I have speculated before that al-Assad was engaging in ethnic cleansing...

...and I am more convinced than ever. The diplomats aren't saying that, but, where Shi'ites are the minority in Syria and al-Assad a member of a minority ethnicity, it seems fairly obvious to me.

Most Syrians killed in massacre were shot at close range (clicki here)

Children, women, among those summarily executed at Houla, UN report says

The Associated Press 

Posted: May 29, 2012 5:48 AM ET 

Last Updated: May 29, 2012 12:09 PM ET

Most of the 108 victims of a chilling massacre in Syria last week were shot at close range, some of them women and children who were killed in their homes, the UN's human rights office said Tuesday.
The report offered grim new details of an event that could prove to be a turning point in Syria's 15 months of violence, but did not decisively say who carried out most of the killings. It did, however, cite survivors and witnesses who blamed the house-to-house killings on pro-government militias known as shabiha, who often operate as hired muscle for the regime....

These were assassinations. The soldier knew exactly who they were shooting. There is only one reason why children are assassinated and that is to stop the growth of their ethnic base. Al-Assad is destroying the very genetic future of the Syrian people.


Ten thousand dead is not one hundred thousand or the numbers of dead history has witnessed in genocidal killing, but, with this evidence the global community has to take this seriously and bring a resolve to Syria's struggle. This only speaks to the dead, but, there is also a growing humanitarian crisis in neighboring countries.


Democratic governments should never speculate regarding any military movement to another country (ie: Iraq), but, I sincerely believe the evidence has become overwhelmingly obvious to the outcomes of the al-Assad government. It is a minority government seeking to end any opposition to its methods of control in the country. If eliminating children is a resolve by the al-Assad government, the purpose of minority control is more than obvious.

Syrian diplomats around the world expelled (click here)

AP | May 29,2012 | 16:48

PARIS — Governments around the world expelled ambassadors and top Syrian diplomats Tuesday in an unusually coordinated blow to Syria's leaders, after a particularly gruesome massacre in which the UN says families, including children, were shot at close range in their homes.

Cranking up the pressure on increasingly isolated Syrian President Bashar Assad, France, Germany, Italy and Spain said they were kicking out Syria's ambassadors in their countries. Canada said it is expelling all Syrian diplomats, and Britain and Australia expelled senior Syrian diplomats.

The move came after killings Friday in Houla, a collection of farming villages in Syria's Homs province, one of the deadliest single events in the 15-month-old uprising against Assad's rule. The UN said 49 children and 34 women were among the 108 people killed....

Rex Nutting is correct when the Bush Fiscal Year is examined.

Nutting could not be more correct. President Obama inherited a disaster and when examined for whom it sincerely belongs, the spending is directly a result of the decisions and policies of the previous administration. The figure is from November 5, 2010.

Obama spending binge never happened (click here)

Rex Nutting

Commentary: Government outlays rising at slowest pace since 1950s

May 22, 2012|Rex Nutting, MarketWatch

...But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.

Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has....

The spending under President Obama has been carefully crafted to elevate the income for the Middle Class and grow the economy and it has worked. His spending has also filled in a larger than expected job loss during the 2009 collapse. No one knew the extent of the economic collapse until all the figures were in much later. So, while, at the time of the American Reinvestment and RECOVERY Act it was believed to reduce the then double digit unemployment rate to less than 8 percent; the knowledge of a much bigger impact was unknown. When realizing the unemployment rate is slightly more than 8% today, it can easily be said the Recovery Act attributed to Bush's fiscal year, achieved it goal.


The total spending under Bush's Fiscal year which would cover the collapse of 2008, was $200 billion of a bill the Right Wing Media likes to say would have been a pocket veto. It wasn't. The bill was on the President's desk when President Obama took the election from Mr. McCain. The bill was not vetoed and to say the bill was to be a pocket veto is a lie. If Bush wanted the bill vetoed, he knew he was leaving office and he should have vetoed it. The fact of the matter was, Bush didn't' know what to do with that bill. The economy was headed into oblivion and he didn't know if signing the bill would hurt or help. President Obama saw a benefit to the bill LEFT UNATTENDED by Bush and he signed it.


The other half of the $700 billion bailout (TARP) was accepted by Bush for the next President in case his bank cronies weren't finished with their bailout. Just that simple. Those monies were accessed while Bush was in office so to assign that to President Obama is an out right lie.


Then there was the Recovery Act. I defy anyone in the GOP to state it was never needed. Go ahead. Where is the recovery without the Recovery Act? It would have never happened and its impetus is directly that of the Bush Years. 


So, Mr. Nutting is correct and I congratulate him for coming to terms with the deception of the GOP. I appreciate it. I think the Democrats have called it "Pay-Go" for longer than President Obama was in office. As a matter of fact, "Pay-Go" was in effect during the Obama Senate years. "Pay-Go" was never theory, it was applied to the legislature of the Democrat's legislation. The spending occurs under Republicans and their feckless economies.

The hatred of President Obama never took a holiday. All politics,all the time.

And of all people John McCain called President Obama feckless.


Really?

I tell you who was feckless and it was Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld when they decided to propagandize WMD in the face of evidence otherwise and entered an unnecessary war in Iraq. That was feckless.


Then President Obama was criticized by some pathetic member of the US Congress for his exit strategy from Afghanistan.


What?


At least President has a strategy he attends to over and over again, while, Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld had NO exit anything! It wasn't until the White House received heat from the people of the USA through their Congress, primarily from the Iraq Study Group, did Bush FINALLY come up with a strategy which was coined "The Surge."


It wasn't up to that point there was a strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan was already abandoned while paying large amounts of funds to Pakistan for air space; that Bush had to come up with an exit strategy. When he was pressed for an exit strategy he finally came up with one. Don't tell me whom is feckless and I was absolutely astounded John McCain consented to be the mouthpiece for the GOP. 


Amazing what political hacks will do for millions in their war chest. The only strategy going into Iraq laid with Cheney's Halliburton. Other than that there was no strategy for anything!

BY LESLEY CLARK AND JONATHAN S. LANDAY

McClatchy Newspapers

KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Barack Obama told Americans (click here) on Tuesday that after a decade of post-9-11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, "we can see the light of a new day" -- hours after signing an agreement that extended the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan.

Speaking early today local time from Bagram Air Base -- a year after U.S. Navy SEALs killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden -- Obama said the U.S. is prepared to shift into a limited support role in the region after combat troops leave in 2014 and begin to "emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home."

"This time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end," Obama said....

I don't need to be told by any GOP mouthpiece whom is feckless, that has been established for nearly a decade now.


Documented Civilian Deaths in Iraq (click here)

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/05/01/3927927/obama-outlines-us-exit-strategy.html#storylink=cp

y

106,760 - 116,633


Deaths that encompass women, child, the disabled and the elderly. No tell me who is feckless, I already know who is feckless.