“Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) recently repeated a debunked conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama was deploying a “secret security force” as part of the health care reform law, but he wasn’t sure if they were being trained with weapons or syringes. In a Friday interview, Christian radio host Janet Mefferd told the Texas congressman that the evidence of President Barack Obama creating a civilian security force and hoarding ammunition was adding up…………….”
This guy is a true-blue red-blooded schmuck. I recall Goh-mert once claimed that Hamas was getting their children born in the United States with the goal of planting their moles, hidden agents, here. He claimed he based that conclusion on the “confession” a pregnant Palestinian lady he met during a flight (to Texas). Thus the cerebral travails, trials, and tribulations of Gohmert-us Asinus Texacus. And just for that, we shall entertain him with one of my old favorite songs. Unfortunately it is unlikely to be one of Louie’s favorite songs.
“During the Dust Bowl years of the ’30s, Jackson reminded, the monoculture crops died but the polyculture prairie, with its diverse ecosystem, survived. What is going on in the Arab world today, I argued, is a relentless push, also funded by fossil fuels, for more monocultures. It’s Al Qaeda trying to “purify” the Arabian Peninsula. It’s Shiites and Sunnis, each funded by oil money, trying to purge the other in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon…………. The same is true of the Republican Party in America today. Tea Party conservatives funded by the Koch brothers and other fossil-fuel donors are trying to wipe out whatever is left of the Republican Party’s polyculture and turn it into a monoculture. When Senate Republicans last week first offered their compromise proposal to end the shutdown………….. It’s striking how much the Tea Party wing of the G.O.P. has adopted the tactics of the P.O.G. — “Party of God” — better known as Hezbollah. For years, Lebanese Shiites were represented by the mainstream Amal party. But in the 1980s, a more radical Shiite militia emerged from the war with Israel: Hezbollah. Under the leadership of Hassan Nasrallah………………”
Clearly Thomas Friedman is still pissed that his 2009 post-election prognostication for Lebanon proved quite wrong (as I predicted at the time). His obsession with Hezbollah continues. His love affair with the Saudi faction in Lebanon, as represented by the Hariri March 14 and NowLebanon, continues. He does overlook the growing Salafi al-Qaeda threat in Lebanon, helped along and financed and armed by March 14 and its Saudi paymasters. But this is breathtaking, this mix of Dust Bowl history with Hezbollah and the Tea Party and the Koch Brothers. Now if Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas and other Godly places) were a bit fatter, just a bit fatter, with a shaggy beard and a turban, and had a Lebanese accent…………. BTW: whatever happened to the wise Arab taxi driver that advises Friedman on Middle East affairs? Where is Abed (or Abdu) in all this? Cheers
mhg
Imagine how things will possibly be about 25 years from now:
Benyamin Netanyahu will still be either prime minister of Israel or running to become prime minister of Israel.
Netanyahu will still be announcing every two weeks that the Iranians are still only six months from developing a nuclear bomb. He has been claiming the same for the past twenty years. An extremely long six months indeed.
The U.S. Congress (both houses, both parties) will still be voting on and passing new resolutions and bills tightening the economic blockade on Iran, asserting Israel’s “right” to attack Iran at will, insisting that the United States support any such military attack. All will pass irresponsibly unanimously, of course.
Mr. Obama, or whoever is in power at the time, will keep insisting that “all options are on the table” and will remain so. No mention of red lines anymore.
Iranian politicians will continue to predict the demise of the “Zionist Entity”. The more moderate ones will continue to predict the demise of “Israel”. Crossing your fingers is frowned upon by the mullahs, might be considered some sort of “flipping gesture”.
Nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 will be continuing, with frequent Geritol breaks.
The Iranians will keep announcing more centrifuges operating as they keep negotiating with P5+1, all in good faith by both sides, by all sides.
The GCC Gulf potentates will still be funneling weapons and money and occasional Salafi volunteers to the Aging Free Syrian Salafi Army along the Turkish border, in its quest to depose Bashar Al-Assad. Bashar will still be ruling Damascus from his wheelchair, with the help of his army of nurses and his IVs.
Saad Hariri will still be trying to become prime minister of Lebanon, insisting he can run things from Paris and Riyadh.
Republicans will still be promising to cancel Obamacare (aka the Affordable Care Act) as soon as they control all three houses in Washington.
“In a day of provocations and incendiary language at Tea Party-type protests Saturday in Washington D.C., WorldNetDaily.com author and Birther attorney Larry Klayman stands out. “I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town,” said Klayman, a founder of the conservative Freedom Watch political advocacy group. Before a crowd at the “Million Vets March on the Memorials” Klayman demanded that President Barack Obama “… get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up.”…………..”
He is a lawyer and he sounds somewhat like Josef Goebbels in his approach to people of other faiths. Which makes me wonder, whatever happened to that famed female Israeli-Russian-American lawyer-dentist-entertainer and birther? Maybe the Canadian-Texan Ted Cruz is looking for a running mate, his own Sarah Palin, to share the electoral fires with.
The Republican Party, an important segment of it, has taken the mantle of racism well beyond Nixon’s original Southern Strategy. They have made it international, dabbling in anti-Muslim wars abroad and crass open racism at home. Like the good old fashioned European fascists of the last century, this newest version of the GOP German-American Bund is true to form. They always end up focusing on a minority. It used to be the Jews in the last century. Now it is cooler to target Muslims directly and “others” not so directly. Cheers
mhg
Kissing cousins: wait till Orly Taitz gets hold of this
“A comedian, a millionaire and an orangutan. It may sound like the beginning of a screwball joke, but Donald Trump isn’t laughing. The famously outspoken real estate magnate has sued famously outspoken television host Bill Maher, demanding the $5 million Maher offered to give to charity if Trump could prove his father is not an orangutan. But legal experts say Trump is unlikely to get a dime from Maher, the host of the HBO series Real Time With Bill Maher, because his offer was clearly made in jest.”It’s parody,” said Bryan Sullivan, a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer. “You know Bill Maher is a comedian and a satirist. The offer is so ridiculous.” Trump, however, has taken the comic at his word. “Attached hereto is a copy of Mr. Trump’s birth certificate, demonstrating that he is the son of Fred Trump, not an orangutan,…………”
But how do we know that this Fred Trump was not a native of Indonesia? Given that Orangutans come from the area around Borneo and Sumatra, both part of Indonesia, is it not likely that Trump Sr. was also an Indonesian? Possibly not very far from where Barack Obama himself spent some time as a child. Which raises the question of the true birthplace of Donald Trump and the genesis of his evil haircut.
There is a lot of talk about extremist groups, kooks, and fundamentalists collecting petitions for some states to secede from the American Union, i.e. the United States. Anyway, that is how most of the ‘mainstream’ media is labeling them, directly or indirectly. One of my sources in a famous secession-prone Red State told me something strange. He swore to me that this secession, if it ever occurs, will be good for both ‘sides’: for the average American and for the seceding former citizens. He swore to me that it would make the average American noticeably smarter, practically overnight. He also swore to me that it would make the citizens of the seceding state(s) feel much smarter than before. I am still trying to figure it out, although I don’t even live over there. On the face of it, it seems to be good for everybody!
But I was also told that the seceding former citizens will sorely miss all the socialistic federal spending; may even negotiate keeping some of it as part of their secession deal. Sort of a deal sweetener, my source told me without explaining who will taste the sweetener.
Anyway, I plan to see “Lincoln” soon. Cheers
mhg [email protected]
Neck of the woods
“The FBI is making a new push to determine how a woman who had an affair with retired Gen. David H. Petraeus when he was CIA director obtained classified files, part of an expanding series of investigations in a scandal that also threatens the career of the United States’ top military commander in Afghanistan. Senior law enforcement officials said that a late-night seizure on Monday of boxes of material from the North Carolina home of Paula Broadwell, a Petraeus biographer whose affair with him led to his resignation last week, marks a renewed focus by investigators on sensitive material found in her possession. “The issue of national security is still on the table,” one U.S. law enforcement official said. Both Petraeus and Broadwell have denied to investigators that he was the source of any classified information…………….”
The Petraeus media reports highlight the cultural differences between various parts of the world. Besides all the strange FBI investigations of a private affair and the house raids (at least one so far), there the broader issues. You’d think the FBI are the American equivalent of the Saudi Commission for the Propagation of Vice (the Religious Police,) the way they have undertaken to dismantle not only the professional lives but also the private lives of the people involved. All for being involved in a relationship that is not against the law. So let’s compare:
USA. Freedom of consensual liaisons between adult humans is guaranteed. But the remnants of that old Puritan Ethnic are hard to shake off. The shadow of John Winthrop hangs over many hooked up couples, whether they were in the back of a car in the old days or in a motel or a hotel, or at someone’s home. Americans concede that ‘it’ is part of life, even most Republicans concede that, but it is wise not to get caught doing it. If an aggrieved partner or rival doesn’t bloody you, then there is the brutal schadenfreude, which can and does ruin the ‘afterglow’. Then there is General Allen, who exchanged emails with some other chick. He called her ‘sweetheart’ and the Religious Police apparently interpreted that as tantamount to consensual sex. Shouldn’t these guys be catching terrorists, real or created or encouraged, rather than worry about emails and bedrooms? Then there are the and drug lords and traffickers , etc., etc.
France. Sex is a red line in France, even if it often becomes public. It is not haram to have sex before, during, after, inside, outside, and around marriage. It is haram to meddle in it, ban it, moralize about it, or use it in politics. A general can have all the mistresses he wants, all the mistresses who are willing to seduce him, all who accept his “attentions”, all that he can afford, as long as he performs well in the field (field of battle or whatever it is French generals are supposed to do at the office). That is part of French-ness: the French Tea Party and the French Salafis would insist on it. French Evangelicals would insist on it. Even Marine Le Pen would insist on it.
Britain. The Brits get really kinky and off the “beaten track” in their sex scandals of high officials. Quite interesting for a people known (perhaps mistakenly) for eschewing public sex. The mildest scandal involves at least hookers (i.e. prostitutes) and progresses to foreign spies, Russians, Chinese, Abominable Snowmen, and it degenerates and gets worse (or is it considered “better” over there).
Middle East. Oh, never mind. Forget about it. In some ways we are more advanced: we have institutionalized it all. You can get thrown in prison or flogged publicly for being alone with a woman in a car or at the beach or even at a cafe in some countries. Yet a General Prince Bin Technocrat Al-Kleptocrat can lead his ‘private’ life as he pleases without, er, interruption. So can a Field Marshal Shaikh Bin Kleptocrat Al-Technocrat. But we also have our public solutions to the natural order of things. Polygamy, temporary marriages, part-time marriages, sex-only no-cohabitation no-responsibility marriages, and other creative “halal”, “kosher” if you prefer, sexual arrangements that take care of it all. We are, after all, more moral and holier than thou (that means you heathens).
“Wednesday was “not a good morning for Netanyahu,” as one of his deputies Eli Yishai of the religious Shas Party said, when results showed that Bibi’s friend Mitt Romney had lost the presidential race. Netanyahu had at times confronted Obama or even tried to undermine him by making direct relations with the Republican-dominated, Israel-friendly Congress and during the election campaigning, had driven Obama into a tight corner by challenging his positions about Iran’s nuclear energy program and the recent developments in the Arab world. On Wednesday, however, the primer invited the US ambassador to Tel Aviv to his office to give his painful congratulations…………..” Press TV (Iran).
Press TV is an official Iranian English-language television news network that is banned in Britain (and possibly some other European countries). Interesting take: they seem to be gloating over this. Yet it is true: Netanyahu worked as hard as Fox News, nay harder than Fox News, to undermine and defeat Barack Obama. He went around him to deal with his friends in the right-wing controlled Knesset Congress for policy coordination (extremists like Ros-Lehtinen, Kantor, and Goh-mert, among others). The Israeli right has developed a certain hubris in its relations with the USA, no doubt fed by right-wing leaders of some Jewish-American organizations that do not represent the political views of their constituency. Obama got about 70% of the Jewish vote, which shows how “popular” Netanyahu is in the United States. Cheers mhg [email protected]
“According to the results of a Gallup poll released Monday, the overwhelming majority of rural white Americans said they would rather vote for Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. president Barack Obama. “I like him better,” said West Virginia resident Dale Swiderski, who, along with 77 percent of rural Caucasian voters, confirmed he would much rather go to a baseball game or have a beer with Ahmadinejad, a man who has repeatedly denied the Holocaust and has had numerous political prisoners executed, than spend time with Obama. “He takes national defense seriously, and he’d never let some gay protesters tell him how to run his country like Obama does.” According to the same Gallup poll, 60 percent of rural whites said they at least respected that Ahmadinejad doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s Muslim………….”
My source tells me that The Onion is sticking by its story, in spite of the controversy and some ridicule by Democrat lefties and even a few Republican righties. My source also reiterates that Iran’s Fars News Agency sticks by its “seconding” this item, although they have withdrawn it from their website. Mr. Ahmadinejad for his part, has discreetly asked the Swiss Embassy in Washington to investigate if they serve any O’Dool’s or St Puali Girl brew in the rural parts of Red State America. Meanwhile, there is one report of the formation of a “Rednecks for Chugalugging with Ahmadinejad” (affectionately called “A-Jad”). There is also a report of a “Rednecks for Pub-Crawling with Ahmadinejad” being formed in rural Tennessee.
“The White House has rejected a request by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet President Barack Obama in the United States this month, an Israeli official said on Tuesday, after a row erupted between the allies over Iran’s nuclear programme. An Israeli official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Netanyahu’s aides had asked for a meeting when he visits the United Nations this month, and “the White House has got back to us and said it appears a meeting is not possible. It said that the president’s schedule will not permit that“…………”
Whining again. You’ve got to hand it to Netanyahu: as far as hitting low and dirty, he never disappoints. Even as he whines. This is clearly an attempt to blackmail Obama weeks before the presidential, and to give the Republican right-wing new ammunition for the campaign. I would not be surprised if this was closely coordinated with the Romney campaign. In fact I am almost certain this is the case. It is unlikely to sway many Jewish voters, but the name of the game is either Florida or cornering Obama into a promise to wage an unprovoked internationally illegal war of aggression in the Middle East. Most people in the Muslim and Arab world see it that way. Will it work? It needn’t work: Romney looks set to defeat himself in the November elections. Yet he may get his wish to meet Obama. Cheers
mhg [email protected]
Multidisciplinary: Middle East, North Africa, Gulf, GCC, World, Cosmos…..
