Thank god there is no parallels.

March 26, 2015
By David A. Graham

First-term senator. (click here) Son of a foreign-born father. Electoral longshot. Harvard Law Review editor. Constitutional lawyer. Lauded orator.
 
Is that Ted Cruz? Or is it Barack Obama? It's both, of course. The similarities between the two men are somewhat superficial—you'd be hard-pressed to find many parallels deeper than what's listed here—but it's enough to have set off a debate among conservatives about whether Cruz is a "Republican Obama." And that debate offers a view of a different and more interesting debate in the same group, about whether President Obama has been a disastrous failure or a disastrous success....

Ted Cruz does not practice politics, he allows the Third World to dominate his portion of the electorate. I don't think it is funny either. We have witnessed the political deterioration of the political right wing in the USA and he is at the pinnacle of that status.

I would think Harvard at the very least would be railing against the political strategy of Texas Senator Ted Cruz. He is a parasite to the status of Americans in the USA. He is the most verbal member of the US Senate that has absolutely nothing to be proud of. He is not alone in that status, Mr. Gohmert in the US House runs with the same sad standards of their politics. The USA demands more from the leaders in Afghanistan then Boehner or McConnell demands of their members.

I would expect "The Atlantic" to end any stenographic willingness to these wayward legislators and hold them responsible in their editorial pages.

This is ridiculous. Cruz is not an extremist, he is exploitative to the political process in the USA. He has no valid reason to carry on the way he does. 

The American people pay huge amounts of money into the US Treasury and the budgets submitted by the right wing in the House and Senate is shameful. Joe the Plumber has more power within the USA government than the working poor and minorities could hope to have. The right wing has TESTIFIED to the oppression of the vote and the estrangement of the electorate to obtain and hold onto leadership in this democracy. The USA should have never fallen into the extremists that have obvious plans to cast the USA into war while casting the poor and minorities to their own means of begging for food. 

Any legislator at any level of government needs to be called out when they make that step into oppression and racism. The media is not doing that and it is not only irresponsible, but, to laugh it off is more hideous than politics. 

I am worried about my country and this very strange paradigm of politics is one of the reasons why. Either legislators are interested in solving the country's problems or they are simply taking up space and a paycheck that belongs to someone else. 

The USA has many problems and they are not being taken on to solve, they are being held in contention as a symbol to prove the USA government doesn't belong to the people so much as the rich and powerful. This is a complete abstraction to the founders of this democracy. 

The young woman murdered in the public square in Kabul has to be dealt with.

The new coalition government stated in their visit to the USA they were proud of the status of women in their government. Women enjoy a twenty percent status in the Afghan government. The new leaders have to bring law and order to the streets of Kabul. This is nothing more than men hanging on to antiquated traditions and power.

To begin with they killed a woman in public. That in itself is a crime. Then to realize they had no basis of any accusation is to realize the men involved don't believe women are human beings with human rights. These men need to be arrested and held for murder. 

March 25, 2015

Large numbers of people took to the streets in the Afghan capital Kabul (click here) for a second day on Tuesday, protesting against the brutal death of a woman who was falsely accused of burning the Quran and killed by an enraged mob.

Men and women painted their faces red and carried banners bearing pictures of 27-year-old Farkhunda’s bloody face while chanting, “Justice for Farkhunda” and “Death to the killers,” reports the Associated Press....

Bergdahl was in the military for the wrong reasons.

If I remember right, Bergdahl wanted to attain rank so he could create his own militia for religious reasons. He is lucky he isn't charged with treason. 

There is absolutely no political issue here. Bergdahl was a US soldier and he was held captive. We are stepping down from any battle position and POW exchange is the legal demand of the Geneva Accords. End of discussion. 

The USA command structure needs to review why this soldier was repeatedly allowed to remain in the ranks when there was a desertion pattern in his activities. The command structure is responsible for this mess.

But, as far as receiving POWs after war is standard operating procedure.

July 16, 2014
By Brian Ross and Luis Martinez

President Obama called it a "good day" when Bergdahl was freed, (click here) but critics, including some high-ranking Republicans, loudly denounced the deal, likening it to negotiating with terrorists. Also, lawmakers complained that Congress had not been consulted about the exchange, as they said the law requires. The White House defended the deal, saying that rescuing a prisoner of war was “absolutely the right thing to do” and that the deal had to be done secretly and urgently to be successful. 

After Bergdahl's dramatic return to the U.S., the Army launched an investigation into whether the soldier willfully left his post in Afghanistan before he was taken by the Taliban in 2009, as some Afghan war veterans alleged. 

The Army said today Bergdahl has been charged with two counts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: one count of “desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty” and one count of “misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place.” 

The second count is the more severe of the two, carrying a potential sentence of “confinement for life” should Bergdahl be convicted.... 

The other detainees in Gitmo have to be renamed as POWs. I can't help but believe if the USA took these detainees before the World Court their disposition would require life in prison or a death sentence. I think the World Court is where these detainees belong. They are too dangerous if returned to their native countries. The World Court understand that and consider testimony to the knowledge our intelligence already has about their activities.

There is no political issue here, it is the obligation of the President of the United States of America to secure the return of POWs. Ask McCain. Joe the Plumber has no vote in the matter. 

This is already policy and the USA is not going to turn it's back on POWs because the Boehner right wing needs a reason for living.

This is odd. They aren't releasing the information on the black box.

There are three Americans dead in this air incident, the USA should have representation with other national leadership. The ambassador or someone needs to be receiving this information if it is not forthcoming to the public.

March 25, 2015
By Kim Willsher

French air accident investigators (click here) said Wednesday they had extracted an audio file from the cockpit voice recorder of the Germanwings Airbus that crashed in the Alps with 150 people  aboard. U.S. officials confirmed that three Americans were among the dead.
A spokesman for the BEA, the French air accident investigations bureau, refused to give more details about the voice recorder, except to say it contains "sounds, voices, alarms."
The spokesman, Remy Jouty, said the recording was extracted with "some difficulty" and suggested there was no "mid-air explosion" and the Airbus A320 jet had not suffered a "classic depressurization situation."...

It was decompression, but, seems as though the cause is more obscure than expected.

We are seeking theories? The Associated Press has information the investigators need. They have contact with a passenger reporting noise he was hearing.

I would like NASA to submit the conditions of the air masses at the point of take off to the investigators.

Other air flight crews were alarmed about the mechanical integrity of the jet. They need to be interviewed. There is a culture problem at the very least and their understanding about their safety needs to be part of the investigation. 

No one is making accusations, but, there are DYNAMICS at play here that matters. The concerns of REASONABLE people are important, especially, the professionals including the pilot and entire crew.  

Ten minutes of helplessness by air traffic control.

...10:30:00 Germanwings flight 4U9525,(click here) call sign "Germanwings One Eight Golf", confirmed instructions from French air traffic control 

10:31:02 Flight 4U9525 leaves its assigned cruising altitude without approval and begins to descend. Radar observes an average descent rate of approximately 17.8 metres per second (3,500 feet per minute). Attempts by French air traffic control to contact the flight on the assigned radio frequency radio link are not answered 

10:35:08 Attempts to contact the flight on the international distress frequency are also unsuccessful 

10:36:00 French air traffic control declares an international normalized emergency according to international norms. French search and rescue services are informed. Flight 4U9525 passes through an altitude of around 7600m (25,000 feet). 

10:36:47 French air traffic control tries one last time to contact Flight 4U9525 German Wings on the international distress frequency. There is no response 

10:40:00 Flight 4U9525 disappears from radar. The last known altitude was about 1890m (6,200 feet)...

Ten minutes is a long time. If there were conscience pilots they could have responded and corrected the course of the airline. When is the seat belt sign taken off after the flight stabilizes at cruising altitude? I don't know if I ever paid that much attention to it. 

One minute after contact the jet leaves it's course without a word otherwise. It's a strange one.

24 March 2015

...Several Germanwings flights (click here) were cancelled on Tuesday after their crews refused to fly, as it emerged that the aircraft which crashed in the French Alps had been grounded for an hour for repairs the day before the accident. 

Pilots and cabin crew refused to fly over concerns the crash may have been linked to a repair to the nose-wheel landing doors on Monday, according to an unconfirmed report in Spiegel magazine....

He is a nice man. His diplomatic skills are considerable. It is understandable why he was elected.

He states the reality of the circumstances of our troops and their continuing draw down. He wants his country to autonomous. I appreciate his gratitude. I think he is genuine. I was surprised he visited a widow. That was decent of him. He states the readiness of his Afghan troops will be accelerated this year. 

Do these leaders understand what readiness is? If the leadership doesn't have an understanding of readiness they can't demand it from their generals. I hope both Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah Abdullah are meeting with the US military to understand what readiness is and how to demand it from military leaders. I hope they understand how important oversight by Presidential power translates into a military addressing the concerns of a sovereign country.  

I think there is a missing link there. The Iraqi leaders didn't have it either. Our military trainers didn't work with the civilian leadership, they worked with the military. Just a thought. There has to be that closed loop in the relationship between the people and their military as lead by their elected civilian leadership.

Is the Afghan and Iraqi civilian leadership receiving PDBs of their own? Do they have an intelligence service of some kind?

It seems to me the civilian leadership needs to understand when their ranks of soldiers are dividing along sectarian lines and how that threatens their national security. That is not happening, is it? The military has it's own gravity and they  are finding comfort zones that are traditional rather than functional. 

That is what is leading to corruption. The ranks are anchored in security so much as their religious and ethnic affiliations.

The infrastructure has to be reviewed by the Joint Chiefs to be sure it is functional. These soldiers live in their villages and their villages are ethnic with village elders that carry out tribunals of order for crime and punishment. I think those elder tribunals have to have an appreciation of the ability of their nonsectarian military to provide national security. I don't think the Joint Chiefs are taking this all the way to the lower levels of local government. I suppose that is the role of the Presidents. They is a power sharing government that is an excellent example of how cooperation has to come together for national security. 

The Parliament needs to be briefed as well. They are going to be approving war and peace they need to appreciate the difference and how to protect from violence and war. I think our military leadership has some homework to do. 

NEW YORK (March 30, 2011)—Researchers (click here) from the Wildlife Conservation Society have stumbled upon a geological colossus in a remote corner of Afghanistan: a natural stone arch spanning more than 200 feet across its base.
 
Located at the central highlands of Afghanistan, the recently discovered Hazarchishma Natural Bridge is more than 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet) above sea level, making it one of the highest large natural bridges in the world. It also ranks among the largest such structures known.   

“It’s one of the most spectacular discoveries ever made in this region,” said Joe Walston, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Asia Program. “The arch is emblematic of the natural marvels that still await discovery in Afghanistan.”...

The Wall Street Journal offered no proof. No proof about the Prime Minister of Israel.

I don't buy it. The Prime Minister has denied it and that is good enough for me. Even if it were true, what was Israel going to learn? What do Israelis think the USA is going to do? They think we would harm them? I think the entire episode is bizarre and it reflects the piss poor leadership in the US House.