Wednesday, June 25, 2014

New hopes for Ukraine's ambition for peace. Congratulations.

June 25, 2014
Russia’s Federation Council (click here) has voted to repeal the legislation which allows the use of Russian armed forces on the territory of Ukraine if there is a threat to the local Russian population. The decision follows request of President Vladimir Putin.
153 MPs out of 154 voted in favor of the law’s cancelation, which comes in force the day it is approved.
Russia will continue monitoring the situation in Ukraine, Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko told the journalists after the vote.
“It doesn’t mean that, repealing this legislation, we will be turning a blind eye if there are serious violations of people’s rights [in Ukraine] or threats to their safety,” she said.
Matvienko said she doesn’t’ believe that the Federation Council will vote again to adopt legislation allowing military action in Ukraine.
“I think that we shouldn’t prepare ourselves for such a scenario, we should all strive to continue dialogue, and a peaceful way out of the crisis, she added.

I doubt anyone would disagree with that focus. It will a great achievement for Russia and Ukraine to settle into a sincere and productive peace. I think that will best serve Russia's new economic union. Power is best used for real threats and not simply used for oppression.

I was trying to think what a real threat might be...???...I suppose once the nukes are disarmed the only real threat would come from a hostile Extra-Terrestrial. To that end, neither Ukraine or Russia would be alone. And even then perhaps all any ET would be looking for rather clumsily not knowing the language would be a phone to call home.

Condoms are not covered by insurance.

Feb. 14, 2011
February (click here) is the shortest month, but don't be fooled; it has still been declared National Condom Month. More than 5 billion condoms worldwide are sold every year, according to Michael S. Zedalis, senior vice president in charge of science and technology for condom-maker Ansell Limited.
Known as Dr. Condom to his friends and colleagues, Zedalis offers seven factoids you probably don't know -- or didn't think to ask -- about the oft-maligned yet always useful "love glove."...
However, an IUD and/or birth control pills require a physician's prescription because it either requires a procedure or medical evaluation to provide a medication to effective the female ovulation cycle.

The practice of birth control becomes unaffordable when insurance does not pay for it. In order for a woman to compete without concern to her financial outcomes in a career she has to be able to determine the best time for child birth and child rearing, especially if she is a single woman.

In the USA, marriage is not a requirement to conception and pregnancy. Women need the right to control their fertility and when to exercise it to provide for a stable and secure life and future for herself and/or her child(ren). Unless, the USA Supreme Court is going to turn the clocks back to limiting the freedoms and choices of women there should be free and open access to all forms of birth control including it's affordability.

The type of birth control a woman chooses is a matter of lifestyle. Women are allowed to have a life style of choice. If there is a ruling from the Supreme Court hostile to freedom for women, it will be recognition of a growing theocracy in the USA Supreme Court decisions that impose gender discrimination and oppression.

Such oppressive laws prohibit employment unless a woman is willing to experience financial hardship to prevent unwanted pregnancies. In most cases that expense is not possible to indulge and unwanted pregnancies then become the financial burden to the woman and impoverish her and her children. Life then becomes a struggle for survival and children limited to their outcomes with increasing costs of education and available financial aid. The wealth of the nation is diminished and it's brain trust robbed. 

Yes. This is that oppressive a decision.

Police are the only people upset about today's rulings. That says something.

June 25, 2014
Roger Yu and Mike Snider
USA Today 

Fans of streaming (click here) prime-time network TV live will have to wait a bit longer.

In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Aereo, a start-up backed by media mogul Barry Diller, violated the copyrighted work of major TV networks by streaming their content to paid subscribers.

Each subscriber leases a small Aereo antenna that's stored in the company's warehouse, a point that Aereo emphasizes in differentiating its service from other streaming companies. The service has been available in 11 markets....

It is starting to look like the USA again, rather than a paranoid Neocon occupation. I expect there are going to be many, many more appeals with this decision, but, it was the right decision to make regardless. Anyone jailed on illegally obtained information is a threat to every American.

By Tony Perry

The U.S. Supreme Court (click here) decision Wednesday in favor of a San Diego gang member convicted, in part, based on information gathered from his cellphone without a warrant does not guarantee that he will be released from prison, the Stanford law professor who was part of his appeals team said.
But it will allow attorneys for David Riley to return to state appeals court in San Diego to argue that Riley deserves a new trial because his original trial was "tainted" because of the cellphone evidence that the high court says was illegally obtained, said professor Jeffrey Fisher.

Fisher, co-director of Stanford's Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, said he and his students took up the Riley case because it was on the cutting-edge of privacy issues in the digital age....
Nowhere in my contract with a cell phone company does it say "Beware of government monitoring."
Americans can go back to their love affair with talking and illicit activities. Just talking about illicit activities is more fun than actually engaging in them. That is the primary reason I have a problem with FBI sting operations. They make it happen when before it never could.

As it should be. I have no problem with Iran assisting it's neighbor.

My memory nags me about the name Michael Gordon. I haven't read his credentials, but, I thought there was a Michael Gordon that was a consistent correspondent during the Iraq War.


June 25, 2014
By Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt

Brussels — Iran is directing surveillance drones (click here) over Iraq from an airfield in Baghdad and is secretly supplying Iraq with tons of military equipment, supplies and other assistance, American officials said. Tehran has also deployed an intelligence unit there to intercept communications, the officials said.The secret Iranian programs are part of a broader effort by Tehran to gather intelligence and help Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government in its struggle against Sunni militants with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria....

There is absolutely no indication Iran will do anything except provide defense measures for the Iraqi people. Iran has not proven to be an aggressor nation so much as a nation in defense of it's people. I really haven't noticed any other ambitions. So, if Iraq likes and trusts the government of Iran there is no reason to inhibit the help being provided in defense of people who have known fear, war and death for too many decades.

By: Sameer N. Yacoub
The Associated Press
Published on Wed Jun 25 2014
BAGHDAD—A defiant Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (click here) rejected calls Wednesday for an interim “national salvation government” intended to undermine the Sunni insurgency by presenting a unified front among Iraq’s three main groups, calling it a “coup against the constitution.”
Al-Maliki’s televised address to the nation was his first public statement since U.S. President Barack Obama challenged him last week to create a more inclusive government or risk his country descending into sectarian civil war....
Regardless of the estrangement of Sunnis within the Iraq government, the elections were legitimate. It isn't Maliki's fault Saddam was Sunni and people feared a return of such an authority. But, Maliki falls within his rights to oppose a sudden change in government because he didn't actively attack and kill Sunnis. This is a revolution that started outside of Iraq. 
The Iraqi Defense Force wasn't sufficiently prepared to oppose a sincere confrontation with killers. It isn't as though the Iraqi government and military threw up their hands and said, "Okay, we have been impossible to deal with therefore you can now have a place in the government." That isn't the way it happened. The revolution is far more traditional than that. The Sunni opposition took every opportunity to form a militia stronger than most national militaries in the area.

ISIS is stronger than the Syrian military, no surprise there, McCain was sending them arms.
I don't blame Secretary Kerry for trying to mitigate the situation with a change in Iraqi government to satiate any civil war, but, the current government has a point and right now they have to protect the citizens. Lives come before politics and right now there are citizens that are at risk and the Prime Minister must be compelled to put them first.

The international community can argue this is a war Iraq has longer for to kill Sunnis and build a relationship with Iran, but, that won't hold water. This isn't a faux war to change alliance or priorities. This is a real threat to people and it is that threat which has to be stopped.

None of Iraq's allies have been shunned or shown a preference. I sincerely believe this is a government entrenched in an unexpected war accepting all the help it can get to stop and reverse the aggression of Sunni militants.

The new EPA regulations are to CUT greenhouse gas pollution by the USA, not export it.

Greenhouse gas emissions must end. Exporting greenhouse gas production to another country does not solve the problem. The requirements for USA to emit 30% less by 2030 is a joke if it is simply being exported and not sincerely reduced. This is horrible idea and defeats the efforts we have worked so hard for as announced by Secretary McCarthy.

Every country needs to take a stand against the USA exporting CO2 emissions to make goals achievable. 

I believe there needs to be lawsuits filed to stop this practice as well as exports of any form of carbon fuel from the USA.

By JOHN MCDONNELL 


...Meanwhile, (click here) the thawing of billions of tons of frozen plant matter in the Arctic could result in an acceleration in climate change as locked away organic carbon is released into the atmosphere, according to scientists.
The ice in the far reaches of the northern hemisphere is melting so quickly that a 'tipping point' - where the region no longer becomes a 'sink' for carbon dioxide - could occur within 20 years.
By 2200, around two-thirds of the world's permafrost will have melted, unleashing close to 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere - a process which cannot be reversed.
'Once the frozen carbon thaws out and decays, there is no way to put it back into the permafrost,' Kevin Schaefer of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado told the Independent...

There is baseline knowledge of global warming, in that the entire population of the world hangs in the balance not just the USA. Baseline knowledge of global warming also includes the fact the USA it the biggest historic emitter of greenhouse gases. More than most other countries, the USA has the highest historic emissions which provides ownership of the current crisis square on the shoulders of those that allowed it.

Exporting CO2 hurts real people. Exporting condensates only makes it worse.

Cronyism that boosts the demand for fracking.

Condensate is a distillate from natural gas. When natural gas is extracted from the fracking wells it brings a lot of 'other stuff' with it. A gas condensate is one of them.

June 25, 2014
By Steve LeVine
...The US decision (click here) allows two Texas companies—Pioneer Natural Resources and Enterprise Products Partners—to export a form of extremely light oil called condensate. The Journal’s report does not provide the volumeUS condensate production in 2012, the last year provided by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), was about 250,000 barrels a dayThat is not much, relatively speaking, but the exports could have a dramatic impact if the Commerce Department provides a broader definition of what counts as condensate for export purposes....

So, let me get this right. We regulate CO2 in the USA only to ship CO2 out of the USA. Tell me that makes sense?

It is GLOBAL warming, not  USA Warming.

So, let me get this right. First the USA was suppose to provide support the rebels only to drop bombs now.

September 22, 2012

Brigadier General Mustafa al-Sheikh, (click here) who heads the FSA's Military Council, said the move aims to unite all rebel groups.
He said the move was made the week before, without specifying the FSA's new location.
Commander Colonel Riad al-Asaad issued a video titled "Free Syrian Army Communique Number 1 from Inside" revealing that the command has moved to "liberated areas".
The FSA has been the most prominent of the rebel groups trying to remove President Bashar Assad from power.
But its commanders have come under criticism in the past for leading from Turkey, and its authority over numerous locally-based networks of fighters is limited.
Earlier, Syrian activists said rebels and government troops had fought a fierce battle near the border with Jordan. The activists said the fighting in and around the Syrian border town of Nasib continued until dawn on Saturday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were casualties on both sides without giving figures. Mohammed Abu Houran, an activist in the area, said the rebels first attacked an air defence base near Nassib and as they were withdrawing they clashed with Syrian border guards....

May 28, 2013
John McCain (click here) crossed into Syria from Turkey to meet with Salim Idris, the general commander of the Free Syrian Army. McCain wants the U.S. to support the Free Syrian Army with arms and a no-fly zone. NBC’s Richard Engel reports and NBC’s David Gregory discusses the visit....

May 27, 2013
The leaders (click here) of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army told the senator they want the U.S. to provide arms, a no-fly zone, and strikes on Hezbollah. Josh Rogin reports....

Turkey did not create this mayhem alone. It was completely assisted by Senator McCain's influence and demand for arming of rebels he knew nothing about. Well, guess what, the rebels McCain insisted on arming were exactly what Assad said they were and they have now moved into Iraq with USA munitions and hardware to facilitate their advance. Well done, John.


And guess who helped move all those guns and munitions into Syria? The very truckers now held as captives.


A driver waiting in a slow line of trucks on Saturday to cross into Iraq from southeastern Turkey. Among 80 Turks recently kidnapped by ISIS were 31 truckers.CreditAndrea Bruce for The New York Times

June 24, 2013

...Once this border was wide open, as Turkey allowed rebel groups of any stripe easy access to the battlefields in Syria in an effort to topple President Bashar al-Assad. But that created fertile ground in Syria for the development of the Sunni militant group that launched a blitzkrieg in Iraq this month, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
“For three years, we have seen ISIS flags in Syria, and that is because of Turkey,” Mr. Aydin said, eyeing hundreds of Iraq-bound trucks that snaked in a line over the horizon. “Turkey let them in.”
Now, with the rise of ISIS, the Turkish government is paying a steep price for the chaos it helped create....

Senator McCain forgot to get the contract signed that says, "If you turn against the hand that feeds you the USA will bomb you."

Not only did US Senator McCain arm ISIS the Saudi sheiks joined right in and supported the holy war. I suppose the Saudis are suppose to be condemned now too since they mimicked and supported John McCain's efforts, right?

The USA military is out of the Middle East and will only support established allies such as Jordan, Turkey and Israel. There will be no more meddling.

Additionally, Iran is correct, the USA is bringing to much press to bear in Baghdad. If Maliki was calling for religious resolve to protect the populations in Iraq, it was because of the advance of Sunni rebels. It is a crime the USA has caused such huge problems in the Middle East. It is the regional leaders that have to stop the violence and end the USA created war. 

There will be no Iraq War 2.0.

June 25, 2014
Embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (click here) called Wednesday for political unity in the face of a brutal al-Qaeda-inspired insurgency, as he sought to shore up crumbling support for his government.
Striking a conciliatory but desperate tone in a televised address to the nation, Maliki urged political parties to lay aside their differences before the first session of Iraq’s newly elected parliament, expected to take place next week.
“We desperately need a united national stance to defy terrorism,” said Maliki, who is under pressure from the United States to reach out to those who oppose him,
His speech, delivered two days after he met with Secretary of State John F. Kerry, contrasted sharply with his public declarations earlier in the crisis, which have appealed to religious motivations and called for citizens to protect the country’s Shiite Muslim shrines....