Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The applause getting line

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


IN A DESPERATE NEED TO GIVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SOMETHING TO CHEER, FADED CELEBRITY BARRY O DECLARED, "I HAVE NO MORE CAMPAIGNS TO RUN."


AFTER SIX YEARS OF SUFFERING, THE NATIONAL COMEDY IS COMING TO AN END.


FROM THE TCI WIRE:



The US-led occupation of Iraq continues with Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) reporting 175 violent deaths today.  While the Canadian government acknowledges that  combat took place for Canada and the Islamic State.  Al Jazeera reports:


 Canadian special forces have clashed with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group by exchanging gunfire in Iraq in recent days, in the first confirmed ground battle between Western troops and ISIL, a senior officer has said.
The Canadians came under mortar and machine gun fire while training Iraqi troops near front lines and shot back in what Canadian special forces commander Brigadier General Michael Rouleau described as self-defence, killing the ISIL fighters. 

Rouleau said the melee had taken place in the previous seven days and was "the first time we've taken fire and returned fire" in Iraq, where the armed group has overrun large areas.


When did the exchange take place?  Laura Payton (CBC News) offers it was "sometime in the last week when they went to the front lines following a planning session with senior Iraqi leaders, their commanding officer told reporters in Ottawa on Monday."  BBC News quotes Brigadier General Michael Rouleau that the incident was "the first time we've taken fire and returned fire."

This wasn't supposed to happen.  They were supposed to be advisors and trainers.

Sound familiar?

Steven Chase (Globe and Mail) points out:

 The release by the Canadian military on Monday has triggered a debate about whether mission creep is afflicting what was supposed to be a relatively limited assignment for nearly 70 elite soldiers to offer military advice to Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq.
The military and the Harper government insist these activities are not the kind of direct-combat ground operations that Canadians were assured troops would avoid in their role as instructors and trainers to peshmerga forces battling the Islamic State.


Mission creep is always a possibility.  A point the American people should remember.

And as the news of combat for Canadian troops gets traction,  There are calls for more foreign troops to be sent into Iraq.  AFP reports, "US Senator John McCain on Monday urged the deployment of international ground forces to combat jihadists in Syria and Iraq, as he toured the Middle East with a Senate delegation."



While McCain called for more troops, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi met with some US scholars.  al-Abadi's office issued the following today:



PM Al-Abadi Discusses Developments in Iraq and the Region with American Think Tank Specialists


 

 
 
 
January 19 2015

Prime Minister Dr. Haider Al-Abadi met today with researchers and specialists in Iraqi affairs and counter-terrorism from US-based think tanks.


During the meeting with Dr. Kenneth Pollack, Dr. Kimberly Kagan and Dr. Fred Kagan, they discussed security challenges facing Iraq and the region as part of the war against Daesh terrorists.


Prime Minister Al-Abadi stressed the need for greater awareness in the international community about the global threat of terrorist organizations. He called for greater efforts to dry up their funding streams, challenge extremist ideologies and develop more comprehensive intelligence mechanisms to monitor their movements and ultimately eliminate the threat posed to the entire world.


The American delegation in turn recognized the positive developments taking place in Iraq under Prime Minister Al-Abadi's leadership and welcomed the recent military successes achieved by the Iraqi Security Forces as part of the war against Daesh.



Kenneth Pollack is with the centrist Brooking Institute and right-wing Kim Kagan heads the Institute for the Study of War and her arm candy Fred Kagan is right-wing as well.


US President Barack Obama has no real plan for Iraq.  He began bombing Iraq in August but bombing was never a plan.

It stopped being effective long ago.

And all these months later, Barack has nothing to show for the billion-dollars-plus he's wasted bombing Iraq.




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    • Posted by at No comments:

    Sunday, January 18, 2015

    Who was responsible?



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

    FADED CELEBRITY BARRY O APPROVED THE C.I.A. SPYING ON THE SENATE.

    REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, BARRY O INSISTED THAT "SPYING IS JUST ANOTHER WAY OF SAYING, 'HEY, BABE, I CARE.'  IF I DIDN'T CARE, I WOULDN'T SPY."

    AT THAT MOMENT, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON JOSH EARNEST DEFECATED IN HIS PANTS AND SCREAMED, "YOU CAN'T PRINT THIS! THIS IS ALL OFF THE RECORD!"



    FROM THE TCI WIRE:


    Cindy thinks there might have been some conspiracy.

    There was most likely none at all.

    Her film never had studio backing -- nor even serious interest from a studio.

    Even if it had, there are projects studios get behind which get gutted all the time.  Jodie Foster and Robert Redford were supposed to star in Crisis In The Hot Zone but Redford was a dick and a vain one and Jodie walked.  The film had been in competition with Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman's Outbreak to see which could start shooting first.  That ended when no other name actress wanted to put up with Redford's nonsense.

    Films go under all the time, they go from talk to nothing.

    They can even be announced -- and advertised -- and then not get made.


    faye



    That's Faye Dunaway.  Height of her beauty.  Height of her box office.

    And she's going to make the film Duet For One.  It's about to begin filming.

    Nope.


    When it was made a few years later, it would star Julie Andrews.

    There was no plot to keep Faye busy, to tie her up, so no one else could use her in movies.

    Joan Crawford would leave MGM for, among other reasons, the refusal to allow her to star in The Spiral Staircase despite the fact that she'd optioned the source material.  (A few years later, RKO would make the film and it would be a hit.)  Miriam Hopkins thought she'd play the lead in the film of Jezebel.  She'd played the role on Broadway, she held the rights, Jack Warner led her to believe that handing the rights over to his studio meant she'd star in the film.  Instead, Bette Davis played the role and won her second Best Actress Academy Award.  Bette Davis was led to believe she'd star as Mary Todd Lincoln but when the project moved from development towards filming, Jack Warner refused to greenlight claiming a film that told the truth would be an insult to Abraham Lincoln's memory.

    Yentl is a film classic and one that director Barbra Streisand should forever feel proud of.  But as much as the film on the screen is something to be proud of, Barbra's dedication to the project is also something to be proud of. She started working on the project in 1968 and never lost faith in it, never took a "no" as the final answer and, in 1983, the film was reality.

    Or look at The Dollmaker.  In 1971, Jane Fonda falls in love with Harriette Arnow's book. In 1974, she meets with the author about making the book.  She's in her grey-listed period -- where politics keep US studios from hiring her for many projects (though she still has a few offers coming in -- she turned down Chinatown and The Exorcist, among others, during this period).  When Tricky Dick resigns and realities have to be reconsidered, studios are interested again and her first leading role is in the box office hit Fun With Dick and Jane (1977).  One hit after another followed and Jane still couldn't get studio interest for the film.  So, as she herself tells it, she met with ABC in 1979, the day after she won her second Academy Award, and she (and Bruce Gilbert) proposed The Dollmaker as a movie of the week for the TV network.  ABC was all for it but there was still the issue of the script.  It would be 1983 before the TV movie was filmed and 1984 when it aired.   (Jane won an Emmy for her performance.)

    To get a film made -- for the big screen or for TV or (today) the internet) -- you have to be a long distance runner.

    The film frustrations Cindy Sheehan went through don't even qualify as a 1 K fun run.


    Let's deal with another aspect and then we'll circle around.

    Casey Sheehan died.

    That was a huge loss for his family.

    As someone who felt her loss was great enough to warrant a meeting with a world leader, I'm not really sure where Cindy gets off insulting Chris Kyle.

    Guess what, it's not all about you, Cindy Sheehan.

    I've defended Cindy here repeatedly over the years.  She's said nothing to help another mother, has she? She can't identify with Pat Smith's loss?

    I've wondered about that.

    And now here is she is trashing a dead man because she thinks he's racist -- or says she thinks it.


    If only we were all so pure and wonderful like Cindy Sheehan?


    The fact of the matter is she needs to lose the judgmental.


    There's no reason for her to insult Chris Kyle.

    Her view of her son is in conflict with those who served with him.

    That's not surprising.

    He was put through the same socialization process everyone in the military is.

    So I'm not understanding why Cindy's being so awful to Chris Kyle who has a family that misses him dearly.

    You're not happy that he shot Iraqis?

    I'm not happy that any Iraqis were shot.

    But the blame for that, for Americans, goes to the White House (then and now) and the Congress.


    Casey Sheehan didn't declare war on Iraq.  Neither did Chris Kyle.

    If you're offended by what Chris Kyle did, then you need to take that argument up the chain.

    Stop blaming the people and start blaming those in charge.

    Chris Kyle broke no law.

    He said some mean spirited things about Arabs?

    I don't doubt it.

    And I'm not stupid enough to assume he came up with those remarks himself.  I'm fully aware that this was part of training, part of the socialization, part of the attempt to create the belief in 'the other' which allows the dehumanization necessary to kill.

    Now maybe moon beams shot out of Casey Sheehan's ass like Cindy seems to think.  Maybe they didn't.  But I'm not going to insult Casey Sheehan because I'm opposed to the ongoing war.  And I'm not going to insult Chris Kyle for it either.

    I don't expect Cindy to be a saint.  I do expect her to have common sense.

    Her post is beneath her and goes to the reality that she has a myth about Casey with regards to Iraq and it's a myth she wills herself to believe.


    Chris Kyle.could have been her son but she attacks him and berates him in a post.

    She has no humanity to share and can't relate to the family of Chris Kyle on any level.

    Nursing a myth takes a lot out of you.

     And let's point out the obvious about her supposed offense regarding what Kyle wrote in his book.

    Cindy does a radio show.  If she really cares about the Iraqi people why doesn't she cover Iraq?

    If she really cares why, in the year long bombing of Falluja's residential neighborhoods, has she never devoted an episode to this topic?

    These are War Crimes, legally defined War Crimes.

    And Cindy's not calling them out, she's not using her forum to draw attention to the thousands of civilians who have been killed and wounded for the 'crime' of being in their neighborhood, for the 'crime' of being in their homes.

    This is not the Islamic State.

    Grasp that.

    This is the Iraqi military bombing Falluja daily.

    It started under Nouri al-Maliki.  September 13th, new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi noted how wrong it was -- but stopped short of calling it a War Crime -- it is one, it's the legal definition of "collective punishment" -- and promised the bombings had stopped.  The next day they continued.

    So when Cindy's going to talk about that?

    I'm so tired of people who pretend they care about this or that but when they've got the chance to talk about something that matters, they don't.

    Ongoing War Crimes and no one wants to call them out.  It's pretty much Human Rights Watch, Felicity Arbuthonot and this community willing to call out the War Crimes. (If you call it out or know someone who does, send a link to common_ills@yahoo.com and it will gladly be noted here.)

    How damn difficult is for a citizen in, for example, the United States to call out the Iraqi government attacking civilians daily in Falluja?

    I don't think it's difficult at all.

    But the silence from Cindy Sheehan and others never ends.

    Pick any day at random, let's go with June 18th: The bombing of Falluja's residential neighborhoods claimed the lives of 6 civilians -- two of whom were children -- with sixteen more civilians injured.


    So don't come whimpering to me about some 'naughty words' that were used in a book when you don't have the guts, the spine, the compassion, the humanity to call out the year long suffering of Sunnis in Falluja as the military has repeatedly targeted the residential neighborhoods wounding and killing thousands in 2014 alone.


    The United Nations refuses to release an 'official' count on deaths in Falluja and that's because they don't want to speak up about the ongoing War Crimes.

    The only time they've acknowledged it seriously was when new Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced these bombings had ended -- then the UN had praise to offer publicly.  But the bombings didn't end, the UN didn't retract their praise or even acknowledge that the bombings continued.


    Iraqi Spring MC notes 3 civilians dead and four injured on Friday from the Iraqi military's non-stop bombing of civilian areas in Falluja.

    And these bombings have other impacts as well.



     · 10 hours ago
    النازحون من منازلهم جراء القصف العشوائي المتعمد من قبل القوات الحكومية على منازل المدنيين. .







    As Iraqi Spring MC notes, they add to the ever-growing refugee population in Iraq.


    The silence also means others can get away with it.

    Today, civilian areas in and around Baghdad were bombed by the war planes in the US-led coalition.



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    • Posted by at No comments:

    Thursday, January 15, 2015

    Don't call him king!

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

    RESPONDING TO CRITICISM TODAY FROM U.S. HOUSE REP. JEB HENSARLING THAT HE WAS ACTING AS IF HE WAS "KING BARACK," FADED CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O INSISTED THIS WAS JUST NOT TRUE.

    "KINGS ARE ALL SO OLD AND WRINKLY," BARRY O INSISTED, "I'M FAR TOO YOUNG.  CALL ME A PRINCE! OR AT LEAST A PRINCESS!  I'M SO PRETTY!"

    AS BARRY O SCAMPERED OFF, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON JOSH EARNEST INSISTED, "YOU CAN'T REPORT ANY OF THIS!  NOT A WORD!"




    FROM THE TCI WIRE:




    Monday in Berkeley, there was a protest which included a chant, "Yemini lives matter, Afghan lives matter, Iraqi lives matter, Pakistan lives matter!"

    We're noting the protest mainly because Tuesday's Flashpoints (KPFA) featured a report on the protest that Dennis Bernstein and others with Flashpoint did.  The protest was at UC Berkeley School of Law.


    Stephanie Tang: The Bush regime opened this torture chamber at Guantanamo not just to imprison captives after 9/11 as it expanded it's military adventures into the Middle East.  The Bush regime opened Guantanamo  to send a message to the world that the US could operate with impunity, outside the norms of international law.  Obama made his first promise upon taking office that he would close this immoral hellhole of a prison. He's had 6 years to close it.  He has had 6 years to punish those who ordered the torture and forever repudiate indefinite detention and secret renditions as American policy.  But Obama has done none of this.  We are here from the World Cant Wait, the National Lawyers Guild, CodePink and other people who care about justice, who stand up for justice and we demand the closure of Guantanamo immediately We demand the accountability that can only mean prosecuting the war criminals from George Bush and Dick Cheney on down.  This is the only way that torture will not become a permanent part of the arsenal of the US power spreading around the world.  Torture is a war crime it is never acceptable or legal under any circumstances. This is clear in international law and US law.  The third reason we're here today is particular to the University of California and it's law school  at Boalt Hall.  There is a War Criminal on the faculty here. John Yoo is a tenured professor. He wrote the memos that enabled the Bush-Cheney regime to establish their formal official torture program. John Yoo continues to publicly promote that program, defined it and, therefore, he is still doing harm.


    The report also featured an alumni informing the dean's office, "I came here in 1959 because there was a wonderful man on the faculty named Frank Newman, a great supporter of human rights became dean and became a justice and he would never permit someone like John Yoo to speak in front of his class -- let alone become a professor.  And I think that it's important  to understand that the reputation of this law school is based on people like Frank Newman and that the reputation, if it's going to be based on people like John Yoo people aren't going to come here."


    Moving to Iraq,  Ben Ariel (Israel National News) reports that Iraq has donated $28 million to the Arab League for the Palestinians.  In response, the following Tweet was posted:













    • And this Tweet as well:



















    • What are they Tweeting about?

    16 children have died in Iraq from exposure to the cold.  Al-Shorfa reports that they died in central and northern Iraq according to Iraq's human rights commission member Masroor Aswad who couldn't wait to harness a tragedy by claiming all the dead children were homeless as a result of the Islamic State.  A claim, of course, that he can't back up nor can the press truly investigate.

    Of course, that reality didn't stop the US State Dept from presenting a claim as fact and spreading it.

    Meanwhile, USAID wants to trumpet, "USG agencies have supported the Iraq humanitarian response with nearly $218.4 million in FY 2014 and FY 2015 funding. This includes nearly $10.2 million in FY 2015 assistance from USAID/OFDA for programs providing life-saving assistance to vulnerable Iraqis."


    16 children are dead and for the governments of Iraq and the United States, this is 'wonderful' because they can use it to attack the Islamic State.

    So eager are they to use these deaths, they fail to factor in how it looks to the rest of the world.

    As the Tweets note, Iraq's got plenty of millions to give . . . to those outside of Iraq.  While Iraqi children freeze to death, Haider al-Abadi cuts a charity check for $28 million.

    And the US?

    $218.4 million in humanitarian aid . . . spread out over the last fiscal year and the current one.  So that's roughly $109 million a year.

    But Pierre Bienaime (Business Insider) notes, "According to Defense News, the US donated $300 million in military equipment to Iraq in 2014, and will deliver 6 M1 Abrams tanks and 50 humvees to the Baghdad government at no cost."  And that's just one aspect of the millions and millions of military aid the US government provided Iraq with.  But only $109 million to help the refugees.

    The US government funds violence full out but when it comes to humanitarian causes they play cheap and the world sees it.

    Despite this, they have the gall to attempt to use the deaths of 16 children -- deaths that could have been prevented had the US government or the Iraqi government not been so cheap and shown so little value?

    They don't only fail to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, they spark a global outrage as they make clear how little value they place on human lives.







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    "THIS JUST IN! BUSY BARRY!"








    • Posted by at No comments:

    Wednesday, January 14, 2015

    Lot of time to kill

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

    FADED CELEBRITY BARRY O HAS BEEN SENDING U.S. TROOPS INTO IRAQ SINCE JUNE AND HAS BEEN BOMBING IRAQ SINCE AUGUST BUT HE STILL HASN'T GOTTEN AROUND TO GETTING CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL FOR HIS ACTIONS.

    REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, BARRY O EXPLAINED HE HAD A LOT ON HIS PLATE, "THERE'S PHONE CALLS AND PHOTO POSING AND LIKE NAPS.  SOMETIMES I JUST TAKE A NAP.  CHRIS HILL SHOWED ME HOW TO JUST PUSH YOUR CHAIR AWAY FROM YOUR DESK AND YOU CAN HOP UNDER THERE AND GRAB A FEW ZZZS.  OR MAYBE I WANT TO STREAM THE LATEST EPISODE OF 'NASHVILLE' ON MY PHONE AND I WANT TO WATCH THAT.  OR LIKE I SEE JOE COMING -- YOU KNOW, JOE BIDEN?  AND I'M LIKE, 'I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO HIM,' YOU KNOW?  SO I GRAB MY PHONE AND I'M LIKE, 'YES, YES, HOW ARE YOU, PUTIN?  UH-HUH.  RIGHT.  UKRAINE.  YES. . . .'  YOU KNOW JUST TO AVOID JOE.  AND LIKE 1 TIME, I HAD TO DO THAT FOR 30 MINUTES BEFORE JOE FINALLY LEFT THE OVAL OFFICE.  THAT WAS LIKE A HALF-HOUR OF MY DAY, YOU KNOW?  SO STUFF LIKE KEEPS ME BUSY."



    FROM THE TCI WIRE:


    Today, Chris Hayes (MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes) noted, "France's lower house of Parliament voted 488 to one to extend French airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq.  488 to one.  I recognize those kinds of margins -- the sort of margin the PATRIOT Act passed by and the authorization for the use of military force to invade Afghanistan."

    Chris Hayes was grouping fear based decisions (and argued in the program that the answer needed now is not more violence but more thought and examination).  Of the fear, Al Jazeera America notes:

    The vote came one week after the most deadly attacks on civilians in France in decades. On Jan. 8, Ahmed Coulibaly, a man claiming allegiance to ISIL, killed a policewoman and then took several hostages at a kosher grocery store near Paris. Coulibaly and four hostages were killed during a raid by police. That attack was linked to one conducted on Jan. 7 by Said and Cherif Kouachi, two brothers whom Coulibaly had known for years, who killed 12 people at a newspaper office and claimed that they were affiliated with Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen.


    Chris Hayes is far from the only one calling out blind fear.  At Brookings, Daniel L. Byman and Jeremy Shapiro also try to slow the race to fear:

    Despite these fears and the real danger that motivates them, the Syrian and Iraqi foreign fighter threat can easily be exaggerated. Previous cases and information emerging from Syria suggest several mitigating effects that may reduce—but hardly eliminate—the potential terrorist threat from foreign fighters who have gone to Syria. Those mitigating factors include:
    • Many die, blowing themselves up in suicide attacks or perishing quickly in firefights with opposing forces.
    • Many never return home, but continue fighting in the conflict zone or at the next battle for jihad.
    • Many of the foreign fighters quickly become disillusioned, and a number even return to their home country without engaging in further violence.
    • Others are arrested or disrupted by intelligence services. Indeed, becoming a foreign fighter—particularly with today’s heavy use of social media—makes a terrorist far more likely to come to the attention of security services.

    The danger posed by returning foreign fighters is real, but American and European security services have tools that they can successfully deploy to mitigate the threat. These tools will have to be adapted to the new context in Syria and Iraq, but they will remain useful and effective.


    If people were a little more level headed, maybe they'd question US President Barack Obama's so-called 'plan' for Iraq?

    Al Arabiya News notes US Senator John McCain told CNN that the US needed to provide Iraq with "more boots on the ground" and "I mean intelligence. I mean forward air controllers. I mean trainers. I mean more air assets. I mean across the board an increase."

    Well that's a thought.  There should be others.

    Like, before any other moves are made, how about looking at what's happening?

    Barack said back in June that the crises in Iraq required a political solution.

    But the White House has done damn little to encourage any political solutions.

    They have allowed Iraq to grow ever closer to Iran.  What does that mean?

    Scott Peterson (Christian Science Monitor) explains one meaning:

    The Iranian strategy has resurrected Iraq's Shiite militias and deployed them effectively against IS on some front lines, those same militia contributed to tens of thousands of deaths at the peak of Iraq’s sectarian battles from 2006-2008.
    Officials of Iraq’s Sunni minority say human rights abuses by the Shiite militias are as rampant now as they were 5 years ago. And they grate at the number of banners strung up with Iranian revolutionary slogans – against Israel, for example, or to support religious pilgrims – along with images of Iran’s previous and current supreme leaders, Ayatollahs Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei.

    This picks up on the report Amnesty International issued in November:


    Shi’a militias, supported and armed by the government of Iraq, have abducted and killed scores of Sunni civilians in recent months and enjoy total impunity for these war crimes, said Amnesty International in a new briefing published today.
    Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq provides harrowing details of sectarian attacks carried out by increasingly powerful Shi’a militias in Baghdad, Samarra and Kirkuk, apparently in revenge for attacks by the armed group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS). Scores of unidentified bodies have been discovered across the country handcuffed and with gunshot wounds to the head, indicating a pattern of deliberate execution-style killings.
    “By granting its blessing to militias who routinely commit such abhorrent abuses, the Iraqi government is sanctioning war crimes and fuelling a dangerous cycle of sectarian violence that is tearing the country apart. Iraqi government support for militia rule must end now,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser.
    The fate of many of those abducted by Shi'a militias weeks and months ago remains unknown. Some captives were killed even after their families had paid ransoms of $80,000 and more to secure their release. 

    That same month, Human Rights Watch's Tirana Hassan reported on the Shi'ite militias for Foreign Policy:

    The Khorasani Brigade is a relatively recent addition to the network of Shiite militias in Iraq -- and despite a similar sounding name, has no connection to the Khorasan Group, the alleged al Qaeda-affiliated organization that was the target of U.S. airstrikes in Syria in September. The Khorasani Brigade is just one of dozens of similar militias that are essentially running their own show in parts of the country. These Shiite militias are supplied with weapons and equipment from the central government in Baghdad, which is now being assisted by a U.S.-led military alliance in its fight against the Islamic State.
    These militias' actions will only exacerbate Iraq's existing sectarian tensions. The country is no stranger to sectarian violence: Its Shiite population suffered for decades under the oppressive rule of Saddam Hussein, and after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 the country spiraled into a cycle of revenge violence, culminating in a bloody civil war in 2006 and 2007. Many accused the largely autocratic rule of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of fueling sectarian flames.
    While the Iraqi central government has virtually no formal authority over the militias, who act as a law unto themselves, some key politicians in Baghdad have strong alliances to individual militias. In October, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appointed Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban -- a prominent member of the Badr Organization, a Shiite political group that controls one of the largest and most infamous militias -- as interior minister. 

    Despite being almost completely unaccountable to any official ministry, the Shiite militias have been tasked by the government with a key role in the war against the Islamic State. Yet what we saw in Yengija laid bare the costs of relying on these groups. Beyond the main road, an entire neighborhood of two-story homes was razed and flattened, with concrete slab roofs heaped atop piles of rubble. Personal belongings, children's toys, and furniture peeked out from under the debris, a poignant reminder of the Sunni Arab families who, until recently, had lived there. All these families had fled in August when the militia started battling the Islamic State fighters in the surrounding area.


    So Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Christian Science Monitor know the current government run by new prime minister Haider al-Abadi is allowing Shi'ites to target and kill Sunnis but the White House doesn't?

    The White House is just completely unaware of what's going on?


    There are people being injured and being killed, targeted, and the White House just keeps backing Haider al-Abadi and looking the other way.

    Seems to me Barack did that before, didn't he?

    Oh, yeah, with Nouri al-Maliki.

    He looked the other way repeatedly.

    How'd that work out again?

    It took Iraq to the precipice.

    Where's the political solution?




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    "Art exhibit"
    "Iraq"
    "We know where he stands"
    "The Saudi Connection"
    "Hope never dies!"
    "THIS JUST IN! HE STILL HAS HOPE!"





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    Tuesday, January 13, 2015

    Hope never dies!

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

    IN THE MOST RECENT REUTERS  POLL (1/5/15) ONLY 38.5% OF AMERICANS APPROVE (STRONLY, SOMEWHAT OR LEAN) OF FADED CELEBRITY BARRY O'S JOB PERFORMANCE.

    REACHED FOR COMMENT TODAY, BARRY O TOLD THESE REPORTERS, "38.5%?  THAT'S STILL ENOUGH TO MOVE IN TO THE FINALS, RIGHT?  I CAN STILL NAIL THIS!"



    FROM THE TCI WIRE:



    Don't you hate lying pieces of trash?



    Maybe they're not liars in all cases.  I seriously question the sanity of The Obama Diary.

    They're apparently too busy drooling over the cock of US President Barack Obama to form actual thoughts beyond "Must wrap lips around."

    At Third, we called the idiots out for their inability to get that Bully Boy Bush going to his ranch-ette in Crawford, Texas wasn't the problem, going to war on Iraq was.

    Today The Obama Diary is yet again lost.
















    • The link?

    It doesn't say that.

    The Obama Diary apparently hopes you're so stupid -- the way they are -- that you'll just take their word for it.

    The Obama Diary is the worst of our side (the left).  A cheap whorish thug that thinks it can lie and get away with it.

    They're attacking Jake Tapper today for a reason we'll get to in just a second.

    But let's deal with their charge first.

    Media Matters in 2007 and 2008 whined about a lot of reporters.  Jake Tapper was one.

    The link goes to a whine about Jake saying Barack was still smoking despite Barack saying he had quit.

    As most now know, once in the White House, Barack was still smoking.

    Jake was actually correct.

    And Media Matters wrote a lengthy post suggesting he was wrong and a lengthy post to tell you how trivial the topic -- that, again, they wrote a lengthy post on -- was.

    The Obama Diary thinks this establishes something.

    All it establishes is just how stupid and whorish The Obama Diary is.  A certain 'sports' commentator in Chicago is equally stupid.  He slams Jake today by slamming CNN's Iraq coverage in 2002 and 2003 -- Jake Tapper didn't work for them then.

    Where did Jake Tapper work in 2002 and 2003?

    Salon.

    Salon didn't do investigative journalism.  It wasn't the sewer it is today where Joan Walsh regularly slimes people and calls them "un-American" because she doesn't like them.  But it didn't do investigative journalism. Didn't have the budget for it.  It was columns and opinion pieces and interviews.




    RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
    "CNN's Jake Tapper offers some thoughts"
    "ObamaCare realities"
    "The Good Wife"
    "Will the Iraq Inquiry report be released soon?"
    "revenge - does margaux serve any real purpose?"
    "Iraqi refugees"
    "He forgot his job again"
    "Fake Ass Elizabeth Warren offers more fake assery"
    "Who watches that stupid Jane The Virgin?"
    "Janelle Hobson, shut up and shove your victimism feminism up your ass"
    "A popular rumor in Iraq"
    "BBC backs government – shock"
    "He had other things to do"
    "THIS JUST IN! HE WAS REAL BUSY!"


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