Assad is not remaining within his borders any longer.

Syria vows to 'crush' rebels, launches new attacks (click here)

Posted: Oct 06, 2012 1:57 AM EDTUpdated: Oct 06, 2012 3:08 PM EDT
By KARIN LAUB
Associated PressBEIRUT (AP) - Syria's military will "crush" armed rebels, President BasharAssad's defense minister warned Saturday, as the regime shelled rebel positions in two cities and near the Lebanese border in a widening offensive.
Neighboring Turkey, meanwhile, set new rules of engagement after three shells from Syria hit Turkish territory Saturday. Turkey retaliated with artillery, as it has for the past four days, and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said this would now be the standard response.

Davutoglu insisted that "we haven't taken a step toward war," But Turkey's

threat to fire back for each errant Syrian shell was bound to keep border tensions high. Turkey is one of Assad's harshest critics and a key supporter of Syria's opposition.

The latest Syria-Turkey crisis erupted earlier this week, after a Syrian shell killed five civilians in a Turkish border town....

All Shia are not the same evidently. If Lebanese rebels can fly drones over Israel they can fly them over Syria, too. 

11 October 2012 Last updated at 15:37 ET

The leader of Lebanese Shia militant movement Hezbollah (click here) has said that his group was behind the launch of a drone shot down over Israel last week.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told the movement's al-Manar television network that the drone was made in Iran and had flown over "sensitive sites" in Israel.

Israeli fighter planes shot down the drone north of the Negev desert after it entered from the Mediterranean.

Israel's prime minister has again vowed to defend the country's borders.

Sheikh Nasrallah said the drone was assembled in Lebanon but made in Iran - a rare reference to his organisation's military support from Tehran, the BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says....

Assad would chronically cause violence in Beirut through Hezbollah. This is a return of the old Syrian regime. Assad, no doubt, would love to remove the war from Syria and displace it into Turkey and Lebanon, again. 

The BBC's Wyre Davies: "This will be a huge event." (click here)

Thousands have gathered in Beirut's Martyrs' Square for the funeral of security chief Wissam al-Hassan.

His coffin has been met by Lebanon's president and prime minister at Beirut's police headquarters, close to the site of the car bomb which killed Hassan and two others on Friday.

Lebanon's opposition has blamed the attack on Syria.

A BBC correspondent says the funeral may turn into a huge rally against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Everyone's fear is that the civil war in Syria may spill over into Lebanon and that more violence is inevitable, Wyre Davies reports from Beirut.

"Really, we are waiting for the fall of the regime in Syria. Until that happens there can be no peace in Lebanon," one woman told him in Martyrs' Square....

It was not al Qaeda. I have stated that before...

... and here it is again by the Ambassador himself. The best intelligence regarding East Libya came from Ambassador Stevens a month before his death. The Republicans are politicizing his death for their own purposes.

...A cable signed by Stevens (click here) about a month before he was killed focused on the deterioration of security in eastern Libya. It noted there had been an increase in violence in Benghazi but said it was not an organized campaign, and locals were determined to get through it.

"There have been abductions and assassinations, but there have also been false alarms and outright fabrications," the August 8 cable said. "What we are going through - and what people here are resolved to get through - is a confluence rather than a conspiracy."

"Attackers are unlikely to be deterred until authorities are at least capable," the cable added.

Republicans have suggested the Obama administration omitted talking about al Qaeda in the days after Benghazi because this might undermine the administration's claims to have weakened the organization with the killing of former leader Osama bin Laden.

While there was continued danger in Libya, Eastern Libya was also seeking a longer term stability. Some of what was transpiring in Eastern Libya was politics. Below is from the same article. Regional Security Officers for the State Department were probably getting a mixed picture of the actual dangers of the region.

..."Many Libyans have said the U.S. presence in Benghazi has a salutary, calming effect on easterners who are fearful that the new focus on Tripoli could once again lead to their neglect and exclusion from reconstruction and wealth distribution and strongly favor a permanent U.S. presence in the form of a full consulate," said Feltman, the former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs....

Then there is the reality that Pro-Gaddafi forces may have been attempting to reconsolidate near Misrata where Gaddafi's son was killed. It was a very mixed picture and intelligence was poor and very much 'in the moment.' There are new names, loosely organized militias and continued fear. It was dangerous. With the input from Ambassador Stevens it seems very clear this was post-revolution and those responsible for area violence were basically unknown, but, local. 

Was he destined to extend the tyranny of his father?

Khamis (left) set up the 32nd brigade after returning from military training in Russia

Khamis Gadhafi, (click here) youngest son of slain Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, was reported dead Saturday, exactly a year after his father died.

There were conflicting reports about whether Khamis Gadhafi was captured alive but gravely wounded after a gunbattle in Bani Walid, a pro-Gadhafi stronghold where fighting has raged for three days. And Khamis Gadhafi has been reported killed several times, including in an August 2011 NATO airstrike....

Migrants are finding work in Mexico, not the USA.

Poverty generates isolation and worry.

Silvia Campos

‘Caravan of hope’ searches for lost relatives (click here)

October 16 2012 at 12:31pm 

...Silvia Campos had an emotional reunion with her son Serbelio Mateos, now a construction worker in Tabasco with a Mexican wife and children, said Ruben Figueroa, caravan organiser from the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement.

The caravan, dubbed “Releasing Hope,” left Guatemala on Sunday and is expected to arrive in Mexico City on Tuesday.

The goal is to visit 14 of Mexico's 32 federal entities in search of lost relatives from Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Around 140 000 Central Americans illegally enter Mexico's southern frontier each year in the hope of reaching the distant United States up north, according to government figures....

At the age of eleven she stated "...If the new generation is not given pens, they will be given guns by the terrorists...."

Malala is amazing. Pakistan has every reason to be proud of her. A sincere gratitude to Great Britain of insuring her return of health. Malala could be the next Benazir Bhutto. With a generation of young people this committed to peace and a better life is there any doubt there is hope to rid the region of criminals and militias?

Pakistani shooting victim Malala Yousufzai, 15, is recovering in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, after being shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan for advocating education for girls

...Malala Yousufzai (click here) also posed for photos in her hospital bed showing her awake and snuggling with a white teddy bear.

"She is doing well. In fact, she is standing 

"She is doing very well. In fact, she is standing with some help for the first time this morning when I went into see her," said Dr. David Rosser, the medical director of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England.

"She is communicating very freely, she is writing," he said.

Malala can't speak because she has a tracheotomy tube that was necessary because her airway was swollen by the bullet wound, Rosser said. But the girl the Taliban tried to silence may be able to speak again in a few days....

The companies assets need to be secured in court.

The US Food and Drug Administration said the fungus causing the fungal meningitis outbreak was in one lot of vials made in August by the New England Compounding Center, which is at the center of the national investigation into hundred of fungal meningitis cases, including at least 21 deaths.

I hope there are already processes to secure the companies assets. Officers of this company will probably appear in the lawsuit and rightfully so. The real estate alone is worth enough to help the families. The building will probably have to be demolished. I doubt there is any technology available to remove the contamination from it. 

 Aspergillus--7 µm diameter (click here)

There is another fungus involved, but, Aspergillus alone is so tiny it will be in every crack in the wall. That is seven micrometers.

μm = micrometer(s) (1 μm =10^-6 m) NOT micron or μ (click here)

In mathematical numeration 10^-6 m is 0.000001 meters (click here). That is really, really tiny. There is no way anything but complete fumigation (gas) of the building will work and it is very difficult to be sure all the fungus is destroyed.

It would be best if Governor Patrick would begin to talk to the public about establishing a charity fund to help the families across the country. It could be a permanent fund with donations and fund raising to benefit any children through college as well. There just won't be enough money from the company itself to cover all the needs of those left behind from the death of their family members.

President Obama has to make a solid commitment to the Coal Industry.

In his second term, President Obama has to continue the funding that supports families and coal miners, continue union support as the only stop gap to calamity of the miners and their families and a promise to these workers to raise levels of federal assistance through R&D to solve the problems of this industry.

Why?

Easy.

Because the national security of the USA depends on self reliance for its people and its military. Solid fossil fuel is safer to manipulate than any other form it takes. With falling carbon dioxide levels there is always a place for fossil fuels that can be mastered to provide BENEVOLENCE.

The Coal Industry cannot go on denying its problems and blaming it on politics. Its reality has moved far beyond that.

The trouble with coal and the USA is the volume of trapped carbon dioxide in the solid coal. There has to be an understanding that only so much coal can be part of the energy paradigm for the USA to prevent our agricultural land from becoming a desert.

The Climate Crisis is real, but, coal in the USA is also our reality. It is by far the largest deposit of immediately available energy when the country is in crisis of war or otherwise. It cannot be denied as the greatest energy asset of the USA. It has to be mastered for the insured future of this country.

The lack of sustainability of the Coal Industry to date is due to the negligence of the Republican Party to commit this country to not only solving the industry's problems, but, the country's problems. Coal is a USA reality. It has to become a benevolent asset and not one that blights this country and the global troposphere. 

The Climate Crisis is real and it occurred because weak willed Republicans had no other vision except deregulation and the destruction of the federal authorities. 

Coal will always have a place in the USA as a defense strategy, so the idea the entire industry will disappear is not a reasonable one or a prudent one, but, its place is diminished as compared to the past, so is the idea of burning wood for electricity.

Ask Secretary Chu how hard he is working for the future of our country?

The continuing drought across the USA is unrelenting due to high CO2 levels. One of the latest findings hits the Great Plains and our farmers. We cannot continue to ignore this huge problem we face.

Why do miners ignore the dangers of mining?

Primarily because the unions have been able to hold the line on demands in having excellent health care. The miners know their lungs are under attack, they simply accept that. And for as long as coal has been mined, one would expect a reactive industry to have conquered the disease called Black Lung.

...In mid-century, (click here) when Marcum worked, dust filled the mines, largely uncontrolled. Almost half of miners who worked at least 25 years contracted the disease. Amid strikes throughout the West Virginia coalfields, Congress made a promise in 1969: Mining companies would have to keep dust levels down, and black lung would be virtually eradicated.

Marcum doesn't have to look far to see that hasn't happened. Throughout the coalfields of Appalachia, in small community clinics and in government labs, it has become clear: Black lung is back....

Coal, mining and Black Lung Disease is something I know something about personally. My Grandfathers worked in the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Mines, one a Blacksmith crafting the tools needed by the miners and one as a coal miner in the coal shafts.

My Grandfather who was a Blacksmith worked above ground. He, on rare occasion, went into the mines. He never had lung complications. He also used to enjoy local politics to help the people of the community who did, to save their lives, bring in medical talent, build good hospitals through federal government fund sharing and be sure the children were getting the best education, including his own.

My Grandfather that worked in the mines, did contract Black Lung Disease. He was a big, Irish fellow, 2nd generation in the USA that had lost both his parents to the Avian Flu of the early 1900s. He was seventeen when he became the eldest in the family and the eldest son who inherited the responsibility of five younger siblings. The youngest, who was also the youngest sister, went to nursing school and had a very successful career. The second sibling was a sister that took up the matriarchal care of the family and was supported by my Grandfather until she married.

He died of Black Lung Disease and then the fund paid his wife a subsidy to her income until she died. She died 22 later than he. She missed him almost every day of her life and her daily Rosary kept her going along with her eleven children.

The reason the initiative to stop the occurrence of Black Lung Disease fails so royally is not for the trying to modernize the industry was because the Republicans insisted on deregulation at all costs including the workers. The cronies to the Republicans didn't work in the mines either, they worked above ground playing and financing politics. The owners of these mines have no intention of contracting Black Lung Disease and the unions are happy to maintain health insurance rather than solve the problems.

The lack of Republican backbone to solve the problems of the Coal Industry while maintaining high employment and still turning a profit to stockholders is overwhelming. The lack of resolve to overcome the industry's problems through concerted research and development has moved the industry to smaller and smaller work forces, mountain top mining, destructive practices and shrinking economic demand rather than a stable source of energy.

The Coal Industry is losing it's market share and deregulation will never bring it back, it will simply increase profits to Wall Street while the industry still exists. 

Rachel Cernansky

For National Geographic News

Published August 9, 2012

Neighbors recall promises (click here) that the eerie azure lake known as "Little Blue" would be made into a recreational jewel, complete with swimming, bike trails, and sailboats.

But the sprawling pond, its blue somewhat faded in recent years, delivered more blight than benefits to its rural surroundings near the West Virginia border in southwestern Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania officials now have initiated shut down of the facility south of the Ohio River, one of the largest U.S. impoundments for waste ash from coal power plants....

...Combustion Residue

Coal, which for years provided half the electricity in the United States, doesn't disappear entirely up the smokestack when it is burned at a power plant. While U.S. reliance on coal is decreasing in favor of now-cheaper natural gas, there is still the issue of the leftover "combustion residuals" and ash....

The residents hope there would be a tourist economy instead of a threat to their lives and livelihoods. "Little Blue" also has implications to the Ohio River through leaching which would distribute the toxins everywhere along its banks.

The Coal Industry in the USA is actually a victim of the Republicans.

Silly thought, huh? Not really. If I may?

Who is the biggest supporter of the Coal Industry? Republicans for the most part, although you won't find a tougher Democrat when it comes to the topic than the Senator from West Virginia.

But, what have the Republicans done to the Coal Industry, in fact? What have they done by today's measure to the Coal Industry?

Coal is the highest polluting fossil fuel of the three, gas, oil and coal. Coal, however, is the most stable of all the fossil fuels. It is a solid and brings tragedy to coal mines when methane gas, otherwise known as natural gas, escapes in large quantities into the mines. There is explosion with natural gas when it enters any space. In the case of coal mines, it ignites in a very small area and causes deaths of the miners.

But, Republicans have done NOTHING to improve the forward movement of Clean Coal Technology. They have never moved in all of nearly 50 years to seek improvement of industry standards of its by-product of carbon dioxide. While subsidizing the Oil and Gas industry, Republicans have done NOTHING to advance the technology to permit coal to remain competitive. That has not been the case with President Obama and his Energy Secretary Chu.

Now, if the Coal Industry wants to really stay in business in the USA then they need to take a good hard look at their greatest enemy and that is the Republican Party who has done nothing to improve their long term survival in the face of the USA having the largest coal deposits on Earth. The Republicans have maintained the coal industry in the Dark Ages while stating deregulation is the only enemy the industry has. 

Not the case. 

The real enemy, and I am seeing long term into the next decades, of the Coal Industry, are the very Republicans stating deregulation is their enemy. That is completely the opposite, because, if CO2 (carbon dixoide) were regulated it would have forced the USA Congress to legislate monies to Clean Coal Technology to improve the CO2 emission as a by-product. Regulation was the insurance of the Coal Industry to longevity. Not deregulation. If the USA Congress 35 to 40 years ago stopped the subsidies to the Oil Industry and instead devoted them to the Coal Industry for modernization of the industry they would not be facing a challenge to stay in business today against men such as Romney's Energy Advisor Howard Hamm.

Hamm is not about coal. What Hamm knows about coal and nuclear for that matter can be put in a thimble. So, the Romney campaign is only using the Coal Industry as a platform issue with the only goal of relief as deregulation. There are no plans by Romney to remove oil subsidies or advance alternative energy, but, simply to deregulate the coal industry. There won't be safeguards for anything anymore.

But, to be real about the future of the Coal Industry, it is out of demand. Setting aside the absolute worst idea the petroleum industry ever had, which is hydraulic fracturing of 'solid' rock to make holes in the hopes of extracting natural gas, the international community is seeking alternative energies at a record pace. Even, China, with it's own coal industry is seeking alternative energies. Japan  is left with the decision to seek more and more offshore and onshore alternative energies due to it precarious location on Earth.

So, the idea somehow the Democrats are the Coal Industry's enemy is a farce.  Regulation with changing paradigms of research and development is the best idea for the Coal Industry. And that idea is not coming from the Republicans.

Entertain this observation about the methods of Bain Capital.

Across the board when I listen to employees of these companies speak about their experience, they are always long term employees losing everything. With Bainport there are employees looking forward to retirement after being with the company for 35 years.

When I read about the history of Sports Authority and Staples, the companies bought out were long standing companies. They were well established whom's owners were reaching retirement and basically didn't need the company in their lives anymore.

What is Bain looking for in these companies? 

Money. 

Cash. 

They have a cash flow they like to maintain and the largest one purpose of that cash flow is payments to investors. Every investor ever engaged with Bain was always happy with their cash flow. Yes? Yes. No complaints.

Bain is predatory. I am not so sure all the other venture capitalists aren't either, however, in order for outfits like BlackRock to survive they are seeking IPOs. Which I think is very dangerous. I don't see that venture capitalists should every hold an IPO. That is ridiculous, they will simply be more predatory to maintain their stock prices.

When I look across the spectrum of Bain Capital's (Let's just call them BC for the sake of appropriate designation. Their practices need to be ancient and be made ancient forever. Pre-historic actually.) operations it was very predatory. BC didn't at all expect to keep the businesses they bought controlling interest in, they intended to dismantle the businesses with leveraged advantages, sell off the assets (otherwise known as capital INVESTMENTS, which is why they are allowed depreciation over time), declare bankruptcy, close out pension funds and sell real estate and/or hold the real estate as assets. 

I ask myself, what company would best be suitable for AN OPERATION such as BC?

Well, BC didn't like risk. BC liked guarantees. It was set up for wealthy men to become more wealthy; to literally hoard all the wealth they could without being someone like George Soros or Warren Buffet.

Money is power. These men like power and they like money to provide it to them. This is not about luxury, this is about power and Romney is at his pinnacle right now.

BC sought out well established and profitable companies where employees work hard, had contributed to the quality of their products and the longevity of their companies. BC wanted well established companies with lots and lots of assets including pension funds. 

BC wanted to buy out a long lived company, call it antiquated, past its prime where it could reap profits, have a healthy stock, until BC was ready for anything different. 

See, I think most of the companies BC preyed upon would still be in business today if BC hadn't 'run game' on them. It is criminal as far as I am concerned. It has no morality. It is a cowards way of making money and it is definitely predatory on the American economy.

There have been 50,000 manufacturing companies in the USA closed since Bush/Cheney took office and BC was one of those involved in providing 'service to China.' 

Now, all of a sudden, President Obama is supposed to return economic vitality to the USA with good paying jobs, health care benefits and RESPONSIBLE, sustainable employment without compromising American Values, quality of life to families and protection of our environment overnight after all the monies obtained by BC and its peer group have left the country.

Right. It is amazing the USA still has an economy and if it were not for the power within the municipalities such as Muskegon, Michigan to 'find a way' there wouldn't be an economy in the ONLY Free World country on the planet to provide a global economy stability.

BC (Bain Capital) and its peer group are a national security problem and their Republicans are as well. The BC Republicans continue to provide all the advantages to Wall Street without caring what happens to the economic infrastructure of the USA which is the Middle Class and personal mobility through opportunity to educate and work. 

The American Voter that is falling for the Romney Dialogue has a problem. They are the same unwitting people of places like Bainport that don't see the train heading for them until it is too late.

There is no light at the end of this tunnel.

"Outsourcing, Romney Built It."

The world is watching the tragedy of Bainport. They are witnessing first hand the damage Wall Street Venture Capitalists cause while dismissing morality and loyalty to a country one wants to be president. Is that not amazing?

...Bain is packing up the machines (click here) and moving them to the communist country, whose foreign policy is, I believe, centered around stripping the United States of its manufacturing base so the 21st will be the Chinese Century.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney ran Bain Capital until about a decade ago....

Never once, while Romney was harvesting USA Greenbacks for his own use, did he pause to ask what employees and the USA economy would do without the manufacturing that had sustained it for so long. 

Never once. His statements were, "Worrying about those people is not my job."

We now know why the Romney's won't release their tax returns. They have a lot to hide.

We turn now (click here) (The report starts at 30:50 minutes) to a major new exposé on the cover of The Nation magazine called "Mitt Romney’s Bailout Bonanza: How He Made Millions from the Rescue of Detroit." Investigative reporter Greg Palast reveals how Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney made some $15 million on the auto bailout and that three of Romney’s top donors made more than $4 billion for their hedge funds from the bailout. Palast’s report is part of a film-in-progress called "Romney’s Bailout Bonanza." Palast is the author of several books, including recently released New York Times bestseller, "Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps.

North Carolina

Plenty of parking. I told all the electioneering people outside I had already made up my mind and didn't need their fliers. One man asked me if I was having a good day. I stated, "How can you have a good day in North Carolina when physicians and hospitals aren't held responsible for my safety in the emergency room. One has to survive the emergency room to get into the hospital, don't you think that is enough to ruin anyone's day?" He didn't answer me.

There were plenty of four page sample ballots in large type, black ink on yellow sheets, at the door. Taking one was optional.

12 minutes to wait in line to verify my name and address, no ID required. I was in the computer.

13 minutes to wait in line to ballot. There were 12 machines, the back wall was empty and there was plenty help that could have accommodated at least six more machines. Computer balloting. The people assisting and supervising were very helpful and made clear I understood voting for President was separate from voting for a particular party line. She stated depending on my district there may be referendum issues at the end of the general election ballot. There was no coercion of any kind, no directing of my attention except to the way I cast my ballot on the computer. They were available for questions should I not do well with the computer.

5 minutes to ballot. The computer worked as it should, it allowed me a review at the end of my balloting. And then I cast my vote and it stated I had cast my vote.

There was every nationality in line. There were minority voters, Hispanic and African American; young and old. There were many older adults and elderly. The curb side voting was not in play. There were skin heads (White Supremaists) in line and one brought his elderly mother who sat in a chair until he reached the verification desk and balloting desk. She placed her vote alone with no assistance Everyone was very pleasant.

I received my sticker and went home.

Who was my Presidential pick? 

The White Guy. The one running for Vice President along with the Black Guy.

The VW of space flight. Right now Virgin Galactica is cringing.

There are many practical applications for this. I think of it this way, there a lot of space junk to be harvested every day.

These capsules can replace long airline trips without the  dumping of carbon dioxide emissions into the troposphere.

This method of reaching the upper 'spheres' of Earth before deep space and burning up on entry is by far the least expensive and most user friendly of all means of transportation in this venue.

It is a an incredible undertaking and Mr. Baumgartner was more than confident of his outcomes. He had no worries. This is nothing but pure Earth Physics. It cost NO ENERGY to do this. And the capsule can return to Earth with more perfection of this methodology. Someone should be holding patents on this and its future, it definitely has one. AND, the future needs to be nurtured for its benevolence, so the patent holders need to protect the outcome of this methodology of this technology.

This methodology can also be used as a rendezvous 'partner' to space flight, to delivering supplies to the ISS and send up teams to harvest space junk and sent it back to Earth. This can be used to service satellites. It is also technology that has national security implications. Once this vehicle is attached to GPS and a mechanism to maneuver in space the applications are endless.

Mr. Baumgartner has gone from daredevil to pioneer with this application of Earth's physics. I congratulate him, but, he needs to give credit where credit it due if this wasn't his original idea.

October 19, 2012, Friday

Austrian daredevil (click here) Felix Baumgartner's record-shattering jump from the stratosphere has been indeed inspired by Bulgarian Ivan Trifonov, it has been revealed.

Trifonov, a 67-year-old Bulgarian man living in Vienna, recently stated that Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner "stole his project" for a record-shattering jump from the stratosphere.

The Bulgarian said that he met with Baumgartner in Salzburg back in 2005, sharing all details of his project with the Austrian. Baumgartner allegedly told him he would call him back, but never did.

"I let him have the idea on the condition that he had to include me in his team," Trifonov stated, as cited by Vienna Times.

In an interview for Pure Skydive back in 2010, Baumgartner said that he first considered the project when Trifonov contacted him back in 2004:...

They did a great thing tonight and brought 'spirit' to the campaign.

Seventeen years. Wow. According to 'The Boss' in the tie, the drop in unemployment under President Obama to 7.8 percent has been the largest drop in seventeen years. Shazam.

Oh, yeah, no 'white tie' dinner for the former Prez.

Romney was over the top. He was inappropriate.

by Josh Feldman | 10:51 pm, October 18th, 2012
The media has a habit of over analyzing (click here) everything that happens over the course of a political campaign, much in the same way your grade school English teacher over analyzed every single book you read in class. Sometimes a red wall is just a red wall, and sometimes a joke is just a joke. Well, not for the folks over at MSNBC. Lawrence O’Donnell, Krystal Ball, and Jonathan Capehart did just that when they analyzed the comedic speeches delivered tonight by President Obama and Mitt Romney....

What validated my point of view is when Johnathan Capehart stated he was uncomfortable and tweeted same and watched his Twitter feed light up. 

It was bad.

I found the President to be far more light-hearted in his performance which is what is appropriate for the audience. Self-deprecating statements is the humor everyone was looking for. Humble. Approachable. Not back stabbing.

The real question about "The Last Word" host is whether or not Taggart Romney will take him up on his challenge to punch the one man that actually was calling Tagg's father a liar.

President Obama dined with white, religious people this evening.

Mitt Romney should have felt very comfortable.

There are 23.9 percent Catholics in the USA.

• By Catholic Online
• 4/15/2011
• Catholic Online
• The Caucasian, (click here) or white population in such major U.S. cities such as San Diego and New York City figure prominently in the minority, according to the latest census figures. White people are now in the minority in 46 of the nation's 366 metro areas, including Washington, Las Vegas and Memphis, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution....

"Catholic Online" points to the fact Caucasians are a minority in USA cities. You would never know that tonight.

The Associated Press was reporting the attacks were masked by the film protests.

Published September 13, 2012 / Associated Press

BENGHAZI, Libya –  Heavily armed militants (click here) used a protest of an anti-Islam film as a cover and may have had help from inside Libyan security in their deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate, a senior Libyan official said Thursday.

As Libya announced the first four arrests, the clearest picture yet emerged of a two-pronged assault with militants screaming "God is great!" as they scaled the consulate's outer walls and descended on the compound's main building.

The rampage killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Eastern Libya's deputy interior minister, Wanis el-Sharef, said a mob first stormed the consulate Tuesday night and then, hours later, raided a safe house in the compound just as U.S. and Libyan security arrived to evacuate the staff. That suggested, el-Sharef said, that infiltrators within the security forces may have tipped off the militants to the safe house's location.

The attacks were suspected to have been timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strike in the United States, el-Sharef added, with the militants using the film protest by Libyan civilians to mask their action....

There was no misinformation except what was misstated in the press and by the Romney camp surrounding this attack. Secretary Clinton had it correct from the beginning. It was picked up and reported correctly by the AP. If the Romney Camp wants to exaggerate the press reports for their own purpose that is their strategy. They are trying to discredit the President and his administration for the election. That is Romney's methodology. He hasn't got a case against President Obama so he has to make things up.

The security company for this consulate would have been dispatched by the Regional Security Officers. It was probably a very routine assignment for them to hire private contractors for small contingencies. The one chosen was more than likely immediately available with qualifications to meet the requirements of State Department policy. I think the security personnel were qualified, they put their lives on the line, they died protecting the Ambassador, they miss judged the danger. It happens sometimes. There is no crimes or misdirection of policy by the State Department.

Ansar al-Shariah is a militia of Salafists formed during the Libyan Civil War.

The Benghazi Consulate was secured by a private contractor from Great Britain.

The Blue Mountain Group (click here) are security professionals, many from Special Forces backgrounds, sharing and utilising experiences gained from working in the varied arenas that we supply to.

We consistently demonstrate a systematic understanding of our clients requirements and are proud of our ability to deliver cost effective and professional services aligned to many complex and diverse objectives....

...Security practices at the diplomatic compound, (click here) where Blue Mountain guards patrolled with flashlights and batons instead of guns, have come under U.S. government scrutiny in the wake of the September 11 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Federal contract data shows that the Benghazi security contract, worth up to $783,284, was listed as a 'miscellaneous' award, not as part of the large master State Department contract that covers protection for overseas embassies....

The Ansar al-Shariah militia is supposed to have grown out of the "February 17 Brigade," a group of Salafists proud of their work in Sirte. The Ansar al-Shariah militia was probably a spin off of the most extreme of the Salafist group.

Abu Khattala was virtually unknown to the intelligence community until this attack on the USA Consulate in Benghazi. He is the groups leader and admits to being at the compound during the attacks.

...But Mr. Abu Khattala’s exact role, (click here) or how much of the leadership he shared with others, is not yet clear. His leadership would not rule out participation or encouragement by militants connected to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an Algerian Islamic insurgency that adopted the name of Bin Laden’s group a few years ago to bolster its image, but has so far avoided attacks on Western interests.

Like the other leaders of the brigade or fighters seen in the attack, Mr. Abu Khattala remains at large and has not yet been questioned.

The authorities in Tripoli do not yet command an effective army or police force, and members of the recently elected Parliament have acknowledged with frustration that their government’s limited power has shackled their ability to pursue the attackers....

But, that limited power was known to the USA and that is why they hired a British private contractor to secure their people.

...“Ansar al-Shariah is not only a shadowy group, it’s also quite factionalized,” the official said. “There isn’t necessarily one overall military commander of the group.”...

Exactly. They are very loosely organized. I would seek out their Holy Man for information to their identity and their purpose. They could be connected to the religious group of Salafists destroying other holy sites in Libya. 

The entire Libyan Revolution was loosely organized. They were successful though once the killing of the citizens stopped in Benghazi. To understand these men might be the same type of fear witnessed in post invasion Iraq. Extremists with the idea having infidels in their land would give power back to people who were known to kill them. The Libyan Rebels were very much supported by others in the region with the same type of views. They almost didn't want foreign soldiers in their presence. They sacrificed their lives to achieve victory in their Holy War, I doubt they would allow any detail to purity remain among them after their victory.

...Mr. Abu Khattala fought Colonel Qaddafi along with the rest of the Libyan opposition and the current leaders of the big militias in eastern Libya. But as those groups lined up behind the transitional government and the democratic process, Mr. Abu Khattala and a small core of like-minded Islamists formed Ansar al-Shariah, which now includes 100 to 200 fighters. Its name means “supporters of Islamic law,” and it opposes electoral democracy as a substitute....

These were unknown people going about their lives until they were faced with Gaddafi's death machines in Benghazi. They were trained, they have no exposure to international dynamics, they would not understand the presence of an American Consulate if their lives depended on it. They probably never knew a television or radio in their lives.

The bottom line here is the private security company which was being well paid didn't have an adequate understanding of the brevity of their jobs, and if they did they didn't perform intelligence to understand the threats to the USA diplomats.

I still don't believe all the details are known. We have to wait for the State Department to finish their investigation. This attack was not al Qaeda. I apologize to the families, but, the men were killed by hapless people in fear of the difference that existed between them.

Romney expected to lose Massachusetts in historic numbers.

By Esmé E. Deprez on October 18, 2012

 

...Recent voter surveys show (click here) Romney trailing President Barack Obama in the state by 14 to 33 percentage points. The largest margin of defeat for any presidential candidate in his home state was Herbert Hoover, who lost Iowa by almost 18 points in 1932. Republican Romney also would be the first one-time governor to lose his home state since Adlai Stevenson in Illinois in 1956, and before that Al Smith of New York in 1928....

...“We’ve had enough bad actors in Washington,” said Steven Tolman, president of AFL-CIO’s Massachusetts chapter and a former state Senate colleague of Brown’s. The union endorsed Brown in his 2008 re-election bid to the state Senate and now supports Warren. “He says he stands with working people -- what has he stood with us on?”...

Tis a shame, Brown traded his union card for a Wall Street dividend.