Tuesday, October 21, 2014

My sincerest sympathy to the profession that lost a prince.

October 21, 2014
By Marshall Cohen

Ben Bradlee interviews Martin Luther King, Jr. on Face the Nation. (click here)

May the family find peace at their time of loss. It was a wonderful life and admired by all.

Before Bennifer, before Brangelina, (click here) they took one look at each other and it was Kismet. He was barrel-chested and gravelyvoiced, always dashing in English shirts and a loosened tie. She was blonde and witty, a military brat in oversized sunglasses and mini skirts. Her admirers were legion: Warren Beatty, Warren Hoge. His female admirers included Jackie Kennedy and Lauren Bacall, who calls him “Benji.”

And so, Ben landed Sally, soon followed by his divorce from then-wife Toni. Although perhaps apocryphal, the story goes like this: she was looking for a job and walked into the Washington Post one day to apply for a party reporter position. He was smitten. She told him one salient detail; she had never written a story before.

“Nobody’s perfect,” he barked. Sally went on to fame as a seriously edgy Style writer who was nicknamed “Salty” Quinn. No one was more deft in getting well-known subjects to reveal their foibles. Who was it? Henry Kissinger, who said that being interviewed by gossip columnist Maxine Cheshire made you want to kill her. Being interviewed by Sally Quinn made you want to kill yourself....

I thought the NSA and FBI were suppose to be finding this before it happens.

October 23, 2014
By Sadie Gurman

DENVER (AP) — The FBI in Denver (click here) says it is investigating the possibility that three girls from the Denver area were trying to travel to Syria to join Islamic State extremists.
An FBI spokeswoman says agents helped bring the girls back to Denver after FBI agents stopped them in Germany. Spokeswoman Suzie Payne says they are safe and reunited with their families.
She didn’t give the identity of the girls or any other details.
The announcement comes one month after 19-year-old Shannon Conley of Denver pleaded guilty to charges that she conspired to help militants in Syria.
The US Attorney’s Office in Denver declined to comment on the latest cases....
This is unbelievable. The NSA is suppose to be spying on people receiving and sending transmissions from overseas and here teenagers are communicating with Syria and nothing is known about it.
How is it the FBI is only beginning the investigation about this after having a young woman prosecuted for aiding militants in Syria? How did this simply slip through their dragnet without picking up three girls with passports and $2000 cash on their way to Syria? 

The NSA wants unquestionable access to every American in the country to DETER any criminal activity that might be terrorism and low and behold juvenile delinquents can't be found before they leave the country. And to put the frosting on the cake, it was their parents that figured it out. 

This is ridiculous. The NSA is completely worthless. If they want to spy on Americans they'll have to have good cause. A conviction already existed and three more American girls were on their way to the worst thing that could happen to their lives and no one in any authority picked up on it. Wow.

Candidate recruitment.

It is what surprised me about the Ferguson, Missouri reality. The population was bi-racial, but, there was no discerning that by the degree of representation in their police or local government.

The people that need to be in their government the most, as with Ferguson, are the least involved or represented. In the case of Ferguson, the majority of the minority population were lower Middle Class. They owned homes, were building a future for their children, but, more than likely worked two to three or even four jobs per household. So, the idea a lower Middle Class voter has the time to participate yet alone campaign is not realistic. If it isn't realistic to the voters that struggle to make it to the polls (Ferguson has low voter turn out.) they aren't going to be able to make it to local party meetings to become involved and eventually run for office.

That entirely isn't the problem though. Let's say there is a retired Grandmother that has time to attend local meetings and campaign what might hold her back? Certainly not her age because most Seniors are respected and admired for their accomplishments in life. So, what then would prevent someone within a minority community from participating as a candidate in elections.

The Tone. I remind the tone of the country today is very hateful. As a result the people involved in politics are coarse, raw and crude in their approach to authority. Not only that, but, there is fear among the electorate that polarizes voters. 

Scott Brown is talking about border security and the first thing New Hampshire voters will think about is Canada. Now, when did anyone ever witness widespread border crossings by undocumented workers from Canada? Never. So, in fact the idea the Canadian border comes into play regarding border insecurity is hideous. Yet, Brown will continue to rant and rave about a border issue because, of course, every member of the Islamic State will find their way through 2000 miles of alien roads and terrain to attack the people of New Hampshire. It isn't going to happen, but, because the culture of fear paints these issues starkly, many in New Hampshire are worried about their own security.

The same is true with Ebola. A strange idea that a virus from West Africa could find it's way into the USA compliments of an American's fiancee is a hideous thought, yet, the panic spread quickly and it becomes an issue of who has the best idea to protect citizens, when in fact there was never a sincere threat in the first place.

Now, take citizens of Ferguson who have never voted. Why? They are disenfranchised because of their financial struggles and personal goals for their families and children and keeping their house, they are completely disconnected  from the reality their vote is vital to changing their circumstances. Then this hideous and outrageous ideas from the political right wing manifest and how is that brave and proud Grandmother looking now to win an election? Not so promising.

The political tone of the country it not only hideously out of sync with reality and the best interest of the people, it also disqualifies those that vote and those that would be qualified or even interested in running for local office.

While there are gatekeepers that oppress diversity of people in government there is also this incredibly horrid political tone that tells many they are scared and incompetent to handle their own lives effectively. If I don't believe I am confident in handling my own life will I want to run for office?

While gatekeepers oppress, there is a larger evil and it works.

I've heard it all now.

I was laughing so hard I forgot to write down the name of the book, but, it was something like "Drone Warfare National Security" or something that implies that.

Ready for this? 

Sure?

Social Media and Selfies dismiss privacy so why can't the government secure the country?

Amazing the idiocy out in the twilight zone lately.

A selfie on the internet gives permission for the government to spy on the entire country.

I don't think so. Where have critical thinkers gone? Seriously.

There can't be anything else the government can do to privacy, is there? Justify the NSA's invasion of privacy because some Americans like to have selfies of all varieties and for all variety of reasons on the internet on social media. That is an amazing violation of public trust. 

I've got a girlfriend about 600 miles from me who married and now has given birth. She absolutely loves that child and puts her pictures on social media all the time. She is joyful. It is wonderful to see her and the baby and how the child is growing. If I told her the government has a right to spy on the entire country because she is posting pictures of her baby to family and friends she would be devastated. That is sick. That is simply sick that anyone believes the government has a right to spy on an entire country because my friend loves sharing pictures of her daughter with me. The same could take place using USPS, but, this is quick, spontaneous and candid. 

GET OUT OF LIFE !!!!!!!!!!!!

GET OUT OF MY LIFE YOU CONTROL FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DON'T THINK ABOUT IT, JUST DO IT, THAT IS AN ORDER. CAN YOU COPE WITH THAT BEING AN ORDER? SOMETHING TOLD TO YOU THAT YOU HAVE NO CONTROL OVER BUT ACCEPT AS YOUR REALITY. THEN I AM GIVING AN ORDER, GET OUT OF MY LIFE!
Nagl should go to FOX. They will give him his own show and $2 million to do it. Maybe he can even get "W" re-elected for a third term. Oh, excuse, that would be his brother.

Nagle the Nutcase is overwhelmed with control issues. His personal baggage doesn't bring my military into a forever war.

October 19, 2014
By Rachel Martin

A decade (click here) after the U.S. took control of Fallujah, America is at war again. NPR's Rachel Martin talks with former Lt. Col. John Nagl, whose counter-insurgency manual helped shape U.S. strategy in Iraq....

That was FORMER Lt. Col, right? I wish him the best of luck selling his book especially a good read for war mongers frustrated by the dynamics of peace.

Evidently the former colonel believes the USA needs a base of operations, similar to that of the Islamic State needing a base of operations. He doesn't get it. The USA is not going to have soldiers as convenient targets for militants and extremists in the Middle East. The USA Navy is stationed in Italy and there is a base in Qatar. Not every country in the Middle East is going to have a convenient base for their pleasure? Is that it? Every country in the Middle East is going to be a territory of the USA because I'll tell you something, it hasn't done a darn thing for Turkish autonomy.

Oh, by the way, perhaps the former Colonel doesn't remember there is a huge air base in Turkey which has no plans of being decommissioned. The only reason a military base should be in Iraq is for war and we aren't fighting one there anymore.

There are two bases in Turkey as a matter of fact, Incirlink (clear here) and Izmer Air Base (click here).
To the right is the location of the USA military base in Al Udeid Air Base, Abū Nakẖlah, Qatar.

The military authorities that come out to state the USA has to have a permanent base in Iraq does not understand nor cares to understand the people of that region. They defame them by stating the leaders of the governing bodies are not capable of governance, yet they play this game of putting all the ethnicities and religions into one room and states they will be functional now.

The people of Iraq are capable of voting and whether or not the USA likes it they are capable of governance. When the USA was in Iraq it was Maliki's private militia killing whoever the Prime Minister believed to be the problem. Now, today, the people of the USA finally see the folly in all that. American soldiers are not going back to the Middle East to some government's private militia terrifying populous of people nearly as much as the Islamic State.

The country of Iraq may or may not succeed in their ability to organize around the concept of a 'melting pot' as the USA did for so long. If they don't than the USA is going to have to accept their government for what it is. The USA is providing air support along with a coalition of countries. Does Mr. Nagl actually believe those countries are not capable of their own governance in joining a coalition to organize their own military prowess to destroy the evil that resides in Syria in the Islamic State? I happen to believe they can and should and succeed in protecting their countries and it's borders.

Nagl wants 15,000 troops in Iraq FOREVER.

I don't think so.

We don't belong in Iraq.

We never did.