COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Netanyahu keeps threatening to attack Iran himself, if the US Pentagon won’t do it for him, but this bluff is transparent. Israel cannot plausibly conduct a successful military operation so far from its borders (Iran is a long way away). It didn’t even do a good job with a little aid ship, the Mavi Marmara.



Posted on 07/16/2013 by Juan Cole
The Iranian electorate did about the most cruel thing possible to uber-hawk Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It replaced former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with an eminently reasonable and personable successor, Hasan Rouhani.
The Israeli and American politicians who desperately want to fall on Iran the way a hungry lion does on a lamb had made hay with Ahmadinejad’s quirkiness and foot in the mouth disease. They also deliberately mistranslated him to make him seem menacing, even as he kept saying Iran would never launch a first strike.
Here are the reasons not to pay attention to the recent round of saber-rattling by Netanyahu, who never met a war (including the illegal one on Iraq) he didn’t love:
1. Everyone knows that the real reason Netanyahu keeps squawking about Iran is that he is trying to take the focus off the Israel campaign of ethnic cleansing and Apartheid policies toward the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
2. Everyone in the international community agrees that the new president of Iran will have to be given at least a year, and maybe more, to prove he is an earnest negotiator for Iran. You can’t just attack a presidential administration that only recently got into office and before taking the measure of it. The European powers and the countries of the global South would never accept it.
3. Iran is not proved to have a nuclear weapons program, as opposed to a civilian nuclear enrichment program aimed at making fuel for nuclear reactors.
4. Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has repeatedly affirmed that Iran’s theocracy cannot accept the production, stockpiling or use of nuclear weapons, since they cannot be deployed without killing hundreds of thousands of innocent non-combatants (e.g. women and children), and killing innocent non-combatants is illegal according to the Qur’an and Islamic law.
6. Contrary to what Netanyahu says, Iran does not have an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States, and the country is highly unlikely to have one any time soon.
7. The International Atomic Energy Agency does inspections of Iran’s enrichment facilities and [pdf] according to its most recent report, “the Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared material at these facilities” That is, the IAEA has visited the sites where Iran does enrichment work, and its inspectors can testify that the enriched uranium is under seal, is all accounted for, and none has been diverted to weapons purposes. The IAEA has other complaints, especially that Iran won’t go beyond its obligations in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of the 1960s. But technically Iran is not required to do so by the treaty, and there is no proof that Iran is weaponizing.
8. Iran is actually a small weak country with a defense budget somewhere between that of Singapore and Norway, and isn’t a plausible threat to the United States.
9. Netanyahu keeps threatening to attack Iran himself, if the US Pentagon won’t do it for him, but this bluff is transparent. Israel cannot plausibly conduct a successful military operation so far from its borders (Iran is a long way away). It didn’t even do a good job with a little aid ship, the Mavi Marmara.
10. Iran’s nuclear enrichment program is based on running thousands centrifuges, which don’t all have to be in the same place. An Israeli air strike couldn’t possibly destroy all or most of them, and would only set the Iranian program back a little.

112 comments:

  1. Just dying to drag the US into another ME war.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that Iran was moving closer to developing nuclear weapons capable of striking the U.S., and urged the Obama administration to take a harder line.
    During an appearance on “Face the Nation,” Netanyahu said that despite a new government in Tehran, Iran’s nuclear program would have intercontinental ballistic missiles that could carry a nuclear weapon to the United States within a few years.
    “They don’t need these missiles to reach us,” Netanyahu said. “They already have missiles that can reach us.”



    Read more: http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/310875-netanyahu-iran-developing-nukes-to-reach-american-shores#ixzz2ZCGxMbrO
    Follow us: @thehill on Twitter | TheHill on Facebook

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not all Israelis buy what Bibi is hawking

    TEL AVIV, Israel, July 15 (UPI) -- As John Kerry struggles to breathe life into an expiring Mideast peace process, Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel's internal security service, has publicly chastised Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for failing to make a real effort to secure an agreement with the Palestinians.

    In a remarkable, hard-hitting analysis published by The Jerusalem Post, Diskin, a longtime critic of Netanyahu's policies and an influential figure in Israel's security establishment, warned that the Jewish state is fast approaching "a point of no return" that will inevitably lead to disaster.

    "There is no alternative but to enter into a diplomatic process with the Palestinians, here and now, despite the anxieties and the numerous risks," he wrote.

    "Without such a process, we will certainly cross the point of no return, after which we will be left with one state from the river to the sea for two peoples," he observed, referring to the Jordan River, the eastern boundary of the occupied West Bank, and the Mediterranean.

    In the absence of a two-state solution, the Jewish state and West Bank would be merged into a single state, dominated by Israel and the 400,000 Jewish settlers

    But there are widespread concerns that for the 4 million Palestinians in the West Bank, this would be an apartheid state in which the Arabs would be secondary citizens.

    "The consequences of such a state, for our national identity, our security, our ability to maintain a worthy, democratic state, our moral fiber as a society, and our place in the family of nations would be far-reaching," Diskin warned.

    Many Jews fear that given the higher Palestinian birthrate, Jews would soon be overwhelmed by non-Jews.

    The stalemate is widely attributed to Netanyahu's dogged refusal to stop expanding Jewish settlements the West Bank despite repeated entreaties from Washington, or make any meaningful concessions that would restart long-stalled talks.



    Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/07/15/Ex-Shin-Bet-chief-blasts-Netanyahu-in-West-Bank/UPI-48851373899483/#ixzz2ZCHcQCtm

    ReplyDelete
  4. >>>Obama's Iran policy has thus far failed to produce any credible deterrent. It's time for Obama to build on the lead of Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, who warned last month that Iran only has only a few months to demonstrate to the West that it is serious about a negotiated solution to the standoff.
    Israel doesn't have the luxury of treating its red lines the way Obama has treated the one he set for Syria's use of chemical weapons; that means that the volatile Middle East of today could become far more engulfed in war and instability. Netanyahu's latest message may be the canary in the coalmine giving its final warning, so Obama should provide bold leadership on this critical issue before it's too late. New Jersey-sized Israel survives only by the strength of the military force that it projects. Critical to that deterrent is making good on its threats, as Israel did with its destruction of the Iraqi and Syrian nuclear programs, in 1981 and 2007, respectively, and its ongoing surgical airstrikes to prevent Syria from transferring game-changing weapons to Hezbollah.
    Given such exploits, isolationists might wonder why the U.S. should bother; let Israel bear all of the costs and risks of eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat for us, goes the thinking. But the nuclear program in Iran is far more dispersed, hardened, and distant than what Israel neutralized in Iraq and Syria. Iranian nukes are truly vulnerable only to U.S. military capabilities. Expecting Israel to do the job is like a heavyweight-boxing champion asking his featherweight friend to defend him against the approaching middleweight champion. Such cowardly tactics needlessly endanger the featherweight ally, but -- more importantly -- there is a good chance that the middleweight won't be fully neutralized and will feel far more emboldened to attack the heavyweight after he concludes (alongside the rest of the world) that the heavyweight is just a paper tiger.<<<

    July 16, 2013
    Apocalyptic Threats Cannot be Hoped Away: Iranian Nukes Must be Stopped
    By Noah Beck

    Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/07/apocalyptic_threats_cannot_be_hoped_away_iranian_nukes_must_be_stopped.html#ixzz2ZA9jYKPr


    Since Israel really isn't capable of doing this effectively alone, unless they use nukes, and since Obama isn't getting into it, nothing at all will happen, most likely.

    Therefore: relax

    ReplyDelete
  5. EU takes tougher stance on Israeli settlements

    'Earthquake' directive will prohibit EU states from signing deals with Israel unless settlement exclusion clause is included

    Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
    guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 July 2013 08.50 EDT

    The directive covers all areas of co-operation between the EU and Israel, including economics, science and culture, but excludes trade. Photograph: Reuters/Corbis
    Future agreements between the European Union and Israel must include the explicit exclusion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank or East Jerusalem, according to a new EU directive described by an Israeli official as an "earthquake".

    The EU guidelines, adopted on 30 June, will prohibit the issuing of grants, funding, prizes or scholarships unless a settlement exclusion clause is included. Israeli institutions and bodies situated across the pre-1967 Green Line will be automatically ineligible.

    The Israeli government will be required to state in any future agreements with the EU that settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are outside the state of Israel.

    The directive, part of the 2014-20 financial framework, covers all areas of co-operation between the EU and Israel, including economics, science, culture, sports and academia. It does not cover trade, such as produce and goods originating in settlements.

    An EU statement said the guidelines "set out the territorial limitations under which the commission will award EU support to Israeli entities … Concern has been expressed in Europe that Israeli entities in the occupied territories could benefit from EU support. The purpose of these guidelines is to make a distinction between the state of Israel and the occupied territories when it comes to EU support."

    The move follows a decision by EU foreign ministers last December that "all agreements between the state of Israel and the EU must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967". All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

    "The EU is trying to force Israel to adopt its position on settlements," said an Israeli official. "Israel will have to explicitly express in writing the EU's position. We don't believe the EU's position should be forced down our throats like geese." He said it was impossible for Israel to agree to such a demand.

    The directive would affect "all realms of co-operation", he added, and would result in "rising tension and increased friction" and "create a lot of bad blood".

    Another Israeli official told Haaretz, which disclosed the new guidelines, the move was an "earthquake" which unprecedentedly turns "understandings and quiet agreements that the [EU] does not work beyond the Green Line" into "formal, binding policy".

    Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi welcomed the guidelines. "The EU has moved from the level of statements, declarations and denunciations to effective policy decisions and concrete steps which constitute a qualitative shift that will have a positive impact on the chances of peace," she said.

    "The Israeli occupation must be held to account, and Israel must comply with international and humanitarian law and the requirements for justice and peace."

    The new requirements would affect the EuroMed Youth agreement, under negotiation, which involves joint youth projects and exchanges, said Haaretz.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So the EU, the people who exterminated 6 million Jews now will demand that Jews forgo any attachment to the Western Wall.

      Now that's funny.

      Delete
    2. Almost as funny as the USA government getting pissy about the Egyptians overthrowing the Moslem Brotherhood.

      Delete
    3. The EU is overrun with Islamic refugees from Arab and Islamic nations.

      The very same stats (BUT WORSE) that Deuce showed the other day about black crime in America can be shown for Islamic rapes, thefts and murders in Europe.

      Welcome to the new world order.

      Delete
    4. I put up articles and stats about the situation in Sweden. It is awful. The moslem sport of the hour there is raping Swedish women.

      Delete
  6. Former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who is wanted in the US on espionage charges, has requested temporary asylum in Russia, officials have said.

    Russian officials and lawyer Anatoly Kucherena confirmed on Tuesday that Snowden had filed an application for temporary asylum, although he has said he wants eventually to travel to Latin America.

    Snowden, who revealed details of the US government surveillance programmes, has been stranded at a Moscow airport since June 23.

    Al Jazeera's Yulia Shcherbina, reporting from Moscow, said that a federal migration service officer was invited to Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport because the fugitive whistleblower could not leave the transit zone.

    "He has written the request and submitted it," Shcherbina said.

    Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, characterised Snowden earlier as an unwelcome present from the US.

    When asked what will happen to Snowden, Putin said: ""How should I know? It's his life and his fate."

    Putin said that the US had blocked all travel options for Snowden, who had planned only a transit stop in Moscow.

    "We weren't his final destination," said Putin, who made the comments while speaking to students on a Russian island in the Gulf of Finland.

    "He was flying to other states. As soon as there's the chance to move somewhere he will certainly do this."

    Asylum question

    Snowden was checked in for a flight from Moscow to Havana, Cuba on June 24 but never boarded the plane. His passport has been revoked by Washington, Snowden has been stranded in the airport's transit zone for the past three weeks.

    On Friday he said at the airport that he was seeking temporary asylum in Russia before he could safely travel to Latin America. The status of that application is unclear.

    The Russian president conspicuously refrained from indicating if or when he might grant asylum to Snowden. Putin said earlier this month that Snowden could claim asylum in Russia only if he stopped his leaks. Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have offered him asylum.

    Washington has reacted sharply to the possibility that Moscow might offer Snowden a safe haven and accused it of providing him a propaganda platform.

    Putin,who is set to host the US President, Barack Obama, for a bilateral summit in Moscow followed by the G20 summit in Saint Petersburg in

    ReplyDelete
  7. While Travon Matin is in the thoughts and prayers of Philadelphia Mayor, Michael Nutter, life and death goes on in Philadelphia.

    Note: The areas noted are not Korean, Chinese, Hassidic Jews, Italian or Amish.

    Emily Babay, Philly.com staff LAST UPDATED: Tuesday, July 16, 2013, 9:01 AM POSTED: Tuesday, July 16, 2013, 7:49 AM

    Ten people have been killed in Philadelphia since Saturday, an unusually deadly four-day span in the city.

    The killings, which have all involved gun violence, have been reported across the city and are not related.

    Police have not announced arrests in any of the slayings.

    The most recent two homicides occurred overnight. Shortly after midnight, a 21-year-old man was found fatally shot in a car on the 900 block of North Marvine Street, police said. The man, whose name has not been released, was shot once in the head, police said.

    Just more than an hour earlier, at about 10:45 p.m., 20-year-old Tyrone Hayes was shot in the chest on the 1500 block of North 23rd Street. He was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:10 p.m. Police said the motive in the killing was unknown.

    Two other killings were reported in the city earlier Monday, and police identified those victims this morning.

    At about 5:30 p.m., 31-year-old Anthony Bailey was fatally shot in the chest in a house on the 2000 block of Lambert Street in North Philadelphia.

    And at around 2:30 a.m., 35-year-old Derrick Thomas was killed after he was shot on the 700 block of West Luzerne Street in Hunting Park.

    Those deaths came after a deadly weekend in which six people were killed. Those killings occurred:
    - At 10 p.m. Sunday, when 21-year-old Craig Jackson was shot in the chest on the 5600 block of B Street in North Philadelphia during an argument.
    - At 9 p.m. Sunday, when a 32-year-old man was shot in the chest, arms and leg near 27th and Reed streets in Grays Ferry. The victim's name was not released and no motive was known in the killing.
    - Shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday, when 21-year-old Alfred McCory was fatally shot in the head and back on the 2000 block of Bellmore Street in Kensington. Police did not know the motive for the slaying.
    - At about 1 a.m. Sunday, when 43-year-old William Kenneth Wise was shot in the head on the 2700 block of North 27th Street in North Philadelphia. The motive was not known.
    - At about 4 p.m. Saturday, when 17-year-old Tremaine Rogers was shot to death during an argument on the 900 block of North 64th Street in Overbrook. - At about 7:15 a.m. Saturday, when 45-year-old Joseph Wisman was fatally shot in the chest during an apparent robbery on the 2000 block of Simpson Street in Southwest Philadelphia.


    Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/10_homicides_in_Philadelphia_since_Saturday.html#LBmiOlXCRb3JsOBZ.99

    ReplyDelete
  8. You will not hear from MSNBC, Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, The Washington Post, NAACP.

    ReplyDelete
  9. All the victims could have been the son that Obama never had.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Selective indignation?

    All the victims were black.

    I don’t know that any of them deserved it.

    Who are the real racists in this country?

    Let them come to Philadelphia. Spread a little brotherly love. Comfort the families. Thoughts and prayers sort of thing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. No, they don’t count, being capped by black men, not in the same orbit and as newsworthy.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What's going on here in the MSM and the Race Hustlers is basically the creating of the hagiography of a Saint.

    Sainthoodie

    This country is losing its mind.

    That last article you put up on the last thread was a good one, Deuce.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I appreciated its reference to the Skittles and ice tea and how those two ingredients are used 'on the street' to mix up some kind of drugged up drink. That is what I had read else where.

      Delete
    2. What a crock of shit.
      Skittles and Snapple mixed to get a drug drink.

      If you believe that it would be more than a sugar rush, you are fucked in the head.

      Delete
    3. Would you support the FDA outlawing both products?

      Or do you think that governmental control of the sugar content of the typical American would be enough to end the threat that Skittles and Snapple pose to the culture of America?

      Delete
    4. It's called LEAN and it's mixed with Robitusen with Codeine

      Dextromethorphan is a semisynthetic opiate derivative which is legally available over-the-counter in the United States. It is most commonly found in cough suppressants, especially those with "DM" or "Tuss" in their names. It is almost always used orally, although pure DXM powder is occasionally snorted. The effects of DXM generally fall into the category of dissociatives, along with ketamine, PCP, and nitrous.
      [ Main DXM Vault ]
      Dose #
      As with many psychoactive substances, dosages of DXM vary greatly, depending on the individual and the desired level of effects. Recreational doses range from 100 mg to 1200 mg or more.
      Price #
      Price Summary Needed.
      Law #
      DXM is legal to buy, sell, or possess in the United States although it is increasingly common for stores to require that buyers be over 18 years old. If sold for human consumption, it is regulated by the FDA.
      Chemistry #
      Dextromethorphan hydrobromide (C18H25NO) is a semisynthetic derivative of morphine, a chemical found in the opium produced by opium poppies.
      Pharmacology #
      DXM is partially converted by first-pass metabolism into the active compound dextrorphan, which exerts cough-suppressing and dissociative effects through non-competitive antagonism of NMDA receptors. It is non-analgesic and does not cause sedation or respiratory depression. It is readily absorbed and has a half life is around four hours.
      Production #
      Production Summary Needed.
      History #
      DXM was approved for use as a cough suppressant in 1958 and soon became widely available in pill form as a non-narcotic alternative to opiate-based cough suppressants. Cough syrups replaced the pill form in the late 1970s to discourage recreational use.
      Terminology / Slang #
      The Substance:
      DXM; Dextromethorphan; Robo; Tussin.
      The Experience:
      Robo-tripping; Tussing; Dexing.

      Delete
    5. “…DXM causes physical and psychological effects that may be frightening or unpleasant… Psychological effects can include profound disorientation, depression, a feeling of personal disintegration, or a feeling of “unreality” and disconnection that may persist for days. Chronic use may cause depression, psychological dependency, and possibly brain damage. Large doses may be associated with psychotic breaks…”

      Delete
    6. So it is not Skittles and Snapple that create the drug drink, as anoni previously claimed.

      Now it is Robitusen with Codeine that is the drug, neither of which were in evidence in the first post or at the trail of Z.

      Half truths are being perpetrated on this blog to make TM look guilty of being a "gangsta" when, instead, it is anoni that chose to pursue a blood libel against Martin and his community.

      Another link in the growing chain of evidence of anoni's racism and bigotry against non-white America.

      He should be ashamed of himself.

      Delete
    7. Robitusen with Codeine does not require either Skittles or Snapple to be an effective gateway to Robo-tripping, Tussing or Dexing.

      In fact Skittles and Snapple have no active ingredients that would induce a drug related reaction.

      The lies continue, all in an effort to besmirch the victim in Florida.

      Delete
    8. Sounds like anon above knows more than I about street drugs. I know basically nothing about them.

      But Skittles and tea are used in this wonderful mixture somehow?

      Because I have read three times now that Skittles and tea are used in the mixture of some street drug.

      And no, I wouldn't outlaw Skittles and tea.

      Rufus, on the other hand, has advocated selling heroin and cocaine at the local pharmacy.

      I am opposed to that.

      I think such a policy would be a disaster for the nation's youths.

      Delete
  13. As to the crimes in PA and IL, the continually mounting death toll on the streets of urban America ...

    Decriminalize marijuana and criminalize handgun possession.

    Eliminate the funding to the drug cartels and street distributors, by legalizing marijuana and make possession of a handgun, by folks not members of a well regulated State militia, a minimum five year sentence.

    Decriminalize marijuana on the Federal level and leave the weapons possession, by others than members of well regulated State militias, illegal. Weapons legislation to be enacted at the State level, in those States that have issues with urban violence.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The well regulated militias could then supplement the urban police. Performing Neighborhood patrols in a well regulated manner. Patrolling in tandem, with accountability to the instructions from the police.

    Not as rouge individuals out looking for an opportunity to commit murder by self defense.

    ReplyDelete
  15. As a Libertarian how is it that you always have formulas for what others should and should not do?

    Legalize this, but criminalize that. Tax this, but don't tax that.

    What about selling heroin and cocaine at the local pharmacy, as Rufus has argued?

    Do you support that?

    Thankfully the Supreme Court has already addressed the issue of private ownership of guns, so your 'libertarian' idea of confiscating all the private handguns in the country is a non starter.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Never claimed to be anything other than a Librarian, dimwit.

      I have never claimed to be a Libertarian, though I did support one or two for President.
      They lost.

      The Supremes ruled on private gun ownership, you say?

      Supreme Court Lets Stand Ban on Machine Gun Ownership
      January 15, 1991

      Without dissent, the high court let stand an appeals court ruling which upheld a 1986 federal law banning the manufacture, sale or ownership of new machine guns except by police or government agencies. The appeals court dismissed the notion that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution gives individuals a right to possess guns which have been banned by the government.


      In the case ... (Farmer vs. Higgins, 90-600)

      Delete
  16. Prosecutor Excused Potential Black Juror for Being a FOXNEWS Watcher...drudge

    Heh, I find that ironically humorous.


    Responsible blacks in American are ashamed of what is going on right now.


    Maya Angelou: 'What is really injured is psyche of our national population'...drudge

    But Maya Angelou seems to be at least on the right track.

    >>>>Author, poet, and activist Maya Angelou was shaken by the verdict of the George Zimmerman trial, saying it shows “how far we have to go” as a country. “That one man, armed with a gun can actually profile a young man because he is black and end up shooting him dead…It is so painful,” Angelou said in an interview with TIME Monday.

    The case, which was decided Saturday, has caused deep divisions across the country. Some believe the verdict was a grave injustice. Others believe Zimmerman was acting in self-defense and had every right to stand his ground against Trayvon Martin.

    Angelou, however, believes the verdict’s impact will affect people from all communities across the country. “What is really injured, bruised, if you will, is the psyche of our national population,” Angelou said. “We are all harmed. We are all belittled, and we give to the rest of the world more ammunition to sneer at us. “<<<<



    Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/07/16/maya-angelou-reacts-to-zimmerman-trial-evoking-civil-rights-era/#ixzz2ZB3bjWkz

    ReplyDelete
  17. I think it's the ethanol.


    >>>>Bad buzz: Mosquitoes love to bite beer drinkers, study


    By Cheryl K. Chumley-The Washington Times Tuesday, July 16, 2013

    Roughly 20 percent of people are more frequent meal tickets for mosquitoes than the rest of the population, and Smithsonian Magazine set out to investigate: Why?

    Beer drinkers beware. Mosquitoes love the brew.


    A Smithsonian Magazine blogger wrote: “Just a single 12-ounce bottle of beer can make you more attractive to the insects, one study found. But even though ((((((researchers had suspected this was because drinking increases the amount of ethanol excreted in sweat))))), or because it increases body temperature, neither of these factors were found to correlate with mosquito landings, making their affinity for drinkers something of a mystery.”<<<<



    Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/16/bad-buzz-mosquitoes-love-beer-drinkers-study/#ixzz2ZB5V129o
    Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

    ReplyDelete
  18. Love the TREAD title piece.

    So much disinformation in such a small area...

    ReplyDelete
  19. The Iranian electorate did about the most cruel thing possible to uber-hawk Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It replaced former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with an eminently reasonable and personable successor, Hasan Rouhani.


    The nuke program is not controlled by the elected president, it's controlled by the Supreme Islamic Leader

    Strike one.

    ReplyDelete
  20. The Israeli and American politicians who desperately want to fall on Iran the way a hungry lion does on a lamb had made hay with Ahmadinejad’s quirkiness and foot in the mouth disease. They also deliberately mistranslated him to make him seem menacing, even as he kept saying Iran would never launch a first strike.


    Mistranslation? Hardly But let's review, what nation holds a "Day without Israel" and a "Day without America" holiday each year?

    Which nation supplied Hezbollah with 100s of thousands of rockets to destroy Israel?

    Which nation has repeatedly been exposed violating the NPT with undisclosed Plutoium and Uranium plants?

    Which nation held the USA embassy hostage for over a year?

    Which nation funded and supplied Sadr in Iraq to murder and maime thousands of American GIs with improved IED's?

    WHich nation is building a base in Sudan and has used Sudan to smuggle illegal weapons to Hamas and the Moslem brotherhood of the SInai?

    Strike two

    ReplyDelete
  21. Here are the reasons not to pay attention to the recent round of saber-rattling by Netanyahu, who never met a war (including the illegal one on Iraq) he didn’t love:


    Wow...

    Never met a war he didnt love?

    Strike three

    ReplyDelete
  22. .

    Hagel orders 20% cut in top military personnel.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/hagel-orders-20-percent-cut-in-pentagon-top-brass-senior-civilians/2013/07/16/7a004788-ee56-11e2-8163-2c7021381a75_story.html?hpid=z3

    .

    ReplyDelete
  23. Looks like somebody struck out to me.

    Good pitching WiO.

    ReplyDelete
  24. The Kansas Citian

    News and Opinions on Issues That Impact Kansas City and the Nation

    Tuesday, May 29, 2012

    More Than a Bag of Skittles - Trayvon Martin and Purple Drank

    You've heard the rhetoric and read the headlines, Trayvon Martin killed for being armed with Skittles and iced tea. You've probably even heard that Trayvon was stalked by Zimmerman, who gunned him down for the heinous crime of walking while black. All claims that persist to this day despite the fact that eye witnesses put Trayvon on top of Zimmerman pummeling him MMA style.

    If the eye witness accounts about Trayvon attacking Zimmerman are true, what motivation would he have to do so? Many suggest anger over being followed by Zimmerman, something Trayvon's girl friend states Trayvon was worried about while talking to her on the phone that night. Others have suggested Trayvon may have been on drugs, however, even though drug tests revealed Trayvon had recently used marijuana, no one really believes that would cause the paranoid and violent behavior he committed that night according to Zimmerman's version of the events.

    To this day, Skittles and iced tea still serve as symbols of predjudice because of Trayvon's shooting. Some schools have even gone so far as to hold Trayvon Martin Day and hand out Skittles to kids and tea to parents for attending special events. But, as you are about to see, Trayvon Martin having Skittles and iced tea may reveal a lot more about the events of that night than anyone ever thought.



    Early I mentioned the need for Trayvon Martin to feel sufficiently paranoid to lash out violently in the way Zimmerman and eye witnesses claim. This is important because a street drug that is popular in the young urban community known as Purple Drank or Lean produces those very side effects.

    Purple Drank or Lean is a coctail that is created by mixing Robitussin or other over-the-counter cough medicines with, you guessed it, Skittles and Arizona Watermelon Juice, the flavor of tea Trayvon Martin was carrying that night.

    Purple Drank also goes by other street names such as sizzurp, lean, syrup, sip sip, drank, barre, purple jelly and Texas tea. It has opiate like effects. Some of its side effects include confusion, agitation, and hallucinations among others.

    Recoverycorp.org describes the drugs popularity in the hip hop community:

    Purple drank grew out of the underground Houston hip-hop community in the 1990s along with chopped and screwed rap music—a slowed down, remixing of rap songs using skipped beats and scratching. DJ Screw aka Robert Earl Davis Jr. is said to have originated the style of the slow chopped and screwed, which compliments purple drank's effects of relaxing the user.
    DJ Screw died in 2000 of a codeine overdose. That same year, Three 6 Mafia's song "Sippin' on Some Syrup" made purple drank mainstream. The group's song "Rainbow Colors" is about adding Jolly Rancher candy to create the desired rainbow.

    Around this same time, evidence of purple drank began showing up across the South from Lafayette, Louisiana to Pensacola, FL.
    In a 2004 University of Texas survey, according to a USA Today article, "8.3% of Texas secondary students reported having taken enough codeine syrup to get high."

    Terrence Kiel, a defensive back with the San Diego Chargers was arrested in 2006 for illegally shipping cases of prescription cough syrup to Texas.

    In a 2008 MTV interview with Lil Wayne, the rapper discusses his addiction to purple drink, and how hard it is to get off it, saying it feels like "death in your stomach."

    It is unknown whether the autopsy performed on Trayvon Martin looked for or found elevated levels of cough syrup in his blood.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. >>>>DJ Screw died in 2000 of a codeine overdose. That same year, Three 6 Mafia's song "Sippin' on Some Syrup" made purple drank mainstream. The group's song "Rainbow Colors" is about adding Jolly Rancher candy to create the desired rainbow.<<<<

      DJ Screw-ed himself.

      Codeine overdose.

      Delete
    2. Zimmerman to dispatcher:

      "He looks like he's on drugs or something..."

      Delete
    3. There is no high to Skittles, other than sugar.
      A little caffeine in the Snapple,

      You are a racsst pig to keep up the charade.

      The Federals will ruin Zimmerman's life, if the Black Panthers don't kill him, in self defense.

      The law in Florida is obscene, if the defendant happens to be a black woman.

      IF IT BOGGLES your mind that George Zimmerman, a 29-year-old with a gun, could be acquitted after pursuing — and killing — an unarmed 17-year-old, here’s another brain teaser: How could Marissa Alexander, a 31-year-old mother of three, receive a 20-year prison sentence for firing a bullet into a wall near her abusive ex-husband, even though no one was harmed?

      It’s true. Florida is one of the worst places to fire a gun into the air, even as it appears to be one of the best places to actually shoot at a person.

      Here’s the story: In 1999, Florida’s “tough-on-crime” lawmakers passed one of nation’s harshest gun laws. Known as “10-20-life,” the law stipulates that a person who commits a felony with a gun gets an automatic 10 years in prison. A person who fires that gun gets an automatic 20 years. And a person who injures someone or kills someone with the gun gets 25-to-life.


      Delete
    4. "He's just wandering around..."

      Delete
    5. (((((In a 2008 MTV interview with Lil Wayne, the rapper discusses his addiction to purple drank, and how hard it is to get off it, saying it feels like "death in your stomach.")))))


      Recoverycorp.org describes the drugs popularity in the hip hop community:

      Purple drank grew out of the underground Houston hip-hop community in the 1990s along with chopped and screwed rap music—a slowed down, remixing of rap songs using skipped beats and scratching. DJ Screw aka Robert Earl Davis Jr. is said to have originated the style of the slow chopped and screwed, which compliments purple drank's effects of relaxing the user.

      DJ Screw died in 2000 of a codeine overdose. That same year, Three 6 Mafia's song "Sippin' on Some Syrup" made purple drank mainstream. The group's song "Rainbow Colors" is about adding Jolly Rancher candy to create the desired rainbow.

      Around this same time, evidence of purple drank began showing up across the South from Lafayette, Louisiana to Pensacola, FL.

      In a 2004 University of Texas survey, according to a USA Today article, "8.3% of Texas secondary students reported having taken enough codeine syrup to get high."

      Terrence Kiel, a defensive back with the San Diego Chargers was arrested in 2006 for illegally shipping cases of prescription cough syrup to Texas.

      In a 2008 MTV interview with Lil Wayne, the rapper discusses his addiction to purple drink, and how hard it is to get off it, saying it feels like "death in your stomach."

      It is unknown whether the autopsy performed on Trayvon Martin looked for or found elevated levels of cough syrup in his blood.

      Delete
    6. You have no fucking idea what you're talking about. Purple Drank is Promethezine/Codeine" cough syrup (which is purple.)

      here

      Delete
    7. Caliban, we taught thee to speak, and all thou doest is curse.

      Delete
    8. Does it go down well with Budweiser?

      Delete
    9. .

      Early I mentioned the need for Trayvon Martin to feel sufficiently paranoid to lash out violently in the way Zimmerman and eye witnesses claim. This is important because a street drug that is popular in the young urban community known as Purple Drank or Lean produces those very side effects.

      From "The Kansas Citian", as re-run in the American Thinker?

      The need for Trayvon Martin to feel sufficiently paranoid? More likely pissed off more than paranoid, what with some dumb ass following him around.


      Purple Drank or Lean produces those very side effects.

      Was there any evidence that 'Purple Drank' of 'Lean' was in TM's blood? No? Yet 'The Kansas Citian' rants on for an entire article under the assumption Martin was using it.


      "He's just wandering around..."

      You know, like he's coming back from the store or something.


      Zimmerman to dispatcher:

      "He looks like he's on drugs or something..."



      You know, like 'Purple Drank' or as we know it in the neighborhood watch biz, Promethezine/Codeine" cough syrup. I also noticed that he was coughing suspiciously.


      Is there any wonder we encourage you to stop reading American Thinker? Join ATA and get a life.

      .





      Delete
  25. Since the act of pulling out a gun and firing it can be considered “aggravated assault,” people who fire warning shots into the air risk a 20-year prison sentence.

    Alexander, whose ex-husband admitted that she was afraid of his abuse, is not the only one in prison for shooting at nothing.

    Ronald Thompson, 62, a disabled veteran, fired two shots into the ground to protect an elderly woman from her violent 17-year-old grandson. State Attorney Angela Corey — the same prosecutor in the Zimmerman case — charged him with four counts of aggravated assault. Thompson was sentenced to 20 years in prison, a punishment that the judge in the case called a “crime in itself.” (He is currently awaiting a new trial.)

    Orville Lee Wollard, a former auxiliary police force member, shot a bullet into the wall to scare away his daughter’s abusive boyfriend. Prosecutors offered him probation. But he wanted to be exonerated at trial. Now he’s serving 20 years.

    Erik Weyant, 22, fired shots in the air to disperse a group of drunk men who accosted him in a parking lot outside a bar and blocked his car. No one was hurt. But he’s in for 20 years.

    In many cases, the fact that they chose to fire a warning shot, instead of aiming to kill, was used as evidence against them at trial, said Greg Newburn of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. If you were truly in fear of your life, the logic goes, you would aim at the chest, not the wall.

    Florida lawmakers, in their infinite wisdom, began to notice that a lot of people were getting severely punished simply for defending themselves. But instead of repealing the Draconian measure, they passed another one: the “stand your ground” law.

    “The intent was to provide assurance and safety that if you are protecting yourself, you don’t get caught up in any statute,” Crist, who is also a co-sponsor of “stand your ground,” told me.

    Just as 10-20-life was meant for criminals — the robber at the liquor store — “stand your ground” was meant for victims — the person who shoots a carjacker. The idea was that the criminal should get 20 years, and the victim should walk free.

    But the world isn’t always neatly divided into criminals and victims. Sometimes “self defense” is in the eye of the beholder. If Trayvon Martin had survived — and testified that Zimmerman threw the first punch — then who would have been the criminal and who would have been the victim? And had Alexander shot and killed her abusive ex-husband, would she have had a better chance of getting immunity with a “stand your ground” defense?

    “I think so,” said her attorney Michael Dowd.

    So in the sick logic of Florida’s gun laws, the message is clear: If you are going to shoot, shoot to kill. You stand a better chance of walking free.

    ReplyDelete
  26. If you were to believe Justice Scalia ...

    “Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill,” Justice Scalia wrote. Government buildings in general could still ban guns. And the court said it had no quarrel with “laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

    Justice Scalia added that laws banning “dangerous and unusual weapons” are “another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms.” He gave an example: “M-16 rifles and the like.”

    When the case was argued in 2008, Justice Scalia suggested that other kinds of weapons and ammunition could be regulated. “I don’t know that a lot of people have machine guns or armor-piercing bullets,” he said. “I think that’s quite unusual.”


    Sawed off shotguns are illegal, just like machine guns, under the same statute.
    Lots of folks have shotguns.

    Their ownership CAN be regulated, even under the District of Columbia v. Heller decision.


    To highlight the Federals Courts ...the court said it had no quarrel with “laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

    Being a member of a well regulated militia could certainly be a legal condition and qualification for owning a handgun.

    Any gun, for that matter.

    Your ignorance of the law, anoni, approaches that of boobie, who thought he had a retirement account in DC, holding his FICA taxes, in his name.

    Felming v Nestor was a mystery to him, as District of Columbia v. Heller and the no decision in Farmer vs. Higgins seem to be, to you.

    If ignorance is bliss, you must be a very happy fella.

    ReplyDelete
  27. So Mr. Nasty Rat, if TM were on top of you beating you MMA style and pounding your head into the concrete, what would you have done? Retreat? How? Zimmerman couldn't even get up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mr Nasty Rat has his own standards..

      He's ok with killing them from 240 yards..

      Delete
    2. If Zimmerman had followed the instructions of the police 911 dispatcher, he'd have not found himself on the ground.

      With minor injuries.

      As for the rest, anoni refuses to admit that the Law can require qualifications and condition to handgun ownership.

      He refuses to admit eating Skittles and drinking Snapple will not induce a drug drink

      Delete
  28. Fired Employee to File Whistleblower Lawsuit Against Prosecutors... drudge

    This should be good. They with held evidence from the defense that was favorable to the defense.

    This is a no-no.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I urge N. Rat to give his horse about a gallon and a half of codeine mixed with ice tea and Skittles to sweeten the taste, light a marijuana fire in its stall for half an hour, then go riding.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Hamdoon was sitting by himself at the end of the plain pine plank bar in Sheridan, Wyoming, letting his mind wander and drinking an Alawite with a Christian chaser, and watching Fox News. And then it hit him. I must be getting older, he immediately thought. The Skittles wrappers. Every operation. At the crisis point. Where he is most magnificent, old Quirk, almost transcendental, inhuman. The tea bags. The bravery to the point of recklessness, the disregard of death. The codeine bottles. And the utter exhaustion afterwards, the feeling of death in his gut, as he described it....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Hamdoon took a slow sip of his drink and smiled wryly as he thought back to that scene three years ago in the Calcutta dive when Quirk in a fit of uncontrollable rage rose and threw his glass at Bob, just missing his head, as he screamed, "Bob, you dumb fuck, I told you I needed Skittles, Skittles, Skittles, Skittles and instead you bring me Milk Duds. Get out of my sight!!!"

      .

      Delete

  31. “If Israel were an apartheid state, I, for example, would not be allowed to work for a Jewish newspaper or live in a Jewish neighborhood or own a home. The real apartheid is in Lebanon, where there is a law that bans Palestinians from working in over 50 professions. Can you imagine if the Knesset passed a law banning Arabs from working even in one profession? The real apartheid is also in many Arab and Muslim nations, like Kuwait, where my Palestinian uncle, who has been living there for 35 years, is banned from buying a house. The law of Israel does not distinguish between a Jew and an Arab".

    Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, talk in Jerusalem, November 2010

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      And yet, The Wizard of ID, even though a card carrying member of AIPAC, wouldn't be allowed to work for a Jewish newspaper under any circumstance. (Well, admittedly that might be due less to prejudice and more to the fact that though a purported English major, he is illiterate in three languages, English, Swedish, and Hebrew.)

      .

      Delete
  32. CARNEY: Suggestion Obamacare reduces full-time hiring 'belied by facts'...

    SURVEY: 74% of small businesses will fire workers, cut hours...

    Zuckerman: Jobless Recovery Is Phony Recovery...drudge

    ReplyDelete
  33. On this day in 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m., in Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first atom bomb was successfully tested, code named Trinity, the result of a frantic, years-long effort to weaponize nuclear fission ahead of the Nazis. The mushroom cloud rose 40,000 feet into the air, carried the destructive power of 15,000-20,000 tons of TNT, and vaporized the tower on which the bomb sat.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Deconstructing Reality and Zimmerman
    Peter Wehner
    07.16.2013 - 4:50 PM




    On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder, in addressing the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, reiterated that the Department of Justice is considering filing federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman in the aftermath of his acquittal. Mr. Holder went on to say, “I want to assure you that the Department will continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law. We are committed to standing with the people of Sanford, with the individuals and families affected by this incident, and with our state and local partners in order to alleviate tensions, address community concerns, and promote healing. We are determined to meet division and confusion with understanding and compassion – and also with truth… We will never stop working to ensure that – in every case, in every circumstance, and in every community – justice must be done.”

    What an ironic formulation for Mr. Holder to use. Set aside the fact that Attorney General Holder, who considers America to be a “nation of cowards” on race, has done more than his fair share to divide us along racial lines. Set aside, too, the fact that Mr. Holder’s relationship to the truth is often tenuous, including when he’s testifying before Congress on matters ranging from the Fast and Furious gun-running program to the Department of Justice’s investigation of Fox’s James Rosen.

    What I had in mind is that in this case the facts, the truth, and the law all point in the same direction: George Zimmerman was not guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter–and racism was not a factor in the death of Trayvon Martin. The prosecution team said as much. (Angela Corey, the special prosecutor in the case, conceded, “This case has never been about race.”) So did the jury. (One of the jurors in Zimmerman’s state trial told CNN on Monday that she did not think Zimmerman racially profiled Martin. “All of us thought race did not play a role,” said the juror.) And so did Chris Serino, the Sanford Police Department detective who headed the shooting probe. He said the fatal shooting was not based on Martin’s skin color, nor was Zimmerman considered to be a racist. That doesn’t mean what Zimmerman did wasn’t misguided or a tragic error (see William Saleton’s piece here). But it does mean that (a) he wasn’t guilty of a crime according to Florida law and (b) the Department of Justice needs to give up meddling in this case since there was not a shred of evidence presented in the trial showing Zimmerman is racist or that his shooting of Martin was driven by racial bigotry.

    But that hardly seems to matter to some of those on the left and in the media, who are determined to turn this case into an example of a hate crime. Consider NBC News, which doctored recordings by Zimmerman in order to make him appear to be a racist. Here’s how NBC’s March 27, 2012 Today show’s abridged version of Zimmerman’s comments (made the evening of February 26, 2012) went: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.” And here’s how the real conversation went:

    Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.

    Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic?

    Zimmerman: He looks black.

    So what’s going on here? Part of the answer is that liberals long to use a case like this to transport them to an Atticus Finch-Tom Robinson, Edmund Pettus Bridge moment. They want things like the Zimmerman trial to be at core about a great civil rights struggle, even if it’s actually not. Which leads to my second observation.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. What we’re seeing from the left is post-modernism on full display. The facts, the truth and objective reality are subordinate to the progressive narrative. In this particular instance many liberals so want the killing of Trayvon Martin to be driven by bigotry–which would serve as both an indictment of racial attitudes in America and turn a horrible mistake into a “modern-day lynching”–that they will make it so, even if it requires twisting the truth into something unrecognizable. What matters, after all, is The Cause. And everything, including basic facts, must be bent to fit it. This kind of systematic deconstruction of truth is fairly common in college liberal arts courses all across America. But when it becomes the primary mode of interpretation in a murder trial, it is something else again.

      Most of us, when we hear the words “justice must be done,” believe that what is right, reasonable, fair and in accordance with the facts be done. But some on the left have something else in mind. For them, justice is a tool in a larger political struggle, a means to an end. Justice can be at odds with reality if reality is at odds with liberalism. Which is why the efforts to turn the Zimmerman verdict into a racial miscarriage of justice is so discouraging and so damaging.

      Delete


  35. Mrs. Ravioli comes to visit her son Anthony for dinner.

    He lives with a female roommate, Maria.


    During the course of the meal, his mother couldn't help but notice how pretty Anthony's

    roommate is.



    Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder

    if there was more between Anthony and his roommate than met the eye.

    Reading his mom's thoughts, Anthony volunteered, "I know what you must be thinking,

    but I assure you, Maria and I are just roommates.''

    About a week later, Maria came to Anthony saying, "Ever since your mother came to dinner,

    I've been unable to find the silver sugar bowl.

    You don't suppose she took it, do you?"

    "Well, I doubt it, but I'll email her, just to be sure."

    So he sat down and wrote an email:


    Dear MaMa,

    I'm not saying that you "did" take the sugar bowl from my house ; I'm not saying that you

    "did not" take it.

    But the fact remains that it has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.

    Your Loving Son

    Anthony



    Several days later, Anthony received a response email from his MaMa which read:



    Dear son,

    I'm not saying that you "do" sleep with Maria, and I'm not saying that you "do not" sleep

    with her. But the fact remains that if she was sleeping in her OWN bed, she would have

    found the sugar bowl by now.

    Your Loving MaMa


    Moral:

    Never Bulla Shita you MaMa

    ReplyDelete
  36. wow backwards is wow

    wow upside down is mom

    mom upside down is dad's favorite thing

    - Bob Saget

    ReplyDelete
  37. Jimmy Carter: Jury got it right in Zimmerman case

    POSTED AT 8:41 AM ON JULY 17, 2013 BY ED MORRISSEY


    This should have a few heads exploding on the Left, and possibly the Right as well — but former President Jimmy Carter gets it correct in this interview with WXIA in Atlanta. Well, mostly right, anyway (via TPM): VIDEO


    “I think the jury made the right decision based in the evidence presented because the prosecution inadvertently set the standard so high that the jury had to be convinced that it was a deliberate act by Zimmerman and that he was not defending himself and so forth,” Carter told television station WXIA in Atlanta. “It’s not a moral question, it’s a legal question and the American law requires that the jury listens to the evidence presented.”

    I hate to nitpick, especially when Carter gets it right in the broad sense, but the prosecution’s decision to set that bar was hardly inadvertent. They deliberately charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder, which required them to show deliberate intent or a depraved indifference to human life, and prosecutors followed that up with … no evidence whatsoever to prove it. However, the jury didn’t have to stick to that “high” standard — they could have convicted on manslaughter, which didn’t require those conditions, a charge which the jury considered and discarded.

    Other than that, Carter’s correct. Juries weigh evidence, not public opinion, and that’s what happened in this case. Note too that Carter sends a subtle message about federal involvement in this case, by advising everyone to accept the verdict and take Barack Obama’s advice to respect the jury’s decision, later in the interview.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/17/jimmy-carter-jury-got-it-right-in-zimmerman-case/

    ReplyDelete
  38. More proof - ;) - that Israel is 'an apartheid state' - !!

    Jerusalem police close Temple Mount to non-Muslims

    Kowtowing to Islamic supremacism and violent intimidation. "Police shut Temple Mount to non-Muslims,"

    by Haviv Rettig Gur for the Times of Israel, July 16 (thanks to Twostellas):

    The Jerusalem Police closed the Temple Mount to Jewish and Christian visitors Tuesday in an effort to prevent clashes between different religious groups.

    The closure order came on Tisha B’Av, a Jewish day of mourning that marks the destruction of the Jewish temples that stood on the site, which this year falls during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when many Muslims pray at the Dome of the Rock on the site.

    Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin attempted to enter the compound Tuesday morning, together with MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Jewish Home), but police prevented them from doing so.

    “Security assessments were made this morning, and the decision was made by the Israel Police to close the Temple Mount to all visitors, in order to prevent disturbances,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told The Times of Israel Tuesday morning.

    Thousands of Jews visited the Western Wall Tuesday in the plaza below the Temple Mount, and Muslims made a pilgrimage to the Dome of the Rock at the top of the mount.

    Asked if Elkin and Moalem-Refaeli didn’t enjoy parliamentary immunity to the police decision, Rosenfeld said, “No visits whatsoever are allowed to the Temple Mount.”

    Jihad Watch

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's obviously all concocted out of whole cloth:

      Everybody knows that followers of the Religion of Peace would not countenance "disturbances."

      Delete
    2. Obvious that Israel is a moslem dominated apartheid state. Jews and Christians take a back seat.

      Delete
    3. Not even Knesset members have any rights.

      Delete
  39. More Big Brother -

    Driving somewhere? There's a gov't record of that
    Associated PressBy ANNE FLAHERTY | Associated Press – 2 hrs 17 mins ago
    Email

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Chances are, your local or state police departments have photographs of your car in their files, noting where you were driving on a particular day, even if you never did anything wrong.
    Using automated scanners, law enforcement agencies across the country have amassed millions of digital records on the location and movement of every vehicle with a license plate, according to a study published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. Affixed to police cars, bridges or buildings, the scanners capture images of passing or parked vehicles and note their location, uploading that information into police databases. Departments keep the records for weeks or years, sometimes indefinitely.

    As the technology becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, and federal grants focus on aiding local terrorist detection, even small police agencies are able to deploy more sophisticated surveillance systems. While the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that a judge's approval is needed to track a car with GPS, networks of plate scanners allow police effectively to track a driver's location, sometimes several times every day, with few legal restrictions. The ACLU says the scanners assemble what it calls a "single, high-resolution image of our lives."

    "There's just a fundamental question of whether we're going to live in a society where these dragnet surveillance systems become routine," said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the ACLU. The civil rights group is proposing that police departments immediately delete any records of cars not linked to a crime.

    Law enforcement officials said the scanners can be crucial to tracking suspicious cars, aiding drug busts and finding abducted children. License plate scanners also can be efficient. The state of Maryland told the ACLU that troopers could "maintain a normal patrol stance" while capturing up to 7,000 license plate images in a single eight hour shift.

    http://news.yahoo.com/driving-somewhere-theres-govt-record-140052644.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is no expectation of privacy while on the public highways and byways.

      There is no question, fundamental or otherwise, we are living in an era where dragnet surveillance is routine and totally Constitutional.

      If you do not want your license plate to be scanned, stay in your garage.
      Stay off the public roads.

      There is no reasonable expectation of privacy on the public thoroughfares.
      The license plates are not yours, anyway, they do belong to the state that issued them.

      Delete
    2. While that may all be true, still it seems to me that traffic surveillance should be for traffic safety reasons, or some other legitimate reason, like looking for the car that the bank robbers were in, and not to make a profile of your life that goes into some data base.

      Congress should rein this in.

      Delete
    3. And this -

      >>There is no question, fundamental or otherwise, we are living in an era where dragnet surveillance is routine and totally Constitutional.<<

      - is simply insane.

      Some 'Libertarian' you turned out to be.

      Delete
    4. He's at liberty to argue for a totalitarian state.
      'nuff said.

      Delete
  40. Juror B37 proves the point, the system was bent.

    Juror B37 from the George Zimmerman trial appeared on Anderson Cooper's CNN show to talk about the trial, throwing around phrases like "those people," "boy of color," and saying George Zimmerman's "heart was in the right place" when he shot Trayvon Martin. Understandably, people are saying she was showing racial prejudice, and are shocked at how casual she seemed to be with it. Is she racist? Is she ignorant?...

    Just another racist anoni.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Providing Eric Holder all the reason he needs to really ruin Zimmerman's life, with Federal charges.

      Proof enough that the jury was racially biased.

      Delete
    2. But, but, Jimmah Carter said the jury came to the right decision.

      The defense agreed to this jury.

      One black man was excused for watching Fox News.

      It waan't a jury of hoodies, and it wasn't a jury of racists. It was a fairly chosen American jury. Which the defense agreed to.

      The report by the FBI determined that Zimmerman was not a racist.

      And President Obama, who started the whole fiasco, said "accept the verdict."

      And on this, at least, we all should really follow President Obama's advice.

      Delete
    3. Eric Holder does not answer to Jimmy "Cracker" Carter.

      Jimmy's opinion has no weight and is of no consequence, Eric's does and is.

      The State of Florida will be tried, Zimmerman will be the proxy.

      Marissa Alexander could be called as a witness to the discriminatory practices of the Florida legal system. She and the selfsame prosecutor in both legal cases.

      The make up of the Zimmerman jury, proof that the Voting Rights Act is still needed, at least in Florida.
      Blacks, in will be claimed, were effectively left out of the jury pool, because of discrimination in the vote registration process.

      This travesty will give the Administration all the opportunity it needs, to bring multiple political points into play.

      The prosecution could not expand the jury pool beyond the voter registration rolls, which prove the discrimination inherent in the Florida legal system. They had to agree, they represent the bent legal and voting system, in Florida.

      Watch and learn, you will see the light shine.

      Right or wrong, unimportant.

      The Federals will string Zimmerman up for a few years of heart ache, at the very least.

      Delete
    4. anoni tells us the Zimmerman defense team agreed to the jury of white bigots, as if that makes it all good.

      B37 proves the point, why would the Zimmerman team object to a bigot on the jury?

      anoni has been attempting to try Martin, the whole time, to the point that he now thinks the prosecution was the Martin defense team. Instead of the folks that put up a simply disastrous prosecution of an admitted killer.

      Delete
    5. You can hope but it isn't going to happen. That dang FBI report.

      But here - I told you so! - is something that is happening -


      Ed Morrissey Show

      Zimmerman prosecutors sued by fired IT worker who revealed state didn’t turn over evidence report to defense; Update: Corey’s checkered past

      POSTED AT 11:21 AM ON JULY 17, 2013 BY ALLAHPUNDIT


      Zimmerman’s suing NBC, Martin’s parents are (probably) suing Zimmerman — isn’t it time that someone sued the one actor in this case whose motives were most provably malign?

      Maybe this is a first small step in sending Corey to join Mike Nifong in disgraced-former-prosecutor obscurity.

      Ben Kruidbos, Corey’s former director of information technology, was fired after testifying at a pre-trial hearing on June 6 that prosecutors failed to turn over potentially embarrassing evidence extracted from Martin’s cell phone to the defense, as required by evidence-sharing laws.

      “We will be filing a whistleblower action in (Florida’s Fourth Judicial District) Circuit Court,” said Kruidbos’ attorney Wesley White, himself a former prosecutor who was hired by Corey but resigned in December because he disagreed with her prosecutorial priorities. He said the suit will be filed within the next 30 days…

      The six-page letter, dated July 11, charges Kruidbos with “deliberate, willful and unscrupulous actions” that make him untrustworthy and calls his questioning of de la Rionda’s actions regarding the cell phone evidence “a shallow, but obvious, attempt to cloak yourself in the protection of the whistleblower law.”

      A straightforward whistleblower action or a smokescreen? Take five minutes to read this Florida Times-Union piece published on the day Kruidbos was canned. If I have the timeline straight, in March the office investigated a security breach of its computer system due to suspicions that someone had improperly accessed employees’ health information and disciplinary records. Two employees were suspected, one of whom was Kruidbos. On April 3, eight other employees were removed from his supervision and his access to the computer system was limited, but he was never formally accused as a result of the investigation. Sometime that same month, he contacted White about his suspicions that Corey hadn’t given his report on Trayvon Martin’s cell-phone data to the defense — although, apparently, the defense did receive the source file from Martin’s phone, from which they extracted data. On May 16, Kruidbos got a raise for meritorious performance; twelve days later, Corey finally found out that Kruidbos had gone to Zimmerman’s defense lawyers to let them know about his cell-phone report. He was immediately placed on leave and ultimately fired on July 12th, supposedly because he had “wiped” a computer in the prosecutor’s office in violation of state law on May 24th. (Kruidbos denies this.) The obvious question at trial, then: Was he canned because of a pattern of questionable behavior unrelated to the Zimmerman case, even though apparently none of his supposed improprieties have been proved, or was he canned because he exposed some of Corey’s Zimmerman-related shenanigans? If it’s the former rather than the latter, how come she couldn’t wait until the trial was over to suspend and then fire him? Sure sounds like she’s sending a message to would-be whistleblowers in her choice of timing.

      I tucked this clip of Alan Dershowitz destroying Corey into a “Quotes of the Day” post a few days ago but it deserves more attention, especially what he says about her being the true civil-rights violator in this case. Take note, Eric Holder.


      Update: The perfect complement to news of Kruidbos’s lawsuit: Read Ian Tuttle in National Review about Corey’s history of “retaliation and overcharging.” Can we get the cable nets to air daily coverage of this trial too? Sounds like the plaintiff’s witnesses will be dynamite.

      http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/17/zimmerman-prosecutors-sued-by-fired-it-worker-who-claimed-state-didnt-turn-over-evidence-to-defense/


      Good video clip of lawyer Dershowitz, if anyone is interested

      Delete
    6. If Blacks were allowed in the Jury then Zimmerman would have been found guilty and strung up to die. What a travesty of justice that would have been. Blacks all stick together. Look at OJ!

      Delete
    7. If I said defense, I meant to say prosecution. My error.

      Both sides agreed to the jury, defense and prosecution. That is the way it works. Both sides have X number of preemptive challenges or whatever they are called.

      The jury did an excellent job. There was no real evidence against Zimmerman.

      It was a politco/racial show trial with Zimmerman as the bad guy.

      Again, the original prosecutor would not prosecute. The police would not arrest. So they fired the police guy and the governor brought in as a 'special prosecutor' those clowns that tried to work with nothing at all, and failed'

      I believe it was the prosecution that excused the black guy because he was a Fox News watcher.

      Delete
    8. I also think Trayvon was asking for it and deserved to die. He was hopped up on drugs, wearing a hoodie, and he should have done what Zimmerman told him to do.

      Delete
    9. .

      Anonymous arguing amongst himself.

      This is truly a weird place.

      .

      Delete
  41. July 17, 2013
    Obamacare's worst nightmare coming true
    Rick Moran


    Small business - the backbone of the American economy - apparently doesn't like Obamacare very much.
    Washington Examiner:

    Despite the administration's controversial decision to delay forcing companies to join Obamacare for a year, three-quarters of small businesses are still making plans to duck the costly law by firing workers, reducing hours of full-time staff, or shift many to part-time, according to a sobering survey released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

    "Small businesses expect the requirement to negatively impact their employees. Twenty-seven percent say they will cut hours to reduce full time employees, 24 percent will reduce hiring, and 23 percent plan to replace full time employees with part-time workers to avoid triggering the mandate," said the Chamber business survey provided to Secrets.

    Under Obamacare, just 30 hours -- not the nationally recognized 40 hours -- is considered full-time. Companies with 50 full-time workers or more are required to provide health care, or pay a fine.
    The administration recently decided to wait a year before businesses had to comply, but many are trying to get ready anyway. The president did not delay the mandate that Americans must have health insurance or pay a fine, however.

    The Chamber's second quarter small business survey found that just 30 percent are ready for the law and even understand what is required.

    Dealing with Obamacare is the biggest worry of small businesses and comes as they continue to see a sluggish economy which has already put a brake on their hiring. Just 17 percent reported adding employees in the past two years. And only one-in-five small business owners believe that they will add employees in the next two years.

    The Chamber added that "nearly one-in-four employers say the health care bill is their biggest obstacle to hiring more employees."

    For small businesses, implementing Obamacare is the difference between loss and profit - not so for large corporations. Small businesses will do whatever they have to in order to stay in business. If that means cutting the work force, cutting hours, hiring part time instead of full time workers - they will do it.

    This is the nightmare scenario coming true for the administration. They were told this would happen and they ignored the warnings.

    Now they will reap what they have sown - and America will be poorer for it.


    Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/07/obamacares_worst_nightmare_coming_true.html#ixzz2ZGa3H8RY

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those Republicans should have participated in the legislative process, rather than just voting "No".

      They should have been offering 35 plus structural improvements, to the Affordable Care Act, rather than 35 meaningless attempts to repeal the statute.

      No matter, Mrs Clinton will be a fine President.
      She will campaign on a platform of reforming, not repealing, the Affordable Care Act and she'll win.



      Delete
    2. When the private insurance companies are unable to perform, when the doctors and hospitals opt out, the pendulum will swing from the Heritage Foundation's program, back to Mrs Clinton's.

      Single payer, forced participation of the doctors and hospitals.
      No one opts out of Clinton Care.

      Read her old proposal, that was a cornerstone of it.

      Be careful of what you wish for.
      ObamaCare, the "Conservative" healthcare alternative will be out ...
      Clinton Care will be in.

      The Republicans played for the patsies they are.

      Delete
    3. .

      Despite the source cited above, I am convinced Obamacare will exacerbate the job situation especially among young people. I have seen examples of it myself among relatives and the kids of friends, college age kids who can't get a full-time job because the employer doesn't want to be faced with buying expensive insurance. I have also seen instances where these kids are being paid under the table when overtime is needed, thus expanding on the underground economy, cutting down payments to the government, and diminishing respect for the rule of law.

      There are also people I know who end up working a couple part-time jobs because they can't get full-time work. These situations are always bad because of the lower pay, lessor no benefits, the uncertainty especially if the hours aren't standard, and the additional time and expense associated with travel.

      I don't know the full extent that Obamacare has had on these situations but I do know it doesn't help.

      .

      Delete
  42. I miss my niece. I had this dream about her last night. I will write about it when I have some time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      When you have time?

      I thought you were going away and never coming back until you had a Google account.

      .

      Delete
    2. I have one but I don't know how to make it work. It is awfully complicated.

      Delete
    3. :) heh

      Quirk, I just got back from doing some chores.

      I've been gone all day till now.

      And I think I will have a google account tomorrow or the next day depending on my techy's schedule.

      Wed Jul 17, 02:32:00 PM EDT

      That was my last post today until now and I'm not posting anymore till I get my google dealie.

      I've had my say on the trail.

      Delete
    4. trial

      I'm tired. Feel like I've been on the trail.

      Delete
    5. It is quite the trial pushing my walker down the trail


      Heh

      Well, one might actually call it a hallway :-/

      Delete
  43. Deuce

    Ran across a very nice Mendoza Malbec you should try. TILIA. Excellent to my taste. You will like the price as well. Try Cosco.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Egypt's new secular-leaning leaders pushed ahead with plans to amend the country's constitution, as Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi held small demonstrations to call for his reinstatement.

    The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, which backs the deposed leader, said on Wednesday that it would continue to peacefully escalate its protests and rejected offers from the interim leaders for reconciliation talks with what they called an illegitimate government. Thousands of Islamist protesters marched from various parts of Cairo to the country's cabinet on Wednesday.

    ReplyDelete
  45. On this day in 1941, New York Yankees centerfielder Joe DiMaggio goes 0-3 with a walk against the Indians in front of 67,000 fans at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland. It was the first time since May 15 that the Yankee Clipper did not get a hit – ending his famous 56-game hitting streak. The Yankees won the game, 4-3.

    ReplyDelete
  46. .

    PETA's reach is long and unforgiving.

    Poland and Israel go to war over ritual slaughter of animals.

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2013/07/poland-and-israel

    .

    ReplyDelete
  47. Massachusetts passed Romneycare in 2006; Unemployment immediately went down from 4.8% to 4.4%.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Especially, when it doesn't match up with "theory."

      Delete
    2. .

      Are you trying to show some relationship between the Massachusetts unemployment rate and Romneycare?

      .





      Delete
    3. Q, you said, "Despite the source cited above, I am convinced Obamacare will exacerbate the job situation especially among young people."

      I'm just pointing out that that was not happened when Massachusetts passed a virtually identical bill.

      Delete
    4. .

      First, a couple observations about your post.

      One, there is no way to tie Romneycare to the Massachusetts unemployment rate. You could speculate but that would merely be "theory".

      Two, there is no way you can assume that what happens to a million people in Massachusetts under Romneycare will be duplicated among the 48 million uninsured across the US under Obamacare.

      Now, to the real point,

      The point you are trying to make involves 'jobs and unemployment'. While that was a point discussed in the article I replied to, the entire content of my post involved 'underemployment'. The people I talked about in my post would all be considered 'employed' by the government; however, they are part of that growing group of people in the country that are underemployed 'not by choice'.

      In my opinion, Obamacare will contribute to the underemployment problem. How much? I don't know. That would be speculation. However, I'm pretty sure it can't help.

      .

      Delete
  48. With just a few days to go before they'll no longer have the option, suburban leaders have largely declined to enact assault weapons bans, leaving future decisions on the topic in the hands of county or state leaders.

    ...

    A new law that will eventually allow Illinoisans to carry concealed weapons in public also set midnight Friday as a deadline for suburbs to enact restrictions on so-called assault weapons and define what qualifies.

    ReplyDelete
  49. July 17, 2013
    Zimmerman prosecutor Angela Corey may face a reckoning
    Thomas Lifson


    Angela Corey, the special prosecutor who struck out going after George Zimmerman, has not taken defeat well. At Red State, streiff catalogues her outrageous behavior in an article that should be read in its entirety:
    I think everyone can now agree on one thing, Angela Corey was possibly the worst possible choice for a high profile prosecution.

    She has a sense of entitlement that is so typical of small people promoted to jobs that are well above their level of competency but who lack the self-awareness to recognize what everyone else knows. (You need look no further than her bizarre post-verdict press conference that she treated as though it was an Academy Awards acceptance rather than a repudiation to see that she occupies a different reality than most.) In Angela Corey's world, criticism of her is a basis for legal action. She has threatened to sue Harvard if it did not fire Alan freakin Dershowitz after he pointed out her lack of legal acumen and ethics. In Florida she is something of a legend for threatening her critics.

    Her lack of concern for the rule of law was almost immediately apparent. Shortly after she received the case she gave a press conference in which she disclosed that she was not seeking justice, but "justice for Trayvon":
    Corey: The first thing my team and I did upon being appointed was to meet with Trayvon's family and pray with them. "We opened our meeting with prayer." Also, Ms. Corey thanked "all those people across this country who have sent positive energy and prayers our way," and she asked them to continue to pray for Trayvon's family and for her team. "Remember, it is Trayvon's family that are our constitutional victims...."

    In short, the press conference seemed calculated to declare Zimmerman guilty before an investigation was completed or a trial conducted, conduct, which the article notes, runs counter to Florida law and American Bar Association professional standards.

    In the ongoing national Get Zimmie psychodrama launched by the left, Corey is auditioning for the role of villain.And she may face a reckoning in court. Chris Francescani of Reuters writes:
    A former employee of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey's office plans to file a whistleblower lawsuit against George Zimmerman's prosecutors, his attorney told Reuters on Tuesday. (snip)
    Ben Kruidbos, Corey's former director of information technology, was fired after testifying at a pre-trial hearing on June 6 that prosecutors failed to turn over potentially embarrassing evidence extracted from Martin's cell phone to the defense, as required by evidence-sharing laws.
    "We will be filing a whistleblower action in (Florida's Fourth Judicial District) Circuit Court," said Kruidbos' attorney Wesley White, himself a former prosecutor who was hired by Corey but resigned in December because he disagreed with her prosecutorial priorities. He said the suit will be filed within the next 30 days.

    continued

    ReplyDelete
  50. If blacks start flocking to defend Corey, they will be defending a prosecutor that made a practice of charging young black criminals as adults.
    Streiff notes:
    In 2011, she prosecuted a 12 year old boy, Cristian Fernandez, as an adult with every intention of sending him away for life. In a move eerily similar to Corey having George Zimmerman's wife, Shellie, indicted for perjury, Corey has also prosecuted Fernandez's mother. This case got the attention of those defenders of the Philadelphia polling places, the New Black Panther Party.

    The next year, Corey's office charged a 31-year old black woman, Marissa Alexander, with attempted murder when she fired a weapon, during an altercation with her ex-husband who was under a restraining order. Alexander is serving a 20-year sentence. The Florida NAACP was not amused.
    Beyond these cases, there is the fact that Corey's office leads the state in prosecuting black juveniles as adults.

    In fact she prosecutes black juveniles as adults 20% above the statewide average.

    Ian Tuttle at NRO describes some other issues Corey is handing her critics:
    Corey knows about personal vendettas. They seem to be her specialty. When Ron Littlepage, a journalist for the Florida Times-Union, wrote a column criticizing her handling of the Christian Fernandez case - in which Corey chose to prosecute a twelve-year-old boy for first-degree murder, who wound up locked in solitary confinement in an adult jail prior to his court date - she "fired off a two-page, single-spaced letter on official state-attorney letterhead hinting at lawsuits for libel."

    And that was moderate. When Corey was appointed to handle the Zimmerman case, Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, a former president of both the American Bar Association and Florida State University, criticized the decision: "I cannot imagine a worse choice for a prosecutor to serve in the Sanford case. There is nothing in Angela Corey's background that suits her for the task, and she cannot command the respect of people who care about justice." Corey responded by making a public-records request of the university for all e-mails, text messages, and phone messages in which D'Alemberte had mentioned Fernandez. Like Littlepage, D'Alemberte had earlier criticized Corey's handling of the Fernandez case.

    Shortly after Dershowitz's criticisms, Harvard Law School's dean's office received a phone call. When the dean refused to pick up, Angela Corey spent a half hour demanding of an office-of-communications employee that Dershowitz be fired. According to Dershowitz, Corey threatened to sue Harvard, to try to get him disbarred, and also to sue him for slander and libel. Corey also told the communications employee that she had assigned a state investigator - an employee of the State of Florida, that is - to investigate Dershowitz. "That's an abuse of office right there," Dershowitz says.
    So the campaign against Dershowitz is part of a pattern of going after critics. But consider for a moment how delusional it was to waste her time telephoning Harvard Law School in an effort to get a famous tenured professor fired for criticizing her. She lives in a fantasy world where professors at Harvard can't get away with crticizing her. If she is put under a microscope, Angela Corey is going to be her own undoing. Megalomania never works out well in the end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      That was my last post today until now and I'm not posting anymore till I get my google dealie.


      .

      Delete