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24 Syrians Register to Run in Presidential Vote as Regime Raid on Aleppo Kills 33
Today's Headlines
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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Israeli security systems to protect 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil
[Ynet] Risco Group and Elbit Systems have been chosen to provide security systems for the 2014 Mondial.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thought the volvazulas were bad, simply can't wait for the whistle blowing.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2014 12:07 Comments || Top||

#2  At last check, BRAZIL is still having a lot of probs completing the new stadium to be used for the World Cup, + in fact may have to demolish one just-completed large wall section due to just-detected, possible serious stability defects.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/02/2014 23:00 Comments || Top||


-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Saudi Arabia finds 26 more cases of deadly MERS
[The Peninsula] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
said on Thursday the total number of cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), an often deadly new disease, had nearly doubled in the kingdom in April with 26 further infections reported on Tuesday and Wednesday.

International concern about MERS is acute because Saudi Arabia is expected to receive large numbers of foreign pilgrims during the fasting month of Ramadan in July, followed by millions more for Islam's annual haj pilgrimage in October.

Although the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the disease is difficult to pass between humans, most of the cases reported in Saudi Arabia so far appear to have been transmitted between people, rather than from animals.

Seven of the new cases were in Jeddah, four in Mecca, 10 in Riyadh, two in the northern town of Tabuk and one each in Hafr al-Batin near Kuwait and Najran near Yemen. Two people, who had previously been confirmed as suffering from the disease, died.

The new cases have taken the total number of confirmed infections in Saudi Arabia to 371, a jump of 89 percent during the month of April. Most of the new infections last month came in an outbreak in three hospitals in Jeddah.

Of people who caught the disease in Saudi Arabia, 107 have died since it was identified two years ago.

But health experts believe the initial source of transmission was from an animal reservoir, probably camels. On Tuesday, acting health minister Adel Fakeih said Saudis should avoid close contact with camels or consuming their raw milk or meat.

Traders and other people at Riyadh's camel market on Monday told Rooters they had not been officially notified or warned about the likely connection between MERS and camels and had been taking no extra precautions such as increased hand washing.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  BREAKING: Submitted a detailed link for moderator review and possible posting, 1st US case of MERS has just been found in NY.
Posted by: Bubba Graiting8281 || 05/02/2014 16:20 Comments || Top||

#2  the hospital in NYC apparently quizzed him on his travels and since the guy worked in Saudi Arabia and they had a MERS test kit, they were able to ID the disease

good job by the people at Community Hospital in Munster
Posted by: lord garth || 05/02/2014 17:32 Comments || Top||

#3  If you don't crave catarrh from a camelid,
Don't make the mistake that some Saudi did!
If your cattle are slumping,
Take time off from humping,
Or at least use a healthy young lamb or kid.

Another installment of "Ask the Imam!"

O imam, when camels are rutting,
May goatish old Muslims keep butting?
And are infidels creeps
For not sheering their sheeps?
And why is your trouserfront jutting?
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/02/2014 22:48 Comments || Top||

#4  Something stealthily stalking at twilight,
Afoot in beige, brown, black, or white...
When I picked up the shears,
And I threw back the sheers --
It hopped off in homonymous fright!
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/02/2014 23:03 Comments || Top||


-Land of the Free
OathKeepers kicked off Bundy ranch


By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com

According to a number of disparate and unofficial sources, leaders of the Oathkeepers who claimed to have been at the Bundy ranch in Nevada at the earlier stages of the confrontation with the federal government have been forced to leave the ranch.

Rumors in the form of Youtube videos posted since last Sunday seem to indicate that what may have been a spurious indication of a proposed government drone strike at the Bundy ranch, and the reaction to the news by Oathkeepers leadership, was what drove the banning of Oathkeepers from the Bundy ranch.

Since a week ago a video of a radio interview of militia members from Arizona who had traveled to Nevada say that what they witnessed was massed confusion as to security and logistics in the area of operation where militia members and Oathkeepers had been deployed. According to this video, the unidentified members of the Arizona militia had themselves actually infiltrated into the security zone of the ranch before the weekend of April 24th without being challenged.

Also included in the video was the accusation that Oathkeepers at the ranch did not suffer the same privations as militia members and others, and the allegation that the Oathkeepers had misallocated resources. The accusations survive more than ten days later, just four days after a "war council" of militiamen voted to remove Oathkeepers from the Bundy Ranch.

According to a video released by Oathkeepers, Oathkeepers at the Bundy Ranch received word that United States attorney general Eric Holder had authorized a drone strike on the Bundy ranch, presumably as a means of ending the presence of militia. According to the leader, Stewart Rhodes, a Yale educated attorney, he had sought confirmation of the provenance of the rumor, requesting help from a Texas based former military intelligence officer to check out the last source as well as the original source.

According to the video, the rumor was said to have come from an individual of some credibility, and that the source of the rumor was not disclosed, except that it originated from someone inside the US Department of Defense. Other videos said that the same rumor had been transmitted to other sources, such as the office of the governor of the state of Nevada.

Rhodes concluded that the rumor was true and started to remove Oathkeepers under his command, deploying them to a new area, while at the same time sending out scouts and patrols, something the Oathkeepers probably should have done from Day One at the ranch. That fact was likely a factor in having Oathkeepers removed from the ranch, since it is obvious that the Oathkeepers had been driven by events and, despite their repeated protests of military experience, had failed to secure a perimeter.

Also, Rhodes decided to publicly announce the rumor in the media. Both actions enraged militia leadership, and apparently at least two physical fights had taken place as well as two near shootouts and one near ambush of a local police convoy. Additionally Oathkeepers accused militia members of stealing electronics including two thermal binoculars and an iPad.

Militia members have accused Oathkeepers of various improprieties, while Oathkeeper supporters have accused at east two militia members of being agents provocateur.

In the video of the "war council", recorded sometime on or just before April 28th, the young leader of the group has been identified as a member of the West Mountain Rangers militia named Ryan Payne. The other individual with a goatee was partially identified as a militia member from Connecticut who has been associated with the radio personality Glenn Beck.

The accusation of being an agent provocateur tracks somewhat since Glenn Beck publicly announced he would no longer support Cliven Bundy after Bundy made his remarks on his views on race and government.

Chris Covert writes Mexican Drug War and national political news for Rantburg.com and BorderlandBeat.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com
Posted by: badanov || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  While I personally think they're all nut cases, it might have been quite interesting to see if those sleeping downtown were using Gov't credit cards to pay for meals, lodging, and incidental expenses.

So close to the 120 deployment and award of the Bandenkampfabzeichen, yet so far.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2014 2:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Judging from history, there's always issues at the beginning.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/02/2014 12:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Read up on the 'rebels' outside laying siege to Boston. Who's in charge here and how are they allocating resources. Nothing changes.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 05/02/2014 12:32 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
US Urges Fast African Troops Response In S. Sudan
[Ynet] The United States urged eastern African nations on Thursday to quickly send enough peacekeeping forces to South Sudan to quell nearly six months of deadly violence between ethnic groups.
"Y'all go off and fulfill our ambitions, chop-chop!"
Foreign ministers from Æthiopia, Kenya and Uganda said they agreed that aggressive steps are needed. But they offered no details, and have for months been undecided on how best to respond to massacres and other horrific killings in the world's newest nation.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Go forth and fulfill our ambitions
Of aggressive new peacekeeping missions!"
Yeah, you betcha, boss,
Soon as you come across
With three bags full of heavy "munitions."
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/02/2014 22:17 Comments || Top||

#2  IMO read, AFRICAN UNION = AU.

I have to wonder just how many OWG Global Fed Unions, replete wid how many OWG CO-Superpower Principal(s) [Nuclear?], does the Bammer + Globies desire or intend to create for Continente' de L'Affriqque???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/02/2014 22:52 Comments || Top||


Africa North
140 Migrants Storm Border Fence in Spain's Melilla
[An Nahar] More than a hundred people stormed the fence between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla on Thursday, officials said, in the latest attempt by migrants to breach the border.

The early-morning surge of 500 people "ended with 140 immigrants of sub-Saharan origin entering national territory," according to a statement from Spanish officials in the city.

Some who did not make it to Spanish soil were caught in the border zone, where they stayed for a number of hours shouting "freedom!", before later being locked away
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
by Moroccan police, according to local media.

Six migrants and three coppers were maimed, according to the statement, with some of those trying to jump the fence setting fire to their clothing "to throw at the agents."

Another group of around 200 people made a further attempt to cross the border a few hours later but were stopped by border guards.

Melilla, on Morocco's northern coast, provides one of only two land borders between the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and Africa, along with another Spanish territory, Ceuta, to the west.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Desperate people doing desperate things.

Pawns in their home governments gambit of keeping things together by exporting poverty.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 05/02/2014 21:34 Comments || Top||


Economy
More Than 92 Million Americans Remain Out Of Labor Force
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/02/2014 11:50 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Which is why the dhimocrats are running scared of the "recovery" word.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/02/2014 11:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Whoever picks up the White House in 2016 is going to have to deal with a lot of overdue bills.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/02/2014 17:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Se also FREEREPUBLIC this AM > [Town Hall] US ECONOMY SLIDES DEEPER INTO RECESSION.

As per MSM-Net Perts, Artics = apparently the US was only able to experience any growth at all due to the Bammer's QES, WHOSE EFFECTS IN THE LR MAY NOT HAD BEEN WORTH THE COSTS I.E. BUSTING US' ALREADY EXCESSIVE DEBT LEVELS TO NEW HIGHS.

* TOPIX, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > US ECONOMY AT RISK OF IMMINENT COLAPSE: ANALYSTS.

WINNER/ADVANTAGE = PUTIN, RISING CHINA, RISING IRAN, NUCLEAR ISLAM + SOON-TO-BE-NUKULAAR HARD BOYZ + GLOBAL JIHAD.

Looks like the POTUS-Bammer-the-Outstanding-Anti-American-American-OWG-Globalist will have his reasons for NOT being able to militarily intervene in support or defense of overseas US Allies, i.e. the Bad Economy, Debt-n-Deficit ridden Amerika can no longer econ afford to unilaterally either wage war nor defend itself [except in Multi-National = OWG Co-Superpower(s)? Coalition].
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/02/2014 20:56 Comments || Top||

#4  IIRC, GUAMPDN Artic says the US Govt = Bammer Admin lost roughly US$12.0Bilyuhn in bailing out GM.

Dast a lot of Unemployment Assistance + Other that could had gone to these people.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/02/2014 22:43 Comments || Top||


Europe
New rebel assault deepens Ukraine divide
[The Peninsula] The insurgency dividing Ukraine worsened yesterday when forces of Evil hurling petrol bombs seized a key building in the eastern city of Donetsk as mass pro-Russia rallies were held there and in annexed Crimea.

Kiev's Western-backed government has already admitted its security forces are "helpless" to halt the rebellion it blames on Moscow from spreading across more than a dozen eastern towns and cities. It has ordered out a Russian diplomat nabbed
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
for espionage, risking a tit-for-tat response from Russia.

As fears mounted of the ex-Soviet republic disintegrating, Germany stepped up its appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth and sixth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
to help free seven OSCE inspectors held in the town of Slavyansk by the rebels -- four Germans, a Pole, a Dane and a Czech.

In Donetsk, a mob of around 300 pro-Russian forces of Evil throwing Molotov cocktails and bricks stormed the prosecutor's office, beating up outnumbered riot police and stealing their arms and shields while yelling "fascists!"

Once inside, they smashed doors and carried off official photos and Ukrainian national symbols to be burned. The forces of Evil already held the regional administration building and the city hall in Donetsk.

The assault occurred while 10,000 people in the city marched in opposition to the Kiev government and in favour of closer ties to Russia. The rally evolved from a traditional International Labour Day march.

In Moscow, the same event turned into a sort of victory parade for Putin and his policies in Ukraine, with 100,000 workers filling Red Square for the first time since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union, waving patriotic slogans and praising the president.

By contrast, the Labour Day march in Kiev was dispirited and meagre, attended by a mere 2,000 people. "Why do others quietly steal our land? Why does Russia do it, as well as the Ukrainian oligarchs? I am not against Russia, I don't care about what authority will be here, but they should give us a normal life," said one participant, a 51-year-old unemployed woman who gave her name as Zhanna.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  See BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Bloomberg = Twitter] AS MANY AS 1000 GUNMEN HAVE SEIZED BUILDINGS IN MORE THAN TEN CITIES IN EASTERN UKRAINE.

versus

* SAME > [Guardian.UK] UKRAINE'S GOVT. HAS LOST CONTROL OF THE EAST, SAYS ACTING PRESIDENT.

Aleksander Turchynov.

* WORLD NEWS > KERRY: NATO FACING KEY MOMENT, or litmus test as per the Alliance's historical strength + in particular its UNITY + COHESION.

Yuuup.

I've always said the real or true test of OWG Globalism including Co-SUperpwerism will be iff-n-when the Bammer = US/US-Allies butt heads wid a major nuclear power.

* TOPIX > [The Hill] OBAMA'S PIVOT TO ASIA LACKS FIREPOWER.

RUSSIA + UKRAINE-CRIMEA = CHINA + CHINA SEAS DISPUTES.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/02/2014 1:15 Comments || Top||

#2  More ... ...

* WAFF > 40 PRO-RUSSIAN DEMONSTRATORS BURNED ALIVE, in Odessa.

Various medias-blogs repor 30-38 persons dead.

* RELATED BHARAT RAKSHAK > [Russia Today] CLASHES START IN ODESSA TOO BETWEEN PRO-AND ANTI-MAIDAN FACTIONS, ONE DEAD.

* SAME > [Guardian.UK] PUTIN SAYS GENEVA AGREEMENT NO LONGER VIABLE [relevant?] AFTER UKRAINIAN MILITARY ACTION, in Eastern Ukraine + Slavyansk.

* RUSSIA TODAY > OP-ED: "US IN PANIC BECAUSE OF DECLINING [Political + Economic] POWER."

versus

* TOPIX > [Silicon Valley Insider] A NAGGING DOUBT EATS AWAY AT WORLD ORDER [New World Order?] - AND AMERICA IGNORES IT!

D *** NG IT, AL BUNDY IS NOT SHOCKED, HE TELLS YA, HE'S NOT SHOCKED!

Again, MAINSTREAM AMERICA = AMERIKA was not asked to vote on OWG-NWO + "Globalism", to include OWG Co-Superpowerism, etc.; while the Globies on their part continue to do as they do + implement same irregardless of potentially Geopol + Existential risks.

Iff this is NOT Political-Electoral credibility + Secular-beloved "Ethics", I don't know what is.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/02/2014 20:44 Comments || Top||


Ukraine Brings Back Military Conscription, Arrests Russian Defense Attache
[AnNahar] Ukraine has jugged
Please don't kill me!
the Russian defense attache in Kiev and decided to bring back military conscription with immediate effect to deal with a spreading pro-Moscow insurgency in its east.
I s'pose the training will do the lads some good the next time they rise up to tear down the Iron Curtain...
According to a decree issued Thursday by interim president Oleksandr Turchynov, the country was bringing back military conscription "given the deteriorating situation in the east and the south ... the rising force of armed pro-Russian units and the taking of public administration buildings ... which threaten territorial integrity."

Ukraine's parliament voted on April 17 to "recommend to the acting president to restart conscription into the Ukraine armed forces without delay" in order to "bolster Ukraine's defense capabilities in connection with aggression from the Russian Federation."

Ukraine scrapped compulsory military service for young men only this year, under a law introduced in 2013 by Viktor Yanukovych, the Kremlin-friendly president who ended up fleeing mass pro-Western demonstrations two months ago.

Ukraine currently has 130,000 personnel in its armed forces. With reserves, this could be boosted to around 1,000,000.

The move came after Turchynov said the Western-backed authorities in Kiev were "powerless" to stop pro-Russian separatists in the east from taking over public buildings.

The West and Kiev believe that the unrest is being fomented by Russia in a bid to destabilize the former Soviet Republic ahead of planned presidential elections on May 25.

In another dramatic development, Kiev overnight ordered out a Russian diplomat arrested for espionage, risking a tit-for-tat response from Russia.

Quoting a government statement, local media reports said Wednesday that Ukraine has arrested the Russian defense attache in Kiev, accused him of spying and said he must leave the country.

"The defense attache of the Russian embassy in Ukraine is declared persona non grata," said the statement, adding that the unnamed official had been caught in the act and "arrested."

Also on Thursday, the Kremlin revealed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany. She was educated in East Germany when is was still run by commies, but in 1989 got involved with the growing democracy movement when the Berlin Wall fell. Merkel is sometimes referred to by Germans as Mom...
on Sunday asked Russian President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President and sixth of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from polonium poisoning. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead...
to help free a team of OSCE observers that had been captured in Ukraine.

"Angela Merkel made a request to help facilitate the release of military observers from a number of European countries including Germany that were tossed into the calaboose in the southeast of Ukraine," the Kremlin said following phone talks between the two leaders.

"Both sides noted the importance of utilizing the mediating potential of the OSCE across Ukraine to the maximum degree."

Putin for his part reiterated Moscow's calls for Kiev to pull back troops from the rebel-held east.

"Vladimir Putin stressed that the most important thing today is to withdraw military units from the southeastern regions, stop violence, to immediately launch a wide national dialogue as part of a constitutional reform with the involvement of all regions and political forces."

The Kremlin said the two leaders agreed to speak again shortly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


The Grand Turk
Riot Police Clash with May Day Protesters in Istanbul
[BOSTON] Police used what they could to shut down May Day protesters from defying Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and reaching Istanbul's central Taksim square. The Istanbul governor's office said it had received advanced information that "illegal terror organizations and their extensions" would resort to violence to stoke unrest.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
IHC CJ's daughters get preferential treatment at IIUI
[DAWN] It is not unusual for universities to award financial aid to deserving students who cannot afford the high fees demanded by seats of higher learning. But when a varsity awards an exemption -- meant for the underprivileged -- to the children of a key government official, eyebrows are bound to be raised.*

According to documents available with Dawn, the management of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) halved the fees of two sisters in contravention of all stated rules. Both students are daughters of Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi.

Violating their own rules
IIUI Director Academics Shagufta Haroon briefed Dawn on the process adopted to select students for the award of financial assistance, saying that every student has to fulfill the requirements before they can be considered.

As per a notification dated June 3, 2008 and signed by Haroon herself, students are required to apply for financial assistance via a detailed form. According to the notification, only the "most deserving and needy students can apply for fee concession in the second semester on the basis of Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA)".

The form, a copy of which is available with Dawn, asks students to provide minute details of their family background, assets, sources of income, employment and household expenses, among other details. But no such form is available on file at IIUI in the case of the two sisters.

In contravention of existing rules, on March 7, 2013, Haroon herself marked for approval an application submitted by one of the students in question, asking for a fee relaxation on the basis of merit. The application was addressed to the university's vice president of academics.

Sahibzada Sajidur Rehman -- who occupied the post at the time -- immediately approved the request and a notification was issued the same day, announcing a fee exemption of 50 per cent for both sisters. The basis for the exemption, according to the notification, was that "both the sisters have (a) good academic record".
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


Power supply to 66 govt offices, depts disconnected in Lahore
[DAWN] n its drive to recover dues, the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco) on Wednesday disconnected supplies to 66 government offices and departments for failing to clear their bills.

According to Lesco officials, the defaulters included Punjab police, SSP office, Punjab Highways Authority, District Council Hall, District Government Health office and Irrigation EXEN, besides the residence of Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal.

"Some of these offices have not paid their dues for years," says a Lesco official.

For example, the irrigation executive engineer had defaulted on Rs31 million payment, the Archeology Department Rs2.3 million, the Wagah Town TMO Rs7.6 million, Shalamar TMO Rs1.6 million, the LDA (UD Wing) chief engineer Rs5.9 million and the Passenger and Freight district officer Rs119 million.

"All these offices now face disconnection and the supply will not be restored unless they clear their dues," he warned.

The ministry has asked the Lesco officials to indiscriminately disconnect connections of all those who are not paying their bills.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan


International-UN-NGOs
NATO Official: Russia Now An Adversary
[Ynet] After two decades of trying to build a partnership with Russia, the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants...
alliance now feels compelled to start treating Moscow as an adversary, the second-ranking official of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Thursday.

"Clearly the Russians have declared NATO as an adversary, so we have to begin to view Russia no longer as a partner but as more of an adversary than a partner," said Alexander Vershbow, the deputy secretary-general of NATO.
*sigh* Something about the hat to cattle ratio comes to mind, but I just can't put my finger on it...
In a question-and-answer session with a small group of news hounds, Vershbow said Russia's annexation of Crimea and its apparent manipulation of unrest in eastern Ukraine have fundamentally changed the NATO-Russia relationship.
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Wehell, the Russians after all are of the Orthdox Church.

lol.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/02/2014 1:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Deputy secretary-general Vershbow swallowing the Mitt Romney rhetoric is he ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2014 2:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Because who needs NATO without Russia?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 05/02/2014 11:44 Comments || Top||

#4  If the Obama administration's goal was to have a stable-enough foreign policy so as to focus on domestic policy, they are in failure mode. I don't feel them walking off the field, so what is the hail mary or are we in it, with the scalping of business leaders?
Posted by: swksvolFF || 05/02/2014 12:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Only now?

Been that way for at least a decade. You idiots were too stupid to see it apparently.
Posted by: DarthVader || 05/02/2014 12:25 Comments || Top||

#6  When they double their GDP percentage on defense, give me a call.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 05/02/2014 12:27 Comments || Top||

#7  "They Who, Rusians or US?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 05/02/2014 13:28 Comments || Top||

#8  How long until Obama tells NATO that the 80s called and wants its foreign policy back?
Posted by: AuburnTom || 05/02/2014 15:15 Comments || Top||

#9  They=NATO members
Posted by: P2Kontheroad || 05/02/2014 15:28 Comments || Top||

#10  * CHINA DAILY > US OPTS FOR [intentionally] INEFFECTIVE SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA | STRATFOR.

versus

Meanwhile, NOT to be outdone by NATO or Vlad ...

* BIGNEWSNETWORK > [China.org] US WILL SELF-DEFEAT ITSELF IFF IT CONSIDERS CHINA AN ENEMY.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 05/02/2014 22:48 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
National Day of Prayer Preacher Tells Obama "Come and Get Me"
WASHINGTON -- James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and Family Talk Radio, a harsh critic of President Obama and an opponent in court, on Thursday described him as the "abortion president" during an address at the National Day of Prayer.

Dobson, whose organization recently won a court fight against Obama over a mandate in Obamacare that would have required his ministry to pay for abortion pills, has not been shy about challenging the president on his abortion agenda.

At one point during the fight over the imposition of the abortion mandate, he said to the president: "Come and get me. I will not yield to your wicked regulations."
Posted by: Bubba Graiting8281 || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's the over on Obama bursting into flames should he and Mr. Dobson ever shake hands?
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 05/02/2014 21:22 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Baha'i International Community Accuses Iran of Desecrating Cemetery
[An Nahar] The Baha'i International Community on Thursday accused Iran of excavating a cemetery where hundreds of its followers are buried, and urged the Tehran government to halt the work.
The Unitarianism of Islam, it was founded by the Baha'ullah about 150 years ago. But the beautiful world headquarters is in Israel, where Muslim heresies are safe.
The grave site in the southern city of Shiraz, some 710 kilometers (440 miles) south of Tehran, has been used by Baha'is for decades.

"The excavation has begun and graves are being destroyed. Some 40 to 50 trucks are lined up to remove the earth and accelerate the work," the Baha'i community said in a statement seen by Agence La Belle France Presse.

According to the community, the site was confiscated by the Iranian government in 1983 and local officials are seeking to build a "cultural sports building" in its place.

It added that 950 Baha'is are buried there.

"We also appeal directly to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to halt this act of desecration," the statement said.

Local media have been silent on the alleged excavation, and AFP could not independently confirm the report.

The Baha'i community says that between 2005 and 2012, at least 40 other Baha'i-owned cemeteries in Iran have been desecrated, with bodies exhumed.

The minority faith is not tolerated in the predominantly Shiite Islamic republic, and its followers face repression.
Posted by: Fred || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran


Home Front: Culture Wars
Los Angeles NAACP President Leon Jenkins Resigns Amid Donald Sterling Controversy
[HuffPoo] Records indicate that Sterling's foundations have given Jenkins' branch at least $45,000 since 2007, The New York Times reports. The Times also points out that Sterling was given a similar award under Jenkins' leadership in 2009.

"Please be advised that the legacy, history and reputation of the NAACP is more important to me than the presidency," Jenkins declared in his letter of resignation shared in a NAACP statement. He added that he was resigning "In order to separate the Los Angeles NAACP and the NAACP from the negative exposure I have caused the NAACP."
A definite loss to the movement. LJ will be greatly missed.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2014 02:56 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  360-degrees, this entire story is about "The Boodle."
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 05/02/2014 21:40 Comments || Top||

#2  With a flourish to cap his career,
Jenkins covers the team's whorish rear.
Black, negro, or colored,
The fall of this blaggard
Should be music to each moorish ear.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/02/2014 22:11 Comments || Top||


Government
Jay Carney lets Benghazi Cat out of the bag.
[Daily Caller] When The Daily Caller asked him if the Libyan turbulence is an example of the "broader failure of policy" suggested in the memo, Carney equivocated, and eventually said "I would never tell you what to write."
Jay will no doubt be leaving the administration soon.
Who would they replace him with? This isn't the association of winners that it once appeared.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2014 02:37 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who would they replace him with? This isn't the association of winners that it once appeared.

Given the, er, 'close' relationship between the Left/Democrats and the media, there'll always be somebody willing to pay their dues in order to secure a better position among the nomenkultura.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/02/2014 15:02 Comments || Top||

#2  These two don't give a damn. As far as they are concerned Stevens, Woods, Smith, and Doherty simply.... 'Checked their Privilege.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2014 17:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Pheh.

While I grasp your throw-it-back-at-them use of a social meme, I don't think it had anything to do with the deceaseds' skin color or status.

They were simply, expendable. Kinda like the dead in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/02/2014 17:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Pappy, along those lines... Obama's killed a gay person, and Phil Robertson hasn't. Guess which one's a 'hater.'
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain || 05/02/2014 18:31 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't think it had anything to do with the deceaseds' skin color or status.

I must respectfully disagree. Appears to me nearly everything this regime does is either directly or indirectly [read that presidential election] related to their 'social justice' agenda.
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2014 19:20 Comments || Top||

#6  "Not 'our people'"
Posted by: Frank G || 05/02/2014 20:11 Comments || Top||

#7  winners
wniners
whiners
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 05/02/2014 20:20 Comments || Top||

#8  It's only the bigshots that matters --
The rulers, the rollers, the chatterers.
Please don't think it's bigotry,
Just good ole time pigotry --
The ladders, the platters, the flatterers.
Posted by: Zenobia Floger6220 || 05/02/2014 22:33 Comments || Top||


Tech Giants Defiant On Customer Data Demand Secrecy
Major U.S. technology companies have largely ended the practice of quietly complying with investigators' demands for e-mail records and other online data, saying that users have a right to know in advance when their information is targeted for government seizure.

This increasingly defiant industry stand is giving some of the tens of thousands of Americans whose Internet data gets swept into criminal investigations each year the opportunity to fight in court to prevent disclosures. Prosecutors, however, warn that tech companies may undermine cases by tipping off criminals, giving them time to destroy vital electronic evidence before it can be gathered.

Fueling the shift is the industry's eagerness to distance itself from the government after last year's disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance of online services. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google all are updating their policies to expand routine notification of users about government data seizures, unless specifically gagged by a judge or other legal authority, officials at all four companies said. Yahoo announced similar changes in July.
Posted by: Bubba Graiting8281 || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gov't contract awards slowing a bit are they ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 05/02/2014 2:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Trying to protect their hides. Some one eventually is going under the bus.
Posted by: P2kontheroad || 05/02/2014 12:29 Comments || Top||

#3  More like international contracts, meneer.
Posted by: Pappy || 05/02/2014 15:04 Comments || Top||

#4  All the NSA, CIA etc. have to do is get a judge to issue a gag order. Since many of these courts seem to act as rubber stamps, that shouldn't be a problem.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 05/02/2014 15:17 Comments || Top||


J Street Denied Entry To US Jewish Umbrella Group
[Ynet] Left-wing Israel lobby says its bid was 'thwarted' by right-wing organizations, despite strong support from major American Jewish groups.
Well done, O Rightwing Orgs!
Despite the support of several venerable American Jewish organizations, including the Union for Reform Judaism, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and the Anti-Defamation League, the motion failed to receive the two-thirds majority required for admission into the 51-member umbrella group.

J Street said that it applied to the Conference of Presidents because it values "Jewish community and the concept of a broad tent of pro-Israel organizations that truly represents our community's diversity and dynamism" but that its "bid was thwarted by organizations on the right of the community who do not share those same values."

At the secret-ballot vote in the umbrella group's New York offices, 22 organizations voted against J Street's inclusion and three abstained, leaving the "pro-Israel, pro-Peace" lobby with only half of the votes it needed.

The right-wing Zionist Organization of American lobbied heavily against J Street's admission, citing the dovish group's association with BDS supporters and its previous statements on Israeli positions.

J Street denied that the vote spelled a rejection of the group by American Jewry: "When an organization like ours is kept out of the American Jewish community's official Israel umbrella organization, despite broad support, we should all be asking ourselves some hard questions.

"In many ways the vote illustrates one of the key reasons that J Street was created in the first place and why we continue to grow: a large segment of the American Jewish community feels that it does not have a home or a voice within its traditional structures."

The executive vice president of the Conservative movement's Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, claimed J Street "won the popular vote" and that the group would not have been denied entry if the Conference of Presidents voting process accounted for the size of an organization, according to a report in the New York-based magazine Jewish Daily Forward.
Yes, but the Forward is a socialist rag based in, and oriented toward, the New York City Jewish socialist scene, about as incestuous and parochial a group as exists anywhere.
J Street was founded six years ago as a liberal counterpart to the traditional pro-Israel lobby in America, AIPAC. The group, which has spawned many college chapters, chose to focus on the gains it has made: "After only six years, we have the third largest annual gathering of any American Jewish organization, over 800 rabbis have joined our Rabbinic Cabinet, and we have chapters in 40 cities and states."
Posted by: trailing wife || 05/02/2014 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
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1Govt of Iraq
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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.
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2014-05-02
  24 Syrians Register to Run in Presidential Vote as Regime Raid on Aleppo Kills 33
Thu 2014-05-01
  ISIL executes 7 in Syria including 2 crucifictions
Wed 2014-04-30
  Militants raid Libya assembly to stop vote on PM
Tue 2014-04-29
  Iraq Attacks Kill 57, Including 30 Talabani Supporters, as Security Forces Vote
Mon 2014-04-28
  Egypt sentences 11 Mursi supporters to up to 88 years
Sun 2014-04-27
  One Dead, 13 Hurt in Vienna Building Explosion
Sat 2014-04-26
  Syria militants suffers heavy losses across Aleppo
Fri 2014-04-25
  Yemen Qaida Gunmen Seize Hospitals to Treat Wounded
Thu 2014-04-24
  Three Americans gunned down in Kabul hospital attack
Wed 2014-04-23
  Saudi Arabia Sentences 8 To Death For 2003 Riyadh Attack
Tue 2014-04-22
  33 killed, dozens injured in terrorist attacks across Iraq
Mon 2014-04-21
  30 'Qaida' Suspects Killed in Yemen Drone Strike
Sun 2014-04-20
  Hamid Mir wounded in Pakistan gun attack
Sat 2014-04-19
  Drone Kills 15 'Qaida', 3 Civilians in Yemen
Fri 2014-04-18
  Afghan woman MP shot in Kabul


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