Hi there, !
Today Sat 01/07/2012 Fri 01/06/2012 Thu 01/05/2012 Wed 01/04/2012 Tue 01/03/2012 Mon 01/02/2012 Sun 01/01/2012 Archives
Rantburg
533817 articles and 1862268 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 56 articles and 192 comments as of 5:42.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Opinion        Politix   
Morocco gets new Islamist-led government
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 3: Non-WoT
13 00:00 Pappy [11] 
0 [7] 
6 00:00 OldSpook [4] 
6 00:00 JosephMendiola [8] 
1 00:00 Anonymoose [3] 
24 00:00 Frank G [8] 
1 00:00 Anonymoose [1] 
0 [1] 
1 00:00 Anonymoose [1] 
2 00:00 Redneck Jim [5] 
13 00:00 Scooter McGruder [8] 
3 00:00 Deacon Blues [3] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
5 00:00 Uncle Phester [4]
5 00:00 SteveS [10]
2 00:00 USN, Ret. [9]
0 [6]
0 [6]
0 [9]
1 00:00 JosephMendiola [9]
0 [5]
0 [16]
0 [11]
2 00:00 Pappy [8]
0 [8]
4 00:00 trailing wife [7]
0 [9]
0 [2]
4 00:00 Fred [2]
Page 2: WoT Background
11 00:00 Slomp Oppressor of the Faeries1490 [7]
10 00:00 tu3031 [10]
5 00:00 OldSpook [7]
0 [1]
6 00:00 JosephMendiola [9]
0 [2]
1 00:00 Super Hose [3]
0 [6]
0 [6]
0 [1]
0 [5]
0 [5]
0 [3]
3 00:00 Super Hose [3]
7 00:00 Steven [6]
1 00:00 Super Hose [7]
1 00:00 mojo [7]
0 [3]
1 00:00 Mullah Richard [8]
Page 4: Opinion
6 00:00 Redneck Jim [8]
Page 6: Politix
1 00:00 JohnQC [3]
6 00:00 Super Hose [11]
14 00:00 Barbara [10]
4 00:00 Deacon Blues [5]
1 00:00 Barbara [5]
3 00:00 Uncle Phester [3]
12 00:00 Slomp Oppressor of the Faeries1490 [10]
6 00:00 Thing From Snowy Mountain [8]
-Short Attention Span Theater-
White House Denies CIA Teleported Obama to Mars
Forget Kenya. Never mind the secret madrassas. The sinister, shocking truth about Barack Obama’s past lies not in east Africa, but in outer space. As a young man in the early 1980s, Obama was part of a secret CIA project to explore Mars. The future president teleported there, along with the future head of Darpa.

That’s the assertion, at least, of a pair of self-proclaimed time-traveling, universe-exploring government agents. Andrew D. Basiago and William Stillings insist that they once served as “chrononauts” at Darpa’s behest, traversing the boundaries of time and space. They swear: A youthful Barack Obama was one of them.

Perhaps this all sounds fantastical, absurd, and more than a little nuts. We couldn’t agree more. That’s one of the reasons we love conspiracy theories — the more awesomely insane, the better. Each week during 2012, when the Mayans tell us to expect the apocalypse, Danger Room will peel back a new layer of crazy to expose those oh-so-cleverly hidden machinations powering this doomed plane of existence. Welcome — back — to Tinfoil Tuesday.

According to Basiago and Stillings, Obama isn’t just lying about his identity. He’s lying about his military service record, too. While his political opponents in 2008 attacked him for never serving, in truth, he was concealing his participation in a hidden CIA intergalactic program hosted at a California community college in 1980.

Officially, the White House says Obama never went to Mars. “Only if you count watching Marvin the Martian,” Tommy Vietor, the spokesman for the National Security Council, tells Danger Room. But that’s exactly what a secret chrononaut wants you to believe.

Danger Room What's Next in National Security Previous post Next post White House Denies CIA Teleported Obama to Mars
167
inShare.
By Spencer Ackerman Email Author January 3, 2012 | 3:00 pm | Categories: Tinfoil Tuesday


Forget Kenya. Never mind the secret madrassas. The sinister, shocking truth about Barack Obama’s past lies not in east Africa, but in outer space. As a young man in the early 1980s, Obama was part of a secret CIA project to explore Mars. The future president teleported there, along with the future head of Darpa.

That’s the assertion, at least, of a pair of self-proclaimed time-traveling, universe-exploring government agents. Andrew D. Basiago and William Stillings insist that they once served as “chrononauts” at Darpa’s behest, traversing the boundaries of time and space. They swear: A youthful Barack Obama was one of them.

Perhaps this all sounds fantastical, absurd, and more than a little nuts. We couldn’t agree more. That’s one of the reasons we love conspiracy theories — the more awesomely insane, the better. Each week during 2012, when the Mayans tell us to expect the apocalypse, Danger Room will peel back a new layer of crazy to expose those oh-so-cleverly hidden machinations powering this doomed plane of existence. Welcome — back — to Tinfoil Tuesday.

According to Basiago and Stillings, Obama isn’t just lying about his identity. He’s lying about his military service record, too. While his political opponents in 2008 attacked him for never serving, in truth, he was concealing his participation in a hidden CIA intergalactic program hosted at a California community college in 1980.

Officially, the White House says Obama never went to Mars. “Only if you count watching Marvin the Martian,” Tommy Vietor, the spokesman for the National Security Council, tells Danger Room. But that’s exactly what a secret chrononaut wants you to believe.




Obama wasn’t the only one making the otherworldly voyage. As “Barry Soetero,” the 19-year-old Obama was one of 10 youths selected to secretly teleport to and from Mars, forming a band of interplanetary Teen Titans. Regina Dugan, the director of Darpa, was another member.

Between 1981 and 1983, Obama is supposed to have visited Mars twice, by way of a teleportation chamber called a “jump room.” Basiago, a fellow chrononaut, told the website Exopolitics that he saw Obama “walk back to the jump room from across the Martian terrain.” To acknowledge his comrade, Obama is said to have told Basiago, “We’re here” — apparently, “with some sense of fatalism.”

It is not known what exactly Obama did on Mars. (Socializing Martian health care, perhaps? Building a birth-certificate printing press?) His mission was a perilous one, according to Basiago and Stillings. The CIA wished to “establish a defense regime protecting the Earth from threats from space” as well as a legal claim to “territorial sovereignty,” making Obama something of a Martian conquistador. Presumably, Obama’s CIA handlers needed him to “acclimate Martian humanoids and animals to their presence” in order to secure the U.S.-Martian alliance. (We’ll bet you weren’t even aware of Martian animals.)

“Simply put, your task is to be seen and not eaten,” an elder chrononaut, retired Army Maj. Ed Dames, is alleged to have told a young Obama.

You can scoff at the idea of Obama on Mars. But it explains a lot. Obviously the birth-certificate controversy is a side effect of Obama forgetting to sufficiently establish his fake identity as he learned to manipulate time and space. (Dugan has a demonstrated record of supporting space travel; the “jump room” must be broken.) And who else but a man accustomed to keeping the country’s most explosive secret would be comfortable waging so many undeclared wars? Ignore Basiago and Stillings at your own peril. If Obama’s reelected, the U.S. is finally colonizing Mars.
Posted by: Beavis || 01/04/2012 11:49 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


2011 medication shortages set new record
Problem? What problem?
Posted by: gorb || 01/04/2012 05:12 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A lot of these shortages have been caused by the DEA, that somewhere along the line was given power to limit the amount of "commonly abused pharmaceuticals" that drug companies are allowed to produce.

That is, it is a direct conflict between the FDA and the DEA.

This means that if you look at the shortage drugs, the bulk are pain relievers, ADHD drugs, and drugs used as bodybuilding supplements.

Most of the rest are "orphan drugs", with few users, and drugs no longer under patent, with low profit margins, that were made generically, but the company doing so went out of business or was bought out. Some are legitimate production shortages.

There is some sanity behind the insanity, however, as drug companies had been overproducing huge amounts of drugs that were going directly into the black market, and they knew it. And they made no effort to tighten up their distribution networks, because of the great profits involved.

FDA list of current drug shortages. A useful reference to find out ahead of time if you might be caught short.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/04/2012 9:17 Comments || Top||


Russell Brand, Katy Perry to divorce after 14 months
[Emirates 24/7] Russell Brand is divorcing Katy Perry after 14 months of what appeared to be a storybook marriage.
Since I don't know who either is I'm just absolutely not devastated.
They lasted twelve months longer than Kim Kardashian and whats-his-name...
"Sadly, Katy and I are ending our marriage," Brand said in a statement released to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Friday. "I'll always adore her and I know we'll remain friends."
Well, I'll tell you, if I'da sent them a toaster I'd want it back.
Brand, 36, offered no other details, but in papers filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the British comedian cited irreconcilable differences.
"We're still on speakin' and kissin' terms. Every time I speak to her she tells me to kiss her ass."
He and the 27-year-old pop singer were married in October 2010 at a resort inside a tiger reserve in India, and their mutual affection had become a rather sweet feature of the Hollywood celebrity circuit.
Worked out well, didn't it? My wife and I leave each other most of the time and we're not sick of each other yet.
Posted by: Fred || 01/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Katy Perry looks like a slightly dumber version of my soul mate Zooey Deschanel, who's making my life very hard by staying in Hollywood and staying married to someone else.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/04/2012 0:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Zooey, eh? Hmmm, if only I was doing Bloids these days...
Posted by: Steve White || 01/04/2012 0:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Here's a pic I found of Katy's "melons" , for those that are interested.

BTW: What does "Irreconcilable Differences" mean? Was Brand already having problems reconciling the difference between Katy and some other girl who sat in his lap?
Posted by: gorb || 01/04/2012 4:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Katy who?
Posted by: Twobyfour || 01/04/2012 5:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Giveashit, Just one.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/04/2012 6:25 Comments || Top||

#6  Apologies in advance but this link ruined Katy for me so beware before looking.

Link

Medium talent, songs with lots of sexual innuendo aimed at teens, and of course large knockers well displayed. She's a marketing departments dream.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/04/2012 8:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Ho hum. Who are they?
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/04/2012 10:54 Comments || Top||

#8  She's one of the decorated bags hollywood fills with shit and tries to sell you, best known for a song which had pre-teens mumbling lyrics about fallacio.

No idea who the guy is, but I wouldn't put him in charge of anything important.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/04/2012 11:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Interesting that they seem to care about it in the Emirates.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/04/2012 11:22 Comments || Top||

#10  I've seen pictures of him, he looks like he's possessed by djinns.
Posted by: Grunter || 01/04/2012 12:36 Comments || Top||

#11  Guy is creepy and just plain weird. With a beard.
Posted by: mojo || 01/04/2012 13:31 Comments || Top||

#12  No idea who the guy is, but I wouldn't put him in charge of anything important.

British-accented actor with dreadful hair. The kind who elicits the question, "Do you have any idea who he is, dear?" of one's spouse. Said spouse knew only that the gentleman in question is the former Mr. Katy Perry, about whom said spouse knows a great deal, having seen her interviewed in one of the late night shows.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/04/2012 15:17 Comments || Top||

#13  Brand was in the fairly-funny flick "Get Him To The Greek" but he's an anti-Semite left-wing wacko, so just enjoy the movie and ignore the actor. Drudge had a link indicating that he gets $30 mill off Perry in the divorce so there is evidence that he values $$$ over a successful, smokin' hot chick with big thingies. Go figure.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 01/04/2012 21:17 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
UN: 100s thought dead in South Sudan
[Iran Press TV] The United Nations
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly...
says days of festivities between rival tribes in the east of South Sudan may have left up to hundreds of people dead.

According to the UN sources, on Monday, around 6,000 fighters of the Lou Nuer ethnic group attacked the remote town of Pibor in the troubled Jonglei state after days of festivities with the rival Murle tribe over cattle rustling.

South Sudan has sent military reinforcements to the town to curb the inter-ethnic violence.

Describing the humanitarian situation in the region 'grim,' the UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan, Lise Grande said on Tuesday that the tribal conflict might have left 'tens, perhaps hundreds' dead.

Grande said the UN peacekeepers and government troops had succeeded on Tuesday in repelling the attacks.

Tens of thousands of civilians are said to have decamped Pibor and nearby towns over the recent days to escape the violence.

Over the last several years, the two tribes have traded violent attacks that have killed thousands.

South Sudan became independent on July 9, 2011 after decades of conflict with Sudan, which claimed the lives of over 1.5 million people.

A historic peace agreement signed in 2005 paved the way for a independence referendum in January 2011, in which southerners voted almost unanimously in favor of having a state of their own.

The new oil-rich state is one of the least developed ones in the world, where one in every seven children dies before reaching the age of five.
Posted by: Fred || 01/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We don't cotton to cattle rustlin' in these here parts, you sidewinders."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/04/2012 9:25 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Congolese MP injured in Paris attack
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The president of the DR Congo Senate, Mr Leon Kengo wa Dondo was victim of a violent attack in Gay Paree last Saturday.

Government front man and Minister of Information, Mr Lambert Mende Omalanga has denounced the attack.

Mr Kengo wa Dondo was attacked by a group of Congolese citizens called "Combatants" close to the opposition while he was leaving a train arriving from Brussels at the Gare du Nord railway station

According to sources, Mr Kengo was maimed and lost two teeth during the attack. According to Mr Omalanga, Mr Kengo is currently in a hospital for treatment.

Mr Kengo ran for president against Joseph Kabila at the last election and came fourth with 4.95 per cent.

According to Mr Omalanga, Mr Kengo was attacked because he did not give Mr Etienne Tshisekedi, leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), a chance to to win.
Posted by: Fred || 01/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Mugabe's police stop Anglican church retreat
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Zim-bob-wean police today stopped a retreat for Anglican Church clergymen outside Harare citing the country's tough security laws.

The 80 clergymen belong to the mainstream of the Anglican church, which split into two after a bishop linked to President Bob Muggsy Mugabe
Octogenarian President-for-Life of Zim-bob-we who turned the former Breadbasket of Africa into the African Basket Case...
's Zanu PF party was excommunicated.

In a statement, the Harare diocese of the Anglican Church of Central Africa (CPCA) said the clergymen were holding their annual retreat at a private school outside the town of Marondera about 65 kilometres from Harare.

"The police claimed the Anglicans had not sought police clearance to gather for prayer as required in terms of the Public Order and Security Act," the church said.

The church accused the police of siding with the excommunicated Bishop Nolbert Kunonga who has been pushing his rivals out of Anglican premises across the country.

The clergymen had reportedly refused to leave the school on Monday after police told them that their retreat was illegal.

They dared the police to remove them by force because they had not broken any law.

"This morning, Marondera police arrived at Peterhouse High School and ordered all clergymen to vacate the school premises," the church said.

Harare Diocese leader Bishop Chad Gandiya accused the police of bias and said the actions marked a continuation of persecution against his followers.

"This is calculated harassment by some of the coppers," he said. "We deplore this action and call upon higher authorities to intervene.'
Posted by: Fred || 01/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not a good idea. There are 36.7m Anglicans in the 11 provinces in Africa, who have been experiencing explosive growth over the past decade or more, at a time when wealth has been pouring in from disaffected Anglican, ex-Episcopalian conservatives from the US. They draw from all economic classes in the continent.

The Anglican bishops and Archbishops in Africa now have the power of princes, yet wield that power judiciously. But were they to turn on someone persecuting Anglicans in Africa, they could have a ginormous, and fairly well armed army overnight.

Even Muslim Arabs are starting to tread carefully around them. To some extent, they were likely involved in supporting the Christians of South Sudan.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/04/2012 9:34 Comments || Top||


Europe
'Greece needs bailout to keep euro'
[Iran Press TV] The Greek government has announced that it may have to leave the euro zone if it fails to secure its second multi-billion-euro bailout from the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

"This famous loan agreement must be signed, otherwise we are outside the markets, out of the euro, and things will become much worse," Greek government front man Pantelis Kapsis said on Tuesday.

Greece has so far received a first, 110-billion-euro ($142 billion) international bailout agreed in May 2010, and expects to receive a second 130-billion-euro ($169 billion) rescue package to keep its economy afloat and avoid bankruptcy.

The second bailout, which was agreed by EU leaders in October, will be provided contingent on Greece taking stricter measures to cut its huge deficit and overhaul its economy.

The Greek parliament passed its latest round of austerity measures, which include cuts in public sector salaries and pensions and tax rises, in early December following the formation of an interim government led by Lucas Papademos.

Many Greek public sector employees, including pharmacists, doctors, and industry workers, have held massive strikes to protest the cost-cutting measures and liberalization policies pursued by the cash-strapped government.

EU, IMF, and European Central Bank inspectors are expected to arrive in the Greek capital Athens later in January to review the progress of the debt-crippled country's deficit-cutting plans.

Greece has the highest debt burden in proportion to the size of its economy in the entire 17-nation eurozone.

Europe plunged into a deep financial crisis in early 2010. Insolvency now threatens heavily debt-ridden countries such as Greece, Portugal, Italia, Ireland, and Spain.
Posted by: Fred || 01/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Italy is repor now under watch to possibly leave the EUZ after Greece.

* ION FREEREPUBLIC > [Zero Hedge] US CLOSES 2011 WID RECORD US$15.22TRILYUHN IN DEBT, 100.3% DEBT/GDP, US$14.0BILYUHN FROM DEBT CEILING.

and

* WORLD NEWS > WORLD'S LARGEST ECONOMIES FACE US$7.0TRILYUHN IN MATURING GOVERNMENT DEBT IN 2012.

G-7 + BRIC Nations.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/04/2012 0:10 Comments || Top||

#2  GIMME MONEY,NOW.
(America) Right away, of course, Yessir Bwana.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/04/2012 6:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Pentagon to unveil revised defense strategy
A review of U.S. strategic interests that will guide Pentagon budget cuts in coming years is expected to propose keeping fewer troops in Europe and abandoning the goal of maintaining a force that can fight and win two wars simultaneously, administration officials say.
So. How's that "reducing the deficit" bull$hit working out for keeping the free world intact?
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will unveil the results of the eight-month strategic review on Thursday at a joint news conference with Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

The review is expected to propose the removal of another brigade of Army combat troops from Europe, leaving two brigades still on the continent, one administration official said. A brigade consists of some 3,000 to 4,000 troops depending on its configuration.

"That's a very real possibility, but not a new one," said another administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It's an idea - and even a plan - that's been kicked around for years."

The review is also expected to include a recommendation that the United States abandon its long-held goal of being able to fight and win two wars simultaneously, the first administration official said.

Instead, the United States should aim to fight and win one major war while being able to meet and "spoil" any aggressive designs by a second adversary, said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of Thursday's news conference.

The review was initiated by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates after President Barack Obama asked defense officials to cut some $400 billion in planned spending over 12 years without jeopardizing the country's strategic interests.

The spending reductions, while not yet set in stone, are expected to trim the number of military and civilian defense personnel, delay or cut back on some high-profile weapons systems like the radar-evading F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and take steps to control spiraling health-care costs.

The Pentagon and White House declined to discuss the contents of the review, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama had been "deeply involved" in the process, meeting Panetta, Dempsey and others, including top combat commanders.

Carney said the strategy recognized "that we are at a turning point after a decade of war, with new challenges and opportunities that call for a reshaping of our defense priorities."

The results of the review come as the Pentagon begins a broad discussion of spending issues ahead of the official February 6 release of President Barack Obama's budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which begins in October.

Panetta decided to preview the strategic review early in the year to give lawmakers ample time to absorb and digest it ahead of the formal budget announcement, one defense official said.

NO 'BLOODBATH'

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a similar move last January and Pentagon leaders felt it was "a good way of doing it," the defense official said.

A second senior defense official said Panetta would unveil some details affecting major weapons programs but added that he did not expect a big number of program cancellations or the kind of "bloodbath" Gates announced in April 2009, when he killed or cut back on many weapons systems.

Major U.S. defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman have been anxiously awaiting news about any major program cuts in the new budget.

The senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the cuts were "not going to be without pain for industry."

One source briefed on the Pentagon's budget plans said Panetta would announce delays in several new weapons programs, including a two-year delay in work on a replacement for the Ohio-class submarine and a two-year delay in work on a second new Ford-class aircraft carrier.

Panetta was also expected to announce slower production rates for the radar-evading F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon's largest procurement plan.

Rather than major program cuts, the source said the bulk of the cuts for the 2013 fiscal year were expected to come from the production delays as well as troop reductions and changes in healthcare and retirement benefits.

Obama and Congress, in an effort to get control of the government's huge deficits, agreed last year on a budget deal that could cut projected defense spending by more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

The first round of cuts will reduce spending by $350 billion to nearly $500 billion, depending on whether it is compared to Congressional Budget Office projections or the Pentagon's own projections of defense spending.

The Defense Department is facing a second round of across-the-board cuts that could reduce spending by another $600 billion after a so-called congressional "super committee" failed to agree on alternative ways to reduce the budget.

It was unclear whether senior congressional leaders had been briefed yet on the final details of the strategic review, but one committee staffer said Panetta had met with eight top lawmakers late last year.

"We would be surprised if any announcement he made this week strayed too far from that conversation," the staffer said on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: gorb || 01/04/2012 05:29 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bring home all combat and combat-support troops from Europe. We don't need them there. Europe is not threatened by an external nation-state.

We can stay at the airbases. The hospital at Landstuhl is extremely useful. A few naval ports of call are useful.

That's about it.

We certainly can cut our defense budget modestly to help with tough times, and Europe is one place where we can do the cutting.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/04/2012 8:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I believe I read somewhere that the US bases in Europe produce about 200,000 local jobs and add about $10B to the local economies.

The 'Euro-Centrists' in the WH wouldn't want to p*ss off their socialist Euro-Elite brethren by closing bases and causing problems within the proletariat.
Posted by: Mullah Richard || 01/04/2012 10:05 Comments || Top||

#3  We have gone form a military built to fight two major theater conflicts simultaneously, to 1.5 where we delay while we win, to 1 and some poor bastards who get kinetic discharges while we win, to the Obama goal, an annoying force with cool uniforms and great travel accommodations whose goal is not to upset 3rd rate powers and most certainly not to threaten our Eastern overlords.
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 01/04/2012 12:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Bleed the military dry then complain while the Trunks build it back up. Typical liberal doctrine.
Posted by: gorb || 01/04/2012 12:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Its the Obama doctrine.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/04/2012 14:43 Comments || Top||

#6  DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > SOURCES: US DEFENCE BUDGET CUTS PREVENT TWO-WAR FORCE STRUCTURE.

ARTIC = Iran can threaten US CV's operat in the Persian Gulf because believes it can now do whatever it wants - wid 91,000 US Troops in Afghanistan thru Year 2014, A US ATTACK + INVASION AGZ IRAN IS ALL BUT ABSOLUTELY PREVENTED DUE TO MAJOR US ECON + BUDGET CONSTRAINTS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/04/2012 21:39 Comments || Top||


It's Romney by a cat's hair over Santorum
Posted by: badanov || 01/04/2012 02:42 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They found that hair after some fine combing.
Posted by: Twobyfour || 01/04/2012 5:11 Comments || Top||

#2  When did the Republican party turn into the re-elect Zero party?
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/04/2012 6:45 Comments || Top||

#3  And that's a RED cat's hair.
Posted by: Thravising Snuger2383 || 01/04/2012 6:52 Comments || Top||

#4  This is actually a superb outcome.

Do the math, it means that Romney is a loser, since once Paul drops out, almost all his voters would go to Santorum, and Santorum is on notice that Paul's supporters are just barely a minority among his support, so he had better not ignore them. With Paul's supporters he has close to a 2/3rds majority.

This means that the current situation is that Romney is out, Santorum is the nominee, and Santorum has to pull sharply to the right, against the status quo.

Next up, Romney has a complete win in NH on 10 Jan, which is utterly meaningless. Get this: there are 30 Republican candidates on the ballot in NH.

The next real primary vote after that is South Carolina on 21 Jan. Then the disabled Florida primary on 31 Jan, which will not say much, because they are in violation of party rules, they are losing half their convention delegates.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/04/2012 8:12 Comments || Top||

#5  If Perry drops out where do his votes go?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/04/2012 8:30 Comments || Top||

#6  Assuming a big win for Romney in NH, all the other candidates except Paul and Santorum are out and the fundraising for Santorum will be badly wounded.
Posted by: Lord Garth || 01/04/2012 8:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Applying (modified) classical machinists' measuring units to political result, eh, badanov?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/04/2012 9:01 Comments || Top||

#8  Every fucking time, we get the retarded Democrat-in-the-General states weed out all the credible non-crack-headed conservative candidates before I get to cast a vote.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/04/2012 9:10 Comments || Top||

#9  It's all about getting rid of BHO. I'll vote for Hillary if that's what it takes.
Posted by: RandomJD || 01/04/2012 9:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Lord Garth: Romney has long owned NH, which has just a tiny number of delegates (12 out of 2,286 total) and is truly inconsequential, other than being early in the season.

Here are the allocations by state (chart).
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/04/2012 9:24 Comments || Top||

#11  I think Palin will endorse Santorum in South Carolina where she is popular and helped elect Niki. Of course Mitt will get the coveted McShame endorsement sometime today and the game will be on. Perhaps the conservatives will consolidate behind a single candidate and give the establishment a run for its money.
Posted by: bman || 01/04/2012 10:01 Comments || Top||

#12  Santorum isn't going anywhere. He has no organization outside of Iowa, and no money. He just camped there for the last 6 months.

Romney got fewer votes in 2012 than he did in 2008. He'll win New Hampshire. After that it is anyone's game.

Ron Paul is a circus side show. Get your two bits worth and move on.

Sounds like Bachmann is out today, which is a good thing. Her campaign had devolved into nothing but a Romney stalking horse.

It is still early in the process. Santorum will now get the same treatment that Bachmann, Cain, Perry and Gingrich have gotten. 75% of the party still can't stomach Romney. We need to consolidate the field a bit, then see where the chips fall.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/04/2012 10:20 Comments || Top||

#13  once Paul drops out, almost all his voters would go to Santorum

Say what????? Santorum's a big-government social conservative, a strong supporter of Israel and an open critic of Islamicism. The Paulinistas are gonna go to HIM????
Posted by: lotp || 01/04/2012 11:07 Comments || Top||

#14  The Paulinistas are gonna go to HIM????

Well, they're not gonna go to Romney.

Every fucking time, we get the retarded Democrat-in-the-General states weed out all the credible non-crack-headed conservative candidates before I get to cast a vote.

This is my complaint, even though most of you consider California to be a crack head state too. I wish I had a chance to vote for Perry but it looks like I never will.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/04/2012 11:32 Comments || Top||

#15  Looking at the map I'd guess Romney concentrated in the metropolitan areas while the others were out beating the bush in the boondocks. Kinda makes sense because that's obviously where the votes were. Santorum took the majority of the rural counties by showing up in each and every one of them and talking to the people out there. But he didn't get the majority of the votes. If nothing else, Romney is a savvy campaigner. Hope some of the rest of them can learn from it before it's too late.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/04/2012 11:41 Comments || Top||

#16  The Paulinistas aren't going to anybody, because Paul isn't going to drop out. He didn't drop out in 2008 and he won't do it now. Paul is not making strategic decisions based on reality. He's on a head trip that he'll ride as long as he can.

The smart money is still on either Gingrich or Perry, especially once the race moves to the South.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/04/2012 12:13 Comments || Top||

#17  Just read on Drudge that Perry has tweeted he is going to South Carolina.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/04/2012 12:48 Comments || Top||

#18  If the anti Romney vote keeps getting split by multiple candidates we'll end up with a Trunk Presidential candidate who wins the primary season with a 25% plurality. But, not to worry he's endorsed by McCain. That's a scary scenario.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/04/2012 13:10 Comments || Top||

#19  How's this for a Machiavellian theory:

Perry goes to Texas to Reassess/Suspend Campaign.

Romney calls Perry and asks him to stay in the race.

Perry stays in race and continues to contribute to the split of anti-Romney votes.

Romney gains Trunk nomination with plurality.

Romney pays Perry's campaign debt and/or chooses him for VP.

NOTE: Last SC poll 12/18 Perry=5%. Texas politics is Illinois politics with a drawl.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC || 01/04/2012 14:10 Comments || Top||

#20  "Romney calls Perry and asks him to stay in the race."

This is absurd. Until just a few weeks ago the only campaign Romney was attacking was Perry's. He is and remains the biggest threat to Romney's limping to the nomination.
Posted by: Iblis || 01/04/2012 17:34 Comments || Top||

#21  Let them slug it out.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/04/2012 18:07 Comments || Top||

#22  Romney should choose Rand Paul as VP and crush Obama
Posted by: Airandee || 01/04/2012 19:57 Comments || Top||

#23  I'm just happy Paul only made third. My first pick is Perry ('cause I'm a Texan). But I would vote for Obama before I'd vote for that deranged anti-Semite Dr. Ron Paul, who is not even a genuine Republican. I expect to have to eventually just hold my nose and vote for Mitt over Obama, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 01/04/2012 21:11 Comments || Top||

#24  cat's hair, huh? Guess I'm getting older, I remember a different phrase
Posted by: Frank G || 01/04/2012 22:34 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Rickshaw drivers clash with police
[Dawn] A violent protest by rickshaw drivers against a traffic plan that restricts their movement in the city turned the Grand Trunk Road into a battlefield as they came in clash with the police here on Monday.

The stick-wielding drivers damaged public and private properties, beat up coppers and snatched ticket books from traffic sergeants.

All this happened during their wheel-jam strike against the traffic plan that, in a move to reduce vehicular pressure on main arteries, asked unregistered rickshaws plying in the city to get registered with the police.

Policemen and rickshaw drivers were seen beating each other on the main road, forcing passengers and public transport vehicles to stay away from G.T. Road for many hours.

The protesting drivers broke signboards, police pickets, road grills and blocked the road at different laces by placing pushcarts and burning tyres. Police also fired teargas shells on the protesters and charged them with baton.

A police officer said that FIR was registered against the leaders of rickshaw drivers at Hashtnagri cop shoppe. One of them had been nabbed and the rest would be nabbed soon, he added.

He claimed that influential political personalities were behind the rickshaw owners as they were extorting money from them.
Posted by: Fred || 01/04/2012 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  Jesus, they still have rickshaws there? Even in China they've all switched over to pedicabs.
Posted by: gromky || 01/04/2012 3:21 Comments || Top||

#2  My money is on the rickshaw drivers. They would be as hard as nails and tough as a woolpack.
Posted by: Grunter || 01/04/2012 12:33 Comments || Top||

#3  They are most probably auto-rickshaws, a motorized version of a rickshaw.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 01/04/2012 20:00 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Fukushima Radiation Killed Thousands of Americans
In a study released just before Christmas, researchers estimate that 14,000 Americans died due to the effects of radioactive materials released by the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in March 2011.

We take it apart in this piece.
14,000 out of a population of 350,000,000 comes out to a 0.0004 percent increase in the mortality rate, assuming my often faulty arithmetic is correct. And the cause is, of course, absolutely nailed to Fukushima. It couldn't possibly be something else, like Global Warming/Nuclear Winter/The Brutal Afghan Autumn, or bird flu, or swine flu, horse flu, duck flu, or an increase in solar radiation by-products associated with Green Technology™.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins || 01/04/2012 11:54 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yet not one Japanese. Amazing.
Posted by: Grunter || 01/04/2012 12:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Pretty damn quick mortality for a low-level leak. Pardon me if I squint and look askance at this report.
Posted by: mojo || 01/04/2012 13:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh no, the same hysterics also say that the Japanese are dying in droves and will all have to move to other countries.
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 01/04/2012 13:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Not too tough... I just took a look at the publishing journal. It's a front for US socialized medicine- they even have Frances Fox Piven on the editorial board.
The science is crap, but that's a distraction.
Posted by: Free Radical || 01/04/2012 13:53 Comments || Top||

#5  I have conclusive proof they all choked on HOPE.
Posted by: Shimble Guelph5793 || 01/04/2012 13:57 Comments || Top||

#6  Japanese are dying in droves and will all have to move to other countries.

Oh, that's just great - a plague of radioactive Nipponese zombies. It's going to be World War Z all over again.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/04/2012 14:10 Comments || Top||

#7  I think my grandson has that game...

He's got every other game, anyway...
Posted by: Fred || 01/04/2012 14:27 Comments || Top||

#8  I look forward to the radioactive zombie apocalypse!
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/04/2012 14:35 Comments || Top||

#9  remember:
head shots, and don't get any on ya
Posted by: Frank G || 01/04/2012 15:04 Comments || Top||

#10  I blame Bush ... and global warming ... and capitalism. Now, where's my unicorn?
Posted by: Cincinnatus Chili || 01/04/2012 15:15 Comments || Top||

#11  Uh huh.
Posted by: Mizzou Mafia || 01/04/2012 20:00 Comments || Top||

#12  I knew the pain in my fingertips was lethal. My wife said that I cut my nails too short. Now I know what happened - radiation poisoning.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/04/2012 21:12 Comments || Top||

#13  Kinda late in the day to say it but:

Nice work, Chuck.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/04/2012 23:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
P.C. Army DSS SGM Fired For Cause
The Command Sergeant Major of the U.S. Army’s Drill Sergeant School (DSS) has been suspended from duty and the Army is working overtime to smother the story.

An investigative report by militarycorruption.com (MCC) has uncovered the story Army brass would love to keep secret. According to MCC which specializing in exposing stories about our military the mainstream media and official channels won’t talk about, the Command Sergeant Major of the Army’s Drill Sergeant’s School (DSS) Teresa King has been charged with a variety of violations of Army regulations.

Sergeant Major Teresa King is an African American who will by 50 years old this year. She is has been divorced, has no children and has been in the Army for 31 years. Upon taking command of the DSS on September 22, 2009 King became the first female ever to hold that position.

On paper Sergeant Major King sounds like an ideal soldier and well qualified to be in such an important slot in the Army’s training structure. Nevertheless, once the “paper” is turned over questions about why she was selected abound.

Reports from MCC’s on the ground correspondents say King’s suspension from duty was prompted by her heavy drinking, sexual relationship with a lower ranking enlisted soldier and perhaps worst of all the fact that at least one of the college degree she listed on her resume is from a schools deemed to be diploma mill.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/04/2012 10:28 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We've had this story before. Is there anything new here?
Posted by: lotp || 01/04/2012 11:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Nothing I know of. Also don't see it as 'culture wars'.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/04/2012 11:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Sadly, another case of melanin trumping merit so the percentages reflect proportionality without the need for equivalence. (Think it through)
Posted by: Hupoth Glimp6623 || 01/04/2012 12:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Her resume is "suck". A list of duty assignments:

1) Postal Clerk in the 139th Postal Co.
2) Drill Sgt., 5th Battalion, 3rd BCT.
3) Admin. Asst. to Chief of Staff of the Army.
4) Admin. Asst. to the Director of Defense Security Assistant Agency (DSAA).
5) Senior Enlisted Advisor, DSAA.
6) Assigned to 18th Personnel Service BN.
7) 1SG, 19th AG (Postal) at Camp Casey, Korea.
8) 1DG HHQ, XVIII Airborne Corps.
9) BN CSM, NATO (SHAPE), Belgium.
10) BN CSM, 369 AG BN, Fort Jackson.

That's it, prior to becoming CSM of DSS.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/04/2012 16:01 Comments || Top||

#5  8) Should be 1SG.

Defense Security Assistance Agency is now called "...Cooperation Agency", which is basically a military foreign aid org.

The only people I ever met who were assigned to NATO (SHAPE) had horribly fouled up somewhere. It was a dead end for those the army was too embarrassed with to prosecute.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/04/2012 16:08 Comments || Top||

#6  SHAPE Belgium is where the ROAD (Retired On Active Duty) people go. This person looks to have been a professional career punch-list gatherer, one promoted for her gender and not her competence.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/04/2012 20:41 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
37[untagged]
7Govt of Syria
3Govt of Pakistan
2Taliban
2TTP
2Govt of Iran
1Jamaat-e-Islami
1al-Qaeda in Arabia
1Lashkar-e-Islami

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
Wed 2012-01-04
  Morocco gets new Islamist-led government
Tue 2012-01-03
  Iran Missile Drill Results Exaggerated, Images Photoshopped
Mon 2012-01-02
  Syrians ring in New Year with more anti-regime demos
Sun 2012-01-01
  Nigeria Declares State of Emergency in Troubled Areas
Sat 2011-12-31
  Yemeni protesters demand trial of president
Fri 2011-12-30
  At Huge Rally, North Koreans Declare Pudge Their Leader
Thu 2011-12-29
  Turkish air strike kills 35 Kurdish smugglers
Wed 2011-12-28
  Iran Says No Oil via Strait of Hormuz if Sanctions Applied
Tue 2011-12-27
  More than 40 Dead in Syria as Besieged Homs Heavily Shelled
Mon 2011-12-26
  Sudan kills Darfur rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim
Sun 2011-12-25
  Two Christmas Day church bombings in Nigeria kill 28
Sat 2011-12-24
  Syria Says 40 Dead in Capital Suicide Blasts, Opposition Blames Regime
Fri 2011-12-23
  Arab Observers Arrive in Syria to Monitor Peace Plan
Thu 2011-12-22
  Explosions rock Baghdad; 18 killed, dozens injured
Wed 2011-12-21
  185 Syrians Dead as corpse count hits three digits for the first time


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.
18.218.129.100
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (16)    WoT Background (19)    Opinion (1)    (0)    Politix (8)