By GottaLaff
Via a New York Times e-mail alert:
American officials said Wednesday that it was very likely that a radical group once thought unable to attack the United States had played a role in Saturday's bombing attempt in Times Square, elevating concerns about whether other militant groups could deliver at least a glancing blow on American soil.
By GottaLaff
Here's a sample of the nastiest, most uncalled-for, vile piece of excrement I've read in a long time. So much for loving thy fellow man. In the true spirit of Jerry Falwell:
In the end and in Olbermann's eyes, life is what it has always been: hostile. The viewers are disappearing, and all that remains is a Krakatoa of rage, of poisons spewing forth from a shell of a man on a shriveled network into the homes of a shrinking audience.
And he reacts as always with howls of rage, the chief wannabe on the wannabe network: I wannabe an athlete, I wannabe a power, I wannabe a stud, I wannabe Bill O'Reilly, I wannabe loved, I wannabe the center of attention...a deranged diva who has yet to decide whether his jockstrap is half-empty or half-full.
Stuart H. Schwartz is on the faculty at Liberty University in Virginia.
By GottaLaff
If Janet Napolitano should be fired for her role in the Christmas bombing plot, George W. Bush should have been impeached for being warned about planes flying into buildings in New York and ignoring those warnings, and Dick Cheney should have been impeached for his role in the CIA leak case and prosecuted for his role surrounding torture.That cannot be be stated often or more strongly enough.
[...] Napolitano could have handled this better, but the consequences of her mistakes are nothing compared to the consequences of mistakes by Bush, Cheney, Alberto Gonzales and many others.BushCo could have puffed themselves up, donned their codpieces, and strutted around spewing their fear mongering and threats for another decade, but that wouldn't have compensated for the thousands who died on their watch. They didn't follow through, people were killed, and yet they boast like 8-year-olds about "keeping America safe".
By GottaLaff
A week after U.S. and Yemeni officials said the radical Yemen cleric Anwar Awlaki may have been killed in a U.S.-backed Christmas eve air strike, a Yemeni journalist says Awlaki has surfaced to proclaim, "I'm alive."We need better aim.
By GottaLaff
Wow, the bloody facial cuts are a pretty shocking:
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was hit in the face and knocked to the ground after a political rally in Milan, according to the BBC.Here is the Italian version:
Reports suggested he had either been punched or hit with an object.
He was taken to a hospital in Milan after the attack. The Italian news agency Ansa said he was to stay under observation for 24 hours, but there was no immediate report on the extent of his injuries.[...]
The incident will prompt questions about Mr Berlusconi's security arrangements, says the BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Rome.
Let's hope the Secret Service is a lot more effective protecting President Obama. This is scary stuff, and with the political climate the way it is lately, with the Tea Partiers and others inciting hatred and violence, a lot of us worry more now than we ever have.
By GottaLaff
Is it hot in here or is it just Jasen? (Original post here)
Check these out. Here's a sample:
By GottaLaff
The priest was on his way to bless another retired Greek priest, but got lost. He asked Jasen for help, but...TAMPA — A Marine reservist armed with a tire iron beat and chased a man he thought was an Arab terrorist and even called 911 to say he was detaining the man, police said. [...]
That's why police arrested reservist Jasen D. Bruce on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Police said they're also investigating whether Bruce, 28, committed a hate crime.
Instead of offering help, Bruce struck the priest on the head with a tire iron, police said.Isn't that just like a good citizen? I wonder if he's a Glenn Beck fan.
Then officers went to Bruce's apartment to speak to the reservist again. But he already had an attorney with him and refused to speak, police said.Yep, Brucie pre-emptively lawyered himself all up. Isn't that just like an innocent man?
By GottaLaff
Between this and the Holocaust survivor/Obama = Hitler incident, it feels like this country is imploding:
Paddy posted the back story here. Beyond awful:
From CNN's Rick Sanchez: Troy Dale West Jr., of Poulan, Georgia, is facing charges including misdemeanor battery and disorderly conduct after allegedly beating African American Army reservist Tashawnea Hill, 35, after the two had words at the entrance of the Morrow, Georgia, Cracker Barrel restaurant the evening of September 9, 2009This was brutal. The FBI is investigating this as a potential hate crime. Good.
By GottaLaff
The United States is "absolutely not" giving Israel a green light to attack Iran, U.S. President Barack Obama told CNN Tuesday."We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East," Obama said, referring to Iran's nuclear ambitions.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday appeared to leave the door open for Israel to attack Iran if it saw fit.
"Israel can determine for itself — it's a sovereign nation — what's in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," Biden said on ABC's "This Week."
Obama said Tuesday that Biden had simply been stating a fact, not sending a signal.
"I think Vice President Biden stated a categorical fact, which is we can't dictate to other countries what their security interests are. What is also true is that it is the policy of the United States to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear capabilities in a peaceful way through diplomatic channels," he said.
The top U.S. military leader, Adm. Mike Mullen, said later on Tuesday that he understands Israel's position. [...]
His counterparts in the Gulf also understand the Israeli stance, whether or not they agree, Mullen said. [...]
He said he hoped diplomacy would resolve the issue.
"I am hopeful that that dialogue is productive. I worry about it a great deal if its not," Mullen said.
The State Department took a similar line on Monday.
"Our goal here is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. When I say 'our' it is just not the United States — it is the international community," spokesman Ian Kelly said. "Israel is a sovereign country. We are not going to dictate its actions. We also are committed to Israel's security and we share Israel's deep concerns about Iran's nuclear program."
Asked if this could be interpreted as the United States flashing a green light for Israel to attack Iran's nuclear sites, Kelly said, "I certainly would not want to give a green light to any kind of military action."
By GottaLaff
Via Steve Clemons:
This is a picture of a massive pro-Mousavi rally yesterday in Esfehan, Iran's third largest city.
Along the lines of Iran President Ahmadinejad denying the Holocaust, the Ahmadinejad-appointed president of the University of Tehran stated today that there was no attack on university students and no students killed. Outrageous.This is not going away.
By GottaLaff
Tweeted, plus MSNBC just reported:
A US military spokesman says US forces shot down an Iranian unmanned aircraft over Iraqi airspace on February 25.I'll update soon. I just got on line.
U.S. forces shot down an Iranian drone aircraft that ventured inside Iraq several weeks ago, a senior Iraqi military official said on Monday, an incident that could highlight deep U.S.-Iranian tensions.
"An unmanned Iranian plane crossed the border and it was discovered by multi-national forces' radar. They intercepted it and brought it down ... an American plane brought it down," Major-General Abdul Aziz Mohammed Jassim, head of military operations at the Iraqi Defence Ministry, told Reuters.
The U.S. military in Iraq has declined comment. It has accused Iran of arming militants and meddling in neighbouring Iraq, where tens of thousands have died in sectarian violence since the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in 2003.
"According to the report received by multinational forces, this drone entered Iraq mistakenly at a point 100 km (60 miles) from Baghdad. It crossed 10 km (6 miles) into Iraq. It's most likely that its entrance (into Iraq) was a mistake," Jassim said.
By GottaLaff
President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials.White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the United States protested, or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to goad the White House into more decisive action before Mr. Bush left office. But the Bush administration was particularly alarmed by an Israeli request to fly over Iraq to reach Iran’s major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country’s only known uranium enrichment plant is located.
The White House denied that request outright, American officials said, and the Israelis backed off their plans, at least temporarily. But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to step up intelligence-sharing with Israel and brief Israeli officials on new American efforts to subtly sabotage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Mr. Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Barack Obama. [...]
The interviews also suggest that while Mr. Bush was extensively briefed on options for an overt American attack on Iran’s facilities, he never instructed the Pentagon to move beyond contingency planning, even during the final year of his presidency, contrary to what some critics have suggested.
This critic suggested that, based on news reports (not opinion pieces)... and based on Georgie's penchant for, you know, bombing countries who haven't bombed us first.
The interviews also indicate that Mr. Bush was convinced by top administration officials, led by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, that any overt attack on Iran would probably prove ineffective, lead to the expulsion of international inspectors and drive Iran’s nuclear effort further out of view. Mr. Bush and his aides also discussed the possibility that an airstrike could ignite a broad Middle East war in which America’s 140,000 troops in Iraq would inevitably become involved.There is a whole lot more here.
By GottaLaff
A Barack Obama supporter in Shreveport, LA says he was badly beaten by two men at a gas station just because of his Obama bumper stickers and t-shirt.More here:
"They were screaming 'fuck Obama, fuck Obama,' you know, and something about a 'nigger president' -- and basically I was hit," Kaylon Johnson told KSLA News. "Seem like some rednecks, pretty big guys, and they were blasting music or whatever -- I mean, by the time I turned around and looked at them, they were on me."
"Kaylon was badly beaten," the account continues, "and has sustained several head injuries. He will have surgery on Friday to repair a broken eye socket, broken nose, and torn tear duct."
Johnson, who was extremely active in the campaign and even opened a store to sell Obama t-shirts, appeared philosophical about his injuries when he spoke with KSLA. "Things go on every day," Johnson stated, "and all this does is show that we did have purpose throughout the campaign and we still have work to do after the campaign."
The Shreveport Police Department has assigned a detective to investigate the incident.
By GottaLaff US special forces have conducted about a dozen secret operations against Al-Qaeda and other Islamic militants in Pakistan, Syria and other countries under broad war-waging authority given them by the administration of President George W. Bush, The New York Times reported on its website. Citing unnamed senior US officials, the newspaper said the authority was contained in a classified order signed by then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld in early 2004 with the approval of President Bush. The order gave the military permission to attack Al-Qaeda and other hostile targets anywhere in the world, even in countries not at war with the United States, without any additional approval, the report said.
Believe it or not, Iran was not one of the countries that was targeted:
Now they tell us. Okay, so they didn't zap Iran. But...
That Rummy. What a funster, always keeping us on our toes. If only we had known, right? Because, you know, "there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."The paper said, however, that US forces had carried out reconnaissance missions in Iran using other classified directives.
About a dozen additional operations have been canceled in the past four years because they were deemed too risky, too diplomatically explosive or relied on insufficient evidence, the paper said.
Before the 2004 order, the Pentagon needed to get approval for missions on a case-by-case basis, which could take days, the paper recalled.
But Rumsfeld was not satisfied with the status-quo and pressed hard for permission to use military power automatically outside the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to The Times.
By GottaLaff
Froomkin:
Belittled domestically, President Bush is flexing his last working muscle: His control over the nation's military. And in so doing, he is adding one last addendum to the ever-changing Bush Doctrine, establishing yet another de facto U.S. policy on his way out the door, and leaving his successor with yet another controversial precedent to wrestle with.Here's one effect of the newest version of the Bush Doctrine. That would be the same Bush Doctrine of which IWRC* Palin was unaware. Surprise!
By approving a U.S. military raid across the Iraqi border into Syria, Bush has changed the rules once again. On Sunday about two dozen special forces soldiers entered the country by helicopter and killed a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader, without the permission or cooperation of the Syrian government. Call it an October surprise -- if not, at least so far, the October surprise.
The Syrian government ordered an American school and a U.S. cultural center in Damascus closed on Tuesday in response to a deadly U.S. attack on a village near the Iraq border, the state-run news agency said.President Obama's got his work cut out for him.
By GottaLaff
Thabet Salem a veteran Syrian political analyst explained to Gulf News that it seemed like a ploy by the election campaign of US presidential candidate John McCain.
"They [the Republicans] want to show the world that things remain complicated in the Middle East and threats are still there, to justify the continuation of the 'war on terror.' This gives strong long-term support to the McCain presidency," he said.
"The timing is amazing, from a neo-conservative point of view, a few days before the American elections," Marc Gopin, a Jewish-American professor at George Mason University who visits Syria frequently for inter-faith dialogue with its Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, said.
"The fact that the fighting lasted for 40 minutes means that it was planned beforehand. This means that Syrian radars were jammed to enable such a long operation. The tension is intentional at this stage to serve the McCain campaign," journalist Mustapha Al Sayyed told Gulf News. [...]
Sunday's attack was described as "the first act of American aggression on Syria" since relations were established between the two states in 1945.
Hey kiddies! Guess what month it is! It's October. Surprise!
By GottaLaff
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is questioning the timing of a reported U.S. incursion into Syrian territory. "We are on the eve of national elections and we must be mindful of the Administration's past manipulation of security issues in order to influence public opinion," he said.Kucinich continued:
The White House isn't commenting on the reported attack, which is said to have occurred over the Iraqi border in Bukamal near the town of Deir Ezzor. The L.A. Times reported that while U.S. officials "would not confirm the attack, they used language typically employed after raids conducted by secretive Special Operations forces."
The Syrian Arab News Agency reported on Sunday that four U.S. helicopters conducted an attack in which at least eight people were killed.
"We cannot stand by and let them use the lives of innocent people as pawns in their wrongful political objectives."October surprise? Not if Dennis can help it.
By GottaLaff
Oh, swell:
U.S. military helicopters attacked an area along Syria's border with Iraq on Sunday, causing casualties, Syrian state TV and witnesses said.Gramm-pa McCain should be thrilled. More war! Weeee!The television report quoted unnamed Syrian officials and said the area is near the Syrian border town of Abu Kamal. It gave no other details.
Local residents told The Associated Press by telephone that two helicopters carrying U.S. soldiers raided a farm in the village of Hwijeh, 10 miles inside Syria's border, killing seven people and wounding five. One of the witnesses said five of the dead were from a single family.
The residents refused to allow their names to be given because they feared they would be harassed by authorities.
The U.S. military in Baghdad had no immediate comment.
By GottaLaff
"If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."Our reporting did not find any direct evidence that the McCain campaign's national headquarters played a role pushing the story.
However, the national campaign has now come forward and lied about what happened in Pennsylvania. McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers has now told NBC that alleged quotes from the McCain campaign in early reports of the story were actually the product of "sloppy reporting" and that they were actually quotes from the Pittsburgh police.
This is simply not credible.
Initial reports specifically quote the McCain campaign. And at least two sources involved in the contemporaneous reporting have come forward and said on the record that the quotes came directly from the McCain campaign. To believe that two separate local news organizations made the identical mistake with the same quotes and are now both covering it up is simply not credible. But that is what Rogers is now claiming.
The McCain campaign's after-the-fact lie about its role in this hoax makes it essential that it provide a complete and honest account of both the local and national campaign's role. As I said above, we did not find direct evidence of the national McCain campaign pushing this story. But Gov. Palin did call Todd after the purported attack, as did Sen. McCain. And news of these calls was provided to the press.
The involvement of the candidates and specifically the release of such information -- which was clearly intended to bump up interest in the story -- shows some level of involvement by the national campaign.
By GottaLaff
A new e-mail making the rounds among Jewish voters in Pennsylvania this week falsely alleged that Mr. Obama “taught members of Acorn to commit voter fraud,’’ and equated a vote for Senator Barack Obama with the “tragic mistake” of their Jewish ancestors, who “ignored the warning signs in the 1930’s and 1940’s.” [...]Where to begin? A former state supreme court justice was involved with this? I'd start reviewing her past court decisions, for starters. And the others on the list? Ptooey! And the warning to Jewish voters? About the '30s and '40s... Don't go there.But where most of the attack e-mails against Mr. Obama have been anonymous, this one had an unusually official provenance: It was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s “Victory 2008” committee.
And it was signed by several prominent McCain supporters in the state: Mitchell L. Morgan, a top fund-raiser; Hon. Sandra Schwartz Newman, a member of Mr. McCain’s local and national task-forces monitoring Election Day voting, and I. Michael Coslov, a steel industry executive.
After several calls for comment about the e-mail, leaders of the state party repudiated it on Friday. They said it had been released without their authorization and that they had fired the strategist who helped draft it – but whose name is not on the letter – Brian Rudnick. [...]In a brief interview earlier Friday, Judge Newman — a former state supreme court justice now in private practice –- said she had helped write the letter. Then she quickly passed the phone to Mr. Brudnick. He said the e-mail was sent to 75,000 voters in Pennsylvania and asked that other questions be e-mailed to him.
But he did not respond to that e-mail.
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