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Militants raid Libya assembly to stop vote on PM
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Page 4: Opinion
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 3: Non-WoT
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6 21:23 OldSpook [5]
2 17:46 Redneck Jim [3]
9 21:05 Orion [5]
1 17:34 Besoeker [1]
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Page 6: Politix
6 21:00 Uncle Phester [1]
2 23:24 Hotspur666 [5]
11 20:05 P2kontheroad []
8 18:56 Anguper Hupomosing9418 [3]
-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Smith and White Star Lines vindicated, Titanic sinking blamed on global warming.
But in fact the catastrophe may have been set in motion by a warm, wet year over Greenland in 1908, resulting in greater snow accumulation. Writing in the journal Weather, Grant Bigg and David Wilton of Sheffield University explain how the snow soaked through cracks in the ice sheet, encouraging excess iceberg calving over the following few years. Soberingly, global warming has increased iceberg hazard greatly in recent decades, making years like 1912 more the norm than the exception.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2014 05:07 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Right. It was the iceberg's fault.
Posted by: Bobby || 04/30/2014 12:43 Comments || Top||

#2  Arrest that Iceberg! Send it to Gitmo!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 04/30/2014 14:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Given sufficient global warming,ice bergs will finally be extinct and no longer a threat to anyone. Do it for the children!
Posted by: SteveS || 04/30/2014 14:52 Comments || Top||

#4  iceberg calving....global warming

Had to be some sort of bovine - environmental connection.

Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2014 14:57 Comments || Top||

#5  Riiiiight.... nothing to do with the captain not being vigilant and having proper procedure for waters that were known to have icebergs... nothing to do with the subpar rivets that were weaker than normal rivets due to excess carbon slag...

Seriously, this Global Warming thing is a religion to these people.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/30/2014 14:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Why was there global warming when the amount opf airborne plant-food was so low.

I thought airborne plant-food was the magic one-way insulator that made it warmer on the side the heat isn't.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 04/30/2014 17:26 Comments || Top||

#7  Soberingly, global warming has increased iceberg hazard greatly in recent decades, making years like 1912 more the norm than the exception.

Really. How many hundreds of ships have been sunk by icebergs since then?
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/30/2014 22:31 Comments || Top||

#8  The "SS Great Eastern" hit a shoal on it's maiden trip to New York...glided over it, opening a slit in it's hull the size of the Titanic...and carried on to New York, only the crew noticing the event.
Difference was Isambard Kingdom Brunel knew how to build a ship...it took three time as long to dismantle it than to build the Titanic...
Posted by: Hotspur666 || 04/30/2014 22:54 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
New Benghazi Emails Mean Obama Impeachment Trial Must Be Launched
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/30/2014 01:15 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  While I would agree, it is too late.

I stated earlier if the November election threw the dems out of office and the Republicans took congress then I might believe that voting still could work.

However, with the Republican leadership already surrendering on Obamacare and pushing legalization I suspect and so far am being proven right that the fix is in. No amount of public outcry will get these bastards out of office. Only an Article V meeting of the states or outright rebellion will.
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/30/2014 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  It was "too late" when he strode past the Greek columns in 2008, possibly even before. Better to concentrate legal actions against his praetorian guard and facilitators.

Clinton was impeached. What did we gain from it ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2014 1:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Provided the Union survives, can anyone imagine picking up a history book or Kindle in 25 years and learning about the impeachment or colossal failure of the first African American president? It simply will not happen. Champ is a cross we must bear. Our betters have decreed it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2014 2:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Not holding my breath.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/30/2014 4:17 Comments || Top||

#5  But....but...HE's the MESSIAH!!!

the little marble columns and the Forward sign and the rainbow and the Unicorns....its was so...so..Dreamy.

Do you ever get the impression that the American people are as stupid is sapsuckers and doorknobs?
Posted by: Spereting Tingle4064 || 04/30/2014 6:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Jeez man, get a better grip on your keyboard.
Posted by: Shipman || 04/30/2014 6:47 Comments || Top||

#7  When the Permanent Party decides 'he' should go under the bus rather than 'it', there'll be an impeachment. Not a moment sooner.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 04/30/2014 8:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Jeez man, get a better grip on your keyboard

hard to do when you're typing one-handed, right ST4064?
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2014 9:22 Comments || Top||

#9  there are several people who need to be shamed, ridiculed and prosecuted for lying to Congress and teh American people. Jay "Ballsack" Carney, Mark Morrell, Hildabeast, Susan Rice, Axelrod,....
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2014 9:24 Comments || Top||

#10  I fully agree Frank. Champ continues to fall in the polls and court of public opinion. He's dragging the party down with him. No add campaign could possibly provide such a service.

Impeachment proceedings would offer Champ and the dems a convenient distraction. The strategy should be to continue to reveal his corruption and as you say, take legal action against members of his regime.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2014 9:37 Comments || Top||

#11  Related article from 'The Wire.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2014 9:48 Comments || Top||

#12  Here are two words that should be remembered by anyone advocating impechment of Obama. The two words are:

Joe Biden
Posted by: lord garth || 04/30/2014 10:21 Comments || Top||

#13  This might actually be something that would be investigate and the public shown how corrupt the regime is... If we had a free press instead of a propaganda department. Watch this be either studiously ignored, or buried on page17, by the mainstream press and big media.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/30/2014 10:24 Comments || Top||

#14  OldSpook, I figured page 19, below the fold, in small type, but I think we're in agreement in principle. ;^)

I don't quite get the fear of Biden. Yes he's a complete jerk and flaming corrupt liberal; BUT, he has none of Zero's charisma and none of his ability to scare people with the R word. What could/would he do that is worse than Barry's normal crap, especially with a 'pub HoR?
Posted by: AlanC || 04/30/2014 10:51 Comments || Top||

#15  Impeachment is a non-started, It'd be interesting to supeona the lot to appear before Congress, though.

However, considering that the senior leadership in the House and Senate have been silent on this means they're either privy to it via intel briefings, or "the fix is in.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/30/2014 11:00 Comments || Top||

#16  It might be wise to keep the impeachment powder dry. Contrary to the O-Teams narrative Morrell is on record saying the CIA didn’t draft the erroneous talking points. Without question Rhodes will be called to testify before congress and asked if he was the author. And regardless of how he answers there will be some very uncomfortable follow ups. Now if Executive Privilege is exercised all bets are off.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 04/30/2014 11:21 Comments || Top||

#17  Murder. Murder. Murder.

Two former seals. An 8 HOUR fight against an Obama supplied rebels Al Queda, while Obama sat and watched it all go down.

Federal Bureaus converted into Obama Para-Military domestic enforcement units who have already started sighting in Americans these bureaus feel owes Champ money.

This President is a low life Chicago mob rat and needs to have his ass thrown out of office and locked up at Gitmo with the other terrorists.
Posted by: Bubba Graiting8281 || 04/30/2014 13:25 Comments || Top||

#18  Contrary to the O-Teams narrative Morrell is on record saying the CIA didn't draft the erroneous talking points.

Could very well be a matter of semantics. Morrell statement may be technically correct, but if John Brennan had a hand in it, the end result was a simple 'cut-out' in terms of reference. Someone married the internet video with events in Benghazi. Who was that someone? While his quite clever and well connected, I doubt it was a lower level functionary like Ben Rhodes.

What was at stake to the regime:

(a.) A disastrous foreign policy event on the eve of an election.

(b.) Compromise of a possible clandestine arms smuggling scheme.

(c.) Compromise of potential US-AQ collaboration.

(d.) Compromise of the 'UBL is dead, GM is alive' regime narrative.

(e.) Potential compromise of the Secretary of State and negative impacts on a 2016 presidential run.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2014 14:18 Comments || Top||

#19  *cough* ValJar *cough*
Posted by: Frank G || 04/30/2014 14:34 Comments || Top||

#20  Do not go there, OS.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/30/2014 16:04 Comments || Top||

#21  Do not forget that an innocent person spent over a year in jail for a crime he did not commit and a crime that was never committed.

Several ordinary citizens have been prosecuted by the current administration for no other reason than to provide a theatrical prop for Obama's election campaigns.

It can happen to you. It can happen to your neighbor. Unlike other secret police forces, Holder's DOJ is entirely random.
Posted by: Frozen Al || 04/30/2014 20:21 Comments || Top||

#22  Unfortunately, it appears that the MSM is very uninterested in this story. Watching Carney squirm, however, was kind of entertaining.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/30/2014 20:57 Comments || Top||

#23  Bath House Barry will be remembered as
"T'Hussein L'Ouverture"...



Posted by: Hotspur666 || 04/30/2014 23:04 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Belmont Club: Offscreen
But the lie about Benghazi is actually the good news. The bad news is the ignorance it implies about our understanding of the entire direction of Obma's foreign policy. There must be a shadow policy from the fact that a cover legend exists. We are like British children before D-Day who climb into a field full of Sherman tanks to find they are actually rubber decoys. So where are the real tanks? Or are there any?

The public still doesn't know what America's foreign policy has been these last five years, a situation analogous to a pilot tapping on the gauges of the instrument panel halfway through a transoceanic flight only to see the pointers line up limply with the ground. The passengers must now accept the dials aren't hooked up to anything. The hope is that Captain Obama and First Officer Biden actually have a backup set of dials somewhere. That they secretly know what they're doing. But the data shown on the dashboard is just dummy.

What is worse, the second bit of really bad news is that the deceit was a conspiracy. The disinformation effort was intentional on order of the White House. Susan Rice was sent out, papers were shopped, talking points were broadcast in a concerted effort to mislead the public. And conspiracy adds up to malice.

Up to this point it has been possible to argue that Obama was merely inept, blundering from one disaster to the other. But here is bad faith, pure and simple. He may still be inept, but the emails suggest he is also malicious. It's interesting to re-watch the Romney debate knowing what we know now. Obama knew at this point that the the misdirection program was in train. He was setting Romney in the debate up, with the willing or unwilling help of Candy Crowley, to push a lie. There he was smiling and triumphantly gloating, and all the time it was fake.

These two factors taken together mean that the public may not simply be ignorant of the true purposes of the Libyan operation, but also potentially everything the president has been negotiating, including Ukraine, arms control or the war on terror. If the Libya narrative is crooked, what else is bent?

How do you bound the liability? To steal a tagline from the 2014 Godzilla movie, we are like the Bryan Cranston character, who suspects something very horrible is out there in the Pacific deeps but unable to guess its true nature.
You're not fooling anybody when you say that what happened was a natural disaster. You're lying! You're hiding something out there! It was not an earthquake, it wasn't a typhoon ... you have no idea what's coming ... and it is going to send us back to the stone age.
The Obama administration's foreign policy is falling apart before the public in near real time. One by one the initiatives are winking out like lights on the same circuit, as if the secret infrastructure of the administration's policies are unraveling and pulling down each other. Just now US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt warned Russia that troop movements into Ukraine "would lead to tragic consequences." One again, another Red Line just waiting to get crossed has been indifferently drawn, this time in the heart of Europe.
At first glance, this sounds like tough talk. In essence, Pyatt seems to be telling Moscow, "if you invade, U.S. troops will stop you." And certainly, with 600 U.S. troops already moved into Poland and the Baltic states, things could get ugly. But the statement was rather cryptic. How would the U.S. respond? With military force, more diplomatic maneuvers, or more sanctions? And invasion would lead to tragic consequences for whom?

Further, it doesn't make much sense. Ukraine has already been invaded. Crimea -- if we can shift the clock back a few months -- was very much a part of Ukraine. It was invaded and taken over by Russian forces, held a sham referendum, then annexed.
Nobody knows what Pyatt's warning means, possibly not even the Russians, for whom the message was meant. Possibly Pyatt doesn't know what it means either. Maybe it's just something Ben Rhodes told Pyatt to say.

But if Glenn Reynolds is right, the American political system is helpless in the grip of these pilots with the fake readouts, like being in a nightmare where it is impossible to flee from the approaching danger. Whatever befall, nobody can impeach Obama nor it seems, can anyone persuade him to resign. The world -- or the US at least -- is condemned to be to chained to the spot while whatever horror is out there lurking in the deeps wades monstrously out of the water. Only when we see it come into the light will we know what we're facing and not before.
I don't have time to embed all the links, but that's the core of the piece, in light of the earlier bit about imeachment. In order to do any good we'd have to impeach 60 million people.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/30/2014 12:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BTW, none of those question-mark symbols showed up when I did a preview before posting.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 04/30/2014 12:06 Comments || Top||

#2  The thing is most people knew it was fake and it still went forward and there will be no real repurcussions until the next election (if then).

Shamless lies and brass balls were how Clinton defeated the impeachment. He taught his party well. The left rarely holds their own accountable, and when they do it is rarely for long.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/30/2014 14:48 Comments || Top||

#3  "But the statement was rather cryptic."

Diplomatic statements are supposed to be cryptic. Diplomats and like scoundrels ply their trade in ambiguity, smokescreens and mirrors.

Mr. Kerry's recent attempt to force a Neville Chamberlain moment ignored the above, and the price has only begun to be paid.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/30/2014 14:57 Comments || Top||

#4  Dude,when it comes to the Obamination, it's question marks all the way down.
Posted by: SteveS || 04/30/2014 14:57 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Video of Gilani's captive son
[DAWN] AS father of a kidnapped son, Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's former prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics could be awe-inspiring ...
had a point when he expressed his anguish over the interior minister's decision to report the existence of a video showing his son's plight in captivity. The contents of the video were a source of torment to the family, because Ali Haider said his kidnappers had kept him in chains and that his family and the government were not doing enough for his release.

The former prime minister wasn't wide of the mark when he said Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan's decision was an irresponsible one. For the interior minister, Ali Haider is one of numerous people who are kidnapped in Pakistain almost daily, but for Mr Gilani the captive is his son whose life is in danger. Almost a year has passed since Mr Haider was kidnapped, but the government still has no clue as to the kidnappers' identity. Yet, without sharing the video with the family, the interior minister chose to inform the media about it and, based on Ali Haider's remarks, declared that the outlawed TTP wasn't involved in the kidnapping. How is Chaudhry Nisar so sure of this? Didn't it occur to the minister that the TTP would want to be absolved of the crime? Obviously, if they accepted this act of kidnapping, they would be asked to free him -- and Shahbaz Taseer and former VC of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
University Ajmal Khan -- because an obliging government had already released 19 Taliban 'non-combatants'.

What is at play is not only irresponsibility but the utter lack of professionalism in dealing with cold-blooded and ferocious turbans. If the minister lacked expertise in this, the least he could have done was to seek guidance from the Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
-based Citizen-Police Liaison Committee, which has decades of experience in dealing with kidnappings and securing the freedom of a number of victims. The issue is the government's mindset, for the consistency with which it has been kowtowing to the Taliban seems to be in display in this case, too.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


No action on banned groups
[DAWN] IF banning terrorist and hard boy groups has not led to any credible or effective results, does that mean the government should quietly give up on the practice altogether? Or if the government is engaged in dialogue with the TTP leadership, does that mean that self-avowed splinter groups should continue to escape the state's legal scrutiny or sanction? According to a report in this newspaper, the PML-N government has not banned a single hard boy or terrorist outfit since coming to office almost a year ago. A partial explanation could be the government's avowed stance of pursuing dialogue with the outlawed TTP first, but, if true, it would be a thoroughly unsatisfactory explanation.

Even the government has suggested repeatedly that there is no guarantee that talks will succeed, while consistently also maintaining that all options remained open if talks eventually failed. So it would make sense to keep monitoring and officially labelling new groups that emerge during this phase. That way, swift -- and, importantly, legal -- action could be taken if talks fail.

Yet, it appears that another part of the explanation for the government's inaction lies in the procedure for banning terrorist and hard boy groups: the interior ministry is in charge and the minister leading that ministry, Nisar Ali Khan, has hugely invested in the dialogue process to the point of tunnel vision and an inability to focus on other aspects of his job perhaps. For example, if the TTP splinter group Ahrarul Hind is what it and the TTP claims it is, then it deserves to be banned at the very least for the attacks it has grabbed credit for.

If nothing else, it would give the interior minister and his negotiators some extra leverage at the negotiating table with the Taliban when it comes to demanding that the TTP rein in or hand over affiliates who are unwilling to talk peace. But the interior minister's seeming willingness to give up every possible leverage he has in the talks process appears to prevail.

What can -- and does -- get overlooked because of the ineffective and sometimes non-existent implementation of the ban on certain groups is that it can be a rather powerful tool. At the very least, it gives the state the authority to clamp down on funding -- a crucial lifeline for any group -- seize bank accounts and make international travel for individuals difficult.

Those measures alone can have a significantly disruptive effect, and that's before the advantages when it comes to investigations and securing prosecutions in the courts. To be sure, the ease with which groups evade existing bans by simply changing the name of their organizations needs to be looked at. Yet fixing the system of banning groups will only matter if the government shows some interest in the system to begin with.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


The narrative hijacked
[DAWN] KEEPING in view certain developments over the past year, one is not surprised to see that religious bully boyz in Pakistain seem to have hijacked the state narrative on two distinct levels.

The first level where the narrative of the state has been hijacked by the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain seems to be in the shape of effectively paralysing the police force and security agencies working under the civilian administration. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, only in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central...
there were "at least 936 fatalities, including 603 civilians and 172 security forces personnel" in 2013. Some three attacks have been reported on police over the past one week alone.

The police -- notwithstanding all the force's drawbacks -- are considered the face of the state. The police also represent a state's sanctioning authority. Crippling of policing inevitably leads to the state's paralysis in terms of the loss of sanctioning authority. The consistent and continuous attacks on police over the past several years, with an increased impetus since the present federal and provincial governments took their oaths of office, seem to be an effective tactic of the bully boyz who want to hijack the state's narrative.

The second main target over the last year, especially in KP, are political workers. Silent assassinations of political workers continued around Beautiful Downtown Peshawar
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire.
even during the so-called ceasefire. Political workers represent the social contract of the state. This is because political parties have been historically representing various sections of the population in the political process.

The second level of hijacking the narrative of the state seems to be the theoretical framework of the social contract. The TTP spokesperson's statement issued to news agencies after the Hamid Mir incident and reported by many Urdu dailies on April 22 is indicative of this hijacking. The TTP spokesperson seems to have manipulated the contents of the narrative. Four points have been raised by the spokesperson.

First, the nation should be aware of the cons­piracy of dividing Pakistain. Second, the objective of Pakistain is 'real Sharia'. Third, the TTP is a force to protect Pakistain's ideological assets. Fourth, the rights of Pakhtuns, Sindhis, and Baloch have been usurped.

If this statement is to be believed, one is compelled to conclude that the TTP is virtually poised to erect a parallel state. It is needless to debate the contradictions and demagogy that appear in the statement. One may randomly question the bad boy spokesperson as to how he defines 'real Sharia'. One can easily surmise that from 'real Sharia', the network means a Mohammedan Sunni Deobandi state where no one other than a Salafi or Deobandi will have the right to live. He has also left the term 'division of Pakistain' ambiguous.

Moreover, it is self-contradictory to talk of ethno-nationalist rights when an organization is waging 'jihad' for the establishment of a khilafat. Only a certain brand of humanity exists in the dictionary of the bully boyz when one reads their literature. No ethnic, linguistic, racial, gender or national diversity is acceptable in the bad boy framework. The discourse of rights also seems to be anathema to the bad boys.

But the important point here is not related to the contradictions present in the bad boy discourse. It seems to be a matter of fact that despite the structural vacuum, the present state system is the only viable alternative available to us so far. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits...
the bad boys, through the strategy mentioned, are attempting to bring down Pakistain and Afghanistan.

The developments over the past year that led to the present state of affairs include the enlargement of the political, communicational and social space available to the bad boys. The political space started with the All Parties Conference declaring a 'dialogue' with no framework and no pre-conditions. The discourse constructed during this period seems to have virtually legitimised the network. The discourse constructed also narrowed down the definition of peace only to the cessation of crossfire.

The federal interior minister and almost the entire KP cabinet proved to be the best advocates for the TTP. Among the political parties, the ones that run the government of KP appear to be pleading the TTP case.

The bad boy network was also provided more than enough space in the mainstream media to create confusion in the minds of common people. Several anchorpersons, news hounds and editors confided to this writer that they are practically guided by the bad boy network to provide such and such space in such and such manner in their publications and channels.
Posted by: Fred || 04/30/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Never Again
[SultanKnish] Like their Nazi allies, Muslim violence was driven by a need to reverse the humiliations of World War I which dismantled the Ottoman Empire and gave regional minorities like the Jews a chance at rebuilding their own independent countries. But going back to 1914 was only the beginning. Some wanted to go back to 1492 and the fall of Granada. Others in the Saudi desert were dreaming of a return to the 6th century. But what they all had in common was a refusal to tolerate an independent non-Muslim state in their midst.
Powerful stuff.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/30/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What they all have in common is a refusal to tolerate the existence of independent non-Muslims.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/30/2014 18:57 Comments || Top||


Israel's Moment Of Truth
[Ynet] Sole response to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-Fatah unity should be convincing Arab population in Judea and Samaria that Israeli institutions are preferable to Paleostinian Authority's corrupt mechanisms.

Fatah's reconciliation deal with Hamas demonstrates what the Western peace-loving intelligentsia always refused to see. Namely, that the moderate Paleostinian Authority leadership shares more goals with myrmidon Islamists than it does with any Zionist party.

The conclusion Israel must draw from this situation is stark and clear. Either it accedes to Paleostinian demands that Zionism be liquidated, or it actively averts the fulfillment of Paleostinian nationalistic ambitions. Decision-time means embracing the worldview of either the anti-Zionist left or the Zionist right. Israelis who support a "moderate" middle-ground espouse self-deceit and appeasement.

Despite the doom scenarios hawked by advocates of unilateral concessions, in reality Israel is in the strongest position to assert its will since the early 1990s. The United States of America, despite being led by the most pro-Paleostinian administration since Israel's establishment, is manifestly disconcerted at the Paleostinian refusal to recognize Israel's existential needs. This means that future US administrations will be unwilling to jeopardize their prestige and credibility by pandering to Paleostinian wiles.

Europe is too concerned with its economic and demographic decline to do more than pay lip service to the cause of Paleostinian illusory sovereignty. Expectations that a growing Mohammedan population would reinforce Europe's pro-Paleostinian slant have been disproved by rising awareness in the Old Continent about the social costs and security risks inherent in this trend.

In the regional context, Israel's northern front has been calmed by the civil war in Syria, which will seriously weaken the military and economic might of whichever side ultimately prevails in the conflict.

Hezbollah, on the other hand, is unlikely to risk a conflict with Israel. Leb's Sunni Mohammedan and Christian communities, already incensed by the Shiite movement's blood-letting in Syria, will not stand for a Hezbollah-initiated confrontation that invites Israeli bombs on Beirut.

Farsighted interests
On the Western front, Gazoo has been isolated diplomatically since the Moslem Brüderbund regime was ousted in Egypt last year. Egypt's new leadership has no appetite for taking on Israel; its generals know well that supporting the Paleostinian cause only serves the interests of Islamists at home and in Gazoo.

In the midst of profound political uncertainty and struggles to avert an economic meltdown, Egypt's leadership recognizes Israel as an ally, albeit one that needs to be kept off the radar on the Arab street. Even so, King Abdullah of Jordan knows that a strong Israel is the best guarantee that his children will one day inherit the Hashemite throne.

Iran's nuclear program constitutes a grave existential threat to Israel. Nevertheless, this existential threat can neither be aggravated nor alleviated by yielding to Paleostinian demands, and therefore needs to be handled independently from the Paleostinian context.

In the Paleostinian context, Israel needs to convince the Arab populations in Judea and Samaria that Israeli institutions are preferable to the corrupt mechanisms of the Paleostinian Authority. It is in Israel's long-term interests to assimilate the Arabs of Judea and Samaria, exactly as was done in the Galilee and the Negev. Permanent Israeli control over the West Bank need not require granting voting rights to Paleostinians in Israeli general elections.

It is a very Western-centric vision to assume that Paleostinians would not be content with arrangements for communal and judicial autonomy, secured through local voting rights and a Paleostinian legislative body. In the overwhelming majority of Arab lands, including those run by the Paleostinian Authority and Hamas, citizens have nothing but nominal voting rights. Therefore, the scenario proposed here is both de jure and de facto far more democratic than the alternatives that a conventional approach to Paleostinian self-determination is prone to give rise to.

Ironically, Hamas rule over the Gazoo population represents the best antidote to Paleostinian nationalism. By contrasting the infrastructure and rule of law it can provide with the brutality and bloodshed of the irredentist alternative, Israel can win over the hearts and minds of every Paleostinian mother and father not blinded by religious fanaticism and hatred.

Israel needs to invest in the progress and well-being of all inhabitants of Judea and Samaria and pursue and prosecute all agents of incitement and hatred. If this happens, Israel will have the force and moral authority to defend the historic homeland of the Jewish people. This is the sole response that the marriage of Hamas and Fatah deserves from Israel.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/30/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority

#1  Me, I'll go with convincing them to relocate as far from us as they can get.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/30/2014 4:21 Comments || Top||

#2  He can't make up his mind, feeding us both sides guarantees we get the truth of neither.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/30/2014 5:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Laura Ingraham slams McShame on 'stain on honor' comment.
[Breitbart] On her Tuesday radio show, conservative talker Laura Ingraham slammed Senator John McCain (R-AZ) for his assertion that not passing amnesty is a "stain on America's honor."

"I would argue that it's a stain on our honor to have the American people spied upon by the NSA," she said. "I would say it's a stain on our honor to hand our children a $17.4 trillion dollar debt. I would say it's a stain on our honor to empower China year after year because we want to buy a bunch of plastic stuff at Target. It's a stain on our honor that American graduates of colleges and universities can't get decent jobs today. It's a stain on our honor that we don't have American manufacturing focused on American renewal here at home. Those are the stains on our honor, sir."
Don't neglect the comments.
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2014 08:35 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's a stain on our honor and sovereignty to allow the ruling caste in Mexico to dump their mestizos and indios to avoid reform or revolution.

It's a stain on what little honor he still has to avoid the obvious that until Mexico City changes the game, nothing will change even with amnesty, other than the Republican Party is dead.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 04/30/2014 12:37 Comments || Top||

#2  I would say its a stain on our honor to have our leaders claim those cutting in line are somehow better than those that fought their way through our tangled immigration red tape.

Tom McClintock took the right tack on this one. Perhaps the excessive red tape is the problem, but not providing amnesty is certainly not.

McCain lost his honor some time ago.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 04/30/2014 14:50 Comments || Top||


It's Hard to See Racism When You're a Liberal
"Conservatives view people as individuals. Leftists view them as parts of a system. To a conservative, racism is something that happens between individuals. To a leftist, it's the attribute of a system. Trying to convince a leftist that black racism exists or that affirmative action is racist is like trying to convince him that some of the cells in his body are plotting against him."
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/30/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I don't agree. Almost all of the most racist people I ever met were liberals. They didn't mind because they had the "approved" view and were for wealth redistribution to the "others".
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/30/2014 1:19 Comments || Top||

#2  Racism is just a word---one that, nowadays, means exactly the opposite of what it used to. There are a lot more words like this. (not "democracy" though, it always meant mob rule).
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 04/30/2014 4:19 Comments || Top||

#3 
Posted by: Jerkface Killa || 04/30/2014 6:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Liberals believe that their public words and actions, using other peoples' money, buys them dispensation from their personal demons of bigotry. They actually believe the practice of rituals absolves them of their sins which they then cast upon others, see-Freudian Projection.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 04/30/2014 8:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Racism is just a word

True. One can hope it'll continued to be overused and thus debased as a politcal currency.
Posted by: Pappy || 04/30/2014 11:02 Comments || Top||

#6  They actually believe the practice of rituals absolves them of their sins...

See Global Warming
Posted by: DarthVader || 04/30/2014 15:00 Comments || Top||

#7 
Posted by: Besoeker || 04/30/2014 15:04 Comments || Top||

#8  In a mirror, for certain.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 04/30/2014 21:17 Comments || Top||



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
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In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2014-04-30
  Militants raid Libya assembly to stop vote on PM
Tue 2014-04-29
  Iraq Attacks Kill 57, Including 30 Talabani Supporters, as Security Forces Vote
Mon 2014-04-28
  Egypt sentences 11 Mursi supporters to up to 88 years
Sun 2014-04-27
  One Dead, 13 Hurt in Vienna Building Explosion
Sat 2014-04-26
  Syria militants suffers heavy losses across Aleppo
Fri 2014-04-25
  Yemen Qaida Gunmen Seize Hospitals to Treat Wounded
Thu 2014-04-24
  Three Americans gunned down in Kabul hospital attack
Wed 2014-04-23
  Saudi Arabia Sentences 8 To Death For 2003 Riyadh Attack
Tue 2014-04-22
  33 killed, dozens injured in terrorist attacks across Iraq
Mon 2014-04-21
  30 'Qaida' Suspects Killed in Yemen Drone Strike
Sun 2014-04-20
  Hamid Mir wounded in Pakistan gun attack
Sat 2014-04-19
  Drone Kills 15 'Qaida', 3 Civilians in Yemen
Fri 2014-04-18
  Afghan woman MP shot in Kabul
Thu 2014-04-17
  Al-Nusra Chief Killed by Rivals in Syria
Wed 2014-04-16
  Deputy Minister Kidnapped in Kabul


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