Month: April 2014

We Did What We Do Best

Opinion from the desk of the Editor……….

Let’s talk about elections today…..not the US ones but rather those in Iraq…….

But first let’s walk back into recent history…..now think back to when the USSR was in Afghanistan……..the Us poured cash and arms into the country to help fight creeping communism…..we sent a lot and eventually the Soviets tucked tail and ran for the northern border and home.  We Won!  Then what did we do?  we turned our backs on the country and took our cash and stuff and went home. ….no longer any need to worry about Soviet expansionism.  The whole Afghan thing became our bragging point of how we stopped the Soviet machine.

But then with our backs turned….what happened?  We ignored the rise of the Taleban and AQ……..and after about 10 years of ignoring a problem it came back to bite us in the ass (9/11 in case there was any confusion).

I walked you through a little history for good reason……you see Iraq is becoming another one of our long list of failed states……..of course we claim that since they have elections that it is moving toward democracy……..one word for you…..POPPYCOCK!

Iraq is experiencing some of the same symptoms that Afghanistan experienced…….constant violence, mostly ethnic and sectarian, the rise of AQ (in this case ISIS) and a country being divided along ethnic and religious lines.

Today is election day in Iraq and as normal things are not looking too bright……..

A key election for a new Iraqi parliament was underway today amid a massive security operation as the country continues to slide deeper into sectarian violence, more than two years after US forces left. Hundreds of thousands of troops and police have fanned out to guard voting centers for the first nationwide balloting since the 2011 American pullout. In central Baghdad, police and soldiers manned checkpoints every few hundred yards, while pickup trucks with machine guns perched on top roamed the streets. Much of the city looked deserted and most stores were closed.

Authorities also closed Iraq’s airspace for the elections, and slapped a ban on vehicles to reduce the threat of car bombings. A Shiite party led by Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister of eight years, is expected to win the most seats but is unlikely to win a majority, meaning he will have to cobble together a coalition if he is to keep his job—a tough task given the harsh criticism he has been under from his one-time Shiite, Sunni Arab, and Kurdish allies. The death toll in Iraq has climbed to its highest levels since the worst of the sectarian bloodshed in 2006 and 2007 and the violence shows no signs of ceasing for the election: Back-to-back bombs ripped through an outdoor market northeast of Baghdad yesterday, the deadliest in separate attacks that officials said killed 24 people.

Whatever happens to Iraq or in Iraq is on the head of the US……we have done what we do best……….act stupidly!

 

Sunnis feel victimised as Iraq goes to polls – Yahoo News

I know…Iraq?  Outta sight outta mind….a typical American response to the world they create…….and when sh*t happens then they all have an opinion……

With today’s Iraqi election nothing will change…….the violence that we brought onto the land will go on and on……….Kurds are waiting to break away…….Sunnis are being crapped on by the government…….and Shi’as keep moving more and more into the Iranian camp…..so what will this election really bring?

The Sunnis are the key to Iraq….

 

Sunnis feel victimised as Iraq goes to polls – Yahoo News.

Damn! The Hate!

Opinion from the desk of the Editor

It is nothing new…..religious bigotry, that is…….it has been around a long time….but in the last decade it has gotten out of control.  This post will most likely not be high on the must read list for the radical Right.

My problem is blaming Muslims for the acts of some….granted those acts are horrible and not worthy of comment….but to blame ALL Muslims for their actions is like blaming all Christians for the acts of Westboro Baptist church…..only a scream moron or a rabid racist would do such a thing.

I have read a few of the accounts by Christians that have lived through some dastardly things…….they recount the actions in vivid detail.  I do not doubt that the stuff occurred….but the acts described are NOT SOP for Muslims.

There are about 1.2 billion Muslims in the world…….most have never fired a weapon or committed an act of terrorism or burnt a flag or effigy……..again would you blame ALL Christians for the act of the moronic few?

Not all Muslims believe the way the extremists do……those are salafists or wahhabis…in other words the extreme fundamentalists…..you know….kinda like the fundamentalist within the Christian belief………believers that are rabid……..no difference.

For those that are not regular visitors……in my younger days I worked in North Africa and the Middle East…..so I was exposed to Muslims every day and I found them nothing like the portraits painted by some…….they were very friendly,  generous to a fault, even to strangers, strong sense of humor, strong family values and very devout in their religion.  I still keep in touch with friends from the past and not one of them carries an AK or committed an act of terrorism and couple of them would have good reason to resort to violence but have not……that says a lot for their character in my opinion.

To label all Muslims for the acts of a few is a huge disservice, especially if all one is going by is the words of others………STOP judging others based on misinformation and stupidity………

Gutless, As Always!

Inkwell Institute

Middle East Desk

For more than twenty years the US has tried to broker a peace deal between Israel and Palestinians…..and for twenty years it has failed and failed with a flair……nothing new there.

The latest failure was on John Kerry……he promised that there would be a deal this time around…..and as of yesterday the talks are off…..and yep….NO DEAL!

Kerry let it be known that he was not a happy puppy…….he rattled on about the failures of bothsides…..and then he made a bold statement……..

John Kerry tossed the A-word around Friday during a closed door meeting, saying that Israel could become “an apartheid state” if peace talks with Palestine failed to generate a two-state solution. The Daily Beast acquired a recording of Kerry’s comments, which came during a Trilateral Commission meeting. Kerry told the assembled world leaders that he might eventually unveil a peace deal and tell the sides to “take it or leave it.”

A two-state solution, he said, is “the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state.” US officials generally avoid the word “apartheid” in relation to Israel, and President Obama has previously called it inappropriate. The Anti-Defamation League has issued a statement calling Kerry’s comments “startling and deeply disappointing,” Haaretz reports. Meanwhile, Rand Paul is burnishing his pro-Israel credentials by introducing a bill banning US aid to Palestine until Palestine recognizes Israel’s right to exist, Politico reports.

The truth of the matter is that Israel cannot become an apartheid state because it already is an apartheid state…….walls built to keep Palestinians in their place…….laws made for Arabs alone…….an authoritarian suppression of a people…..call it what you like but if it looks like apartheid and sounds like apartheid….it probably is apartheid.

Like I said that was a bold statement coming from Kerry…….and after he made it I wondered how long it would take for him to walk back the statement.  Did not take long at all……the next day Kerry made this statement………….

“For more than 30 years in the United States Senate, I didn’t just speak words in support of Israel,” Mr. Kerry said in his statement. “I walked the walk when it came time to vote and when it came time to fight.”

Mr. Kerry added that he did not believe that Israel was an “apartheid state” or intended to become one. Mr. Kerry did not dispute he had used the phrase but said it had led to a “misimpression” about his views.

“If I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two state solution,” he said.

“In the long term, a unitary, binational state cannot be the democratic Jewish state that Israel deserves or the prosperous state with full rights that the Palestinian people deserve,” he added.

Damn these people are GUTLESS!  Of course someone will say that Israel is the lone democracy in the region……that is pure BS…….there is nothing democratic about the way they treat Palestinians….or how they steal land……or the massive killing of civilians…..

There will NEVER be a peaceful solution for the Middle East….as long as American politicians are gutless and Israel is allowed to do whatever they want unchallenged.  Or as long as the US has to apology for every criticism of Israel.

America needs to grow a pair but first they will have to ask permission from Israel.

Obama: We Will Go To War For Other Nations’ Petty Territorial Disputes « Antiwar.com Blog

Our prez is making an Asian swing and during his many public appearances he has made some disturbing comments about the world and explosive situations………it seems that we are still more than ready to commit Americans to settle some international disputes…….

 

Obama: We Will Go To War For Other Nations’ Petty Territorial Disputes « Antiwar.com Blog.

Is Politics Dead?

A little full disclosure…….when I was at university I took many philosophy courses and by grad school I was intrigued with political philosophy…….I wanted to find answers to the really big questions of life and thought that philosophy would help in that search……

To me politics, in the beginning of my quest, was to help me in my search for the right balance to turn this country that I felt it could become…but year after year things have gotten worse………No longer does politics help in answering questions….all it accomplishes is creating more questions without useable answers……

When I began this post I was trying to work out the best way to present it….and then I saw this bit of info that will help…….

Politicians devote a lot of energy to what Ezra Klein calls the “More Information Hypothesis,” the theory that voters would agree with them if they understood the issues better. But a 2013 study suggests that’s not true, Klein points out at his launched-last-night site Vox. Researchers first polled the participants on their political ideologies and tested their math skills using a word problem about skin cream. Then they gave them some more word problems, about gun control and climate change. The result: Respondents were drastically more likely to arrive at the right answer if they agreed with it politically, and vice versa—and being better at math actually exacerbated their likelihood of getting it right or wrong depending on their political sensibilities.

The authors theorize that “humans reason for purposes other than finding the truth,” like “ensuring they don’t piss off the leaders of their tribe,” Klein explains. If Sean Hannity changed his mind about climate change tomorrow, it would have profound personal costs. “He would lose friendships, viewers, and money. He could ultimately lose his job.” He’s incentivized to use his intellect to reinforce the ideology he socially identifies with—and to a lesser extent, that’s true of almost everyone. Washington has made this easy; our two parties (or “tribes,” per Klein) have developed “their own machines for generating evidence and their own enforcers of orthodoxy. It’s a perfect storm for making smart people very stupid.” Click for Klein’s full column.

We put ourselves in political camps……we do not know what a conservative is or for that matter what a liberal….what we have is what the media and select special interests that form our opinions for us…….it is as if we do not really want to have to think about solutions to our problems…..we had rather to point fingers and accuse each other of dogmatic ideals…….

NO politician can stay on topic beyond a 30 second ad…….henceforth there will NEVER be any useable answers to our mounting problems…….ergo…politics, in the classical sense, is dead!

2014 Babbling Buffoons Of Baylon #8

Yes, Irene they are still talking and they are still showing the world they have NO grasp on reality……….edition 8 comes to life…..I wish that I could write that anal, moronic and ignorant statements have fallen by the wayside….I wish I could….but sorry NO such luck……#1 I did an entire post on it…but damn!  It was too anal to NOT include it in B3……..

1–I would like to begin this edition with something that is at the forefront of politics, at least for this month….income equality…..we have heard all the people talking about how hard it is to live on minimum wage……and we have heard all the people that oppose any increase in that wage……but I thought I had heard it all….that is until I read what this pee brain had to say……..

Democrat James Moran of Virginia says he and his fellow representatives in Congress are in dire need of a raise. “I think the American people should know that the members of Congress are underpaid,” Moran tells Roll Call. “I understand that it’s widely felt that they underperform, but the fact is that this is the board of directors for the largest economic entity in the world.” Moran noted that some members live out of their offices to avoid DC’s steep prices, even on salaries of $174,000.

“Our pay has been frozen for three years and we’re planning on freezing it a fourth year,” he says. “A lot of members can’t even afford to live decently in Washington.” He plans to introduce an amendment to remedy the problem, reports the Washington Post, but acknowledges it doesn’t have much of a chance.

Let see….they cannot exist on their pay…..but minimum wage earners can?

Wait!  You only work 126 days a year and you think you need a raise?  Do what you are always telling the working poor….get a 2nd job…..

What a pretentious ass!

2–The Heritage Foundation, a once “respected” conservative think tank has now become a think tank of the Looney Right crows…….as illustrated by its leader, Jim DeMint……..

Heritage Foundation head Jim DeMint appeared on Vocal Point with Jerry Newcombe of Truth In Action Ministries last week, where he insisted that “no liberal is going to win a debate that big government freed the slaves.”

DeMint, a former US senator from South Carolina, told Newcombe that “the conscience of the American people” and not the federal government was responsible for the end of slavery.

In the interview, DeMint seemed to confuse the US Constitution with the Declaration of Independence and implied that William Wilberforce, a British politician who died almost thirty years before the Civil War, did more to end American slavery than the federal government.

This ius what is happening to the Right….they let MORONS do their thinking…….I lose all respect for anyone that does not know history especially those in position to influence others……

3–Then we have these religious dipshits that are just too stupid for words…..one Klingenschmitt is just one of these religious morons……..

On his “Pray In Jesus Name” program today, “Dr. Chaps” Gordon Klingenschmitt quizzed his viewers on when life begins.

Does it begin, he asked, when a heartbeat can be detected? Or perhaps somewhere around 22-24 weeks when a fetus is able to survive outside of the womb? Or maybe it begins at the moment of conception?

But it was a trick question, Klingenschmitt revealed, and all of those answers were wrong because life actually begins before conception “in the mind and heart of God”:

People like this toad makes me think a resurgence of the ignorance of the Dark Ages is making a return.

4–This is not necessarily an anal statement……but Rupert Murdoch speaks truth……..

Responding to a question over whether he believes Fox News’ radicalizing effect on the GOP has ultimately harmed America’s leading right-wing political party, Murdoch pushed back, saying, “I think it has absolutely saved it.”

“It has certainly given voice and hope to people who didn’t like all that liberal championing thrown at them on CNN,” Murdoch continued.

Yet old habits die hard. In the very same answer, Murdoch contests the interviewer’s implication that Fox News has been a champion of the Tea Party movement. “By the way, we don’t promote the Tea Party,” Murdoch said. “That’s bullshit. We recognize their existence.”

He has done more than anyone to re-brand the failing GOP…….

5–Once again there is a religious dude that has all the answers and they are in the Bible………

Gordon Klingenschmitt, the GOP politician and gay exorcist who believes that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act is a demonic plot to make Christians “starve to death” and “participate in sodomy,” yesterday pointed to 2011 OPM guidelines on transgender personnel as proof that “Obama has now gone to full perversion as a matter of policy.”

6–Some say the Bible is our divine guidance…..but this guy takes it a bit too far for my liking…………..

David Barton, an influential conservative activist who helped write the Republican Party’s 2012 platform, argues that the Bible opposes the minimum wage, unions and collective bargaining, estate taxes, capital gains taxes, and progressive taxation in general.

I am still waiting for the book and chapter references so that I may see these for myself………and just like in Casablanca….I wait….and wait…..and wait.

7–There are so many assholes but this guy is one of the biggest………an asshole from the American Family Association…….

Bryan Fischer is more than just a bigot. He can be offensive on many conservative topics, including income inequality. After discussing that the top 1% pay 30% of all federal taxes, Fischer told listeners that the poor ought to kiss the ground that the rich walk on:

the poor and middle class families in this country “ought to be kissing the ground on which [the rich] walk” because it is the top 1% that is paying for EBT cards and food stamps and federal housing.

The rich, Fischer asserted “ought to be given ticker tape parades once a week in all of our major cities to thank them for funding welfare for everybody”

Whatcha think?

So ends edition #8….onto #9……….