#1
This makes me nauseated. Kerry is an enemy of the United States.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/27/2011 7:18 Comments ||
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#2
The Cart: The best alternative is for the United States to engage North Korea directly.
The Horse: We all have grown weary of North Korea's truculence its habit of ratcheting up tensions, followed by calls to negotiate back from the brink, followed by concessions, and a repetition of the process.
Leaving Hilly as the sweeper, yet again.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/27/2011 7:33 Comments ||
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#3
Let's rebuild our alliance with KERRY(Flush twice).
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/27/2011 8:55 Comments ||
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#4
Excuse me while I put some kleenex to the nose bleed this absolutely nutty leap of "logic". My goodness, the lefties really do believe that you can solve every problem with lunch, Perrier and some some good Brie...
The diplomats at Foggy Bottom have forgotten one singularly important aspect of negotiations, i.e., the other side has to be willing to negotiate and have something they are willing to give up to come to a solution.
Since the Norks neither want to negotiate nor have anything they are willing to give up, the flights to Pyomgyang are a colossal waste of time and JP-5.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/27/2011 10:59 Comments ||
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#5
Do the whole world a favor, Jawn - sit down and shut the hell up for once.
#15
I have to broadly agree wid KERRY on this one - iff OWG-NWO + "Globalism", etc. = the US transferring Cold War-era + post-GWOT regional security responsibilities to its various international allies, e.g. QUAKE-TSUNAMI-FUKUSHIMA stricken Japan = NE Asia, then it needs to be able to protect them while in process.
As said before, Amer's allies desire or prefer to have their own arsenals of NucWeaps + other weapons in order to carry out the above.
As per JAPAN, Rising China, US ally the ROK, + other East Asian states are reluctant or don't want Japan to have NucWeaps, etc. due to historical issues. Beijing curren sees itself as World #2 behind the US, soon to be sole World #1 "post-US", + doesn't want any competition or hindrances to same.
2011-2020/2025 = dangerous period for the US-World vee Rising Nuclear Terror Threat + other - THE US MAY HAVE TO MAKE "DEALS WID THE DEVIL" TO PROTECT ITSELF + ITS ALLIES DURING THIS VULNERABLE PERIOD.
THE DEATH OF OSAMA HAS ONLY EXPANDED THE REGIONAL, GLOBAL MILTERR TERROR THREAT, NOT REDUCED IT.
sample
...But for the president, "the fierce urgency of now" applies only to getting checks from the gay community, not getting up to speed with all the Americans who think it's time for gay marriage.
As with "Don't ask, don't tell," Obama is not leading the public, he's following. And worse, the young, hip black president who was swept in on a gust of change, audacity and hope is lagging behind a couple of old, white conservatives -- Dick Cheney and Ted Olson...
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/27/2011 18:15 ||
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It's been a bad month for the New York Times. The feeding frenzy it tried to stir up over Sarah Palin's e-mails left the sharks unfed. And the "investigative" story that was supposed to prove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be an unethical scoundrel fell flat because its theory was unsupported by the facts.
To top it all off, the Times is -- for the third time in as many years -- in an open feud with New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan for what the gentleman correctly labels anti-Catholic reporting.
#1
I have a theory that all of the anti-catholic reporting is one of the factors that has pushed Massachusetts into the Repubican camp. All of those Irish and Portuguese Catholics don't take kindly to the treatment their devout faith receives at the hands of the Times and the Globe. Of course with all of the Irish, et.al., the Times runs the risk of pushing that constituency into Republican hands.
The left is becoming increasingly irrational and self destructive. Much as a person with a personality disorder eventually melts down because they can't keep all the lies and misrepresentations of fact straight, the libs and their "gatekeepers" in the media are finding it well neigh impossible to keep the dirty little secrets of their manifest corruptness and incompetence under the rug.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/27/2011 10:34 Comments ||
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#2
Republicans should mount an anti-media campaign and their weapon of choice should be humor. They can tell the media that their secret is out: Americans know, they should say, that you're just a dysfunctional liberal family the likes of which isn't usually seen outside Hollywood.
They should. But will they? McCain sure didn't. I'm afraid that some of these Republicans are just as corrupt as the donks.
#4
The left is becoming increasingly irrational and self destructive.
In the case of the NYT, Pinch is protected by a special class of stock (owned only by his family) that effectively makes him unaccountable to the other stockholders (even as his company slides toward bankruptcy).
Right now the only things holding up the NYT are the dozens of small town newspapers they've aquired. They still enforce decent reporting standards and have decent ad revenue.
Similarly the WAPO is primarily a testing company (I believe they own the SATs) with a newspaper on the side.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/27/2011 12:14 Comments ||
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#5
When is that 'loan' from Carlos Slim coming due?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/27/2011 12:39 Comments ||
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H/T Sipsey Street Irregulars
It is hard for me to believe, but two more days and it will be six months since I wrote the first story about the murder of Brian Terry and the rumors of what has come to be known as the Gunwalker Scandal.
Of course, the forward progress toward the truth of the Gunwalker Scandal (and I'm happy as can be that the term, invented by David Codrea's sardonic wit, is catching on) has not been easy, nor in a straight line. Yet, the fact that it has progressed is due in no small measure to the readers of David's and my blogs and emails, to those who got off their asses and tried to make the system work, and moved it to where we are today. For that alone, gentle readers, I thank you and hope God blesses you and yours.
The cover-up continues to break down. That is a fact.
Subject: re: Your editorial. "Tainted by politics"? The ENTIRE purpose of Gunwalker was politics.
I preface this by giving you my curriculum vita in the Gunwalker Scandal. On 28 December, I was the first blogger to pick up on the scandal and realize its significance. I used my sources within and near ATF to verify the rumor, get the story out to both Senators Sessions and Grassley, link them up with the whistleblowers and the whistleblowers with the media, among them Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News. I have also discovered ATF documents, contacted sources and written analysis pieces that demonstrate that this was an operation conceived and executed at the highest levels of the Obama administration. All of this, I am confident, will be demonstrated at future hearings. That's what I know about the Gunwalker Scandal and its cover-up, having been on the inside and helped create its public beginnings. What I am questioning here is what you actually know about these matters and whether it is enough to inform your editorial writing with any accuracy whatsoever. -- MBV.
I believe there were a lot of people involved at the Department of Justice and I doubt there'd be so much stonewalling and mudslinging were Holder in the clear.
Besides wanting Melson's testimony and a more forthright response to the Committee's document requests from the Department of Justice, Issa wants those agents who did come forward and speak to the Committee to be granted the federal whistleblowers protections they are entitled to by law. CleanUpATF.org. which asserts it is run by ATF agents, claims abuse of agents and mismanagement in the agency is common.
In the meantime, here's Holder's dilemma in a nutshell: If he doesn't fire Melson, the issue will continue to boil on the front burner. If he does, Melson is free to talk to the Committee, and if my suspicions are correct, Melson's testimony will lead to Holder's long deserved downfall as Attorney General.
The chronically story of blogs and media done by David Codrea (all links) on the reporting of Project Gunwalker:
A journalist's guide to 'Project Gunwalker'-Part One From this chronology encompasses from Dec. 28, 2010 through March 8, 2011. The following is a summary and time line of articles appearing on the Sipsey Street Irregulars blog and Gun Rights Examiner, reflecting original reporting on the developing "Project Gunwalker" story by Mike Vanderboegh and myself. That's the purposely ironic name I assigned it, a parody of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive's "Project Gunrunner," and it refers to allegations by whistleblowing ATF insiders.
Downfall
Project Gunwalker could lead to the downfall of AG Holder, and even the Obama adminstration (other departments had to involved).
There is one issue about this story that has amazed me from the beginning: the lack of curiosity from the media. Even if the NYT doesn't want it covered, reporters are trained to go after stories. Whatever their political inclinations, this is a story that would guarantee them plenty of ink, fame within their profession, appearances on cable networks, interviews with other journalists, and --yes, just maybe -- a Pulitzer or two.
It used to be that reporters would run over their mothers for a chance to grab onto a story like this. What happened to the ink-stained wretches?
The high priests of the media scoff at the bloggers. It's the bloggers who have run this story down. Where are the reporters?
Apparently mostly dead, a least in the LSM. They've been replaced by JournoLists, whose Democrat/Tranzi political allegiance trumps all other ambition.
Having coffee and donuts with locomotive firemen.
If you didn't get the memo, reporters, who once worked their way from apprentice to masters in a craft, have been long ago replaced by credentialed hacks graduated from institutions of 'advanced education political indoctrination'.
#4
this will hurt Obama, and with all hope, remove Holder. It therefore must not be covered.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/27/2011 10:51 Comments ||
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#5
I'm going to float an idea. I don't want any of you to start the black helicopter/tin hat brigade comments about it.
I believe the "Gunwalker" program was a highly contrived vehicle, not to track narcoterrorists in Mexico or follow the weapons to the gun smugglers, but to discredit the gun rights factions in the US. The end game on Gunwalker was not to capture terrorists and arms smugglers but to get air tight gun control legislation on the books under the guise of protecting the public from the outlaws in the gun lobby.
Why else would they come up with this crap. There was no way it could work. Put the program together with all of the phoney news stories about 90% of the weapons used by the Narcos in Mexico coming from the US and the sniveling of the Mexican government and it looks like a contrived opinion manipulation scheme to get gun control and take away the right to bear arms.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/27/2011 10:53 Comments ||
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#6
It has been very obvious this plot had two purposes:
1. Cause such violence at the border that severe anti-gun legislation could be passed which would have involved confiscation of many firearms.
2. The second part would be Obama's last defense. The extreme violence at the border would allow him to declare martial law.
When both were implimented he would have effectively nullified the Constitution.
Keep this in mind. The narco-war at the border is killing people faster than Viet Nam.
#9
#5 - what you said is so obvious few have mentioned it. I agree. From the start it was underhanded and illegal political manipulation to further erode the right to bear arms, typical Obama BS.
#10
Guys, as much as I appreciate #5's clear picture of this, it's not helicopter stuff. These premises has been mentioned daily for the last 6 months. Some, with laws that are being broken. Check some of the links above.... there's lots that has been written on this very matter of the "cause/reason."
From the build up, (while Gunwalker was occurring) Hillary was in Mexico preaching "Most of the guns in the violence comes from the US."
Obama claimed 90% of the guns involved came from the US. That was quickly proven wrong.
And Obama to Mrs. Brady, "On, we are working on gun control "under the radar."
The guy that is supposed to, by now, be the Director of AFT, can't get confirmed for two years now, because he is a stringent gun control freak!
All planned --- prolly would have worked, except some outstanding AFT agents put their jobs on the line by coming forward with the facts, including the premise of the program was designed to create more cry for more gun controls.
According to Bob Owens of Pajamas Media, his sources confirm this piece had been shopped around to other news outlets and blogs by the Obama administration since the House Oversight Committee hearings last week. Everyone except the Post took a pass.
And on a 2010 story the Post ran about 'lax gun laws contributing to arms in the hands of the drug cartels...
Connect the dots: a story that almost certainly required information leaked by the ATF, in a paper noted for its friendliness to the Administration, was used to build the case that lax American gun control laws are contributing to Mexican gun crimes, when the ATF was secretly running a program that deliberately pushed American guns into the hands of Mexican cartels, without any serious plan to track them, until they were used in the commission of crimes.
Now, take an educated guess what the true purpose of Operation Fast & Furious was.
Pakistan's military spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas recently rejected U.S. allegations that some Pakistani security officials tipped off militants about impending raids on their facilities in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), allowing them to flee ahead of time. He said, however, that "tribal elders" are sometimes informed about such actions, presumably to win their consent. While unconvincing, this explanation does appeal to standard impressions about the state's tenuous control over a supposedly self-governed tribal belt. But the government's writ in FATA is tenuous by design, benefitting a powerful military and civil bureaucracy rather than tribal communities.
[Dawn] What can one say about Imran Khan? ... who isn't your heaviest-duty thinker, maybe not even among the top five... A great former cricketer, a compassionate philanthropist... and a sorry excuse for a politician? But his continuing forays into bad politics and tactical blunders can be excused, for he is yet to understand that politics is not a game of cricket and that the democratic election process does not follow the selection policy he enforced as the captain of the Pakistain cricket squad.
The truth is Khan's penchant for picking up talented players seemed to have gone haywire when he decided to pick his early political mentors. By the time Khan officially entered politics some time in late 1995 it wasn't his pristine education at Oxford University or a more insightful understanding of Pakistain's political history that was informing his political make-up.
On the contrary, his ideology was weaved from the usual reactionary claptrap one expects from former ISI men and political Islamic parties, especially those who got emotionally involved in Pakistain's counter productive Afghan jihad project in the 1980s. Thus, the next logical step for him, was, of course, going further down the reactionary rabbit hole. This hole is the same one into which a number of urban, middle-class Paks have decided to fall, becoming an isolated (albeit growing) cult of sorts with its own set of prophets that include certain music and fashion celebrities, TV personalities, cricketers, journalists, televangelists et al.
This cult also has its own understanding of Pak politics, society and the faith. Its worldview espouses a narrative that puts Pakistain at the centre of the universe around which malicious anti-Pakistain and anti-Islam forces (mostly western) are constantly trying to undermine the country's political and cultural wellbeing and illusory sovereignty. But the funny thing is that a majority of those following this cult are rather westernised in their habits and many are also well settled in various European countries and the US.
There is a clear lack of self-awareness on their part due to which they seem to completely miss noticing the ideological and existential dichotomy that their outlook exhibits. It's like knowing the spelling of the word hypocrisy but not knowing what it means. This cult's messiahs too demonstrate similar dichotomies.
For example, it is ironic hearing men such as Imran Khan, Hamid Gul The nutty former head of Pakistain's ISI, now Godfather to Mullah Omar's Talibs and good buddy and consultant to al-Qaeda's high command... , Munawar Hassan and Zaid Hamid spout lectures and speeches on corruption, illusory sovereignty and patriotism, when the truth is that much of what these gentlemen are spouting is nothing more than a populist version of a slippery narrative propagated by a political and economic elite. Their roots are not in the so-called masses but in the smoky corridors of Pakistain's intelligence agencies and in the comfortable TV lounges of the
country's urban middle and upper classes.
Since lack of self-awareness is the highlight of this cult's gung-ho behaviour, I wonder if Khan is conscious of the fact that much of what he chants in the name of the poor people, free judiciary and national illusory sovereignty is largely a by-product of the nonsense generated for years by the country's economic, military and social elite groups. That's why even though the media and politicians have only just begun to suggest that Khan might be being propped up by certain sections of the intelligence agencies, the truth is, as far as his political beliefs are concerned, he was always the establishment's man.
This cult of 'leaders' that Khan belongs to is somewhat oxymoronic. They are being used to preach a revolution from above so that a genuine revolution from below (i.e. from the masses) can be kept in check to safeguard the economic and political interests of those sitting at the helm of Pakistain's establishment. But is Khan really such a novice? Since he has not been above hypocrisy and contradiction himself, blundering over and again by questioning the moral make-up of various politicians, from Zardari to Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... to Altaf Hussain, in response, he has constantly faced some ugly reminders of his own not-so-moralistic past.
This can let one assume that he is conscious of the said dichotomy, but more so, also conscious of the fact that in a country like Pakistain such dichotomies get lost in the usual hullabaloo about honour. An honour that has more to do with imaginary wars and mythical warriors rather than something a tad more realistic.
What's more, the more tenacity mainstream political parties in parliament exhibit in the face of a rabid onslaught against its character, the more frustrated this cult's leaders and supporters get, consequently becoming more audacious and absurd in their attacks. They foam at the mouth, blasting incoherent rants about patriotism and Islam, sometimes sounding as if they are suffering from a rapid case of reverse evolution.
A man like Imran Khan with such a fantastic cricketing career and an impressive record of philanthropy, a man who once seemed to possess all the right ingredients to become a truly progressive politician, has, unfortunately, landed on his face. It is all too obvious now who is trying to pick him back up, and that too for all the wrong reasons. His supporters, mostly through social media, are just fodder to feed his delusion of being the messiah that Paks await.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/27/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
the messiah that Paks await.
I vote we send him our Messiah, The One! He'd fit right in!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/27/2011 7:36 Comments ||
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#2
Change a few names and change a few countries, and voila, we have the ONE...if BO keeps up his silliness and breath-taking incompetence, we'll be Pakistain 2.0
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
06/27/2011 10:19 Comments ||
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If IDF predictions are right, then this flotilla will be a watered-down version of last years attempt to break the sea blockade on the Gaza Strip.
On Monday, senior IDF commanders from throughout the military, led by Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, convened at the Central Commands Lachish training base near Kiryat Gat. As reported in The Jerusalem Post last week, the officers were there for a seminar aimed at preparing them for the expected demonstrations that will break out in the West Bank and along Israels borders following the Palestinians expected unilateral declaration of statehood in September.
On the other side of the country, in the North, commandos from the Navys Flotilla 13 better known as the Shayetet were making final preparations to stop a flotilla of ships planning to sail to the Gaza Strip and break Israels sea blockade over the Hamas-controlled territory this week.
This is the IDF in the middle of 2011. Yes, Iran is still a threat and Hezbollah is stockpiling missiles, but this summer the focus is on stopping flotillas and learning how to prevent socalled peaceful marches from getting out of control.
If IDF predictions are right, then this flotilla will be a watered-down version of last years attempt to break the sea blockade on the Gaza Strip.
First, Turkeys IHH organization presumed to be the more radical player and which was behind the Mavi Marmara has pulled out of the flotilla, while citing more pressing humanitarian concerns, like Syria. Instead of the 15 ships it had planned, it now appears that the flotilla will include 10 at the most.
On the other hand, there will be iHH members in the ships, however unofficially.
.Second, the IDF is better prepared this time around.
Navy commandos have developed new techniques on how to fast-rope down onto the ships upper decks quickly. They also have new equipment such as water cannons, attack dogs from Oketz and riot-control specialists from the Prisons Services elite Masada Unit.
The other major challenge is the way Israel will handle the media side of the flotilla.
It seems the government has yet to formulate a clear strategy or policy. On Sunday, the head of the Government Press Office announced that Israel would confiscate the equipment of journalists who join the flotilla and then ban them from the country for up to 10 years. But on Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu overturned that decision. If Netanyahu changed the policy so quickly, why did the GPO make such an announcement to begin with? One can only hope that the governments remaining involvement in stopping the flotilla will be clearer and more effective.
In the meantime, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak appear to be more concerned with the State Comptrollers report on last years flotilla due to be published in the coming months. According to various media reports, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss plans to criticize the government and specifically Netanyahu and Barak for failing to properly prepare for the flotilla by convening the cabinet, debating the issue and agreeing on strategy. The cabinet meetings held Sunday night and Monday morning were likely (at least partially) aimed at showing that this time around the government is more involved, and on top of things.
In the coming days, the flotilla operation will probably come to an end hopefully, this time without casualties on either side.
September, however, continues to loom on the horizon and without any diplomatic breakthrough, the flotilla at sea will soon be replaced by mass marches on the ground.
* MEMRI.ORG > DEPUTY COMMANDER OF TALIBAN-PAKISTAN WALI REHMAN MAHSOUD THREATENS REVENGE FOR KILLING OF BIN LADEN:: SOON YOU WILL WITNESS ATTACKS AGZ THE US + NATO, espec FRANCE + BRITAIN.
* SAME > HAMAS COLUMNIST: WE WILL NEGOTIATE WITH ISRAEL ONLY OVER ITS [total/complete]DEPARTURE FROM PALESTINE - AND RECOGNIZE IT ONLY ONCE ITS IS RE-ESTABLISHED ELSEHWERE.
ARTIC = "Palestine" = all of same, which as meant is NOT just the official 1967 borders.
IOW, NO JEWS = ISRAELI STATE IN THE MUSLIM MIDDLE EAST EVAR + ANYWHERE!
* SAME > [Al-Dustour]JORDANIAN DAILY: THE STRUGGLE WITH ISRAEL IS EXISTENTIAL, NOT TERRITORIAL.
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.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
What can one say about 
Hamid Gul
Nawaz Sharif
