The problem with Syria's Civil War is Hezbollah. Israel knows that. The UN has to allow that reality to be told.

5 days ago
AFP

..."The Syrian government (click here) continues to put its energy into excuses, instead of actions," the US representative in the OPCW, Robert Mikulak, charged on Friday.
The watchdog's executive council is to meet again early next month in a bid to agree a response to the slippage in the timetable.
Damascus signed on to the deal to avert the threat of US military strikes following deadly chemical attacks outside Damascus last August that the West blamed on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The plan calls for the chemicals to be taken from Syria's main port Latakia under Western escort to a US vessel which will break them down using hydrolysis, a process expected to take 90 days.

Putin and McCain have a great deal in common. Putin has no legitimate government in the Crimea and McCain has none in Syria; yet they keep pretending they have a right to the claims they make.

By Donna Abu-Nasr
March 03, 2014

Syria criticized (click here) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, accusing him of taking sides in the country’s three-year civil war.

The Foreign Ministry statement came after Ban today appeared to pin more of the blame for failed peace talks that began in January on the delegation of President Bashar al-Assad. The two parties, “particularly” government representatives, “have not been constructively engaging in the dialogue,” Ban said in Geneva.
The ministry, in remarks reported by the state news agency SANA, said Ban’s comments were “regrettable,” adding he should’ve addressed the roots of the Syrian conflict by pushing for the implementation of UN resolutions on eradicating terrorism.... 

Meet the Syrian National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces. I am sure they are all very nice people,the only problem is they can't seem to get the rebels to follow them. I am sure McCain was happy to meet the men with guns that oppose Bashar al-Assad, but, they have no cohesive leadership and it is increasingly impossible to bring about a shared government if they can't guarantee the civil war will stop once the government is in place. That is a problem. 

McCain's idea is to continue to lie to the American people about the strength and determination of the Syrian Opposition and send guns to people that will most probably sell them to free lancing rebels.

If the Syrian Opposition Coalition is in control of the rebels, they need to initiate a cease fire and prove their leadership.

The truth of the matter is, Assad's Syria is a failed state and there is no replacement for him and no cohesive answer. Russia is just as delusional as McCain in rearming Assad. Russia is backing genocide.

According to Coalition (click here) bylaws, a political committee is elected upon the election of new president of the Coalition. The Political Committee is comprised of 19 individuals which include: the president, vice presidents, secretary-general; the remaining members are members that receive majority votes in a secret-ballot election conducted by the General Authority....

Senator McCain, there is no there there. 

By DIAA HADID 
Associated Press 
 Feb 17, 2014 4:24 AM CST in Politics 

BEIRUT (AP) — The coalition of Syrian opposition groups (click here) in exile announced they appointed a new army chief on Monday, following a year of seeing their influence fade in Syria.

The Western-backed Syrian National Coalition said was appointing Brigadier Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir to head the Free Syrian Army. It cited specifically an embarrassing raid on their weapons warehouse by rival rebels last year as a reason for the change.

Brig. al-Bashir replaces Gen. Salim Idris, seen as a secular-leaning moderate.
In a statement, the coalition said they hoped al-Bashir would strengthen the role of the FSA, "one of the most important tools of the Syrian revolution in facing a regime of death, terrorism and destruction."

The switch comes after a series of so-far failed talks in Switzerland between officials loyal to President Bashar Assad and exiled opposition activists to try to resolve the three-year war....

"...erupting into sectarian violence...the Free Syrian Army need weapons and heavy weapons to counter tanks and aircraft. They need a no fly zone...and on and on and on..." And, of course there is going to be the end of the world along with the failure of the Free Syrian Army.

This is fear mongering without any sincere outcomes that actually matter. Senator McCain's idea of arming rebels with sophisticated concepts of war will only cause more death. The USA Neocon's war program has not changed a thing in Iraq or Afghanistan. The USA could go on for generations in educating nationals to be soldiers and all that would result is a larger national deficit. It is unfortunate the GOP has hung it's hat on war, because they aren't good at it. 

USA aggression has solved nothing. It has achieved enormous deaths of innocent people. The problem is the people's leadership.

...Commenting on Nasrallah's speech, (click here) a source close to Hezbollah told Al-Monitor that the Palestinian cause is no longer a priority for the Arab people and their governments in light of the chaos caused by the repercussions of the so-called Arab Spring. According to him, the region's people and regimes are concerned with power and the security, political and economic implications of the changes that have and are taking place....

Okay, so they are worried about their security and economies. Then why the bombings at all?

On 25 May 2013, Nasrallah announced that Hezbollah is fighting in the Syrian Civil War against Islamic extremists and "pledged that his group will not allow Syrian militants to control areas that border Lebanon"

Hezbollah is the defacto military of Assad. Always has been. So, this is the power vacuum that continues to exist in the Middle East. Exampled by Nasrallah if they can't control the world then no one else will either. 

Arming a diffuse number of rebel groups is not going to work. Hezbollah is killing people to prevent any organization of rebel forces. There goes McCain's war and it's success. Won't happen and the arms sent to the region will end up in the wrong hands and cause more deaths than it will prevent.

Establishing a No Fly Zone might speed the chemical weapons along. That might be. But, in order to end the Syrian Civil War the rhetoric needs to stop because it provides Nasrullah a reason to send Hezbollah to Lebanon's border and beyond to kill people. 

If the wars of American Neocons will result in more deaths without end, there is absolutely no reason to even discuss it. 

Senator McCain forgets that the reason "The Surge" so called worked is because it killed more people. The Surge resulted because former President Bush had no strategy and his war in Iraq had failed to bring about a result to justify the presence of the USA military. The Surge was a desperate political maneuver and when carried out killed many. The USA should not be in the business of killing, the world manages well without us.
 

John McCain is feckless. He has absolutely no potential for any leadership in Syira, yet the rheotic goes on..

The mission of AIPAC (click here) is to strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of Israel and the United States.

I was sort of with McCain until he got on his high horse and started to attack President Obama. This was at AIPAC. POLITICAL MONEY. He even makes a reference to Las Vegas. Remember Las Vegas? No?

Certainly everyone remembers Sheldon Adelson.

By Patrick Temple-West
...Forbes estimates Adelson's fortune to be $20.5 billion. (click here)
In September, Adelson told Politico he planned to spend up to $100 million, or "whatever it takes," to defeat Obama.
Adelson may have given another $20 million to $30 million to fundraising groups that do not need to report their contributors, according to Politico....
 

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., (click here) blamed President Obama's "feckless" foreign policy for inviting the crisis in Ukraine on Monday, telling a pro-Israel group that the president has repeatedly failed to demonstrate American strength in the face of adversaries....

The USA's version of facts are lies. The USA backs a murderer.

One more time. There were Russian Peacekeepers at the border when Georgia launched an attack on South Ossetia and Abkazia. The information is on this blog.

Ever since that time in 2008, The West has ignored the facts. The West has created their own political propaganda that attempts to make saintlike that of the President of Georgia. 

The bitter fruit of the Georgian invasion. An Ossetian woman grieves for her husband, a volunteer who fought the Georgian invaders and gave his life for his country. Let there be no more tears.

By Lira Tskhovrebova 
October 8, 2008 

...But I think the results of an honest investigation (click here) would reveal a very different "truth" than what President Saakashvili claims.

I know this because I was in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, on Aug. 7 when Georgian troops marched into the city and killed my friends and neighbors. I huddled with my family in terror for three nights while Saakashvili's tanks and rockets destroyed hundreds of our homes, desecrated cemeteries, gutted schools and hospitals.

I also have good reason not to trust what Saakashvili says. For three days before the attack I had been getting calls from many Georgian friends warning me to get out. They said Saakashvili was planning an attack. Most of the Georgians living in South Ossetia left because they knew what was coming.... 

Russia did not kill these people. Saakashvili did.

The Western press really ought to give up any broadcast in technicolor, because they are only capable of discussing Russia in black and white.

South Ossetia is not Abkhazia. Abkhazia is not the Ukraine and while Russia's intervention in South Ossetia and Abkhazia was justified to end the killing, their actions in the Ukraine are not. 

Western media simply loves to put 'the evil' in THEIR world into a caricature that can be pulled up as easy as Big Bird.




 

Page 144

In 1994, (click here) Ukraine held presidential elections. Kravchuk, who could not run on a positive economic record or as a committed democrat, was forced to run as a nationalist. In the run-off election he faced Leonid Kuchma, a former director of a Soviet missile factory who served as prime minister from 1992 to 1993. Kuchma, who spoke poor Ukrainian, appealed to voters in eastern and southern regions and eschewed much of the Ukrainianization program. He was vilified by some as a person who would surrender Ukrainian sovereignty to Russia. Kuchma, however, ultimately prevailed, and it fell to him to complete many aspects of the state-building project. In 1996, Kuchma pushed through both a new constitution and a new, permanent currency, the hryvnia.Kuchma concluded a deal whereby Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, and he also divided up the Black Sea Fleet and concluded a Treaty of Friendship with Russia. By the mid-1990s, Kuchma had established his bonafides as a state-builder, and he was viewed positively by many in the more nationalistoriented western parts of the country. Like Kravchuk, however, one could doubt both his commitment to democracy and to economic reform.

It has not been simple for the people of the Ukraine to move away from the ways of the Soviets.

By Soviets i mean, there is the clinging to a mindset about government that still exists in the world as if a religion.

This is the former, but first freely elected President of the Ukraine who had Viktor Yushchenko as Prime Minister. He was ruthless and cared little about the people, except, to pretend the nation was now free and no longer an authoritarian government. The very interesting thing about it is the people actually clung to the idea they were free. The two parties that exist in the Ukraine proves the divide between what the people believe and the power that still contains those beliefs.

Kuchma is interesting for understanding the Crimea. This is not the first time the Crimea has sought the same demands to rejoin Russia. But. One has to realize where the Crimea is geographically and why Russian influence has lasted there so long.

Kuchma faced the same exact paradox with the Crimea as the current Ukraine government does today. They wanted to be a part of the Russian borders and communism and not at all a part of the free world. Kuchma stopped the uprising. In the early days of the Ukraine's independence it decided that the Crimea was not up for grabs. It was a part of their sovereign nation, so this is a bit of deja vu for the people of that nation. It is why the strong reaction occurred after Yushchenko abandoned the country.

The idea the Ukraine can actually allow their country to be divided into pieces to be picked over as a Thanksgiving turkey for ingestion by The West and Russia is absurd. The Ukraine possesses a threat both to Europe and to Russia. All one has to realize is the enormous nuclear assets the Ukraine had at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union to understand it's POSITION on the map of the world. The Soviet Union placed those nuclear assets at the one place on the global map to intimidate The West and actually attack Europe if necessary, including Turkey. The Soviet Union could have a nuclear non-proliferation treaty with the USA, but, Europe and Turkey would still be within reach and could easily pull the USA into a nuclear exchange anyway.

I might point to the fact, the Russian spy ship came to Cuba for some R&R supposedly. This is big thing for Russia. Putin and the communists are scared to their skivvies.

The problem today in the Ukraine oppressing the Crimean uprising is that it cooperated with both The West and Russia to disarm and reduce it's military footprint and for that it was no longer a threat. The treaty that is in play right now was actually part of that understanding. The treaty was the reason why The West felt secure and decided it need not be deeply involved in the Ukraine, especially with the global financial collapse it faced. That, however, did not stop the Ukrainian people to continue to strive for the country they believed they were entitled to.

Oh, I might add, no Soviet Style Leader could ever bring about a good economy for the people of the Ukraine, but, in example of the Yushchenko palatial estate to the leadership it didn't really matter. The leaders had feed off the people enough to be comfortable and the complaints of the people didn't matter.

So, here we are now, with a violated treaty, a Crimea pretending to have returned to 1995 or something like that and Russia being stupid with the Ukraine primarily disarmed and unable to defend itself and suppress an uprising the government has faced before.

The only reasonable reaction by The West is to continue to play a role in stabilizing the circumstances. The treaty was important. It helped world peace. The people of the Ukraine have to be able to defend their sovereign right to exist and The West now has a vested interest in it's stability. 

The real question is why won't Russia grow up? I don't know if we will ever have an answer to that, especially in my lifetime. 

One other thing about the treaty. It was crafted under former President Clinton, the man who handed Slobodan Milosevic to the world courts. One might want to reflect on that.

By Andrew Osborn, Moscow
4:33PM GMT 22 Mar 2011

Ukrainian prosecutors (click here) said they suspected that Mr Kuchma, now 72, was involved in the high-profile killing of Georgy Gongadze in 2000, a claim that Mr Kuchma has always strongly denied. 

"A criminal case has been opened in relation to Kuchma," Renat Kuzmin, the country's first deputy prosecutor general told reporters, adding that Mr Kuchma was banned from leaving the country until the investigation was over. 

"He is suspected of illegal actions and the murder of Gongadze." The murder of the 31-year-old journalist who specialised in uncovering corruption remains one of the most horrific crimes to have been committed in post-Soviet Ukraine. The young journalist was kidnapped on September 16 2000 after leaving a friend's flat in Kiev. Two months later, his headless and badly disfigured corpse was found in a forest 40 miles from the Ukrainian capital....

Give them an inch they will take a mile.

Russia has already broken with The West in violating the treaty.

This is far different than the problems with Georgia and South Osettia and Abkhazia. This is a direct threat to Europe and USA allies. 

Georgia attacked the people of those small regions and killed nearly 1000 people. In this instance, Europe was absolutely shocked by the government of Viktor Yanukovych when he unleashed violence against the people in protest of his administration. And now Russia has turned against a long established agreement to allow the Ukraine their own destiny. I think the way forward is obvious, the Ukraine needs reinforcement from NATO and is inviting the help. The rescue is not an insult to the treaty, it is an enforcement of it. 

At some point in time, Russia needs to realize treaties are not toys of convenience. Any military movement at this time puts the Paralympics in the direct path of danger. Russia is being very reckless. 

No one in the civilized world wants this, but, it would appear Russia is still not civilized. 

NATO condemns Russia's military escalation in Crimea and expresses concern about the decision by the Federation Council of Russia's Federal Assembly to use Russian armed forces on the territory of Ukraine. 

March 2, 2014, 10:32 p.m.
Ukraine — by Interfax-Ukraine

NATO condemns Russia's military escalation (click here) in Crimea and expresses concern about the decision by the Federation Council of Russia's Federal Assembly to use Russian armed forces on the territory of Ukraine, NATO said in a statement after a meeting of the North Atlantic Council and the NATO-Ukraine Commission in Brussels on Sunday.

"Military action against Ukraine by forces of the Russian Federation is a breach of international law. It contravenes the principles of the NATO-Russia Council and the Partnership for Peace. Russia must respect its obligations under the United Nations Charter and the spirit and principles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, on which peace and stability in Europe rest. We call on Russia to de-escalate tensions," the statement reads.

NATO also calls upon Russia to honor all its international commitments, including under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and a bilateral agreement on the principles of the Black Sea Fleet's stationing in Crimea, and to withdraw its forces to its bases, and to refrain from any interference elsewhere in Ukraine....

Find the arctic air mass.

March 3, 2014
1430.18z
UNISYS Enhnaced Infrared Satellite of USA (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)











Hint:
March 3, 2014
1515 gmt
Weather Channel Current Temperature Map









The current temperatures at the north pole are unseasonal.

March 3, 2014
0800 gmt
The Weather Channel Forecasted North Pole Temperatures 

North American can be found at the 6 o'clock through 9 o'clock position. Interesting isn't it? As soon as the air mass leaves land it becomes rather warm over the oceans. The Calendar Spring is March 21st. It is actually March 20th at 1657 UT or 9:57 PM EST with the arrival of the equinox when the sun passes over the equator.

  

China is not paying attention to their wild Pandas.

Jack Liu (left) and Jindong Zhang talk to a farmer in the Wolong Nature Reserve about the impact livestock can have on panda habitat.

Feb. 27, 2014

...China invests billions (click here) to protect giant panda habitat and preserve the 1,600 remaining endangered wildlife icons living there. For years, timber harvesting has been the panda’s biggest threat. Pandas have specific habitat needs – they eat only bamboo and stay in areas with gentle slopes that are far from humans. Conservation programs that limit timber harvesting have chalked up wins in preserving such habitat.

Vanessa Hull, a doctoral student in MSU’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS), has been living off and on for seven years in the Wolong Nature Reserve, most recently tracking pandas she’s equipped with GPS collars. She has been working to better understand how these elusive and isolated animals move about and use natural resources.... 

...“It didn’t take particular panda expertise to know that something was amiss when we’d come upon horse-affected bamboo patches. They were in the middle of nowhere and it looked like someone had been in there with a lawn mower,” Hull said.

Alarmed by the growing devastation, she learned that some of Wolong’s farmers, who traditionally hadn’t kept horses, had been talking to friends outside of the reserve who had been cashing in by raising them. A horse there, Hull said, is kind of a bank account. Horses were barred from designated grazing areas because they competed with cattle, so farmers would let them graze unattended in the forests. When funds were needed, they would track the animals down and sell them.

It was an idea whose popularity skyrocketed. In 1998, only 25 horses lived in Wolong. By 2008, 350 horses lived there in 20 to 30 herds....

Bamboo has a high nutrient content. It is considered a vegetable not a tree or shrub.

The main nutrients in bamboo shoots are protein, amino acid, fat, sugar and inorganic salt. They are rich in protein, containing between 1.49 and 4.04 grams (average 2.65g) per 100g of fresh bamboo shoots. The bamboo protein produces eight essential and two semi-essential amino acids. Although the fat content is comparatively low (0.26-0.94%), it is still higher than in many other vegetables, and the shoots contain rich essential fatty acids. The total sugar content, 2.5% on average, is lower than that in other vegetables. The water content is 90% or more.

One hundred grams of bamboo contains 90.86 gm of water, 2.65 gm of proteing, 0.49 gm of fat, 2.50 gm of sugar, 0.58 gm of crude fiber, 0.88 ash content and produces 10.45 Jewels of heat.

It is also used in oriental food for people. It could be considered a perfect food. It is nutritious enough the species, over time, has adapted it's existence.

Feminicide. Guns are the favorite method.

By Franz Wild and Chris Spillane Mar 3, 2014 8:27 AM ET
 
...“Just after 3, (click here) I woke up from a woman’s terrible screams,” Michelle Burger, a neighbor of Pistorius, told the court as the state’s first witness. “She screamed terribly and she yelled for help.” Burger said she heard a shot and then three more shots after a pause.... 

What Reeva did not know nor realize was her safety and very life meant beauty was not to be a career so much as a single obsession of her lover. 

Reeva Steenkamp ‏(click here) @reevasteenkamp 13 Feb 2013 @candymck @SandtonMini I'm there like a bear!!! Yayyyy!!!! X

Unfortunately, communists are not ready to allow their citizens to be happy.

By Lidia Kelly and Vladimir Abramov

MOSCOW Mon Mar 3, 2014 7:04am EST
 

(Reuters) - Russian stocks and bonds fell sharply (click here) and the central bank hiked interest rates and burned through $10 billion of its reserves on Monday to prop up the rouble as markets took fright at the escalating tensions with neighboring Ukraine.
Investors were ditching all Russian assets alike - the rouble, stocks and bonds. The Ukrainian hryvnia has firmed since curbs were imposed on deposit withdrawals last week, but, Ukraine's eurobonds fell sharply.
Russia's central bank unexpectedly raised its key lending rate - the one-week repurchasing agreement - to 7 percent from 5.5 percent, in an attempt to stem capital flight.
The central bank did not mention Ukraine in its statement, but said the decision to raise rates was aimed at preventing "risks to inflation and financial stability associated with the recently increased level of volatility in the financial markets".

It should have been more obvious to the global community there wasn't sincerely an increase in citizen respect in the communist countries, but, I have to blame the eight years of Cheney and Bush for the continued prison these countries live in.

To create an analogy, the Russian ballet is beautiful in the master's performance we all love, but, where is 'the soul' of jazz and modernism for the citizen's suffering of living in a box?

BEIJING 
Mon Mar 3, 2014 3:18am EST

(Reuters) - China and Russia's foreign ministers (click here) spoke about the crisis in Ukraine on Monday, and both countries agreed it was very important to "appropriately handle" the issue, China's Foreign Ministry said.

"Both sides believe that the appropriate handling of the Ukraine crisis is very important to maintaining regional peace and stability," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

There isn't the commitment to peace in the protectionism of the communists in the 21st century. I can't believe for as far as Russia has come it hasn't been able to break out of the chains of being The West's enemy and nuclear nemesis. China is bland and while it likes to mimic the successes of the USA as it's own it still doesn't have the footing to move into a world of peace.

I have to say, though, with China moving it's people into a service economy there is a strong willingness to improve the quality of life of it's citizens. I am not seeing that commitment by Russia, especially now.

I thought in a post 911 world the sincere hatred of death would take hold and the major powers of the world would abhor any insult to longevity of their citizens and realize the brief life we are all relegated by aging. See, the world of citizens have 'gone there.' I mean, let's face it, there were only three thousand people dead on September 11, 2001. Compare that to the all too frequent insult of genocide in Africa. The beauty of September 11, 2001 was the demands of response by the government of the American people. I am not talking about the exploitation of America's power when Bush/Cheney abused their power. I am thinking about the way the 'individual' was elevated to a reason to war.

For as brief in history as it was, the world came together. The major powers locked their will to end the reign of insane prehistoric groups of idiots that mastered the attack on a civilized society by using it's own infrastructure. There was the common wealth of understanding that became a global asset to end the threat of angry men that failed to rule the world through the coercion of fear. I simply find it incredible that history is going to demand that Bush/Cheney won their insane thirst for power over the resolve of a world demanding peace and the elevation of life over death.

Unfortunately, on this day we are looking at the remnants of the old communists with the status they seem to still contain. Putin is very wrong and I can only wonder how long it will take to bring back the communists of change whereby the lives of their citizens aren't on the chopping block of power.

The Ukraine cannot be sacrificed for the lack of attention by The West in recent years. I believe The West has an obligation to the people of The Ukraine to embrace their reality and move them to the quality of life they seek. 

Tomorrow we will find out how far Israel has come in pursing peace over oppressive politics.

It was a great evening for the industry, but, very apolitical.

By Joe Neumaier / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Sunday, March 2, 2014, 8:21 PM
Updated: Monday, March 3, 2014, 1:15 AM

The epic “12 years a Slave” (click here) won a hotly contested race for Best Picture, while one of its stars, newcomer Lupita Nyong’o, won Best Supporting Actress at Sunday’s 86th annual Academy Awards.
Nyong’o — born in Mexico, raised partly in Kenya and now a resident of Brooklyn — won a day after her 31st birthday.
“Every time I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid,” Nyong’O said between tears.... 

There weren't that many surprises. History as portrayed on film had a grand year. Slavery, government corruption, NASA and AIDS when the country wanted it to go away in the 1980s. It is interesting, isn't it? The past seems to be able to come to life now when history was not good to the integrity of the country.

The only film that had sincerely current content was Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine." It was a great film and Kate Blanchett more than deserved her Oscar. She was on a roller coaster ride in the film and was pivotal to the plot. 

Gravity is ground breaking in it's use of the science of filmmaking. The acting was incredible and deserved the nominations, but, it was definitely the directing that created the masterpiece. 

Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto did carry the picture and deserved their Oscars as well. They are very strong actors and have incredible reach to bring reality to life. They reached into an emotional treasure trove of skills and it showed. 

I love film, always have. I always enjoy the plot and where it catches my attention I watch it again to find the films strengths and then it is easy to find the reason the film was dazzling. The Oscars were correct, but, the choices were safe for the industry.

There were new young faces last night. The entertainment was absolutely spectacular. DeGeneres pulled the audience into the stage and brought lightness to the evening.

I am still waiting for a child to win an award in recent years. There have been much money made in child films in the past decade, yet the awards didn't follow the popularity. I thought Asa Butterfield should have received recognition for Hugo. It was an incredible picture, a statement about society and he was wonderful. He completely made the character sympathetic. Butterfield focused the other performers within response to his character's personality and plight. He was on screen a great deal of the time and never wavered in his portrayal of his character. The last time a child was recognized for the acting was Tatum O'Neill. Maybe next year.