January 23, 2012

Gee, why don't they all just buy brand new homes in gated communities with that $1,800 "settlement"?

If not something like this:

Maybe, a gated community like this?

January 22, 2012

UN and US being drawn into decades-old Saudi-Iran religious struggle for control of Syria

We've heard a great deal in recent months about violence is Syria, particularly about the killing of members of anti-regime opposition groups and demonstrators. Outrage at this has predictably roused world opinion, so that there is now a push for military intervention in the style of last year's regime change in Libya. But, the origins of violence in Syria are very different and much older and widespread than the short, sharp shock that dislodged the Khaddafi regime. A few NATO airstrikes and special forces on the ground, and boom, over. Not.

Few Americans appear to realize that political violence between the Ba'athist regime and opponents is actually a new round in what is essentially a decades-old religious war between a minority Shi'a Baathist regime and a Sunni Salaafist opposition primarily funded by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

For those who want to deny that the US is preparing for military intervention in Syria, please read this:

Unfortunately, some in the US and UN appear to now be willing to be pulled into the middle of this one. This is a war that the US cannot win by picking sides, and the consequences of intervention and escalation could be disastrous.



The operation is now past the Arab League intervention stage, and has now moved to the UN. It's as if there's a timetable, with mid-March as some kind of target date, the one-year anniversary of the start of the sniping that killed 7 Syrian policemen and 4 civilians at the border city, Daraa, home of Salaafist separatists. It's important to get back to basics, though. Not surprisingly, credible reporting on the external origins and support of the intervention are scarce. The propaganda focus is on internal violence, not outside planning and mobilization of support for regime change.

There's a religious dimension to this that's been largely ignored by the western media. The Assad family is part of Shi'a minority that dominates the Ba'athist regime. There's little or no reference to the fact that the Sunni-Shi'a conflict is at the heart of political violence in Syria today. Wiki:



There are also undertones of a renewed "rollback" operations against Russian interests in the region. With the involvement of Muslim Brotherhood and Sunni Islamist terrorists backed by the Saudis against a regime armed by Russia, this resembles Kosovo and the regime change operations against Iran, as much as it also follows the Libyan "Arab Spring" model. Remember the Kosovo snipers? They're back.

The repercussions of intervention would also be far less containable and could spark a full-fledged regional war in the Middle East and Persian Gulf. What we're seeing in Syria is actually a continuation of a religious-based sectarian struggle between Saudi-backed Sunnis and the Shi'a Ba'ath Party minority regime of the Assad family with ties to Iran and Lebanon.

January 15, 2012

But, on the other hand . . .

1. Ending the Iraq War.<...> Escalated the War in Afghanistan, and started five others, including a looming war with Iran.

2. Twelve billion dollars in new funding to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.<...>After two billion federal dollars diverted to fuel the growth of charter schools in the last two decades, the Obama Administration endorsed a doubling of direct federal funding. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/education/25educ.html

3. Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, welcome gays into the military, and appointed more openly gay officials than any president in history.<...>Bravo, but no more than any Democratic President should have and would have done.

4. Passed $789 billion in economic stimulus in 2009.<...>A third of the Stim went to tax cuts. And, for context, $16 trillion in extra liquidity went to big banks in QE2.

5. Created more private sector jobs in 2010 than during all 8 of Bush's years.<...>Unemployment rate is still higher than when he took office. Obama has cut public sector jobs. There are still a record six million long-term unemployed, the highest number in the post-war era www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

6. Voluntary disclosure of White House visitors for the first time in US history.<...>Obama has prosecuted more whistleblowers than did Bush, imposed the Espionage Act, and continues a widening campaign against those who dare reveal corruption and wrongdoing in military and intelligence matters.

7. Appointed first Latina to the US Supreme Court.<...>See 3, above.

The rest, mostly padding the resume . . . not very impressive for a guy who had an FDR size mandate, and returned Hoover results in economic policy and Wall Street reform.

Not very impressive.

December 11, 2011

I want my Journal back. I know it's archived, but I want it brought back to life.

What's the point of this DU3 exercise - to save on bandwidth?