Axelroad explains his silence

BULLY BOY PRESS &     CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

DAVID AXELROD HAS REVEALED HE ALWAYS KNEW CRANKY CLINTON WAS NOT USING A PROTECTED GOVERNMENT E-MAIL ACCOUNT.

REACHED FOR COMMENT, AXELROD TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "I HONESTLY DIDN'T SEE ANY PROBLEM.  I MEAN, I NEVER EXPECTED ANYONE TO E-MAIL HER.  COME ON, IT'S CRANKY!  WHO WANTS TO E-MAIL HER?"

FROM THE TCI WIRE:



Were Barack Obama and the White House not being held hostage by the government of Iran, maybe they could address issues in Iraq?

Instead, the wasted time continues.  We were told that all the focus would end in March when a deal was arrived at.

There was no deal.

The White House insisted that by the end of June, they'd have a deal.


June has ended.

Currently, they've tacked on another week.

As former US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker has repeatedly noted in the last weeks, Iran is not helping Iraq, it is assisting in the hardening of divisions among Iraqis and in inciting ill will.

But that can't be addressed when Barack is held hostage by Tehran.

Some news reports today made the laughable claim that Barack knows how to walk away from the bargaining table.

No, he doesn't.

And when you demonstrate that, and he did last March, you have no power.

That's why tacking three more months to the 'talks' did not result in a deal.

Tehran knows Barack will do anything to avoid walking away.

Tehran knows they're calling the shots.

It's not a debate among equals, it's one group insisting on what they want (Tehran) and another party too scared to end the talks.

And while he continues to allow Iran to take center stage, Iraq suffers every day.



Barack Obama's 'plan' for Iraq doesn't stem the violence, it only adds to it.  The US Defense Dept announced today:


Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted nine airstrikes in Iraq, approved by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense:
-- Near Baghdadi, three airstrikes struck land features, denying ISIL a tactical advantage and destroying two ISIL excavators.
-- Near Fallujah, an airstrike destroyed an ISIL tunnel system.
-- Near Haditha, two airstrikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, destroying two ISIL vehicles.
-- Near Mosul, two airstrikes struck an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL mortar firing position, destroying an ISIL building.
-- Near Waleed, an airstrike destroyed three ISIL armored personnel carriers.



None of that steers Iraq towards a political solution.


None of that addresses the very real grievances of the Sunni population, a population targeted under the (mis)leadership of Nouri al-Maliki for years and still targeted by the man who replaced him as prime minister Haider al-Abadi.

In January 2014, Nouri began bombing civilians areas in Falluja (Sunni-dominate Falluja).  These bombings continue under Haider al-Abadi (they are collective punishment which is legally defined as a War Crime).



RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
"NASCAR's Cale Conley Competes Honors Veterans this..."
"Thousands dead and injured in Iraq for the month o..."
"Chaka's "Hejira""
"Do You Want To Dance"
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
"By Your Side"
"River"
"en vogue"
"Rolling In The Deep"
"Anita Baker "You Belong To Me""
"Mr. Super Love"
"Angie"
""Blackbird," "Devoted To You" and "All I Have To Do Is Dream""
"The e-mails"
"THIS JUST IN! THE E-MAILS REVEAL?"

The e-mails

BULLY BOY PRESS &     CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

CRANKY CLINTON AND THE STATE DEPT. POPPED A SQUAT AND TOOK ANOTHER DUMP.

THE E-MAILS ARE FILLED WITH DETAILS.

SUCH AS LESLIE GELB  ATTEMPTING TO TRICK HER INTO DOING A COVER STORY WITH THE HARD HITTING AND MUCKRAKING PARADE MAGAZINE.

REACHED FOR COMMENT, CRANKY TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S MORE EMBARRASSING -- THAT HE PROMISED ME I COULD VET HIS COPY OR THAT LESLIE GELB IS WRITING FOR PARADE MAGAZINE?"



FROM THE TCI WIRE:




Where there is wasted resources and bad reporting, there is the New York Times.

It's a fact the paper never seems to stop flaunting.

The ridiculous Peter Baker and Steve Eder rush forward to remind us of that today in an article about . . .

Well is there a point to it?

The State Dept released some of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

This is a paragraph in the blather Baker and Eder offer:

Her policy priorities come through in the messages as well. In July 2009, when an aide forwarded Mrs. Clinton a message about treatment of gays and lesbians in Iraq, both before and after the reign of Saddam Hussein, she wrote back quickly: “So sad and terrible. We should ask Chris Hill,” the American ambassador, “to raise w govt.”


No policy priorities come through in that paragraph.

They fail to establish anything and seem less like reporters and more like two dishy teens at first lunch.

"So sad and terrible," Hillary wrote.

About what?

Despite being paid to be reporters, neither Peter Baker nor Steve Eder care to share that with the readers.

"We should ask Chris Hill to raise w govt"?

Why?

The writers fail to establish what the communication was about or what was going on in Iraq at the time or even why the issue was raised?

Here's the reality piss panties Peter and Stevie can't tell you because they're too busy whoring and lying (for this you left the Washington Post, Peter?), life in Iraq had turned deadly for the LGBT community.

Under Nouri al-Maliki.

Not under Saddam.

Under Nouri al-Maliki.

It's a fact, quit whoring and lying, Peter Baker and Steve Eder.

Human trash is that which covers for the crimes of a thug.  By that definition, Peter and Steve are human trash.

Oh, C.I., you always blame Nouri!

Because I pay attention and I'm not in a coma.

And maybe if others paid attention as well, Baker and Eder wouldn't get away with this garbage.

July 2009 is when Hillary's suddenly learning of "so sad" life for Iraq's LGBT community.

Who's raising the issue?

Not the moronic New York Times, never the idiotic and homophobic New York Times.

But July of 2009 is when Ashley Byrne's "Saddam's rule 'better' for gay Iraqis" (BBC News) appears,


What else was the BBC offering as coverage that month?


From the July 7, 2009 snapshot:


Gay Life After Saddam is a documentary the BBC commissioned which was set to air Sunday, July 5th on BBC Radio 5 Live; however, the Wimbledon Men's Final ran late Sunday and the program has been rescheduled to air Sunday July 12th from nine to ten p.m. (1:00 to 2:00 p.m. PST).  Ashley Byrne did the investigative reporting for the documentary and, at the BBC, Byrne explains, "What is clear, and confirmed by separate evidence from various human rights groups, is that some gay men have been subjected to appalling violent abuse. . . . Gay men inside Iraq have been able to seek santuary in safe houses, thanks to the UK-based Iraqi Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) group, which manages them from London.  The documentary team were granted exclusive access to one of the homes on the outskirts of Baghdad".  The people Byrne speaks to maintain it was easier to be a gay Iraqi when Saddam Hussein was in charge of Iraq.  So much for 'liberation' and 'democracy.'  Again, the specail has been rescheduled for this coming Sunday, July 12th. 


Now some whine, 'I'd love to listen but BBC's webpage says it's no longer available.'

How is that my problem?

You didn't pay attention in real time?  How is that my problem?

No, the special's no longer available.  It was six years ago.






RECOMMENDED:  "Iraq snapshot"
"New Leaders Join IAVA's Board of Directors"
"Max Screenings Hosted in 39 Cities by IAVA Leaders..."
"Iraq: the refugee crisis, the health crisis and mo..."
"Idiot of the week"
"Bette Davis"
"Ben Taylor's "Worlds Are Made Of Paper""
"Barack didn't get his way"
"Hillary's paranoia"
"bourgeois bernie sanders"
"Hillary and Bernie, two of a kind"
"Bernie plays on fear of the other"
"Bernie the xenophobe"
"What's the differene between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump?"
"Barry O's got the wedding bell blues"
"THIS JUST IN! GOING TO THE CHAPEL!"

Barry O's got the wedding bell blues

BULLY BOY PRESS &     CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

BARRY O MAY BE A FADED CELEBRITY BUT HE'S STILL ONE HOT PIECE OF -- FILL IN THE BLANK.


THIS BECOMES CLEAR AS HE GETS HIS FIRST OFFICIAL MARRIAGE PROPOSAL.


ROBERT MUGABE WANTS BARRY O AT HIS SIDE IN ZIMBABWE AND IS WILLING TO COME TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND "GET DOWN ON ONE KNEE AND ASK FOR HIS HAND IN MARRIAGE."


IT WAS A BIG STEP FOR MUGABE WHO HAS SPENT YEARS PRETENDING HE WAS STRAIGHT AND ATTACKING GAYS SO THAT NO 1 WOULD KNOW THE TRUTH OF HIS DESIRES.

GOOD FOR YOU ROBERT MUGABE, YOU LOVE MEN AND NOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO HIDE IT ANYMORE!



FROM THE TCI WIRE:




Al Bawaba carries one of today's most important stories:


At least 71 civilians have been killed and 90 injured since the beginning of Ramadan due to the repeated shelling of Fallujah city in Iraq’s western Anbar province, a local medical source said Monday.
On June 23, Anbar’s provincial council called on the Iraqi army to refrain from shelling civilian areas of Fallujah, which is currently held by the Daesh militant group.
Ahmed al-Shami, chief doctor at the Fallujah Educational Hospital, told Anadolu Agency that the hospital’s emergency room had received 71 dead and 90 injured, “mostly women and children,” since the beginning of Ramadan on June 18.


The War Crimes, the never ending War Crimes.


Oh, whatcha gonna do when time runs out on you
Run down, ghost town
Barren pastures all around
How y'gonna explain it to your grandkids
Where did the mountain go
How y'gonna tell them you sold it
Where did the mountain go
-- "Chalice Borealis," written by Carole King and Rick Sorensen, first appears on her Speeding Time


How you going to pretend a decade from now, as the world recoils in horror over the then-past crimes, that you didn't know what was going on?

Yes, the White House pretends not to know.

They have to.

These actions -- the Iraqi military bombing civilians homes in Falluja -- meet the legal definition of War Crimes.

Recognizing them means the White House would have to halt all arm shipments to Iraq.

That's even if you set aside the Leahy Amendment.

Treaties and international law recognized by the US government demands that the shipments be stopped if the government is attacking civilians.

So the White House looks the other way.

What's the American people's excuse?

And let's stop pretending that people don't know.

These bombings began under Nouri al-Maliki in January 2014.


They continue under Haider al-Abadi.

They got a flurry of western media attention briefly -- on September 13th when Haider announced they had stopped.

Then the western press, so silent on the bombings for months, rushed to cover the announcement.

And then fell back into silence when, the next day, September 14th, the bombings continued.

There is no excuse for the silence.

And ten years from now, lots of luck explaining that silence.

The youth can be very unforgiving.

They've often not experienced serious regret.

Things are often very clear cut to them.

And the fact that the left in the United States refused to call out the bombing of civilians in Iraq?


Lots of luck defending your silence then.


For 18 months and counting, these attacks on Sunni civilians, attacks carried out by the Iraqi military, have gone on.


Today, AFP reports:

Iraqi premier Haider al-Abadi has “retired” the army’s chief of staff, the most senior officer removed since jihadists overran large parts of the country last year, his spokesman said Monday.

General Babaker Zebari “has been retired” on Abadi’s orders, Saad al-Hadithi told AFP, without providing further details.


All Iraq News, citing a source in the Ministry of Defense, maintains that Zibari is the one who decided to retire and the decision was made "to enjoy retirement because he is getting too old."


Poor Haider, it could have been his big moment.

Could have been.




RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
"ACLU Comment on Supreme Court Decision in Glossip ..."
"Ruling Establishes Marriage Equality Nationwide"
"The Islamic State a year later"
"Hejira"
"1 county's fight against fracking"
"Loser Barack"
"Disgusting"
"Cher"
"Chrissie Hynde"
"The lying never ends"
"Hey, honest and upright Valerie Plame, what do you say about this?"
"Oh, Hillary, more lies?"
"books"
"One more book review you might have missed"
"Closets still?"

• Truest statement of the week
• Truest statement of the week II
• A note to our readers
• Editorial: Leave It To The Ridiculous Joel Wing
• TV: The Grinch Who Stole The Simpsons
• 10 70's TV Characters We Never Want To See Again
• Where are the girls and women?
• My heroes have always been . . . losers?
• Not a minute too soon
• This edition's playlist
• Ruling Establishes Marriage Equality Nationwide
• Attempts to bring fracker Caudrilla back to Lancas...
• Highlights

"She says she's the only game in town"
"THIS JUST IN! SHE SAYS YOU'RE STUCK WITH HER!"

She says she's the only game in town

BULLY BOY PRESS &     CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

CRANKY CLINTON IS FACING A NEW BLOW TO HER ALREADY SHADY IMAGE AS CNN NOTES THAT SHE HAS ONLY HERSELF TO BLAME FOR THE E-MAIL SCANDAL AS IT HAS NOW EMERGED THAT SHE DID NOT TURN OVER ALL E-MAILS TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT AS SHE HAD PREVIOUSLY MAINTAINED.

REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, CRANKY CLEANED HER TEETH OF THE BONE OF IRAQIS AND LIBYANS AND GROWLED, "WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO?  VOTE FOR BERNIE?"

HILLARY TOOK A PAUSE TO CACKLE FOR 5 MINUTES AND 20 SECONDS BEFORE CONTINUING, "THEY'RE STUCK WITH ME.  LOOK AT ME AS THE FAT GIRL NEXT DOOR YOUR MOTHER'S MAKING YOU TAKE TO PROM.  YOU DON'T LIKE ME.  YOU'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE OUT WITH ME BUT FOR THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE, YOU'RE STUCK WITH ME."


FROM THE TCI WIRE:


Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.  Friday, he gave a speech that is attracting attention. Dan Merica (CNN) reports:

Throughout the speech, his first detailed comments on global issues since announcing his candidacy last month, O'Malley criticized the way that foreign policy has been dealt with for years, an implicit critique of Clinton given her role as secretary of state during the first Obama administration. He particularly highlighted the war in Iraq and the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, two events inextricably tied to Clinton.

"The invasion of Iraq -- along with the subsequent disbanding of the Iraqi military -- will be remembered as one of the most tragic, deceitful and costly blunders in U.S. history," O'Malley said at TruCon 2015, a foreign policy conference in Washington. "And we are still paying the price of a war pursued under false pretenses."

O'Malley has been on a streak of late and gave a speech this week to the Truman National Security Project -- a speech that offered a rallying cry, "No nation ever off-shored its way to greatness."

In the speech, O'Malley also addressed the issue of global warming:


Nowhere is this more collaborative approach more important than in confronting the growing and immediate challenge of severe climate change.
For years, the Pentagon has recognized global warming as an urgent national security threat.
Your organization’s leader—former Army Captain Mike Breen—put it best at a recent Congressional hearing, when he said:
“Over 97 percent of climate scientists say that man-made climate change is a reality.”
“As a combat leader, if 97 percent of my intelligence indicated that I was about to face a lethal danger that would risk the lives of my paratroopers—I would be committing unconscionable malpractice if I did not listen and act.”
Mike is right.
The energy technologies needed to combat climate change exist today—it’s only the political will that is lacking.
America can, and must, lead the way—by pursuing an ambitious plan to ensure our country is powered 100 percent by clean energy, by 2050.
Climate change is not only a very real existential threat to human life, it is also the greatest business opportunity to come to our country in a hundred years.
We must seize this opportunity by creating an American Green Jobs Agenda that is a match for the climate challenge.
We need to invest in resilience—from the Jersey Shore to California’s Central Valley.
We need to spur innovation—to develop cutting-edge technologies that will create jobs at home, and unlock new markets abroad.
We need to embrace new ideas at the state level, as we have in Maryland— where, in just eight years, we increased renewable energy capacity by 57 percent, became a clean-tech jobs hub, and cut carbon emissions by 10 percent.
America’s leadership and example are essential.
Because climate change is a global challenge—with global consequences. It is the transformation that transforms everything.
And by confronting this challenge, we can realize global economic opportunities—and job opportunities—for the United States.
We must partner with emerging markets, in our own hemisphere and beyond, to distribute renewable energy solutions and green design.
We must aggressively push for global emissions agreements in venues like the upcoming UN climate summit in Paris.
And we must seed, scale, and deploy American-made renewable energy technologies throughout the world.
To reduce mankind’s carbon footprint.
To preserve the living systems of this earth—for ourselves and our posterity.




That's where we could be.

Let's drop back to where we are.


"We're short -- we're short in '16," declared VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson on Thursday regarding Hepatitis C care.  "I  -- You know, the budget's what, 650? six-hundred-and-fifty-million?  Somewhere in that neighborhood.  Six-hundred-and-fifty to seven-hundred-million dollars for '16 and-and that -- We won't -- That won't be adequate unless we ration that care."


Gibson was testifying before the US House Veterans Affairs Committee Thursday morning.


To avoid rationing care for Hepatitis C cases in 2016?


Gibson advised, "The other option is -- as we're doing right now -- is basically, when we run out of money to do it inside VA, we refer those to care under Choice and-and rely on that-that sort of safety valve."


The problems go beyond 2016.


Gibson insisted, "We're in a situation where we're going to have to start denying care to veterans because we don't have the resources to be able to pay for it.  And-and that's -- I don't think anybody wants to see that happen.  It will be a very -- a very unpleasant and unsatisfactory situation.

And that's not him talking about the 2016 budget or about Hep C.  That was in reply to US House Rep Julia Brownley's question about the current shortfall this year and what that means come August.


Over $350 million can be pulled from the Veterans Choice Program funds to cover costs that do not meet the criteria for Veterans Choice Programs, Gibson and the VA are insisting.



US House Rep Jeff Miller is the Chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.  In his opening remarks, he outlined many problems revolving around the newly announced 'shortfall' in the budget.  We're using his written statement and using it as written (with paragraph breaks) because a number of topics are covered in it and it will be easier to read and comprehend



Given the extensive pent-up demand for care that was exposed during last year’s hearings on wait time manipulation, VA had ample time to adjust its budgetary needs with the Office of Management and Budget to prevent what we are now seeing.  
In February through April of this year, Secretary McDonald appeared at four separate budget hearings.
Since those have concluded, the Secretary and I have met and spoken regularly on a number of important, emerging issues.
At no point in those hearings or in our subsequent discussions since, has the Secretary expressed to me that the Department had a budget shortfall of such a magnitude – one that threatens VA’s ability to meets its obligations to our nation’s veterans.
Nor did other VA leaders or officials communicate how much in the red VA was either - even though the Committee was informed late last week that the Department knew as early as March that there were giant disparities between the amount of money that VA was spending and the amount of money budgeted.
The only message that Congress received in March regarding the state of VA’s budget was the quarterly financial report VA submitted to the Appropriations Committee  for the first quarter of fiscal year 2015, which showed that VA was actually under plan in terms of its spend out rate.
Meanwhile, just two weeks ago VA proposed a plan – that Congress authorized at the Department’s urging - to transfer one hundred and fifty million dollars in fiscal year 2015 funding to support the continued construction of the replacement medical center project in Denver, Colorado.
VA also proposed an across the board recession of just under a one percent in fiscal year 2016 funds to devote to the Denver project – a proposal, by the way, that the Veterans Health Administration’s Chief Financial Officer told Committee staff last week that she did not even know about until after it had already been transmitted to Congress.
Those actions clearly show that VA leaders believe that moving forward with the Denver project – which is not scheduled to open to veteran patients until 2017 at the earliest - is a higher priority for the Department than ensuring that veterans who need care now are able to access that care.
I have come to expect a startling lack of transparency and accountability from VA over the last years; but failing to inform Congress of a multi-billion dollar funding deficit until this late in the fiscal year while continuing to advance what I believe are lower priority need that further deplete the Department’s coffers in support of a construction project that benefits no veteran for at least two more years is disturbing on an entirely different level.    
Earlier this week, VA issued a “fact sheet” that claims that VA “formally requested limited budget flexibility” in February and March and May of this year and, “plainly articulated” VA’s need for additional resources.
Buried on page one hundred and sixty seven of the second volume of VA’s budget submission is a single statement that reads: “[i]n the coming months, the Administration will submit legislation to reallocate a portion of Choice program funding to support essential investments in VA system priorities…”

Secretary McDonald repeated this statement in his budget testimony without providing any additional supporting details or justification and, to-date, no legislative proposal has been submitted by the Administration. 




Miller is the Chair and, thanks to Nancy Pelosi's shenanigans, the laughable Corrine Brown is the Ranking Member.


Thursday, I didn't have my Corrine-To-English translator ring on me so we'll just note a little bit of her opening remarks.


Ranking Member Corrine Brown:  The VA is facing a shortfall of 2.6 billion for veterans healthcare.  This shortfall must be address [sic] ammediately [sic].  We cannot put the health and lives of our veterans at ris [sic] by spending our time and attention pointing fingers and assigning blame.  VA will be facing an additional shortfall at the start of the next fistal [sic] year in October 



We have to stop there.

We have to.

Corrine goes on to say that the country is headed towards a government shutdown -- she uses shutdown twice.  Both times she probably would have been bleeped on TV.

She always invents her own words and here she took the "u" in "shutdown" and replaced it with an "i" both times she said it.

A government sh*tdown.

The fist time she said it, people were looking around.  Then she said, "Let me say that again, we are headed towards a government sh*tdown" and several on the Committee appeared to bite their lips to avoid laughing.

On her third time using the term, she did manage to say "shutdown."

Keep playing with the English language, Corrine, it works if you work it.


Corrine used her time to ask about fee based care and Choice.  Yes, Choice is fee based.  Many grasped that before Corinne's question but everyone grasped it after Sloane explained Choice.

Well . . .

Everyone but Corinne Brown.


After he finished describing it, she asked, "And Choice?"


A confused Sloan Gibson replied softly, "That is Choice."


Oh, Corrine Brown.





RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
"Inspiring video (David DeGraw)"
"An expert leaves his fly open and his inexpertise ..."
"Idiot of the week"
"O'Malley"
"Jill Stein loves her some Bush and Barack"
"the secret conversations by peter evans"
"Summer read?"
"Krugman"
"That disgusting Paul Krugman"
"That disgraceful Paul Krugman"
"Mistresses can't survive without Savi"
"Mistresses (oh, it's bad)"
"The last barrier falls?"
"THIS JUST IN! ROBERTS IS CRUSHING HARD!"