Hi there, !
Today Sun 08/12/2012 Sat 08/11/2012 Fri 08/10/2012 Thu 08/09/2012 Wed 08/08/2012 Tue 08/07/2012 Mon 08/06/2012 Archives
Rantburg
531704 articles and 1855995 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 54 articles and 156 comments as of 15:03.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Yemen Strike Kills Key Al-Qaeda Leader, Foreign Militants
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
0 [] 
8 23:29 Raj [] 
4 19:22 tu3031 [] 
1 21:15 Eric Jablow [] 
17 22:28 Pappy [1] 
1 10:28 Raider [] 
8 17:11 Besoeker [] 
1 08:48 Skidmark [1] 
10 20:22 Charles [] 
7 10:52 Zhang Fei [2] 
0 [] 
7 13:02 crosspatch [] 
1 01:22 Skidmark [1] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 []
8 21:02 Mullah Richard [1]
0 []
0 []
1 08:08 Glenmore []
0 []
0 []
0 []
5 17:40 Thing From Snowy Mountain []
1 19:20 American Delight [2]
1 17:42 Thing From Snowy Mountain []
3 19:14 Besoeker [1]
0 []
4 03:05 g(r)omgoru [1]
1 01:09 Spaque Ghibelline8846 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
1 17:38 Thing From Snowy Mountain [1]
2 02:34 Besoeker []
2 08:17 Richard Aubrey []
1 12:47 Glenmore [1]
Page 2: WoT Background
1 18:15 Tarzan Spairt4671 [1]
4 19:35 tu3031 [1]
2 18:20 Tarzan Spairt4671 []
0 []
4 15:57 Ptah []
3 11:04 mojo []
2 13:54 Raider []
Page 4: Opinion
3 22:48 JohnQC [2]
0 []
0 []
7 16:49 Rjschwarz []
0 [1]
10 19:44 tu3031 []
1 11:31 Ptah [2]
4 17:48 Tarzan Spairt4671 []
Page 6: Politix
6 21:30 JohnQC []
4 16:00 JohnQC []
2 06:03 Secret Asian Man []
8 16:03 JohnQC []
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Idiot of the Day
Rome's Fiumicino airport has defended its security procedures after a drunk Norwegian tourist fell asleep on a baggage belt and travelled 160 feet before being identified by an X-ray scanner.

The 36-year-old, who has not been named, arrived at the international terminal of Italy's busiest airport at the end of last month with a backpack and a can of beer in his hand.
Here, hold my beer...
The Norwegian was due to check in for a flight to Oslo and when he found no one on duty at the airline desk he leapt across the counter and fell into a deep asleep on the baggage belt with his bag beside him.
ZZZzzz...
I guess you don't want your beer back, huh
As the belt began to move the unsuspecting tourist reportedly travelled for 15 minutes through the secure baggage area in Terminal 3 before officials spotted his body curled up in a foetal position in an X-ray image on their monitors.
Hey Maw, look what the cat dragged in!
Ewww! Throw it out!
He slept through the whole episode and airport police had trouble waking him when they were called to the scene to investigate what had happened.
Posted by: Spot || 08/09/2012 16:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


The Ghost of Susan B. Anthony
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) told a recent gathering of the Women's Political Committee that the spirits of suffragists Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul spoke to her at the White House.
Stay off the Shrooms, Nan!
Hilary only talked with Eleanor Roosevelt.
Pelosi said she heard them say: "At last we have a seat at the table".
Did they say that in unison or one at a time?
A video recently posted on Youtube shows Pelosi speaking in May describing her first meeting with President Bush in the White House after becoming part of the Democratic House leadership.
In the video Pelosi says, "He's (Bush) saying something to the effect of we're so glad to welcome you here, congratulations and I know you'll probably have some different things to say about what is going on--which is correct. But, as he was saying this, he was fading and this other thing was happening to me."
Shrooms will do that to you. So I hear.
"My chair was getting crowded in," said Pelosi. "I swear this happened, never happened before, it never happened since."
Now we know The Wicked Witch of the West's problem. She not only hears voices, she does what they tell her to.
"My chair was getting crowded in and I couldn't figure out what it was, it was like this," she said.
My chair would be crowded too, with all those people trying to sit in it at the same time.
"And then I realized Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Alice Paul, Sojourner Truth, you name it, they were all in that chair, they were," said Pelosi. "More than I named and I could hear them say: 'At last we have a seat at the table.' And then they were gone."
More people than she could name? That's probably not too many.
This was not the only time Pelosi has told this story. On June 6 of this year she told it during an event celebrating her 25 years of political service.

Pelosi has also told the story when speaking at colleges, including at Trinity Washington University's commencement on May 20, 2012. Pelosi's website contains a transcript of the tale as related in her 2005 commencement address at Goucher College in Baltimore.

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were activists in the women's rights movement during the mid to late 1800's. The Susan B. Anthony List, which works for pro-life women's leadership in government, uses her as a namesake. The organization claims Anthony and Stanton were strong pro-life supporters.
I know she's nuts but I didn't know she was this far gone.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/09/2012 14:29 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And the pro-lifers are very correct, if one bothers to read everything these women wrote. They knew EXACTLY why men wanted abortions and knew where such a society would go.

While I was visiting my mom in France, I read an article in Paris Match that I regret not filing: it was an interview with the leader of the "feminist" movement in France. She was extremely PO'ed about the way that the "change the whole system/take no prisoners!" attitude in the US movement severely hampered the French movement in terms of membership and persuasiveness. Her argument was that the French woman wanted a fair shake in employment, but no part in changing the way men and women interacted outside of work, and so didn't want to join a movement that they thought would change the latter, even if it improved affairs in the former.

The frenchMEN are idiots, and the FrenchWomen are as sane, if not saner, than the individuals sitting in the silos of our ICBMs. If Descartes was ressurrected and shown how France had changed, he'd give a gallic shrug and consider winning half the population to rational thinking as "not too shabby".
Posted by: Ptah || 08/09/2012 15:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Nest time you visit the continent, take me with you Ptah. Colmar is lovely any time of the year.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2012 17:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Aren't hallucinations one of the symptoms of Alzheimer's?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 08/09/2012 17:59 Comments || Top||

#4  advanced syphilis
Posted by: Frank G || 08/09/2012 18:05 Comments || Top||

#5  Botox poisoning maybe?
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 08/09/2012 18:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Next time, Nancy, pay attention...
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/09/2012 19:19 Comments || Top||

#7  It is a known fact that spirits are often with Pelosi. Did you see her booze bill for her Air Force flights between California and DC?
Posted by: crosspatch || 08/09/2012 23:14 Comments || Top||

#8  I've had some flashbacks; nothing on this level, though...
Posted by: Raj || 08/09/2012 23:29 Comments || Top||


Alaska Airlines 737 Emergency Landing "Catastrophic Electrical Failure"

An Alaska Airlines 737-400 originating from Ontario, California made an emergency landing at San Jose, California after a "catastrophic electrical failure" resulted in a rapid loss of cabin pressure.

The transponder was rendered inoperative making things more difficult for air traffic control.

No injuries were reported but sphincters probably got quite the workout among all involved.
Posted by: crosspatch || 08/09/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hope this is not a taste of things to come as the 787's ECS ( Environmental Control System) including the pressurization is electrically powered, as opposed to running off engine bleed air.
Posted by: USN, ret. || 08/09/2012 0:50 Comments || Top||

#2  737-400 is as bog-standard and reliable as they come. I can only see incompetent maintenance - probably due to incompetent management - as the cause here.
Posted by: gromky || 08/09/2012 7:03 Comments || Top||

#3  The thing that really makes ME nervous about getting aboard a 787 is the really wide use of composites in the airframe. Okay, okay, I know that modern composite materials are supposed to be stronger than metal, but I just can't shake the feeling that plastic airplanes belong on my 5 y/o great-nephew's bookshelf - not 35K feet in the air.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 08/09/2012 9:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Hopefully the good folks at NTSB are getting themselves spooled up for a comprehensive investigation on this one. Alaska's already proven its willingness to risk passengers' lives to save a buck.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) || 08/09/2012 10:03 Comments || Top||

#5  C'mon you guys. Where's that Amerlia Earheart spirit today??? Any landing ... is a good landing! RIGHT?!!
Posted by: Raider || 08/09/2012 10:22 Comments || Top||

#6  You are pretty much guaranteed to land. The important questions are:
1) can you walk away?
2) is the airplane still usable?

I find USN's comment in #1 a little disturbing. Fly-by-wire is cool as long as you have juice for the wires, and your sensors aren't lying to you.
Posted by: SteveS || 08/09/2012 12:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Put me in the camp that is actually more comfortable with composites than metal. They *should* stand up better to vibration and pressurization cycles than metal does.

I do have a problem with all-electric designs. There should be at least ONE mechanical backup system even if you have redundant fly-by-wire systems. So rather than having three independent mechanical hydraulic systems, have only one that is the emergency backup and have two fly by wire systems for normal use. Not having redundant mechanical systems still saves a lot of weight.
Posted by: crosspatch || 08/09/2012 13:02 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
For Crosspatch:Russia to Launch Ballistic Missiles During Exercise
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/09/2012 01:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What is with Russians and their aching desire to always use the big strategic missiles? It's not healthy.
Posted by: gromky || 08/09/2012 8:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks for posting that for me, gromky. Didn't need to credit me, but thanks.

Russia always seems to just be anti whatever we do or want no matter what, even if it works to their disadvantage in the long run. It is as if they see their primary role in the world as being the "anti-US" for some reason.
Posted by: crosspatch || 08/09/2012 12:40 Comments || Top||

#3  Meant, Skidmark.
Posted by: crosspatch || 08/09/2012 12:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Could be the US is not the only one in the audience. Article says Iran, could be a little further east.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/09/2012 13:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Oh good! It's been ages since we had a chance to exercise our ELINT capabilities on such things.
Posted by: lotp || 08/09/2012 15:06 Comments || Top||

#6  It is as if they see their primary role in the world as being the "anti-US" That does seem to be the case. Ever since their god (Marxism-Leninism) died, Russia has been at a loss for an over-riding purpose.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 08/09/2012 15:14 Comments || Top||

#7  Actually, it is my understanding that they regularly test fire a dummy toward an internal test range: their silos are designed to spit their missles out and close up before the engines ignite. Makes for really bad accuracy, so I figure this is an attempt to incrementally improve the algorithms.

We have no idea how good they're getting, since we have NO idea what part of that test range they're TRYING to hit. If the KGB had their way, they'd see where it landed and draw the bullseye there.
Posted by: Ptah || 08/09/2012 15:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Oh good! It's been ages since we had a chance to exercise our ELINT capabilities on such things. Posted by lotp

Always seeking the exploitive collection opportunity eh lotp? Move to the head of the class please.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2012 17:11 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
China tells US to butt out of South China Sea disputes
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That means ASAP we should counter China forcefully and decisively.

If If we had a leader
with the balls to do it.
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 08/09/2012 0:11 Comments || Top||

#2  WORLD NEWS > [Nippon FM]GENBA STANDS FIRM ON SENKAKUS, as per Japan and only Japan having sovereignty over same.

* TOPIX > STUDY: NORTH KOREA [technically] ABLE TO TEST NUCLEAR BOMB IN TWO WEEKS.

* PACIFIC NEWS CENTER [Guam K-57 News] > YOMIURI: JAPAN-US CONSIDER DEPLOYMENT OF AAFB'S [Andersen AFB] GLOBAL HAWKS TO SURVEY CHINESE MILITARY ACTIVITY AROUND SENKAKUS, + also to bolster US-Japan military exercises.

* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > A BILL [covertly = PCorrectly] REQUIRING US INTERVENTION IN SOUTH CHINA SEA SETTLEMENT IS INTRODUCED, before the US Congress.

* SAME > JAPANESE ANGRY AT CHINESE BUYOUT OF JAPANESE ASSETS | [WSJ.com] FRICTION AS CHINA CLOUT [investments] GROW IN JAPAN.

* SAME > [Poster Thread] CHINA BYPASSES USN STRAIT OF MALACCAS BLOCKADE: MYANMAR PIPELINE ONLINE IN 2013?

China = Iran; Strait of Hormuz = South China Sea = looks like China doing the blocking, not the USN = US-Allies.

OTOH, will the Philippines = Vietnam = invite RUSSIA, INDIA, JAPAN, + ISRAEL, ETC. TO SET UP AT SUBIC FREEPORT ANDOR MANILA BAY???

China has to know that the only thing Russia + Vladvedev are going to do wid the new SCS Sansha is blow it up into coral-weenies.

* CHINESE MILITARY FORUM > [Pan-Mongol, Chinese] OUTRAGE AS CHINA LAYS CLAIM TO GENGHIS KHAN.

> Mongols, both in + outside of China = GENGHIS IS OUR SYMBOL/ICON, NOT YOURS.
> Many Chinese = GENGHIS was an uncivilized, uncouth, bloody Barbarian Warlord not worthy to be called "Chinese".
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/09/2012 0:55 Comments || Top||

#3  This is the great weakness of China. They really have no allies. They are surrounded by a great wall. China is everything and all others are a lower class of people. Just a bully in the world. Some very intelligent people exist in powerful positions but they are not able to overcome the thirst for money and power of others about them.
Natural to rewrite history also. The game is played by their rules and they must always win.
Posted by: Dale || 08/09/2012 7:23 Comments || Top||

#4  Someone should politely remind them of a similar attitude of the Japanese concerning events in China from 1936 on. It was the actions of another American administration concerned with the integrity and sovereignty of China that provoke the Japanese response of Dec '41. Maybe they need to contemplate what their world would look like today if America had just looked the other way to those events in the Far East.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/09/2012 9:11 Comments || Top||

#5  Someone should politely remind them of a similar attitude of the Japanese concerning events in China from 1936 on. It was the actions of another American administration concerned with the integrity and sovereignty of China that provoke the Japanese response of Dec '41. Maybe they need to contemplate what their world would look like today if America had just looked the other way to those events in the Far East.

They're in the catbird seat. Europe is disarmed and not particularly interested in fighting a war in Asia. Asian countries are feckless - the reason China is so big in the first place is because it has always been able to divide and conquer the states on its borders. Because Mongolia aside, throughout history, the standard posture of the states on China's borders has been to hope that the dragon eats them last. They have always preferred to fight each other, alone or with Chinese help, than band together against China. Genghis Khan and Nurhaci were the two exceptional non-Chinese leaders who managed to tame China. But their avarice led them to bite off more than their descendants could effectively rule. Neither was able to bend China to their will for posterity.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/09/2012 10:48 Comments || Top||

#6  As a China-watcher who's read a fair amount of Chinese history, what sticks out is China's grabbiness with respect to territorial issues. The amusing thing is that it was a Chinese grad student who disabused me of the notion that China is a peaceful country. In a moment of candor, he said, quite logically, that big countries like China don't get that way by peaceful means. The National Review's John Derbyshire had this to say about China:

The Chinese people respond eagerly to these ultra-nationalist appeals: That is precisely why the leadership makes them. Resentment of the U.S., and a determination to enforce Chinese hegemony in Asia, are well-nigh universal among modern mainland Chinese. These emotions trump any desire for constitutional government, however much people dislike the current regime for its corruption and incompetence. Find a mainlander, preferably one under the age of thirty, and ask him which of the following he would prefer: for the Communists to stay in power indefinitely, unreformed, but in full control of the "three T's" (Tibet, Turkestan, Taiwan); or a democratic, constitutional government without the three T's. His answer will depress you. You can even try this unhappy little experiment with dissidents: same answer.

Is there anything we can do about all this? One thing only. We must understand clearly that there will be lasting peace in East Asia when, and only when, China abandons her atavistic fantasies of imperial hegemony, withdraws her armies from the two million square miles of other people's territory they currently occupy, and gets herself a democratic government under a rule of law. Until that day comes, if it ever does, the danger of war will be a constant in relations between China and the world beyond the Wall, as recent events in the South China Sea have illustrated. Free nations, under the indispensable leadership of the United States, must in the meantime struggle to maintain peace, using the one, single, and only method that wretched humanity, in all its millennia of experience, has so far been able to devise for that purpose: Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.


Every culture has a religion. The Chinese are remarkably irreligious in the conventional sense, except for a cargo cult version of paganism that should be familiar to anyone who's heard of the prosperity gospel. What passes in China for religion is a cult of national greatness - the model for Imperial Japan's world tour in the 1930's and 1940's. I believe China's neighbors are about to discover anew what their ancestors had to put up with on a routine basis before European adventurers set firm boundaries on Chinese territorial expansion 200 years ago. Our interest in the matter is the same as our interest in preventing Japan from annexing China during the pre-war era - it's never a good idea to allow an aggressive and ideologically hostile power to grow too big. More security for them means less security for us.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/09/2012 10:49 Comments || Top||

#7  Trade-wise, I think we need to treat China the way we treated the Soviet Union. However, the problem with trying to enact a trade embargo on China is that nobody else will go along. Chinese exports to the US, at $400b, are only 7% of its $5.7t economy. And that $400b number exaggerates the value added, given that perhaps 10% of the $250 wholesale price of an iPad is composed of value added by Chinese labor, the rest being materials cost (of commodities imported from the rest of the world).

There are also factors beyond our control. The big change in China's economy occurred not in 1973, with Nixon's opening to China, but in 1979, when Deng Xiaoping, China's leader at the time, started dismantling China's centrally-planned economy. Every year after 1979 has featured high single-digit or low double-digit economic growth. The Chinese will eventually present a much more serious security problem than the Soviets because their economy is now capitalist in all but name, and they have 1.2b productive people, compared to the Soviet Union's 200m people at its peak.

As a long-time amateur China-watcher (and former Soviet-watcher), my contention is that the problem with China isn’t Communism - it’s the Chinese (much as the problem with the Soviet Union wasn’t Communism - it was Russians who viewed themselves as world conquerors). When Imperial Japan went on its world tour, its model was Imperial China during its moments of martial vigor. The Chinese put on a mask of amity during their period of weakness, but now that China has grown strong, that mask is slipping. I suspect that future historians will look back upon the Maoist era, when China closed itself off from the world, as a period of respite for China’s neighbors - a time for them to prepare for a revived China red in in tooth and claw. However, historians may also record China’s feckless neighbors (aka future provinces, in the Chinese mind) as having wasted the breathing space afforded them - all you have to do is look at their minuscule defense budgets. With the exception of Vietnam and India, China’s neighbors appear to have settled upon a common policy based on (1) Uncle Sam providing for their defense and (2) fighting China to the last dead American.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/09/2012 10:52 Comments || Top||


Down Under
UPDATE: McMurdo Station Med-Evac - Antarctica

Some additional information, not much, just that they are going to try to get in there "before Friday" and that there is only a little twilight around noon at this time of year at the station's location.

Temperatures recently were -9F (-23C) which is not impossible to operate in though weather can change dramatically with a change in wind direction.
Posted by: crosspatch || 08/09/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rescue plane leaves Antarctica after picking up patient
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/09/2012 1:22 Comments || Top||


Europe
Open Day for Bulgarians held at Chinese frigate "Yantai"
An Open Day for Bulgarians was held on Tuesday at the Chinese frigate Yantai, which arrived at the Black Sea port of Varna to make a five-day goodwill visit.
Black Sea, eh? The Turks let it through the Straits of Bosporous?
More than 1,000 people climbed aboard the first Chinese navy ship visiting Bulgaria.

"We came here mainly because China is a friendly country for us, Chinese people are our brotherly nation, and we came to look at the ship, which came to visit in Varna for the first time," a visitor told Xinhua.
And then the imaginary visitor's imaginary lips fell off.
Come on, ordinary people talk like that all the time. I read quotes like that in Pravda on a daily basis...
Another visitor, Ivan Lambov, a former master mariner, said that he very much enjoyed the frigate and the organization onboard.

"This ship is strong, and probably it has been tested in combat conditions," Lambov said.
Nope!
He said he understood from media reports that Yantai has performed duties in anti-piracy areas. "To be in anti-piracy areas and on duty, you have to be in form because modern pirates are not what they once were: it is no joke to fight against pirates," Lambov said.
They run at the first whiff of grapeshot. They attack the defenseless, not armed ships. Unless they screw up.
And there are no pirates in the Black Sea...
Meanwhile, Senior Captain Li Hua, Yantai frigate Commander, told reporters the ship was launched in 2010 and was commissioned in 2011. He said this is the newest Chinese navy ship, equipped with the most advanced Chinese technology.
Hopefully we got some spies onboard, but with CIA these days, I doubt it.
Posted by: gromky || 08/09/2012 01:52 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "An Open Day for Bulgarians was held on Tuesday ..."

Bulgarians? Are you kidding? So - are they struggling with despondency over a lack of medals in the Olympics?? What exactly did the Chinese do - give them tea and twinkies?? Hahahahaha!!!
Posted by: Raider || 08/09/2012 10:28 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Show-cause notice for contempt of court issued to PM Ashraf
[Dawn] The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice for contempt of court to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf over his failure to implement its directive of writing a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari,
... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ...
DawnNews reported.

"We hereby issue a notice to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf...to show cause why he may not be proceeded against for committing contempt," the court said in its short order.

"We issue notice to Raja Pervez Ashraf under (the) contempt of court act 2003, read with article 204 of the constitution to show cause as to why he may not be proceeded (against) in contempt of court and (is) not complying (with the) relevant direction of the court," Justice Khosa said.

"He shall appear in person at the next date of hearing. Hearing adjourned until August 27," the judge added.

Dictating the order, Justice Khosa moreover said that Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's former prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics could be awe-inspiring ...
was disqualified for failing to implement the court's directives.

The order said that Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was also given a similar directive, adding that, the July ruling had said that failure to implement court orders would lead to initiation of proceedings.
Posted by: Fred || 08/09/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Science & Technology
Curiosity Rover's Twitter Account
Posted by: charger || 08/09/2012 12:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, there were the livejournal feeds for opportunitygrrl and spiritrover a few years ago.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 08/09/2012 21:15 Comments || Top||


more sharks with lasers....
Posted by: Water Modem || 08/09/2012 00:09 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not ready for Prime Time...weather proof dome, open air generators. May not be associated though. A 33kw laser needs a lot more that what these boxes will deliver.
Posted by: Skidmark || 08/09/2012 8:48 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran: Retired Revolutionary Guards Among Kidnapped in Syria
Followup.
Iran's Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, says some of the 48 Iranians kidnapped by Syrian rebels are retired members of the Revolutionary Guards and the army and were in Damascus on a religious pilgrimage.

The rebel Free Syrian Army describes those kidnapped Saturday as Revolutionary Guards on a "reconnaissance mission." But Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Salehi Wednesday, as denying that the Iranians have any current military connection.

Salehi's comments were published after he visited Turkey Tuesday to ask for help in securing the hostages' release.

Iranian officials have reached out to both Turkey and Qatar for help in freeing those kidnapped. Both nations support the Syrian opposition, while Iran backs the Syrian government.
Posted by: AU Auric || 08/09/2012 12:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ...retired.... religious pilgrimage....uh-huh
Posted by: Large Guelph1068 || 08/09/2012 14:12 Comments || Top||

#2  retired...now
Posted by: Frank G || 08/09/2012 15:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Does that mean they won't get unemployment benefits while they're jugged?
Posted by: SteveS || 08/09/2012 15:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh, I'll bet they're having fun now...
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/09/2012 19:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Army colonel ignites firestorm with article on crushing a 'tea party insurgency'
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2012 08:40 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Tea Party insurgency ... "

with Sarah Palin starring as Joan of Arc?? Hahahahahaha! Get over that wall Sarah. Here, I'll give you a boost!
Posted by: Raider || 08/09/2012 10:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Others can speak up, but in all my instruction and classes, never was there time spent upon the Constitution of the United States and the clear implications of the Oath of Office taken as an officer. In the early 70s the Army was in CYA mode after Mai Lai with a video instruction and some words from a JAG instructor, but really nothing of substance about illegal orders.

Someone needs to brush up on the Battle of Athens, Tennessee. Somewhere in the course they'd better include the 'what if your subordinates and men refuse your orders' placing you in the position between those above and those below. Do your loyalties belong to your pay master or to the oath you took?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/09/2012 10:25 Comments || Top||

#3  If I was planning on making plans to subdue another occupy tantrum I'd call it something like the above.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/09/2012 11:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Hence Brian Ross and James Holmes. I guess if you want free and fair elections that makes you a racist and an extremist.
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/09/2012 12:43 Comments || Top||

#5  It's unfortunate that the authors used 'tea party'. There's a reason that we use colors to designate nations and groups during exercises.

That said, they do raise some salient points.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/09/2012 13:58 Comments || Top||

#6  I agree with Bright Pebbles. If you planned to put down Occupy style riots your career would be over if you called it that. Yet if you called it Tea-Party riots you might get the same report out there, do some good, and get a promotion in the process.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 08/09/2012 14:40 Comments || Top||

#7  "Unfortunate" for them I suppose. For the rest of us quite revealing.

“And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (overlooking the Hall of Fallen Heroes, CIA main entrace, McClean, VA)
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/09/2012 14:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Y'all should have stopped reading at History Professor at University of Kansas, the only thing funnier than a need for an extensive storyplot is if the Proggly Madam would have instead chosen Greensboro, NC and those dastardly tea people abducted Roy Williams and raised a Wildcat flag.

Seriously, why does a game colonel need a history professor? Is there some insight about the mid-19th century production of wartime socks into what a 21st century behavior might be?

And so I guess letting my daughter watch the musical 1776 has turned her into a klam member, hilarious on so many levels, especially the picture of the two of them, drinking coffee late into a stormy night, building the plot.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 08/09/2012 14:57 Comments || Top||

#9  I may be a bit paranoid, but all of the things coming up about riot gear being bought for November, articles like this and general hostility toward those that don't tow the party line makes me believe that this is really pushing towards the goal of keeping Obama in office. Even if he loses the election.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/09/2012 15:13 Comments || Top||

#10  Incidents like the 'Battle of Athens' can be re-engineered with results rather different than happened in 1946. Just saying.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 08/09/2012 15:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Darth, the US military is unlikely to cooperate in any power grabs and without them such a grab is impossible.
Posted by: Rjschwarz || 08/09/2012 16:44 Comments || Top||

#12  Tea party Glen Beck only chance of hurting people with a weapon is if you are highly trained. Soldiers and SWAT the rest of the people only have a 4 percent chance! I watched an FBI agent popping rounds at dear and in the direction of people good luck KIDZ!
Posted by: Clyde Omoluter9733 || 08/09/2012 19:36 Comments || Top||

#13  Not to mention that there are a lot of veterans among active Tea Partiers - and I knew of a handful of active-duty who were active also, but had to keep their involvement low-key. I was drawn into involvement in a local Tea Party myself, through friendship with a retired officer who was forming a local chapter. Having Tea Partiers in this scenario execute a coup against a legitimately-elected city government was really way, way out of line, and not credible ... considering that one of the three key principles was fidelity to the Constitution. (The other two being fiscal responsibility and free markets ... real free markets, without the thumb of big government on the scale.)
It is ... unsettling, though ... to read of high-ranked military officers appearing incapable of differentiating between the current administration and fidelity to the Constitution.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 08/09/2012 20:10 Comments || Top||

#14  ...oh, and does it dawn on these people that the war in Iraq turned when the Iraqi people had enough of the insurgents and the lack thereof in Afghanistan is going to make it damn difficult to sustain whatever is left in place. It's called consent of the governed. We showed up with all sorts of trinkets and bobbles and money, but it wasn't till the other side clearly PO'd the general population that stuff turned around. When you ID as the 'red team' people who hold fundamental beliefs that the majority of the population hold, you've set yourself up for eventual long term failure and you have to expect a number of 'aw sh*t' events that will undermine 'winning the hearts and minds' to expand any further support.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 08/09/2012 20:24 Comments || Top||

#15  Tea party Glen Beck only chance of hurting people with a weapon is if you are highly trained. Soldiers and SWAT the rest of the people only have a 4 percent chance! I watched an FBI agent popping rounds at dear and in the direction of people good luck KIDZ!

Clyde Omoluter9733, if you would be kind enough to clarify your above using very simple words, I would be grateful. I can't find any sense in it at all, which suggests I'm not thinking very clearly tonight.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/09/2012 20:36 Comments || Top||

#16  Seriously, why does a game colonel need a history professor?

One of the professor's works was on the Copperheads.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/09/2012 22:21 Comments || Top||

#17  “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (overlooking the Hall of Fallen Heroes, CIA main entrace, McClean, VA)

I can throw out quotes too:

"We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world." - J. William Fulbright

Funny thing - I was trained to think of all possible possibles and any impossibles that came to mind, at all times. You didn't; you were at fault when something went wrong and you weren't ready. That's one of the curses of the gold braid.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/09/2012 22:28 Comments || Top||


-Election 2012
Adelson Files $60 Million Libel Suit Against Democratic Group
Casino magnate and GOP donor Sheldon Adelson has filed a $60 million libel suit against the National Jewish Democratic Council. The NJDC had demanded that Mitt Romney and other Republicans refuse donations from Adelson because he had “personally approved of prostitution at his Macau resorts.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee repeated the same claim, but backed down in response to Adelson’s threat of a lawsuit, admitting that “the statements were untrue and unfair and we retract them.”

The lawsuit against the NJDC alleges that their goal in making these accusations “was to advance their perceived political interests by assassinating Mr. Adelson’s character, punishing him for exercising his right to make monetary contributions to political causes and candidates of his choice, and demeaning him within the Jewish community.”

However, the NJDC has refused to acknowledge its error, and is planning to take this battle to court.
Posted by: lotp || 08/09/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll put my money on Adelson.
Posted by: Mikey Hunt || 08/09/2012 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  The NJDC is refusing to back down because they need the publicity for fundraising.
Posted by: Penguin || 08/09/2012 10:21 Comments || Top||

#3  The NJDC is refusing to back down because they need the publicity for fundraising.

It would be amusing if all the money they raise is diverted towards fighting the lawsuit. Think of it as another campaign contribution by Adelson - money spent by NJDC on the lawsuit isn't spent attacking Romney. Pocket change for Adelson (who's 79), but potentially ruinous for NJDC.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/09/2012 10:57 Comments || Top||

#4  $60,000,000.00. This how you do it. Don't just defend yourself, let the left wing smear machine you will break their bank acconts.
Posted by: Uluse Oppressor of the Texans7477 || 08/09/2012 11:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Lemme get this straight: Prostitution is OK in Nevada and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, says nothing about it. But it's not OK for Sheldon Adelson to keep a few girls at his Macau resort where, presumably, prostitution is also OK.

But wait, there's more. What about those Secret Service boys who got caught with their pants down in Cartagena? What if they wanted to kick in $100 bucks or so for the candidate of their choice? Is the NJDC gonna go through all the bordellos in the whole wide world looking for johns who might contribute to Mitt Romney? How come the never got after Teddy Kennedy?
Posted by: Abu Uluque || 08/09/2012 12:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Prostitution is not legal in all NV counties, especially the major (Clark, Douglas, Washoe, etc.). Usually it's OK in the lesser neighboring county
Posted by: Frank G || 08/09/2012 13:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Free speech doesn't include libel methinks.
Posted by: European Conservative || 08/09/2012 15:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Liberals say, "Free speech for me, but not for thee."
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/09/2012 15:15 Comments || Top||

#9  The Donks do not like that Adelson has pledged a large part of his fortune to defeat Obama.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/09/2012 16:29 Comments || Top||

#10  Adelson is just putting his money where his mouth is. Good for him I'd say.
Posted by: Charles || 08/09/2012 20:22 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
35[untagged]
4Govt of Syria
2TTP
2al-Qaeda in Arabia
2Govt of Pakistan
2Hezbollah
2Taliban
1al-Qaeda in Pakistan
1al-Qaeda in Iraq
1Arab Spring
1Global Jihad
1Palestinian Authority

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


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.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Thu 2012-08-09
  Yemen Strike Kills Key Al-Qaeda Leader, Foreign Militants
Wed 2012-08-08
  Muslim Terrorists Tell Nigeria's Christian President: 'Convert or Resign'
Tue 2012-08-07
  Libya’s interim authorities to hand over power to congress
Mon 2012-08-06
  Syria Prime Minister Riad Hijab defects
Sun 2012-08-05
  Kidnapped Syrian teevee host executed
Sat 2012-08-04
  IMU Emir Abu Usman Adil has Died
Fri 2012-08-03
  67 Killed in Syria as Rebels Use Tanks to Shell Aleppo Airbase
Thu 2012-08-02
  Kofi Annan quits as UN-Arab League envoy
Wed 2012-08-01
  Mexican Marines bag five, detain four in firefight in Veracruz
Tue 2012-07-31
  Unconfirmed: Saudi spy chief Prince Bandar assassinated, report says
Mon 2012-07-30
  Nine dead after Dagestani raid
Sun 2012-07-29
  Syria Rebels Fend Off Aleppo Assault
Sat 2012-07-28
  Helicopter gunships strafe Aleppo
Fri 2012-07-27
  62 Mexican Policias Federales kidnapped in Michoacan
Thu 2012-07-26
  Syrian envoy to Cyprus defects

Better than the average link...



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.
44.222.196.236
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (22)    WoT Background (7)    Opinion (8)    (0)    Politix (4)