WikiLeaks Cables Reveal Ukraine's Past Cries For Help; Is Kerry's $1 Billion In Aid Too Late?

Source: International Business Times

Secretary of State John Kerry landed Tuesday in Ukraine’s capital of Kiev, where he voiced U.S. support and pledged $1 billion in aid, but for many Ukrainians the U.S. commitment seems too late.

According to U.S. diplomatic cables from 2006 and 2009, obtained and released by WikiLeaks in 2011, Ukrainian officials voiced concerns over Russia’s growing encroachment on its former territory, and appealed for stronger U.S. support in hopes of quelling Russian ambitions.

“With Ukraine under intense pressure from Russia, any appearance of U.S. disengagement from the region will embolden Russia further,” U.S. diplomat Alexander Vershbow, who is now deputy secretary general of NATO, wrote in the 2009 cable to Washington from the embassy in Kiev.

“[Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Raisa] Bohatyrova underlined that Russia is directly interfering in Ukraine's internal political affairs … Bohatryova said she believes Russian intelligence has devised plans for the dismemberment of Ukraine.”

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/wikileaks-cables-reveal-ukraines-past-cries-help-kerrys-1-billion-aid-too-late-1559357

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham: Russia invaded Ukraine because of Benghazi

South Carolina’s senior senator, Republican Lindsey Graham, has long been second to none — not even his good buddy Sen. John McCain — when it comes to obsessing over the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. Seriously, he’s relentless.

And yet, we have to admit we were still surprised to find on Tuesday that this tweet, which was sent out from his official Twitter account, actually exists in the world and is not a ham-fisted joke from Bill Maher or Jon Stewart:

It started with Benghazi. When you kill Americans and nobody pays a price, you invite this type of aggression. #Ukraine

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/04/gop_sen_lindsey_graham_russia_invaded_ukraine_because_of_benghazi/

I think certain Republicans think Benghazi is the reason Jesus Christ will return ...

Pat Robertson on marrying first cousins: ‘Go for it,’ but don’t have ‘mongoloid’ kids

Televangelist Pat Robertson on Tuesday gave his viewers permission to marry their first cousins as long as they did not have “mongoloid” children.

“A close friend of mine believes that the person God wants her to marry is her first cousin,” a viewer explained in a letter to Robertson. “There is clear, powerful call of the Lord on both their lives. What do you think?”

“Kissing cousins! Hey, hey!” Robertson replied. “I don’t know anything in the Bible that says there’s a problem about marrying first cousins. Now, look, here’s the deal. If there are recessive genes and there are something in the family that would come out if those two recessive genes come together, they might wind up with children that got some kind of disability.”

“Other than that, there’s no problem,” he continued. “There’s nothing in the Bible that says you can’t marry your first cousin. Here you say everybody’s in favor of it. Alright, go for it.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/04/pat-robertson-on-marrying-first-cousins-go-for-it-but-dont-have-mongoloid-kids/

There is nothing in the Bible that says _________________________________ .

The Doomsday Cult of Bitcoin

On December 21, 1954, a woman named Dorothy Martin thought the world was going to end. Martin, a Chicago housewife, claimed to have received a message from aliens, warning her of an impending flood that would kill everyone on earth except for true believers, who would be carried away to safety on a flying saucer. For months, Martin had been gathering a band of followers who called themselves the Seekers and quietly prepared for their alien abduction. The Seekers left behind family and friends, sold their possessions, and on December 20, they waited. When midnight came, they waited some more.

When they realized the flying saucer wasn't going to come, and that Martin's prophecy had been wrong, something odd happened: Rather than giving up, the Seekers began furiously calling up newspapers and trying to spread their message as widely as possible. In order to overcome the cognitive dissonance of their situation and convince themselves their sacrifices had been worthwhile, they needed to proselytize.

This is, we now know, a psychologically normal response for prophetic groups whose central predictions fail to come true. And today, you can see something similar going on with another group of failing zealots. I'm talking about the cult of Bitcoin.

For months now, Bitcoin soothsayers have proclaimed that the virtual currency is going to Change Everything. The mass adoption of Bitcoin, they told us, would utterly transform the way the world stores and exchanges value. Government-backed currency would become obsolete. Farmers in Kenya would use the same Bitcoin-based payment systems as cafés in the Mission. With the future of money in the hands of Satoshi Nakamoto's brilliant protocol, inexact central planning would be replaced by algorithmic decentralization.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/03/doomsday-cult-of-bitcoin.html?mid=twitter_nymag

That annoying moment when someone enters your room and leaves the door open when they leave... nt

Markets are spiking because of fears Putin will use energy as a weapon

European energy markets are worried about the impact Russia's invasion of the Crimean peninsula, and the threat it poses to the rest of Ukraine, could have on the continent's supply of natural gas. But past is not always prologue -- and while Russia has used natural gas as a cudgel scores of times since the end of the Soviet Union, its ability to cow Europe by withholding energy exports is not what it used to be. In fact, Russia and gas giant Gazprom depend as much on Europe as Europe does on them.

Natural gas prices in Europe rocketed Monday as the military and diplomatic standoff in Ukraine escalated. Officials from Ukraine's gas company said Monday that there have been no physical supply disruptions since the Russian military incursion into Crimea, but gas prices jumped 10 percent in trading in the U.K. and the Netherlands, and more than 8 percent in Germany. Traders focused on a pair of simple facts: Russia's gas exports to Europe reached record highs in 2013, and about half of that was shipped through transit pipelines that crisscross Ukraine.

Worries over the fate of those natural gas supplies are certainly understandable. Russia has shown in the past twenty years how eager it is to use energy exports as a weapon, cutting off gas supplies at one time or another more than 40 times. Russian neighbors such as Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, and Azerbaijan have all faced threats of Russian energy cutoffs as they flirted with pro-European policies in the past few years. Lithuania's prime minister accused Russia of waging "economic war" last September after Moscow threatened gas supplies and interfered with cross-border trade, apparently to punish the Baltic country for seeking closer ties with other EU countries.

Ukraine itself suffered a pair of painful gas shutoffs in 2006 and 2009 because of contract disputes with Russia, both of which affected downstream European customers. Ukraine has dramatically increased the amount of gas it is buying from Russia in recent days, but that seems motivated less by a desire to fill gas storage facilities and more by the fear that Moscow will make good on threats to jack up gas prices for Ukraine in the second quarter of this year. Moscow slashed gas prices for Ukraine in December as part of its effort to woo then-President Viktor Yanukovych away from Europe and toward Russia.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/03/03/gas_attack

Harry Reid: 'Republicans Are Addicted To Koch'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Tuesday continued his crusade against the billionaire Koch brothers, who donate heavily to Republican causes.

"Senate Republicans are addicted to Koch," he said on the Senate floor.

"In fact, Senate Republicans hardly need the NRSC anymore," he said. "They've got the Koch brothers. Besides, the NRSC can’t hide its donors’ identities, like Koch-funded front groups can."

Reid again accused the brothers, Charles and David Koch, of "pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a massive campaign of deception." He boasted that "anyone who has turned on Fox News lately knows I've gotten under Charles and David Koch's skin."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/harry-reid-republicans-addicted-to-koch

The one Senate chart you need for the 2014 election

As the November midterm election creeps closer -- only 245 days! -- you need a way to stay on top of the dozen (or so) races that will decide which party controls the Senate majority in 2014. Enter this great chart built by the WaPo's Chris Ingraham that details the full Senate landscape. Bookmark -- and enjoy!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/03/04/the-one-senate-chart-you-need-for-the-2014-election/?wprss=rss_the-fix&clsrd

Breaking down spending in Obama's budget proposal

President Obama released his budget proposal Tuesday morning. Below, changes from last year’s funding levels department-by-department. This page will be updated with new information throughout the day.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/presidential-budget-2015/

Snowden to speak at SXSW

Edward Snowden will speak via video conference at South By Southwest in Austin next week, the festival announced Tuesday.

The National Security Agency leaker will speak with Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist of the American Civil Liberties Union, about NSA's spying techniques and "the ways in which technology can help to protect us from mass surveillance." The event will take place Monday and be moderated by Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project (who is also a legal advisor for Snowden). Snowden will take audience questions.

"Surveillance and online privacy look to be one of the biggest topics of conversation at the 2014 SXSW Interactive Festival. The number of sessions on this topic reflect the importance of this issue to the digital creatives who converge in Austin each March," South By Southwest Director Hugh Forrest wrote in a news release. "As organizers, SXSW agrees that a healthy debate with regards to the limits of surveillance is vital to the future of the online ecosystem."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/03/snowden-to-speak-at-sxsw-184446.html