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, March 29, 2015


The battle for the Middle East's future begins in Yemen as Saudi Arabia jumps into the abyss

As a Saudi-led coalition wades into the fight for Yemen – currently under siege from Houthi rebels who are backed by Iran - Robert Fisk examines the much wider-reaching repercussions of this escalating conflict




Saudi Arabia has jumped into the abyss.

Its air attacks on Yemen are a historic and potentially fatal blow to the Kingdom and to the Middle East.

Who decided that this extraordinary battle should take shape in the poorest of Arab nations? The Saudis, whose King is widely rumoured in the Arab world to be incapable of taking decisions of state? Or the princes within the Saudi army who fear that their own security forces may not be loyal to the monarchy?

The “story” of Yemen appears simple. Houthi rebels, who are Shia Muslims, have captured the capital of Sanaa with the help – so say the Saudis – of the Iranians. The legitimate President – Abed Rabou Mansour Hadi – has fled to the Saudi capital of Riyadh from his bolthole in the old southern Yemeni capital of Aden. The Saudis will not permit an Iranian proxy state to be set up on their border – always forgetting that they already have an Iranian-proxy state called Iraq on their northern border, courtesy of the 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. The real “story” is more important. Perhaps half of the Saudi army is of Yemeni tribal origin. Saudi soldiers are intimately – through their own families – involved in Yemen, and the Yemen revolution is a stab in the guts of the Saudi royal family. No wonder King Salman of Saudi Arabia – if he indeed rules his nation – wishes to bring this crisis to an end. But are his bombing raids on Sanaa going to crush a Shia Muslim rebellion?

An armed member of the Houthi militia stands in the rubble of houses which were allegedly destroyed by a Saudi air strike (EPA)An armed member of the Houthi militia stands in the rubble of houses which were allegedly destroyed by a Saudi air strike (EPA)

You can understand what it looks like from Riyadh. To the north, the Shia Muslim Iranian Revolutionary Guards are assisting the Shia-dominated Iraqi government in their battle against Sunni Muslim Isis. To the north-west, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are assisting the government of Alawite (for which read, Shia) president Bashar al-Assad against Isis and al-Nusrah and whatever is left of the so-called “Free Syrian Army”. The Shia Hezbollah from Lebanon are fighting alongside Assad’s army.  So are Shia Muslims from Afghanistan, wearing Syrian uniforms. Saudi Arabia claims the Iranians are in Yemen with the Houthis. Unlikely. But be sure their weapons are in Yemen.

Unprecedented in modern Arab history, a Sunni Muslim coalition of 10 nations – including non-Arab Pakistan – has attacked another Arab nation. The Sunnis and the Shia of the Middle East are now at war with each other in Iraq, in Syria and Yemen. Pakistan is a nuclear power. The armies of Bahrain and the Gulf states include Pakistani soldiers. Pakistanis were among the dead in the first great battle against Iraqi troops in the 1991 Gulf War.

But already, the battle for Yemen is dividing other Arab countries. In Lebanon, the former Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Saad Hariri has praised the “brave and wise” decision of King Salman to attack. Mr Hariri is not only a Sunni – he is also a Saudi citizen. But the Shia Hezbollah, who oppose Saudi intervention, called the Saudi assault an “uncalculated adventure”. These words were chosen with care. They are exactly the words the Saudis used against Hezbollah after it captured three Israeli soldiers in 2006, a stupid political act which started the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon that year.
The battle for Yemen is dividing Arab countries (AFP/Getty)The battle for Yemen is dividing Arab countries (AFP/Getty)

The Americans do not know what to do. They cannot give the Saudis direct military assistance – their nuclear talks with Iran are more important – and so their soft verbal support for King Salman is supposed to mollify their Sunni allies and avoid antagonising the Iranians. But the closer a nuclear deal comes between the US and Iran, the more forcefully their partners in the Arab world will push their cards. What provoked the Saudis into their extraordinary adventure in Yemen was not the approach of Houthis towards Aden but the approach of US-Iranian agreement at Lausanne.
Hezbollah may call the Saudi attacks a “Saudi-American conspiracy” – an overused phrase which contains some truth – but the reality, evident to every Arab, is that the Saudis, armed (or over-armed, as many might say) by the US, are clearly prepared to use their firepower against another Arab nation rather than the traditional enemy further north. Listening to the rhetoric of the Saudis, you might think that they were bombing Israel.

History may say that the attacks on Yemen are the start of a great civil war between Sunnis and Shia in the Middle East. This would satisfy the West – and Israel – in a belief that the Arabs are at war with themselves. But it may also be true that this is the last attempt by the Saudis to prove that they are a major military power. In 1990, faced with the arrival of Saddam’s legions in Kuwait, they asked infidel America to protect them (to the fury of Osama bin Laden). They are a Wahabi nation, loyal – officially, at least – to the same theology as the Taliban and Isis. Saudi provided 15 of the 19 hijackers of 9/11. They gave us Bin Laden, who – let us not forget – was also of Yemeni tribal origin. After Yemen supported Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, the Saudis threw tens of thousands of Yemenis out of the Kingdom. In revenge for their disloyalty. Do they expect Yemenis now to rally to their support?
The last time the Saudis involved themselves in Yemen, they fought Nasser’s Egyptian army. It was a disaster. Now they have the Egyptians on their side. Indeed, they even suggest the Egyptians may stage a landing in Yemen. But to do what? To ensure that Yemen remains a faithful Sunni nation? Will this assuage the Sunni militias battering the Egyptian army in Sinai?

More seriously, will it resolve the coming struggle within the royal family, whose princes do not all believe Yemen must be the cornerstone of Saudi power – nor that Wahabism must be the permanent sectional belief. And who gains from the new Yemen crisis? The oil producers, of course. And that means Saudi Arabia – and Iran.

139 comments:

  1. First off, the "legitimate" ruler was elected in an election in which he was the only candidate.

    2nd. The Shia comprise, by many estimates, about 40% of the Yemeni population.

    In fact, if you divided Yemen into 3 groups:

    1) Non-Al Queda Sunnis

    2) Al Queda Sunnis

    and

    3) Shia

    the Shia are quite likely the majority demographic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Man o man

    The middle east is one messed up complex of fighting factions and I' m gobsmacked so many here are keen to use American power to play in that messed up game!

    Withdraw and let the locals sort it out!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The 9-11 attack didn't happen in the middle east. It happened in NYC.

      Delete
    2. Oh. My. God. Really? You are going to drag out 911 as justification for more middle east war in addition to the poor yazidis stranded on the mountain? That's really quite pathetic!

      Delete
  3. We got locked cockpits, which, I admit gave us the German wings blowback (plus endless searches at airports AND Iraq war 2) and now Rufus pulls that hairy old out rationale for playing war in the grand shia-Sunni game of war. It would be really quite funny if it weren't so sad and tragic!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't confuse the "Sunni-Shia" Game with the ISIS / Al Queda Game.

      There's no equivalence, there.

      Delete
    2. Dude, it's the middle east - home to simmering and seething conflicts between a myriad of competing factions, clans, tribes, and, for easy swallowing US consumption a shia/sunni divide.

      Delete
    3. To a degree, Ash, what the US is doing is about as close as you will get to ...
      Withdraw and let the locals sort it out!!

      You have to look at the baseline, to include the past use of local proxies, Saddam, the Shah, ISrael, as part of US power projection in that region. Now the US is not disputing the influence of the regime in Tehern, it is embracing it.
      Why? Indeed it does reference back to 11SEP2001 and those named in the 14SEP AUMF.

      There is a strong case that members of the Saudi regime, and through its proxies in Pakistan and Yemen, orchestrated the 11SEP2001 attack. There is no rational case that has be made that attributes those attacks to Iranians.

      At the highest level of the US government this piece of reality seems to have gained purchase.

      If the US could assist Josef Stalin in his battle with Adolph H., well ...
      Looking the other way and offering minimal levels of support to either side ...

      About as close to -
      Withdraw and let the locals sort it out!!
      - as we are going to get.

      Delete
    4. Close, yes given US history but still it is a major player in the power struggles which is a fat cry from letting them sort it out. Shit, look at Tikrit - every goddamn player is willing to,let America fight their battles if it is to their benefit.

      Delete
    5. Sure they would, Ash.

      But the US has absolutely no control over what the various Iraqi factions are willing to let US do.
      Only the US has that control. Its leaders have decided to make the US 'footprint' quite petite, on a timeline comparison.
      The US not going to withdraw, totally.

      To make that the objective, similar to jousting at windmills.

      Delete
  4. Oh... .my... They killed two journos - we had to go to war. Just like WWl was about a,poor arch-duke Ferdinand...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If Obama hadn't taken action, he would have been impeached.

      Delete
    2. Riiiight, so says sooth-sayer and oracle of great repute 'da rufus'

      Delete
  5. Yes, Rufus, I'am mocking you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't take you seriously, Ash. You're neither bright enough, nor knowledgeable enough.

      Basically, you're just Bob's flip-side.

      The only reason I'm replying to you is I'm just not quite sleepy enough to go to bed, yet.

      Delete
    2. Ohhhh nooo Rufus, arm chair general extraordinaire (he did 3 years in 'Nam dontcha know) doesn't think I'm smart enough to respond other than to say 'I know'

      bob's a dolt!

      Delete
    3. Hey, flip side of a dolt... ;-)

      Delete
  6. The only people we're killing in the middleeast is ISIS, and Al Queda.

    We've killed quite a few Al Queda in Yemen, and close to 10,000 ISIS in Iraq. I don't see how you can find fault with that (although, I know you do.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Uh, hunh, no one can remember ME history and US involvement longer than two weeks ago. The US only kills the bad guys, really, honestly folks, it has nothing to do with our oil under your sand, really, Rufus said so, unless it suits his purpose to say otherwise.

      Delete
    2. What Bush, or anyone else did over there, is not relevant to todays actions (or, inactions.)

      We're killing the worst damned terrorists this old world has seen in a long, long time.

      We're doing it efficiently, at low cost, and with very little, if any, "collateral damage."

      Whatever Bush might have done wrong, it's hard to fault Obama for doing what most of the world agrees is right.

      Delete
  7. That idea that Obama would be impeached if he didn't wage war is really ridiculous - I mean, c'mon, how would the articles of impeachment read? 'The POTUS did not wage war when two upstandind AMERICAN journalists were murdered therefore IMPEACH!"

    That is just silly!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ummmm, ya! Can you cite one historical precedent?

      Delete
    2. Can you cite a historical precedent of anything involving a Black President?

      Delete
    3. Black? How would that play in the articles of impeachment? Lordy, that's like playing the anti-Semite card at....



      ... I dunno, a Catholic wedding?

      Delete

  8. U.S., Iranian-Backed Shiite Militias Share Uneasily in Battle for Iraq’s Tikrit

    Each party proclaims opposition to the other


    TIKRIT, Iraq—Iranian-backed Shiite militias remained on the front lines of the battle to retake this strategic city from Islamic State days after the U.S. demanded they be sidelined as a condition for joining the fight with airstrikes.

    The U.S. military has continued to launch airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Tikrit after it became clear that Shiite forces were still playing a central role in the fight and even as each loudly proclaims opposition to the other.

    “Baghdad clearly needs both the U.S. and Iran to deal with ISIS, and yet both its allies are still tiptoeing around each other on the battlefield because it’s embarrassing to acknowledge cooperation, even if tacit,” said Mr. Khoei.

    The Iraqi federal police, whom the U.S. is relying on as a partner, also say the Shiite militias are likely to participate in the final push to retake Tikrit, a city dominated by Iraq’s Sunni minority. About 20,000 Iranian-backed Shiite militia fighters spearheaded the assault on former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s hometown that began on March 2, joined by a smaller contingent of some 10,000 regular Iraqi police and military. They didn’t coordinate with the U.S. military, but were assisted by Iranian commanders in the field and Iranian weaponry.

    When the battle stalled three weeks later, Iraq asked the U.S.-led coalition that has been conducting airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to step in. While some Shiite militias have fallen back from the front lines in protest over the Iraqi government’s request for U.S. airstrikes, the most prominent militias appear to be maintaining their positions. Some said they are reluctant to forfeit what they predict will be an imminent victory to Americans, whom they view as usurpers and have long considered enemies.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-iranian-backed-shiite-militias-share-uneasily-in-battle-for-iraqs-tikrit-1427672890

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Despite U.S. officials making a distinction between Shiite militias aligned with Iran and with the government in Baghdad, fighters on the ground in Tikrit said that Iranian-backed fighters remain on the battlefield.

      The largest, best-trained and most organized fighters from groups such as Hebullah Brigades, Asaib Ahl Al Haq and Saraya Salam have taken up rear positions in Tikrit. But they are still waiting in the wings, prepared to return to the battlefield at any minute, fighters in Tikrit said.

      Had such groups left Tikrit entirely, Islamic State could easily reclaim recently liberated territory gained in hard-won battles, said Mr. Zahra from the Al Battar Brigade.

      In any case, he claimed the fighters the U.S. had hoped would assume leading roles in retaking Tikrit are essentially useless. The Iranian-backed militias are better-armed and trained, he said, while the remaining force of about 4,000 federal police, Iraqi special forces and Shiite militias are too weak to retake Tikrit.

      Mr. Zahra said federal police commanders are arrogant and incompetent, accidentally exposing Shiite militias to enemy sniper fire. Despite belonging to Iraq’s formal security apparatus, policemen and soldiers often turn to the militias for advice and help, he said.

      Mr. Zahra and others also complained that the U.S. airstrikes are ineffective and often kill men in their own ranks. A coalition strike on Thursday killed an estimated four to 14 fighters, he said.

      The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad denied that any airstrikes had taken place at the time of the fighters’ deaths.

      Delete
    2. Meanwhile, the fight to retake Tikrit flounders against a backdrop of diplomatic bickering, said Zaid al-Ali, an Iraqi lawyer and author who comes from Tikrit.

      “There’s no real urgency to take back Tikrit because the city is empty anyway,” said Mr. Ali. “This type of arm wrestling that’s taking place between Iran and the U.S. is not helping at all. It’s idiotic and childish.”


      —Dion Nissenbaum contributed to this article.

      Delete
    3. There's certainly no "urgency" on our part. We're killing our 1,500 - 2,000 headcutters every month, whether it be in Tikrit, Fallujah, Kobane, any of a number of other cities and towns.

      If the forces on the ground got busy, we could wrap this up in a couple of months. If not, it will take longer. BUT, it doesn't matter.

      WE don't have troops on the ground taking casualties. There are no bodybags coming back to America.

      The cost in treasure has been very little, and the fatalities have been Zero. They can dither all they want.

      Delete
    4. Exactly correct, Rufus, the US is letting the Iraqi ...
      .... let the locals sort it out!!

      The US involvement in Iraq, this go around, is justifiable on the 14SEP2001 AUMF

      But the footprint is so, so much smaller, the preponderance of the fighting falls to Iraqis.

      We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what "Arab" boys ought to be doing for themselves.
      - Lyndon B. Johnson

      ... with poetic license ...

      Delete
    5. YO, dudes, old men, air chair generals, whatever, give you head a shake, nothing, NOTHING, occurs in the middle east that isn't linked to the history of the region and each factions conception of justice;the Israelis, the Persians, the Wahabbi, the Kurds..


      it is only naive Americans that fantasize it,is some,how different THIS TIME!

      Delete
    6. Of course it is, Ash.

      Where was it said differently?
      There is no fantasy as to the "End Game".

      There is no "End Game" ...
      There is only the play on the field, at the moment.

      Is there a "Plan", that the US is following, it appears to be, in retrospect.
      The US was implementing a version of the Yinon Plan, fragmenting the countries established by the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

      You are correct, it did not start two weeks ago, last August ...
      Some would say the battle was joined when Moses led an Army of Conquest out of Egypt and to the frontier of Canaan.

      Delete
    7. Those oil fields are very important. It would be nuts of us not to help the Elected Government of Iraq fight off the crazy psychopaths - especially, considering the low cost of doing so.

      If you want to say "history is rhyming," fine. But, it doesn't matter. Inaction, here, would be stupid. Obama, for what else he might be, is Not stupid.

      Delete
  9. Now, I'm tired enough to sleep. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. All you two bozos (Ash is excluded here) need to remember when trying to negotiate your way through the mazes and minefields of the middle east is:

    Iran is fighting for civilization.

    Once you have mastered this simple lesson, all becomes crystal clear.

    *****************

    Ash you were holding your own very well there, though your opponents don't amount to much.

    I am proud, for right now anyway, to serve as your Vice-President.

    (just don't get on the topic of a new apartheid, sexist, genocidal 'Palestinian' state or I will tear you a new asshole)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elect Ash For America - Needed Now More Than Ever !!!

      Delete
    2. (who cares if he is an expatriate and now a Canadian)

      Delete
  11. To the thread -

    March 29, 2015
    US snoozes as Iran's master plan unfolds in the Middle East
    By Rick Moran

    An excellent analysis in YNet News by Smadar Perry of Iran's ultimate goals in the Middle East. Israel has been warning for 5 years that Iran's intent was to create a Shia super state by dominating countries in the region, installing their proxies. They've been successful in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and now Yemen with one of their major goals being the overthrow of the Saudi kingdom.

    The Gulf States have now realized that they can't count on America to assist them, hence, the Saudi-led operation to defeat the Houthis in Yemen.

    The Houthis then took control of the presidential palace in Sana'a, and their commander, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, declared: "We are staying here to conduct the fight against al-Qaeda in Yemen."

    Al-Houthi deliberately failed to make mention of the president-in-hiding and the collapse of the institutions of power: For him, the excuse was and remains the Sunni terrorist organization, which has set up an affiliate group in Yemen. On his way to shake the regime in Saudi Arabia, he has to block the terrorists.

    While making efforts to enlist the help of his neighbors in the Gulf, Hadi has also appealed to the UN Security Council in New York, asking that it declare Yemen a no-fly zone and thus put an end to Iran's supply by air of weapons, military equipment and thousands of instructors and fighters to the rebel forces.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The UN secretary-general is "checking" and "considering," and is definitely "concerned" – but he has yet to call a special session to discuss the grave ramifications of the situation in Yemen. And the United States, too, hasn't helped much at all. After Washington "forgot" to add Iran's name to the annual list of countries that sponsor terrorism, it is in no hurry to send force to Yemen. "We won't participate in the operation, but we will provide assistance," the White House announced on Thursday.

      The Gulf States know by now not to rely on the Obama administration: Washington is engrossed up to its neck in fine tuning the nuclear deal with Iran; and as far as the US administration is concerned, Yemen can go ahead and sink deeper into a bloody conflict. Last week, after the attacks at the mosques in Sana'a that killed 137 people, the United States withdrew its 125 advisers who had been living in Yemen for years as "training instructors," but were actually involved in gathering intelligence on irregular movements in the Gulf.

      President Hadi, the Pentagon's prot̩g̩, got the message. He internalized the fact that if Yemen doesn't enlist the help of its neighbors in the Gulf, Iran will continue to make progress towards its ultimate goal Рregime change in Saudi Arabia.

      The formation of an Arab army to invade Yemen and defeat the Houthis may lead to a direct confrontation with Iran. This would threaten Saudi oil fields in the south where most of the Kingdom's Shias live. And a successful Houthi takeover in Yemen could leave Iran in charge of one of the major choke points for shipping oil.

      "The ayatollahs of Iran seek to take control of the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb so they can determine who can cross the Red Sea to the Suez Canal," says Dr. Yasser bin Hilal, a political science lecturer at the University of Sana'a, who traveled to Washington in an attempt to shake up the administration and the intelligence agencies.

      "If they are successful, it will also affect the movement of ships sailing with goods from the Far East to the port of Ashdod in Israel. Try to picture the nightmare scenario – fighters in the uniforms of the Revolutionary Guards directing maritime traffic, boarding cargo ships, checking the cargoes and crew, and blocking passage to anything that doesn't serve their interests."

      Yemen emerges as a key to Iran's overall strategy. It's a pity that no one in Washington is paying attention.

      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/03/us_snoozes_as_irans_master_plan_unfolds_in_the_middle_east.html

      Delete
    2. General Petraeus at least knows this: it is not ISIS that is the big worry, it is Iran.

      These things would not be happening if we had not elected Goofy as President of the US of A - twice.

      Delete
    3. .

      Rick Moron continues to pump out the bull.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      Rick Moron, The American Thinker, a university lecturer from Yemen, and Petraeus a womanizing ex-general guilty of treason who would be in prison right now if the trial wouldn't have been too embarrassing to the administration.

      Stop it.

      .

      Delete
    5. You want an apartheid state in Palestine. A state that would either kill you outright or put you in dhimmi status. A sexist state. A state dedicated to genocide.A state that will become an armed camp, as Gaza has become an armed camp, even though it is supposed to be 'disarmed'. A state run by a gang of insane criminals and you ask me to stop it.

      Stop it Quirk.

      Don't make a further fool of yourself.

      Fly under the radar, or something.

      Turn off your computer, maybe.

      Delete
    6. And I've said Petraeus is a white piece of shit, just like Powell was a black piece of shit. Both political.

      But Petraeus at least has his head on straight which is much more than can be said of you.

      Rick Moran is a fine fellow, very sensible.

      Hardly a nitwit, like you.

      Now go to bed.

      Delete
    7. By the way, nitwit, 95% of the military brass privately agree with Petraeus.

      It's not ISIS that is so worrying, it is Iran, which is pledged to carry on its fight for civilization by eradicating the US of A, and Israel.

      Delete
  12. March 29, 2015
    Why Two States West of the Jordan?
    By Ken Blackwell and Bob Morrison


    >>>The reason we have gone nowhere in the past quarter century has everything to do with the nature of the regimes that Israel is facing. PLO boss Mahmoud Abbas was right-hand man to Yasser Arafat for decades. Abbas has no legitimacy among his own fellow Arabs. His Fatah organization was defeated by the terrorist gang, Hamas, in elections in Gaza. Then, some years later, he cancelled elections on the West Bank because he would surely have lost to Hamas. So, the discredited Abbas formed a “unity” government with Hamas.

    Even our ever-surprised, ever-unready State Department still manages to list Hamas as a terrorist outfit. So, Abbas and the PLO are openly aligned with Hamas terrorists. Doesn’t that make them parties to, in cahoots with, and abettors of terrorism?

    President Obama’s administration should drop the mask of ignorance. We know that Arafat ordered the assassination of our Ambassador Cleo Noel in Khartoum, in the Sudan, in 1973. We have telephone intercepts of Arafat giving the kill order. Abbas was Arafat’s accomplice throughout the long years of his apprenticeship. Arafat invented airline hijacking for terror purposes.

    Why should Israel negotiate with Abbas? With Hamas? With Iran? With ISIS? Or with any of her neighbors who have tried for nearly 70 years to wipe Israel off the map? They have wiped Israel off their own maps. All of the official documents of these groups show maps of the Mideast without Israel.

    Israel’s neighbors want to annihilate the Jews. These enemies are encouraged by Mr. Obama’s State Department, which continues to deny that Israel’s capital is Jerusalem.

    What other people, what other nation ever named Jerusalem as its capital? By refusing to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, President Obama is feeding into the annihilationist views of Israel’s enemies....<<<

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/03/why_two_states_west_of_the_jordan.html


    Say NO to a sexist, apartheid, aggressive, genocidal 'State' of Palestine.

    When I get the energy, maybe tomorrow, I will list all the reasons we all should be against the idea of a Palestinian 'State', for the good of the human race, and, ultimately, the Palestinians themselves.


    ReplyDelete
  13. Current results of The Obama Mid East Scorecard are in -

    Result:

    Total Obama Points - 0 (zero)

    March 30, 2015
    Obama Creates Chaos and Calls it 'Peace'
    By James Lewis

    Obama has surrendered to Iran’s fanatical thirst for nukes, and now all of Iran’s Muslim enemies are going to war, because they understand the mullahs a lot better than Obama does.

    A huge regional war is breaking out between the two biggest enemies in Islam, the Sunnis and Shi’ites. This war has its roots in Ayatollah Khomeini, Jimmy Carter’s favorite Islamofascist “spiritual leader,” who was allowed to take over the 70 million people of Iran by the terminally delusional Carter regime.

    But our guy Obama has made everything worse, by siding with the two most extreme and murderous forces in the region, the mullahs of Iran on the Shi’ite side, and the Muslim Brotherhood on the Sunni side.

    In this mess you need a scorecard. Here's one.

    1) Saudi Arabia is the center of worldwide Islam. It’s run by a radical Sunni theocracy that sends hate preachers all over the world, who tell their followers that violent jihad against the West will win them a place in Paradise. That’s why we get Muslims blowing themselves all over the world, taking with them as many infidels as possible.

    SCORE: Winner: Sunni War Priests. Obama zero.

    2) Iran is the biggest 1000-year enemy of the Saudis. But eighty percent of Muslims worldwide are Sunnis, and follow the Saudi line. Iran wants to conquer the holy cities of Mecca and Medina from the Saudis.

    SCORE: Winner: Iranian and Sunni war priests. Obama zero.

    3) From the beginning of Obamanismo, the U.S. has tried to destabilize Egypt, Syria, Israel, Libya, and a few other odds and ends. Egypt revolted against Obama’s friends of the Muslim Brotherhood, so Obama scored 0 there. Libya fell apart into civil war when NATO criminally bombed a regime that did not threaten their interests in the least.

    SCORE: Winner: Al Qaida in the Maghreb. Obama zero.

    4) Syria fell apart due to Obama’s much hyped-up “Arab Spring,” with the Alawite Assad fighting even more evil Sunni thugs like Al Nusrah and finally ISIS. Obama has tried over and over again to overthrow Assad, with a big backlash, so that now Syria is the biggest horror story on the planet, with more than 200,000 dead and millions of refugees.

    SCORE: Winner: Iran, which now has troops in Syria, plus its obedient war party Hizb’allah. Obama, zero.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 5) Iran has sent high officers to spy out the land all the way to the Golan Heights, where Israel bombed a dozen of them to death.

      SCORE: Israel vs. Iran – a tie so far. Obama zero.

      6) In return for Iranian aggression --- made much worse by Obama’s surrender on Iranian nukes --- the Saudis can call on the following allied armies, navies, and air forces:

      A) On the Arabian Peninsula, all the Gulf sheikhdoms except Qatar.
      B) The large and technically advanced armies of Egypt, Jordan, and Pakistan.
      C) The militant Sunni tribes of Iraq and Syria.

      Now recall the strategic situation. Iran has been enabled by the United States from Jimmy Carter to Obama to encircle and threaten Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. By controlling the choke point of the Gulf, Iran can close off tanker traffic at will. But now an Iranian proxy tribe, the Houthis, has taken Obama and the Saudis by complete surprise; they are close to choking off the Red Sea ports of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

      SCORE: Winner: Iran. Obama zero.

      7) Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies are now going to war by sending naval vessels to the mouth of the Red Sea and bombarding the Houthis with several different Arab air forces allied to the Saudis.

      SCORE: Unknown. Chances are that the Sunni armies will beat smaller Iranian and proxy forces at the mouth of the Red Sea. But war is unpredictable.

      Bottom line: While Obama and the Euroleft have focused idiotically on Israel and the fictional Palestinians (who are Arabs under a different name to fool the suckers), Iran has been quietly advancing a huge strategic pincer movement through Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. Yemen is the southern end of the strategic pincer.

      Iran has just threatened to invade Jordan, and of course Israel is their biggest hate object over decades of media propaganda in the Arab Middle East and Europe. But now the Sunnis need help from Israel, especially if this thing goes nuclear, so they are making nice.

      SCORE: Arab-Israeli peace WINS, in spite of Obama. Obama has lost any credibility he ever had in the region, so he scores… zero.

      Meanwhile, Our Hero has ordered USAF ground-support to both sides of the great Muslim divide, the Iranians in Iraq, and their deadly enemies the Saudis in Yemen.

      Senator Richard Burr, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, was quoted saying “We’re totally out… Yemen is going to be [an] absolute failure of our foreign policy.”

      You can say that for the rest of Obama’s meddling, too.

      http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/03/obama_creates_chaos_and_calls_it_peace.html

      :(
      :(

      Delete
    2. Oddly missing from the Scorecard is mention of the total mess in Iraq.

      Score on this:

      Obama - Zero

      Delete
  14. And here is a Scorecard with which to judge Obama's (or the EB patron's) mental health -

    March 30, 2015
    Obama's Mental Health: A Checklist
    By Patricia McCarthy

    If anyone had doubts about the mental health of the president and some of the other more visible people within the Obama administration, there can be doubts no longer. In the past few days Yemen has further erupted into explosive chaos and the long-known but finally admitted facts of Bowe Bergdahl's desertion were announced. But his spokespersons, Josh Earnest, Marie Harf, and Jen Psaki, with blank, straight faces, still doggedly maintain that that Yemen is a "counterterrorism success" and that turning over five Taliban terrorists of the Taliban's choosing in exchange for Bergdahl was a wise and wonderful plan.

    Like a schoolyard bully, the president continues to find treacherous ways to punish Bibi Netanyahu and Israel in increasingly vicious ways. He has leaked details of Israel's nuclear program, threatened to circumvent Congress on the Iran deal by going to the UN, and threatened to withhold from Israel needed supplies for its self-defense. Denis McDonough spoke at J-Street and called for, "an end to the occupation," a wholly inaccurate term for Israel's existence and present boundaries. Jews around the world have not known such peril since the 1930s.

    Many people have written about the president's narcissism. Some have suggested that he may be a sociopath. There is a checklist, developed by Dr. Robert D. Hare in the 1970s and used around the world to diagnose psychopathy. Dr. Hare would likely admit that it is not perfect but it is widely used in psychiatric settings and prisons to determine if an inmate is safe for release. It may be useful in assessing our president and the people with whom he has surrounded himself.......

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/03/obamas_mental_health_a_checklist.html

    I determine the following are safe for release, not being a danger to themselves or others:

    Ash
    Bob
    Quirk
    Rufus
    Sam
    WiO


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What about Obama, you may ask......

      I determine he is not a danger to himself, but is a distinct danger to millions of others at home and abroad.

      What about Deuce ?

      He is not a bar patron, he is The Bar itself, it's owner and enforcer.

      Therefore he was not included.

      Delete


  15. Jihad Watch

    CAIR, Left fail to strongarm Ted Cruz into pulling out of event with Robert Spencer

    March 29, 2015 8:42 am By Robert Spencer

    Ted Cruz and I were both featured speakers at the Young America’s Foundation’s New England Freedom Conference in Nashua, New Hampshire this weekend, and the Leftists and Islamic supremacists were in an uproar: the Hamas-linked terror organization the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) demanded that Cruz withdraw from the event, and Mother Jones and Media Matters both published lengthy guilt-by-association pieces, wildly misstating and misrepresenting my views and trying to tar Cruz with positions that neither he nor I hold.

    Cruz didn’t cave in to this pressure; both he and I spoke at the YAF event, and the media is still reeling from his refusal to submit to their dictates. The Hill said yesterday:

    The speech was not without controversy — the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) asked him not to attend due to Robert Spencer’s appearance at the same event. Spencer is an author who has courted controversy over his criticism of Islam.

    “Courted controversy.” Heh. Yeah, we’re going steady. And the Washington Post:

    Cruz spoke at the Young America’s Foundation New England Freedom Dinner in Nashua. The Council on Islamic Relations asked Cruz not to appear because Robert Spencer, who co-founded an anti-Muslim group, was also appearing at the conference.

    “Anti-Muslim group” — evidently the WaPo thinks it “anti-Muslim” to oppose jihad terror and the Sharia oppression of women, non-Muslims, gays, etc. That’s more revealing about them than about me.

    This incident was yet another example of how the Hamas-linked Islamic supremacists of CAIR and their Useful Idiots in the Leftist media try, again and again and again, to bully and intimidate into silence not only anyone who speaks the truth about the jihad threat, but anyone remotely associated with them. With the Democrats already firmly in their camp, they’re trying now to secure the submission of the Republican Party.

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/03/cair-left-fail-to-strongarm-ted-cruz-into-pulling-out-of-event-with-robert-spencer

    100 points for Cruz.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. >>> With the Democrats already firmly in their camp, they’re trying now to secure the submission of the Republican Party.<<<


      Hmmmm.......

      Make that 200 points for Cruz.

      Delete
  16. Iran seems to be breaking away from the idea of shipping enriched uranium to Russia for safekeeping.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps they can just buy a bomb from North Korea, as Saudi Arabia is said to be able to do from Pakistan.

      :(

      Delete
    2. Just turning to Drudge I see:

      Does Iran Have Secret Nukes in NKorea?.............Drudge

      Ans: Probably

      :(

      Delete
    3. >>>But no inspections of Iranian sites will solve a fundamental issue: As can be seen from the North Korean base housing Tehran’s weapons specialists, Iran is only one part of a nuclear weapons effort spanning the Asian continent. North Korea, now the world’s proliferation superstar, is a participant. China, once the mastermind, may still be a co-conspirator. Inspections inside the borders of Iran, therefore, will not give the international community the assurance it needs.<<<

      http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/29/does-iran-have-secret-nukes-in-north-korea.html

      Article from Drudge.

      Delete
    4. We will have to check Craig's List under

      Bombs: Nulcear

      Delete
    5. Then we will check under

      Bombs: Nuclear

      Delete
    6. >>>Even if Iran today were to agree to adhere to the Additional Protocol, it could still continue developing its bomb in North Korea, conducting research there or buying North Korean technology and plans. And as North Korean centrifuges spin in both known and hidden locations, the Kim regime will have a bigger stock of uranium to sell to the Iranians for their warheads. With the removal of sanctions, as the P5+1 is contemplating, Iran will have the cash to accelerate the building of its nuclear arsenal.<<<

      Someone here said these 'negotiations' were all a big farce.

      Delete
    7. it could still continue developing its bomb in North Korea, conducting research there or buying North Korean technology and plans.

      Just as the Saudi Arabian did in Pakistan ... aye.

      If the Iranians want a nuclear weapon, they can buy a nuclear weapon, from the NorKs, the Chinese, the Russians.
      Even the South Koreans, South Africans or the Japanese have to capability to manufacture a nuclear weapon.

      If that is your measure, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you will never be satisfied.

      Delete
    8. .

      If that is your measure, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you will never be satisfied.

      That is the MO of the Lobby. Set the bar so high the terms will never be accepted and then complain when they are not accepted.

      .

      Delete
    9. .

      Illuminati funding Iranian nuclear program.

      Article from Drudge

      .

      Delete
    10. .

      Iranian nuclear scientists working out of the back room of Vatican tea room...

      Drudge

      .

      Delete
    11. .


      Hawaii: Reports of secret meeting between Joe Biden and Iranian Quds Force operatives in Tom Selleck's house...

      Drudge

      .

      Delete
    12. 'Quirk' arrested for indecent exposure on nude beach in Molokai.....

      Women ran screaming into the surf....

      Says he thought he was on the 'Big' island........Drudge

      Delete
  17. Would it not be funny as all get out if an agreement was approved by the P5+1 and the Iranians only to have isarel take out HIDDEN and ILLEGAL sites?

    After all, 2 of the disclosed sites now part of the "agreement" were hidden and not disclosed but rather OUTED by Iranian DEFECTORS…

    How could Iran complain if those additional, non-disclosed sites were found out and destroyed?

    The additional precedent is the Israeli taking out the Iranian site INSIDE Syria just a couple of years ago that killed Iranian and north korean workers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Let Israel do it if they have the balls.

      As long as they are willing to accept any repercussions that might ensue.

      .

      Delete
    2. Quirk, the Israels have saved the west several times already.

      You can say thank you anytime…

      I can point to 2 times when Israel has helped the world from an Iraqi and or Iranian/Syrian nuclear weapon…

      Delete
    3. There is no nuclear threat to the US from anyone. Nuclear powers do not attack nuclear powers. There are consequences to alliances. Israel is an inexcusable liability to the US. It is no asset and an ally that can do nothing for us, because there is no threat that they can do anything about.

      Delete
    4. What a joke.

      You're crazy sick.

      Delete
  18. Kerry: U.S. Aware of Illicit Iranian Nuke Facility

    February 25, 2015 1:35 pm

    Secretary of State John Kerry admitted before Congress on Wednesday that the United States is aware of a secret Iranian facility that an Iranian opposition group identified this week as part of an undisclosed parallel nuclear program.

    The group, the National Council of the Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has a history of disclosing the existence of Iranian nuclear facilities that the United States has been later forced to confirm were indeed part of a clandestine nuclear program.

    Kerry, under questioning before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, acknowledged that the United States has evidence of the facility, but declined to elaborate to lawmakers about its nature.

    “Did the [Iranian] regime tell us about existence of this new nuclear facility,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.) asked Kerry at the hearing.

    “What you’re saying is it’s a nuclear facility,” Kerry responded. “That is yet to be determined, but we know about the facility, yes.”

    “So had they disclosed that facility to us?” Rohrabacher asked.

    “It has not been revealed yet as a nuclear facility,” Kerry insisted. “It is a facility that we are aware of, which is on a list of facilities we have. I’m not going to go into greater detail, but these things are going to have to be resolved [in negotiations] as we go forward.”

    Questions about the site come in the wake of a report released Tuesday by an Iranian dissident group claiming to provide evidence of “an active and secret parallel nuclear program” in the suburbs of Tehran.

    The facility is said to be an “underground top-secret site currently used by the Iranian regime for research and development with advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment,” according to a copy of the findings by NCRI, also known as the MEK.

    Years-long concerns about several secret Iranian nuclear facilities have plagued advocates of an emerging Iran deal and provided ammunition to critics who maintain that the agreement would leave Iran with sufficient infrastructure to continue producing a nuclear weapon.

    The existence of such sites has been known for some time to U.S. intelligence agencies and runs counter to the Obama administration’s narrative that Iran can be trusted to comply with a nuclear deal.

    “There has never been a time in the past 15 years or so when Iran didn’t have a hidden facility in construction,” a senior Obama administration official admitted to the New York Times in 2013.


    Bomb them…

    then smile and deny

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      You bomb them.

      Smile, chuckle, laugh, guffaw, whatever.

      .

      Delete
    2. Not to worry Quirk, the Israelis, the Americans, French, Germans, Russians or even the Pakistanies (spelling) Heck even China would all be suspect in bombing an ILLEGAL Iranian site..

      LOL

      Delete

  19. then smile and deny


    Men without honor, liars all, those Semites.
    That is if the Ashkenazi from Europe are Semites in a racial sense.
    Science and legend tell us they are not.

    Be their self-identification with the idea they are Semitic ...
    Proof is in the tasting, it matters not where you are from, but how you were raised...

    Liars and thieves, they do tend to flock together.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Who gives a shit if they are Semites or not?

      .

      Delete
    2. .

      Makes no difference as to whether they are Jews or not.

      .

      Delete
    3. Semites ... because that is one of their casus belli, Legionnaire.

      It is important to the protagonist, the one that continues to claim he is a Semite, one of the tribes of Arabia.
      And north eastern Africa.

      We are continually told that the Arabs are untrut worthy, liars and thieves, those people are the majority of the Semites, in al the world. It is either a genetic trait amongst the Semites, dishonesty, or it is common to everyone.

      Whichever the Ashkenazi may turnout to be, Semites or Europeans, they are dishonest ...
      Illustrated by "O"rdure advocating lying on the world stage.

      That is the point being made, Legionnaire, that it passed over our head, typical of our past performances, too.

      Delete
    4. Bomb them…

      then smile and deny


      The Israeli way, it worked on the USS Liberty except they did shed a few crocodile tears before the wink, wink.

      I’d Dump the Israelis Tomorrow –Ex-CIA Michael Schemer Tells Congress

      Delete
    5. We are continually told that the Arabs are untrustworthy ...


      That is the point being made, Legionnaire, that it passed over your head, ...

      {;-)

      Delete
    6. Let Israel fight their own wars with their own troops, money and no US bailout.

      Delete
    7. Ah, yeah, the USS Liberty.

      But some how the Iranian murdering of THOUSANDS of US GI's fine....

      Delete
    8. Got a link to where the Iranians have killed thousands of US.

      4,000 and a bit more of US were KIA in Iraq, most were killed by Iraqi.
      If you have evidence otherwise, that it was Iranians that killed US troops in Anbar, please provide it.

      Delete
    9. In Afghanistan and Iraq, it was Sunni, Wahhabi mostly, that killed US troops

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

      Delete
    11. .

      That is the point being made, Legionnaire, that it passed over our head, typical of our past performances, too.

      You're ridiculous, rat. Any message you try to get across becomes obscured in the half-baked, extraneous, anti-Semitic bullshit you continually couch it in/

      ...that it passed over our head, typical of our past performances, too...

      Another example of your English-as-a-second-language problems. I assume the use of the attributive adjective 'our' is simply your attempt at being clever or cute. However, to a casual observer, it likely looks like the rat using the 'majestic plural' form or even a simple Freudian slip, in this case a particularly apt one.

      .

      Delete
  20. Supreme Court:

    Death Panels? That's too nutty, even for us.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This is strange; according to Newsweek, the coalition airstrikes in Tikrit are over.

    Warriors of God tm back in business

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Internal Iraqi politics, raises its head, again.

      As the fellow quoted yesterday said, paraphrasing ...

      There are no people there ...

      So it is all political theater, really.

      Delete
    2. :) They're a trip.

      Bless their li'l ol' hearts. :)

      Delete
  22. That's interesting. Did you know that the Iranian Ayatollah is appointed, and can be removed, by an elected body?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But Khomeini met with the Jewish community upon his return from exile in Paris and issued a ''fatwa'' decreeing that the Jews were to be protected. Similar edicts also protect Iran's tiny Christian minority.

      Just as it radically transformed Muslim society, the revolution changed the Jews. Families that had been secular in the 1970s started keeping kosher and strictly observing rules against driving on Shabbat. They stopped going to restaurants, cafes and cinemas - many such establishments were closed down - and the synagogue perforce became the focal point of

      Delete
    2. It is one of the many paradoxes of the Islamic Republic of Iran that this most virulent anti-Israeli country supports by far the largest Jewish population of any Muslim country.

      While Jewish communities in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria have all but vanished, Iran is home to 25,000 - some here say 35,000 - Jews. The Jewish population is

      Delete
    3. Tehran has 11 functioning synagogues, many of them with Hebrew schools. It has two kosher restaurants, and a Jewish hospital, an old-age home and a cemetery. There is a Jewish representative in the Iranian parliament. There is a Jewish library with 20,000 titles, its reading room decorated with a photograph of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

      Khomeini protection

      Iran's Jewish community is . . . . .

      Iran's Jews

      Delete
  23. Here is the unadorned o so needing of somebody to hate rat - O - Sewer Rooter folks here can't stand, with few exceptions -


    Jack HawkinsMon Mar 30, 01:49:00 PM EDT


    then smile and deny

    Men without honor, liars all, those Semites.
    That is if the Ashkenazi from Europe are Semites in a racial sense.
    Science and legend tell us they are not.

    Be their self-identification with the idea they are Semitic ...
    Proof is in the tasting, it matters not where you are from, but how you were raised...

    Liars and thieves, they do tend to flock together.

    ***************

    "I am a professional asshole"

    d. rat

    ReplyDelete
  24. rat, you are truly a living piece of human shit.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Drove by the farm today - wheat is looking SUPER !!

    :)

    Best I have ever seen it, I think.

    Really mild winter means plentiful pheasants and quail too......

    Whooooooopie !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Soft white wheat price could be a little better........maybe it will boom if the world goes BOOM this summer......

      Best crop prices ever were just after World War I when Europe was starving to death........

      Not that I am hoping for this.

      Delete
    2. Grandfather sold a hay crop for $10,000 dollars in 1920, an unbelievable amount then, and bought his palace with $5,500 of that amount.

      Then dug the basement out with a shovel.

      And retired.

      Delete
  26. March 30, 2015
    Is a stressed out Obama turning to drink?
    By Thomas Lifson

    When the news broke Saturday from the White House press pool report accompanying President Obama on his golf outing in the midst of world crisis, I filed it away for possible future developments:

    On a sunny and beautiful, if chilly morning, the president left the White House residence at 9:30am, wearing a light blue button-up shirt with no tie, a navy blazer and khaki slacks. He waved to the pool but didn’t respond to your pooler’s shouted question about the new Indiana religious freedom law. The president got into Marine One . . . The helicopter was wheels-up to Joint Base Andrews at 9:34am. Handing over now to the travel pool . . .

    Marine One touched down at Joint Base Andrews at 9:41 a.m. POTUS bounded down the steps at 9:45. We’re headed for warmer climes. Up the AF1 steps moments later. You can tell this is a non-work trip (because) someone forward of the press cabin ordered 3 beers at 9:26 am.

    Hmm, that’s pretty early to be hitting the sauce. Of course, we don’t know who ordered the beers. I suppose it is faintly possible that some underling didn’t mind drinking in front of the president as the day began.

    But then yesterday:

    The Commander-in-Chief, returning from a Florida trip where he played golf with wealthy donors, nearly took a tumble when exiting Air Force One on Sunday.

    He gave a wave to media before stumbling for a second and resuming his trot down to the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

    Still no conclusive proof of anything. Gerald Ford stumbled getting off Air Force One (and was endlessly mocked for it). Still, as the world careens out of control, it is not comforting.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/03/is_a_stressed_out_obama_turning_to_drink.html

    It is also possible he is chooming and snorting again, too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My friend Rollie, who served in the Air Force, and was in security, once saw them carry Mrs. Ford off Air Force One, drunk as a dozen skunks, incoherent, while Jerry stumbled down the steps unaided, making it, barely, to the tarmac.

      She finally got help, fessed up, and may be sober even now, for all we know......if she is still among the living.

      Delete
  27. For QUIRK -

    French Fear Plans To Make Iran Key Middle East Ally...
    KERRY: 'IF ALLAH WILLS IT'.......Drudge

    I put up the Drudge headlines so Quirk, who is, half the time, as far out of it as O'bozo, can keep up with the news.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Bob and Drudge, still two peas short of a pod.

      .

      Delete
    2. Quirk, who is two egg salad sandwiches and a can of sardines short of a full picnic basket
      The wheel's spinning, but the hamster's dead.
      A few clowns short of a circus.
      A few fries short of a Happy Meal.
      An experiment in Artificial Stupidity.
      A few beers short of a six-pack.
      Dumber than a box of hair.
      A few peas short of a casserole.
      Doesn't have all his cornflakes in one box.
      One Fruit Loop shy of a full bowl.
      One taco short of a combination plate.
      A few feathers short of a whole duck.
      All foam, no beer.
      The cheese slid off his cracker.
      Body by Fisher - brains by Mattel.
      Has an IQ of 2, takes 3 to grunt.
      Warning: Objects in mirror are dumber than they appear.
      Couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel.

      Delete
    3. In short, Quirk, who once tried to surf Nebraska, has too much yardage between his goal posts.

      Delete
    4. Not all is alas, however.

      Quirk, who doesn't know squat, leads The Elephant Bar in nostril hair.

      Delete
  28. The Kochs brothers and their astroturf organization Americans for Prosperity have hit a roadblock in their fight to kill Medicaid expansion in red states around the country. Montanans, and even Montana Republicans, do not appreciate these guys coming in from out-of-state and trying to intimidate them. So that's in part why seven Senate Republicans joined with every Democrat to pass a Medicaid expansion bill.

    "These are our citizens, our neighbors, our friends ... who don't have health care," said Senate Minority Leader Jon Sesso, D-Butte, who supported Senate Bill 405. "These are our citizens of our state we’re standing up for in this bill." […]
    Its next destination would be the Montana House, where it will face stiff resistance from conservative Republicans and the House GOP leadership.

    However, Republican co-sponsors of the bill in the House have said they hope to fashion the same Democratic-Republican coalition to pass the bill and send it to Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock for his signature.
    Bullock has been working with Republican Sen. Ed Buttrey of Great Falls to craft an expansion plan who has a message to his fellow Republicans who are still being swayed by the Kochs:

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "This is fear stuff, folks," he said. "We can ignore the plight of our poor. We can ignore the plight of those in poverty. And we can be afraid of everything and do nothing. I would ask you not to do that. ...
      "I would ask you to vote for a plan that is all about Montanans helping Montanans and all about Montanans helping themselves."
      Maybe Montana will be the place where Republicans finally decide to take their party back from their overseers and become a functioning part of government again.

      F.U. Kochs

      Delete
  29. Foreign ministers from Iran, the US and five other world powers including Britain were tonight preparing for a final 24 hours of intense negotiations that could change the Middle East’s political landscape for years to come.

    US officials said the talks in Lausanne over Iran’s nuclear programme, whose deadline for a “framework” agreement is midnight tomorrow night, would go “to the wire”.

    China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, was “cautiously optimistic”. His German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier said “there had been some progress and also some setbacks in the last hours”.

    But as officials alternately expressed optimism and gloom over the prospects, two Middle Eastern countries were observing the apparent progress in Lausanne with grave alarm – and are moving towards cementing an unlikely alliance as a result.

    Both Israel and Saudi Arabia have repeatedly claimed that Tehran is intent on acquiring a nuclear arsenal, regardless of whatever pledges it makes, and that its hand will merely be strengthened by the lifting of economic sanctions as part of an agreement. Both see Iran with nuclear weapons as a direct threat to their existence which must be confronted.

    Co-operation between Israel and Sunni states in the region was already growing in response to Shia Iran’s expanding influence in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and, most recently, Yemen.

    But the Obama administration’s enthusiasm for the nuclear talks, plus its arms-length co-operation with Tehran in the fight against Isis in Iraq and Syria, has done most to bring Israel and Saudi Arabia closer. In the run-up to Israeli elections, officials including advisers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were keen to stress the strategic advantage of their secret understanding with the Sunni bloc.


    ReplyDelete
  30. What a crock these talks are.......Iran is playing with us as a cat plays with a mouse.

    They actually don't much care if there's a 'deal' or not, though they would like the sanctions lifted.

    Now they are saying they won't put their nuclear enriched materials to Russia, after saying they would.

    It's all a crock.

    They are not complying with the former agreements.

    Anyone who thinks they would actually comply with some meaningful inspections, and truly cease work on nuclear weapons, is crazy.

    IF THEY WERE SANE, AND HONEST, THERE WOULD BE NO NEED AT ALL FOR ALL THIS HORSE SHIT 'NEGOTIATING' IN THE FIRST PLACE.

    We are not negotiating with, say, Canada.

    Some here are terminally naive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. March 30, 2015
      Iran backs away from key component of nuclear deal
      By Rick Moran

      After agreeing for months that it would ship most of its current stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia, where it would be converted into nuclear reactor fuel rods, the Iranians have done a sudden about-face and now insist that the enriched uranium stay in Iran.

      Getting the uranium out of Iran is a vital part of any deal with the mullahs. If it stays where it is, Iran's "breakout" time period to build a bomb is reduced from about a year to just a few months.

      There are several other aspects to a framework agreement that simply aren't coming together, leaving the impression that, with two days before the agreed upon deadline, the chances for a deal are diminishing..............

      http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/03/iran_backs_away_from_key_component_of_nuclear_deal.html

      France at least seems to be distrustful of all this horse shit.

      And why, one wonders, is Iran developing ICBM's ?


      Delete
    2. We are not negotiating with, say, Canada.

      Some here are terminally naive.



      Whoa, bad ass from Idaho.

      Delete
    3. Stand back, avert your eyes.

      Delete
  31. Hillary: 'spoliation of evidence'

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

    This is what Hillary has done by wiping clean the server.

    Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox is wondering when this occurred.

    He says under the Public Records Act, amended in the 1990's, all the material on the server should have been retained and she has committed crimes.

    10X what Petraeus did and he got indicted, he says. She should, but probably won't, he says.

    I want Huma's emails.

    That would tell a sordid story indeed, the type we all, deep down, love to read.

    I do not think Hillary is going to be the next President.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have heard rumors, from my most credible sources, though as yet unconfirmed, that some shady Hillary supporter known only as "Q" is mentioned in the Huma Saga, as Huma's email trail is being described these days.

      I will pass a confirmation along on this when and if I obtain it.

      Delete
  32. Dear Idaho Bob -

    I have the confirmation.

    I have hacked into Huma's e-mails.

    There are long long passages where she continually curses someone she calls 'Maria', who seems to be "Q"'s consort of a sort, and is wondering if she might have her 'whacked'.

    Huma seems to have a real dampy for "Q" and something of a 'love triangle' was obviously occurring.

    Yours, Hacker

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That just came in.

      Hacker is a trusted source of mine

      So, there you have it, folks.

      You can take it to the bank.

      Delete
    2. I forgot to have added, Hillary replied:

      "frost her like Foster"

      and then went on to insist she whack Q too.

      Delete
  33. Images of Livia Drusilla, yesteryear's Hillary -


    https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A86.J7z_JBpVGmMAruEnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTBsOXB2YTRjBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkAw--?_adv_prop=image&fr=yhs-mozilla-002&sz=all&va=livia+drusilla&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002

    ReplyDelete
  34. Finally a majority of Americans are fed up with the obsession with Israel and the Saudis:

    Americans by a 2-1 margin favor an agreement with Iran over its nuclear development program, even while broadly questioning whether a deal would, in fact, prevent Tehran from producing nuclear weapons.

    A new national ABC News/Washington Post poll also finds sharply politicized views of U.S.-Israel relations, which have been strained by the two allies’ dispute over the advisability of an agreement with Iran.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Israel is not an ally. The UK is an ally. Canada is an ally. Australia is an ally. Chile is not an ally and neither is Brazil or Paraguay an ally and certainly Israel is no ally. The US makes and Israel takes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The magic is gone. The Republicans have overplayed their bizarre down with Jesus and Moses hand.

      Delete
    2. Netanyahu and the House of Saud are singing “Onward Christian Soldiers" but the American people ain’t buying it.

      Delete
    3. You are obsessed with Israel.

      But in the back of your mind you know this 'deal' with Iran is just a bunch of horse shit.

      Cause you ain't stupid.

      Delete
  36. Heh, Judge Jeanine was wonderful on 'Hannity' just now.

    She ought to be President.

    Hillary is a criminal.

    And some guy says, 'she starts off her campaign by breaking the law' -

    Democrats - the Mafia in political clothing.

    You guys are missing a lot if you don't listen to Judge Jeanine and Judge Napolitano.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Re: “Israel denies spying on U.S. in Iran talks — Report may worsen rift over Netanyahu efforts to toughen nuclear deal,” Wednesday news story.


    The fact that Israel was caught spying on the U.S. negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program should surprise no one. Over the last 50 years Israel has left a trail of betrayal more befitting an avowed enemy than a supposed ally. Israel created its own nuclear arsenal by stealing uranium from the U.S. since the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, Israel also “mistakenly” attacked the USS Liberty, which killed 34 and wounded 174.

    Of course, who can forget Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. intelligence agent who was recruited by the Israelis to turn over classified information to our “ally.” This was such an act of high treason that Pollard is still in prison.

    While surviving in a sympathy bubble and Iron Dome, along with immense largesse provided by the U.S., Israel continues to disregard United Nations resolutions regarding occupied territory and U.S. entreaties about a two-state solution to Israel and Palestine. Israel’s nefarious and ungrateful history with the U.S. is embarrassing, to say the least. That is why the latest report of Israel spying on the U.S. is almost a non-story, it’s business as usual with our best “ally.”

    Tony Torres, Garland

    ReplyDelete
  38. Americans are fed up with the disgusting obsequious obsession of US politicians in their fealty to Israel. The GOP Likuds Force went so over the top, it will cost the GOP the presidency.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please, please give up the silliness of your The GOP Likuds Force nonsense.

      The magic of it is gone.

      It is as silly as saying the Donks are the American Jihadi Wing of the Iranian Al-Quds force.

      Stop it, to quoth Quirk.

      Delete
  39. And the United States spies on Israel.

    The United States spies on Britain, France, Germany............`

    ReplyDelete
  40. "It's hard work being corrupt."


    March 31, 2015
    Hillary Agonistes
    By J.R. Dunn

    Hillary is not going to run for president. Oh, she may put her name up. But run, as in the sense of actually campaigning, that’s another story altogether.

    There’s a line from the first Godfather that’s always stuck in my mind. Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), the family’s deadly enemy who has just taken an almost fatal crack at Don Corleone, bends forward and near-whispers, “Could I have gotten to him ten years ago?”

    That line has been running through my mind the past several weeks as the e-mail saga has unfolded: Could anybody have gotten to Hillary ten years ago?

    The answer, of course, is “no.” Nobody could have gotten to her. Nobody ever has. Hillary -- far more than Bill -- has endured assaults that would have put anybody else in American life in the gutter for good -- if not in a fed pen. She has been as untouchable as any Godfather. Consider the roll call: Whitewater, the Rose law firm, the miracle of the cattle futures, Vince Foster, Benghazi. They stand as towering monoliths of pure corruption on the horizon of the American political landscape, fading into the mist down the past forty years and more. Incidents that would have destroyed anyone else’s political career have scarcely even been broached in public; you can bring them up and have no one in hearing distance have any idea of what you’re talking about -- e.g. her Watergate firing. So rich is the tapestry of Hillary’s corruption that vast crimes appear as mere detail, overwhelmed by the overall gaudiness.

    And Hillary has not only endured, she has prevailed. A vast number of Gruberite Americans would trot out tomorrow to cast their votes for her secure in the knowledge that they were doing the best thing possible for the ol’ USA.

    Apart from naked support by a corrupt media and pure ideology -- the millions of female neurotics who see her as the rightful heir of Susan B. Anthony and company -- she has gotten away with this through a combination of gall and fear. No matter what the accusation or the quality of the evidence against her, she has answered with absolute hauteur. Often coming up with excuses and explanations that wouldn’t fool a child of five, but put forward with such blank-faced cockiness as to completely fool the simple and flummox the gatekeepers. Time and again, her enemies -- which have included and still include some of the wisest, most experienced, and most moral that this country can claim -- have been reduced to simply shaking their heads and saying “How the hell can somebody say that?”

    The nerves of steel are buttressed by fear. Clintonian ruthlessness -- never forget or overlook a slight -- has become a byword in American politics even as it does nothing to blot their escutcheon. People who defy them get in trouble -- at times terminal trouble. This was well understood by anybody dealing with the Clintons. The result has been open fear. The fear of Juanita Broaddrick, who waited years to report her treatment at the hands of an out-of-control Bill Clinton. The fear of Trey Gowdy, who sat on the e-mail information for six months, waiting for somebody else to bring it up.

    That, in a nutshell, is how Hillary has done it. That’s the outline of her career. That’s the way it has been.

    But that’s not the way it is anymore.............

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/03/hillary_agonistes.html

    Wonderful picture of the Totally Tuckered Out Corruptocrat (TTOC) Hillary in this article.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. >>>And if God truly wants to punish America, and she somehow, due to media antics, brainwashing, or conservative voters deciding that her opponent is a commie because his ties are too colorful, manages to slip in, what then? Simply put -- the reckoning. At a critical time the chickens unleashed by Obama over the past two terms will be homing in -- war in the Middle East, Iranian nukes, the inevitable Obama recession. She will be in no state to handle it. Not any of it. The sine wave tracking American politics over the past half-century is clear: Democratic presidents take office only to drive the U.S. up against the wall and are succeeded by Republicans who act to repair it, only for a new Democrat to appear to resume demolition. With no repair work accomplished and a tired, embittered, and beaten old woman in office, we will be in for some real history.

      And who is the Republican who can save us from this? As a previous single-name historical figure once put it: the strongest.<<<

      I feel we are watching a tragicomedyfarce of some kind, helplessly.

      And the only ways out are:

      1) The bottle
      2) Humor
      3) The turn inward - the family, the niece
      4) Mockery and sarcasm
      5) The Grave

      3
      2
      4
      1
      5

      In that order.

      Delete


  41. Indiana lawmakers have been scrambling to control damage from a widely criticized new law that critics fear could permit discrimination against gays and lesbians.

    The state is among about a dozen where measures aimed at preventing government from infringing on people's religious beliefs have been introduced this year.

    ...

    Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is poised to launch her Democratic presidential campaign this month, voiced her opposition to the measure last week. She wrote on Twitter that it was "sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today."

    ReplyDelete
  42. Good idea.
    **************

    March 31, 2015
    Iranian forces advancing toward Israel's border in the Golan
    By James Lewis

    The Times of London is confirming what I wrote about over a month ago:

    Iran is close to putting its forces on Israel’s northeast border for the first time, as its allies crush rebel groups in the Golan Heights area of Syria.

    This is probably a UK government leak, or at least confirmed by the government.

    Things could fall apart very quickly, with the Saudi-led military alliance attempting to invade Yemen (against Iranian and Houthi forces), and the Iranian El Quds Brigade attacking Israel and possibly Jordan from their known presence in Syria.

    In the absence of US support, Israel may be forced to escalate fast, to preempt Iranian long-range missile attacks as well as a Golan Heights armored assault. Since an Iranian strike at Israel would have to cross Saudi Arabia, the Saudis could believe they were being attacked -- which is also possible.

    Needless to say, Obama's endless surrenders to Iranian demands make this an optimal time for Iranian aggression. The mullahs know he can be pushed around over and over again. As I wrote in February, the Iranians are

    moving as fast as possible to capitalize on a historic moment of Western weakness, collusion, and accommodation. The mullahs remember what happened when Ronald Reagan won over Jimmy Carter. They have less than two years to grab whatever they can.

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/03/iranian_forces_advancing_toward_israels_border_in_the_golan.html

    ReplyDelete