The American media is sad about antiquities and history being destroyed by the former Ba'athists now called Daesh.

And on August 23, 2004, the USA military started to bomb this Mosque. The bombers were first jets and then came the tanks. 

Moqtada al Sadr was fighting for his life and the life of his Mosque. He is a cleric in Iraq where his father, grandfather and an uncle was killed in their own home by Saddam. Bush was no better than Saddam. It wasn't until the Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani entered his authority to his people did the attack stop. And it stopped dead in it's tracks. So don't tell me the USA has all these high moral values because it serves the purpose of seeking sympathy for Iraq. Ain't no way, the USA comes away from the Iraq war as saintly to any crimes against humanity.

The American people don't want the deaths of these people on their hands, yet alone more people of the Middle East. The Republican presidential hopefuls are not going to bring the USA to the brink of war again.
 
By Mike Dorning
 
BAGHDAD — U.S. warplanes (click here) pounded away at followers of radical cleric Moqtada Sadr in Najaf and tanks advanced closer to the shrine where the rebels have gathered, as Iraq's interim government warned Sunday night that a raid on the mosque is imminent.
Late Sunday, leaders of Sadr's al-Mahdi Army told The Associated Press that U.S. attacks had damaged the outer walls of the mosque. A U.S. military spokesman denied American forces hit the walls, AP reported.

The lies of "W" and Cheney are stated by two people that had worked for the administration. Where is former CIA director Tenet. I know what he was thinking. He has to have the guts to say it.

The USA is NOT at war in Iraq or Syria. The USA is in assistance of the Arab Coalition. 

There is no USA combat troops in Iraq or Syria and there won't be.

Questions?

Republicans are confused between their politics and lies. War fits their politics, the lack of it leaves them with absent accusations that has no basis. In other words, the Republican politics require the USA to be at war, otherwise, President Obama is responsible for the lack of it. They have to blame someone. "W" blamed Saddam of great crimes of WMD and nuclear proliferation. It was all a lie and the fact there is no war in the Middle East where the USA has no combat mission today, is driving them crazy.

What is there to understand about Republicans? They lie for the purpose of their crony politics. They have no moral gravity to their politics. They entered into a war that was completely illegal and immoral. Now, their presidential politics want to do it again.

"What I didn't find in Africa." (click here)
July 3, 2003
By Joseph C. Wilson 4th

WASHINGTON— Did the Bush administration (click here) manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq? 

Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.... 

Former CIA Deputy Director Morrell CONFIRMS the truth as stated by former Ambassador Joe Wilson, 4th.

Joe Wilson stated "W" lied and Morrell stated Cheney and "W" lied. What does it take for American citizens to realize they were lied to and our soldiers died along with tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Why would a people in the Middle East trust the USA again? Why would they hate us? The American people can't control the politics of their country to stop heinous use of their military? Really? 

It has been twelve years since the illegal invasion of the American military into Iraq and Republicans are still demanding the country return to war. When that stop? Never? Every time a Republican raises their lying heads to run for president the USA is suppose to jump on the band wagon and elect another war president? 

Bring them home.

May 21, 2015
By Kyle Jahner, Staff writer

Col. John Reynolds (click here) just finished leading the first U.S. conventional force to deploy to Iraq since 2011. And after helping train the Iraqi army for months, he came away impressed at the growth of the increasingly "battle-hardened" force.

The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division returned to Fort Riley in March after deploying to Camp Buehring, Kuwait. From there, it trained alongside Kuwaiti partners before receiving the task to travel to Iraq to provide security at key points in Baghdad and train Iraqi Army recruits to battle the Islamic State terror group.

"They were excited that we were back," Reynolds told a media roundtable on Thursday at the Pentagon. "You could see relief from the tactical and operational commanders. I was impressed with the leadership there, because they were fighting. You could tell they were fighting hard in the north. They were battle-hardened."...

...U.S. soldiers offered a professionalism and set of values, Reynolds said.

The USA is not needed in the region anymore. Russia has also shut down the access to Afghanistan thorough Russia by the USA military. 
 
As an example Reynolds told the story of a recruit who approached him and confessed he hated Americans. Reynolds had a quick reply: "I don't care, as long as you hate Daesh more." Reynolds said he personally participated in a PT training session with the recruits, the American-hater included....

..."Every single soldier was able to get off the camp at Camp Buerhing, and go into downtown Kuwait," Reynolds said. "I've been deployed 13 times, and this was the first time I was able to go downtown into a mall."

This is what children learn from drug wars.

Relatives of Cristopher Raymundo Marquez Mora during his funeral service in Chihuahua on May 17, 2015 (AFP Photo/Daniel Acosta) 

May 19, 2015

"They were playing, (click here) they tied him up and they put a stick on his neck that semi-asphyxiated him," the statement said.

"When the boy fell to the ground, they hurled rocks at him, they stuck a knife in his back and once dead, they dragged him where they deposited the body, in a shallow dig," it said.

"They covered the body with dirt and put plants and a dead animal on the surface" in a bid to hide him, the statement said.

The two 15-year-old boys could be jailed if found guilty but the other three other minors face "other types of sanctions," prosecutors said.

The murder took place in a state that has endured some of the worst bloodshed in Mexico's drug war, with thousands of people killed in turf wars between cartels....

Forest fires are at record highs around the globe.

South Saskatchewan 

Throughout province, 163 wildfires so far in 2015 (click here)

May 21, 2015
CBC News

Crews have been busy fighting forest fires in Saskatchewan this year, with almost double the number compared to this time last year.  
As of Wednesday, there have been 163 fires in the province this year, compared to 85 by this time last year.
Most of the fires are in the Prince Albert and Buffalo Narrows area, with a smaller number in the La Ronge area.
Twelve wildfires were burning on Wednesday.
In the southern half of the province, the risk of fires is elevated, according to the environment ministry.
On the east side of the region, the risk has been deemed high while in western and central areas, it's extreme, according to the ministry's Thursday fire forecast map.
One forest fire was burning close to Creighton, Sask. A water bomber and a helicopter dropped water on the blaze late Wednesday afternoon.

Portugal 

VIANA DO CASTELO, Portugal (AP) " Race organizers (click here) of the Rally of Portugal have canceled a stage on Friday because of forest fires.
Organizers canceled the 27.53-kilometer (17.1-mile) stage around the town of Ponte de Lima near the northern border with Spain "because of nearby forest fires."
That was scheduled to be the day's fourth stage.
Portugal has had a dry winter and spring, and May has seen record monthly temperatures.

In the US, there are less than ten wildfires, but, most are occuring in Florida. Alaska has two large incident fires.

May 21, 2015
By Susan Miller Degnan

Two small Miami-Dade wildfires (click here) were extinguished by firefighters Thursday, but the huge, now 30,000-acre Everglades fire battled for the past several days is still raging on.
The blaze in the Big Cypress Preserve “way out west in the Everglades’’ cast smoke over Miami-Dade and Broward on Friday as well, as forecast by Florida Forest Service senior forest ranger Gabriel Llamas Thursday evening.
Miami-Dade County spokesman Luis Espinoza of the Division of Environmental Resources Management said the air quality index was expected to be in the moderate range Friday.
“Residents – especially active children, the elderly and people with respiratory problems – should avoid prolonged outdoor exposure,” Espinoza said.
Llamas said the Big Cypress Preserve fire is on the south and north sides of I-75 in Collier County, and was about 13 percent contained as of Thursday...

While the northern hemisphere is hot and on fire, the southern hemisphere is experiencing frigid temperatures.

New Zealand

May 22, 2015
 
Two big weather systems (click here) will bang both ends of New Zealand this weekend and the year's coldest blast yet is expected early next week.
MetService said the sunniest skies this weekend will likely be in the middle of the country, as rain and strong winds strike the north, and a polar blast brings snow to the south.
MetService said a low pressure system from the Tasman Sea will hit Northland and the Coromandel Peninsula on Saturday, bringing rain and strong winds to places as far south as Ruapehu.
Meanwhile, snow in Otago and Southland was forecast to reach altitudes as low as 200m above sea level....

US Drought Map 
May 19, 2015 

The storms are not helping. As a matter of fact, the drought west of the Mississippi and central of that region is where severe storms were recently recorded.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/deadline-miami/article21560760.html#storylink=cpy

A person with a lisp falls under the American with Disabilities Act. Having an income doesn't disappear because one has a disability to surmount, be it short term or a lifetime.

No person with a disability should be apologizing for it. Never. That is simply the way their body works. Surmounting a disability is a challenge more people don't have. It requires effort to simply function to be in line with everyone else. Regardless of the disability they should be admired for their life and the challenge they face everyday.

No one should apologize for a matter they have no control. It's ridiculous to think any handicap is accommodated by law and social contract and therefore in gratitude for a just society. They are Americans seeking to pull their own weight. That is nothing to apologize for.

There is an article in The New Zealand Herald I found very interesting. It is about a syndrome called selective mutism, known better as SM. As first glance the child is sometimes thought to be autistic. Tests of the child by professionals show differently.

The children suffer by harassment in school as well. It makes the recovery from SM a difficult challenge. The article is by a mother and the family's journey through a difficult diagnosis.

May 23, 2015
By Kim O'Connell

...Typically, (click here) SM kids speak in certain places where they're most comfortable, such as home, but not in other locations, such as school or day care. This was the case with our son. For selectively mute kids, I read, even whispering with one other person can feel like speaking to a crowd of thousands.
Reading about SM, I felt a shock of recognition. Growing up, I, too, had suffered from a public-speaking phobia, and I rarely participated in class discussions. In high school, I would lose sleep for nights on end before giving an oral report.
Although I've mostly conquered those fears, painful, embarrassing memories rushed to the surface as I perused Web sites about the condition. And along with them came a deep sense of guilt. I learned that three-fourths of children with SM have a parent with social anxiety. If anxiety was in my son's makeup, I was convinced that I had put it there....

This was a rather incredible surprise. Thank you, Google.

If the US Congress doesn't change the law, the very people they seek to stop will walk free.

The US Appeals Court provided a shot across the bow of the US Congress. Why would a court do that?

May 7, 2015
By Jonathan Stempel

...Ruling on a program (click here) revealed by former government security contractor Edward Snowden, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the Patriot Act did not authorize the National Security Agency to collect Americans' calling records in bulk.

Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch wrote for a three-judge panel that Section 215, which addresses the FBI's ability to gather business records, could not be interpreted to have permitted the NSA to collect a "staggering" amount of phone records, contrary to claims by the Bush and Obama administrations.  

"Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans," Lynch wrote in a 97-page decision. "We would expect such a momentous decision to be preceded by substantial debate, and expressed in unmistakable language. There is no evidence of such a debate."

The appeals court did not rule on whether the surveillance violated the U.S. Constitution. 

It also declined to halt the program, noting that parts of the Patriot Act including Section 215 expire on June 1....

See, the US Congress read the judges decision differently than they should have. The USA Congress read that the program was constitutional and the judge was not halting the program realizing it was up for renewal on June 1, 2015.

Let's think about that a minute. 

Rather than the Congress reading what they want into the decision and the DOCUMENT, they should have given pause to the NSA mess to realize if a US Appeals Court Judge went through a great deal of trouble to specify THE VULNERABILITIES of the NSA program, they would be running to fix it. 

These guys just aren't very bright.

Senator Paul is correct. The NSA program, as it exists today, can set the very criminals they want to find free as the program will be brought through the entire court process which will very likely find it over reaches. 

The Republican Majority, short of Senator Paul, is lazy. They don't want to change anything. There is the potential they don't know how to change it.

Senator Paul is the one Republican that 'gets it.' The NSA program is illegal and unconstitutional and will provide a window to allow criminals to walk. It is better to do without it, than compromise the security of the American people. 

The Congress doesn't want to hear from a judge and why would that be? 

Because it doesn't fit into their politics.

So.

The very program that is suppose to root out and find terrorists on the Homeland will be null and void when it counts the most.

The idea David Frum actually quoted algorithms as the reason the NSA program could never spy on Americans is the exactly the politics the Republicans adhere to. To realize how bizarre it is to put algorithms on the witness stand to prove the program works is about the equivalent of money being a citizen.

I suppose if Republicans want a military of drones to conquer the world  algorithms will have to reassure the American people they are safe and their national security is intact. 

I don't think so.

The Republican Congress should sincerely identify the American Burying Beetle likes carrion.

The American burying beetle, (click here) (Nicrophorus americanus) Oliver is a member of the carrion beetle family Silphidae. Carrion beetles, as their name implies, are an important part of a vast host of scavengers that are responsible for recycling decaying materials back into the ecosystem. They are also referred to as burying beetles or sexton beetles. There are 570 species of silphids found worldwide, and 31 of them occur in North America. There are 18 species in Nebraska....

The American burying beetle is necessary in the ecosystem to EAT all the dead stuff sitting around.

...West of the Appalachians, the decline occurred later. In the Midwest, the decline appears to have proceeded generally from the center of the range outward, with all collections since 1960 occurring at the peripheries of the range.
The American burying beetle is now found in only six states: Nebraska, Rhode Island, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Kansas, and Arkansas. There are now ongoing attempts to reintroduce it into Ohio and Massachesetts.
In 1983 the American burying beetle was included as an endangered species in the Invertebrate Red Book published by the Intemational Union for the Conservation of Nature. In the United States, it was proposed as an endangered species in 1988 and was placed on the state and federal endangered species lists in August 1989....

It could very well be that the pesticides used by Monsanto is causing the scarcity of the vital insects and animals needed to maintain healthy soil.

...In Nebraska, the Sandhills is just such an area, and it is there that the beetles have been recently rediscovered. Gothenburg, Brady, North Platte and the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge are all locales in which beetles are now found....

The map above is where the Nebraska Sandhills are found. Well, looky thar. There is an aquifer under the Nebraska Sandhills. And guess what the Republicans want to build through the Nebraska Sandhills? Go ahead, guess. I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

These animals and insects are protected by the Endangered Species.Act because they are very important to the soils of the USA. The ignorant and hate filled Republican majority needs to get over themselves. 

It isn't going to matter who is Prime Minister of Iraq. The troops won't fight.

The public beheadings and hangings, be they Daesh or Taliban, serves a purpose. That purpose has worked in Iraq. The soldiers aren't going to fight. When is the USA Congress and Executive Branch going to come to terms with the fact the people in Iraq are not first Iraqis, they are first Shi'ites or Sunnis or otherwise. They will fight for God, but, not another man because he calls himself Prime Minister.

Why is Iran a theocracy? Why is Saudi Arabia a monarchy with a leader that is the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques?

The history is significant. The USA has only been in existence for over 200 years. The people of the Middle East has been organized around their religious leanings for millennia.  

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques was brought about by the Ottoman sultan Selim I in 1517. The Two Holy Mosques are in Mecca and Medina. They were claimed by Selim after he won a war. Get the picture yet?

May 19. 2015

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama (click here) was briefed by his top national security advisers on Tuesday on the situation in Iraq and the strategy to counter Islamic State militants, the White House National Security Council said in a statement.

Obama "reaffirmed the strong U.S. support" for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the White House said after the meeting, which involved 25 advisers including Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Ash Carter, and General Lloyd Austin of U.S. Central Command.

There has been concern in the United States about the risk of sectarian strife in Ramadi, the capital of Sunni-majority Anbar province, because of the need to use Shi'ite militias to try to take back the city from Islamic State fighters....

A third world country doesn't become a first world country because the USA demands it in the way of nation building. It's ridiculous. It was completely stupid to enter Iraq. The USA never was backed by any traditional allies, except, the UK. The only reason Prime Minister Blair came to Bush's side because he was afraid of what would transpire if he didn't. Ostracizing the Ba'athists was a gigantic error.

I witnessed the massive movement of people in Southern Iraq when the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani ordered them to march to stop the USA military from destroying their Mosque. He was in a hospital bed when he did that. The hospital bed was in London. He got up from his hospital bed and flew back to his people. They stopped the USA military. 

Got that?  

The Shi'ites of Iraq have to establish a land area they can defend as an army of the Ayatollah. The Kurds have to draw their own line in the sand they can defend to protect their families. The PKK have to join the Kurdish military to assist in that defense. When the region is static and the borders are defensible; the militarys can then come together through diplomatic relations to take on more land piece by piece. It is the only thing that will result in a stable and productive country for each of the ethnicities.

Saudi Arabia is going to have to decide if they will defend Al Anbar and annex it or allow war to continue at it's border with Daesh. 

Thank you, Mr. Matthews. It meant a great deal. We lost a lot by entering Iraq. It can't happen again.

From the Sierra Club. The leaked sections of the TPP have proven to completely out of step with current standards in environment and labor standards.

January 15, 2015
 

Dan Byrnes, Sierra Club, 202-495-3039, daniel.byrnes@sierraclub.org

Elizabeth Heyd, NRDC, 202-289-2424 or 202-725-0648 (cell), eheyd@nrdc.org

Jay Branegan, NRDC, 202-513-6263, jbranegan@nrdc.org

Christopher Conner, WWF, 202-495-4786, christopher.conner@wwfus.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, WikiLeaks (click here) posted a draft environment chapter of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that governments have negotiated in secret for nearly four years. TPP nations have billed the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement as an "ambitious, 21st-century trade agreement." However, a joint analysis of the WikiLeaks document, dated November 2013, by environmental organizations reveals that countries are nowhere close to that goal.

“This peek behind the curtain reveals the absence of an ambitious 21st-century trade agreement promised by negotiating countries,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund (WWF). “The lack of fully-enforceable environmental safeguards means negotiators are allowing a unique opportunity to protect wildlife and support legal sustainable trade of renewable resources to slip through their fingers. These nations account for more than a quarter of global trade in fish and wood products and they have a responsibility to address trade’s impact on wildlife crime, illegal logging, and overfishing.”

Last fall, 24 environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and WWF, sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Froman, calling for a strong and legally enforceable environment chapter that includes the elimination of harmful fisheries subsidies, which are a key driver of overfishing; a ban on trade in illegally harvested timber, wildlife, and fish; and obligations to uphold domestic environmental laws and commitments under multilateral environmental agreements....

Why wasn't it secure before? I told ya. The oil companies always lie. The spill anywhere from 105,000 or more gallons.

The microbiotic content of the beach is disturbed.

I am sure everyone has dug for shorecrab when the water washes up on the beach.

There is a micorbiotic layer in the sand called "The RPD Layer." It's important. I am sure people have noted the black sand when the water/tide goes out. That black sand is what is known as RPD.

Anytime there is a oil spill that washes up on any beach anywhere it is disturbing the microbiotic layer called RPD. So. While conservationist look for MACROBIOTIC effects such as birds and marine life, there is already known damage. 

The professional article noted below is about the Northern Adriatic Sea. It is a handy example of the species that occupy on a beach without being noticed by any sunbather. The microbiotic animals and plants don't cause problems, but, they are the victims of problems. There is a lot of damage done when oil spills find their way to the beach areas of the world.

Prince William Sound probably needs some dedicated scientists to investigate the entire food chain including microbiotic content.

Supposedly the spill is 21,000 gallons. It's always more. I've never seen an accurate amount of spilled oil as reported by an oil company. 

42 gallons = 1 barrel of oil.

Burrowing Behavior, (click here) Substratum Preference, and Distribution of Schizaster canaliferus (Echinoidea: Spatangoida) in the Northern Adriatic Sea 

Schizaster canaliferus, an endemic Mediterranean spatangoid, is common in the Bay of Piran (Northern Adriatic Sea). The abundance and distribution of this burrowing species is related to sea water depth and particle size distribution of the substrata. Populations are limited to silt/clay sediments in protected sublittoral areas of the Bay, where densities range from 1.9–2.6 individuals · m^-2. Preferred sediments range from medium to fine silt (2–20 μm). Burrowing activity was found to be functional only in fine sediments similar to those naturally inhabited; it did not occur in sandy sediments (>63μm). Burrowing rates were positively correlated with temperature, suggesting that burrowing speeds are greater in summer than winter....
 
Officials say the pipeline, that caused oil to spread some four miles along Refugio State Beach, is now secure. But the extent of the damage done is still to be determined.

May 20, 2015
By Javier Panzar, Joseph Serna and Tony Barboza

An oil spill that poured (click here) thousands of gallons of crude into the waters off Santa Barbara County has divided into two slicks covering about nine miles of coastline, officials said Wednesday.
Some wildlife will “likely” be affected in the coming days, although there were no confirmed reports as of Wednesday morning, Mark Crossland, a captain with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said at a news conference.
An underground pipeline below Highway 1 near Refugio State Beach in Goleta ruptured Tuesday afternoon, spilling oil down a culvert and into the ocean.
The rupture occurred on an 11-mile-long pipeline owned by Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline and is part of a larger oil transport network centered in Kern County....

Thank you, Senator Paul.

May 20, 2015
By Sean Cockerham
 
...“There comes a time, (click here) there comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer,” Paul said as he began speaking. “That time is now and I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts go unchallenged.”
It’s not technically a filibuster unless Paul keeps speaking beyond midnight, though, because Paul’s talkathon isn’t delaying anything in the Senate at this point. The Senate is wrapped up in trade bill but the next vote related to the bill isn’t scheduled until Thursday, and the Patriot Act reauthorization isn’t officially before the Senate.
Paul appears attempting to make a big political point, and by doing so is drawing important attention to himself. By promoting himself as the champion of civil liberatarians, Paul hopes he can invigorate his often-lagging presidential effort. And by remaining the center of Senate attention for hours, he gets a spotlight that other colleagues seeking the White House – Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas and probably Lindsey Graham of South Carolina – are not getting.
The Senate is scheduled to break on Friday for a weeklong recess and key Patriot Act provisions are set to expire on June 1. The Senate has been wrapped up in debating a trade bill and Paul, a Republican who is running for president, complained at the start of his filibuster that there wasn’t going to be an opportunity to debate the Patriot Act and have votes on his proposed amendments, one of which would end to the mass collection of phone records.
“There needs to be a thorough and complete debate on whether or not we should allow government to collect all our phone records all the time,” Paul said....

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article21492306.html#storylink=cpy

Iraq is not defendible. It hasn't been. Even Saddam couldn't defend it without mass graves to provce it.

When the Brits drew a line in the sand, they created a monster. The Kurds need to decide the terrirtory they can defend to protect their people and the Shi'ites need to do the same thing. Saudi Arabia needs to decide how much of a buffer they need into Iraq. Those regions have to be stabilized and well enforced as sovereign land. Once that is done, the rest of the land, including Syria, can be decided. 

There are more tanks to blow up now, the sooner the better. There has to be stable borders that are known to protect from Daesh. Then the ambitions of destroying them can be decided. It's not going to matter how much time passes, the stability of the region is more important.

The Iraq government doesn't have a military that can enforce their borders. Just that simple. Holding territory has always been impossible for the new Iraqi government.

May 19, 2015
By Hugh Naylor

As Islamic State militants (click here) repeatedly attacked ­Ramadi this year, police solicited cash from local families and businessmen to buy weapons, one officer recalled. The Iraqi government didn’t pay the police for months, he said.
“We begged and begged for more support from the government, but nothing,” said Col. Eissa al-Alwani, a senior police officer in the city.
The fall of Ramadi amounts to more than the loss of a major city in Iraq’s largest province, analysts say. It could undermine Sunni support for Iraq’s broader effort to drive back the Islamic State, vastly complicating the war effort....

Why was this released now? Were allies consulted? It doesn't make sense to me unless NSA wanted a new shiny object for the news media at the time when McConnell wants to pass The Patriot Act without changes.

May 20, 2015
By Greg Miller

Osama bin Laden (click here) kept an extensive library of English-language books in the compound where he was killed in 2011, a collection whose titles appear to reflect the al-Qaeda leader’s constant search for U.S. vulnerabilities and insights into troubled American military campaigns from Vietnam to the wars that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Bin Laden’s bookshelf included “Imperial Hubris,” a critical account of U.S. counterterrorism programs by the former head of the CIA unit that was responsible for tracking the al-Qaeda leader. Other books included a copy of “Obama’s Wars” by Bob Woodward, a history of the Federal Reserve, and — in perhaps an indirect acknowledgment of al-Qaeda’s struggle to survive CIA drone strikes — a book on “antiaircraft weapons and techniques for guerrilla forces.”...

 

Whenever Iranian nuclaer scientists were known from inspections, they were murdered shortly thereafter.

May 20, 2015
By Parisa Hafezi

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (click here) said on Wednesday Tehran would not accept "unreasonable demands" by world powers during negotiations over its disputed nuclear program, and ruled out letting inspectors interview its atomic scientists.

The comments, broadcast live on state TV, were the latest in a series of forthright statements on inspections in the countdown to a June 30 deadline to resolve a decade-old standoff over Iran's nuclear work.
"We will never yield to pressure ... We will not accept unreasonable demands ... Iran will not give access to its (nuclear) scientists," Khamenei said. "We will not allow the privacy of our nuclear scientists or any other important issue to be violated."
Khamenei, who has the final say for Iran on any deal, last month ruled out any "extraordinary supervision measures" over nuclear activities and said military sites could not be inspected....

The West cannot deny this happened. The deaths were made a news item. Several have occurred. I can't say the Supreme Leader is wrong in prohibiting the identity of it's scientists to be part of the agreement.

March 1, 2015
By Dan Ravin

WASHINGTON -- As Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (click here) flies to Washington - due to arrive on Sunday (March 2), to prepare for talks with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday - it's clear that there are several points of friction between Israel and the United States. 

The two countries are allies, but their leaders often differ on the details of key issues: Israel's peace talks with the Palestinians, America's nuclear talks with Iran, how to approach political turmoil in Egypt, what might be done to limit Syria's horrible civil war, and a broader issue of whether the Middle East sees President Obama as a powerful, influential leader....

... Although Israel has never acknowledged it, the country's famed espionage agency - the Mossad - ran an assassination campaign for several years aimed at Iran's top nuclear scientists. The purpose was to slow the progress made by Iran, which Israel feels certain is aimed at developing nuclear weapons; and to deter trained and educated Iranians from joining their country's nuclear program....

UAW gets a new chief negotiator.

UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada will lead negotiations with GM this simmer. She is a longtime union organizer and social activist who was first elected as vice president in 2010 and is the first Latina elected to serve as an International officer.(Photo: Detroit Free Press)

May 18, 2015

By Greg Gardner

Cindy Estrada's journey (click here) has taken her from the dusty tomato fields of central California to the bargaining table where the UAW and General Motors will forge the future of about 48,500 U.S. workers.

Her career path to becoming the first woman to lead the UAW's GM department shares parallels with GM CEO Mary Barra, with whom she is meeting about once a month leading up to this year's labor negotiations.

They are among the point people — two glass ceiling breakers — in upcoming labor negotiations set against the backdrop of Michigan as a right-to-work state and strong feelings among union members that wages must increase considering big profits of recent years....

The Michigan House Committee has passed a bill to prevent local government from insituting their own requirements for employers.

The Michigan House bill is HB 4052. 

One might recall Seattle was the first city in the USA to pass a minimum wage of $15.00. Now, Michigan's hostile House is prohibiting communities from doing the same thing.

This is the same bill with few modifications from December when it was tabled in committee. The bill is on it's way to the Michigan House floor for a vote.

May 19, 2015
By Emily Lawler

...The bill is a re-introduction (click here) of a concept first discussed in December, which aimed to ban local communities from stepping into the employee-employer relationship by establishing ordinances for things like mandatory sick leave or wage levels. However, one draft of the bill included language that may have undone local protections for LGBT people....

...To those protesting, the bill looked like a "death star."
"If this bill passes the voices of millions of Michigan voters will be silenced very suddenly. That's why it's a death star," said Erik Shelley, communications coordinator with Michigan United.
After the chanting subsided, the committee went back to taking testimony on the legislation.
Genesee County Commissioner Pegge Adams testified against the bill, saying that local government is more accessible to citizens and the legislation would be a state overreach....

Supposedly, the LGBT language was removed from the bill, but, if the gay community can be spared from oppression, why shouldn't everyone else? The bill should be discarded as a mistake. I don't see how a city can't raise their minimum wage if necessary. Raising the minimum wage is one of the quickest ways to increase the commerce of a city. 

This bill isn't interested in the average people and carries with it the idea the state can control cities methods of conducting business. I doubt the cities can even provide reasonable packages to their own employees and new hires. It prohibits Michigan cities from being competitive.

This is the bill's e-page (click here).

It is a really terrible bill. It has to be tested in the courts if it passes. It obviously is intended to oppress the will of the people at the local level. I don't think they can do this. It's pretty outrageous. 

I think it is an assault against organized labor. It will be applicable to local government, but, there are implications to organized labor. There are public employees that are members of organized labor. It can most probably be taken to the federal courts through the Labor Relations Board (click here).

PDF (click here) 

January 22, 2015

Introduced by Rep. Poleski and referred to the Committee on Commerce and Trade

A bill to limit the powers of units of local government to adopt, enforce, or administer certain local mandates for employers; to prohibit local minimum wage, benefit, or leave requirements; to prohibit certain ordinances regulating the development of real property within unites of local government; and to void local requirements that are adopted in violation of this act....

I am concerned this bill might also have applications retroactively. 

McConnell states he give the "USA Freedom Act" a vote this week as it was passed by the US House.

May 19, 2015
By Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett

Republican divisions on Capitol Hill (click here) over the PATRIOT Act deepened Tuesday as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell privately made his case against a popular House bill that would end the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection program.

McConnell said he plans to put the House-passed USA Freedom Act on the Senate floor later this week — a move that could show it can’t pass the Senate. But in a closed-door party lunch Tuesday, McConnell made clear his preference for a two-month extension of the current law. And to bolster his case against the House measure, the GOP leadership invited Michael Mukasey to meet with Senate Republicans, and the former attorney general argued in favor of keeping the PATRIOT Act provisions intact....

McConnell actually wants to pass The Patriot Act intact as it stands today. He isn't willing to recognize the court's decision in any measure. 

The US House (click here for calendar) is leaving on Thursday and won't be taking up any other bills regarding citizen monitoring. The US House will be back on June 1st.

Palestinians aren't even given the back of the bus, but, simply prohibited from transportation.

It is worth noting, the buses have been targets of suicide bombers.  So there is some basis to refuse Palestinians transportation on buses. There is always the possibly for separate buses, too. But, to simply refuse transportation is not reasonable. 

This picture is a suicide bombing in 2013 in Jerusalem.

May 20, 2015

By Isabel Kershner

JERUSALEM — Responding to intense criticism, (click here) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Wednesday abruptly shelved a contentious pilot project introduced this week that prohibited Palestinians returning to the West Bank from riding on the same buses as Israelis.

The decision to cancel the plan came as the European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, was making her way to the region to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

The Israeli government’s turnabout reflected the acute domestic sensitivity over Israel’s image abroad, particularly given its new, narrow government dominated by right-wing and religious parties, and the growing frustration in the West over the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Opposition politicians had denounced the plan as immoral and racist, and said it smacked of apartheid. There was also criticism from some more conservative quarters.

The plan was conceived by the Israeli Defense Ministry in response to pressure from Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank who have long demanded separate transportation for the Palestinians....