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."

Friday, July 17, 2015

Former CIA Officer: Israel Pressing The US Congress to Defeat Iran Nuclear Deal - (What’s New? Israel Owns The Republican Party)

Former Central Intelligence Agency officer Paul Pillar claims that the Israeli government is pressing the US Congress to defeat the Iranian nuclear agreement when it comes up for a vote.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The Israeli government is pressing the US Congress to defeat the Iranian nuclear agreement when it comes up for a vote, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Paul Pillar told Sputnik.
“Right now they [the Israeli government] are focusing on Congress, and there is still considerable hope in the [Israeli] government that they can work the usual political channels they work in Washington and there will be a resolution of disapproval and a veto override,” Pillar said on Thursday of Israeli efforts to scuttle the Iranian nuclear agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a leading critic of the international agreement to block Iran’s pathway to a nuclear weapon. Following the signing of the agreement on Tuesday, Netanyahu called the international deal with Tehran “a historic mistake," alleging it will eventually lead to a nuclear Iran.
Netanyahu’s position has strong support among powerful pro-Israel lobbying groups, like the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.
The outcome of the Iranian nuclear agreement “might come down to just three or four votes,” Pillar stated. He estimated that the Republican-controlled Congress will likely pass a resolution of disapproval on the nuclear deal, but will not be able to sustain a veto by US President Barack Obama.
Under a law passed in May 2015, the US Congress will have a period of 60 days to review the nuclear agreement and pass a resolution of approval or disapproval.
If the Congress disapproves of the deal, they will need a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate to override a presidential veto, which President Obama has threatened to use.
Paul Pillar served in the US intelligence community for nearly three decades, and retired in 2008 from his position as the National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia.
Pillar also claims that opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal among Republican presidential hopefuls may backfire if the party takes the White House in 2016
“We already have all the presidential candidates on the Republican side, and the Speaker of the House saying, ‘we are going to do everything we can to kill this agreement’,” Pillar said on Thursday.
The opposition to the Iran nuclear deal from Republicans running in the 2016 race “is going to be pretty heavy campaign baggage,” he noted.
Each of the Republican presidential candidates have voiced disapproval of the nuclear deal the United States and other P5+1 countries negotiated with Iran.
If the United States elects a Republican in 2016, that president will have a hard time facing members of his own party, Pillar said. He explained that the next president “is not going to be able to say, come February or March of 2017, ‘We got this agreement, we have got to try to make it work.’”
After the nuclear agreement was reached on Tuesday, Republican front-runner Jeb Bush denounced the deal with Iran as “dangerous, and deeply flawed.”
Republican candidates currently serving in the US Senate have voiced their intention to vote against the deal when it comes up for congressional review.


Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150717/1024731091.html#ixzz3g94xfrMe

83 comments:

  1. Iran Deal: Why doesn’t US Media interview Real Allies on American Policy?
    By Juan Cole | Jul. 16, 2015 |


    So after France and Britain and Germany conducted negotiations with Iran over its civilian nuclear enrichment program alongside the United States, you would expect American television news eagerly to seek out interviews on the deal from David Cameron, Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel– or foreign ministers Philip Hammond, Laurent Fabius and Frank-Walter Steinmeier. I.e., from American allies also involved in the negotiations.
    The United Kingdom fought al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan alongside the United States, as a NATO ally. Article 5 of the NATO charter says that an attack on one is an attack on all, and Britain stepped up to fulfill its treaty obligation to Americans after they were attacked on September 11, 2001. The UK lost 453 troops killed in Afghanistan. Since its population is about a fourth that of the US, its losses were proportionally similar to those of the United States. That’s an ally.
    France also joined the US to fight in Afghanistan, losing 86 men killed. Same deal. Ally. Its troops operated in provinces where the Taliban were weaker, but there were plenty of horrible attacks on the French.
    Even though Germany sent a peacekeeping force rather than a war-fighting one, for constitutional reasons, it still lost 54 troops killed in Afghanistan. It was there for the same reason as the others– NATO ally pledged to defend the US when it is attacked.
    It could be good television to interview politicians from among our allies. We know that Fabius had a lot of doubts and at one point seemed poised to torpedo the whole process. Shouldn’t someone, like, ask him what changed his mind and why he swung behind the deal? Likewise Merkel was quite hard on Iran and suspicious of its enrichment program. How was she convinced. Doesn’t anyone in American television news care?

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
  2. {...}

    Nope. As far as I could see, not one. We get to hear about the Iran deal from minor congressmen and senators who represent almost nobody, and who have not read it. We get to hear from Donald Trump, who has never been elected to anything and represents no one at all.

    We got to hear at great length from Likud officials and spokesmen from Israel. All of them fulminated against the Vienna diplomatic breakthrough.

    Is this balanced journalism? Is it even journalism at all?


    How can this serious defect in our news gathering be explained? Well, of course, our news in corporate news, aimed at making a profit. So things that don’t deliver eyeballs to advertisers are not categorized as news. Other things, like Arianna Grande licking doughnuts, which are not news, get to be classed as news because they will deliver the eyeballs to advertisers.
    But I actually think Fabius or Merkel would be a feisty interview and compelling television.
    Why Israel, a small country of 8 million with a gross domestic product the size of Portugal’s, which is not a treaty ally and lost no troops in Afghanistan or Iraq, gets right of rebuttal on American public airwaves to everything the president of the United States does is a great mystery.
    Here’s one theory: The American public is only interested in potential enemies and in countries that might actually go to war. It isn’t interested in peaceful countries that can reliably be counted as American allies.
    So Britain, France and Germany are discounted by audiences and therefore by networks (except when the British royal family has a photogenic member who gets married or has a baby).
    It is a very odd situation. In all the 8 years of the Iraq War I don’t think American television gave an extended interview to the British minister of defense even once, despite the very important role the British army played there. Television news barely covered Afghanistan, but likewise US allies there were invisible.

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. {...}

      I have concluded that with a few rare exceptions, US television news just isn’t very good because the editors and managers aren’t very good. (This is not a slam at the great journalists– Ben Wedemann, Richard Engel, Arwa Damon, etc.– it isn’t the correspondents’ fault if their editors won’t cover real news).
      Tom Fenton made the point after 9/11 that the turn of US television news to infotainment and fluff, and its allergy to hard news gathering, is a security danger to the United States.
      I think it has gotten worse.
      And, certainly, if the Iran deal fails in Congress because, in part, of the way television news covered it, then we will owe the networks credit for fostering yet another major war, and bankrupting the country.


      The Obvious Conclusion:

      The major media outlets in the US are controlled by Israeli-Firsters and The Permanent Israeli Lobby. Examine the obverse. Which media and entertainment outlet is not controlled by Israeli-Firsters?

      Delete
  3. The six major US conglomerates that control 90% of US Media:

    Comcast Universal ( Brian L. Roberts)
    Disney (Bob Iger)
    News Corp (Rupert Murdoch)
    Viacom ( Philippe Dauman )
    Time Warner ( Robert D. Marcus)
    CBS (Leslie Roy Moonves)

    Let’s be clear, not all Jews are part of the Israeli Lobby, but it is undeniable about the slant of US media and who controls them.

    Imagine if all of these media giants were controlled by Catholics, Atheists or Muslims. Nothing, move along? We all know that is nonsense.

    NBC and the Israel lobby

    Israel/PalestineUS Politics Philip Weiss on November 26, 2011

    DAVID L. COHEN, EXEC. VP OF COMCAST

    Yesterday I did a shocked post about the fact that Ed Rendell, the telegenic former governor of Pennsylvania, a favorite of Chris Matthews and MSNBC, did a fundraiser for the Israeli army in Philadelphia, at which he said it was the obligation of American Jews to support Israel thru thick and thin. Help!

    Well, my wife and I have a houseguest from Philly for Thanksgiving, and he shocked me a little bit more by telling me about David Cohen.

    Cohen is Rendell’s longtime political guru, his David Axelrod. Cohen is executive vice president of Comcast, the company that bought NBC and MSNBC in 2009.

    Not surprisingly, David Cohen is close to Barack Obama. A few months ago, he raised $1.2 million for Obama in a heartbeat, at his Philadelphia home.

    Later in the evening, Comcast’s executive vice president, David L. Cohen, hosted about 120 people in his home for a dinner, each of the attendees giving at least $10,000 for Obama’s reelection campaign.

    Like Ed Rendell, Cohen is pro-Israel. He is the former vice chair of the Jewish Federations in Philadelphia, a pro-Israel organization. Cohen was said by a Philadelphia Jewish publication to be “genetically hard-wired” to serve that role:

    He believes that there is historic precedent for Jews “rallying to Federation” during times of crisis. “Whenever Israel’s physical security is threatened, people turn to Federation to provide support,” he says, adding “we must ignite this same Jewish passion to meet local needs addressed by Federation and its partner agencies.”

    As the owner of NBC, Cohen sits at the right hand of his old friend, and Rendell’s old friend, Brian Roberts. Roberts’s father Ralph started Comcast, and Brian is today chairman of Comcast.

    Big surprise– Brian Roberts is also very close to the president. Last summer Barack Obama visited Brian Roberts’s house on Martha’s Vineyard. The media industrial complex!

    Is Roberts also pro-Israel? I don’t know, but I suspect he is; he participated in several Israeli athletic events in the 80s and 90s according to Wikipedia: the Maccabiah games, the Jewish Olympics. And he received an award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

    What is the Israel lobby? It is the force inside our discourse that defends the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel, forever. Are all Jews part of the Israel lobby? Of course not. There is growing diversity inside the Jewish community, bucking the commandment, Thou must support Israel. But Ed Rendell is certainly part of the lobby, witness his participation in that Israeli army fundraiser. And I think Cohen is part of it, too, given his former role at the Federations. I don’t know about Roberts. But I wonder how he’d feel about, say, Palestinian solidarity types speaking on his network.

    (...)

    ReplyDelete
  4. {...}

    (...)

    Guess what? About four months after Comcast bought NBC, Chris Matthews visited Israel. A year later he was back, and talking up Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

    Call me cynical, but this proves the old adage, Freedom of the press belongs to he who owns one. And it explains why Chris Matthews keeps his mouth shut on Israel/Palestine. Matthews is from Philadelphia. His brother lives in Chestnut Hill, not far from Brian Roberts and David Cohen. And Chris Matthews is a shrewdy, as my grandmother used to say.

    Walter Russell Mead silenced Glenn Loury at bloggingheads the other day by saying it’s anti-semitic to speak about the Jewish presence in the media, and the Jewish presence in the Israel lobby. I would counter that while these issues are uncomfortable, responsible intellectuals simply cannot avoid them if they want to make sense of our society and our foreign policy. Brian Roberts and David Cohen are two of the most powerful figures in our media, they are both Jewish, and one of them has inhaled the pro-Israel religion, as has his dear friend, Ed Rendell, who is on their network all the time. Imagine for one minute if Catholics played this role in a media organization, and it was by and large against abortion. Would liberals be afraid to talk about religious identity and ideology? Of course not.


    - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/nbc-and-the-israel-lobby#sthash.Uv57rrih.dpuf

    ReplyDelete
  5. These Six Corporations control 90% of US Media:

    http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bottom Line:

    A country the size of Uruguay and a religious cult, controls US media and has an inordinate call on the US Treasury and decision making on when the US goes to war.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deuce's fallacy is not that Jews are over-represented in the management of media companies, but the implication that all American Jews vote and lobby as a block in favor of Israel. In the case of the managers of Big Media, this fallacy is particularly glaring. If such personages lived in Israel they'd likely be Haaretz-reading Labor-voting residents of Tel Aviv.

      Delete
    2. Let’s be clear, not all Jews are part of the Israeli Lobby, but it is undeniable about the slant of US media and who controls them.

      Imagine if all of these media giants were controlled by Catholics, Atheists or Muslims. Nothing, move along? We all know that is nonsense.

      Delete
    3. Deuce ☂Fri Jul 17, 09:44:00 AM EDT
      Let’s be clear, not all Jews are part of the Israeli Lobby, but it is undeniable about the slant of US media and who controls them.

      Imagine if all of these media giants were controlled by Catholics, Atheists or Muslims. Nothing, move along? We all know that is nonsense.



      Jews control the media…

      LOL

      Yep deuce, look under your bed too

      Delete
  7. Wow, there's not much to add. :)

    Now, for what I think is the good news. It looks to me as if this deal is set up, not to ffail, but to succeed. I say this because it's set up for it not to need a vote of approval, but a vote of disapproval.

    By needing a "vote of disapproval," it will pass through congress with only a 34% yes vote. My assumption is that the Dems will put it through the Senate with, quite likely, the Exact 34 votes needed. Everything else is just political noise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unless the Supreme Court says the agreement is a Treaty, then all bets are off.

      Delete
    2. Every single Justice on today's Court went to law school in the Ivy League:

      Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. - Harvard (J.D.)
      Justice Antonin Scalia - Harvard (LL.B)
      Justice Anthony M. Kennedy - Harvard (LL.B)
      Justice Clarence Thomas - Yale (J.D.)
      Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Columbia (LL.B)
      Justice Stephen G. Breyer - Harvard (LL.B)
      Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. - Yale (J.D.)
      Justice Sonia Sotomayor - Yale (J.D.)
      Justice Elena Kagan - Harvard (J.D.)

      Delete
  8. Yep, NOt all the Jews...

    Just most of them...

    Coming out of the closet eh Deuce?

    Did you see a Black SS uniform in there?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's probably more gay fellows and ladies who vote Republican than Jewish fellows and ladies.

      Delete
    2. SOP _ When the facts go against you - Pull out the Jewish Kryptoantisemite crystals

      Delete
    3. No Deuce, you brought it on by your statements. Now you wrap yourself in the flag of victimhood.

      Poor ole Deuce, being labeled an anti-semite.

      Not all the Jews are bad and evil, I even have a friend that is a Jew…

      Eh? Sound familiar?

      The facts are clear.

      You hate Israel.

      You hate those that support Israel

      You libel and slander them as "Israel Firsters"

      You hold one standard for Jews and Israel and no standards for your pals Hamas and the IRanian Revolutionary Guards.

      Typically you delete any comments critical of you and Jews.

      Delete
  9. Yep, wonderful coverage of the Palestinian who murdered Americans Deuce...

    LOL

    Murders 4 marines?

    Nada... zip...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought you said there were no such things as Palestinians.

      Delete
    2. Just another American fanatic with a gun killing four. It is no more or less important than the American fanatic with a gun that killed 9 in South Carolina. By the numbers it is 4/9 as important.

      The American killed are all just as dead. The racists and bigots will slice and dive the religions and races. The Israeli-firsters will tie it to Iran.

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    4. Teresita RedingerFri Jul 17, 08:45:00 AM EDT
      I thought you said there were no such things as Palestinians.

      You don't retain what I wrote very well do you?

      I said that the nationalistic movement called "palestinian" is based on fiction. However just as the crips and bloods have a self proclaimed ID, the Palestinians do as well.

      Why distort and lie Ms T?

      You were doing so much better in being specific.

      Regardless of my feeling about the lies that the self proclaimed arabs of the lands call themselves, that lie has stuck, and the world accepts them as a people.

      Now of course, it is funnier than shit that they as a people cannot pronounce their nation's or aspiring peoplehood's goal since there is NO P in arabic, but that's for latter ridicule.

      Once again Ms T, your off the cuff remark shows your lack of seriousness…

      SO sad, I had higher hopes for you.

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

      Delete
    6. Well, in any event, this terrorist was from Kuwait, so unless you consider Kuwait a kind of Palestine, your comment is moot.

      Delete
    7. Once again, you do not read deep.

      The kid was born in Kuwait, but was a Jordanian citizen.

      Hmmm

      Connect the dots you unix wired gal..

      connect the dots..

      you are being simplistic and naive, on purpose? hmmm

      Delete
    8. What population of "jordanians" were tossed out of Kuwait?

      Oh yeah the Palestinians, who spied and were the backbone on advance forces for Saddam Hussein.

      How many were booted from Kuwait? about 40,000!!

      Where did those "refugees" go?

      Oh yeah, America

      Delete
  10. There is a religious cult that is trying to take the US to war with Iran; a war that the World doesn’t need and doesn’t want. One small recently established colony on the Med, controlled by religious fanatics, wants war with Iran.

    Sorry if my noticing and mentioning it, offends your olfactory test for honest discourse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your language is the same as others who have preceded you.

      Sorry of the similarities of what you say and what the historic jew haters have said offend you for the comparison.

      Your lies, distortion and slander are noticed.

      Delete
    2. Deuce ☂Fri Jul 17, 10:00:00 AM EDT
      There is a religious cult that is trying to take the US to war with Iran

      Notice the slander?

      The lie?

      Israel and the Jews want to maintain sanctions against the Islamic republic of Iran. A nation that is, our our very government, label as the largest state sponsor of terror.

      Like it or not?

      LYING and distorting the aims of the Jews makes you sound and look very small.

      Somehow you are offended when we call you an anti-Semite.

      Why does that offend you? Because in all manners you are..

      "Deuce ☂Fri Jul 17, 10:00:00 AM EDT
      There is a religious cult that is trying to take the US to war with Iran"

      Hmmm…

      Delete
    3. Deuce: One small recently established colony on the Med, controlled by religious fanatics, wants war with Iran.

      Colony?

      Controlled by religious fanatics?

      Come deuce, you are being delusional.

      Israel is not a "colony" unless every other arab nation is…

      your shifting sands of definitions is interesting..

      your attempts at delegitimizing Israel are legendary, but in the end? Failure.

      Now you embrace the BDS.

      As you sit in Philadelphia do you not see any hypocrisy in your passing judgement on Israel?

      Jews were on that land that you call a "colony" for thousands of years.

      How long have your family lived in Philadelphia? Do you see any hypocrisy?

      How can you say that Jews have no rights to self determination but some how the arab of that area do?

      once again I will bore you with facts that you cannot refute.

      Israel is 1/900 of the middle east (not counting iran) the arabs occupy 899/900th.

      The jews of the middle east were driven out by the arabs in greater numbers than the arabs driven out by the jews.

      Today more arabs are full citizens of Israel than existed from the "river to the sea" in 1948.

      Why should Israel be called a colony if you cannot use the terms to describe the other 21 modern creation called the arab nation states?

      Can you answer that?

      Why should Israel make additional land concessions to hostile people committed on genocide of them?

      You bitch about Gaza, why should Hamas not be held to any standard?

      They are the elected leaders of the people who cal themselves palestinians (of gaza), they proudly boast of the rebuilding of terror tunnels and the re-supply of tens of thousands of rockets to kill Israeli civilians. And yet you claim Israel is stopping the rebuilding of the civilian homes in gaza…

      Have you no shame sir?

      Delete
    4. As for your description of Israel being led by "religious fanatics"?

      Interesting.

      They preach equality for all of Israel's citizens. INCLUDING the arabs and gays…

      Israel has worked hard on a non-war solution, why do you ignore this?

      SANCTIONS are the solution.

      Israel doesn't threaten war on anyone, unless that nation or people declare war on her.

      Why do you lie and distort the truth?

      What do you get out of it?

      If you want to prevent war? Keep sanctions on Iran until they dismantle their nuke program.

      Giving it 150 billion dollars and allowing it to keep it's infrastructure is a recipe for war.

      they even now BRAG that they have defeated america and now will resupply and up arm Israel's enemies…

      That is going to bring war.

      And that is going to kill more and more arab civilians, something you seem to be concerned about.

      Delete
    5. I said that Israel is ruled by religious fanatics. They are.

      Delete
  11. (IraqiNews.com) On Thursday, Iraqi Ministry of Defense announced, that the army’s air force conducted “effective” aerial bombings on shelters for ISIS militants in Ramadi, while stressed that the strikes resulted in killing a large number of the terrorists.

    The ministry said in a statement posted on its website and followed by IraqiNews.com, “The heroes of the army’s air force had carried out accurate and effective air strikes against shelters for the ISIS militants in the areas of Hasiba and the outskirts of al-Khalediya City and Ramadi,” adding that, “The aerial bombing resulted in killing a large number of the terrorists, in addition to destroying stores for booby-trapped vehicles and leadership headquarters belonging to ISIS.”

    Iraqinews

    ReplyDelete
  12. The kid was born in Kuwait, but was a Jordanian citizen.

    Hmmm

    Connect the dots you unix wired gal..


    So Jordanians are Palestinians. Check. And Israel is not a colony.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Terror Dad of Tennessee Shooter is Palestinian

      New details show terror list father of murderer of 4 Marines hailed from Shechem, Samaria, before moving to Kuwait and on to US.

      Get with the program… Most of Jordan IS made up by self declared Palestinians.

      Delete
    2. So the DAD of the terrorist is Palestinian. I suppose that makes the Kuwaiti-born Jordanian who shot the four Marines a Palestinian too, because his dad gave him Palestinian cooties.

      WIO: Yep, wonderful coverage of the Palestinian who murdered Americans Deuce...

      Delete
    3. Ms T.

      I guess you really don't know anything about the topic? Eh?

      Delete
    4. Just typing to see your name on the screen…

      Like verbal diarrhea…

      Nothing to add...

      Delete
  13. Pork Rinds for Allah says Palestine isn't a real county, then turns around and claims a Kuwaiti born to Jordanian parents who emigrated to America is really a Palestinian dude, like the other Palestinian dudes who came directly from....Palestine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry Ms T if your little brain cannot understand what is obvious…

      Delete
    2. Ms T, i see you have reverted to your good old self…

      Sad really…

      But I guess your colors are your colors...

      Delete
  14. .

    Doublethink

    The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink. Doublethink is basically the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

    — Part II, Chapter IX — The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism

    :o)

    ReplyDelete
  15. .

    The Israeli government is pressing the US Congress to defeat the Iranian nuclear agreement when it comes up for a vote...

    Iran is Bibi's number 42, without it he has nothing. He has proven himself incapable of handling bread and butter issues in Israel and that leaves him with only a foreign threat to justify his staying in power. He must generate fear and hatred of the Arab states, primarily Iran, to maintain that position of power. He alternates between bully and victim, persuasion or lying, whatever it takes. He has helped shape the consensus in Israel, a consensus that continues to move more to the right and the hard line.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow Quirk deep thoughts.

      Except whoever wrote what you pasted doesn't really know shit about Israel or Bibi.

      But I DO love this line…

      "He must generate fear and hatred of the Arab states, primarily Iran, to maintain that position of power."

      Well Quirk, whoever wrote that line should get a medal!

      At last check? The MAJORITY of the "Arab" world is siding with Israel on most issues. Egypt and Arabia, Jordan and Morocco.

      But I saved the best for last…

      Iran aint an "arab" state. It's Persian.

      Man you are getting dumber by the day...

      Delete
    2. .

      All irrelevant.

      It wouldn't matter if Iran was Polynesian. Bibi needs someone. If it wasn't Iran, it would be someone else. This emphasis helps assure the populace's belief in the war. Playing the victim assures the aid will continue to flow from the outside. What else has Bibi got to offer the people?

      .



      Delete
    3. No not "irrelevant" just accurate.

      Sorry Mr Wordsmith, Mr LINK…

      If you can't be accurate and truthful?

      Then what is the point?

      Your assumption is also very sloppy..

      QUIRK: Bibi needs someone. If it wasn't Iran, it would be someone else. This emphasis helps assure the populace's belief in the war. Playing the victim assures the aid will continue to flow from the outside. What else has Bibi got to offer the people?


      Bibi and Israel could do quite well without having to spend the largest amount of their GDP on defense of any western nation.

      Once again your ignorance of the actual situation speaks volumes.

      Maybe you should go and learn about israel, it's economy, it's people more before you spout off like a fool?

      Ah, there is no hope for that..

      Just slander and ridicule are now your calling card…

      Delete
    4. .

      Bibi and Israel could do quite well without having to spend the largest amount of their GDP on defense of any western nation.

      ???

      What western nation is Israel supporting with their defense budget?

      .

      Delete
    5. Who says Israel is a Western Nation? What Western Nation won't sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?

      Delete
  16. Bobbo: Mohammed is not a moslem name, in Washington D.C. these days.............

    There are Christians in Palestine named Mohammad, genius.

    Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) offered some interesting advice to a viewer named Mohammad, who wrote in with a qualm in the Sept. 7 airing of Robertson's show, "The 700 Club," about fellow Christians reacting negatively to his name.

    "I have a problem: I find it difficult to tell people my name at restaurants and coffee shops," Mohammad wrote in.

    "The minute they hear my name, I'm treated as a foreigner and a terrorist. I am a Christian, and it's hard because it seems like some of the harshest vitriol directed towards me comes from Christians. What do you suggest?"

    Robertson's advice?

    "You're named after the founder of Islam, that's where the Mohammad comes from," replied the former television evangelist.

    "It's a very popular name, but you're in a country where Mohammad is not. Go on and get your name changed to, like, Mo or something."

    ReplyDelete
  17. New details show terror list father of murderer of 4 Marines hailed from Shechem, Samaria, before moving to Kuwait and on to US.

    Gosh, wasn't Sechem the capital of Israel back in the days of Elijah, before some Eastern European atheist colonists came in there and moved it to Jerusalem?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I suppose since the father of the President hailed from Kenya, that makes the President a Kenyan Muslim. Where do we get these bozos, Deuce?

      Delete
    2. I guess you are just trying to get me to lose my temper.

      Aint going to work Ms T.

      I will not lower myself to your level.

      I will not call you names, refer to your past behaviors.

      Sticking with the issue at hand.

      The KILLER's Day was a Palestinian. According to Islam, and he was raised as such, he was and is a moslem and he was and is a Palestinian.

      If you want to start a thread about Obama? help yourself.

      On this issue, I am correct and vindicated.

      You are incorrect/wrong.

      :)

      Now put that in your pipe and smoke it.

      Delete
  18. Teresita RedingerFri Jul 17, 04:07:00 PM EDT
    Gosh, wasn't Sechem the capital of Israel back in the days of Elijah, before some Eastern European atheist colonists came in there and moved it to Jerusalem?

    You really do need to take a history class…

    But as for your assertions? There were no Jews in "eastern Europe" when Jerusalem was the Capital city.

    If fact, there was no "europe" eastern or western to speak of…

    Now if you are alluding to a modern rebirth of the Jewish State?

    Different topic once again.

    I love how you are attempting to load your rebuttal with as much crap as possible..

    Cant stick to the one point so confuse the issue with crap?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Obama putting the Iran deal up for vote in the UN before the US Congress votes is politics its best. Brilliant move to the great consternation of the far from brilliant US Conga Line.

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  20. It doesn’t get any better than this:

    “I question the judgment of our president,” Corker told reporters, fuming into the microphones as Biden escaped a press scrum down a narrow flight of stairs. “This is exactly what we were trying to stop. We wanted the American people to understand this agreement before it went in place.”

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/congress-responds-to-obamas-un-move-on-iran-deal-120257.html#ixzz3gC40lVmK

    ReplyDelete
  21. LOL, oh my, Corker popping his stopper.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Cruz losing hid cruise control:

    Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a conservative aspirant for the GOP presidential nomination, announced his intent to delay all State Department nominees and legislation to authorize the agency until Obama tells Cruz that he will block a UN vote.

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/congress-responds-to-obamas-un-move-on-iran-deal-120257.html#ixzz3gC4dCRHs

    ReplyDelete
  23. The pro-Israel group Aipac has formed a tax-exempt lobbying group to oppose the nuclear deal reached this week with Iran.

    Aipac, an acronym for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has been a vocal critic of President Obama’s policies toward Israel and his negotiations with Iran. The new group, Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, was formed with the sole mission of educating the public “about the dangers of the proposed Iran deal,” said Patrick Dorton, a spokesman.

    “This will be a sizable and significant national campaign on the flaws in the Iran deal,” Mr. Dorton said.

    A person who had been briefed on the plan said the group planned to spend upward of $20 million on the effort. Another person familiar with the campaign said advertising was planned in 30 to 40 states. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal details of the campaign.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Dumb and Dumber - Kept that way by the US Media

    “Your nation is grateful,” National Security Advisor Susan Rice tweeted this week as Secretary of State John Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced the most historic international agreement of the Obama presidency, the Iran nuclear deal.
    Huh? Grateful? Us?
    On Tuesday night, long after the ink had dried on the 159-page document outlining the pact, it took me three hours and nearly 10 conversations with shoppers, diners, and passersby at a Midwestern megamall, inside a nearby Applebee’s Bar and Grill, and on an Uber ride to find an average, everyday American—the most bandied about voter group so far during the 2016 cycle—who cared, or even knew, about the Iran nuclear deal.
    Things are actually far worse than that. As it turns out, 75 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can’t locate Iran on a map, according to a National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs Geographic Literacy Study in 2006, let alone be grateful for a complicated diplomatic deal crafted half a world away.
    ***
    The Bondo-colored Castleton Square Mall, situated just off I-465 and Interstate 69 on the north side of Indianapolis, is the state’s largest mall. It lies 6,561 miles west of Tehran, but only a stone’s throw from familiar American chains such as Costco and Applebee’s. With its JCPenney and Sears and Chick fil A, Castleton earned a local reputation as the mall for 99 percenters, in stark contrast to its more posh neighbor down the street, The Fashion Mall at Keystone, where so-called 1 percenters can browse Apple or Saks Fifth Avenue or Tesla Motors retail stores.
    On July 14, the day now known by Beltway pundits, diplomats and foreign policy wonks as the nuclear agreement “Finalization Day,” Ben Wallace, 35, sat outside of a Macy’s, enjoying a day he knew by a more pedestrian term: Tuesday. When asked if he had heard about the historic deal reached earlier that morning, Wallace, a barber on the city’s eastside who identifies as a Republican, squinted his eyes. He hadn’t heard anything about the events unfolding in Tehran or Washington, D.C., he said.
    Was such an accord even necessary? Wallace wasn’t entirely certain. “They don’t like us, right?” he said of Iran, as he lingered over a box of sausage pizza from the food court. “Isn’t it oil-related or Saddam Hussein-related?”
    Asked whether he could identify Iran on an unlabeled map of the Middle East, Wallace used the process of elimination to narrow his choice between Saudi Arabia and Iran. When I pointed out Iraq—the country the U.S. invaded in 2003—to give him a reference point, Wallace was shocked to find that it seemed comparatively small.
    “The smaller one? Damn.”
    Nearby, Megan Lynch, 37, sat in a chair, resting after a busy evening of shopping. Lynch—an 11th grade English teacher at North Central High School in Indianapolis, a prestigious public school that’s produced notable alumni ranging from former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to former Ebola czar and Vice President Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain—had also not heard news of the recently sealed pact that was hammered out over the course of some two years.
    “I have been so very busy this summer,” Lynch said. “I usually keep up.”
    She had at least heard of Iran. Asked about her opinions on Iran and foreign policy in general, Lynch shifted to biblical prophecy. “My political views are shaped by a very different focus,” she said, adding that under the relevant section of her Facebook page, she had typed three words instead of the more customary one. Not Republican. Not Democrat. Not Independent. But: “Follower of Christ.”


    Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/iran-deal-americans-120246.html#ixzz3gC6igF4u

    ReplyDelete
  25. European leaders rushed to praise the nuclear agreement reached Tuesday by six world powers and Iran, saying they hoped the painstakingly negotiated deal would pave the way for deeper collaboration on security issues in the Middle East.

    While Israeli leaders called the nuclear deal a mistake and demanded that the U.S. Congress kill it, European Council President Donald Tusk said that if implemented the agreement “could be a turning point” for Iran’s relationships with the rest of the world.

    “The text of the agreement is precise,” Tusk said in a statement. “We must now join forces to see it through, taking into account regional sensitivities.”

    ReplyDelete
  26. The US Media does not want an educated US public. Why is that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Wait . . . . . . . . . You were serious?

      ;)

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

      Delete
    3. .

      It's worse than that.

      Ministry of Truth

      The Ministry of Truth controls information: news, entertainment, education, and the arts. Winston Smith works in the Minitrue RecDep (Records Department), "rectifying" historical records to concord with Big Brother's current pronouncements, thus everything the Party says is true.


      Reporters arrested for failing to give up sources, more and more information, even the completely innocuous, is being 'classified' every day, FOIA requests languish for years if even responded to at all and when the results arrive 95% of the substance is redacted, heck, George Bush even had thousands of documents that were already published in the media decades ago pulled back and reclassified as secret.

      Perhaps 1984 was somewhat worse but just give it time. The trends are clear.

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      And speaking of media bias, take the difference in the way Mitt Romney's 47% comment was handled by the New York Times versus the way the same paper handled the current Planned Parenthood 'organ harvesting' controversy.

      So The New York Times, which only had edited, snipped remarks from Romney, published a story on the matter in under three hours. For the Planned Parenthood scandal, with a full, unedited, nearly three-hour video released at 8:00 a.m., it took the publication around 16 hours to get a story up. The Romney story ran on the front page the next day. The Planned Parenthood scandal ran on page A16 the next day.

      The New York Times story on Romney rightly focused not on how the video was obtained or the Democratic operative who obtained it but, instead, on the snippet of the statements it revealed. Reporters Michael Shear and Michael Barbaro’s headline was “In Video Clip, Romney Calls 47% ‘Dependent’ and Feeling Entitled.”

      By contrast, The New York Times story on Planned Parenthood focuses entirely on criticism of the group behind the video, devoting the first ten paragraphs to Planned Parenthood framing and spin, and failing to speak with a single person who disagrees with the harvesting of baby organs. The story even failed to include the most interesting quotes from the video, such as the one where Nucatola discusses crushing babies in such a way as to preserve their valuable organs. Despite the fact that Nucatola is quite explicit about the harvesting of babies’ brains, hearts, lungs, and livers, the story doesn’t mention anything even touching on the issue.

      Imagine, if you will, The New York Times failing to quote Mitt Romney’s notorious 47 percent line (for the record, a search of The New York Times website shows that the paper has 1,010 mentions).


      http://thefederalist.com/2015/07/16/the-bad-worse-ugly-media-coverage-of-planned-parenthoods-organ-harvesting-scandal/

      .

      Delete
  27. Three things are necessary:

    1. Public financing of US elections
    2. Eliminate all tax exemptions for all organizations
    3. Break up the media giants

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Number two is a flat tax. Sign me up.

      Delete
    2. .

      Is that all it would take?

      .

      Delete
    3. Well, you'd have to get Congress to give up their role as social engineers to get to a flat tax, but yes, there'd be no exemptions for charitable donations of any kind, churches, AIPAC, you name it.

      Delete
    4. .

      Is that all it would take?

      And getting the 'flat tax' passed would be as nothing to the three Deuce mentioned.

      .

      Delete
  28. .

    I'm kind of a mixed mind about Obama submitting the Iran deal to the UN for review before getting a vote in Congress. I don't like having the American vote influenced by anyone, the UN, Israel, anyone

    On the other hand, although it's the typical cynical move we've come to expect from D.C., I doubt it will make any difference in the end other than providing garbage for the ongoing food fight. The UN would have to review the deal eventually anyway and I doubt this move will change any votes.

    .


    It is merely a cheap

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It’s show business and politics for sure, but it is also a good idea. Congress is not representing US interests. It is beholden to a foreign lobby, Israeli and the Saudis. US politicians like to have the respectable cover of the UN. The Cuban Missile Crisis for example.

      Look at the shenanigans George Bush went through to get UN sanctions to go to war with Iran. Lies and fabrications to get the respectable mantle of a UN resolution. World opinion counts. Obama is wise to demonstrate to a few congressmen on the margins that they are on the right side of history.

      The resolution will pass with a wide margin and the US will look ridiculous not supporting a resolution that it fought for.

      Delete
    2. In fact, who in the U.N. will vote against it?

      The optics will be incredible.

      Delete
    3. to get UN sanctions to go to war with Iran. oops , IRAQ

      Delete
  29. Without those three, there is no hope.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eh, as the brilliant man said, "in the long run, we're all dead, anyway."

      :)

      Delete
  30. Crushing the media would be fun.

    ReplyDelete
  31. The GOP, party of the ignorant and stupid, will fight Obama on the orbit of the planets around the sun. Fuck em if they can’t take a joke.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Fox News Poll: 70% of Republicans Agree With Trump on Immigration.

    ReplyDelete