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."

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Let’s hear it from a Neocon or two and a first class Israeli Firster and get a clear picture of one of the usual suspects that wants the US involved in another Middle East war.


Worldview: Syria's Assad shows disdain for U.S. efforts




POSTED: Sunday, May 26, 2013, 3:01 Am

Last week, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad demonstrated his utter disdain for U.S. efforts to launch Syrian peace talks next month in Geneva.
Even as Secretary of State John Kerry was roaming the region seeking Arab backing for talks, the Syrian regime reportedly launched a chemical weapon against civilians in a northeastern Damascus suburb. The fourth such episode, this one sent at least 50 victims to the hospital with bronchial and muscle spasms.
Assad once more thumbed his nose at President Obama's "red lines" with impunity, while insisting he will run in "elections" in 2014. Could the message possibly be clearer? Armed by Moscow and Tehran, buoyed by Iranian and Hezbollah fighters helping him regain lost ground, Assad thinks he is winning.
No wonder. The White House still refuses to do what is necessary to force him to take talks seriously, thus ensuring that any Geneva meeting will fail.
The administration is correct to argue that a negotiated peace would be the best way to stop the Syrian carnage. It would also be the best way to stop the fighting from spilling over further into Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, or even Israel, and to prevent a new al-Qaeda base in the heart of the Middle East.
Yet, at present, Washington has little or no leverage with which to squeeze Assad into accepting the principles underlying the Geneva talks: that both sides would agree to a transitional government (minus Assad), which would take control of the country and prepare for elections.

Assad rejects that premise. Moscow (the cosponsor of the talks, on whose good offices Kerry is relying) backs Assad. The dictators stonewalling "reflects his belief that the Iranians and Russians will pull his chestnuts out of the fire," says Fred Hof, a former special adviser on Syria at the State Department.

So, even if Syrian opposition leaders agree to attend talks, what's the point?
True, Kerry warned last week that, if Assad won't negotiate in good faith, the United States might increase its support for the opposition. But U.S. officials still insist that any new support will only be "nonlethal," meaning no weapons. This has convinced Assad he can ignore U.S. threats.

The dictator knows it took two months for Washington to deliver promised food rations and medical kits to Syrian opposition militias that were CIA-vetted to ensure they are not linked to jihadis. The administration still has not delivered communications equipment promised in April.

Meantime, non-jihadi rebels whom Washington supposedly backs are losing ground to Assad's forces because the rebels don't have enough bullets. (Jihadi fighters, on the other hand, seem to have no trouble getting guns and cash from rich Gulf Arabs.) No wonder Assad feels free to take a hard line on Geneva talks.

The talks might have a chance, however, if Obama were willing to play hardball with Assad. The dictator and his allies ignore rhetoric, but respect strength.
Playing hardball would require two essential steps.

First, Assad would have to be convinced he could lose the military battle. The administration would have to listen to Gen. Salim Idriss, commander of the rebels' Supreme Military Council (SMC), who wrote to Kerry: "For the negotiations to be of any substance, we must reach a strategic military balance, without which the regime will feel empowered to dictate, or at least stall for precious time to achieve gains on the ground under the cover of diplomacy, while fully sustained logistically and militarily by Russia and Iran."
To achieve a strategic balance, Idriss wrote, the United States should provide rebel forces under the command of the SMC with sufficient advanced weapons "to sustain defensive military capabilities in the face of the Assad forces."
In other words, for diplomacy to work, vetted rebel groups first need more, and better, arms.

Which brings us to the second step. Those weapons don't necessarily have to come from the United States, although failing to provide them severely undercuts U.S. leverage with its enemies and its allies. The weapons can come from Gulf states - or from Britain and France if the European Union drops its arms embargo on Syria. But Washington must play the lead role in ensuring that the aid is coordinated in a way that strengthens responsible rebel groups.
The administration claims to support the SMC and Idriss, but does little to prove it. It has outsourced the job of arming the rebels to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but failed to persuade them to coordinate their aid through the military council. Instead, they arm their favorite militias (often salafi militants). This undercuts Idriss efforts to create a coherent rebel army that could marginalize jihadi groups.

The Qataris and Saudis have felt free to ignore Washington because, despite Kerry's efforts, they see no sign the White House is fully invested on the Syria issue. If these talks are to have any chance of success, that perception must change.

Obama must unite the Gulf states, Turkey, and involved European nations around a coherent policy for arming the rebels. He must persuade the Russians and Iranians that, so long as their arms flow to Assad, he will ensure that vetted rebel groups get equal weapons.

Such tough tactics are required to convince Assad that there is no alternative but to make way for a transitional government via diplomacy. Otherwise, the Geneva talks are doomed before they start.

270 comments:

  1. Let’s hear it from a Neocon or two and a first class Israeli Firster


    Well we just heard from you, a bigot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bigot,no, a non-Israeli firster, I can accept. I am sick of watching this charade and if Obama has the balls to prevent it and stand up for real US interests, wonderful.

      Delete
    2. This is an incorrect way of reading the situation. Barky is a creation of the CIA/Military Industrial Complex, nothing more than a puppet on a string. He makes no decisions.

      One needs to figure out what the CIA/Military Industrial Complex wishes to do here to have an understanding of the real situation.

      Delete
  2. Trudy Rubin has the audacity to state that that the President of Syria shows disdain for the Syrian peace process. Disdain? Kerry is running around to all the usual suspects trying to arm the Saudi supported Syrian rebels and the greatest US ally of all time is bombing Syria with US made warplanes.

    I feel her pain and disdain myself, but for opposite reasons. Rubin writes that Obama is not following his marching orders, as is to be expected when they who must be obeyed speak:

    Obama must unite the Gulf states, Turkey, and involved European nations around a coherent policy for arming the rebels. He must persuade the Russians and Iranians that, so long as their arms flow to Assad, he will ensure that vetted rebel groups get equal weapons. .

    ReplyDelete
  3. your daily stream of bigotry speaks volumes to your bias.

    ReplyDelete
  4. …vetted rebel groups get equal weapons

    Just who will be doing the vetting of the islamists and al Qaeda killers murdering the citizens of Syria?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The CIA vetted the perimeter guard, at the compound in Benghazi ...

      How'd that work out for US?

      Delete
    2. Would have worked fine if they hadn't run away.

      But the CIA wanted this to happen. Otherwise it wouldn't have happened. They are much better than the Party of Dumb at such things. Obviously, they created Obama and everything is going to some plan or other.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. Well, boobie, you have regaled us with one conspiracy theory, after another with reference to Mr Obama.

      The birth in Kenya, the fake Hawaiian birth certificate, Obama never being seen at Columbia University ... yada yada yada.

      Now who could possibly engineer that?
      Not the brother of Obama fella in that hut, in Kenya.
      Nor anyone else that was born in Kenya.

      Who could smuggle a new born baby into the United tates, from Kenya?
      Not the NAACP, I'm sure.

      Mr Obama was connected, from the beginning.
      It is not an easy thing, for an unknown Community Organizer to walk into Lester Crown's office and walk out with a $3 million dollar advance for three different autobiographies.

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    6. .

      Evidently, the comment was actually removed by the CIA at the behest of the Manchurian cnadidate.

      .

      Delete
  5. Bigotry is putting up one set of values for one group of people and another set for a different group. Now which of the two posters above does that routinely?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some races, ethic groups, nationalities, or religious preferences, Deuce, they only qualiy for 'Children Status'. They ar not really capable of self-determination.

      On a personal, societal or cultural level.
      boobie has told US so.

      He wants US to bear the White Man's Burden ...

      While the folks in Iraq, they can decide fo themselves if they want to split the polity into three parts. In Syria, the polity that represents the country at the UN, is not giving up. I do recall reading, about a year ago, that Assad would not last another two weeks.

      Guess those practicing precognition in DC were wrong.

      Delete
    2. See videos of rational self controlled adult here -

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/woolwich-attack-beheaded-london_n_3320758.html

      Delete
  6. .

    I love the bald-headed guy in the video.

    "Answer the question you wish had been asked."

    First, he indicates the caller isn't worth answering. Then ignores the real basis of his call which is the U.S. shouldn't be getting involved in the ME especially when we have so many problems of our own. Then offers up a non-answer, McCain and Lindsey are 'elected U.S. senators' as if that fact actually affects who they are, what is their philosophy, or who they are influenced by. Then tries to belittle the caller by suggesting in an ad homenem attack that he is a 'nonsense person' who sits in his basement all day with his tin foil hat on while Mr. Lake and his bros walk around in their big boy pants and determine what is 'appropriate' for the rest of us.

    Rubin is entitled to her opinion although I disagree with it. Mr. Lake is one of those 'elistist' tools I world love to interface with one on one.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, oh, going rogue has no place in our organization, Q. You recall what Hamdoon told you about self control.

      Delete
    2. Besides when you are on the sauce as you are now you overestimate your abilities and you are likely to get your ass handed to you in a bucket. Remember, you've been dropped from our medical coverage for anything other than mission related activities.

      Delete
    3. .

      Don't be silly. I merely want to look him in the face without him being able to retreat behind a moderator or commercial break.

      I would subject him to such a barrage of verbal abuse that within minutes he would be reduced to crying like a little baby and wimpering in self-abasement, "stop, stop, please stop, I can't take any more; I accept your verbal dominance; were I a dog, I would cower and cringe and assume an obvously subordinate attitude and posture; forgive me I knew not what I did nor the dick that I obviously am.

      .

      .

      Delete
  7. If the attackers learned the location of the facility that evening, it would suggest the Benghazi assault was more of a target of opportunity and was therefore not planned well in advance of the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

    ...

    However, one U.S. intelligence official with detailed knowledge of the events in Benghazi disputed that view. This official said the Special Operations team that arrived by aircraft that evening from Tripoli was tailed by the attackers on the drive from the Benghazi airport to the CIA annex.

    The State Department’s own ARB says the Special Operations team from Tripoli arrived at the annex at 5 a.m. Benghazi time. “Less than 15 minutes later, the Annex came under mortar and RPG attack, with five mortar rounds impacting close together in under 90 seconds,” it says.


    - Eli Lake

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      And if you dispute it, you are a tin-hat wearing nonsense spounting basement dwelling conspiracy nut.

      .Eli Lake

      .

      Delete
  8. Does anyone really know what side Israel has chosen in this fight?

    Other than their own self defense interests?

    By my count they had taken two air strikes targeting missiles they thought were bound for Lebanon.

    >>the greatest US ally of all time is bombing Syria with US made warplanes<<

    This seems an exaggeration to me. Makes it seem like there is carpet bombing going on.

    Who began the gun running into Syria? Barky is a suspect.

    But then he is a creation of the CIA/Military Industrial Complex so it is to be expected.

    It is the reason Ruf voted for him in the first place.

    He is much more competent at such things than the 'Party of Dumb', the Republicans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the Israeli have backed the Wahhabi.
      Struck at both Assad's forces and HB, in Syria.

      They have not struck at the Wahhabi.

      That casts the lead.

      Done deal.

      Delete

  9. May 26, 2013
    Anti-science leftists protest against company that feeds the world
    Rick Moran

    It isn't only the left who were in the streets yesterday protesting against Monsanto and their miracle seeds. The same low information type voter who elected President Obama have been taken in by the Luddites who are scaring the ignorant into thinking that genetically modified seeds are a danger.

    Not just a danger - they are destroying the planet!

    Washington Post:

    Genetically modified plants are grown from seeds that are engineered to resist insecticides and herbicides, add nutritional benefits or otherwise improve crop yields and increase the global food supply.

    Most corn, soybean and cotton crops grown in the United States today have been genetically modified. But critics say genetically modified organisms can lead to serious health conditions and harm the environment. The use of GMOs has been a growing issue of contention in recent years, with health advocates pushing for mandatory labeling of genetically modified products even though the federal government and many scientists say the technology is safe.

    My God even Hugo Chavez thought that GMO's were safe. What is it with these anti-science mountbanks? Too many Hollywood monster movies? Perhaps.

    At bottom, the organizers of the ignorant are anti-human. For the same reason that shale oil development is opposed - it will lead to increased supplies of fossil fuels and doom the planet - the anti-GMO crowd doesn't like the idea that Monsanto's seeds can feed an expanding world population. Do they really believe that GMO's are poisonous? Are they that stupid? Humans have been genetically engineering seeds for thousands of years. A history of corn shows dramatic human intervention that changed the plant from a small cob-like vegetable into maize and finally into what we are now familiar with. Every vegetable has been altered by humans using crude cross-breeding methods long before recorded history. Just because it's done in a lab by geneticists instead of in a field by paleo-humans doesn't mean it's any more dangerous.

    Governments around the world utilize GMO's because they're safe and contribute to an expanding food supply. It would be a shame if a few anti-science lefties were to prevent the feeding of billions because they fear what they cannot understand.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Bob didn't even have the balls to identify the source of this particular screed, the American Thinker. though it was obvious from the second sentence.

      It is typical of the quality of writing we can expect there.

      The same low information type voter who elected President Obama have been taken in by the Luddites who are scaring the ignorant into thinking that genetically modified seeds are a danger.

      At bottom, the organizers of the ignorant are anti-human.

      What is it with these anti-science mountbanks? Too many Hollywood monster movies? Perhaps.



      Rick Moron, the Eli Lake of the American Thinker.

      .

      Delete
  10. There is a difference between opinion and bias. It is convenient to opine “bigot" when you come up short on argument. Then you drop your shorts and moon the opponent with the anti-semitic bullshit. It is tedious.

    In the video the caller caught the genius Eli Lake, or whatever his made-up name is, flatfooted and Eli could only respond with an insult.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the caller CLAIMED that the unemployed are STARVING in this nation...

      yeah real credible

      Delete
    2. That's the Modus Operandi of the those deal in deceit.

      It is funny to watch 'em squirm when the light is turned on.
      Then the laser pointer really gets 'em goin'

      If the going is tedious, at least make it humorous.
      They're funny when caught and hung up on their own petard.

      Say such childish things.
      Calling folks names and such.

      Delete
    3. Which country is that?

      Starving, guess that would depend upon how long one was hungry, aye.

      The United States changed the name of its definitions in 2006 that eliminated references to hunger, keeping various categories of food insecurity.

      This did not represent a change in what was measured. Very low food insecurity (described as food insecurity with hunger prior to 2006) means that, at times during the year, the food intake of household members was reduced and their normal eating patterns were disrupted because the household lacked money and other resources for food.

      This means that people were hungry ( in the sense of "the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food" [Oxford English Dictionary 1971] for days each year (Nord 2009 p. iii-iv.).

      Delete

    4. This is the title to an ABC News report ...

      Hunger and Children in America: a Slow and Steady Starvation
      http://abcnews.go.com/Health/US/hunger-children-america-slow-steady-starvation/story?id=14328390#.UaK7andoH1U

      Now, if ABC News uses the term 'steady starvation' would indicate the caller is not far from the "Main Stream" of our polity.

      Delete
    5. Perhaps quot was thinking of his home, in Palestine.

      The people are all fat, sassy and socialist, there.

      Delete
    6. ABC News is full of shit.

      You want food stamps, call the Department of Agriculture.

      No phone? Get an ObamaPhone.

      Delete
    7. Dear General Rodent

      It's clear that you cant argue using facts so you lie, distort and invent.

      But I want to say thanks, you personally have proven my point of the lack of quality this place has become.

      Again, thanks for proving to the casual reader not to take your words, deuce's or anything this blog produces and anything but crap.

      Delete
    8. DeuceSun May 26, 08:59:00 PM EDT
      There is a difference between opinion and bias. It is convenient to opine “bigot" when you come up short on argument. Then you drop your shorts and moon the opponent with the anti-semitic bullshit. It is tedious.


      this coming from a perpetual basher of Israel, Jews, AIPAC.

      "Israel firster"....

      I called you a bigot... Yep...

      A rose by any other name is still a rose and in your case?

      Your an anti-semite.

      You just lack the balls to be honest.

      Guess one day you will see yourself for who you are. But for now? You wrap yourself in nonsense and repeat the distortions and lies on a DAILY bases and get your panties in a wad when we call you on it..

      So again for the 134th time...

      Deuce you are an anti-semite.

      Embrace it.

      Be honest.

      You hate Israel, Jews and Zionism.

      It's really simple...

      So now go and accuse me of playing the victim card, the anti-semetic card... we have heard it all before.

      But notice just how many Jews you have personally DRIVEN away...

      Ever wonder why???????

      Naw I doubt it.

      Delete
  11. To be fair, the caller was rambling just a bit, about starvation in the United States (fattest country in the world), the economy etc. A democratic caller, he seems to have forgotten who has been President these last many years. And Lake did say no one is suggesting we send 200,000 troops to Syria, but that there are other less intrusive measures that might be taken.

    Call it a draw, maybe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That you have the nerve to even attempt to call it a draw, boobie, certainly indicates that Lake must have really lost, big time.

      Lord have mercy!

      Delete
    2. .

      Call it a draw?


      :)

      Damn, you never cease to amaze.

      .

      Delete
  12. Now we get the real big lie. Which one is that you ask? The crocodile tears about the 70,000 dead Syrians. Nato and the usual suspects need to intervene in Syria to save the children and stop the killing. It is out of control. But hark, Assad is in position to stop the killing and save the children. He is close to putting down the rebellion. Shades of Lincoln? Preserving the union! But, but that was not in the playbook. Dazzle them with bullshit:

    European Union foreign ministers are to discuss British and French calls for them to ease sanctions against Syria so weapons can be supplied to the rebels.

    At a meeting in Brussels, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague is expected to argue that the current sanctions regime, which is due to expire at the end of this week, is no longer working.

    He wants it amended so arms can be sent to "moderate" forces in the opposition.

    However, several EU states are totally opposed to ending the arms embargo.

    Earlier, Syria's foreign minister confirmed the government would "in principle" attend an international peace conference which the US and Russia hope will take place in Geneva next month.

    Walid Muallem said it would be "a good opportunity for a political solution" to the conflict, which the UN says has left more than 80,000 people dead.

    Members of the main opposition coalition are currently discussing whether to attend the conference, but spokesmen have said they would if President Bashar al-Assad agreed to step down.

    ‘Devastating consequences'

    Mr Hague has argued that partially lifting the EU arms embargo, so that weapons could be given to rebel groups, would complement, rather than work against, the peace process because it would strengthen the opposition's hand in negotiations with President Assad.


    We have to be open to every way of strengthening moderates and saving lives”

    William Hague
    UK Foreign Secretary
    Last week, he told British MPs that weapons would be supplied only "under carefully controlled circumstances" and with clear commitments from the opposition.

    "We must make clear that if the regime does not negotiate seriously at the Geneva conference, no option is off the table," he said. “We have to be open to every way of strengthening moderates and saving lives rather than the current trajectory of extremism and murder."


    {…}




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Please note the order of importance mantioned a couple time by Mr. Hague, first strengthen 'moderates' and then saving lives.

      What he obviously left out was the most important factor for both Britian and France, saving face. They want to make sure that when negotiations start, the 'moderates' are in a postion of strength.

      And how do we assure that the 'good guys' get the weapons? We be very 'careful' and then make them pinky swear that they will be good boys with the toys we provide.

      And who can deny Mr. Hague's observation that sending more weapons into a civil war can only help in achieving a negotiated peace.

      .

      Delete

  13. {…}
    On Monday, Mr Hague and the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, will urge other European governments to amend the embargo text to allow weapons to be supplied to the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, or allow more assistance to be sent.

    Another possibility is for the existing embargo, which expires at midnight on 31 May, to be extended without amendment for a short period to see if the Geneva conference is successful.

    Unanimity is needed, and several countries are opposed, reports the BBC's Matthew Price in Brussels. They include Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.

    One Austrian source told the BBC that allowing lethal weapons to be sent into a war zone would turn EU policy on its head, our correspondent adds.


    William Hague and Laurent Fabius argue that easing the embargo would put pressure on President Assad
    Many countries are also afraid that anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons given to rebel fighters considered "moderate" might end up in the hands of jihadist militants, including those from the al-Nusra Front, which has pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda.

    The lack of a centralised command structure and allegations of human rights abuses by rebel fighters are also sources of concern.

    The European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU's diplomatic service, has cautioned against "any counterproductive move" that could harm the prospects of the Geneva conference. It suggests extending the embargo to allow "more time for reflection".

    Oxfam has warned of "devastating consequences" if the embargo ends.

    "There are no easy answers when trying to stop the bloodshed in Syria, but sending more arms and ammunition clearly isn't one of them," the aid agency's head of arms control, Anna Macdonald, said in a statement on Thursday. "International efforts should be focused on halting arms transfers to all sides and finding a political solution to the crisis."

    US Secretary of State John Kerry has been lobbying EU member states hesitant about lifting the embargo, which our correspondent says has forced the debate in Brussels and added weight to the British and French position. Still, a compromise may be impossible, he adds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Still, a compromise may be impossible, ...

      Good deal.
      Do not arm the Wahhabi, in Syria!

      Or else where, but that'd be a reach to far.

      Delete
  14. Where did Lake say he was advocating American troops in Syria? What he actually said was that he was not. One if left to assume then that he is talking about weapons. This is quite different.

    The caller was off in lu-lu land talking about people starving on the streets of the United States.

    Call it whatever you want. I call it a draw between Lake and the Caller.

    I suppose one shouldn't call a nitwit caller a nitwit though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ABC News reports upon 'Steady Starvation' in the US, boobie.

      Maybe you should buy a tv, watch the news, instead of going to the casino.

      Delete
    2. ABC News is full of shit.

      You want food stamps, call the Department of Agriculture.

      No phone? Get an ObamaPhone.



      And if you and ABC are correct, why then aren't you slaughtering your cattle and horses and feeding the starving on the streets of your very own nation?

      Delete
    3. To live fat and happy while those around you are starving in the streets is nearly universally thought to be wrong.

      Why then aren't you acting?

      Delete
    4. I did not say there were people starving boobie.

      I said that the caller was not far from the Main Stream, in her choice of words. To describe HUNGER in the United States as a form of starvation.
      It is like calling a sovereign nation a country, accurate in limited, kind of colloquial way.

      Her word choice was not out of the norm, for the conversation they were having. It was used by ABC News. Middle of the American road, colloquial.

      Delete
    5. The only religiously motivated exception to this that I can think of is in aspects of Hinduism where it is assumed the poor soul is reaping the detriments of his/her previous bad acts in a former life.

      This interpretation is going out of style, however, with the coming of the vote.

      Perhaps you are an 'old school' Hindu, General Bunk?

      You seem to hold your cattle sacred, like many Hindus do.

      Here we have starvation on our streets, and you are probably feeding your cattle high quality alfalfa.

      Shame on you.

      Delete
    6. Ah, now General Bunk is really mincing words, once again.

      Delete
    7. Words do have meaning, boobie.

      I am sure that you are familiar with Alice.

      The Mad Hatter, confused by Alice's speech, tells her to say what she means. He demonstrates an important distinction between statements with apparently identical meanings when he tells Alice that "I say what I mean" does not mean the same thing as "I mean what I say." He reminds Alice that she wouldn't assume that "I eat what I see" means the same thing as "I see what I eat."

      You have to really read, boobie, not make assumptions as to what was written, but actually READ the words.

      Bites quot on the ass, consistently.
      He writes things, as he did about Hitler, that he does not comprehend the real meaning of.
      He's an ESL, but you claim to be a Lit Major.

      Start reading the words, stop prejudging.

      Delete
    8. Though I realize that prejudice is a way of life, for you.

      Delete
    9. .

      I am sure that you are familiar with Alice.

      Don't be so sure, rat. The Wizard of ID resides in another fantasy land altogether, never quite made it to the Looking Glass much less through it.

      He still pouts about it.

      .

      Delete
    10. the General of Bunk, lies, distorts and snorts his way thru life inventing and making up nonsense...

      No fact can be spoken he will not twist...

      Ah yes, the Rat, the worm tongue of the EB.

      Delete
    11. Bob you cant argue with Rat, he is a fool.

      No word can be typed that he will not distort, invent or lie about to make "his" case.

      It's that sickness he has.

      Dont even try to be rational with an irrational..

      Delete
  15. several countries are opposed, reports the BBC's Matthew Price in Brussels. They include Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.

    Thank Thor and Zeus and all the other gods in and out of office that there are some countries left in the EU that have not succumbed to the Shit birds in Whitehall, Paris, Tel Aviv and DC. And peace be upon the beloved asshole John Kerry for his consistent incompetence. Small mercies mean a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Obama is not sending troops to Syria. The CIA/AIPAC/Industrial Military Complex has cut a deal with the KGB/RIPAC/Industrial Military Complex. No S300's, no troops.

    From RT -

    Russia halts plans to supply S-300 missile system to Syria - reports


    Published time: June 26, 2012 22:17
    Edited time: June 27, 2012 03:52

    http://rt.com/news/russia-halts-syria-s300-contract-822/

    >>Russia’s main weapons producer has allegedly suspended its contract with Syria to supply S-300 long-range missile systems. Russia’s ‘Vedomosti’ daily published the report, (((((citing unnamed sources within the military-industrial complex.)))))

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was reported the Israeli agreed to Russian demands not to attack Syria, again, from the air.

      Israel denies the report from Russia.

      Delete
    2. Russia denies the report from Israel.

      Delete
    3. .

      All deny the reports from the land of ID.

      .

      Delete
  17. BLOWBACK

    A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the southern Russian region of Dagestan on Saturday injuring at least 18, including two children and five police officers, police said. The attacker was later identified as a widow of two Islamic radicals killed by security forces.

    It was the first suicide bombing in Dagestan since the Boston Marathon bombings last month. The Tsarnaev brothers suspected of carrying out those attacks are ethnic Chechens who lived in this turbulent Caucasus province before moving to the U.S. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder brother who was killed a shootout with police days after the April 15 bombings, spent six months in Dagestan in 2012.

    Dagestan remains an epicenter of violence in the confrontation between Islamic radicals and federal forces. Islamic extremists strive to create an independent Muslim state, or “emirate,” in the Caucasus and parts of southern Russia with a sizable Muslim population.

    In Saturday’s attack, the bomber detonated an explosives-laden belt in the central square in the provincial capital, Makhachkala, Dagestan’s police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said.

    The woman was identified as Madina Alieva, 25, who married an Islamist who was killed in 2009 and then wedded another Islamic radical who was gunned down last year, police spokeswoman Fatina Ubaidatova said.

    Since 2000, at least two dozen women, most of them from the Caucasus, have carried out suicide bombings in Russian cities and aboard trains and planes. All were linked to an Islamic insurgency that spread throughout Dagestan and the predominantly Muslim Caucasus region after two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya.

    The bombers are often called “black widows” in Russia because many are the widows, or other relatives, of militants killed by security forces. Islamic militants are believed to convince “black widows” that a suicide bombing will reunite them with their dead relatives beyond the grave.

    Police said two of the people injured in the attack were in critical condition. There were no details about the injured children.

    This week, a double explosion in Makhachkala killed four civilians and left 44 injured, while three security officers and three suspected militants have been killed in other incidents. One of the devices was in a parked car and the other was placed in a trash bin.

    Although Chechen separatists were battered almost a decade ago, Islamists continue to move through the region’s mountains and forests with comparative ease despite security sweeps by federal forces and police under the control of local leaders loyal to the Kremlin.

    Human rights groups say that abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings of young men suspected of militant links by Russian security forces have helped swell the rebels’ ranks. Caucasus experts say that Islamists routinely extort money from government officials and businessmen and attack or kill those who refuse to pay.

    ReplyDelete

  18. Muslim countries invaded and occupied by Westerners since 1798:


    Bangladesh (Britain); Egypt (France),
    Indonesia (Dutch);
    Algeria (France);
    Senegal, Mali, Niger, Chad (France);
    Moroccan Sahara, Ceuta (Spain);
    Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan (Russia); Tunisia (France);
    Egypt, Sudan (Britain);
    Morocco (France);
    Libya (Italy);
    Palestine and Iraq (Britain);
    Syria and what is now Lebanon (France);
    Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain (Britain);
    Iran (Britain, US, Soviet Union during WW II); Iraq (US 2003-2011)


    Why do they hate us?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Egypt (England, France, Israel)
      Egypt, Syria, Jordan (Israel)

      Delete
    2. .

      Yeh, but what about the Moorish invasion of Spain in 710 ad?


      .

      Delete
    3. So you ignore the moslem attacks PRE 1798 that started all the shit and lay the blame on the west.

      Interesting read of history.

      Delete
  19. Here is the Peace Plan.

    This is not that complicated:

    Quit fucking with them.
    Quit killing them.
    Quit bombing them.
    Quit supporting European style colonialism.
    Leave them alone.
    Mind our own business.
    Quit invading their countries.
    Quit bombing them.
    Quit droning them.
    Quit trying to convert them.
    Quit trying to save them.
    Quit settling on their land.

    Tell the foreign lobbyists to mind their own business and to fix their own problems. Fight their own battles and pay for it all themselves.

    They do not need to be here. We do not need to be there.

    They will leave us alone and we will not have to give any of them amnesty. Leave them alone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It doesn't matter where we run and hide.
      The hardcore adherents of islam will searh behind every tree.
      Under every rock.
      To kill the Jew, infidal, Christian, etc.

      "We love death the way you love life"

      Delete
    2. "We love death the way you love life"

      There words, not mine.

      Delete
    3. Ah yes, General Bunk defends the jihadist once again.

      Nothing new here.

      Delete
    4. Countries invaded by the Moslems

      Egypt
      Libya
      Most of Northern Africa
      Spain
      France
      Austria
      Turkey
      Iran
      India
      Southeast Europe
      Much of Sub Saharan Africa
      etc
      etc
      etc
      etc
      etc
      etc


      Dougman is right. It is after all in the Koran, where the later militant passages rule over the former more peaceful ones, like our Supreme Court decisions.

      Israel does not proselytize much, Christianity does, but it is supposed to be by peaceful methods, Islam by the sword.

      How many countries have voluntarily converted to Islam?

      Delete
    5. DeuceSun May 26, 10:40:00 PM EDT
      Here is the Peace Plan.
      This is not that complicated:
      Quit fucking with them.
      Quit killing them.
      Quit bombing them.
      Quit supporting European style colonialism.
      Leave them alone.
      Mind our own business.
      Quit invading their countries.
      Quit bombing them.
      Quit droning them.
      Quit trying to convert them.
      Quit trying to save them.
      Quit settling on their land.
      Tell the foreign lobbyists to mind their own business and to fix their own problems. Fight their own battles and pay for it all themselves.
      They do not need to be here. We do not need to be there.
      They will leave us alone and we will not have to give any of them amnesty. Leave them alone.




      But Deuce, they dont leave US alone. 1793 they declared war on us. But dont let real history fool you.

      You really believe the propaganda you write when you say: "Quit supporting European style colonialism."?

      your constant attacks, thoughts and assertion that Israel is a european colony just SHOWS your lack of depth on the very matter.

      You just dont understand the jihadist's mind.

      Really you dont, and you come off as some kind of coward/appeaser that thinks if we HIDE in fortress Americana somehow the jihadists will leave us alone.

      Really ignorant.

      Delete
    6. In 1793 the Ruler of Libya was collecting tariffs.

      He would seize ships, kidnap the crew and hold them until the fees were paid.

      The US objected, and were told by the representative of the Ruler that their side was empowered by God to collect those fees.

      The US attacked Tripoli.
      With the support of the Islamic government in Egypt.

      The Sultan of Tripoli, he did not represent Islam, he represented the Sultan of Tripoli.

      To claim otherwise, a lie.
      Pure Goebbels.

      Delete
    7. When you say ...
      ... leave us alone ...

      Do you US or Israel.

      Because, quot, there is a difference.
      You are a hyphenated American, if any kind of American, at all.

      So as Americans we must wonder, for you, who is us?

      Delete
    8. Edit alert ...

      Do you US or Israel.
      Should have read ...

      Do you mean US or Israel?

      mea culpa.

      Delete
  20. The dust in Iraq rolls down the long roads that are the desert’s fingers. It gets in your eyes and nose and throat; it swirls in markets and school playgrounds, consuming children kicking a ball; and it carries, according to Dr Jawad Al-Ali, "the seeds of our death". An internationally respected cancer specialist at the Sadr teaching hospital in Basra, Dr Ali told me that in 1999, and today his warning is irrefutable. "Before the Gulf war," he said, "we had two or three cancer patients a month. Now we have 30 to 35 dying every month. Our studies indicate that 40 to 48% of the population in this area will get cancer: in five years' time to begin with, then long after. That's almost half the population. Most of my own family have it, and we have no history of the disease. It is like Chernobyl here; the genetic effects are new to us; the mushrooms grow huge; even the grapes in my garden have mutated and can’t be eaten.”

    Along the corridor, Dr Ginan Ghalib Hassen, a paediatrician, kept a photo album of the children she was trying to save. Many had neuroblastoma. "Before the war, we saw only one case of this unusual tumour in two years," she said. "Now we have many cases, mostly with no family history. I have studied what happened in Hiroshima. The sudden increase of such congenital malformations is the same."

    Among the doctors I interviewed, there was little doubt that depleted uranium shells used by the Americans and British in the Gulf war were the cause. A US military physicist assigned to clean up the Gulf war battlefield across the border in Kuwait said, "Each round fired by an A-10 Warhog attack aircraft carried over 4,500 grams of solid uranium. Well over 300 tons of DU was used. It was a form of nuclear warfare."

    Although the link with cancer is always difficult to prove absolutely, the Iraqi doctors argue that "the epidemic speaks for itself". The British oncologist Karol Sikora, chief of the World Health Organisation's cancer programme in the 1990s, wrote in the British Medical Journal: "Requested radiotherapy equipment, chemotherapy drugs and analgesics are consistently blocked by United States and British advisers [to the Iraq sanctions committee]." He told me, "We were specifically told [by the WHO] not to talk about the whole Iraq business. The WHO is not an organisation that likes to get involved in politics.”

    ReplyDelete
  21. Replies
    1. See: Martha Gellhorn: The Arabs of Palestine

      It is what they do.

      They eat hate, teach hate, drink hate......

      They hate one another. Which can be seen as a fortunate thing.

      >>>What for, I thought, what for, and will it never stop?

      "Do you hate the Arabs, Nissim?"

      "No. Of course no."

      "Why not?"

      "What is the good of hate?"

      What indeed? Arabs gorge on hate, they roll in it, they breathe it. Jews top the hate list, but any foreigners are hateful enough. Arabs also hate each other, separately and, en masse. Their politicians change the direction of their hate as they would change their shirts. Their press is vulgarly base with hate-filled cartoons; their reporting describes whatever hate is now uppermost and convenient. Their radio is a long scream of hate, a call to hate. They teach their children hate in school. They must love the taste of hate; it is their daily bread. And what good has it done them?<<<


      http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1961/10/the-arabs-of-palestine/304203/

      Delete
    2. This was written over 50 years ago.

      Delete
    3. Why, Deuce, do they hate the Swedes?

      Who have taken them in as refugees, have given them free housing, food, money, medicine.

      Why are their greatest pastimes raping Swedish women and rioting?

      Why in the world would they hate the Swedes, of all people?

      If you can answer me this, Deuce, I will begin to listen to you.

      Delete
    4. Is it possible Martha Gellhorn was right?

      It's what they do.

      Delete
    5. Two Questions:

      Who is Martha Gellhorn?

      Who made the refugees, refugees?

      Delete
  22. 300 tons of depleted uranium to spread some democracy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 300 million Swedish kroner a year to spread some democracy.

      Delete
  23. You can get the same horrified public affect by going to NYC and spreading 300 tons of wheat gluten or worse yet, second hand smoke followed my un-depleted MSG.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Stockholm riots leave Sweden's dreams of perfect society up in smoke

    A week of disturbances in Sweden's capital has tested the Scandinavian nation's reputation for tolerance, reports Colin Freeman

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/10080320/Stockholm-riots-leave-Swedens-dreams-of-perfect-society-up-in-smoke.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Sweden has no imperialist past. Sweden has not invaded anyone in centuries. Sweden is not running guns. Sweden has not drawn lines in the desert sand. Sweden isn't even Christian any longer. Yet Sweden is hated by its new honored guests, and honored they have been, with benefits. Sweden is hated equally with all the other nations the Moslems bump up against. Sweden has made a great mistake, which I hope is not fatal.

      Delete
    2. You do know that the Swedes attacked Russia don’t you? Maybe not.

      Get your head out of the old testament and read about The Russo-Swedish War of 1788:

      King Gustav III of Sweden, was not reading the bible but up on his Machiavelli and learned that for domestic political reasons he could star a short war and his opposition would have no choice but to support him. Gustav in a bloodless coup ended parliamentary rule in 1772. Why did he do that? You see, Gustav had a little constitution problem in that he had no power to start a war. Problem fixed.

      The usual suspects, Great Britain, of course, the Dutch Republic and Prussia were vexed by Russian victories in the (hold your breath here) the 1787 Russo–Turkish War. : )

      Gustav concluded an alliance with the Ottoman Empire in the summer of 1788. Gustave went to war against Russia and that caused Russia problems in their planned war against the Ottomans.

      Pay attention please, it gets better:

      Who was POTUS in 1789? Hint: Hint: it was not the great killer, buggering Abe Lincoln.

      Righto Robbo: George Washington.

      Washington was paying attention about the shenanigans in Europe and Mohammedan and made a pithy observation:

      What was Washington’s admonition about getting involved with European colonialists? About fucking with foreign people in general?

      Of course Washington did not have AIPAC up his ass. Maybe had he, he would have changed his mind.

      Delete
    3. Martha Gellhorn? : ) , you must have been trying to be ironic.

      Delete
  25. While the U.S. says it will only talk to North Korea if the North first shows it is prepared to meet previous commitments to denuclearize, South Korea's new leader, Ms. Park, has been seeking dialogue with the North for weeks to restart a jointly run industrial park and to coax the North into a gradual process of building better relations.

    ...

    Ms. Park "has kicked up confrontation hysteria…through a spate of malignant invectives and sheer sophism since she was busy with a shameful presidential campaign," the report said.

    "We will closely follow the future behavior of the present ruling quarters of south Korea, including Park Geun-hye," the report said, using a lowercase "s" in South because North Korea doesn't acknowledge South Korea as an independent country.

    ReplyDelete
  26. >>It is interesting to note that these Muslim immigrants state quite openly that they are involved in a “war,” and see participation in crime and harassment of the native population as such. This is completely in line with what I have posited before. The number of rape charges in Sweden has quadrupled in just above twenty years. Rape cases involving children under the age of 15 are six times as common today as they were a generation ago. Most other kinds of violent crime have rapidly increased, too. Instability is spreading to most urban and suburban areas. Resident aliens from Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia dominate the group of rape suspects. Lawyer Ann Christine Hjelm found that 85 per cent of the convicted rapists were born on foreign soil or from foreign parents. The phenomenon is not restricted to Sweden. The number of rapes committed by Muslim immigrants in Western nations is so extremely high that it is difficult to view these rapes as merely random acts of individuals. It resembles warfare. This is happening in most Western European countries, as well as in other non muslim countries such as India. European jails are filling up with Muslims imprisoned for robberies and all kinds of violent crimes, and Muslims bomb European civilians. One can see the mainstream media are struggling to make sense of all of this. That is because they cannot, or do not want to, see the obvious: this is exactly how an invading army would behave: rape, pillage and bombing. If many of the Muslim immigrants see themselves as conquerors in a war, it all makes perfect sense.

    Malmö in Sweden, set to become the first Scandinavian city with a Muslim majority within a decade or two, has nine times as many reported robberies per capita as Copenhagen, Denmark.<<


    Swedish Welfare State Collapses as Immigrants Wage War

    http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/938


    Explain to me why the Moslems hate the Swedes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Explain to us what a Swede is?

      Other than anyone living in Sweden.

      Is it in their DNA?

      Delete
    2. Aren't the Muslims in Sweden Swedes?

      If not why not.

      Why discriminate against the Muslims, why can't you admit they are Swedes now, too?

      Their color or their creed?

      Delete
  27. Short primer on the invasions by moslems of other lands -

    Spread of Islam

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spread_of_Islam

    Muslim conquests

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Muslim conquests

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests

      Delete
    2. Why do they hate everybody?

      Delete
    3. .

      Conquests?

      Might as well ask why did the Babylonians hate everybody, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Mongols, the English, the Aztecs, the Spanish, the ....

      .

      Delete
  28. I am pushing my theme -

    >>Accordingly, Esack cautioned that his interpretation of Islam was not universal among Muslims. Esack described Islam as a "triumphalist religion" that "is meant to dominate." Islam therefore had "difficulty" in finding a "convivial space" for peaceful interaction with competing faiths. Esack's Wikipedia entry indeed mentions that several of his fellow students from his years studying in Pakistan later joined Afghanistan's Taliban.<<

    May 26, 2013
    Devilish Details -- Part 1
    By Andrew E. Harrod

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/05/devilish_details_--_part_1.html

    One would have to be blind not to 'get it' by now.


    ReplyDelete
  29. May 26, 2013
    The West's Timidity toward Terrorism
    Brae Jager

    There have been two high profile terrorist attacks in Europe in the past week, both against soldiers, and both with edged weapons. So much for gun bans.

    The first attack, in Woolwich, UK on, was by far the most notorious (and celebrated, in many circles). British soldier and father Lee Rigby was hit with a car, and then finished with a meat cleaver, a tool known for its hacking prowess. Following the attack, one attacker talks surprisingly coherent smack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZzG_w1kyNg) to an onlooker's camera phone, before being gunned down by police upon their arrival twenty minutes later.

    "Your governments don't care about you!" exclaimed the blood soaked Somali gentleman, in an unmistakeable London accent. Adorned in a dapper overcoat, the man indeed appeared a model of multiculturalism.

    In the second, a French soldier on anti-terror patrol near Paris was stabbed by a younger bearded man, dressed in Mid-Eastern garb. The wound was serious, but thankfully not fatal.

    Across The Pond

    Americans of an anti-terror bent are quick to point to these incidents as further proof of the Islamization of Europe, and to harshly judge the men of Europe's meek response. Before we judge their response too harshly, a review of our own recent man-caused disasters might be in order.

    We have now found that Maj Nadal Hassan, US Army, has been paid $278,000 since his one-man jihad on Fort Hood. Hassan injured 32 people, and killed 13 using firearms. All Army posts are very nearly gun-free zones; certainly no one was carrying a concealed weapon, save the shooter. One of the first substantive statements made by the top general in the Army at the time, George Casey was that "... as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse."

    The dollars of Massachusetts taxpayers funded the Boston Marathon bombing; both of the Tsarnaev brothers took government benefits in the form of college grants and food stamps.

    ((((The truth is that most Westerners simply don't have the moral courage to criticize another culture, no matter how repugnant to humanity many of its adherents are.))))

    g'nite

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's an example of what I mean, most people like the idea of moslems fighting moslems -



      platedog

      Why doesn't America encourage the conflict between the various Islamic groups. Let them get busy killing each other. This would be the intelligent thing to do. Since they enjoy killing let them all go to heaven and have their 70 virgins.

      Wxcynic, Retired weather forecaster, Gis Technician

      That was a typo, it should have read 72 raisins.

      StrangernFiction

      Because the American government views these groups as allies.


      My goodness, it is about time for another Lebanese Civil War. What are they waiting for? Destroy the country AGAIN. Reduce tens of billions of dollars of reconstructed Beirut to rubble AGAIN. Gee, ain't Islam great?

      NSJ4

      When 2 snakes are fighting, why get in the way?

      xenonic

      thank goodness these barbarians continue to fight against each other - they could be a dangerous force if they ever got their Shiite together

      merrimack1

      It is often said the ko-ran preaches that infidels should be killed.But muslims killing muslims?Believe me I'm not complaining but what happened to that "great religion" the Benghazi bamboozler shrillary loves to defend?

      anontdh

      WHY BLAME CHRISTIANITY FOR CENTURY OLD IRISH (CATHOLIC) AND
      BRITISH (PROTESTANT) TERRORISM?

      And Judaism for Terrorism in the Occupied Territories
      (Palestine)?



      Individuals, not religions,

      carry out inhuman acts.



      Islam is a religion of peace,
      accepted and practiced by more than 1.25 billion people worldwide. It is the
      fastest-growing religion in the world, and if it was what some critics claim,
      why should the people from all walks of life from around the world keep
      embracing Islam?



      Where is the sword now?

      StrangernFiction

      If ever there was a need for a beer summit this is it. These folks need to be reminded of who the real bad guys are stat.

      And sadly, that Moran finds this fortuitous development to be a bad thing is hardly shocking.

      Abilene

      Yes, it appears that whoever fired the rockets "acted stupidly." The factions should definitely be brought together for a beer .......... oh, wait. Never mind. They can't drink beer.

      I once heard a sports announcer discussing a football game between two teams that he hated. He said that he hoped for a scoreless tie with lots of injuries. That's how I look at Islamo-fascists fighting each other. Kill each other as much as possible without doing damage to the civilized world in the process.






      Delete
    2. Well, boobie, if the Alawites were Muslims, but they are not.

      Those quotes that you posted, are plain ignorant.
      They discuss a fantasy, not any reality on the ground, in Syria.

      If a fella is anti-Muslim, at their core, then that fella would have to support Assad.

      He is not a Muslim, his people are not either.
      The Alawite are pagans, with a Christian twist.

      The government of Syria, Baathist, which is a secular political ideology.
      The Muslim Brotherhood, not so much.

      You are as ignorant as a rock.

      Delete
    3. Yes, you leave it to the "Civilized" to kill the "Children".

      Do you ever read what you write?
      Do you understand what you advocate for?

      The Civilized have already killed MILLIONS of those Children.

      It is not working.

      Who smuggled that black baby, from Kenya to Hawaii?
      Who hacked the birth record data base, in Hawaii?

      Simple questions for you to answer.
      You have been telling us it happened for six years now.
      Who actually did it?

      Obama was but an infant, so it was not himself.

      Delete
    4. >>>The Alawite are pagans, with a Christian twist.<<<

      :)

      Then why, O Bunk, are they supported so by the Iranians? And by Hezbollah, that Party of God?

      Why would Christian pagans truck with Iranians?

      I LOVE it -- pagans, with a Christians twist.

      Bwahahahhaha

      Sounds like a drink, I'll have a Pagan, with a Christian twist.

      Thanks for the early morning laughter.

      Delete
    5. The complete answer to boobie's question, is down below on the thread.
      No need to duplicate it, here.

      Suffice to say, the enemy of the enemy is a friend.

      Delete
  30. Can I just say what a relief to find somebody that truly understands
    what they are talking about online. You certainly know how to bring an issue
    to light and make it important. More people should read
    this and understand this side of the story. I can't believe you aren't more popular because you surely have the gift.


    my web blog ... cellulite treatment

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, anonymous. At least someone appreciates me.

      Delete
  31. During their meeting in France, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are expected to tackle the specifics of the upcoming ‘Geneva conference 2,’ an international push to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.

    So far, neither Russia nor the US has specified an exact date for the conference. After their previous meeting, Lavrov and Kerry announced that the conference could take place by the end of May, but that date was later pushed back to at least mid-June, according to diplomatic sources.

    The proposed conference would be a followup to an international meeting in Geneva last year that drafted a peace plan for Syria.

    Lavrov and Kerry will meet on Monday in France for the sixth time since the beginning of this year, and the Syrian crisis will once again be one of the main topics on the agenda. The main challenges are to determine the list of participants, and to ensure that representatives of the Syrian opposition join the talks.

    Washington and Moscow have agreed that Russia will negotiate with Damascus, Tehran and Beijing, while the US will discuss the issue with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, RIA Novosti reported.

    Lavrov has pointed to a second issue with the talks: Ensuring that key regional players, especially Syria's neighbors, are present in order to broker an effective and lasting solution to the crisis.

    Damascus indicated that it is prepared to participate. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said on Sunday that the government always believed that “dialogue among the Syrian people is the solution to this crisis,” adding that “nobody and no force in the world that can make decisions on behalf of the Syrian people, as they alone have the right to do that.”

    Some Syrian opposition organizations expressed willingness to send representatives to the talks. However, various Syrian rebel factions gathered for two separate meetings in Istanbul and Madrid last week and failed to agree to take part in the negotiations without preconditions.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Kerry will use the skills he honed while persuading Bibi not to put up another homeland post in Soweto on the Med.

    ReplyDelete
  33. RAMALLAH, West Bank - A group of 80 international aid agencies urged the European Union on Saturday to follow through on pledges it made last year to back Palestinian communities seen as vulnerable to Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

    Not enough action has been taken since EU foreign ministers last May urged Israel to ease curbs to growth on Palestinian villages and criticized its settlement policies, the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) said in a report.

    British Foreign Secretary William Hague and US Secretary of State John Kerry visited the West Bank this week to try to revive peace talks for an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution they say may become impossible with more settlement expansion.

    More than 600 settler houses have been built since last May while Israel demolished 535 Palestinian-owned homes and structures, including 30 built with EU funding, displacing 784 Palestinians, the AIDA report said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Palestinian homes, Deuce, they were just 'Doll Houses', you know, for children.

      Delete
  34. Always just trying to be helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Israeli settlements in the West Bank legally expanded by nearly 8,000 dunams (1977 acres) in 2012 - land equaling the entire city of Bat Yam and twice as big as Manhattan's Central Park.

    The adjustments were approved by military order, with the Israel Defense Forces' GOC Central Command granting settlement municipalities jurisdiction over the new territories.

    Although in recent years the practice of giving large swathes of land to settlements has been abandoned, creeping annexations are still under way. In 2012, settlement-controlled land grew from 530,931 to 538,303 dunams, a total increase of 7,372 dunams, according to a comparison of maps from 2011 and 2012 at the Civil Administration offices.

    Settlements can gain control of new land in one of two ways: either by laying claim to land identified in recent years by the so-called "blue-line team," which investigates the ownership of land within and around settlements to determine whether it is owned by Israel or private Palestinian citizens; and through the finalization of land acquisitions by Israeli citizens. Although that land is not inhabited by Palestinians, the act of increasing the settlement's jurisdiction paves the way for new construction projects and the expansion of existing settlements.

    The settlement of Ofra, for example, which received 322 new dunams in 2012, includes a small piece of land purchased from Palestinians, as well as expropriated land and land on which the settlers have squatted. The new territory does not just correspond to existing construction in the settlement but includes expropriated land as well as purchased plots. However, all the roads leading to these plots go through private Palestinian-owned land, a fact the IDF’s announcement of the land grant failed to mention.

    The state is now moving ahead on legalizing the existing homes in Ofra, as well as legalizing 100 housing units whose construction began without permits but was stopped by an interim order of the Supreme Court.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Holocaust was legal, in NAZI Germany, too.

      Did not save the NAZI from justice.

      Delete
    2. And you claim with a straight face this blog aint anti-Semitic?

      Delete
    3. Apartheid was legal in South Africa

      How'd that work out, for 'em?

      Delete
    4. Yes, without doubt.

      Judaism is never mentioned, pro or con.

      Delete
    5. That quot continues to conflate Israel with Judaism, is another example of the ignorance that permeates the Middle East and definitely exudes from Israelis.

      Israel, we are told, is not a theocracy but a secular sovereign polity and so, while a homeland for Jews, it does not represent Judaism.

      It is just a little polity, in Palestine.
      With no more claim to representing Judaism than Saint Louis, Missouri can lay claim to representing Catholicism.

      Delete
    6. Claiming that Bibi represents Judaism is like saying that Gary Herbert, Governor of the state of Utah, represents the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints.

      Bet he is a member of that sect.
      But he does not speak for it.

      Delete
    7. Thanks for showing us all what we know.

      Your silly word games do not hide your anti-semitism.

      Delete
    8. Words are what debate and conversation are about.

      Using words, correctly, is a mark of civilization.

      You use words, and they do convey your meaning.

      Hitler, quot wrote, was right.
      Two days after the Patriot Day bombing.

      Does that make him antisemitic?
      Or just a NAZI sympathizer, like the Christians in Syria?

      Delete
    9. Now the source for the claim that the Christians in Syria are all NAZI sympathizers, which disqualified them for humanitarian assistance from Israel, that was quot.

      Delete
    10. desert ratMon May 27, 09:40:00 AM EDT
      Words are what debate and conversation are about.

      Using words, correctly, is a mark of civilization.

      You use words, and they do convey your meaning.

      Hitler, quot wrote, was right.
      Two days after the Patriot Day bombing.

      Does that make him antisemitic?
      Or just a NAZI sympathizer, like the Christians in Syria?




      Please provide the exact quote in context or to use your words "shut the fuck up"

      bet ya you dont..

      what is this the 30th time we have asked you to provide the exact quote in context and you have failed to do so?

      talk about a broken record.

      Delete
    11. You and I both know there is no debate with you so why bother?

      You are like a 4 year old child with a nursery jingle repeating over and over.

      That is not debate nor argument.

      Or in other words.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y


      Delete
    12. You continue to engage, so I will fire for effect.

      Your position on Hitler, taken just two days after the bombing in Boston, on Patriots Day, is both clear and well known.

      You view him favorably, now.
      What you had learned at your father's knee, rejected as wrong.

      You continue to fail to make a point, or clarify any issue.

      You just continue to rant, making grammatical errors that have come to embarrass you.

      If you think I am wrong about what you said after the Patriot Day bombing, bring that post forward.
      I will diagram and breakdown the sentence structure, for you.

      I doubt you will do it.
      You are a coward and this Hitler episode, where you wrote he was right, exemplifies just that.

      Delete
  36. BAGHDAD — The Iraqi fighters in the video shoulder assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades as they walk down a highway lined with cypress trees. Grinning, some hold up cellphones and camcorders to capture the moment — the aftermath of a victorious battle to secure the Aleppo airport from Syrian rebels who had attempted to take it.

    “You are the sons of Iraq and the sons of Islam!” shouts one of their commanders. The men cheer.

    Weeks later in Baghdad, Abu Sajad, the nom de guerre of an Iraqi militia commander who appears in the video, proudly displayed it as proof that Iraqi Shiites are playing a critical role supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in what has become an increasingly sectarian and regional war. It was impossible to verify the location in the video or the circumstances.

    Until recently, the involvement of Iraqi Shiites in Syria’s war was cloaked in secrecy here in Iraq, whose Shiite-led government has denied any role in the conflict. But recent interviews with militants, analysts, Arab government officials and residents of Shiite cities across Iraq reveal a trend that is growing increasingly open as Iraqi fighters come to view their participation as part of a regional struggle to defeat al-Qaeda and what they say is a broad effort by the region’s dominant Sunnis to wipe out Shiites.

    At the center of the Shiite mobilization is Iran, which analysts and intelligence officials say is seeking to preserve its regional influence by funding and supplying an expanding Shiite network of armed support for the Syrian government, which is dominated by Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. In addition to combatants from Iranian security forces and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, pro-Assad proxy fighters include Iraqis drawn largely from militant groups known to be backed by Iran.

    The role of Iraqi Shiite fighters in Syria raises questions about the possible complicity of the Iraqi government, which U.S. officials have recently criticized for allowing Iran to use Iraqi airspace for flights that allegedly transport weapons, troops and supplies to the Assad government.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is reasonable, indeed, for those anti-Baathists in Iraq to look at Assad's regime, and shudder.

      They feel that they have to do something.
      They only want to help.

      Delete
    2. While again, this writer continues the lie that the Alawite are a Shiite sect.

      Nothing could be further from the truth.

      A piece of propaganda that is more false than calling the compound in Benghazi an Embassy.

      I reference Daniel Pipes, Ben Disraeli and TE Lawrence, as to the true nature of the Alawite sect. Pagans that are more Christian than Muslim.

      Delete
    3. Bartender!!

      Set Quirk up with another double Pagan, with a Chrisitan twist, over ice, shaken not stirred.

      Delete
    4. Pagan, with a Christian twist, that's really good.

      Sounds like it's out of Beowolf.

      Delete
    5. Hezbollah is out there dying for pagans with a Christian twist.

      Delete
    6. The enemy of the enemy, is a friend.

      Delete
    7. The US supplied more support to the Soviet Union, than the HB is supplying to Assad.

      The US and Soviets were allies, boobie.
      Our common enemy was the cause, not because we supported Communism.
      Or were Communists, ourselves.

      Delete
    8. ... and that US support, to the Soviets, definitely did not make Stalin a free market capitalist.

      Delete
    9. What amazing 'reasoning'.

      Bwaaahahahahaha

      Delete
    10. As to the reasoning, it certainly trumps your rebuttal of ...

      Bwaaahahahahaha

      Delete
  37. Google/YouTube stands up for freedom of religious expression by the religion of peace -

    Thousands of jihad terror videos urging Muslims to maim and kill can be found within seconds online

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/05/thousands-of-terror-videos-urging-muslims-to-maim-and-kill-can-be-found-within-seconds-online.html



    >>>A search for Al-Shabaab on YouTube produces 65,000 results. The popular site also has 108 videos of hate preacher Anjem Choudary.

    In his bile-filled rants he urges Muslims to wage jihad while in others he tells his fanatics to take advantage of the welfare state.<<<



    whatmecare | May 26, 2013 8:47 PM | Reply


    Just out of curiosity, how many videos were the editors able to find of the "vast majority" of "moderate" Muslims preaching peace and condemning all those who "misinterpret" Islam?

    Surely, all these "peaceful" Muslims and their advocacy groups (hello CAIR) must be making boatloads of videos discrediting the Jihadis and preaching how the only aya that matters in the unholy Koran is the out-of-context partial verse pulled from 5:32 while all the other seemingly contradictory verses have been abrogated due to their psychopathic pathology.



    dumbledoresarmy | May 27, 2013 12:01 AM | Reply


    Beheading videos: snuff porn for jihadis and wannabe jihadis.

    On this blog,

    http://defendthemodernworld.wordpress.com/

    in this **excellent** essay

    http://defendthemodernworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/how-i-became-islamophobic/

    the author - an intelligent young Briton - describes the thing that tipped him over the edge into 'Islamophobia' (that is, rational fear of and readiness to resist Islam):


    "A third and final example I’ll give of my awakening is the most serious.

    "You might well dismiss what you’ve read so far [his description of standard Mohammedan behaviour, their OTT bullying of the non-Muslim students both on campus and in the student residential colleges - dda] as ‘anti-social’ behaviour and no worse than that of other social groups, but not this occasion:

    "I was sitting in class one day, near the back of the room. The lecturer had finished talking and now we were told to discuss amongst ourselves the things we’d heard.

    "A group of Muslim men just across from me were apparently uninterested in the lecture that day as they commenced to discuss videos they’d been emailing each other instead.

    "**It took me a short while, but I came to understand that these were decapitation videos. ** {my emphasis - dda}.

    "After hearing words and descriptions that I never want to repeat, I nervously looked over at the faces of the men and saw sick, sadistic smiles curling up their bearded faces.

    "At the end of that year, I was a fully developed ‘Islamophobe’."

    (Read the whole essay, it's well worth it; this guy should be on Mr Spencer's blogroll).


    ReplyDelete
  38. Syrian president vows revenge after mosque bombing
    AP News | Mar 22, 2013


    >>>BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad vowed Friday to avenge the death of a senior pro-government cleric who was killed along with dozens of people in a suicide bombing at a Damascus mosque, saying he would "purge our country" of the militants behind the attack in the heart of the capital.

    Both Assad and the rebels seeking to topple him blamed each other for Thursday's bombing at the mosque. At least 49 people were killed, including the 84-year-old preacher and his grandson, the government said, in one of the most brazen assassinations of the Syrian civil war.

    Although the cleric was despised by the rebels for his unwavering support of the regime, opposition leaders condemned his killing.

    In a rare statement on Syrian state media, Assad framed the attack as part of a terrorist conspiracy against his government and praised the slain preacher, Sheik Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti.

    "Your works full of truthfulness and belief were the best expression of the essence and light of Islam in confronting the powers of darkness and extremist thought that considers others infidels," Assad was quoted as saying by the SANA news agency.

    He blamed "terrorists" — his standard shorthand for the opposition — for the attack, and vowed to "purge our country of them."

    "And this is a promise from the Syrian people, and I am one of them, that your blood, that of your grandson and the blood of all today's martyrs and all martyrs of the homeland will not go in vain," the statement from Assad said.

    Al-Buti, Syria's best-known cleric and the most prominent religious figure killed so far in the conflict, had supported the regime since the early days of Assad's father and predecessor, the late President Hafez Assad, providing legitimacy to their rule. Sunnis are the majority sect in Syria while Assad is from the minority Alawite sect — an offshoot of Shiite Islam.<<<


    http://townhall.com/news/world/2013/03/22/president-assad-vows-to-clean-syria-of-extremists-n1545972

    ReplyDelete
  39. He blamed "terrorists" — his standard shorthand for the opposition — for the attack, and vowed to "purge our country of them."

    Sounds a lot like GW Bush, does it not.

    Terrorists, who hate us for our freedoms.

    Just like in Syria, where the terrorists want to limit freedom of religion.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Using words, correctly, is a mark of civilization.

    And reading the words of the Quran allows us to see the enemy for what they are.

    DR-'Bullshit"
    That is civilised debate?
    Or were you just trying to see if you could get a rise out of me?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do apologize Dman.

      I was just annoyed, not by you per se, but by the very idea.

      All the "Books" of the God Abraham are full of exhortation to violence.

      The Christian record, when it comes to dealing with 'non-believers' is genocidal.
      In the Americas and in Africa.

      The Christians spread the Gospel and opium across China, hand in hand.

      There are no Islamic Armies in Europe or the Americas.
      There are American and Europeon armies all across the Islamic Arc.

      There is no Islamic naval presence in the Gulf of Mexico or off the coast of New York, the US Navy blankets the Persian Gulf.

      Apply the Goose and Gander Standard.

      Delete
    2. Apology accepted :)

      The New Testament, with all of the change...Bah, I'm not going to defend something that I had no part in writing.
      I have a few questions I'd like to ask the original twelve. Especially Peter.
      One of the questions being, why was the power placed in the hands of Paul whe he wasn't even a disciple?

      Delete
    3. He was Roman.
      He had a purse and the power of the Legion, to control events.

      Delete
    4. >>He was Roman.
      He had a purse and the power of the Legion, to control events.<<

      :):):):)

      Goddamn you are dumb, General.

      "I have a purse and the power of the Legion, to control events, now give me a Pagan, with a Christian twist, barkeep, I'm thirsty, and ticked about the way things are going."
      Saul/Paul

      >>All the "Books" of the God Abraham are full of exhortation to violence.<<

      I won't even get into this, it isn't worth it.

      Delete
    5. >>The Christian record, when it comes to dealing with 'non-believers' is genocidal.
      In the Americas and in Africa.<<

      Time you gave that 320 of rich bottom land and the artesian well back to the remaining Navajo or Apache or whomever, General Bunk.

      Past time, really.

      Delete
    6. No.

      When I die, or leave here, some one else will have it.

      That's fer sure.

      My situation, boobie, does not change historical reality.

      I acknowledge history, you revise or ignore it.

      Delete
    7. As to Saul, boobie, he commanded the Legion at the Temple.
      Told the Centurion what to do.

      Lived for years in splendor at the palace in Caesarea.

      Delete
  41. Sorry I had to leave early last night.
    I had to deal with a police report. The Blaine Police caught the guy red-handed in his driveway within an hour of speaking to the Cop.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  42. Whoa, the state of California received 26% of its Electricity from non-large hydro Renewables, yesterday!

    Rockin' and Rollin'

    ReplyDelete
  43. 26%!! That's a pretty serious number for the 10th Largest Economy on Earth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The interesting thing is, if you looked at the standard "wind resource" map, you wouldn't pay any attention to California, at all. The "resource" is really quite unexciting.

      Delete
  44. Just in case you thought the main threat to the US was al Qaeda and that view was shared by all of our allies, you were wrong.


    Amos Gilad: Al-Qaeda threat not as serious as Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis

    Senior Israel Defence Ministry official, Amos Gilad has said that although al-Qaeda elements are gaining a foothold in Syria amidst the chaos of the country’s civil war, the Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis which preceded it was far more threatening.

    Speaking to the Israeli news website Walla, Gilad, who heads the Defence Ministry’s diplomatic defence bureau, said that al-Qaeda operatives are increasingly active in Syria and are “waiting for the opportunity to take over the state.” The country’s internal conflict has raged for the past two years as opposition forces look to topple President Assad’s regime.

    Addressing the chaos in Syria, Gilad commented, “You can look now and see al-Qaida in Syria, economic lows, instability, the lack of one address, huge refugee problems… This all presents new types of challenges that are not similar to the military challenge,” which existed before the Syrian civil war.

    However, he continued “with all due respect to that threat, it is not the same threat as one posed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah together, which is much more difficult,” from Israel’s perspective. Syria had been a main conduit of arms to Hezbollah, which benefits significantly from Iranian weaponry, finance and training. Iran and Hezbollah are continuing to back Assad and it is believed that both are providing troops to bolster his rule. Gilad explained that the threat to the Assad regime “is a blow to Iran and Hezbollah together” and that “they admit it and are doing everything so Assad survives.”

    ReplyDelete
  45. Replies
    1. The Key Phrase ...

      ... from Israel’s perspective ...

      Which should have no bearing upon US.

      The Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis is of little matter to a nation with 12 carrier battle groups and thousands of nuclear warheads.
      The Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis cannot even build a main battle tank.




      Delete
    2. But it is an indicator that the Israeli will be backing aQ, in Syria.

      Wait, they already have been supplying air support in that effort.
      The Israeli, they are already backing aQ, in Syria.

      Delete
    3. Those Israeli airstrikes, in Syria, more evidence of the Israeli-Wahhabi Axis.

      Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar all lined up with the Israeli, to topple a secular government in Syria.

      Radical Wahhabist Islam, on the march.
      With the Israeli right in step.

      Delete
    4. >>Just in case you thought the main threat to the US was al Qaeda<<

      ??

      Seems to me he is talking about the threat to Israel.

      Isn't he?

      I don't see a reference to the United States in his statement.

      Delete
    5. bob dont try to be rational with this bunch, it's impossible

      Delete
    6. That's the point, isn't it? Just another Divergence of U.S. and Israeli interests.

      Delete
    7. America is suppling aQ with weapons.

      Delete
    8. That is what I said, boobie.
      The first response ...

      ... from Israel's perspective ..."
      being the key phrase.

      Then extrapolate Israel's actual actions, in Syria, and it becomes clear that Israel is supporting the aQ elements in Syria, with military action.

      Showing us, once again, of the Saudi, Turkey, Qatar, Israeli Axis
      With the US as the pivot point.

      Arming the Wahhabi, the mujahedin, just as they did in Afpakistan, back in the Carter/Reagan era.

      Delete
    9. Stay the Course!

      That is the catch all phraseology for Bearing the White Man's Burden, 'over there', correct?


      Johnny,[2] get your gun, get your gun, get your gun.
      Take it on the run, on the run, on the run.
      Hear them calling you and me,
      Every Son of Liberty.
      Hurry right away, no delay, go today.
      Make your Daddy glad to have had such a lad.
      Tell your sweetheart not to pine,
      To be proud her boy's in line.

      Verse 2

      Johnny, get your gun, get your gun, get your gun.
      Johnny, show the "Hun"[3] you're a son-of-a-gun.
      Hoist the flag and let her fly
      Yankee Doodle[4] do or die.
      Pack your little kit, show your grit, do your bit.
      Yankee[5] to the ranks from the towns and the tanks.[6]
      Make your Mother proud of you
      And the old red-white-and-blue[7]

      Chorus

      Over there, over there,
      Send the word, send the word over there
      That the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming
      The drums rum-tumming everywhere.
      So prepare, say a prayer,
      Send the word, send the word to beware -
      We'll be over, we're coming over,
      And we won't come back till it's over, over there.

      Delete
    10. Absolutely, anoni.

      Always have.

      The US pays, the Israeli deliver.
      The Saudi pay, the Israeli deliver.

      It's all business.
      Part of "The Great Game".

      Israel, ranking eighth in ranking as a global arms merchant, followed closely by Sweden, at number nine.

      Funny thing, there is not an Islamic polity on the list.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry

      Delete
  46. However unfavorable a Hezbollah-backed government in Lebanon may be, the United States and Israel have to take some responsibility for the creation of Hezbollah and its rise. The militant Hezbollah was created in response to Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which used brutal tactics even the Israeli public found distasteful. And Israel’s use of a minor Hezbollah raid into Israel in 2006 as an excuse to launch a month-long “deterrent” war against all of Lebanon ended up strengthening Hezbollah politically in Lebanon. In fact, Hezbollah got plaudits from the entire Muslim world for withstanding the onslaught from the much more powerful Israeli military and later merely rebuilt its forces back to a stronger state than before the conflict.

    As for the United States, its invasion and botched occupation of Iraq strengthened and emboldened Hezbollah’s patrons—Iran and Syria—in the Middle East region. Both are also enemies of Israel.

    If the first principle of foreign policy is “do no harm,” Israel and the United States, over the years, have done quite enough. As with other non-Muslim invasions of, occupations of, or meddling in Muslim lands—for example, the Soviets in Afghanistan and Chechnya, the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza—a nationalistic pushback occurs cloaked in the form of militant Islam. But radical Islam is less the cause of such movements than is the reaction to foreign occupation.

    The Israelis now may be less willing to meddle in Lebanon in this instance than is the United States, especially when the memory is still fresh of the domestic and international drubbing they took for their attack on Lebanon in 2006.

    The United States should back off, wait and see what happens, and avoid its ever present tendency to intrude into faraway small countries that are not strategic to the United States. Hezbollah may be militant, but the group’s interests are local in Lebanon, and it poses little threat to U.S. security if left alone.


    ----------------------

    Ivan Eland is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute. Dr. Eland is a graduate of Iowa State University and received an M.B.A. in applied economics and Ph.D. in national security policy from George Washington University. He has been Director of Defense Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, and he spent 15 years working for Congress on national security issues, including stints as an investigator for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Principal Defense Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office.

    He is author of the books Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq, and Recarving Rushmore.

    ReplyDelete
  47. "Partitioning for Peace: An Exit Strategy for Iraq"


    I like the sounds of that.



    "Recarving Rushmore"

    Not sure about this. I think faces have no place on beautiful rock outcroppings at all, but it's a little late now. That's really a beautiful area there, in spite of the Desecration of Mother Nature's Handiwork.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Hi! I'm at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone 3gs! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the outstanding work!

    Also visit my web blog ... shinningwatchs1st.snappages.com

    ReplyDelete
  49. More than 6,700 mem­bers of the Amer­ic­an mil­it­ary have died since the con­flict in Afgh­anistan began in late 2001.


    More than the entire 8 years in Iraq.

    What do you say Rufus?

    ReplyDelete
  50. OBL is daid, and our troops are coming home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bush got fewer Americans killed than Obama

      Delete
    2. Your 6700 number is, obviously, adding ALL deaths, everywhere, together.

      And, of course, the great majority of those came from Iraq.

      Delete
  51. The Beast is parked along a wall near the door. Auntie Em and Dorothy are rolled off to the side, out of the way, as the number and size of reactors have grown to demonstration scale at ICM Inc.’s research facility in St. Joseph, Mo. The laboratories packed with analytical machines hum at a fast pace.

    Even on a quiet day between big integrated runs, more than a dozen people were running system trials, pulling samples to test and evaluate the data. On that March day, pilot plant supervisor Jon Licklider and scientists Chris Gerken and Laers Malburg gave Ethanol Producer Magazine a behind-the-scenes look at the research facility.

    ICM’s work on cellulosic conversion technology began in earnest in 2009, with a $25 million grant awarded by U.S. DOE. The Kansas technology provider and engineering company that teamed up with Fagen Inc. to build nearly two-thirds of the capacity in the U.S. ethanol industry was shifting gears to join the ranks of companies designing the next generation of cellulosic ethanol processes.

    The initial work was done with the refrigerator-size, flask-scale reactor called the Beast. That soon scaled up to two reactors capable of handling 50-gallon batches, dubbed Auntie Em and Dorothy. The Wizard of Oz theme is most appropriate, as many in the ICM research and development team pulled up stakes from the heart of Kansas, where ICM is headquartered at Colwich, to move across the Missouri River to St. Joseph, Mo.

    As work progressed, the tanks grew bigger and more numerous and personalized naming got dropped in favor of numbered tanks. In all, there are . . . .

    Serious Work

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bill Clinton (paraphrased:)

      Most of what's wrong with America can be cured by "what's right about America."

      Delete
  52. There were more US casualties at Iwo Jima than in Afghanistan and Iraq, combined.

    What say you, anoni?

    More soldiers died under the Roosevelt Administration than under Eisenhower.

    What say you, anoni?

    Lincoln killed more Americans that all the Islamoids of the whirled, combined, ever.

    Yet he is a hero of the Republic, on Mount Rushmore. Right along side of Teddy Roosevelt, who warned US that hyphenated Americans were a scourge of the body politic. And next to G Washington, who warned of foreign entanglements and of holding any foreign polity in to high esteem or with affection, as it would distort our perception of the true national interests of the United States.

    The wisdom of Roosevelt and Washington is clear.
    Lincoln ...
    There are mixed reviews.

    What say you, anoni?

    ReplyDelete
  53. Update on the carnage brought by “The Friends of Syria” :

    More than 70 people were killed in a wave of bombings in markets in Shi'ite neighborhoods across Baghdad on Monday in worsening sectarian violence in Iraq.

    No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. But Sunni Muslim Islamist insurgents and al-Qaeda' s Iraqi wing have increased attacks since the beginning of the year and often target Shi'ite districts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See the French are dragging out Chemical Weapons Redux. The Neocons and all the usual suspects are at DEFCON 2 over Syria. So far, Obama has saved us from ourselves. Maybe he is smarter than we thought picking Kerry, knowing him to be predictably and safely inept.

      Obama can’t stand the sight of Netanyahu. Who knows?

      Baghdad (CNN) -- Eleven car bombs exploded in and around Baghdad, mostly in Shiite neighborhoods, killing 47 people and wounding more than 145 on Monday, police in Iraq said. The country that we saved is being attacked by the same allies of “The Friends of Syria”.

      Crocodile tears today for those that got killed and maimed for the Neocon dream from the same cynical bastards of the newly re-minted coalition of the willing. Willing, ready and able to drag the US into another round so that we have a new cast to celebrate on future Memorial days.

      If Assad can regain control of his country, it will save American lives. If not…

      Delete
    2. One can only hope that your policy of encouraging Jihadists will not have the blowback to harm you personally.

      Siding with evil will someday take it's toll. But more than likely it will be your grandchildren that will pay the price for your appeasement of evil

      Delete
    3. No stupid, it is not appeasement, it is being smart and facing up to the facts as they are. 11 years , trillions of dollars and who knows how many killed and injured and no one is safer. Spell you ideas out and put a name on it or take a hike.

      Delete
  54. Sen. John McCain Monday became the highest-ranking U.S. official to enter Syria since the bloody civil war there began over two years ago, The Daily Beast has learned.

    McCain, one of the fiercest critics of the Obama administration’s Syria policy, made the unannounced visit across the Turkey-Syria border with Gen. Salem Idris, the leader of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army. He stayed in the country for several hours before returning to Turkey. Both in Syria and Turkey, McCain and Idris met with assembled leaders of Free Syrian Army units that traveled from around the country to see the U.S. senator. Inside those meetings, rebel leaders called on the United States to step up its support to the Syrian armed opposition and provide them with heavy weapons, a no-fly zone, and airstrikes on the Syrian regime and the forces of Hezbollah, which is increasingly active in Syria.

    Idris praised the McCain visit and criticized the Obama administration’s Syria policy in an exclusive interview Monday with The Daily Beast.

    “The visit of Senator McCain to Syria is very important and very useful especially at this time,” he said. “We need American help to have change on the ground; we are now in a very critical situation.”

    ReplyDelete
  55. How do you know when you are in trouble?

    When McCain arriving helps.

    ReplyDelete

  56. Unless the White House soon adjusts its policy on Iran, the US may end up adopting a policy of nuclear containment rather than prevention, two senior Israeli defense analysts warned on Sunday.

    Emily Landau, director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Program at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, and Ephraim Asculai, a senior research associate at the institute, published a paper titled, “Is the US receding to a containment policy on Iran?” In the paper, the analysts cite an IAEA report on Iran – which was released on May 22 – as indicating that “while there are no major surprises, Iran’s uranium enrichment and plutonium programs are creeping slowly but surely toward a situation that will soon be unstoppable.”

    ReplyDelete
  57. Been there. Done that. Have the uniform to show for it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Roger that.

      Both the Soviets and the Chinese can build a main battle tank, too.
      They, both singularly and combined, presented a 'real' threat to US interests.

      Both have, still, the capability to destroy the major population centers of the 'Western World'. They both had embraced an ideology of whirled conquest by the proletariat.
      The use of force was not forbidden by their doctrine.

      Both of those nations have been 'contained' and then, remarkably 'reformed'.

      No need to nuke a rock.



      Delete
    2. Both of your service to this nation is highly questionable.

      After all no proof has ever been shown that you actually served.

      Delete
    3. Doubtful that this "desert rat" is even an American citizen

      Cant even spell the word "world"

      Delete
  58. After years of grueling battles over state budget deficits and spending cuts, California has a new challenge on its hand: too much money. An unexpected surplus is fueling an argument over how the state should respond to its turn of good fortune.

    The amount is a matter of debate, but by any measure significant: between $1.2 billion, projected by Gov. Jerry Brown, and $4.4 billion, the estimate of the Legislature’s independent financial analyst.
    ...
    At least seven other states — among them Connecticut, Utah and Wisconsin — have reported budget surpluses in recent weeks, setting the stage for legislative battles that, if not as wrenching as the ones over cuts, promise to be no less pitched. Lawmakers are debating whether the new money should be . . . .
    Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/05/states-mo-money-mo-problems.html#M7lOfzm3X3pvC8TP.99

    A "High-Quality" Problem for a Change

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A $4 Billion Surplus in California!

      My, my.

      Delete
    2. Plus, ALL of their citizens will have access to affordable health insurance next year.

      They's doomed, I tells ya; doomed.

      Delete
    3. Goin' to burst doug's bubble.

      Delete
    4. Yeah. Well, I'm sure he'll think of something. :)

      Delete
    5. Added to the fact that the health insurance bids for the Obamacare Exchanges are coming in way lower than expected, and that housing is making a little a little, admittedly slow, progress, and 2014 is showing a small amount of potential.

      Delete
    6. State, and Local firings, and the Housing Crash have made it very hard for the national economy to get any traction.

      Delete
  59. .

    Yeah. Well, I'm sure he'll think of something. :)


    He won't have a hard time finding arguments. Doug's not about to let a mere budget surplus slow him down.

    :)


    Accounting anomoly?

    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/about-that-surprise-california-budget.html


    Can it last?

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/15/jerry-brown-creates-california-surplus-miracle-but-can-it-last.html

    .



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