that, to offer a new treatment with the potential for long-term maintenance – to stop the cancer from coming back. Vaxil is a clinical stage biotechnology company based in Israel which develops therapeutic vaccines to treat cancer and infectious diseases. Therapeutic vaccines seek to harness the patient’s immune system to attack and destroy cancer cells. The therapeutic vaccine educates the immune system to seek out and destroy those cells which display cancer “markers” and to leave the healthy cells untouched. This means that the treatment has very few side effects, unlike other conventional treatments. This safety profile also means that it is suitable for long-term maintenance therapy. Vaxil’s lead product, ImMucin, aims to teach the immune system of the cancer patient to attack those cancer cells which display the protein “MUC1″. Since MUC1 appears on 90% of all cancer cellss, ImMucin has a potentially broad application to many different strands of cancer such as lung, breast, kidney, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic and colon cancer – and even to hematological cancers such as leukemia, lymphomas and myeloma. ImMucin is currently being evaluated in a Phase I/II clinical trial in patients with Multiple Myeloma (a blood cancer). All patients enrolled are in a stage process whereby the disease is coming back after a period of remission. The clinical trial is being conducted at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem and at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
In English, Hebrew or any other language, no word evokes more fear than “cancer.” More than half a million Americans now die from the disease in a typical year, and more than one in three will develop the disease during their lifetimes. And yet we hear that there is hope, that cancer is no longer a death sentence, that it can be beaten or lived with. That hope continues to grow as experts around the world use new tools to trace cancer’s origins and develop plans of attack. Scientists at the Technion representing traditional fields of medicine such as chemistry and biology, as well as diverse new specialties including genetics, nanotechnology and bioengineering see cancer research as one of the institute’s leading missions. The Technion’s David and Janet Polak Center for Cancer Research and Vascular Biology and the recently launched Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering, bring together the best minds from diverse fields in the quest for successful treatments. Major Breakthroughs
At the Technion Faculty of Medicine and many other departments, this commitment to the fight against cancer has produced notable advances in our understanding of how the human body stays healthy and how this process breaks down. Why does previously normal cell division begin to rage out of control, and how can the resulting invasion of deadly cancer cells can be defeated? Here are three pioneering lines of research where Technion scientists are leading the way:
1) Ubiquitin and You While most researchers were focusing on how living beings build up proteins, Nobel Laureates and Technion Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover decided to swim against the tide. They looked instead at the flip side of the process: how the body destroys proteins that are no longer useful.
Professors Hershko and Ciechanover And in doing so, as Prof. Ciechanover puts it, “We discovered the process by which the body exercises quality control.” It is a crucial quality control process that when running smoothly keeps the body healthy, but when gone awry can lead to cancer. Specifically, the pair discovered a molecule they called ubiquitin, which fastens to a protein, signals that it is to be destroyed and accompanies it to a kind of cellular waste-disposal unit. Profs. Hershko and Ciechanover, along with Dr. Irwin Rose of the University of California-Irvine, won the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry for shining this spotlight on how cells clean house. It’s the first time an Israeli has ever been awarded the Nobel Prize in science - but far more important is the hope their discovery has raised in the fight against cancer. Thanks to their work, the Nobel committee explained, "it is now possible to understand at the molecular level how the cell controls a number of central processes by breaking down certain proteins and not others. Examples of processes governed by ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation are cell division, DNA repair, quality control of newly-produced proteins, and important parts of the immune defense. When the degradation does not work correctly, we fall ill." Shedding new light on the body’s failure to destroy certain tumor formations, the researchers' ubiquitin breakthrough has inspired a flood of follow-up activity in the world of science, with thousands of scholarly publications and hundreds of research groups around the world conducting related studies. The cancer drug Velcade, already in use, is based on the ubiquitin discoveries, and many other drugs that harness the protein-destroying process are in development.
Keeping Israel secure against the dozens of nations that seek it's erasure allow Israel to invest in science and technologies that help save millions of lives across the world.
Palestinian Israelis/Jews have successfully defeated the Palestinian Arabs and their 20 arab nations and now the Palestinian Arabs are pissed that they lost the war (even with dozens of nations supporting them). Now as losers of the civil war the cling to areas that the Palestinian jews refuse to liberate.
Hence the term "toilet bowl territories" this accurately describing the palestinian arabs held lands.
As General Bunk has described the conflict in the lands of Palestine as a "civil war" this begs the question....
If this is a civil war then Israel cannot be a "european colony" as it's a war between to groups of indigenous peoples.
Palestinian Arabs, which were never called "palestinians" before 1948 and the Jews, which had been called "palestinians" for almost 1900 years.
The arabs? johnny come lately to the area from other occupied arab controlled lands which surrounded the Jewish homeland came in high numbers in the late 1800's seeking employment from the Jews.
So here we have it.
Civil war.
No european colony.
Just one land two warring peoples.
One side? The Jews, have an open society that allow people of any background to be citizens. The other the Arabs, now called "palestinians" who demand a state of their own and refuse any Jew the right to live any where in it's control.
The US Civil War was largely fought with Irish immigrants, drafted directly off the boats in NYCity.
It is not only the indigenous populations fighting a civil war, as in Texas, one group was majority US immigrant, the other the Mexican Federal Government.
Yes, the Civil War in Palestine could well be compared to Texas. Where immigrants tried to impose a culture of slavery upon a previously "Free" country. In Palestine the Israeli immigrants have imposed a type of apartheid, rather than slavery, upon those they find inferior.
But in both cases on side of the civil war was mostly immigrants, fighting the previous polity in possession.
In Palestine, when the British left, the rivals starting dukin' it out. There was a settlement. Each side went to their corner.
Then the Europeon immigrants went and stole the other fellas stool.
May 24, 2013 The Legality of Israeli Settlements By Michael Curtis
>>>The question of whether Israeli settlements are immoral or politically unwise or present an obstacle to any peace process is arguable. However, what has been most important for many in the international community is the illegality of the settlements according to international law. About this, two things can be said. One is that it should be recognized at the outset that the whole issue is not really one of legality but is a crucial part of political factors: the territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and other Arabs over areas to which both parties make claims; the question of who has legitimate sovereignty over the territory; a Palestinian state; and the desire of Israel for security. The other is that there is no clear universally accepted international law on the question of the settlements.<<<
Then post the specific posts, of which you of course already looked up so you can make that accusation so you then can provide it, proving to all what a great memory you have even though you looked up a quote to ref to...
We had a long discussion, in November of 2008, about the racist remarks boobie had made. Does not take much of a memory to remember really outlandish statements. He went into the corner, dunce cap upon his head.
boobie, AM thinker is NOT a credible source. In fact the site lacks credibility. If you are really interested about the issue take a look, for starters, at Wiki. There you can get a 'middle of the road' primer complete with references that you can then follow up with.
Maybe, just maybe, after some honest research, you might make a statement on the matter that isn't your usual meaningless regurgitated drivel.
From the first paragraph at wiki (check out the sources if you dare):
"The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal under international law,[1][2][3][4][5] but Israel maintains that they are consistent with international law[6] because it does not agree that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the territories occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War, due to lack of a legal sovereign of these territories.[7] The United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Court of Justice and the High Contracting Parties to the Convention have all affirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention does apply.[8][9]"
I refuse to argue the legal standing of opinions of Wiki.
I will stand by Israel's legal team's statements as to the LEGALITY of building in disputed territories as per the LEGAL status of said lands in the League of Nations and the UN resolutions.
But I dont pretend to be a lawyer, nor do I cite wiki for LEGAL opinions.
But I dont "parrot" israeli policy unless you concede that everyone else "parrots" everyone else.
Now if you asked me do I think the international RED CROSS is anti-Semitic? Yep...
Do I think the UN, since the 1970's is anti-Semitic? YEP
Do I think the international attempt to de-ligitmize Israel is based on anti-semitism? YEP.
And why would I think that?
Well the UN human rights commission has ONLY Israel singled out as a permanent issue to be addressed. Not Tibet, Nigeria, Iran or any one of dozens of other nations that murder, use rape and torture. But Israel
But I digress
The world has proven it's anti-jewish bias, thousands and thousands of times over.
wiki, like any encyclopedia can give one a decent overview of a topic. With respect to the legality of Israeli settlements in occupied territories the references can yield some decent opinions if one cares to investigate. Obviously you don't care what legal opinion is offered in, say, The American Journal of International Law (American Society of International Law) where they state "The international community has taken a critical view of both deportations and settlements as being contrary to international law." 84 (1): 85–86 because your mind is made up an you are simply proselytizing the Israeli position.
I also am not impressed that you consistently and constantly play the victim card such as your conclusion above "The world has proven it's anti-jewish bias, thousands and thousands of times over." and you also regularly justify Israel's bad actions by trotting out bad acts by others. It is not an effective argument rather it just places Israel with bad company.
No victim card, just reading the facts as they are played.
Please provide for me ONE example of where the term "disputed territories" were LEGALLY changed to "occupied" territories as per UN resolution 242 and 181 and understand that resolutions passed after the fact do not change previous security council resolutions unless specifically direct to do so.
That will be the basis for discussion.
As for your assertion "israel's bad acts"?
I do not think Israel building in the disputed lands of the west bank (to use the modern name) is a "bad act". I actually think it's a LEGAL and moral act, both of liberation and of the rules of international law when applied fairly and non-biased way.
To call out the UN's human watch organization or the general assembly as anti-semitic aint playing a victim card. Do some research 1st before shooting down my message.
But then again you are invested to not be wrong are you not?
Israel, in the 6 day war in 1967, gained control of the West Bank, The Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria.
Contrary to the fourth Geneva Convention Israel has settled in these occupied territories.
An additional legal problem for Israel is the "right of return". The refugees that fled the fighting in 1948 have a right to return to their homes once the fighting stopped. Israel has never allowed this to happen.
Israel is on the wrong side of international law on both these issues.
Despite quot;s protestations, the Israeli NEED the money from the US.
That 1.5% of GDP that US aid represents, to Israel, more important to them than he would lead US to believe.
Israel’s new finance minister, the popular Yair Lapid, is faced with the reality of needing to close a budgetary deficit of more than $11 billion over the next year or two. ... About half of the hole will be filled by budget cuts, the other by new taxes. The large debt requires Israel to spend an enormous amount of money on interest payments, and that is a huge waste of money when there is not enough economic growth.
The US should immediately withdraw loan guarantees and end all direct payment subsidies.
All military sales to all portions of Palestine, including Jordan and Israel, should be curtailed, until the occupied territories are returned, by the Israeli, to the proper sovereign polity.
General Bunk, as you have never been to Israel you are hardly qualified to many any assertion as to it's "stay the course" ability.
Just the fact that Israel has withstood for 60 years your fellow jihadists loving stooges and has grown a world class Nation testifies to it's "staying the course"
Building in Jerusalem, Judaism's most holy city against the opinions of people like you PROVE that Israel is staying the course.
So now?
Israel is STAYING THE COURSE and doing what is right for all of it's citizens. Building roads, schools and opening up areas to relieve housing shortages.
Key figures in a lawsuit that alleges that an Arizona sheriff's office has racially profiled Latinos in its immigration patrols. A judge ruled Friday that Arpaio's office systematically racially profiles Latinos:
ARPAIO: Sheriff Joe Arpaio has aggressively pursued local immigration enforcement. The sheriff has been accused of launching some immigration patrols based on letters from people who complained about people with dark skin congregating in a given area or speaking Spanish but never reporting an actual crime. Arpaio denies the racial profiling allegations, remains popular with voters and easily won re-election last year. His opponents are trying to recall him, but have had trouble finding enough signatures.
JUDGE: The racial profiling lawsuit was decided by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow, not a jury. Snow previously barred Arpaio's deputies who are enforcing Arizona's 2005 immigrant smuggling law from detaining people based solely on the suspicion that they're illegal immigrants.
The Deputy Prime Minister paid tribute for Muslim groups for responding to the brutal murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Wednesday with a call for “unity and calm”.
Mr Clegg said: “Over the last few days London has shown itself at its best: an unbreakable city once again refusing to bow to hatred and violence. Of all the groups and faiths represented here today, I would like to pay special tribute to London’s Muslim community.
“An unspeakable act has been conducted in their name. Yet while this has provoked feelings of frustration and anger - it flies in the face of the peace and love that Islam teaches - Muslim organisations, Mosques, Imams and community leaders have responded with a call for unity and calm. They have set an example for us all.”
The 25-year-old soldier, from Crumpsall, Manchester, was walking towards the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, south-east London, on Wednesday when he was run down by a car and murdered by two alleged terrorists.
Mr Clegg added: “That we are meeting here like this - Londoners from different faiths and backgrounds, interrupting their busy lives to come together at a moment’s notice - is a powerful symbol.
While I agree Rat's repeated remonstrations about past statements by you and WiO to be tiresome it is not as tiresome as your meaningless drivel.
In either case I scroll on by - though you may have noticed I have tried reading a few of your posts again to see if anything has changed. Unfortunately little has changed except an apparent attempt on your part to appear a little more reasonable. Unfortunately the reasoning in your writings is, ummmm, lacking - to put it mildly.
U.S. gasoline consumption in April dropped to the lowest level for the month in 13 years, the American Petroleum Institute said.
Total deliveries of gasoline, a measure of demand, fell 3.9 percent from a year earlier to 8.47 million barrels a day, the industry-funded group said today in a report. Year-to-date consumption has averaged 8.38 million barrels a day, down 2.1 percent from the same period in 2012.
“The weak gasoline consumption numbers are related to the weak economy,” John Felmy, chief economist with the Washington-based API, said in a telephone interview. “Gasoline demand tends to be a reflection of employment and retail sales, both of which are anemic. There was also a rise in prices, which probably trimmed demand.”
Foreign, NATO and Pakistani intervention in the Afghan civil war has not seemed to have ended the fighting.
It is like a see saw, over there. Sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down.
There has been a large explosion in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, followed by heavy gunfire. Afghan Channel One TV quoted police as saying a group of assailants had entered the Directorate of the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF).
In 2009, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that a medium-level “silver” plan — which covers 70 percent of a beneficiary’s expected health costs — on the California health exchange would cost $5,200 annually. More recently, a report from the consulting firm Milliman predicted it would carry a $450 monthly premium. Yesterday, we got the real numbers. And they’re lower than anyone thought.
As always, Sarah Kliff has the details. The California exchange will have 13 insurance options, and the heavy competition appears to be driving down prices. The most affordable silver-level plan is charging $276-a-month. The second-most affordable plan is charging $294. And all this is before subsidies. Someone making twice the poverty line, say, will only pay $104-a-month.
Sparer plans are even cheaper. A young person buying the cheapest “bronze”-level plan will pay $172 — and that, again, is before any subsidies.
California is a particularly important test for Obamacare. It’s not just the largest state in the nation. It’s also one of the states most committed to implementing Obamacare effectively. Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — remember how that really happened? — California was the first state to begin building its insurance exchanges. The state’s outreach efforts are unparalleled. Its insurance regulators are working hard to bring in good plans and make sure they’re playing fair. If California can’t make the law work, perhaps no one can. But if California can make the law work, it shows that others can, too.
And perhaps others will. We’re beginning to see competition drive down proposed rates in some exchanges around the country. Remember Maryland, where CareFirst grabbed headlines with a shocking 25 percent proposed increase in rates? More plans have streamed in with lower bids. Kaiser Permanente, for instance, is only increasing its rates next year by 4.3 percent — a modest increase that will make CareFirst’s proposal almost impossible to sustain. My guess is when the exchange actually opens in October, CareFirst will have dropped its price substantially. If they don’t, then Kaiser and others will grab all the market share.
The way this competition can drive down rates is already evident in Oregon. There, one insurer came in with monthly premium costs in the $169 range, while other insurers asked to charge more than $400. But then, seeing what their competitors were charging, two insurers came back to the state’s regulators and asked if they could refile at lower rates. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be competitive in the exchange. The Obama administration was ecstatic to see this: It’s exactly what they’re hoping will happen across the country.
Of course, California and Oregon are managing Obamacare particularly well. But the state-by-state nature of the Affordable Care Act creates really unusual political dynamics around how the law is perceived in its first year.
Imagine it’s the end of 2014. California now boasts a working, near-universal health-care system. Nothing perfect, but clearly a a success after the first year of implementation. Texas, meanwhile, is a bit of a mess. They didn’t allow the Medicaid expansion so the state’s poorest residents got nothing. They didn’t help with the exchanges, or the outreach, so there aren’t many choices, and premiums aren’t as low one might hope.
Viewed in isolation, Texas’s problems would be deadly for the law. But viewed next to California, they might mainly be a problem for the political class in Texas, which has failed to implement a clearly workable law.
The ObamaCare Survival Guide reveals: •How currently insured will be affected, ((((including rising premium costs)))) •Medicare shocker: cuts in benefits, new rules •The coming Medicaid-Medicare merger •New protections for the uninsured ((((•ObamaCare 911: Hidden fees and levies)))) ((((•New taxes for the affluent)))) ((((•New taxes for “Cadillac” insurance plans)))) ((((•Small businesses: new requirements, tax credits)))) ((((•Business owners: fines, new rules)))) ((((•Prescription drug users: new fees)))) •Medical professionals: new requirements •A timetable for each part of the healthcare plan •Essential benefits insurance companies must provide •ObamaCare’s impact on long-term care (((((•Coming rationing for seniors))))) •New state exchanges to buy insurance •Your responsibilities and penalties under the new laws •How to maximize your healthcare dollar on the new plan •ObamaCare 911: The cost to you as a consumer •And much, much more . . .
Their name was possibly based on the Spanish slang term bobo, meaning "stupid",[1][2] as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Owing to this, boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors, notably William Bligh of the Bounty and his adherents, during their famous voyage after being set adrift by Fletcher Christian and his followers.
. . . . In a sense, the really remarkable thing about “Abenomics” — the sharp turn toward monetary and fiscal stimulus adopted by the government of Prime Minster Shinzo Abe — is that nobody else in the advanced world is trying anything similar. In fact, the Western world seems overtaken by economic defeatism.
In America, for example, there are still more than four times as many long-term unemployed workers as there were before the economic crisis, but Republicans only seem to want to talk about fake scandals. And, to be fair, it has also been a long time since President Obama said anything forceful publicly about job creation.
Still, at least we’re growing. Europe’s economy is back in recession, and it has actually grown a bit less over the past six years than it did between 1929 and 1935; meanwhile, it keeps hitting new highs for unemployment. Yet there is no hint of a major change in policy. At best, we may be looking at a slight relaxation of the savage austerity programs Brussels and Berlin are imposing on debtor nations.
It would be easy for Japanese officials to make the same excuses for inaction that we hear all around the . . . . .
Fake scandals are Democratic scandals, real scandals are Republican scandals.
In the newest revelation on a fake scandal, AG Holder's real signature has been found on a real document really authorizing real harassment of real political enemies.
Did Eric Holder lie in Congressional testimony last week?
posted at 10:01 am on May 24, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
You should have included the very next sentence, Dougman - the one that read, "And, to be fair, it has also been a long time since President Obama said anything forceful publicly about job creation."
The man is asking some very important questions about the world economy, and all you and bob can do is pick up on a throw-away line about partisan politics?
Until your last comment, I didn't bother to check your source. I merely assumed it was was Paul Krugman. When I did check, I was right.
It's one thing to argue whether Krugman is right or wrong. There are a lot of people on both sides of that arguement. But it's silly to argue that his comment on 'fake scandals' was just a throw-away line.
Krugamn long ago changed from just being an economist and morphed into a political pundit. Now, there are those who would argue he is much more the latter than the former. He is about as non-partisan as E.J. Dionne.
Sorry to keep harping on this. You are right about the column not being political but the sentence shines a light on the columnist and his partisanship.
Care to take a swing at this: How can he be trusted to lead the United States (Military, economy, etc.) when his character is in question?
Jonathan Karl By Jonathan Karl @jonkarl Follow on Twitter
May 23, 2013 5:12pm
President Obama is a little uneasy with the way journalists have been dragged into the Justice Department’s aggressive pursuit of national security leak investigations. In fact, he has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a 45-day review of the department’s guidelines on the issue.
That bit of news was buried in the middle of the president’s hourlong speech today at National Defense University.
“Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs,” President Obama said. “Our focus must be on those who break the law.”
And then the news: “I have raised these issues with the attorney general, who shares my concern. So he has agreed to review existing Department of Justice guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters, and will convene a group of media organizations to hear their concerns as part of that review. And I have directed the attorney general to report back to me by July 12th.”
Holder will be replaced, without a doubt. You will be disappointed in the choice, without a doubt. Obama will remain President, without a doubt.
The 2014 elections will be upon US, the GOP will Party, like it's 1998. Knowing that 'scandals' will propel them to power, rather than 'ideas'. The demographic shifts will continue on track and trend.
The GOP gains in the House, they will be below average for an 'off year' election. The Democrats will retain control of the Senate.
Merrill Lynch figures approx. half of the drop in Labor Force Participation Rate is Demographic, and half is cyclical/secular. They figure it will, basically, trend sideways for a few years, from here.
Sounds about as good as any other theory, I guess.
–A growing recognition among Republican senators that the situation isn’t sustainable in the long run. Sen. John McCain pushed hard at an Armed Services Committee hearing this week for a plan to close the detention center.
He argued that the prison represents “an image problem, a reputation problem” for the U.S. around the world.
Others feel the same way and argue in private that holding detainees for an indeterminate period without formal judicial proceedings violates American principles, though they are less vocal about it.
The WSJ still quotes John McCain as the primary GOP spokesman, on many matters. As does the rest of the MSM, for that matter.
Wonder why they are not quoting Mitt Romney, is he not the Standard bearer, for the Republicans?
Or are the media and the DC elites on both sides of the aisle just going to forget the "Last Cycle" even happened?
Who is going to stand up for Republicans and their support for Romneyomics, now?
Especially after the Apple off shore tax shelter hearings made everyone feel so warm and cozy inside.
What seems interesting, from the Clinton News Network opinion section...
Peter Bergen
For the first time on Thursday, President Obama laid out the full scope of his proposed counterterrorism strategy, and it boiled down to this: George W. Bush's endless war on terror is over.
And that's appropriate, since the enemy Bush went to war with after September 11 has largely been defeated.
Obama's speech at the National Defense University in Washington was designed to lay the political groundwork to wind down America's longest war, the war that began when al Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center and a wing of the Pentagon 12 years ago.
Thursday's speech was the first time Obama had delivered an overarching framework for how to conceptualize the conflict that has defined U.S. national security policy since 9/11... ... But the most significant aspect of the speech was the president's case that the "perpetual wartime footing" and "boundless war on terror" that has permeated so much of American life since 9/11 should come to an end.
Obama argued that the time has come to redefine the kind of conflict that the United States is engaged in: "We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us."
This is why the president focused part of his speech on a discussion of the seemingly arcane Authorization for the Use of Military Force that Congress passed days after 9/11 and that gave Bush the authority to go to war in Afghanistan against al Qaeda and its Taliban allies.
Few, if any, in Congress who voted for the authorization understood at the time that they were voting for a virtual blank check that has provided the legal basis for more than a decade of war. It is a war that has expanded in recent years to other countries in the Middle East and Africa, such as Yemen and Somalia, where the U.S. has engaged in covert military operations against al Qaeda-affiliated groups.
Obama says he wants the 14SEP2001 AUMF to expire, find an ending ...
But, CNN reports that there are those that want to extend and expand the 14SEP01 AUMF, not allow the withdrawal from Afpakistan to signal 'the end'.
However, there are now some in Congress who would like to expand the scope of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force beyond its present parameters to include military operations against terrorist groups that were not involved in the 9/11 attacks, which could prolong America's wars indefinitely and add additional terrorist groups to the United States' list of enemies it is at war with.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, ranking member of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for instance, last month called for an expansion of the scope of the authorization.
I noticed that I liked what Obama said concerning a number of items including his national security policy, the WOT, the attacks on the First Amendment, world opinion, and the Constitution. I also liked what he implied about items such as press freedom and Gitmo.
However, while I am encouraged by the speech, I am also leery. GW reigned in some of his worst abuses when faced with a nation and a court that were turning on him. I am not credulous enough to believe he turned because he thought he was actually wrong. I am willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on what he said. If he is merely offering it up as a preemptive effort to avoid Bush's fate, I am fine with that too. However, I will wait to see what he does not what he says.
"When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master— that's all."
Obama, like most every other politician in dealing with the press and the public uses the MacNamara Rule from the Fog of War,
"Don't answer the question they asked," the former Secretary of Defense (1960-1968) advises with a smile. "Answer the question you wish they'd asked."
And the press, whether through merely looking for the sound bite of the moment, or because of simplicity, fatuousness, or partisanship will usually take the answer and run with it even in those instances when they know their original question wasn't answered.
What I notice are the words that are spoken, what is said and what is not said, what is implied either through intent or through crafty wordsmanship, and what actions actually flow from the words spoken.
Obama in this speech, like Bush before him, never admitted that anything he did was wrong; however, what he did admit was that much of what he was doing was controversial, that it was being questioned by many across the world on constitutional, moral, and international law grounds. He indicated he had given orders to his minions to address some of these controversial issues, Eric Holder on the press freedoms issue for instance. He also implied certain things. He told his boys that the new drone policy had to minimize collateral damage and reduce to the extent possible civilian deaths which implies he will be doing away with ‘signature strikes’.
But will he? Remains to be seen. When you define a terrorist as anyone of military age who is in the vicinity of a strike, the questions remain. There are enough, you’ll pardon the term, weasel words scattered through the speech so that all we can do is wait to see what happens. But I am at least glad that the facts on the ground seem to have caught Obama’s attention.
As far as the AUMF goes, Obama says
So I look forward to engaging Congress and the American people in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the AUMF’s mandate.
I hope he means what he says.
The same point you make about the GOP, I made in a post yesterday. The point you make about them being the war party is legitimate although the phrase ignores the number of Dems that signed on to the AUMF originally, and face it, Obama can hardly be called a pacifist.
Congress, in a rush to do something after 9/11, passed the AUMF. It was way to broad, way to general, and way to open-ended. The fact that it would be abused was inevitable. That abuse was started under Bush and continued in different directions under Obama. Now Obama says he wants to end it. If he means it, that’s great. But with the people we currently have in Congress, and I’m not speaking strictly of the GOP, it may be very difficult to put the genii back in the bottle.
The good thing is that even with the authorization, Obama is not forced to use it. I’ll wait to see what happens.
I certainly did not mean to imply that the is much of a difference 'tween Republican and Democrat or that only the GOP members constituted the War Party.
As you know, Q, I call 'em all Federal Socialists. Two peas in the same pod.
I do think it interesting that he addressed the AUMF, at all.
Reagan started that shit. Thought he was in the movies. The worst thing to do is for a president to return the salute of a general. Let them salute, tell the general to be at ease and let him know who is boss.
RS MEMBER DIARY Eric Holder Personally Signed Warrant To Search James Rosen’s Emails
By: Matt Vespa (Diary) | May 24th, 2013 at 10:30 AM | 1
So, Attorney General Holder personally signed off on the warrant to search James Rosen’s emails. Rosen, a Fox News journalist, was targeted by the administration in 2009 in possible connection to a leak in the State Department over his story about North Korea. After this revelation, the DOJ seized Rosen’s phone records, personal emails, and even looked into his parents’ phone records. Holder has recused himself during the investigation into AP’s Yemen story, but this one, where he personally signed off on intruding into Rosen’s life and career, will put him straight in the crosshairs on Congress again – and rightfully so.
In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy.
As it turns out, Holder not only heard of it, he personally approved it. The warrant in the Rosen case specified that he was considered a potential suspect in the leak of classified material, the reason that the DoJ didn’t bother to follow the existing Watergate-era statute in coordinating the records request with Fox News. And note that Holder’s testimony in this case wasn’t produced by some sophisticated perjury trap sprung by a Republican, but as a freely-offered representation to no particular question during the question period of a Democrat. ...
Guy Benson @guypbenson
.@gabrielmalor @edmorrissey Here's a photo of Holder raising his right hand prior to that testimony: http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rtxznq8.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1 …
>>Sweden is a prime destination for asylum seekers because the country offers new immigrants free housing and social welfare benefits upon arrival. But many immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East are poorly educated and have great difficulty finding a job in Sweden....
....But the riots in Stockholm imply that the damage has already been done. The fatal flaw of Swedish multiculturalism has been to grant asylum to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have no prospect of ever finding a job or making a meaningful contribution to Swedish society. Many immigrants are, and will remain, wards of the state.
The Malmö-based Imam Adly Abu Hajar, in an interview with the newspaper Skånska Dagbladet, recently summed it up this way: "Sweden is the best Islamic state."<<<<
May 24, 2013 Swedish Multiculturalism Goes Awry By Soeren Kern
Is there a company in the world more evil than Monsanto? I don't think so.
Last year, Monsanto spent nearly $6 million on lobbying, and their payoff was the "Monsanto Protection Act," which was written anonymously, passed in secret, and allows Monsanto to keep selling genetically engineered seeds even if a federal court says they may pose a health risk.1
Now, Monsanto has sneaked an amendment into the farm bill that would block GMO labeling laws moving forward in states like Vermont and Connecticut.2
This time, Monsanto may have gone too far. A massive backlash is growing against the Monsanto Protection Act, and Senator Jeff Merkley is demanding a floor vote to repeal it.
We can beat Monsanto, but we don't have much time to get organized, because the farm bill has already passed the House and is being debated in the Senate right now. Can you chip in $5 to help MoveOn members fight back against Monsanto?
Yes, I want to pitch in $5 to help fight back against Monsanto.
We know that we'll never be able to outspend Monsanto, but with your help we can out-organize them with smart, well-timed, targeted campaigning. Together, we can take on Monsanto by:
Supporting campaigns all over the country led by MoveOn members targeting their members of Congress, asking them to stand up to Monsanto's influence.
Providing financial support for flyers, rallies, transportation and the other crucial nuts and bolts necessary to run a strong campaign.
Calling out key members of Congress who are supporting Monsanto over the public interest and making sure the public knows whose side they're on
MoveOn leaders around the country are eager to push forward, but they need your help: If we can raise $150,000 in the next two days, we can help kick-start these campaigns immediately.
Last year, Monsanto's $6 million investment bought them several favorable pieces of legislation. But right now, your investment of $5 can help launch a nationwide movement to make sure that our democracy isn't auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Click here to contribute $5 to support the campaign against Monsanto.
Thanks for all you do.
–Anna, Wes, Linda, Mariana, and the rest of the team
"How the Monsanto Protection Act snuck into law," Salon, March 27, 2013 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=290195&id=68363-3903780-gVVcPex&t=4
2. "'Monsanto Protection Act 2.0′ Would Ban GMO-Labeling Laws At State Level," International Business Times, May 20, 2013 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=290225&id=68363-3903780-gVVcPex&t=5
I've had my credit division run a credit check. How in the world did you avoid serious jail time for all those felony bad check? The Judge your uncle, or something?
Anyway, I don't see how, with your background, I can go the whole $5. I can go $2.50/48%/monthly payments/one year/your car title as security.
Great opportunity to begin to build your credit rating up again.
The nature of Israel as a state of immigrants is best reflected by the percentage of those who were born outside the country. In 1948, out of a Jewish population of 716,700, more than 64 percent were born outside the country.
In 1992, out of a Jewish population of 4,218,200, more than 41 percent were born outside the country.
Between 1948-1967 more Jews were driven out of their homes from arab conquered lands than arabs were drive out from the Jewish state.
This is why today, there are more arabs in Israel than existed in all disputed lands in 1948.
Israel has a population of 20% because Israel didnt ethnically cleanse the arabs from their midst, now the arab nations? They did in fact ethnically cleanse the Jews.
So if we want to say thanks? We should say thanks to the Arabs for helping form the core of immigrants to Israel by being the savages they are..
Thanks Arab savages!!!! Thanks
Just like the savage arabs declared war on America and caused America to form a Navy to FIGHT those arab savages. The Arabs caused America to become the UNITED states of America.
Little wonder the poster that advocates for aborting black babies is a fan of Israel.
From the folks at Forbes.
Israel Forcibly Injected African Immigrants with Birth Control, Report Claims
Some 130,000 Ethiopians, most of them Jewish, live in Israel. The community experiences higher poverty and unemployment rates than the rest of the country’s Jewish population. In the past decade, the birth rate among Ethiopian-Israelis has declined by at least 20 percent. Advocacy groups now claim this decline is the result of a birth control regimen forced upon Ethiopian immigrant women.
According to an article in Haaretz, an Israeli news source, one Ethiopian immigrant said that the doctors who injected her claimed that “people who frequently give birth suffer.” While it is possible, if highly unlikely, that doctors genuinely had the women’s health in mind when they forcibly injected them with contraceptives, there is no excuse for depriving women sovereignty over their own reproductive choices.
Israel has acknowledged the issue (without admitting any wrongdoing) and has vowed institutional changes in healthcare for immigrants. By decree of Israel’s health minister, gynecologists have been ordered “not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera for women of Ethiopian origin if for any reason there is concern that they might not understand the ramifications of the treatment.” Still, intense scrutiny should be applied by women’s groups and international organizations to make sure these changes are implemented in full. Moreover, more attention must be paid to the plight of vulnerable African immigrants around the world.
That Israel should allegedly engage in this activity is particularly shocking, considering the practice was widely used by the Germans throughout the Shoah. While the scale and effects of these operations cannot be compared, Israel’s implicit intent to limit ‘burdensome’ (read: undesirable) portions of the population recalls the dark eugenics experiments of World War II.
Training the immigrant children, to be cannon fodder for the Europeons
while the menu is quintessentially Israeli, the students are not. Their parents come from as far afield as Cuba, Iraq, Russia, and Ethiopia. Struggling to fit in, they have been kicked out of one, two, even four schools. Some are as many as seven grades behind in reading or math when they arrive at this boarding school on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
“Our children here are at the end of the road,” says educational manager Naama Katz.
So three years ago, she and her colleagues turned to a Native American educational philosophy that focuses on developing a complete person through values like independence and generosity, that they feel is overlooked as a resource for children today. They say it’s hard to quantify the benefits of the new approach, but the fact that 80 to 90 percent of their students graduate and are accepted by the army gives them encouragement.
Gotta keep those boots filled.
The Orthodox refuse to serve in the military of the people of their sovereign polity.
General Bunk, who claims Israel is always an aggressor, and is a colony of Europeans, would be better served if he claimed the Orthodox are the only Israelis who refuse to be aggressors and take a stand for anti-colonialism.
It would make as much sense.
But, he is our General Bunk, and our Bunk never makes much sense.
Yesterday, while I was at work, my sister stole my apple ipad and tested to see if it can survive a 30 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now destroyed and she has 83 views. I know this is totally off topic but I had to share it with someone!
We were leaving the cool of the mahogany bar at The Imperialist and we all had been drinking heavily, and Q was way over his limit. He had taken it into his mind to pay the bar bill for the all of us, but after the fourth credit card was declined over limit I stepped in and paid with cash. I do not know if Q knew his cards would be rejected. Perhaps he did and was simply trying to build sympathy, or to show his good will. Hamdoon had instructed us all to go to our respective rooms and individually think over his suggested plan. It was a longshot. We were to meet at the Pow Wow of The 500 Nations. A critical element was getting Umatilla a Press Pass, and into the Press Conference the President was holding there. Only Native Americans were to be allowed at this Press Conference. We were going to our rooms and I was thinking Q might actually provide some value here, what with his expertise in creating fraudulent documents.....
>>As other nonbelievers have noted, he’s a man who admirably emphasizes deeds over words....
....However, Francis does emphasize the universality of Christ’s redemptive power, and it is through that redemptive power that salvation becomes possible. He is clearly open to the idea that Christ may well redeem even those who are non-believers. More fully articulated, that would open up a new wager, in which whether or not one believed, ((((one’s actions in the world would determine one’s access to paradise)))). Even the hint of such an idea from man whose spiritual power stems from being the heir to St. Peter, holder of the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, is striking. Still, that God might save those who neither believe nor participate in the sacraments is not a new idea. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, one finds the statement, “God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.” If God wants to save someone, they will be saved.<<
Pope: Second look at letting atheists into heaven? posted at 5:21 pm on May 24, 2013 by Allahpundit
May 25, 2013 U.S. Military: We Could Have Saved Ambassador Stevens By Jonathon Moseley
>>Elite U.S. troops were completely capable of saving Ambassador Chris Stevens during the Benghazi Consulate attacks on September 11, 2012. Elements of the highly specialized Combatant Commanders In-Extremis (CIF) units are always on alert, on forward deployment, ready to respond. Their job description is to hit the ground in 3 to 5 hours. CIF elements are ready to engage in active combat anywhere in their region, 3 to 5 hours after the call.
Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense at the time, either misled the U.S. Congress or was incompetent. Panetta testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 7, 2013 that the U.S. military could not have responded in less than 9 to 12 hours.
Obama's first secretary of defense, Robert Gates, told CBS's Face the Nation on May 12, 2013 that "[w]e don't have a ready force standing by" in that region.
But we absolutely do "have a ready force standing by" to reach any trouble spot in a few hours. Insider reports previously revealed that CIF elements were training in Croatia and could have been in Benghazi in three and a half hours.
Although rotating out of the United States, some CIF elements are always forward-deployed within each military command region, always on stand-by. Their training includes expertise within each local region. Some of each region's unit is always ready. They don't need to pack. Being ready to go -- immediately -- is their job description. It's the reason they exist.
The U.S. military has developed a range of capabilities, from CIF teams to the Navy SEALs, to Rangers, to Green Berets. But now many in the special forces/special operators community feel betrayed. Commanders in Extremis units are so highly trained and expert that even elite Green Berets wash out of the highly demanding CIF training in large numbers.
Standard military doctrine is to activate all such resources immediately, even if they are ultimately not used. Military's plans require getting such teams in the air and on the way, not waiting to see if they will be needed.
So Panetta's and Gates's statements to the public violate standard military protocol. Leon Panetta telegraphed to our enemies an image of incompetence of U.S. forces. Panetta's testimony was an insult to the U.S. military. Elite forces go through constant, grueling training to be able to do what Panetta and Gates say they cannot do. One of the purposes of "special operators" is deterrence. Panetta and Gates undermined that deterrence.<<
WASHINGTON -- Even Medea Benjamin was surprised she managed to get into President Barack Obama's major national security address at National Defense University on Thursday. The long-time Code Pink protestor (and HuffPost blogger) is a fixture on Capitol Hill and well known to most D.C. reporters.
ReplyDelete"I had my head down for about two hours and was talking on the phone for about two hours. I tried to be inconspicuous. I think sometimes I must be invisible," Benjamin said. "There were a couple of journalists that came over to talk to me, but that's about it."
Benjamin, 60, was escorted out of the the hall after she repeatedly interrupted Obama's address, pressing the president on the use of drone strikes overseas, including the killing of a 16-year-old U.S. citizen.
In an interview with The Huffington Post afterward, at a Starbucks near National Defense University, Benjamin said someone had given her an invite to the speech.
"I had an invitation, somebody gave me an invitation who I'm not at liberty to disclose," Benjamin said, calling her protest "epic" when compared to her other demonstrations.
Benjamin was wearing a pink belt and a pink watch and even drove onto the military base in a car with a Code Pink bumper sticker. While several reporters knew and recognized her as they waited to pass through security, the event's organizers evidently didn't. (One photographer said Benjamin's badge indicated her first name was Susan, her given name.)
"To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to do anything," Benjamin recalled. "I was prepared if I wanted to, but I thought there might be some real significant things that came out of this, and I thought, well, I'm not going to say anything if it's a really good speech."
Benjamin said she was led out of the room and questioned by on-site Army personnel, as well as Secret Service and FBI agents, before she was let go.
"I was very forthcoming, gave my name, Social Security number, address and everything. They asked me what my motives were and I explained it all," she said. “It was very strange because I think when it’s the president ... they are oftentimes embarrassed to then have the media attention be that they arrested somebody for speaking out.”
Interesting, the woman was required to give her social security number for challenging Obama’s scripted speech, a lot more information than required from the voters that elected Obama.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, she was not immediately sent to the Gulag.
DeleteWhere is it, again?
Alaska, Idaho?
Previous to this post of Obama being heckled while he read a speech from a teleprompter, a speech written for him, we had a post of an obviously intelligent man talking without notes making more sense than anything said by Obama.
ReplyDeleteBoth videos were about drones.
Obama’s drones in the audience applauded to drown out the truth being told by heckler Benjamin.
The Chomsky post was heckled and interrupted by our own drones.
Hoot, hoot, piddle, piddle
Delete:)
I just made a suggestion for you.
Deuce, if you would put up someone(s) a little more >>sane<< to make your points, it would help.
I could offer you some alternative names if you asked me to do so, but probably would decline.
Your sources are so outrageous, it makes it easy to debunk.
If a man has denied the Cambodian slaughter, questions Nazi Holocaust, the Communist genocides, the "peaceful" intentions of Hezbollah, and the alleged "war criminality" of every American president in recent memory, why should anyone listen to him about drones?
A man can be many things, I've always said, 'the world's greatest linguist' and a total fool.
Find better sources, then the duopoly of desertification of reason will be challenged and won't be so quick to hoot. It is awfully hard not to hoot when the ball drifts over the plate like that.
Put up a credible source, the hooting stops.
I have, by the way, seen both you and Quirk hoot an incredible source as well.
This from the AM thinker acolyte. Sad.
DeleteBreaking news..
ReplyDeleteAmericans building more settlements in all 50 states. Indigenous Americans say this is not helpful for peace and will respond.
Israel and the American Indians
A new connection was forged between Israel and American Indians.
Anne Richardson is the Chief of the Rappahannock Indians of Virginia. “…she has worked for the past ten years ministering reconciliation to tribal nations in America and established Restoring Nations International Ministries in 2007, teaching reconciliation, redemption and healing of land to indigenous people. This year, the Department of Labor gave her the ‘Chiefs Award,’ its highest, for her leadership and advocacy for the rights of Native Americans.”
“In 2006, Chief Anne Richardson renewed the covenant with the Queen of
England. In 2005 she presented President Bush with a ‘Proclamation of
Forgiveness’. She also presented him with a ‘Never Again’ pin asking him to
always stand to ensure a holocaust would never again take place in America
or in Israel.”
Now Chief Anne Richardson is coming to Israel, to present “…Minister Landau with a Native American headdress and a Declaration of Alliance signed by the Chief and her Tribal Council as a symbol of their covenant with Israel. The Chief will be bringing a message of support and solidarity to the State and people of
Israel, while Minister Landau will be conveying the warm support of Israel with a message of hope and continuity.”
"’We love Israel and want to show your people the solidarity that we as Native Americans have with you’ says Chief Anne Richardson. Government Minister of National Infrastructure Dr. Uzi Landau, known as being deeply invested in reconnecting the people of Israel to the land of Israel, sees a natural parallel with the Native American peoples.” (www.imra.org.il, 10/1).
Palestinian Arabs have likened themselves to the American Indians, but the Palestinian Jews were in the situation that the Indians found themselves. Both Jews and Indians were the aboriginals conquered by foreign settlers, deprived of their rights, and suffered mass murder.
RAWABI, West Bank (May 17) -- While the building of Jewish settlements in contested east Jerusalem draws international controversy, bulldozers are hard at work clearing land for the first Palestinian planned city in the West Bank.
ReplyDeleteIf entrepreneur Bashar al-Masri has his way, the first residents of his ambitious development will be moving in two years from now.
"I see this as helping to build Palestine," said George Rafidi, sales manager for the project, which plans for a population of 40,000 Palestinians living in 23 neighborhoods and served by a large town center with restaurants, shops, mosques, a church, schools and even a hotel.
Majdi Mohammed, AP
A Palestinian surveyor works at the site where the first Palestinian planned city will be built in the West Bank.
"On a clear day you can see the high-rises of Tel Aviv from here," Rafidi added as a reminder of just how small the area of Israel and the West Bank are. The new town is about 12 miles north of Jerusalem, near the Palestinian Birzeit University.
so arabs building settlements on disputed lands is ok...
Jews do it? It's a crime
can we say hmmmmm
After taking control of the area, in 1967, and after building hundreds of thousands of homes for Euroeon immigrants, the Israeli have broken grown on a Arab settlement, in the illegally annexed portion of Palestine they captured in combat...
DeleteWe should celebrate, according to quot, that the Israeli have broken ground on the first new legally authorized Arab home built in the potion of Palestine the Israeli illegally occupy and contol in 46 years...
Celebrate, celebrate, let's all dance to the music!
Blah,blah,blah (applies to General Bunk)
DeleteCivil wars are civil wars. to the winner goes the spoils..
DeleteI thought Rat was a General for goodness sake.. Doesnt he KNOW the rules of CIVIL WARS?
Again, quot, you attempting a thought, well, your brain has failed you again.
DeleteNo, I was never a General.
Just a young Sergeant, that traveled the whirled.
Fun, Travel, Adventure
FTA - All the Way!
And no, civil wars are not all civil wars.
DeleteTheir nature changed, in 1948.
We entered a new era, sorry, but the door to Israeli territorial expansionism by military force to gain Lebensraum, is no longer an excepted practice in the modern whirled.
I know you disagree, but Hitler was wrong. Decidedly so.
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/23/4253048/washington-state-patrol-confirms.html#storylink=cpy
ReplyDeleteBELLINGHAM -- Washington State Patrol Trooper Mark Francis confirmed late Thursday afternoon, May 23, that the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Burlington has collapsed.
Francis posted on his Twitter account at 7:19 p.m. "I don't have much info. N/B and S/B lanes of I-5 Skagit River Bridge collapsed. People and cars in water. I'm very far away. Will update."
Not to worry, Obama has requested an additional 450 million dollars for gitmo.
I've been over that bridge many times.
DeleteThe last guy over said he felt a bump, looked into his mirror, no bridge!
In London as in Boston, terrorist-killers were known to security services
ReplyDeleteThe two Islamist terrorists who hacked a British soldier to death on a London street Wednesday, May 22, chanting Allahu Akbar, were born in Britain of Nigerian descent and known to British security authorities. Motivated by revenge for Muslem deaths in Afghanistan, they selected as their victim a soldier from the Woolwich barracks who had served there. One of the terrorists was identified as Michael Adebolajo, 28, a convert to Islam and self-styled Muslim preacher from a street stand, from which he handed out leaflets condemning the British government and troops fighting in Muslim lands.
His stand was located in the southeastern London suburb of Woolwich, not far from the Royal Artillery barracks near which he committed his savage murder.
Adelbolajo’s crime was long planned. He spent time watching the soldiers coming and going around the barracks. He may even have singled out his victim from a chance acquaintance.
But Israeli settlements are the real reason for the violence.
No, qout there is another reason for the violence.
DeleteOne you will understand, well.
You even told us all, the reason for the violence. Two days after the Patriot Day bombing, in Boston.
Hitler, quot wrote, was right.
Those two in Boston, I think they agree with you, about Hitler.
Not sure about how they felt about your father.
blah,blah,blah
DeleteThis blah,blah applies to Bunk, above.
DeletePlease General Bunk, quote my quote verbatim, in context or shut the fuck up.
DeleteIf you can't you are a liar, a blowhard, a deceitful pile of weasel droppings.
We are waiting General Bunk...
Put up or shut up...
Not to worry gang, General Bunk cant...
No, I will not.
DeleteIt is beneath me to do so.
Anyone that wants to see it, can go look themselves.
Two days after the Patriot Day bombing.
If you feel misquoted, bring it forward, yourself.
But it is true that ...
Hitler, quot wrote, was right, his own father wrong.
Syrian rebels: We downed Iranian plane landing in Damascus
ReplyDeleteDEBKAfile May 24, 2013, 12:52 PM (GMT+02:00)
Syrian rebels claimed to have downed an Iranian plane landing at Damascus airport Thursday and suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition for the Syrian army. They released a video they said showed the plane crashing and exploding upon landing after being hit by an anti-aircraft weapon. The claim denied by Syrian state media could not be independently verified.
Hmmmm
ReplyDeletePalestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has added to his pre-negotiations demands. After telling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to choose “between peace and settlements,” he has reiterated his demand for a full construction freeze, but has added demands that Israel release terrorists and add arms to the PA police force.
“We recently told them that if Israel accepted to free prisoners and allow us to re-arm the police then we would again sit at the same table as Netanyahu,” Abbas said at a press conference in France.
Abbas also defended his demand for a complete construction freeze, saying it was not a true precondition. Most of the world considers Israeli construction in Judea (Yehuda) and Samaria (Shomron) illegal, he said.
If his demands are met, the path to true negotiations is not yet over. “If Mr. Netanyahu agrees…. Then we will establish a dialogue, but that doesn’t mean a negotiation,” Abbas clarified.
Israeli spokesman Mark Regev said in response, “Israel remains ready for the immediate resumption of peace talks without any preconditions.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156703#.UZ9WWJXn1Hw
So Israel should do a complete freeze, release terrorists, and allow the PA to arm up THEN talks can start, but no pre conditions.
And somehow Israel building homes is the issue?
bahahabahabahabahabah
sounds like the palestinians dont understand they lost the war they and their brothers waged.
Israel's illegal occupation of a portion of Palestine where the Israeli are not the sovereign polity, that is the issue.
DeleteNot whether there are homes built on that land that is illegally occupied by the Europeon settlers.
Those homes will either be used by the true sovereign polity of that portion of Palestine, or destroyed.
If the US were end the subsidies to the Israeli, what lands they stole, would not matter to me.
But that they defile Palestine and Palestinians, with the support of the United States, well ... of course the vilification of the Israeli is required, to end those subsidies and to make Israel truly sovereign.
Let Israel be the legend it is, in quot's mind, without US financial support.
To end the illegal activites done in the name of the United States,
By the Israeli
DeleteGeneral Bunk, good morning!
DeleteGlad to see you are off your meds so early.
As you said, Palestine had a CIVIL war, the Palestinian Jew side won the palestinian arab side lost.
The west bank? All part of Jewish Palestine no matter what the world wants.
Now go back to your hole and start your drinking.
The USA's aid to Israel is about 1.5% of Israeli GDP.
DeleteThey should give it back, if it is so insignificant, to them.
DeleteEspecially when cancer patients in the US are being denied medical service due to Federal budget cuts...
Good Morning, General Bunk!
DeleteLet's start with cutting checks from war criminals that are on the government retirement payroll that live on 350 acres or more in sw America.
DeleteIsraeli Vaccine: Stops Cancer from Coming Back
DeleteISRAEL FIGHTS CANCER: An Exclusive Report by United with Israel
Dr. Lior Carmon at Vaxil's lab in Nes Ziona, Israel
(Nes Ziona, ISRAEL) An Israeli company is developing a new cancer drug which aims to stop cancer from coming back.
Every year millions of people are diagnosed with cancer worldwide. Although modern medicine has made huge progress in treating this disease, what often happens is that the cancer is treated and the patient goes into remission or is even “cured” – but then it becomes a waiting game to see if the cancer comes back.
Imagine if there was a new treatment option that would stop cancer from returning!
An Israeli medical team is attempting to do just that, to offer a new treatment with the potential for long-term maintenance – to stop the cancer from coming back.
Vaxil is a clinical stage biotechnology company based in Israel which develops therapeutic vaccines to treat cancer and infectious diseases. Therapeutic vaccines seek to harness the patient’s immune system to attack and destroy cancer cells.
The therapeutic vaccine educates the immune system to seek out and destroy those cells which display cancer “markers” and to leave the healthy cells untouched. This means that the treatment has very few side effects, unlike other conventional treatments. This safety profile also means that it is suitable for long-term maintenance therapy.
Vaxil’s lead product, ImMucin, aims to teach the immune system of the cancer patient to attack those cancer cells which display the protein “MUC1″. Since MUC1 appears on 90% of all cancer cellss, ImMucin has a potentially broad application to many different strands of cancer such as lung, breast, kidney, prostate, ovarian, pancreatic and colon cancer – and even to hematological cancers such as leukemia, lymphomas and myeloma.
ImMucin is currently being evaluated in a Phase I/II clinical trial in patients with Multiple Myeloma (a blood cancer). All patients enrolled are in a stage process whereby the disease is coming back after a period of remission.
The clinical trial is being conducted at Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem and at the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
Fighting Cancer at the Technion
DeleteThe Growing Threat
In English, Hebrew or any other language, no word evokes more fear than “cancer.” More than half a million Americans now die from the disease in a typical year, and more than one in three will develop the disease during their lifetimes.
And yet we hear that there is hope, that cancer is no longer a death sentence, that it can be beaten or lived with. That hope continues to grow as experts around the world use new tools to trace cancer’s origins and develop plans of attack.
Scientists at the Technion representing traditional fields of medicine such as chemistry and biology, as well as diverse new specialties including genetics, nanotechnology and bioengineering see cancer research as one of the institute’s leading missions. The Technion’s David and Janet Polak Center for Cancer Research and Vascular Biology and the recently launched Lorry I. Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences and Engineering, bring together the best minds from diverse fields in the quest for successful treatments.
Major Breakthroughs
At the Technion Faculty of Medicine and many other departments, this commitment to the fight against cancer has produced notable advances in our understanding of how the human body stays healthy and how this process breaks down.
Why does previously normal cell division begin to rage out of control, and how can the resulting invasion of deadly cancer cells can be defeated? Here are three pioneering lines of research where Technion scientists are leading the way:
1) Ubiquitin and You
DeleteWhile most researchers were focusing on how living beings build up proteins, Nobel Laureates and Technion Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover decided to swim against the tide. They looked instead at the flip side of the process: how the body destroys proteins that are no longer useful.
Professors Hershko and Ciechanover
And in doing so, as Prof. Ciechanover puts it, “We discovered the process by which the body exercises quality control.” It is a crucial quality control process that when running smoothly keeps the body healthy, but when gone awry can lead to cancer.
Specifically, the pair discovered a molecule they called ubiquitin, which fastens to a protein, signals that it is to be destroyed and accompanies it to a kind of cellular waste-disposal unit.
Profs. Hershko and Ciechanover, along with Dr. Irwin Rose of the University of California-Irvine, won the 2004 Nobel Prize in chemistry for shining this spotlight on how cells clean house. It’s the first time an Israeli has ever been awarded the Nobel Prize in science - but far more important is the hope their discovery has raised in the fight against cancer.
Thanks to their work, the Nobel committee explained, "it is now possible to understand at the molecular level how the cell controls a number of central processes by breaking down certain proteins and not others. Examples of processes governed by ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation are cell division, DNA repair, quality control of newly-produced proteins, and important parts of the immune defense. When the degradation does not work correctly, we fall ill."
Shedding new light on the body’s failure to destroy certain tumor formations, the researchers' ubiquitin breakthrough has inspired a flood of follow-up activity in the world of science, with thousands of scholarly publications and hundreds of research groups around the world conducting related studies. The cancer drug Velcade, already in use, is based on the ubiquitin discoveries, and many other drugs that harness the protein-destroying process are in development.
http://www.ats.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_research_cancer
DeleteSounds like American aid in Israel has benefits.
DeleteKeeping Israel secure against the dozens of nations that seek it's erasure allow Israel to invest in science and technologies that help save millions of lives across the world.
Thanks America, Thanks Israel
And referencing the previous thread ...
ReplyDeleteIf two pipe bombs are classified by the US as 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' ...
A drone and Hellfire missile are weapons of terror.
That's the Goose and Gander Standard.
blah,blah,blah
DeleteThe civil war continues to rage, in the portion of Palestine illegally occupied by the sovereign polity of Israel.
ReplyDeleteblah,blah,blah
DeleteGeneral Bunk, hiding in his bunker playing armchair General Bunk...
DeleteSo sad...
But to take General Bunk at his words...
Delete"The civil war continues to rage"
So if it's a CIVIL war, as he contends, then EITHER side has the right to win.
And in this case the Palestinian jews WON over the Palestinian arabs (and the Arab nations, Arab League and England ((which ran Jordan's army))
So how could any LAND LIBERATED by the palestinian Jews not be considered THIERS?
Civil war implies a war inside a state.
Any LANDS that Israel as LIBERATED all populations, both arab and jew, are equal citizens.
Now if there are large tracts of lands unliberated? So be it.
So to recap, using General Bunk's words.
DeletePalestinian Israelis/Jews have successfully defeated the Palestinian Arabs and their 20 arab nations and now the Palestinian Arabs are pissed that they lost the war (even with dozens of nations supporting them). Now as losers of the civil war the cling to areas that the Palestinian jews refuse to liberate.
Hence the term "toilet bowl territories" this accurately describing the palestinian arabs held lands.
As General Bunk has described the conflict in the lands of Palestine as a "civil war" this begs the question....
DeleteIf this is a civil war then Israel cannot be a "european colony" as it's a war between to groups of indigenous peoples.
Palestinian Arabs, which were never called "palestinians" before 1948 and the Jews, which had been called "palestinians" for almost 1900 years.
The arabs? johnny come lately to the area from other occupied arab controlled lands which surrounded the Jewish homeland came in high numbers in the late 1800's seeking employment from the Jews.
So here we have it.
Civil war.
No european colony.
Just one land two warring peoples.
One side? The Jews, have an open society that allow people of any background to be citizens. The other the Arabs, now called "palestinians" who demand a state of their own and refuse any Jew the right to live any where in it's control.
Civil Wars are in country, 'tween rival polities.
DeleteThe US Civil War was largely fought with Irish immigrants, drafted directly off the boats in NYCity.
It is not only the indigenous populations fighting a civil war, as in Texas, one group was majority US immigrant, the other the Mexican Federal Government.
Yes, the Civil War in Palestine could well be compared to Texas. Where immigrants tried to impose a culture of slavery upon a previously "Free" country. In Palestine the Israeli immigrants have imposed a type of apartheid, rather than slavery, upon those they find inferior.
But in both cases on side of the civil war was mostly immigrants, fighting the previous polity in possession.
In Palestine, when the British left, the rivals starting dukin' it out.
There was a settlement.
Each side went to their corner.
Then the Europeon immigrants went and stole the other fellas stool.
Lordy be!
O joy, joy, joy.
ReplyDeleteFox News just reported Lois Lerner signature found on documents authorizing the harassing of conservative political groups.
Every day these days it is a joy to watch Fox News. Even Bob Beckel on The Five is beginning to criticize The One.
Bridge collapses, cancer patients turned out into the cold ...
ReplyDeleteYet US aid to Israel contines to flow.
The US needs to spend $450 million on Gitmo, or shut it down.
While US infrastructure needs basic maintenance and repair.
It is time to prioritize.
Guns or Butter.
Welfare or warfare.
Does boobie get his check, or do the Israeli get theirs?
Time to prioritize.
blah,blah,blah
DeleteGeneral Bunk is on his merry go round...
Deletehe mus have taken a double of those funny pills he takes
May 24, 2013
ReplyDeleteThe Legality of Israeli Settlements
By Michael Curtis
>>>The question of whether Israeli settlements are immoral or politically unwise or present an obstacle to any peace process is arguable. However, what has been most important for many in the international community is the illegality of the settlements according to international law. About this, two things can be said. One is that it should be recognized at the outset that the whole issue is not really one of legality but is a crucial part of political factors: the territorial dispute between Israel and the Palestinians and other Arabs over areas to which both parties make claims; the question of who has legitimate sovereignty over the territory; a Palestinian state; and the desire of Israel for security. The other is that there is no clear universally accepted international law on the question of the settlements.<<<
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/the_legality_of_israeli_settlements.html
Now here is a credible source about the settlements issue. It can certainly be argued with, but isn't a bland assertion such as a Chomsky might make.
As a contrast, compare General Bunk's statement here:
Delete>>desert ratFri May 24, 08:28:00 AM EDT
The civil war continues to rage, in the portion of Palestine illegally occupied by the sovereign polity of Israel.<<
If you are seeking a higher level of discourse, read the hundreds of good articles at AT, and don't waste your time reading General Bunk.
>>If you are seeking a higher level of discourse<< should read, 'if you are seeking discourse'.
DeleteFill your mind with racist trash, over there, boobie.
DeleteYour proxy in Philadelphia, he went to prison, for aborting black babies.
Seems he was 'operating' with a tad to much gusto!
He must have heard you cheering him on!
blah,blah,blah
DeleteIs that the pronouncement of the Welfare Sovereign?
DeleteThat is how he defends the undefendable.
Killing black babies to advance boobie's political ideology, and maybe win elections in the future.
We know boobie's answer to the demographic challenges facing the GOP.
Kill the black babies!
I am referencing, of course, his writings of November, 2008.
When bob revealed his inner soul and exposed his black, black heart.
Then post the specific posts, of which you of course already looked up so you can make that accusation so you then can provide it, proving to all what a great memory you have even though you looked up a quote to ref to...
Deletewhat a loser
We had a long discussion, in November of 2008, about the racist remarks boobie had made.
DeleteDoes not take much of a memory to remember really outlandish statements.
He went into the corner, dunce cap upon his head.
Everyone who was here, remembers, quot.
More evidence that YOU are not "O"riginal.
Thanks, again.
boobie, AM thinker is NOT a credible source. In fact the site lacks credibility. If you are really interested about the issue take a look, for starters, at Wiki. There you can get a 'middle of the road' primer complete with references that you can then follow up with.
DeleteMaybe, just maybe, after some honest research, you might make a statement on the matter that isn't your usual meaningless regurgitated drivel.
From the first paragraph at wiki (check out the sources if you dare):
"The international community considers the establishment of Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories illegal under international law,[1][2][3][4][5] but Israel maintains that they are consistent with international law[6] because it does not agree that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the territories occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War, due to lack of a legal sovereign of these territories.[7] The United Nations Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Court of Justice and the High Contracting Parties to the Convention have all affirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention does apply.[8][9]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_law_and_Israeli_settlements
Great legal source there General Bunk...
DeleteLOL
I almost spit my orange juice when I saw General Bunk quoting wikipedia for legal opinions...
But it's really the perfect commentary about this General Bunk.
DeleteWhat parts of that wiki legal summary do you disagree with WiO?
DeleteAsh,
DeleteI will do it a different way.
I refuse to argue the legal standing of opinions of Wiki.
I will stand by Israel's legal team's statements as to the LEGALITY of building in disputed territories as per the LEGAL status of said lands in the League of Nations and the UN resolutions.
So you are simply parroting Israeli policy. Nothing new there though I half expected you to claim that Wikipedia is an anti-Semitic organization.
DeleteWell then I guess once again you were wrong.
DeleteBut I dont pretend to be a lawyer, nor do I cite wiki for LEGAL opinions.
But I dont "parrot" israeli policy unless you concede that everyone else "parrots" everyone else.
Now if you asked me do I think the international RED CROSS is anti-Semitic? Yep...
Do I think the UN, since the 1970's is anti-Semitic? YEP
Do I think the international attempt to de-ligitmize Israel is based on anti-semitism? YEP.
And why would I think that?
Well the UN human rights commission has ONLY Israel singled out as a permanent issue to be addressed. Not Tibet, Nigeria, Iran or any one of dozens of other nations that murder, use rape and torture. But Israel
But I digress
The world has proven it's anti-jewish bias, thousands and thousands of times over.
I am not impressed.
wiki, like any encyclopedia can give one a decent overview of a topic. With respect to the legality of Israeli settlements in occupied territories the references can yield some decent opinions if one cares to investigate. Obviously you don't care what legal opinion is offered in, say, The American Journal of International Law (American Society of International Law) where they state "The international community has taken a critical view of both deportations and settlements as being contrary to international law." 84 (1): 85–86 because your mind is made up an you are simply proselytizing the Israeli position.
DeleteI also am not impressed that you consistently and constantly play the victim card such as your conclusion above "The world has proven it's anti-jewish bias, thousands and thousands of times over." and you also regularly justify Israel's bad actions by trotting out bad acts by others. It is not an effective argument rather it just places Israel with bad company.
No victim card, just reading the facts as they are played.
DeletePlease provide for me ONE example of where the term "disputed territories" were LEGALLY changed to "occupied" territories as per UN resolution 242 and 181 and understand that resolutions passed after the fact do not change previous security council resolutions unless specifically direct to do so.
That will be the basis for discussion.
As for your assertion "israel's bad acts"?
I do not think Israel building in the disputed lands of the west bank (to use the modern name) is a "bad act". I actually think it's a LEGAL and moral act, both of liberation and of the rules of international law when applied fairly and non-biased way.
To call out the UN's human watch organization or the general assembly as anti-semitic aint playing a victim card. Do some research 1st before shooting down my message.
But then again you are invested to not be wrong are you not?
Israel is a party to the Geneva Convention.
DeleteIsrael, in the 6 day war in 1967, gained control of the West Bank, The Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria.
Contrary to the fourth Geneva Convention Israel has settled in these occupied territories.
An additional legal problem for Israel is the "right of return". The refugees that fled the fighting in 1948 have a right to return to their homes once the fighting stopped. Israel has never allowed this to happen.
Israel is on the wrong side of international law on both these issues.
nice rewrite of history ash.
Deletejordan renounced all attachment to the west bank as it was never legally theirs.
the DISPUTED territories are not "occupied" as per UN resolution 181 & 242.
and for the right of return? More Jews were expelled from Arab lands than arabs from Jewish lands.
The refugees are ALSO the JeWS and the collective arab world has refused to do so.
Israel is on the right side of history and the arab world is on the wrong side, this is also why the arab side is self destructing.
Despite quot;s protestations, the Israeli NEED the money from the US.
ReplyDeleteThat 1.5% of GDP that US aid represents, to Israel, more important to them than he would lead US to believe.
Israel’s new finance minister, the popular Yair Lapid, is faced with the reality of needing to close a budgetary deficit of more than $11 billion over the next year or two.
...
About half of the hole will be filled by budget cuts, the other by new taxes. The large debt requires Israel to spend an enormous amount of money on interest payments, and that is a huge waste of money when there is not enough economic growth.
The US should immediately withdraw loan guarantees and end all direct payment subsidies.
All military sales to all portions of Palestine, including Jordan and Israel, should be curtailed, until the occupied territories are returned, by the Israeli, to the proper sovereign polity.
blahblahblah
Deletenotice how General Bunk gets on a roll?
Deletecant contain his worm tongue mouth....
you can almost see him wringing his crusty scaly hands with delight...
Lovin' every minute of it.
DeleteWhat ever happened to the rebuttal of every point strategy?
Fell by the wayside, did it.
That's the trouble with Israelis, no real resolve to Stay the Course!
General Bunk, as you have never been to Israel you are hardly qualified to many any assertion as to it's "stay the course" ability.
DeleteJust the fact that Israel has withstood for 60 years your fellow jihadists loving stooges and has grown a world class Nation testifies to it's "staying the course"
Building in Jerusalem, Judaism's most holy city against the opinions of people like you PROVE that Israel is staying the course.
So now?
Israel is STAYING THE COURSE and doing what is right for all of it's citizens. Building roads, schools and opening up areas to relieve housing shortages.
GO Israel
Where would like them to go, quot?
DeleteThe ash heap of history?
One never knows.
Perhaps your dreams will come true.
Perhaps the arabs of the middle east that hate the oppressive arab governments will all come to the USA...
DeleteLet's see.
Oh that's already happening...
Let's hope they move to AZ.
Not a problem
DeleteWe got Sheriff Joe
Key figures in a lawsuit that alleges that an Arizona sheriff's office has racially profiled Latinos in its immigration patrols. A judge ruled Friday that Arpaio's office systematically racially profiles Latinos:
ARPAIO: Sheriff Joe Arpaio has aggressively pursued local immigration enforcement. The sheriff has been accused of launching some immigration patrols based on letters from people who complained about people with dark skin congregating in a given area or speaking Spanish but never reporting an actual crime. Arpaio denies the racial profiling allegations, remains popular with voters and easily won re-election last year. His opponents are trying to recall him, but have had trouble finding enough signatures.
JUDGE: The racial profiling lawsuit was decided by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow, not a jury. Snow previously barred Arpaio's deputies who are enforcing Arizona's 2005 immigrant smuggling law from detaining people based solely on the suspicion that they're illegal immigrants.
We got them dang Checks and Balances, too
The Deputy Prime Minister paid tribute for Muslim groups for responding to the brutal murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Wednesday with a call for “unity and calm”.
ReplyDeleteMr Clegg said: “Over the last few days London has shown itself at its best: an unbreakable city once again refusing to bow to hatred and violence. Of all the groups and faiths represented here today, I would like to pay special tribute to London’s Muslim community.
“An unspeakable act has been conducted in their name. Yet while this has provoked feelings of frustration and anger - it flies in the face of the peace and love that Islam teaches - Muslim organisations, Mosques, Imams and community leaders have responded with a call for unity and calm. They have set an example for us all.”
The 25-year-old soldier, from Crumpsall, Manchester, was walking towards the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, south-east London, on Wednesday when he was run down by a car and murdered by two alleged terrorists.
Mr Clegg added: “That we are meeting here like this - Londoners from different faiths and backgrounds, interrupting their busy lives to come together at a moment’s notice - is a powerful symbol.
Meanwhile, in the privacy of their mosques, they are smiling.
DeleteThis technique, approved in the Koran, is called taqiyya.
The technique used in Philadelphia, by boobie's proxy ...
DeleteStab the black baby in the base of the skull, with a scissors.
At the very thought of it ...
you can almost see him wringing his crusty scaly hands with delight...
they are giving out sweets in the streets...
Deletedesert ratFri May 24, 10:14:00 AM EDT
DeleteThe technique used in Philadelphia, by boobie's proxy ...
Stab the black baby in the base of the skull, with a scissors.
At the very thought of it ...
you can almost see him wringing his crusty scaly hands with delight...
Wow General Bunk, at least hat tip me when you steal the very words I used to describe you!
"you can almost see him wringing his crusty scaly hands with delight..."
Yep that is the Rodent for us..
.
ReplyDeleteYour sources are so outrageous, it makes it easy to debunk.
As in,
blah,blah,blah
blah,blah,blah
blah,blah,blah
More profundity from the Wizard of ID. The man is so abstruse no one can understand a word he says.
.
You really don't get tired of General Bunk's repeated replayed recordings day after day?
DeleteNo wonder Hamdoon said you were worthless 98% of the time.
Magnificent, though, other than that.
Wizard of ID was good, I must admit.
DeleteWhile I agree Rat's repeated remonstrations about past statements by you and WiO to be tiresome it is not as tiresome as your meaningless drivel.
DeleteIn either case I scroll on by - though you may have noticed I have tried reading a few of your posts again to see if anything has changed. Unfortunately little has changed except an apparent attempt on your part to appear a little more reasonable. Unfortunately the reasoning in your writings is, ummmm, lacking - to put it mildly.
Fox Flash - British fighter jets escorting airliner from Pakistan to early landing in England.
ReplyDelete297 aboard.
Rudy Giuliani just made a great comment - said Obama is now for a Shield Law for Journalists....to protect them against.... himself!
ReplyDeleteheh
U.S. gasoline consumption in April dropped to the lowest level for the month in 13 years, the American Petroleum Institute said.
ReplyDeleteTotal deliveries of gasoline, a measure of demand, fell 3.9 percent from a year earlier to 8.47 million barrels a day, the industry-funded group said today in a report. Year-to-date consumption has averaged 8.38 million barrels a day, down 2.1 percent from the same period in 2012.
“The weak gasoline consumption numbers are related to the weak economy,” John Felmy, chief economist with the Washington-based API, said in a telephone interview. “Gasoline demand tends to be a reflection of employment and retail sales, both of which are anemic. There was also a rise in prices, which probably trimmed demand.”
Weak Demand
yep it's called a recession
DeleteIt's, actually, more than that. We're in a paradigm shift.
DeleteYeah millions on the government tit...
DeleteNah, that's a childish reading of the situation. I thought you might have been one of the smarter of the anonymi; I see I was wrong. Good day.
DeleteForeign, NATO and Pakistani intervention in the Afghan civil war has not seemed to have ended the fighting.
ReplyDeleteIt is like a see saw, over there.
Sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down.
There has been a large explosion in the centre of the Afghan capital, Kabul, followed by heavy gunfire. Afghan Channel One TV quoted police as saying a group of assailants had entered the Directorate of the Afghan Public Protection Force (APPF).
Obamacare got some very good news on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteIn 2009, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that a medium-level “silver” plan — which covers 70 percent of a beneficiary’s expected health costs — on the California health exchange would cost $5,200 annually. More recently, a report from the consulting firm Milliman predicted it would carry a $450 monthly premium. Yesterday, we got the real numbers. And they’re lower than anyone thought.
As always, Sarah Kliff has the details. The California exchange will have 13 insurance options, and the heavy competition appears to be driving down prices. The most affordable silver-level plan is charging $276-a-month. The second-most affordable plan is charging $294. And all this is before subsidies. Someone making twice the poverty line, say, will only pay $104-a-month.
Sparer plans are even cheaper. A young person buying the cheapest “bronze”-level plan will pay $172 — and that, again, is before any subsidies.
California is a particularly important test for Obamacare. It’s not just the largest state in the nation. It’s also one of the states most committed to implementing Obamacare effectively. Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — remember how that really happened? — California was the first state to begin building its insurance exchanges. The state’s outreach efforts are unparalleled. Its insurance regulators are working hard to bring in good plans and make sure they’re playing fair. If California can’t make the law work, perhaps no one can. But if California can make the law work, it shows that others can, too.
DeleteAnd perhaps others will. We’re beginning to see competition drive down proposed rates in some exchanges around the country. Remember Maryland, where CareFirst grabbed headlines with a shocking 25 percent proposed increase in rates? More plans have streamed in with lower bids. Kaiser Permanente, for instance, is only increasing its rates next year by 4.3 percent — a modest increase that will make CareFirst’s proposal almost impossible to sustain. My guess is when the exchange actually opens in October, CareFirst will have dropped its price substantially. If they don’t, then Kaiser and others will grab all the market share.
So I pay $1475 a month for 2 adults and 2 kids...
DeleteWill I see a REDUCTION???
The way this competition can drive down rates is already evident in Oregon. There, one insurer came in with monthly premium costs in the $169 range, while other insurers asked to charge more than $400. But then, seeing what their competitors were charging, two insurers came back to the state’s regulators and asked if they could refile at lower rates. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be competitive in the exchange. The Obama administration was ecstatic to see this: It’s exactly what they’re hoping will happen across the country.
DeleteOf course, California and Oregon are managing Obamacare particularly well. But the state-by-state nature of the Affordable Care Act creates really unusual political dynamics around how the law is perceived in its first year.
Imagine it’s the end of 2014. California now boasts a working, near-universal health-care system. Nothing perfect, but clearly a a success after the first year of implementation. Texas, meanwhile, is a bit of a mess. They didn’t allow the Medicaid expansion so the state’s poorest residents got nothing. They didn’t help with the exchanges, or the outreach, so there aren’t many choices, and premiums aren’t as low one might hope.
Viewed in isolation, Texas’s problems would be deadly for the law. But viewed next to California, they might mainly be a problem for the political class in Texas, which has failed to implement a clearly workable law.
My rates USED to be $675 for a family of 4, then they sky rocketed over the past 6 years.
DeleteSo now It will go down to the level pre-obama started at...
except I was charged for 5 years (or more) at triple the rates.
Go away, Rufus, you are bothering me.
Delete;)
Go to Obamacare911
Deletehttp://www.newsmax.com/Pages/landingPages/obamaCare911/
for your copy of the Obamacare Survival Guide
The ObamaCare Survival Guide reveals:
•How currently insured will be affected, ((((including rising premium costs))))
•Medicare shocker: cuts in benefits, new rules
•The coming Medicaid-Medicare merger
•New protections for the uninsured
((((•ObamaCare 911: Hidden fees and levies))))
((((•New taxes for the affluent))))
((((•New taxes for “Cadillac” insurance plans))))
((((•Small businesses: new requirements, tax credits))))
((((•Business owners: fines, new rules))))
((((•Prescription drug users: new fees))))
•Medical professionals: new requirements
•A timetable for each part of the healthcare plan
•Essential benefits insurance companies must provide
•ObamaCare’s impact on long-term care
(((((•Coming rationing for seniors)))))
•New state exchanges to buy insurance
•Your responsibilities and penalties under the new laws
•How to maximize your healthcare dollar on the new plan
•ObamaCare 911: The cost to you as a consumer
•And much, much more . . .
It's a matter of life and death.
and the boobie squawks yet again
Delete"blah, blah, blah..."
DeleteAshFri May 24, 12:27:00 PM EDT
blah, blah, blah ooooo I'm a cutie titter titter titter
boobie:
DeleteTheir name was possibly based on the Spanish slang term bobo, meaning "stupid",[1][2] as these tame birds had a habit of landing on board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Owing to this, boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors, notably William Bligh of the Bounty and his adherents, during their famous voyage after being set adrift by Fletcher Christian and his followers.
Showing Promise
ReplyDeletePerfect example of why the savages called palestinian arabs are allowed to control the argument
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b1dD4JituOk#!
. . . . In a sense, the really remarkable thing about “Abenomics” — the sharp turn toward monetary and fiscal stimulus adopted by the government of Prime Minster Shinzo Abe — is that nobody else in the advanced world is trying anything similar. In fact, the Western world seems overtaken by economic defeatism.
ReplyDeleteIn America, for example, there are still more than four times as many long-term unemployed workers as there were before the economic crisis, but Republicans only seem to want to talk about fake scandals. And, to be fair, it has also been a long time since President Obama said anything forceful publicly about job creation.
Still, at least we’re growing. Europe’s economy is back in recession, and it has actually grown a bit less over the past six years than it did between 1929 and 1935; meanwhile, it keeps hitting new highs for unemployment. Yet there is no hint of a major change in policy. At best, we may be looking at a slight relaxation of the savage austerity programs Brussels and Berlin are imposing on debtor nations.
It would be easy for Japanese officials to make the same excuses for inaction that we hear all around the . . . . .
Japan the Model
...but Republicans only seem to want to talk about fake scandals.
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to the real scandals that are unfolding before the eyes of the world?
What are the fake scandals?
Fake scandals are Democratic scandals, real scandals are Republican scandals.
DeleteIn the newest revelation on a fake scandal, AG Holder's real signature has been found on a real document really authorizing real harassment of real political enemies.
Did Eric Holder lie in Congressional testimony last week?
posted at 10:01 am on May 24, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/24/did-eric-holder-lie-in-congressional-testimony-last-week/comment-page-1/#comments
>>As it turns out, Holder not only heard of it, he personally approved it.
He also gave himself an out, saying he didn’t remember all of the subpoenas he signed. He must have “forgotten” about this one.
farsighted on May 24, 2013 at 10:06 AM<<
Dougman, you have to be patient with Rufus.
DeleteHe is in shock, and deep deep denial.
He is a good person, just very troubled right now.
You should have included the very next sentence, Dougman - the one that read, "And, to be fair, it has also been a long time since President Obama said anything forceful publicly about job creation."
DeleteThe man is asking some very important questions about the world economy, and all you and bob can do is pick up on a throw-away line about partisan politics?
I mean, jeez guys, get a grip.
If he has said anything about job creation it is to change the subject away from The Three Scandals.
DeleteHe doesn't have time for much of anything else these days.
.
DeleteThrow-away line?
Until your last comment, I didn't bother to check your source. I merely assumed it was was Paul Krugman. When I did check, I was right.
It's one thing to argue whether Krugman is right or wrong. There are a lot of people on both sides of that arguement. But it's silly to argue that his comment on 'fake scandals' was just a throw-away line.
Krugamn long ago changed from just being an economist and morphed into a political pundit. Now, there are those who would argue he is much more the latter than the former. He is about as non-partisan as E.J. Dionne.
.
How can he be trusted to lead the United States (Military, economy, etc) when his character is in question?
DeleteAnd, I would refer you, once again, to the very next sentence. This column was not political in any way, shape, or feel. What's wrong with you people?
Delete...throw-away line about partisan politics?
DeleteSorry to keep harping on this.
You are right about the column not being political but the sentence shines a light on the columnist and his partisanship.
Care to take a swing at this: How can he be trusted to lead the United States (Military, economy, etc.) when his character is in question?
ummmm, 'cause he got elected to?
DeleteFuck, Dman, when's the last time we had a President (or any other politician) whose character wasn't in question?
DeleteBarky orders Holder to investigate.....Holder
ReplyDeleteBwahahahahaha
Obama Orders DOJ Review of Leak Investigations
Jonathan Karl
By Jonathan Karl
@jonkarl
Follow on Twitter
May 23, 2013 5:12pm
President Obama is a little uneasy with the way journalists have been dragged into the Justice Department’s aggressive pursuit of national security leak investigations. In fact, he has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a 45-day review of the department’s guidelines on the issue.
That bit of news was buried in the middle of the president’s hourlong speech today at National Defense University.
“Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs,” President Obama said. “Our focus must be on those who break the law.”
And then the news: “I have raised these issues with the attorney general, who shares my concern. So he has agreed to review existing Department of Justice guidelines governing investigations that involve reporters, and will convene a group of media organizations to hear their concerns as part of that review. And I have directed the attorney general to report back to me by July 12th.”
......
Prediction:
Holder is going to be under the bus soon.
And the importance of that is ...
DeleteWhat, exactly?
Holder will be replaced, without a doubt.
You will be disappointed in the choice, without a doubt.
Obama will remain President, without a doubt.
The 2014 elections will be upon US, the GOP will Party, like it's 1998.
Knowing that 'scandals' will propel them to power, rather than 'ideas'.
The demographic shifts will continue on track and trend.
The GOP gains in the House, they will be below average for an 'off year' election.
The Democrats will retain control of the Senate.
Just as predicted by Ramesh Ponnuru.
Prediction:
DeleteGeneral Bunk will always remain the cynical sad son bitch he has always been.
And the importance of that is...
Nothing at all.
lol
DeleteMerrill Lynch figures approx. half of the drop in Labor Force Participation Rate is Demographic, and half is cyclical/secular. They figure it will, basically, trend sideways for a few years, from here.
ReplyDeleteSounds about as good as any other theory, I guess.
decent chart
Regarding Gitmo, the WSJ reports
ReplyDelete–A growing recognition among Republican senators that the situation isn’t sustainable in the long run. Sen. John McCain pushed hard at an Armed Services Committee hearing this week for a plan to close the detention center.
He argued that the prison represents “an image problem, a reputation problem” for the U.S. around the world.
Others feel the same way and argue in private that holding detainees for an indeterminate period without formal judicial proceedings violates American principles, though they are less vocal about it.
The WSJ still quotes John McCain as the primary GOP spokesman, on many matters. As does the rest of the MSM, for that matter.
Wonder why they are not quoting Mitt Romney, is he not the Standard bearer, for the Republicans?
Or are the media and the DC elites on both sides of the aisle just going to forget the "Last Cycle" even happened?
Who is going to stand up for Republicans and their support for Romneyomics, now?
Especially after the Apple off shore tax shelter hearings made everyone feel so warm and cozy inside.
What seems interesting, from the Clinton News Network opinion section...
ReplyDeletePeter Bergen
For the first time on Thursday, President Obama laid out the full scope of his proposed counterterrorism strategy, and it boiled down to this: George W. Bush's endless war on terror is over.
And that's appropriate, since the enemy Bush went to war with after September 11 has largely been defeated.
Obama's speech at the National Defense University in Washington was designed to lay the political groundwork to wind down America's longest war, the war that began when al Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Center and a wing of the Pentagon 12 years ago.
Thursday's speech was the first time Obama had delivered an overarching framework for how to conceptualize the conflict that has defined U.S. national security policy since 9/11...
...
But the most significant aspect of the speech was the president's case that the "perpetual wartime footing" and "boundless war on terror" that has permeated so much of American life since 9/11 should come to an end.
Obama argued that the time has come to redefine the kind of conflict that the United States is engaged in: "We must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us."
This is why the president focused part of his speech on a discussion of the seemingly arcane Authorization for the Use of Military Force that Congress passed days after 9/11 and that gave Bush the authority to go to war in Afghanistan against al Qaeda and its Taliban allies.
Few, if any, in Congress who voted for the authorization understood at the time that they were voting for a virtual blank check that has provided the legal basis for more than a decade of war. It is a war that has expanded in recent years to other countries in the Middle East and Africa, such as Yemen and Somalia, where the U.S. has engaged in covert military operations against al Qaeda-affiliated groups.
Here is the kicker ...
DeleteQ, he will take notice.
Obama says he wants the 14SEP2001 AUMF to expire, find an ending ...
But, CNN reports that there are those that want to extend and expand the 14SEP01 AUMF, not allow the withdrawal from Afpakistan to signal 'the end'.
However, there are now some in Congress who would like to expand the scope of the Authorization for the Use of Military Force beyond its present parameters to include military operations against terrorist groups that were not involved in the 9/11 attacks, which could prolong America's wars indefinitely and add additional terrorist groups to the United States' list of enemies it is at war with.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, ranking member of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for instance, last month called for an expansion of the scope of the authorization.
The Perpetual War Party spokesman speaks out.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/24/opinion/bergen-end-of-terror-war/
Delete.
Delete.
Q, he will take notice.
Q did take notice.
I noticed that I liked what Obama said concerning a number of items including his national security policy, the WOT, the attacks on the First Amendment, world opinion, and the Constitution. I also liked what he implied about items such as press freedom and Gitmo.
However, while I am encouraged by the speech, I am also leery. GW reigned in some of his worst abuses when faced with a nation and a court that were turning on him. I am not credulous enough to believe he turned because he thought he was actually wrong. I am willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on what he said. If he is merely offering it up as a preemptive effort to avoid Bush's fate, I am fine with that too. However, I will wait to see what he does not what he says.
"When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master— that's all."
Obama, like most every other politician in dealing with the press and the public uses the MacNamara Rule from the Fog of War,
"Don't answer the question they asked," the former Secretary of Defense (1960-1968) advises with a smile. "Answer the question you wish they'd asked."
And the press, whether through merely looking for the sound bite of the moment, or because of simplicity, fatuousness, or partisanship will usually take the answer and run with it even in those instances when they know their original question wasn't answered.
What I notice are the words that are spoken, what is said and what is not said, what is implied either through intent or through crafty wordsmanship, and what actions actually flow from the words spoken.
.
.
DeleteObama in this speech, like Bush before him, never admitted that anything he did was wrong; however, what he did admit was that much of what he was doing was controversial, that it was being questioned by many across the world on constitutional, moral, and international law grounds. He indicated he had given orders to his minions to address some of these controversial issues, Eric Holder on the press freedoms issue for instance. He also implied certain things. He told his boys that the new drone policy had to minimize collateral damage and reduce to the extent possible civilian deaths which implies he will be doing away with ‘signature strikes’.
But will he? Remains to be seen. When you define a terrorist as anyone of military age who is in the vicinity of a strike, the questions remain. There are enough, you’ll pardon the term, weasel words scattered through the speech so that all we can do is wait to see what happens. But I am at least glad that the facts on the ground seem to have caught Obama’s attention.
As far as the AUMF goes, Obama says
So I look forward to engaging Congress and the American people in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the AUMF’s mandate.
I hope he means what he says.
The same point you make about the GOP, I made in a post yesterday. The point you make about them being the war party is legitimate although the phrase ignores the number of Dems that signed on to the AUMF originally, and face it, Obama can hardly be called a pacifist.
Congress, in a rush to do something after 9/11, passed the AUMF. It was way to broad, way to general, and way to open-ended. The fact that it would be abused was inevitable. That abuse was started under Bush and continued in different directions under Obama. Now Obama says he wants to end it. If he means it, that’s great. But with the people we currently have in Congress, and I’m not speaking strictly of the GOP, it may be very difficult to put the genii back in the bottle.
The good thing is that even with the authorization, Obama is not forced to use it. I’ll wait to see what happens.
.
I certainly did not mean to imply that the is much of a difference 'tween Republican and Democrat or that only the GOP members constituted the War Party.
DeleteAs you know, Q, I call 'em all Federal Socialists.
Two peas in the same pod.
I do think it interesting that he addressed the AUMF, at all.
I recall saying he'd never admit victory, but ...
The "he", referenced above, The President, not the Senator.
Deletehttp://proteinwisdom.com/?p=49381
ReplyDeleteAnything wrong with this picture?
Drudge has this up:
ReplyDeletePres Obama boarded Marine One without returning salute of US Marine at the steps. The Pres then came back out to shake the Marine’s hand.
A general officer is not required to return a salute. The idea of a President returning a salute is ludicrous.
Reagan started that shit. Thought he was in the movies. The worst thing to do is for a president to return the salute of a general. Let them salute, tell the general to be at ease and let him know who is boss.
ReplyDeleteYou are undoubtedly right, but Reagan did look so snappy doing it.
DeletePhotos of Obama's son, Trayvon Martin -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/Trayvon-Martin-evidence-photos-679832
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330068/George-Zimmerman-Marijuana-guns-fighting-New-photos-texts-Trayvon-Martins-cell-phone-paint-troubling-picture-slain-teen.html
Delete
ReplyDeleteRS
MEMBER DIARY
Eric Holder Personally Signed Warrant To Search James Rosen’s Emails
By: Matt Vespa (Diary) | May 24th, 2013 at 10:30 AM | 1
So, Attorney General Holder personally signed off on the warrant to search James Rosen’s emails. Rosen, a Fox News journalist, was targeted by the administration in 2009 in possible connection to a leak in the State Department over his story about North Korea. After this revelation, the DOJ seized Rosen’s phone records, personal emails, and even looked into his parents’ phone records. Holder has recused himself during the investigation into AP’s Yemen story, but this one, where he personally signed off on intruding into Rosen’s life and career, will put him straight in the crosshairs on Congress again – and rightfully so.
http://www.redstate.com/mvespa/2013/05/24/eric-holder-personally-signed-warrant-to-search-james-rosens-emails/
Holder really isn't all that bright.
DeleteThis is an understatement.
DeleteIn regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy.
As it turns out, Holder not only heard of it, he personally approved it. The warrant in the Rosen case specified that he was considered a potential suspect in the leak of classified material, the reason that the DoJ didn’t bother to follow the existing Watergate-era statute in coordinating the records request with Fox News. And note that Holder’s testimony in this case wasn’t produced by some sophisticated perjury trap sprung by a Republican, but as a freely-offered representation to no particular question during the question period of a Democrat.
...
Guy Benson @guypbenson
.@gabrielmalor @edmorrissey Here's a photo of Holder raising his right hand prior to that testimony: http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rtxznq8.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1 …
7:27 AM - 24 May 2013
http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rtxznq8.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/24/did-eric-holder-lie-in-congressional-testimony-last-week/
Swedes - big hearts, small brains -
ReplyDelete>>Sweden is a prime destination for asylum seekers because the country offers new immigrants free housing and social welfare benefits upon arrival. But many immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East are poorly educated and have great difficulty finding a job in Sweden....
....But the riots in Stockholm imply that the damage has already been done. The fatal flaw of Swedish multiculturalism has been to grant asylum to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have no prospect of ever finding a job or making a meaningful contribution to Swedish society. Many immigrants are, and will remain, wards of the state.
The Malmö-based Imam Adly Abu Hajar, in an interview with the newspaper Skånska Dagbladet, recently summed it up this way: "Sweden is the best Islamic state."<<<<
May 24, 2013
Swedish Multiculturalism Goes Awry
By Soeren Kern
http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2013/05/24/swedish_multiculturalism_goes_awry_105184.html
Morons
Pretty! This has been an incredibly wonderful post. Thank you for supplying these details.
ReplyDeleteMy page http://slc-wireless.com/
Quirk, fight Monsanto here -
ReplyDeleteDear MoveOn member,
Is there a company in the world more evil than Monsanto? I don't think so.
Last year, Monsanto spent nearly $6 million on lobbying, and their payoff was the "Monsanto Protection Act," which was written anonymously, passed in secret, and allows Monsanto to keep selling genetically engineered seeds even if a federal court says they may pose a health risk.1
Now, Monsanto has sneaked an amendment into the farm bill that would block GMO labeling laws moving forward in states like Vermont and Connecticut.2
This time, Monsanto may have gone too far. A massive backlash is growing against the Monsanto Protection Act, and Senator Jeff Merkley is demanding a floor vote to repeal it.
We can beat Monsanto, but we don't have much time to get organized, because the farm bill has already passed the House and is being debated in the Senate right now. Can you chip in $5 to help MoveOn members fight back against Monsanto?
Yes, I want to pitch in $5 to help fight back against Monsanto.
We know that we'll never be able to outspend Monsanto, but with your help we can out-organize them with smart, well-timed, targeted campaigning. Together, we can take on Monsanto by:
Supporting campaigns all over the country led by MoveOn members targeting their members of Congress, asking them to stand up to Monsanto's influence.
Providing financial support for flyers, rallies, transportation and the other crucial nuts and bolts necessary to run a strong campaign.
Calling out key members of Congress who are supporting Monsanto over the public interest and making sure the public knows whose side they're on
MoveOn leaders around the country are eager to push forward, but they need your help: If we can raise $150,000 in the next two days, we can help kick-start these campaigns immediately.
Last year, Monsanto's $6 million investment bought them several favorable pieces of legislation. But right now, your investment of $5 can help launch a nationwide movement to make sure that our democracy isn't auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Click here to contribute $5 to support the campaign against Monsanto.
Thanks for all you do.
–Anna, Wes, Linda, Mariana, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Lobbying Spending Database—Monsanto Co, 2013," OpenSecrets.org, accessed May 21, 2013
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000055
"How the Monsanto Protection Act snuck into law," Salon, March 27, 2013
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=290195&id=68363-3903780-gVVcPex&t=4
2. "'Monsanto Protection Act 2.0′ Would Ban GMO-Labeling Laws At State Level," International Business Times, May 20, 2013
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=290225&id=68363-3903780-gVVcPex&t=5
If you are a little short on the $5, I'll extend credit, but will need adequate security.
Delete.
DeleteThanks. Please send in the $5 and I will think of paying you on Tuesday.
As for security, you have the greatest security in the world, my word.
.
WHICH Tuesday?
DeleteI've had my credit division run a credit check. How in the world did you avoid serious jail time for all those felony bad check? The Judge your uncle, or something?
DeleteAnyway, I don't see how, with your background, I can go the whole $5. I can go $2.50/48%/monthly payments/one year/your car title as security.
Great opportunity to begin to build your credit rating up again.
ReplyDeleteThe nature of Israel as a state of immigrants is best reflected by the percentage of those who were born outside the country.
In 1948, out of a Jewish population of 716,700, more than 64 percent were born outside the country.
In 1992, out of a Jewish population of 4,218,200, more than 41 percent were born outside the country.
Between 1948-1967 more Jews were driven out of their homes from arab conquered lands than arabs were drive out from the Jewish state.
DeleteThis is why today, there are more arabs in Israel than existed in all disputed lands in 1948.
Israel has a population of 20% because Israel didnt ethnically cleanse the arabs from their midst, now the arab nations? They did in fact ethnically cleanse the Jews.
So if we want to say thanks? We should say thanks to the Arabs for helping form the core of immigrants to Israel by being the savages they are..
Thanks Arab savages!!!! Thanks
Just like the savage arabs declared war on America and caused America to form a Navy to FIGHT those arab savages. The Arabs caused America to become the UNITED states of America.
Thanks Arab savages!!!! Thanks
General Bunker again gets his head shoved up his backside.
DeleteI am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout
ReplyDeleteon your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself?
Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it's rare to see a nice blog like this one these days.
My weblog Pay day loan
Contact Quirk.
DeleteIf he has a payday.
Little wonder the poster that advocates for aborting black babies is a fan of Israel.
ReplyDeleteFrom the folks at Forbes.
Israel Forcibly Injected African Immigrants with Birth Control, Report Claims
Some 130,000 Ethiopians, most of them Jewish, live in Israel. The community experiences higher poverty and unemployment rates than the rest of the country’s Jewish population. In the past decade, the birth rate among Ethiopian-Israelis has declined by at least 20 percent. Advocacy groups now claim this decline is the result of a birth control regimen forced upon Ethiopian immigrant women.
According to an article in Haaretz, an Israeli news source, one Ethiopian immigrant said that the doctors who injected her claimed that “people who frequently give birth suffer.” While it is possible, if highly unlikely, that doctors genuinely had the women’s health in mind when they forcibly injected them with contraceptives, there is no excuse for depriving women sovereignty over their own reproductive choices.
Israel has acknowledged the issue (without admitting any wrongdoing) and has vowed institutional changes in healthcare for immigrants. By decree of Israel’s health minister, gynecologists have been ordered “not to renew prescriptions for Depo-Provera for women of Ethiopian origin if for any reason there is concern that they might not understand the ramifications of the treatment.” Still, intense scrutiny should be applied by women’s groups and international organizations to make sure these changes are implemented in full. Moreover, more attention must be paid to the plight of vulnerable African immigrants around the world.
That Israel should allegedly engage in this activity is particularly shocking, considering the practice was widely used by the Germans throughout the Shoah. While the scale and effects of these operations cannot be compared, Israel’s implicit intent to limit ‘burdensome’ (read: undesirable) portions of the population recalls the dark eugenics experiments of World War II.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseknutsen/2013/01/28/israel-foribly-injected-african-immigrant-women-with-birth-control/
Delete
DeleteBlah, blah, blah
Training the immigrant children, to be cannon fodder for the Europeons
ReplyDeletewhile the menu is quintessentially Israeli, the students are not. Their parents come from as far afield as Cuba, Iraq, Russia, and Ethiopia. Struggling to fit in, they have been kicked out of one, two, even four schools. Some are as many as seven grades behind in reading or math when they arrive at this boarding school on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
“Our children here are at the end of the road,” says educational manager Naama Katz.
So three years ago, she and her colleagues turned to a Native American educational philosophy that focuses on developing a complete person through values like independence and generosity, that they feel is overlooked as a resource for children today. They say it’s hard to quantify the benefits of the new approach, but the fact that 80 to 90 percent of their students graduate and are accepted by the army gives them encouragement.
Gotta keep those boots filled.
The Orthodox refuse to serve in the military of the people of their sovereign polity.
Blah, blah, blah
DeleteGeneral Bunk, who claims Israel is always an aggressor, and is a colony of Europeans, would be better served if he claimed the Orthodox are the only Israelis who refuse to be aggressors and take a stand for anti-colonialism.
DeleteIt would make as much sense.
But, he is our General Bunk, and our Bunk never makes much sense.
Yesterday, while I was at work, my sister stole my apple ipad and tested to see
ReplyDeleteif it can survive a 30 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation.
My apple ipad is now destroyed and she has 83 views. I know this
is totally off topic but I had to share it with someone!
my page ... raspberry ketone ultra slim
Got a Blackberry?
DeleteGood site you've got here.. It's hard to find quality writing like yours these days.
ReplyDeleteI seriously appreciate individuals like you!
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We were leaving the cool of the mahogany bar at The Imperialist and we all had been drinking heavily, and Q was way over his limit. He had taken it into his mind to pay the bar bill for the all of us, but after the fourth credit card was declined over limit I stepped in and paid with cash. I do not know if Q knew his cards would be rejected. Perhaps he did and was simply trying to build sympathy, or to show his good will. Hamdoon had instructed us all to go to our respective rooms and individually think over his suggested plan. It was a longshot. We were to meet at the Pow Wow of The 500 Nations. A critical element was getting Umatilla a Press Pass, and into the Press Conference the President was holding there. Only Native Americans were to be allowed at this Press Conference. We were going to our rooms and I was thinking Q might actually provide some value here, what with his expertise in creating fraudulent documents.....
ReplyDeleteGood for Francis -
ReplyDelete>>As other nonbelievers have noted, he’s a man who admirably emphasizes deeds over words....
....However, Francis does emphasize the universality of Christ’s redemptive power, and it is through that redemptive power that salvation becomes possible. He is clearly open to the idea that Christ may well redeem even those who are non-believers. More fully articulated, that would open up a new wager, in which whether or not one believed, ((((one’s actions in the world would determine one’s access to paradise)))). Even the hint of such an idea from man whose spiritual power stems from being the heir to St. Peter, holder of the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, is striking. Still, that God might save those who neither believe nor participate in the sacraments is not a new idea. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, one finds the statement, “God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound by his sacraments.” If God wants to save someone, they will be saved.<<
Pope: Second look at letting atheists into heaven?
posted at 5:21 pm on May 24, 2013 by Allahpundit
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/24/pope-second-look-at-letting-atheists-into-heaven/
Is Hitch in Heaven?
Something is up, the gods are beginning to speak -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/24/us-space-planets-idUSBRE94N0VH20130524
Some dread or blessed downfall may be about to occur.
Contradicting General Bunk and General Rufus -
ReplyDeleteMay 25, 2013
U.S. Military: We Could Have Saved Ambassador Stevens
By Jonathon Moseley
>>Elite U.S. troops were completely capable of saving Ambassador Chris Stevens during the Benghazi Consulate attacks on September 11, 2012. Elements of the highly specialized Combatant Commanders In-Extremis (CIF) units are always on alert, on forward deployment, ready to respond. Their job description is to hit the ground in 3 to 5 hours. CIF elements are ready to engage in active combat anywhere in their region, 3 to 5 hours after the call.
Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense at the time, either misled the U.S. Congress or was incompetent. Panetta testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on February 7, 2013 that the U.S. military could not have responded in less than 9 to 12 hours.
Obama's first secretary of defense, Robert Gates, told CBS's Face the Nation on May 12, 2013 that "[w]e don't have a ready force standing by" in that region.
But we absolutely do "have a ready force standing by" to reach any trouble spot in a few hours. Insider reports previously revealed that CIF elements were training in Croatia and could have been in Benghazi in three and a half hours.
Although rotating out of the United States, some CIF elements are always forward-deployed within each military command region, always on stand-by. Their training includes expertise within each local region. Some of each region's unit is always ready. They don't need to pack. Being ready to go -- immediately -- is their job description. It's the reason they exist.
The U.S. military has developed a range of capabilities, from CIF teams to the Navy SEALs, to Rangers, to Green Berets. But now many in the special forces/special operators community feel betrayed. Commanders in Extremis units are so highly trained and expert that even elite Green Berets wash out of the highly demanding CIF training in large numbers.
Standard military doctrine is to activate all such resources immediately, even if they are ultimately not used. Military's plans require getting such teams in the air and on the way, not waiting to see if they will be needed.
So Panetta's and Gates's statements to the public violate standard military protocol. Leon Panetta telegraphed to our enemies an image of incompetence of U.S. forces. Panetta's testimony was an insult to the U.S. military. Elite forces go through constant, grueling training to be able to do what Panetta and Gates say they cannot do. One of the purposes of "special operators" is deterrence. Panetta and Gates undermined that deterrence.<<
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/us_military_we_could_have_saved_ambassador_stevens.html