"It is the boardest coalition of oganizations...economic coalition in support of that (immigration)...

Senator John McCain has some of the best town halls of any legislator. He is sincere and consistent in his dedication to those who have come to hear him speak and answer their questions. He comes with good information as a source of hope.

...The Congressional Budget Office said...this legislation would reduce the budget deficit by $850 billion dollars over the next 20 years...it would add $300 billion to the Social Security Trust Fund over the next ten years...Arizona's economic output would be increased by $616 million dollars and create 8016 jobs in 2014. This bill would increase the total personal income of Arizona families by $2.5 billion dollars in 2020....

No one bothered to put into context Former Secretary of State was speaking to the American Bar Assiciaiton; not a political rally.

I think women are excited about Hillary. I think they want it to happen. Can a woman candidate finally make the USA understand the future is about our young people and not about the past? Can she change the focus of this nation to bring about the future's promise that is the hope of our children? 

By Chris GentilvisoPosted: 08/15/2013 2:09 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/15/2013 6:26 pm EDT 
Add a former Republican president's daughter (click here) to the list of supporters for a Hillary Clinton presidential run.

In an upcoming interview with People Magazine, George W. Bush's daughter Barbara said she'd like to see the "unbelievably accomplished" Clinton enter the 2016 presidential race, CNN reported Thursday.

According to the Hill, Bush's interview with People will appear in the Aug. 26 issue. When asked if she would vote for Clinton, Bush wasn't as certain, saying that she didn't know "who'd she be running against."

Speculation surrounding a possible Clinton 2016 run has been abound this summer. During a Monday chat with BuzzFeed Brews, New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner was asked if he knew what his wife Huma Abedin's role would be in a Clinton campaign. Weiner replied "I do," but backtracked from the comment the following day, calling it "a joke."

Bush is not the only one who appears to be hopeful of a Clinton run. HuffPost Pollster's latest compilation of 14 available polls on the 2016 National Democratic Primary finds Clinton earning 61.3 percent support....

The future is not the past.

Our national dialogue about the future is lost. The politics that rule the day is about the past. It attempts to reach into the past to bring it forward. Has the country become so misguided about it's present the future is out of sight. 

An entire generation of Americans were left out of the nation's plans and there is every indication the powerfully frustrated intend to do the same for time unending. I find it really odd that a Cable Series is the only place the movement started by Occupy can receive justice.

...Note that the article (click here) called the protesters "noble" and "rightly frustrated" before describing the semi-nude woman who was part of the movement and the other assorted goofiness that was, in fact, impossible to miss at Occupy Wall Street. The article tried to take the subject seriously, but the participants made it difficult.
By the next day, leftist supporters of OWS like Allison Kilkenny in The Nation were attacking the New York Times coverage with the same broad "the media doesn't take us seriously!" point of view that Sorkin expresses in his art, saying:...

The media just wants the younger Americans to simply go away. Maybe they always have. Maybe that is why students on campus across the USA took to protests to stop a war. But, an entire generation of unemployed? What the heck? Why?

We aren't solving the nation's problems, we are playing exploitative politics. 

It's Sunday Night

"Future" by Paramore written by Hayley Williams and Taylor York (click here)

Im writin' the future, Im writin' it out loud
We don't talk about the past
We don't talk about the past, now
So Im writin' the future, I'm leavin' a key, here
Something won't always be missing
You won't always feel emptier

Just think of the future and think of your dreams
You'll get away from here, you'll get away eventually
So just think of the future, think of a new life
And don't get lost in the memories
Keep your eyes on a new prize

Oakland's uncontrollabe gun violence

We have plenty to worry about at home. Al Capone has returned.

August 17, 2013 7:12 PM
...Pastor Gregg Brown moved here nine years ago. Even he has been threatened at gunpoint, right outside his Lutheran church
"I was scared and I'm still scared," he said.
The man with the gun complained about the noisy power washer used to clean the church sidewalk. Brown was told to stop or he'll be shot. "That's how close the crime is," he said.
Eighty-one-year-old Joyce Nichelini has lived Maxwell Park for 42 years.
"I lock a gate now and I lock my door and I have alarms. I even put bars on my house," she said. Yet she acknowledged she doesn't feel safe.
Other residents hope that when the private security patrols begin in a couple of weeks, it will bring a sense of security to a neighborhood most love too much to leave.

The rise of populous Civil Liberties in the USA.

The Cato Institute Police Misconducts MAPS (plural) (click here).

Politically, candidates don't have to embrace Ron Paul or his offspring in order to understand the growth of Civil Liberties in the USA Post Bush/Cheney.

A very good exercise of Minority Speaker Pelosi and her Democrats would be to bring a real discussion regarding Civil Liberties in relation to the level of fear in the USA that actually brings in the discussion of police misconduct and the militarization of the police force.

The misguided truth underlying the gun culture in the USA is the idea 'the citizen' is at the heart of protecting our democracy. Where Rand Paul derives his strength, primarily in Purple states like North Carolina and blatant Red States is the fact police are dangerous through militarization and the huge decrease in Mental Health Beds in these states.

The danger is real. The misuse of Swat Teams, the increased dangers to the average citizen by mistakes by police and blatant lies to enhance their value to their police department, quotas and basically overreaching by domestic police ideology is driving justification of the gun culture in the USA. The flip side is that police die while in service. So, there is the chronic tug of war to the PRACTICE of policing in the USA that is becoming an increasing impingement of Civil Rights, including "No Knock Raids." A Congressional delegation of the Democrats to begin the investigation of this phenomena that has swept the nation is in order. This is not futile exercise.

National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 08-15-13 (click here)

August 16, 2013 @ 11:32 AM by Tim Lynch

Then there is the issue of Gun Laws that seek to include the idea that mental health is the problem. While widespread gun violence grips the USA with over 30,000 gun deaths per year there are varying reasons for that death rate. The excuses for inadequate gun laws in the USA including background checks frequently begins with 'citizens alone' are the one and FINAL source of defense of their USA Constitution. That is widely over rated and not in context to a reasonable outcome. The citizens in the USA even with highly militarized content in their weapons will not be able to defeat an actual military assault against them. It is a hubris that needs sincere dispelling.

There is not a family in this country facing the death, either actual or potential, of members that do not reflect on the issue of mental health and the lack of services. Families across the USA carry the burden of policing their own family members to save them from PTSD, suicide ideation, gang affiliation, drug addiction, alcoholism and other mental health problems WITHOUT the benefit of mental health beds and significant mental health outpatient treatment. That has to stop. Many of the deadly trends in the USA can be traced to the lack of a STRONG mental health standard in every state across this country.

The Affordable Care Act is coming of age today and we need to have strong support from Congress for an effective Mental Health Standard that enhances relief from these issues. This standard has to include the eroding of the number of mental health beds in our States. In that understanding is ending the practice of placing the insane in prison. Waiting until the insane actually carry out violent crime or crime itself is a failure of our government and governance.

There needs to be Congressional Hearings by both the Senate and House to bring an understanding of the research and information regarding this problem. There has to be a baseline of knowledge, including call for public comment and citizen and police witness statements, to create effective legislation to bring about a better national standard. 

The objections to gun laws needs to ends and it begins by dispelling the myths that support those objections.

Civil Liberties are important. It is the core of our understanding of freedom, but, there are limits to them. It is the idea there are no limits anymore to facilitate protections of  life and home that screams of the LACK of effective governing. Civil Libertarians in the year 2013 are basically anarchists. Wealthy anarchists. If they can afford to purchase the weapons in gun shops these days they are wealthy or their priorities of quality of life is so out of sync with reality is ridiculous. Civil Libertarians in the year 2013 are not interested in their country so much as they are anti-government and taxes. 

That is the point. The point is there are profound problems with gun violence in the USA and there are reasons for it. There are aspects of policing that are out of control and citizens rather defend their own lives and homes rather than calling the police. There is also criminality in our economy, including the idea that drug economies exist and have to be regarded as a deadly reality of our cities. That is nonsense. There is no one impoverished today that would rather have a good paying job with a living wage, dare we hope for disposable income. And there are problems with mental health CARE in the USA. Falling numbers of mental health beds is a mistake in the USA. 

The Democratic House has a mission and it is to harness the definition of Civil Rights and insure them while removing the level of fear of each other in the USA. The hideous racist content of our jails and prisons also reflects the reality of poverty in the USA. There is much to be done to remove the stigmas of hatred in the USA, the fear of each other and bring QUALITY OF LIFE to those in need of mental health. Now is the time. 

I think the Democrats will be pleasantly surprised at the facts regarding the gun violence in the USA. They will find out their policies based in supporting a strong Middle Class aligns very nicely with these problems.

I was at an annual family reunion. Had a great time. Just got back. Golf and family. Nothing like it. Nite now.

What? The USA media misrepresent the facts for tabloid journalism? Honestly, now.

...Snowden said (click here) that neither his father Lon Snowden, his father’s lawyer Bruce Fein, nor Fein's wife and spokeswoman Mattie Fein “represent me in any way.
 
“None of them have been or are involved in my current situation, and this will not change in the future,” Snowden said of his father and the Feins. “I ask journalists to understand that they do not possess any special knowledge regarding my situation or future plans, and not to exploit the tragic vacuum of my father's emotional compromise for the sake of tabloid news.”...

"Fly by Wire

By Verna Gates

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama | Sat Aug 17, 2013 7:56pm EDT

 
..."The autopilot (click here) was engaged until the last second of recorded data," said Robert Sumwalt, a senior official with the National Transportation Safety Board.
He said information retrieved by investigators from the flight data recorder aboard the United Parcel Service jet showed that its auto throttle also was engaged until moments before the fiery crash.
The Airbus A300 jet was approaching the runway at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth airport before dawn on Wednesday when it clipped the trees in an adjacent residential area and crashed into a steep embankment well short of the runway.
Sumwalt, who spoke at a media briefing near the crash site, had said on Friday that the pilots received a low altitude warning barely seven seconds before the sound of impact. He repeated that in his remarks on Saturday but did not say whether the alert had triggered any attempt by the crew members to disengage the autopilot as part of a last-ditch attempt to abort landing and re-gain altitude....

Christie should have known better. Giuliani was never a friend. He is however the puppet for the Right.

First Posted: 01/07/11 11:47 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:25 PM ET 

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday, (click here) former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani took aim at New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, for not cutting his Disney World vacation short when the Garden State was hit by a massive snowstorm during the holiday season.
"Chris should've come back," said Giuliani of the recent trip. "I mean, if he asked me my advice, I would've said 'They elected you governor, they've got an emergency, they expect you to be there.'"
He added, "You know, you've got to be there if you're a governor, a mayor, or even a president, if it's important enough."
Giuliani, who is reportedly making moves for a possible 2012 presidential run, is by no means the first to criticize Christie over his decision to remain in the Sunshine State....

One would expect it from Christie's detractors, but, when Giuliani punted for Jeb Bush, that was a different dynamic completely. People just don't pay attention.

Blood brothers. Yessa.

By Jordan Fabian - 12/30/10 01:56 PM ET

A liberal group (click here) is going after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) for vacationing in Disney World during a blizzard that paralyzed his state with snow. 
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) e-mailed its 19,000 New Jersey members Thursday urging them to start a viral Internet campaign against the nationally popular GOP governor.
"Partying with Mickey Mouse while serious incidents are happening back home isn't leadership. This is just the latest time that Christie has left the state at a critical moment — putting his own interests above New Jersey's," the PCCC co-founder Adam Green wrote. 
Christie's opponents are looking to keep the heat up on him even after his office pushed back against criticism over the timing of his family vacation.... 

Regardless of how regressive Jeb Bush is, the plan has always been him and Rubio in 2016. Get used to it. They want to take the Hispanic vote by storm. Jeb is married to a Hispanic, Columba Bush and she would be the first Latina as First Lady. That for the community would be enough or so they think. Then add the next in line for the power seat is a Hispanic would be the frosting on the cake. These are long laid plans, no one is going to derail them. The only question remaining is how does Governor Scott repeat the performance of 2000 without Jeb in the Governor's seat?

Christie never had a chance and now he'll be in the company of a Columbian with mob connections. I wish him a lot of luck, he should have remembered who his friends really are and it's ain't the Koch brothers. 

Last night, O'Reilly was off and that woman was hosting. They were running into the ground big time. 

Chris Christie is starting to smell bad. Very bad.

By David Weigel
Posted Friday, Aug. 16, 2013, at 2:13 PM

...I thought Christie's proud boast (click here) of how he'd broken the unions was more interesting. He described the New Jersey Education Association as the bully "standing there with their arms folded across their chest staring at you" when you're new in school, and declared that he'd beaten them. Which he had.

"We have the endorsement of 24 building-trade unions,” he said. “We have an opportunity as a political party to drive a wedge in the union movement, and the laboratory where that’s happening right now is in my state.”

One problem: How much of this is long-term and how much is benefiting only Christie? The governor decisively beat the unions in 2010 and 2011, but when the November 2011 elections came, his Republicans lost a seat in the Assembly and gained nothing in the Senate. In the last Quinnipiac poll, 20 percent of voters said they were more likely to back a legislative candidate if Christie did, and 17 percent said they were less likely—basically a wash. In the previous poll, by a 15-point margin, an electorate that planned to vote for Christie said it preferred a Democratic legislature....

No fund raiser unless the veto hammer fell, huh? This is Chris Christie? Waving the White Flag to money? This is the wrongist thing to do. Christie should have asked the people he serves to send donations to election. They would have. This only muddies the waters, both in the state and nationally.

 By Jeff Goldman/The Star-Ledger
 August 16, 2013 at 9:57 AM, updated August 16, 2013 at 12:33 PM

...The $3,800-per person cocktail reception (click here) on Aug. 28 will be co-hosted by Nick Loeb, the founder of Onion Crunch, and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.... 

Loeb, sprinkling his product on a New York hot dog, says Vergara has been fully supportive of his passion for Onion Crunch.

16 August 2013

 Sofia Vergara’s wedding to fiancé Nick Loeb will be very intimate.(click here)

Sofia was first married at the age of 18 to her childhood sweetheart Joe Gonzalez, father to her 21-year-old son Manolo.
She has spoken previously about her future family expansion plans with fiancé, Nick.
"I have to be careful what I eat because they’re freezing my eggs!" she told American Vogue magazine. "They want to get as many eggs as they can because usually you produce them but they’re not good. They have to be perfect, perfect, perfect ones.
"My boyfriend is 37, younger than me, never had kids."
Sofia will next be seen in action crime thriller Machete Kills, which is released in cinemas this fall.

I am sure all the greats will be there. He is sort of looking more and more like Romney, isn't he?

By HAILEY EBER 
Last Updated: 10:43 AM, March 5, 2013 
Posted: 12:05 AM, March 5, 2013
...So what is Vergara, (click here) who’s been romantically linked to Miami-nightlife impresario and mob rat Chris Paciello and had an alleged fling with Colombian drug trafficker Andres López López, doing with this “dorky” guy?
Whether he’s bringing samples with him on the red carpet or making the morning-show rounds, Loeb is unabashed about using his famous fiancée to promote his product: “I’m a hustler,” says the goofy-but-handsome, 6-foot-3 New York native.
He carries a plastic shaker of Onion Crunch in his jacket pocket at all times (handily, he notes that he and his fiancée are always together, splitting their time between Los Angeles, New York and Florida).
And he says he doesn’t care when the gossip columns portray their relationship as “the glamorous girl and the Onion Crunch King.”...

I thought he went state's witness about a drug cartel. No? Yeah, I think he did. I thought that is where he got a new life. Right? Witness protection and all that stuff. Maybe not. He was even responsible for a few murders. Fairly sure about that. I mean if this is the same guy. Name change and all that kind of stuff.

First Posted: 02/17/2012 11:44 am Updated: 04/18/2012 5:12 am
As first reported by Random Pixels,(click here)  Paciello (real name: Christian Ludwigsen) was arrested early Friday morning on suspicion of DUI after officers caught him driving recklessly in a dark-colored Jaguar in the 2100 block of Miami Beach Drive.
Miami Beach Police spokesman Juan Sanchez told HuffPost Miami that when officers first spotted Paciello behind the wheel around 4:30 a.m., they made a visual estimate he was traveling over 80 miles per hour.
"He was driving recklessly," Sanchez added. "When they did stop him, they noticed he had a strong odor of alcohol and watery eyes."
Paciello refused to take an on-scene Breathalyzer test and was booked into Miami-Dade's Pre-Trial Detention Center, where he is being held on a total of $2,000 bond on a DUI charge and a citation for refusing to submit to DUI testing....

The Republicans are playing Christie for a fool. Someone wants him out of the way for 2016.

Yeah, this is the guy.

...In New York, (click here) he had been Christian Ludwigsen, using his father's last name. In South Beach he was Chris Paciello, using his mother's maiden name....

Somebody is running game on Christie, someone is running game on Christie. Shame on the Gov.

Christie joins "Gangstaland."

Christie's political career is over. He might be elected for Governor again, but, he has just signed off on a future beyond this next election.

6/6/13
A Gallup poll (click here) posted on Wednesday found the brash East Coast Republican has a favorability rating of 52 percent among all Americans and an unfavorability rating of 20 percent....

He should not have given into the extremists. It will turn out to be the worst decisions he ever made. He violated the public trust this time. Darn shame.

Republicans never understand a northern electorate. They always get it wrong.

This reporting from NJ.com is from the Hunterdon Democrat. That newsprint has been around forever.

There is only one saving grace for him and that is to speak about specifics of what he disagree with in the bill. Even then, unless there are some real underlying problems with the bill, he won't be considered correct.

He called for the background check bill and now refuses to sign it? Like, what?

He should not have vetoed it without telling the people of New Jersey he was going to and why. This is just about as unforgivable as it comes.

By Matt Friedman/The Star-Ledger
on August 16, 2013 at 7:27 PM, updated August 16, 2013 at 8:32 PM

TRENTON — After months of pressure (click here) from both sides of the gun control debate, Gov. Chris Christie today refused to sign three controversial gun control measures sitting on his desk — including a version of a weapon ban that he had called for.
Christie altered two bills, sending them back to the Legislature — a massive measure (S2723) known as state Senate President Stephen Sweeney’s “centerpiece” to overhaul the way the state issues firearms ID cards, and legislation to require New Jersey law enforcement agencies to report information on lost, stolen and discarded guns to federal databases (A3797).
But the governor completely axed a bill that would ban the Barrett .50 caliber rifle(A3659), which is the most powerful weapon commonly available to civilians. Christie had called for a ban on future sales of the weapon in his own package of violent prevention measures outlined in April....

This dedication to the rebuilding post Sandy will not get him past this one. He'll implode from here. Maybe he wants to.

This is how ridiculous the "Mind Speak" of the Right Wing has become in regard to carbon pollution.

If Senator Inhofe doesn't know the President is exempt from The Hatch Act, then he doesn't belong in office. In fact, it is Senator Inhofe in violation of his oath of office to serve and protect the citizens of Oklahoma.

8/14/2013
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe (click here) is investigating “apparent coordination” between the Obama administration and Organizing for Action to push the president’s new climate plan.

Inhofe also outlined potential Hatch Act violations.

“There seems to be a coincidental coordination between the White House, the President’s campaign, and the liberal media that is weaving a false and potentially harmful narrative of alarmism,” said Inhofe. “Just as the OFA has called for light to be shed on members of Congress not in lockstep with the President’s agenda, I will work to shed light on the coincidence of coordination in the Obama Administration we continue to see unfold.”...

Senator Inhofe is at the very least committing yet another Ethical Violation for using the monies of the federal government to manipulate a political venue for his own benefit.

Hatch Act: Who is Covered? (click here)
Federal Employees
All civilian employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the President and the Vice President, are covered by the provisions of the Hatch Act. Employees of the U. S. Postal Service, are also covered by the Act. Part-time employees are covered by the Act. Federal and District of Columbia employees subject to the Hatch Act continue to be covered while on annual leave, sick leave, leave without pay, or furlough. However, employees who work on an occasional or irregular basis, or who are special government employees, as defined in title 18 U. S.C. § 202(a), are subject to the restrictions only when they are engaged in government business.

Federal employees fall within two categories under the Hatch Act, Further Restricted and Less Restricted.

Senator Inhofe is overreaching and attempting to imperil the powers of the Executive Branch to carry out it's duties under the laws and authorities of the USA.

This is the current map of the ocean water temperatures along the southern coast of the USA. The "N/A" means the temperature gauge is not working. Louisiana has one tempterature gauge and it just don't seem to be working. Odd, isn't it? I mean Louisiana is so vigilant about environmental disasters potentially happening.

The US EPA has to worry about gaseous emissions of all kinds including those causing this drastic change in climate with climbing ocean temperatures. If Senator Inhofe doesn't understand the science to successfully dispute findings of our own scientists, then he is wrongly placed in his committee assignment and serves not the American people, but, the petroleum industry in that capacity. I want an investigation into the ethical standards of the Inhofe office in his role on this committee. He cannot forever go on carrying out rhetorical lies as a USA Senator. He is using his position on the committee to carry out politics and not his responsibilities to the people.

I am sure the folks in Valdosta had nothing to do that day anyway. Nothing like adding spice to life.

Odd, I was quite sure Georgia's REGULATIONS far exceed that of the federal government.
 

Three Injured in Valdosta (GA) Chemical Explosion (click here) 
08/15/2013 
Three workers were injured in a chemical explosion that rocked an industrial complex yesterday in Valdosta, Georgia.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Valdosta firefighters remained at the scene of the chemical fire last night at 1612 James P. Rodgers Circle to monitor the scene until an investigation could begin today, according to a release from the Valdosta Fire Department.
The call came in at 2:22 p.m. and within minutes more than 40 firefighters and other first responders were on scene. The fire was under control by 4:30 p.m. with the assistance of the Lowndes County Fire Department and the Moody Air Force Base Fire Department. Also responding with aid were the Valdosta Police Department, Lowndes County Sheriff’s office, the Georgia State Patrol, and the FBI.
Because of the nature of the chemicals at the facility, the area was evacuated within a one-mile radius.

Ah, the benevolence of nuclear power plants. Oops.

Published: Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013 - 6:43 am

Last Modified: Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013 - 10:34 am

WATERFORD, Conn. -- The unit shut down (click here) by a malfunction at Connecticut's nuclear power plant is generating electricity again, a spokesman said Thursday.
Millstone Power Station and regulators said Unit 3 shut off automatically last Friday when an instrument failure caused a drop in the level of water used to cool the reactor core.
The 1,200-megawatt unit was reconnected to the regional power grid on Wednesday afternoon, spokesman Ken Holt said. He said it was at about 80 percent power on Thursday morning and expected to reach full power within about a day.
The problem was traced to a faulty power distribution panel, which has since been reconfigured, Holt said....

Pity Party for Oklahoma. Ahhhhh.....

I heard Inhofe paid off the judge. Something about a covert agenda.

By David Harper
Aug 15, 2013, at 6:36 PM  Updated on 8/15/13 at 9:46 PM

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma constitutional amendment (click here) that would bar the state’s courts from considering or using Sharia law was ruled unconstitutional Thursday by a federal judge in Oklahoma City.
In finding the law in violation of the United States Constitution’s Establishment Clause, U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the certification of the results of the state question that put the Sharia law ban into the state constitution.
“While the public has an interest in the will of the voters being carried out, the Court finds that the public has a more profound and long-term interest in upholding an individual’s constitutional rights,” the judge wrote....

There are many reasons why the USA would be ill served to pull financial support from Egypt.

The USA has allies in the region. It isn't just Israel. There are US bases that cannot be ignored in all this. So, while the Republicans want to grand stand over decisions they don't have control of in the House and Senate, there are many considerations in the Oval Office that cannot be disregarded.

 

It is easy for a dysfunctional Congress to politically scapegoat the President when the decisions are not simple.

 

So, while the decisions in the Oval Office, according to laws and terms and definitions, may seem clear to the the media and therefore easily scandalized there are military personnel and diplomatic corps and allies that have to be made safe.

 

Those inquiring about secret bases and other operations are met with everything from ignored questions to airport detentions (click here)

By Nick Turse

Mon Jul. 8, 2013 11:09 AM PDT

There are hundreds, possibly thousands of US personnel—the military refuses to say how many—stationed in the ochre-tinted country of Qatar. Out in the searing heat of the desert, they fly fighter jets or fix them. They equip and arm troops headed to war. Some work in a high-tech command-and-control center overseeing US air operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere in the Greater Middle East. Yet I found myself sitting in a hotel room in Doha, Qatar's capital, about 30 miles east of al-Udeid Air Base, the main US installation in the country, unable to see, let alone talk, to any of them....

Muslim Clerics need to call for peace in the Middle East, not escalation of violence.

Nasrallah should be ashamed of his role in escalating the level of hate and violence in the region.

16-08-2013 - 12:48 

Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah (click here) will deliver a speech on Friday, in a ceremony celebrating the July 2006 victory.
Hezbollah is holding a ceremony which will begin at 5:00 pm (Lebanon timing) in the southern city of Aita Al-Shaab, which witnessed fierce clashes between resistance fighters and Zionist soldiers during the 2006 war, and resulted in the victory of Lebanon.
Sayyed Nasrallah is expected to tackle the latest local and regional developments during his speech.

by Josh Rogin, Eli Lake  
Aug 14, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
When the Iraqi foreign minister (click here) arrives in Washington this week, among his top requests will be for the White House to overcome objections in Congress to selling his country advanced Apache helicopters the Iraqis say they need to fight terrorists within their borders.

Iraq’s top diplomat, Hoshyar Zebari, will meet with Secretary of State John Kerry on Aug. 15. Zebari’s trip comes just weeks after a daring and successful military assault on the Abu Ghraib prison resulted in the release of more than 500 suspected extremist militants. The jailbreak reversed years of work to roll up al Qaeda’s leadership in Iraq during the U.S.-led counterinsurgency campaign known as the surge.

 
The U.S. government has notified Congress in recent weeks of its intention to sell Iraq $4.7 billion worth of military equipment, but none of those sales include the top item on Iraq’s shopping list, the Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopters. The House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have refused to allow the sale of the helicopters to date....  

President Rouhani has a sincere opportunity to be a partner in peace and prosperity in the Middle East. As a matter of fact, he has the potential of being pivotal considering the years of escalation of violence and hate under the previous President of Iran.

President Rouhani can become a global leader respected by most or he could continue a negative spiral in the Middle East resulting in masses of angry and dying people.

I believe he will be seeking the higher road rather than one of continued violence and unrest. He should step into the center of much of the unrest and provide sincere leadership. The Shi'ites of the Middle East long for it. We know it is possible, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani stands as evidence to the potential.

By RAY TAKEYH 

Published: August 15, 2013

One of the enduring aspects (click here) of Washington’s Iran debate is its wild oscillations between the hysteria of war and the euphoria of reconciliation....

...In the coming months, Rouhani and his diplomats will inevitably profess their readiness to deal in earnest. The possibility of a limited deal addressing some of the more urgent aspects of Iran’s nuclear program should not be ruled out. If such a deal is done, then it must be welcomed. But standing behind these deliberations will be the untrusting Ayatollah Khamenei and his allies who will always need an American nemesis to justify their ideology to themselves. 
Ray Takeyh is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.