This Testimony should get this man, Alexander, fired:
Merkel compared NSA to Stasi in heated encounter with Obama
German chancellor furious after revelations US intelligence agency listened in on her personal mobile phone
F
Ian Traynor in Brussels and Paul Lewis in Washington
The Guardian, Tuesday 17 December 2013 13.23 EST
In an angry exchange with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel has compared the snooping practices of the US with those of the Stasi, the ubiquitous and all-powerful secret police of the communist dictatorship in East Germany, where she grew up.
The German chancellor also told the US president that America's National Security Agency cannot be trusted because of the volume of material it had allowed to leak to the whistleblower Edward Snowden, according to the New York Times.
Livid after learning from Der Spiegel magazine that the Americans were listening in to her personal mobile phone, Merkel confronted Obama with the accusation: "This is like the Stasi."
The newspaper also reported that Merkel was particularly angry that, based on the disclosures, "the NSA clearly couldn't be trusted with private information, because they let Snowden clean them out."
Snowden is to testify on the NSA scandal to a European parliament inquiry next month, to the anger of Washington which is pressuring the EU to stop the testimony.
In Brussels, the chairman of the US House select committee on intelligence, Mike Rogers, a Republican, said his views on the invitation to Snowden were "not fit to print" and that it was "not a great idea".
Inviting someone "who is wanted in the US and has jeopardised the lives of US soldiers" was beneath the dignity of the European parliament, he said.
He declined to comment on Merkel's alleged remarks to Obama. In comments to the Guardian, he referred to the exchange as "a conversation that may or may not have occurred".
Senior Brussels officials say the EU is struggling to come up with a coherent and effective response to the revelations of mass US and British surveillance of electronic communication in Europe, but that the disclosure that Merkel's mobile had been monitored was a decisive moment.
A draft report by a European parliament inquiry into the affair, being presented on Wednesday and obtained by the Guardian, says there has to be a discussion about the legality of the NSA's operations and also of the activities of European intelligence agencies.
The report drafted by Claude Moraes, the British Labour MEP heading the inquiry, says "we have received substantial evidence that the operations by intelligence services in the US, UK, France and Germany are in breach of international law and European law".
Rather than resorting to a European response, Berlin has been pursuing a bilateral pact with the Americans aimed at curbing NSA activities and insisting on a "no-spying pact" between allies.
The NYT reported that Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, had told Berlin that there would be not be a no-espionage agreement, although the Americans had pledged to desist from monitoring Merkel personally.
A high-ranking German official with knowledge of the talks with the White House told the Guardian there had been a "useful exchange of views", but confirmed a final agreement was far from being reached.
The Germans have received assurances that the chancellor's phone was not being monitored and that the US spy agency is not conducting industrial espionage.
However the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said German and US officials were still in the process of negotiating how any final agreement – the details of which could remain secret between both governments – would be formalised.
Their discussions, which include talks about so-called confidence building measures, are also bound-up with wider discussions with the EU regarding special privacy assurances that might be afforded to its citizens under a future arrangement.
"We want to be assured that not everything that is technically possible will be done," the German official added.
In Germany, the main government minister dealing with the NSA fallout, Hans-Peter Friedrich, has fallen victim to a reshuffle in the new coalition unveiled in Berlin at the weekend. Friedrich, from Bavaria's Christian Social Union, is not seen as an ally of Merkel's and was widely viewed to have performed less than robustly in the exchanges with the Americans.
His replacement as interior minister, by contrast, is a close ally of Merkel's – her former chief of staff and former defence minister, Thomas de Maiziere. Additionally, Merkel has brought a former senior intelligence official into the new coalition.
Alongside De Maiziere at the interior ministry, she has appointed Klaus-Dieter Fritsche, previously deputy head of the domestic intelligence service, Germany's equivalent of MI5.
This portrait is a very different one than that being marketed by NSA.
ReplyDeleteAn NSA Coworker Remembers The Real Edward Snowden: 'A Genius Among Geniuses'
...short, sweet, and to the point...
DeleteMarketing is an important aspect of market manipulation.
Marketing and propaganda, two peas in a pod.
Let's see the USA in a Chevrolet, before allen's Israel 'ends civilization'
The Sampson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal & American Foreign Policy
In The Samson Option, Seymour M. Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winner who wrote the first account of the My Lai massacre in South Vietnam, reveals one of the classic clandestine operations of our time: Israel's spectacular underground nuclear facility in the Negev Desert, where its technicians and scientists began manufacturing nuclear warheads in the late 1960s. It describes the bitter infighting within the Israeli government over the bomb and its huge cost. It tells how the money for me nuclear program was raised abroad, and how the early technology was acquired with the aid of France. And it shows how and when Israel threatened to use its nuclear power.
The Samson Option reveals many startling events that played a secret and significant role in the history of our times from the early 1960s through the Gulf War:
• How, in the late 1970s, Israel not only stole reconnaissance intelligence from our most secret of satellites, the KH-11, but used that data to help target the Soviet Union;
• How Jonathan Pollard, the American spy now serving a life sentence in jail, was a key figure in Israel's nuclear program (and how some of Pollard's intelligence was turned over to the Soviet Union at the express direction of Yitzhak Shamir, the Israeli prime minister);
• How Israel created a false control room at the nuclear reactor at Dimona to give U.S. inspectors the false impression that the facility was solely for research;
• How the Eisenhower administration made a concerted last-ditch effort in December 1960 to force Israel to acknowledge its nuclear ambitions—and failed;
• How Israel threatened Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon with the use of nuclear weapons on the third day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, successfully blackmailing the White House to airlift much needed supplies;
• How South Africa cooperated with Israel to create a mysterious 1979 "flash" in the South Atlantic, actually a test of an Israeli-South African nuclear artillery shell;
• How Israel used a top London newspaper editor to help catch Mordecai Vanunu, its nuclear traitor;
• How a prominent American Jewish Democratic party fund-raiser also raised money for the Israeli bomb—and was able to intervene repeatedly at the White House; and
• How the American intelligence community was finally able to learn what Israel was doing at Dimona—though it was understood that no one's career would be enhanced by providing such intelligence to the White House.
The Samson Option is ultimately a narrative of how the bomb influenced the diplomatic relations between Israel and America far more than was seen or understood by the press and the public. It shows that, in every sense, Israel was born a nuclear power. Since its founding, some of its leaders, including David Ben-Gurion and Ernst David Bergmann—the little-known scientist who was the father of the Israeli bomb—were determined that no future enemy would be able to carry out another Holocaust. Just as Samson brought down the temple and killed himself along with his enemies, so would Israel destroy those who sought its destruction.
The message of The Samson Option is stark.
https://archive.org/details/Sampson_Option
Inviting someone "who is wanted in the US and has jeopardised the lives of US soldiers" was beneath the dignity of the European parliament, he said
ReplyDelete"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" ___Johnson
Yeah, we just love our soldiers to death, literally. And we have compunction about cutting their benefits if that's what it takes to pay for criminally negligent cost overruns on our favorite toys.
"have no compunction"
Delete...sorry... My fingers are faster than my bifocals.
Chancellor Merkel is rightly incensed that her private conversations and those of others are being monitored. Why?
Delete1)There are genuine state secrets
2) Some information could be used to blackmail (persuade for those offended by the plebian) compromised bureaucrats.
3) Some folk could be turned through fulfillment of personal pleasures or vices
Chancellor Merkel, given that famous (or infamous) trait of ruthless German efficiency is both concerned and revolted by the amateurish clumsiness of her counterparts and their subordinates.
For the record, all governments lie to other governments - hence, the need for espionage. If the Germans had the technology of the NSA they would use it in a New York minute - ditto for any other government in the world. Niccolo Machiavelli knew "Princes" well, indeed. Nothing has changed appreciably other than bland assurances that things have changed.
DeleteYou guys that use the VA and get benefits are just welfare mooches.
I never served in the military, but paid the taxes that paid your lazy asses.
Now you want a life long free lunch, after getting paid in full the whole time you were there.
It's a socialist pig sty of a system that you all are wallowing in.
But make no mistake: This was a major moment in the Snowden saga. A federal judge appointed by a Republican president has rejected the telephone record collecting in the harshest of terms as a fundamental violation of the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteAs the uproar over the Snowden revelations reached a crescendo, President Obama said he welcomed a national debate over NSA surveillance.
Well, he certainly got one.
He sure did!
Delete.
DeleteUnless this makes it to SCOTUS, nothing will happen. Even then, given the fact that John Roberts is the guy who has been appointing the FISA court judges, it is not a sure thing.
The intelligence services have gone rogue.
An argument about a secret congressional committee's ability to review the US intelligence agencies exploded into rare public view on Tuesday as angry senators demanded legal memos from a nominee to run the CIA's legal office.
Caroline Krass, a top Justice Department lawyer, sparked the ire of several Senate intelligence committee members by claiming that crucial legal opinions about intelligence matters were beyond the scope of the committee.
Asked directly and repeatedly if the Senate panel was entitled to the memos, which several senators claimed were crucial for performing their oversight functions, Krass replied: "I do not think so, as a general matter."
Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the committee, suggested that Krass placed her nomination as CIA general counsel in jeopardy. "You are going to encounter some heat in that regard," Feinstein said.
The Senate intelligence committee, whose public hearings are increasingly rare, is usually a bastion of support for the CIA and its sister intelligence agencies. The exception is the committee's prolonged fight with the CIA over a 6,300-page report on the agency's torture of terrorism detainees in its custody since 9/11.
The committee has prepared its report for years; the former chairman, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, said the classified version contains 50,000 footnotes. For a year, the panel has sought to release a public version that multiple members of the panel say documents both the brutality of CIA torture and what they have called "lies" told by the CIA to the oversight committees in Congress and the rest of the executive branch concerning its torture practices.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/18/senators-clash-with-justice-department-lawyer-over-cia-intelligence-memos
Feinstein and Rogers are butt buddies to the intelligence agencies. They lie and keep information from their Congressional colleagues in order to protect those agencies. Instead of acting according to their intended role of oversight, the intelligence committees act as enablers for the spooks. Now, if Feinstein is complaining about lying and lack of transparency on the agencies they are supposed to run oversight on, you know they have screwed the pooch.
.
On this day in 1843, Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” was first published.
ReplyDelete:-) And God bless us everyone.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteObama cannot stop the NSA any more than the East German government could stop the Stasi: Once you’ve set up a secret police that knows the secrets of the politicians, the politicians are powerless to stop it.
ReplyDeleteDeuce, ...good topic...look forward to continuing tomorrow...
DeleteThe world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.
ReplyDeleteOn 18 August, a mammoth rally was held in Tiananmen Square in the center of Peking, with over a million young participants. Lin Biao appeared in public as Mao's deputy and spokesman for the first time. He made a speech calling on the Red Guards to charge out of their schools and 'smash up the four olds' defined as 'old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits."
Following this obscure call, Red Guards all over China took to the streets, giving full vent to their vandalism, ignorance, and fanaticism. They raided people's houses, smashed their antiques, tore up paintings and works of calligraphy. Bonfires were lit to consume books. Very soon nearly all treasures in private collections were destroyed.
Many writers and artists committed suicide after being cruelly beaten and humiliated, and being forced to witness their work being burned to ashes. Museums were raided.
Palaces, temples, ancient tombs, statues, pagodas, city walls anything 'old' was pillaged. The few things that survived, such as the Forbidden City, did so only because Premier Zhou Enlai sent the army to guard them, and issued specific orders that they should be protected. The Red Guards only pressed on when they were encouraged.
Mao hailed the Red Guards' actions as "Very good indeed!" and ordered the nation to support them.
He encouraged the Red Guards to pick on a wider range of victims in order to increase the terror. Prominent writers, artists, scholars, and most other top professionals, who had been privileged under the Communist regime, were now categorically condemned as 'reactionary bourgeois authorities." With the help of some of these people's colleagues who hated them for various reasons, ranging from fanaticism to envy, the Red Guards began to abuse them. Then there were the old 'class enemies': former landlords and capitalists, people with Kuomintang connections, those condemned in previous political campaigns like the 'rightists' and their children.”
― Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
Yes, excellent topic, Deuce.
ReplyDeleteHave always said the human race is ungovernable.
Now, if you'd just shut rat up we might have a decent discussion.
Why let him ruin your blog day after day?
Going to bed here.
g'nite
Yeah shut that dumb bastard up,
ReplyDeletedavid
Hey,
DeleteHow is business this time of year? Given your service, I wondered if folks had the good sense to use it.
For Rufus -
ReplyDeleteTEA PARTY MEMBERS ARE SMARTER THAN NON TEA PARTY FOLK
http://www.ijreview.com/2013/10/87474-yale-professors-surprising-discovery-tea-party-supporters-scientifically-literate/
Rufus cain't do his numbers gud cain't think logical like cain drink lotsa beer......
Delete“The need to prove who you are will vanish once you know who you are.”
SAT scores set to plummet in Denver, Colorado -
ReplyDeletehttp://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/12/16/city-council-makes-move-to-decriminalize-marijuana/
Not good for growing young minds.......Tea Party will end up only group left able to be doing the nation's thinking......
DeleteAnonymous sources on the Redskins
That said, the mess in Ashburn has led to a lot of anonymous sources who — to this reader —
appear to be primarily interested in making other people look bad,
and by extension, making their own allies look better.
Hey !!
ReplyDeleteHere's some Great News -
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/12/17/breaking-house-democrat-jim-matheson-retires-clearing-the-way-for-gop-pick-up/
Mia Love in Utah.
She is wonderful, and deserves to win this time around.
Been for Mia Love since day one, just like for Sarah Palin.
Go Mia Love !!
O wait just a minute. I can't support Mia Love, a black woman and a Republican.
DeleteI forgot:
I'm a racist misogynist fucking fascist.
According to the mentally unstable two footed human dog always seeking a new horizon of howls on this blog, ruining it for many other people.
DeleteIf you choose identify yourself with Farmer Fudd, that is your choice.
Knowing that you are pro-choice, it fits.
bob
Delete“For if life had taught him anything,
it was that healing and peace can begin only with acknowledgment of wrongs committed.”
Bob,
Deleteit isn't rat ruining the blog but rather you. Just login and the rat shit may stop.
ReplyDeleteTerror Plot Busted Up In India
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/12/india-police-bust-jihad-terror-plot-targeting-new-delhi-arrest-imam.html
Religion of Peace planning to target markets, malls.......
DeleteThe following no a list of the planned attacks upon markets malls and homes, but the allu of markets, malls and homes by the Zionist Israeli, against the Muslims
DeleteHome Demolitions: By the Numbers
Since 1967, Israel has destroyed approximately 27,000 Palestinian structures in the occupied territories (the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip), including more than 24,000 homes, according to ICAHD.
Since the renewal of negotiations in August 2013, Israel has destroyed approximately 25 Palestinian homes, in addition to dozens of other structures, leaving approximately 200 people homeless.
According to the UN, between January and September 2013, 862 Palestinians were displaced by Israeli demolitions, compared to 886 (including 468 children) in all of 2012.
In 2012, a total of 600 Palestinian structures were demolished by Israel in the occupied territories, including at least 189 homes, according to ICAHD.
This figure doesn’t include “self-demolitions” whereby Palestinians destroy their own homes ...
rather than have Israel do it and charge them an additional fine.
One Bedouin village, Al-Araqib, in the Negev desert in the south of Israel, has been destroyed more than 50 times by Israel since July 2010.
Between 2005 and 2012, Israel demolished approximately 1500 Palestinian homes due to owners lacking hard-to-obtain construction permits.
Between 1993 and 2000, when the Oslo Accords were being negotiated between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Israel destroyed almost 1700 Palestinian homes in the occupied territories.
Immediately following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in 1967, approximately 6000 Palestinian homes were demolished, including four entire villages in the Latrun area, along with dozens of homes in the Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, which were destroyed to make way for a plaza for the Western Wall.
In 1971, between 2000 and 6000 Palestinian homes were destroyed in Gaza in an effort to pacify the newly occupied territory.
During Israel’s creation (1948-49),
Zionist and then Israeli forces expelled approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from their ancestral lands in order to create a Jewish majority state of Israel.
In the process, more than 400 Palestinian population centers were systematically destroyed, including thousands of homes, businesses, and houses of worship.
Pasted from
DeleteAccording to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), more than 100 tons of explosives were dropped in the first 9 hours of 'Operation Cast Lead'.
Israel and the Myth of Occupation
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americanthinker.com/2013/12/israel_and_the_myth_of_occupation.html
Great article.
(I am discovering that the very best time to blog here is when Whackopath is physically, and not only mentally, as he always is, asleep)
Delete“I was Anonymous, but now I am Farmer Fudd
...and so my friends, you'll just have to carry on.
The dream is over.”
bob
DeleteFarmer Fudd, who lived his life enveloped in fear, has forced himself into a corner.
He could either admit to the errors he had made, or be exiled to the wee hours of the morning 'tween midnight and dawn, that was his last bastion.
Reduced to a shadow of his former self because of his rejection of responsibility, Farmer Fudd looks through the fence, at the other men marching in unison on the parade field, wishing he that he too could indulge in the fullness of life.
But his decisions had made that impossible.
He'd been ostracized by the others, it was as if he'd become ...
Anonymous
Quirk, the Homophobe:
ReplyDelete"Feinstein and Rogers are butt buddies to the intelligence agencies. They lie and keep information from their Congressional colleagues in order to protect those agencies. Instead of acting according to their intended role of oversight, the intelligence committees act as enablers for the spooks. Now, if Feinstein is complaining about lying and lack of transparency on the agencies they are supposed to run oversight on, you know they have screwed the pooch."
Fuck you, Butthead!
You lie with lambs, and butt fuck them after butt-chugging Stolis'.
DeleteScrewing pooches, beyond the pale.
DeleteSober, with videos.
Delete.
DeleteThe sheeple have baaaa'd and bleet "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
.
.
DeleteThe sheeple have baaaa'd and meekly bleet "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
.
.
DeleteHmmmm.
The last one flows better.
The sheeple have baaaa'd and meekly bleet "Thank you sir, may I have another" as they sit sipping their pina coladas in the dark.
There, that's got it.
.
Your on the vodka again, Quirk, I can tell every time.
DeleteYou're, and I'm sober. :(
DeleteTell us Farmer Fudd ...
DeleteWho would you be but who you are?
Natasha Leggero | Getting Doug with High
ReplyDelete...I am not High Doug, related to him, nor have I ever interviewed Natasha.
DeleteNor will I.
ever
I was at the leper colony on Molokai...
ReplyDeleteAfter we took off for Oahu, the motor in our Cessna died, we crash landed in the water, and everyone but one, survived.
The deceased was the State Health Director, who released Obama's "Long Form Birth Certificate"
...yet more proof that Fascist Fudd's "Conspiracy Theory" that Obama was born in Kenya was not a conspiracy, but FACT!
A top Hawaii official is dead following a plane crash off Molokai.
DeleteSo, what would you say about a neighbor that earned $100,000.00 per annum, and had a total "debt service" of $2,500.00/yr?
ReplyDeleteWhat if he/she is looking at a $3,000.00 raise in 2014, and an increase in debt service of $30.00?
Would you say that that person is in the middle of a "Debt Crisis?"
You are in the middle of a Reality Crisis:
DeleteThinking Obamacare is a good thing in any shape, manner, or form.
MORON
I notice you didn't answer the question.
DeleteWas it just too difficult, with all those numbers, and maths, and things?
Doug, the man whom without government action would be without the prospect of ever obtaining health insurance again in his life, rails against government interference in the health insurance marketplace, while shopping for the best deal, amongst the various programs provided by the government
DeleteWhat is wrong with that picture?
Why does his brain disconnect from his reality
bob
He, like so many, desperately want to believe something that, demonstrably, just isn't true.
DeleteLike, a Country that (or, any ongoing business enterprise) devotes Two and a half Percent of GDP to Debt Service is, somehow, in a "Debt Crisis."
Tea Party members are better at math than you, Rufus.
DeleteScientific studies have proven that.
You must be able to count beyond 24 to master life.
Bet they're not.
DeleteAlthough, some surely are.
DeleteDeuce is no more capable of controlling our professional asshole the rat than Obama the NSA, it sadly seems.
ReplyDeleteAnd makes about the same amount of effort - zero.
Go away, Bob; you're an idiot.
DeleteThe "real" bob, not the nom de guerre, bob. :)
DeleteGo back to the refrigerator Rufus.
Delete:)
Or go do something useful, like saving some lives by selling life insurance. You got the free time, get out there and do random acts of kindness, and quit trying to run the lives of others from your computer terminal.
Blow me, fool.
DeleteI knew that was coming.........the old frustrated "blow me".
Deletebwabwabwahahahahahahahaha !!!!!!!!
You always make my day in some way, Rufus," you old coot". (Quirk's words)
:)
Delete“They verbally attacked each other with Mao's quotations,
making cynical use of his guru-like elusiveness--
it was easy to select a quotation of Mao's to suit any situation,
or even both sides of the same argument.”
Jung Chang, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
The faux 'bob' is everywhere, yet now he refuses to even make his mark. He claims to be me, when we all know it is the Rat, hiding in the shadows, lurking here, waiting ...
Delete... to gnaw on my nose ... again.
But I have hope.
Hope that the amorphadite in Seattle will blow me with her ass.
My niece won't mind it if it happens, not in the least.
bob
Ahh...just to have the good old days back for a day...so many problems solved...good manners and courtesy restored...dishonorable dogs given the .54 calibler treatment...
DeleteOn board the GANGES, about 12 mos. ago, Lt. Gale, was struck by an Officer of the Navy, the Capt. took no notice of the Business and Gale got no satisfaction on the Cruise; the moment he arrived he call’d the Lieut. out and shot him; afterwards Politeness was restor’d”
—Signed “Yr obdt. Svt, W. W. Burrows, LtCol Comdt, MC” (2d CMC)
So, back to the subject; If you had a total debt service of $208.00/mo, to go along with your $100,000.00/yr. Income, would you feel as if you were in a "Debt Crisis?"
ReplyDeleteIf not, why would you assume that an entity, such as the U.S. Government (which, also, has the ability to print its own money) is in a debt crisis with the exact, same numbers?
There are two possible answers. One, you're an idiot whose ass is just crammed full of right-wing smoke, or a republican, scam artist that understands the innumeracy of the public.
That debt service number rufus-what interest rate is it using for the calc? What amortization rate are you using? Time for full disclosure dude!
DeleteI was figuring a future rate of 4%. That's a bit high, but it really doesn't make all that much difference.
DeleteYou deride others for comparing gov to household nut here you do. How about completing it? Loan amount, amortization ect.
DeleteDifferent horses for different courses, Ash. No, I've done enough work, you can finish it up if you wish.
DeleteIt seems to.me you've thrown out a load of bullshit but I'm humble enough to believe I might be wrong. You have brought it up, twice. Please show us how your analysis is germane as opposed to bull shit propaganda.
Delete
ReplyDeleteIsrael begins to worry as boycott movement makes inroads into USA
December 17, 2013
Another day and another boycott of the apartheid state of Israel.
As has been widely reported, on 15 December the American Studies Association (ASA), which has more than 5,000 members, joined a growing movement to boycott Israel in protest at its treatment of the Palestinians.
The ASA, in the words of the Guardian, “is the most significant US academic organization to back a boycott of Israeli educational institutions following a two-thirds majority vote”. According to the paper,
The ASA resolution was “in solidarity with scholars and students deprived of their academic freedom”, the organization said in a statement. It cited “Israel’s violation of international law and UN resolutions; the documented impact of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian scholars and students; [and] the extent to which Israeli institutions of higher education are a party to state policies that violate human rights”.
The resolution bans “formal collaborations with Israeli academic institutions, or with scholars who are expressly serving as representatives or ambassadors of those institutions”.
For the first time, Israel has begun to worry publicly about where the boycott might lead to.
While dismissing the ASA as a “radical leftist group” with few links to academia in the Zionist state, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin told Israel Radio
“we need to prepare for the danger that it [the boycott call] will pass to other, more serious academic forums”, the Israeli news website Ynet reported.
He said that Israeli diplomats and the Zionist lobby in the US were “intensively” trying to dissuade other US academics from following the American Studies Association’s lead.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry, he added, had set up an advocacy group, “Faces of Israel”, to “work among those who wield influence exactly in order to prevent cases such as this”.
But try as it may, there’s no doubt which way the wind is blowing.
http://www.redressonline.com/2013/12/israel-begins-to-worry-as-boycott-movement-makes-inroads-into-usa/
ReplyDeleteThey had bombed and burned,killed and maimed,plundered and looted.
Now they had come to claim his very identity.
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin
Delete“Anonymous took in a premeditated breath,
closed his eyes, and exhaled into the nye at his lips, playing a new tune.
It was not the sad music of waiting. Nor was it a melody of his heritage.
It was a call to the earth. To Allah.
To the country within him.
They had taken everything else, even his name."
― Susan Abulhawa
Delete“Do you know, Mother, that boobie was buried alive in his home?
Does he tell you stories in heaven now?
I wish I had had a chance to meet him.
To see his toothless grin and touch his leathery skin.
To beg him, as you did in your youth, for a story from our Palestine.
He was over one hundred years old, Mother.
To have lived so long, only to be crushed to death by a bulldozer.
Is this what it means to be Palestinian?”
― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin
DeleteI did not attend boobie's funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
ReplyDeleteThe funniest thing about Farmer Fudd ...
He accuses the host of being involved in a CRIMINAL conspiracy to destroy evidence in a Federal investigation of the activities of one of the contributors.
When the investigation comes up empty, the accusations are found to be without foundation in reality, then the Farmer Fudd becomes riled by the fact that the host will not rise to the occasion when Farmer Fudd wants him to act in the Fudd's behalf.
The Farmer Fudd is a fool, one who always looks to others to do what he could do on his own.
bob
Delete'But are there not many Fascists in your country?'
'There are many who do not know they are Fascists, but will find it out when the time comes'.
Rufus, you fancy yourself something of an insider of all things Obama.........what was that secret meeting in the White House yesterday all about?
ReplyDeleteThe most transparent administration in our history isn't telling us. Really hush, hush.
What money were they dividing up? What nefarious plans were being laid?
We outsiders are longing to know.
Just askin'.
***********
Wow, our sicko-rat is really working himself this morning.
You'd think he'd tire of making himself a laughing stock.
It's point and laugh time again, folks.......
All together now......
(pointing at rat) bwabwabwabwahahahahahahhahaha........what a boring oaf.......
I was reading late last night that only about 10% of the nation's youth are signing up for ObamaCare.
DeleteCan't find the article now though or would post it.
If so, this sucker of a fiasco is going to be an even bigger epic fail than anyone anticipated.
Maybe the were plotting on how best to get out of Washington D.C. with the maximum bucks at the secret White House meeting, while the getting is still good?
Obama's poll numbers are really tanking now.......only drunks and lame brain still support him.......
DeleteThere he is again, that damned Rat, pretending to be Anonymous, again.
Why won't Deuce act?!
bob
DeletePresidential Approval
Rasmussen Reports 12/15 - 12/17 1500 Likely Voters
Approve . . . . 47%
Disapprove .. 52%
Spread . . . . -5
Reality, not the Fudd fantasy world of offplumbpolling.com
bob
DeletePresident
Highest and Lowest Approval Rating
Obama - . . . . . 76% . . . 39%
Bush (G.W.) - . . 92% . . 19%
Clinton - . . . . . . 73% . . . 36%
Bush (G.H.W.) - 89% . .. 29%
Reagan - . . . .. 68% . .. . 35%
Carter - . . . . . 75% . . . 28%
Ford - . . . . . . . 74% . . . 37%
Nixon - . . . . . . 67% . . . 23%
Johnson - . . . 80% . . . 35%
Kennedy - . . . 80% . . . 56%
Eisenhower - . 79% . . . 48%
Truman - . . .. . 87% . . . 22%
Roosevelt -. . . 84% . . . 48%
Obama is not a trend setter, his highs and lows are right in the range of his predecessors.
bob
DeleteSourced from
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/data_access/data/presidential_approval.html
Instead of offplumbpolling.com
bob
NSA & Stasi
ReplyDeleteThink of the power to manipulate both home and global markets, to the advantage of the state and "special" operatives.
DeleteGreat nations are simply the operating fronts of behind-the-scenes, vastly ambitious individuals who had become so effectively powerful because of their ability to remain invisible while operating behind the national scenery.
DeleteThe definition of fascism is 'The marriage of corporation and state'
Israel Military Industries (TAAS) Israel Military Industries
DeleteType Government-owned corporation
Industry Arms/Defense
Founded 1953 (unofficially)
Headquarters Ramat HaSharon, Israel
Products Firearms, weapons, ammunition
Website www.imi-israel.com
The Israeli government has, to a large extent, continued the Ottoman legal system in regard to land ownership.
Thus, today the vast proportion of land within the State of Israel (roughly 93%) is owned and managed either by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) or the JNF.
This figure includes much of such extensive regions as the Negev and the Judean Wilderness (near the Dead Sea), which are sparsely populated.
Jewish settlements in the State of Israel usually are located on lands that are owned by the ILA or the JNF and that have been consigned to each settlement through long-term leases.
Less than 7% of the land in the State of Israel is privately owned.
DeletePrivate property was the original source of freedom.
It still is its main bulwark.
Re: Snowden
ReplyDeleteThis guy gives me fits. On the one hand, I want to give him a medal for what he has done for the country, while on the other, I want to see him hang for what he has done to the country.
There was no one he could turn to administratively with his doubts. In fact, his office seems to have had instances where staff heatedly questioned the lawfulness of orders and assignments given, to no avail.
If I thought that Snowden could control the release of information and, thereby, prevent damage to intelligence operations and operatives and means and methods, I could muster more leniency.
Mr. Snowden is, without question, a genius at what he does; but he is swimming in a sea of sharks who are also geniuses at what they do. Consequently, I fear he will not be able to shield the US from damages that will inevitably flow from the release of the most damning information.
How is US intelligence ever to regain its reputation for bona fide dealings (if such ever existed), in the light of such a glaring breach of professionalism? It is difficult enough to extract tidbits of information from conferences and one-on-ones; this rupture may foreclose even that.
I will continue to wrestle with the matter. For me, it is extremely difficult to abandon ingrained behavior.
DeleteThe man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land, plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic.
He has no place here; and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart-allegiance, the better it will be for every good American.”
.
ReplyDeleteThomas Friedman once again proves himself the fool. I read the first three paragraphs and quit.
I don’t know whether Secretary of State John Kerry will succeed in his two big chosen priorities: trying to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace and a détente with Iran that deprives it of a nuclear weapon. But I admire his relentlessness. I admire the way he dares to fail — the only way to become a consequential secretary of state. And I admire his strategy: trying to construct a diplomacy that makes it impossible for Israel, the Palestinians and Iran to continue avoiding their big existential choices...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/opinion/friedman-secretary-kerrys-derring-do.html
.
I like the way Kerry wind sails and skippers his boat.
DeleteHis wife is a witch.
And, if looks count, he really has a repulsive face.
And he is going to fail "in his two big chosen priorities".
He might as well spend his time on Martha's Vineyard or where ever he lives.
Kerry v. Abbas
DeleteAfter 25 meetings, calls, and other exchanges, Abbas and Fatah have not budged. Abbas will not, cannot recognize Israel. The day he does will be the day he dies.
Kerry is compensating by drawing up a comprehensive peace agreement he will try to shove down Netanyahu's throat. We will soon see how tough Netanyahu really is.
DeleteFarmer Fudd attacks a man's wife, what a scum bucket our Farmer Fudd is.
bob
Hey, I praised your first wife.
DeleteShe "dropped the kid" and got the fuck out to Salvador soon as she was out the maternity ward door.
That woman was a genius.
All depends on the woman.
Mrs Obama is a witch too.
While you, ratass, called your first wife "crazy".
DeleteWhich she certainly was not.
It is you who are crazy.
Think of calling one's wife "crazy" !!!!!
Yet you did.
You were the crazy one in that hell sent pairing.
Just like you are the only truly crazy ass here.
Delete.
DeleteKerry is compensating by drawing up a comprehensive peace agreement he will try to shove down Netanyahu's throat. We will soon see how tough Netanyahu really is.
Nonsense.
Netanyahu declared any thought of a Palestinian state dead back in 2001. Kerry's talk of 'maintaining Israel's security' tracks the Israeli talking points exactly. It is all kabuki. Thankfully, the charade will be over in a few months and the finger pointing can begin.
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, was reportedly incensed by the US proposal. In recent days PA spokesmen have accused Mr Kerry of “appeasement” and of failing to be “a neutral mediator”.
The criticism looks more than justified. Under cover of a vision for peace, the US secretary of state is offering an Israeli security plan at the expense of meaningful Palestinian statehood.
That is not entirely surprising given that the plan was drafted by John Allen, a general formerly in command of US forces in Afghanistan, who has spent months quietly liaising with Israeli counterparts.
The main sticking point is the Jordan Valley, an area that was expected to comprise nearly a quarter of a future Palestinian state.
Gen Allen has indulged an Israeli demand that it be allowed to continue a long-term “military presence” in the Jordan Valley, with a reassessment by the US in 10-15 years’ time.
That is a retreat from Washington’s earlier commitment at the Annapolis talks of 2007 that no Israeli soldiers would be stationed in the West Bank following an agreement. Security guarantees were to be provided instead by Nato troops, under US command.
The new proposal should be a deal-breaker. The valley is a vital resource for the Palestinians, one they have been effectively stripped of for decades by Israel’s exaggerated “security needs”.
The Jordan Valley offers the only land border in the West Bank that would be potentially under Palestinian control. It is one of the few remaining undeveloped areas, making it a possible site to which hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees could return. And its lands are fertile and warm all year round, making it highly productive and a likely engine for the Palestinian economy.
According to Gen Allen’s plan, Israel’s security also requires that Palestinian security forces be only lightly armed, that it has control over the airspace and all borders and the US to install spying technology – euphemistically called “early warning systems” – throughout the West Bank.
In other words, the US vision of a Palestinian state looks remarkably like the model Israel has already implemented in Gaza.
Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/the-us-plan-makes-a-viable-palestinian-state-untenable#page1#ixzz2nrK8ZgNy
.
DeleteThe key question is the identification of a regime that practices systematic oppression and domination by one group over another.
How then does it apply to Israel?
To answer that, we need to clarify another concept: Israel.
Although usually seen as residing within its pre-1967 boundaries, the Israeli regime exercises control over Palestinians in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.
For the past 46 years, all residents within greater Israel have lived under the same regime, which claims to be the sole legitimate political and military authority.
The state controls the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, ruling over eight million rights-bearing citizens (75% of whom are Jews) and four million Palestinian subjects denied civil and political rights.
Millions of Palestinian refugees (who were born in the territory or whose direct ancestors were) cannot set foot in their homeland,
let alone determine its political future as citizens.
bob
With regard to the arguments made by Rufus, as to the debt crisis ...
ReplyDeleteHis numbers would be accurate, if all we were to view was the Nation's GDP and the Federal Government's debt.
.
Bu that is not an accurate reading of the debts of the Country.
When most pundits talk of ‘government debt’ they are inherently referring to federal government, who is not the highest explicit debtor in the non-financial US economy (total nominal debt outstanding excluding financial and foreign financial domestic debt outstanding).
Coming to the answer of this question can be rather complicated.
According to the Federal Reserve’s latest flow of funds accounts ...,
federal debt outstanding was $11.11 trillion.
US household debt and US non-financial business debt outstanding were each greater:
$12.95 and $12.01 trillion, respectively.
Here, the US federal government does not have the largest stock of debt outstanding.
- See more at:
http://www.economonitor.com/rebeccawilder/2012/10/02/who-has-the-most-debt-in-the-us/#sthash.yzMvnCT0.dpuf
Does this mean that Rufus is full of ethanol gas and Budweiser again?
Delete
DeleteWell, you may then say the following:
look at the general government, or the public sector which includes the US federal government plus state and local governments. The public sector (general government) does have the largest stock of debt outstanding, $ 14.11 trillion.
But for a comparable analysis, then one needs to consider the ‘private sector’, which includes household plus non-financial business debt outstanding.
Private debt outstanding dwarfs that of the public sector debt outstanding: $24.95 trillion vs. $14.11 trillion, respectively.
While the US federal government is popularized as being the largest debtor in the US economy, it’s not. Look at the time series in natural logs – by taking the natural logarithm of the public and private debt outstanding series, the slope of the line is a growth rate.
I’ve put the two on different axis, so this chart is not precisely correct;
but the trajectory of government debt took another leg upward on Q1 2008 at the outset of private sector deleveraging.
Better put: the government is ‘financing’ the private sector’s desire to save.
So outside of default or inflation,
the government does bear the ultimate burden of private sector debt.
- See more at: http://www.economonitor.com/rebeccawilder/2012/10/02/who-has-the-most-debt-in-the-us/#sthash.yzMvnCT0.dpuf
DeleteClearly there are legacy issues with the federal government debt overhang – wars, wealth taxing policies, etc. But the entire story of debt burden includes a large share felt by the private sector; this often goes unnoticed when bringing up ‘debt’.
Another part of the story for the US federal government that is bound to come up in a discussion of public debt is the GSEs and contingent mortgage liabilities for the government.
The government’s responsible, either explicitly or implicitly, for about $5 trillion of mortgages outstanding - this is not included under the ‘federal government’ debt outstanding above.
To that I would reference the $16.1 trillion in financial debt outstanding (domestic financial plus foreign debt outstanding in Table D.3), of which GSE-backed mortgage pools are a function.
There’s still quite a bit of financial leverage in the private sector.
In the 1980s, the stock of financial debt outstanding was 22.1% of the total non-financial debt outstanding. Today, financial debt is 41.3% of total non-financial debt, and that’s down from a peak of 56.7% in Q2 2008.
Debt is a complicated story. What’s less complicated is that there’s too much of it.
Rebecca Wilder
Well, that was just about the most nonsensical, gobbledygook of words I've come across in a long time. None of it was relevant to the question at hand, and, of course, it wasn't meant to be.
DeleteThe salient fact is: It's the government debt that the pubs are always running around, hair on fire, squealing about,
and the Government is paying out 2.5% of our GDP in Debt Service.
Let's cut to the chase.
DeleteThe Republicans have, already, managed to round up all of your money, and, now,
They just want you to hurry up and fucking die.
Actually, that's not fair. At least 90% of your Democratic elite feels the exact same way.
DeleteThey just want to get a couple of votes out of you before you go.
And, if you're going to throw around "scare" numbers, like "total debt," how about this number:
DeleteTotal Assets (or Capital) at Market
USA 2011
$217.14 TRILLION
Wiki
Rufus, you have it of course exactly backwards. It is you and the democrats that want all my money.
DeleteAnd it is the democrats who are behind the death panels.
Rufus IIWed Dec 18, 01:44:00 PM EST
DeleteActually, that's not fair. At least 90% of your Democratic elite feels the exact same way.
They just want to get a couple of votes out of you before you go.
...true bipartisanship...
:-)
DeletePolitical tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria.
The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
.
ReplyDeleteWe are a little more than 10 months away from the 2014 congressional elections. Within a month or two, we will be talking about projections.
Current polls
An economy on the mend hasn’t convinced the public that President Obama is doing a good job.
Obama’s plight was reinforced by a Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week. Signs of economic recovery, that Americans say they feel, have done little to boost the president’s approval rating, which is mired in the low 40s.
As they seek to right the ship after a disastrous 2013 rife with legislative and political setbacks, Obama and his team should find it troubling that one of the year’s few bright spots has done little to boost the president’s political standing ahead of a 2014 campaign in which his image will be inexorably tied to many Democrats running for office.
Why wouldn’t positive signs on the issue Obama campaigned on and made a centerpiece of his agenda boost the public’s opinion of him? There are a few plausible reasons. But first, let’s take a closer look at the numbers.
Obama’s approval rating is an unimpressive 43 percent in the new poll, with 55 percent of adults saying they disapprove of the job he is doing. And his approval rating split (42/55) when it comes to the economy is nearly identical.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/12/18/why-economic-recovery-is-no-silver-bullet-for-obama/?tid=hpModule_f8335a3c-868c-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z10
RCP Average: Obama job approval
Positive: 42.7
Negative 53.6
Spread -10.9
Direction of the country (which is not necessarily party specific)
Right direction: 29.8
Wrong direction 63.5
Spread -33.7
It doesn't appear much will happen before the election. What Obama gets done after the election will be little as both sides start jockeying for 2016. It is possible Obama has already become a lame duck. The only are I see that there is a possibility of some watered down legislation would be on immigration reform.
I doubt his latest populist tack regarding minimizing the income gap will go very far since I don't really believe his heart is in it. It kind of reminds me of his oft repeated refrain that jobs are his number one priority.
.
.
The administration still has to fight several pending and active suits against Obamacare. Further, the House is going to keep the heat on with continuous hearings (death by a thousand words). Then there are the ongoing problems with the Obamacare system itself to be dealt with. Unless paid enrollments set a much faster pace, Obamacare will not meet its enrollment goals. Whether the young likely to opt out or ignore the matter entirely can be reversed, premium costs will rise to unaffordable levels for participants. With all these balls in the air, the administration may spend much of its precious time running from problem to problem. The next 10 months may be trying for an administration not applauded for its composure under fire.
DeleteAnd none the Obamacare effort will do anything to repair the festering self-inflicted wounds of other scandals and possible illegalities. It is going to be a rough voyage from now to November.
DeleteAll this said, never underestimate the Republican talent for self-destruction.
Was just reading about those lawsuits. I really can't imagine the plaintiffs prevailing in those, but who knows.
DeleteThe good news is the "young immortals" are rejecting the whole bloody mess big time.
Obama has taken a health care system where 85% of the folks were happy with their insurance plans and blown it up over the rest, many of whom were the "young immortals".
Now we will have death panels, rationing, no control over our own lives and decisions, and Rufus calls this "progress".
It is not even funny.
It is sad.
The Plantiffs need no prevail by way of an affirmative verdict to prevail, if the object is to keep the administration bogged down, running out the clock.
DeleteAs to prevailing in court, the administration lost an FOIA suit today and received a severe tongue-lashing from the judge in the process.
Judge smacks Obama secrecy in unique FOIA case
One can hope.
Delete
Delete“These times of woe afford no time to woo.”
Obama is already a lame daffy duck.
Delete"It is in times of woe that wooing's worth weighs most."
anon
See: Robert Jordan/Maria
Or ask Quirk concerning his romance during the fighting in the Italian Alps..........
"The earth moved", Quirk told me. And not from an artillery bombardment.
DeleteHe who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
What does NSA know about this group?
ReplyDeleteMasked Army: Shadowy Jihadist Group Expands Rapidly in Syria
Delete“a raped girl is bad for the family: it shows that they can’t protect their women;
that they have little social standing; and that they’re not respectable.
It’s worse for the victim because once a woman, or a girl—or a boy—is known as the target of a rape she becomes so despised, so shamed, so worthless that she turns into public property.
No one is raped only once.”
― Louise Brown,
The Dancing Girls of Lahore: Selling Love and Saving Dreams in Pakistan's Pleasure District
rat is crazy folks.
ReplyDeleteHe rambles on day after day after day about the non sense shit.
Just disregard him, if you are a new reader here.
Every one else does.
No matter what the topic of the day might be, he is always on the same two or three topics.
DeleteSociopaths often lack a sense of humor.
He has no humor.
He is vile.
DeleteEvery man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not;
and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.
Delete“Reader, suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were the Farmer Fudd. But I repeat myself.”
.
DeleteJust disregard him, if you are a new reader here.
Every one else does.
Not you, you bumbling oaf.
You have been the only one to comment on him today. You feed the fire and then complain that it continues to burn. Grow a brain.
.
DeleteYou painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her,
put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting “Vanity,”
thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for you own pleasure.
There is all ways the necessity for an antagonist in the pursuit of humorous improvisational blogging. Farmer Fudd provides the 'Hegemony of Improvisational Character' with that antagonist.
DeleteIn fact the content is aimed to illicit the responses that they do.
On time, on target.
Anonymous is to well read to believe absurdities ...
so he is actively and willfully engaged in the game.
Do not doubt it for a moment.
bob
;-)
You are right, Quirk.
DeleteI will comply, and try to grow a brain.
And change my behavior.
“When reading the history of the Jewish people, of their flight from slavery to death, of their exchange of tyrants, I must confess that my sympathies are all aroused in their behalf.
ReplyDeleteThey were cheated, deceived and abused.
Their god was quick-tempered unreasonable, cruel, revengeful and dishonest.
He was always promising but never performed.
He wasted time in ceremony and childish detail, and in the exaggeration of what he had done.
It is impossible for me to conceive of a character more utterly detestable than that of the Hebrew god.
He had solemnly promised the Jews that he would take them from Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. He had led them to believe that in a little while their troubles would be over, and that they would soon in the land of Canaan, surrounded by their wives and little ones, forget the stripes and tears of Egypt.
After promising the poor wanderers again and again that he would lead them in safety to the promised land of joy and plenty, this God, forgetting every promise, said to the wretches in his power:
'Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and your children shall wander until your carcasses be wasted.' God was their greatest enemy, and death their only friend.
It is impossible to conceive of a more thoroughly despicable, hateful, and arrogant being, than the Jewish god. He is without a redeeming feature. In the mythology of the world he has no parallel.
He, only, is never touched by agony and tears.
He delights only in blood and pain.
Human affections are naught to him. He cares neither for love nor music, beauty nor joy.
A false friend, an unjust judge, a braggart, hypocrite, and tyrant, sincere in hatred, jealous, vain, and revengeful, false in promise, honest in curse, suspicious, ignorant, and changeable, infamous and hideous:—such is the God of the Pentateuch.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses
It's what you get for worshipping a golden calf.
DeleteIngersoll is certainly not well read nor deeply thoughtful in these things, and it shows immediately.
DeleteIt reads like the criticism of an 8th grader.
And as such appeals to the 8th grade mind.
Delete
DeleteHe's published, you've perished.
bob
DeleteRobert G. Ingersoll is immortal, his work has been published and distributed around the world.
Anonymous, well, he's just that, Anonymous.
Unnamed, of unknown name, nameless, incognito, unidentified, unknown, unsourced, secret,
unsigned, unattributed.
Farmer Fudd, well, he can barely spell his own name let alone ink a three book deal, with Lester Crown for three million dollar advance, like Barry Obama did.
Now that Obama, he has real skills, unlike our Farmer Fudd.
bob
ReplyDelete“Humor is reason gone mad.”
― Groucho Marx
Figure he would know
:):):)
bob
;-)
Report: IRS vendor owed $525 millionin back taxes
ReplyDeleteHow did I get red font ? Kewl beans!
DeleteRufus Ran Out of Beer Money
ReplyDeleteIf the rest of the country was keeping up with Vermont we would have 11,961,451 signed up, already. (and, that's just in the "private" market, it doesn't include Medicaid.)
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I think Vermont already had a pretty good insurance program.
DeleteWell, give it a couple years, it will SUCK.
DeleteWhy is that, Farmer Fudd?
DeleteWhat is the evidence that would lead us to beieve you?
bob
DeleteAn English Literature major that never wrote a thing that a publisher would print.
Even the Vanity Houses turned his work down.
Barry Obama is a more accomplished author than Farmer Fudd, and a ghost wrote Obama's!
Oil futures pared earlier gains before finishing higher Wednesday, as traders bet that the Federal Reserve's decision to scale back its key bond buying program could precede signs of economic growth and increasing crude demand.
ReplyDeleteLight, sweet crude for January delivery rose 58 cents, or 0.6%, to $97.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Nymex crude initially sank roughly 0.5% shortly after 2 p.m. EST...
.
ReplyDeleteWatched a story on CNN today talking about the thousands of doctors being dropped with no explanation by insurance companies like United Healthcare. The reason surmised is a simple one. Insurance companies are trying to recover money they are losing due to the introduction of Obamacare and the hundreds in billions of Medicare cuts like those to health advantage plans. Since they can't do that by cutting patients, they do it by cutting the doctors that treat those patients. Their hope is that those patients (usually the costly elderly) will follow the doctors they have been going to for years and sign up with another insurance company even if as in most cases it costs them more money.
A number of states were mentioned including the 20% cut in Connecticut.
.
They're doing that stuff all the time, Quirk. It's called "negotiating."
DeleteAnd, speaking of Connecticut, they are already at 71% of their projection.
DeleteACA Signups
.
ReplyDeleteThe president's review panel for NSA surveillance came out with their recommendations today.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-shouldnt-keep-phone-database-review-board-recommends/2013/12/18/f44fe7c0-67fd-11e3-a0b9-249bbb34602c_story.html?hpid=z1
Given the make up of this 'independent' panel, don't expect any earth-shaking changes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/whos-on-the-panel-reviewing-the-nsas-actions/2013/12/18/396edbe0-682b-11e3-ae56-22de072140a2_story.html?hpid=z1
Given that Obama is the decider in chief, expect even fewer.
There are some good recommendations in the review. However, given the dissembling nature of those running the programs (Alexander, Clapper, et al) it is not encouraging in that many of the recommendations don't spell out who will determine whether a piece of information has national security value or not leaving us in the same boat we are in now.
The report:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/192387819/NSA-review-board-s-report
As a tool for judging this report it would be nice to have the report compiled by Congress on the intelligence community's performance, a report that's release is currently being held up by the spooks.
It's my opinion this latest report is like all the others we have seen over the last year, designed to throw a few crumbs, stall for time, and hope the issue fades away.
.
.
DeleteWatching and more importantly listening to Alexander's testimony before the congressional hearings, I was struck by the fact that he couldn't or wouldn't point to a single case of terrorism that was stopped by the collection of metadata under 215.
After subsequent closed hearings, guys like Wyden and Udall and Leahy and Sensenbrenner, guys in the presidents own party were saying that they saw no evidence that the metadata program had achieved any results at all much less meaningful results.
Just the other day, in declaring the programs likely unconstitutional, a judge pointed out the same thing.
Now, Obama's handpicked group of 'independent experts' has come out and said the exact same thing.
It will be interesting to see what explanation Obama gives when in January he picks and chooses which or if any of the recommendations he intends to implement.
.
I have noticed of a late that at the bars he inhabits the indicted co-conspirator Quirk has taken to singing this to his most recent Lady Love -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhZEW79PYE4
'When I die I don't wanna go sober'.......and if he keeps drinking vodka as he has recently being doing, he certainly won't.
DeleteSend In the Clowns
Isn't it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air,
Where are the clowns?
Isn't it bliss?
Don't you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can't move,
Where are the clowns?
Send in the clowns.
Just when I'd stopped opening doors,
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours.
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines
No one is there.
Don't you love farce?
My fault, I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want
Sorry, my dear!
And where are the clowns
Send in the clowns
Don't bother, they're here.
Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer?
Losing my timing this late in my career.
And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns
Well, maybe next year.
bob
On this day in 1912, the skeletal remains of the Piltdown Man, a purported missing link between man and ape, were “discovered” in a gravel pit in Sussex, England. It would take 41 years, but eventually the find was exposed as a hoax.
ReplyDeleteNow, due to the advances of science, we can know with certainty that Claire Pilty is alive and "well" in Mississippi.
DeleteHe's got a few relatives in Hawaii, and Idiothoe, also, I've heard.
Delete:)
DeleteGot some in breeds outside of Detroit too, I read. The 'quirky folk' they call 'em in the scientific literature. Big drinkers.
I'm becoming known by
Delete"The Hunchback of Maui"
...just thinking of Maui Paui...
Delete.
DeleteI heard of Maui Waui. Is that Maui Paui you own house brand?
.
QuirkWed Dec 18, 09:15:00 PM EST
Delete.
I heard of Maui Waui. Is that Maui Paui you own house brand?
No. It's pretty hazy, but I seem to remember someone telling me about it,.. while we were in a closet...go figure...
Boutique branding could be the wave of the future. Something supplementary to Ben & Jerry's would be ideal.
We may have been wearing large grocery bags over our heads.
DeleteWhite Rabbit. Live Woodstock 1969
White Rabbit, Woodstock
DeleteJefferson Airplane
Deletehttp://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/growing-marijuana-use-among-teenagers-spurs-concerns/?_r=0
ReplyDeleteHere go the SAT scores, heading south.
Washington and Colorado will be leading the way down.
Thank God Rufus put his foot down when it came to bath salts.
DeleteIn Colorado 'High Quality' marijuana sells or $236 dollars an ounce, and i is a legal product.
DeleteAs a farmer, Fudd, you must realize that if a person is cultivating a plant that sells for $3,750 dollars a pound, a fella don't need a whole lot book learnin' to make out okay.
What was the most money you ever got, for a pound of wheat or a pound of alfalfa?
Dollar to a doughnut it was quite a bit shy of $3,750 dollars a pound.
Kids are learning all about horticulture, and Farmer Fudd worries about the future.
http://www.priceofweed.com/prices/United-States/Colorado.html
Deletebob
Will CME Group carry generic marijuana or will futures be designated OH, OK, and WOW!!
ReplyDeleteBreaking news from The Kelly File on Fox News -
ReplyDeleteMore people believe we've been contacted by space aliens than believe ObamaCare is going to lower costs, you can keep your doctor, your insurance, etc, all the promises, promises.
:):)
Rufus believes both.
Delete:)
DeleteIs it possible that Rufus IS the space alien that has contacted us?
Think about it.
DeleteHow far, really, can the normal human metabolism take you on ethanol fumes and Budweiser?
He'll be well-preserved when he shuffles off his mortal coil.
DeleteMay we keep our extraterrestrial aliens as well? Just as important, will aliens be eligible for Obamacare? Will they be able to keep their own doctors and use their preferred health care facilities? We must carefully think these things through. Oh, will ETs receive the same conscientious tuition assistance and assured enrollment through American universities as our neighbors from the south?
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ReplyDeleteThe Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies has offered President Obama 46 recommendations for bolstering accountability of the intelligence community.
The five-member panel was tasked by President Obama in August with coming up with suggestions to overhaul U.S. intelligence gathering and oversight in the aftermath of revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.