[Daily Caller] A member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a bipartisan commission that investigates civil rights issues, sent a letter laced with references to the movie "Airplane!" to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), warning its practice of putting diversity first could get people killed.
"[I] write as a concerned frequent flier who has no desire to find himself appearing as 'Victim No. 6'˛ in accounts of an airplane disaster," writes Peter Kirsanow, a Republican member of the Commission, in his letter to Michael Huerta, the FAA's current administrator. The statement is accompanied by a footnote, "See generally Airplane! (1980)."
An investigation conducted by Fox Business has found that over the past several years the FAA has quietly adjusted its hiring model for air traffic controllers (ATC) to de-emphasize merit while placing a stronger focus on increasing the number of women and minorities it hires. Please include all other Federal agencies, and tack on another 30 years for accuracy. Promotion, assignment preference and awards to be discussed in another segment. 'Affirmative Action,' it's what we do.
Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... and would be too costly for all parties and certainly for the average Yemeni citizen. Winning the war, given the level of armed opposition they have encountered across much of the country and the pressure from the coalition's Arclight airstrikes, is beyond their reach. The same goes for their chances to gain full control and hold key cities and provinces such as Aden, Taez or Marib.
Talks in the Omani capital of Muscat, involving Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ... representatives and brokered by U.N. officials, have prepared the ground for negotiations in Geneva and have also secured the release of one of the American hostages held by the rebels. Earlier this week, Yemeni government front man Rajeh Badi revealed that the U.N. envoy to Yemen, the Mauritanian Ismail Oul Cheikh Ahmed, had made substantial progress in the goal of bringing the Yemeni government in exile and the Houthis to the U.N.-sponsored talks.
The U.N. envoy himself revealed there is an agreement on "the date, agenda and framework for the Geneva talks and the parties that attend the meeting", and that a formal announcement is expected any hour now. According to Foreign Minister of Yemen Riyadh Yassin, the government has proposed June 14 as the start date for the talks.
Reportedly, among the terms of the agreement that will take the Houthis and the Yemeni government currently led by President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi and Vice-President Khaled Bahah to Geneva is a ceasefire longer than the previous five-day truce.
Paving the way
The hope is that the Geneva talks start paving the way for an end to the conflict, the full delivery of humanitarian aid, the return of the exiled government, and the resumption of the political dialogue.
According to recent reports, the agreement also involves the departure of Saleh to another country and a Houthi compromise to eventually abide by most of the provisions of U.N. Security Council resolution 2216, including a withdrawal from the cities they have seized. There is, however, a clear divergence over when that withdrawal should take place, with the Houthis refusing to do so before the U.N.-sponsored negotiations.
In this context, Saleh can hardly afford to abandon the Houthis under the price of seeing his position become even more vulnerable. But for the Houthis, the opposite scenario seems to be gaining ground: distancing themselves from Saleh is increasingly looking like a necessary step to gain more credibility during the coming peace talks, which are likely to take some time to bear fruit. The issue then, from the perspective of the Houthi leadership, might come down to the timing of that decision.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Houthis
#1
Is Iran gonna represent themselves at the talks or just let their puppets do it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/05/2015 12:11 Comments ||
Top||
#9
"After several hours, Kim finally gave up on logic and reason, and simply told the cabinet that he could talk to plants and that they wanted water."
.Moved to Opinion. Blog posts are always in Opinion.
Pundit] On Wednesday retired General Petraeus stated that the United States is losing to ISIS in Iraq. On Thursday Democrat Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi blamed the legendary General Petraeus for ISIS.
In response from a reporter's question during the House Democrat Leadership Press Conference Nancy Pelosi said that it was General Petraeus's job to train the Iraq military and obviously he didn't train as many as he claimed:
Reporter: "General Petraeus said last night that we are losing the war in Iraq. How do you see it?"
Pelosi: "Well General Petraeus had the responsibility to train the troops in Iraq. I remember going over there on any number of occasions and hearing from him that he had trained 175,000 Iraqi troops and personnel so that they can take over their own effort. I would ask him about that. I think the number was far smaller than was represented to us
[Wash Times] Former CIA Director and retired Gen. David Petraeus said Wednesday that the U.S.-led coalition's fight against the Islamic State group is "probably losing" at this time. In all fairness, the man actually does know a great deal about winning....and losing.
The architect of the successful "surge" strategy in Iraq in 2007 told Charlie Rose "These are fights where if you're not winning, you're probably losing, because time is not on your side," when asked if the U.S. was winning, CBS reported. If you are leaving the mess for the next administration, or if you've secretly partnered a partition with Iran, 'time is indeed on your side.' Perhaps we'll not go there during this interview.
Gen. Petraeus said that recent seizures of Ramadi in Iraq and the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria were significant operational and strategic setbacks. Yes, losing key cities and panicked retrogrades are indicators of a non-win.
"It's worrisome. As we say, 'The enemy gets a vote,'" he said, CBS reported. "But this is a moment at which I think you step back and say 'What do you do in the military arena? What also do we need to do in the political arena?'"
Asked by Mr. Rose if the U.S. should rely on Iran-backed Shiite militias to secure battlefield victories for Iraq forces, Gen. Petraeus replied that such an option should only be used as a last resort.
"What we need to do is focus not just on the military. You can't kill or capture your way out of an industrial strength insurgency like this, Charlie -- really, an industrial strength conventional force, because that's what [the Islamic State] has actually come to be. You need to have the political component, and without that, without that, you're not going to solve the problem," he said.
Iraq security forces and Iran-backed militias are currently preparing to retake the city of Ramadi, which fell under Islamic State control last month. Notice he carefully avoided discussing the obvious limits of aerial bombing and the notional efforts now underway.
#1
Notice that no one asks the seminal question; What do you mean by winning?
This is a problem that's been with us since at least the beginning of the "War on Terrorism".
What will "winning" look like? Who would be dead and who would be in charge and where? I know my definition but I'm not sure any of the players in this drama even have one.
#2
One lesson I thought we learned from Iraq was the longer the tribesmen hung around with the Al Queda fighters the easier it was to get them to side against the Al Queda fighters.
Another lesson I learned was lacking an external target to hate (America or Israel) the Sunni and Shia will hate and kill each other. Let them.
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Quartet ... The Quartet are the UN (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy.... must be retired as well. It was a by-product of the infamous road map for peace. But it was only ever a single player with backing supporting vocalists. It was not even a quartet given that the U.N. and EU were meant to be half of it. It was a U.S. trap to anchor other international actors to their position including for example never talking to Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,.
Has the U.S. done anything to justify the sole sponsor of the "grinding of the peace processor?" Is it just impossible for Washington to admit that perhaps it alone cannot break the cycle? Can even the U.S. afford a lame grinding of the peace processor with no end product for another decade?
The French, amongst others, are challenging the mechanism. The draft United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... Security Council Resolution calling for an 18-month timetable to end the conflict with a Paleostinian state based on the 1967 borders could be the end for the Quartet. Israel will hate both the timetable and the messenger. It wants to maintain the asymmetrical negotiating framework where the occupier dictates the framework to the occupied, the latter begging for small concessions. The international community has to step in, uphold international law and dictate the essential parameters of a deal above all that the occupation must end. The Arab peace initiative must be implemented as the final stage pursuant to an Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory.
President B.O. must muster the courage to forego the U.S. monopoly on this issue. The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , financially stretched as it is, must no longer act as the unquestioning financier to a process that can never deliver. All the local belligerent parties must be left in no doubt that a final peace deal is an international and regional necessity.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/05/2015 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
final peace deal is an international and regional necessity
[Gateway Pundit] Qatar extended the travel ban for Obama's Taliban Dream Team last week. Barack Obama released the Gitmo Five last year in exchange for US deserter Bowe Bergdahl.
The Obama administration tried to recruit the Taliban Five to work for the US government. Of course, this plan failed miserably. The former Gitmo detainees have 65 family members living with them in Qatar and have reached out to their old terror networks. No need to despair, we've still got Sharpton, ValJar, Wright, The Hildebeest, and a host of MSM stringers. These guys were JV.
[Shoebat] I was actually on this flight on Friday evening from ORD to DCA. I have been a reader of this forum for a long time but seeing this all over the news made me sign up so I could tell you what really happened here and hopefully stop this liar in her tracks. I was sitting close enough to her to hear everything that was said. The flight attendant came up to the lady (I believe she even took her order first in the entire cabin as she was seated in the bulkhead 7d) and took her order.
She ordered a coke zero and a hot green tea with a Splenda. The flight attendant handed her a full diet coke with a cup on top and then told her that the green tea would take a few minutes and she would get it to her ASAP. The lady said very rudely and condescending to the FA that she ordered a coke zero and basically pushed the soda back to the flight attendant.
The FA said she was sorry and attempted to find a coke zero for her (which she did not have many of) and told her that she could only give her a portion of the can not the full can. This is when the lady in question started to freak out and told the FA "What do you think I will use this as a weapon?! Why can't I have the whole can? I think you are discriminating against me. I need your name...."
The lady just kept yelling to her "I need your name... I am being discriminated against." This is when a few passengers told her to calm down and one guy told her to "shut her mouth and she is being ridiculous over a can of coke".
No one ever said anything anti-Muslim to her at all. She was the one who started screaming discrimination when she did not get what she wanted. The FA asked her numerous times if she would like anything else when the lady just basically pushed her away with a hand in her face.
The lady then got onto her phone with her credit card and paid for the internet so she could start spinning this story on social media and she was never in tears. This person is a liar plain and simple and is just pulling the discrimination card.
#4
I'm so damn sick of all these ppl screaming racism, discrimination or whatever else. It's like ppl just sit around all damn day hunting something to be offended by. Get a job or better yet a life. Mutherfuckers have nothing better to worry about than this nonsense? Like say a job or paying bills. Let me guess, ppl like me an the rest of yall rantburgers are probably footing that . To bad they couldn't thros that bitch off the plane before it landed.
Posted by: chris ||
06/05/2015 15:50 Comments ||
Top||
#5
When are we going to catch on that in Islam it is O.K. to lie to non-believers. We should assume that whenever they open their pie holes, that they are lying and act accordingly.
#10
Only way to stop this: All muzz fly together, segregated, in a towed glider behind a slow, underpowered tow plane. They can bring anything they desire with them on the plane: unopened coke cans, unexploded underwear and shoes, brand new box cutters and gallon sized containers of flammable liquids...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/05/2015 19:47 Comments ||
Top||
Only someone who willfully served a long sentence in those university departments whose commitment to basic canons of reasoning, evidence, and argumentation is generously described as modest could write something that leads one to conclude her mind is still imprisoned there.
Wow.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/05/2015 6:59 Comments ||
Top||
#2
According to reasoning by the left, the young woman wearing a short skirt and low cut top is to blame for getting raped.
[Investors.com] Immigration: Two polls show that illegal aliens vote in numbers sufficient to swing U.S. elections, effectively disenfranchising millions of Americans. What is this anyway, a new privileged superclass?
The 2013 McLaughlin poll, first reported by the Heritage Foundation's Hans von Spakovsky, coincides in findings nearly exactly with a 2014 George Mason University-Old Dominion University survey using data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study.
The McLaughlin poll showed 13% of non-U.S. citizens are registered to vote in the U.S. and in 2008 6.4% cast ballots. The Old Dominion-George Mason study showed that 14.8% of noncitizens were registered to vote in 2008 and 15.6% in 2010. And counting for those who said they weren't registered but actually were, the figure grew to 25%.
So as this privileged group "won" the right to vote by brazenly taking it without consequences, the victims were the 6% or more of American citizens whose votes were canceled out as a result of these illegal ballots.
One party benefits here -- the Democrats, who reap 80% of illegal votes. And maybe that's why this bona fide political crisis isn't being addressed.
Democrats in fact favor dropping all pretense of rule of law and opening the vote to millions of illegal immigrants. A Rasmussen telephone survey of likely voters released May 29 shows 53% of Democrats believe illegals have a "right" to cast ballots in U.S. elections so long as they can prove they live here and pay taxes. Twenty-two percent of Republicans share this view.
And Democrats show this in their constant showering of benefits on illegals, effectively creating a privileged class over actual U.S. citizens.
Illegals have been advised by the IRS that they are free to claim massive tax refunds through the Earned Income Credit over the last three years even if they never filed to pay taxes. Any ordinary American who doesn't file taxes would be in world of trouble if the IRS learned of it. But illegals are a special case, getting what are effectively $3,000 subsidies per year merely by claiming to have lived and worked here. A pretty good bonus just for breaking the law.
#4
O has a game board given to him. He plays as he wishes and makes up the rules as he goes. We have no champions to thwart his madness. Yes, he could be insane but untouchable.
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.
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.
[Daily Caller] A member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a bipartisan commission that investigates civil rights issues, sent a letter laced with references to the movie "Airplane!" to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), warning its practice of putting diversity first could get people killed.
Quartet
[Shoebat] I was actually on this flight on Friday evening from ORD to DCA. I have been a reader of this forum for a long time but seeing this all over the news made me sign up so I could tell you what really happened here and hopefully stop this liar in her tracks. I was sitting close enough to her to hear everything that was said. The flight attendant came up to the lady (I believe she even took her order first in the entire cabin as she was seated in the bulkhead 7d) and took her order.
