Day: January 8, 2014

I Smell A Scandal Brewing

We have had a scandal a month, at least it seems so, since the prez came into office…..we have had some doozys…like NSA…..and the most talked about, at least on the Right, is the Benghazi attack that killed our Libyan ambassador….and today I read some news that will re-fuel this “scandal”, that is if the GOP gets its head out of its butt and pays attention……

Have I wet your curiosity?  Let me past on my news before some start to stroke out……or drwon in their own drool…….

(Newser) – A new revelation, and wrinkle, in the attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi: US officials tell the Washington Post that fighters led by Abu Sufian bin Qumu were involved in the attack. Two notable things about that: One, Qumu was once a detainee at Guantanamo Bay; he was released in 2007 to Libya, which in turn released him the following year. Two, the fighters Qumu leads make up the branch of Ansar al-Sharia located in the Libyan city of Darnah, and it, along with branches in Benghazi and Tunisia, are expected to be soon designated as a “foreign terrorist organization,” and the State Department will likely link Qumu’s branch to the attack at that time.

The Post report specifically states that witnesses have put Qumu’s men in Benghazi, a multi-hour drive from Darnah, in advance of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, though it points out that it’s not clear if they were there by coincidence or plan. It’s not the first time Qumu’s name has surfaced in relation to Benghazi, however: In September 2012, Fox News reported that investigators believed Qumu was involved in and may even have led the attack. The Post notes that officials are looking into whether there are any connections between the Benghazi attackers and American teacher Ronnie Smith, who was shot dead while jogging a month ago.

How long?  How long before this adds fuel to the rabid Right?

The War On Poverty

Today is the 50th anniversary on the failed policy of a war on poverty……I am old enough that I can remember the day this was announced….in my opinion it was an excellent idea…..the problem is that every prez that came after Johnson has slowly and methodically dismembered the program….that includes some of our dynamite Dem prezs……and Bubba was the worse on of them all and he did it with the approval of the Democratic Party…..

Today marks 50 years since Lyndon Johnson declared his “unconditional war on poverty.” Yet the percentage of Americans living in poverty has remained roughly unchanged in the decades since, despite some $916 billion in federal spending on means-tested welfare programs in 2012 alone, Robert Rector from the conservative Heritage Foundation writes at the Wall Street Journal. “If converted to cash, current means-tested spending is five times greater than the amount needed to eliminate all official poverty in the US,” he writes. All that spending has indeed improved the poor’s living standards, but Johnson promised to lift people out of poverty, and “by that standard, the war on poverty has been a catastrophe.” Rector suggests two solutions: First, require welfare recipients “to work or prepare to work,” and second, “reduce the antimarriage incentives rife within welfare programs.” Right now, if a single mother marries a working father, her benefits will plummet—but kids raised by a single parent are 50% more likely to be poor as adults. Click for his full column.

There is nothing in anyone’s repertoire that can successfully end deep poverty…. poverty is something that America has come to stand for in the eyes of the world…and you wonder why so many third world countries do not want to travel down this path……

I Say NO To Nukes!

I know all you right leaners will figure that I would be against nuke power…..is that not what all radicals are….dead set on the use of nukes to generate power?

The truth is my opposition to it comes not from the emissions, which under normal operating parameters, a very clean source of energy…..my distaste for it is the by-product…..the spent fuel.

Not only is there very few ways to dispose of it but it also becomes very attractive to would-be terrorists, both domestic and international.

We do not get the whole picture of this situation because the debate inevitably comes around to the emissions and not the disposal…..and then there is this report…..

Newser) – The US dumped vast quantities of nuclear material off its coasts between 1946 and 1970—more than 110,000 containers, says one official count. Today, the whereabouts of many of those 55-gallon drums and other containers is a big question mark, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Many were not dropped on target,” according to a 2010 federal report. Their location is just one of several major questions raised by the Journal. It’s also unclear, for instance, how many dump sites there were: Government reports have given numbers ranging from 29 to 60. Then there’s the question of how much radioactivity persists, since some isotopes can stay radioactive for thousands of years.

Potential fish contamination poses another concern. A 1991 report on a site off San Francisco suggested some contamination, but there was no follow-up study—despite a California law calling for annual assessments. The state now says the site should be handled by the federal government, which in a 2001 study found only “very low levels” of radioactivity in local sediment. The barrels are spread across some 540 square miles of ocean floor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in 2010, and only 15% of it has been assessed. The agency says it wants to investigate the site further, but it doesn’t have the money. Click for the Journal’s full report.

The best we can do today is store the stuff and hope that all remains safe…….hopes and prayers do little when there is a breach.

I do not expect to see Godzilla or some 9 eyed freak because of all this…although it would make a great reality show for the once proud SciFi network but since has succumb to the insanity that is SyFy and reality bullshit.

If and when the science community comes up with a safe way to dispose of the by-product then I may change my mind on my opposition to nuke power but until then I remain a staunch supporter of the anti-nuke campaign.  Just as I am an opponent of the new light bulbs….eventually that mercury will leach off into the water table and then we can kiss it good-bye, our asses that is………

Let’s Talk Middle East

2014 will be a good year, for whom I am not sure but somewhere, someone will be smiling at its end.

I thought I would take this opportunity to update my readers on the doings in the Middle East….stuff they may not be aware of as it is happening…..stay with me….it is gonna be a year to remember.

Most of my readers are concerned with the happenings on the Hill, the Beltway, DC…whatever name you want to give the clowns and their antics that are running this country…but outside of “Foggy Bottom” the world turns and the fighting goes on….only their fighting involves guns and eath not the pussy whipped antics of a bunch of worthless politicians…..for that reason I try to keep people informed on the Middle East….for me it is a must to keep with the happenings there but for others not so much…..

2014 will be an interesting year in the Middle East….blood, guts, negotiations and deals……so let me give you a tour around the area…..

Afghanistan–everybody’s favorite war……this is the year we will be out and let providence take its toll……

(Newser) – Afghanistan’s insurgents are on the verge of a resurgence. If the US fully withdraws from the country next year, militants will swiftly reclaim much of the country, threatening Kabul as early as 2015, according to the latest National Intelligence Estimate. Indeed, experts believe things will get worse even if the US doesn’t pull out, sources familiar with the classified document tell the LA Times. “It’s very pessimistic about the future,” one official says. “More pessimistic than ever before.”

Some administration officials are complaining that the report, which is the work of all 16 intelligence agencies, is “more dark” than usual, and underestimates Afghan security forces, the Washington Post reports. “What we’re going to see is a recalibration of political power,” one official said. “It’s not going to be an inevitable rise of the Taliban.” The administration is considering leaving troops in Afghanistan—the top allied commander wants 12,000—but is having difficulty reaching an agreement to do so with Hamid Karzai.

A replay of the 1980’s…..think Charlie Wilson’s War…..

Syria–you don’t think that this will go away…now do you?

………opposition fighters battled rival rebels from an al-Qaeda-linked faction across parts of northern Syria today, as deep fissures within the insurgency erupted into some of the most serious and sustained violence between groups opposed to President Bashar Assad since the country’s conflict began. The clashes, which broke out on Friday and have spread to parts of four provinces, pit an array of moderate and ultraconservative Islamist brigades against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an extremist group that has become both feared and resented in parts of opposition-held areas for trying to impose its hardline interpretation of Islam. Click for more.

If you think Syria is messy now….believe me…you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Iran–you just know this will be a major talking point come election time……

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday it would be difficult to see how Iran, which did not support last year’s international accord on Syria, could be a “ministerial partner” in the Geneva 2 talks, which are due to begin on January 22.

“Now could they contribute from the sidelines? Are their ways for them, conceivably, to weigh in? Can their mission that is already in Geneva … be there in order to help the process? It may be that there are ways that could happen,” Kerry said.

Iran’s help with the Syrian peace process would be the worst thing to happen…..right wingers would crap on any attempt to stop the fighting if it involved Iran……sad people will die because of ideological bullshit.

Iraq–the country has been a bloody mess since we invaded and it gets NO better as time wears on…..now AQ has decided to take the north of the country, if possible and the Iraqi troops are all but worthless….they need help….but who?

The Iraqi military tried to dislodge al-Qaeda militants in Sunni-dominated Anbar province today, unleashing airstrikes and besieging the regional capital in fighting that killed at least 34 people, officials said. A series of bombs in Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, meanwhile, killed at least 20 people. The recent gains by the insurgents have been a blow to the Shiite-led government—as sectarian violence has escalated since the US withdrawal. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington was “very, very concerned” by the fighting but would not send in American troops. Click for more.

No troops for Iraq?  We will see how that bit of news plays out….now want we?

Then there is the Middle East peace process……if one could call it that….not much new here…the usual crap…lots of talk…little action…all the while people die……good plan!

After getting the two sides back to the negotiating table in 2013 after a three-year hiatus, Kerry was “starting the new year with a special effort to try to move the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations forward,” a senior State Department official said.

After months of intense, secretive talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Kerry is hoping to set out an agreed framework that will establish a vision of what a final peace deal would look like.

It would provide “a basis upon which one could negotiate the final peace treaty because the outlines or the guidelines for what the final deal would look like would be agreed upon, and then you would work intensively to fill out the details,” according to the official

That little tidbit is laughable at best…but it plays well for the morons back home……and then Kerry made a statement that goes beyond BS…….

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that any Middle East peace plan would be “fair and balanced,” as he held a fourth day of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

“I can guarantee all parties that President (Barack) Obama and I are committed to putting forward ideas that are fair and balanced, and to improving the security of all peoples,” Kerry told reporters in Jerusalem.

In other words the US will do everything that Israel wants……and when the talks break down it will be because the Palestinians were uncooperative…..as always.

There you have my 2014 round-up of the Middle East situations…..does not look good for a quiet year….on the contrary it will be messy, maybe messier than 2013……