Do they work or not?

DTC NEW (click here) 532 Anti-Laser Safety Glasses Eye Protection Green Lens

If these glasses designed for pilots work, then what is the issue?

Why aren't major news agencies taking FOX on? They lie from beginning to end. I mean there is a rational that states there can't be two sources of the truth. What is everyone doing?

FOX reported today that the rescue off Hawaii is hampered by lazer beams being fired off at the pilots. That is nonsense. This is the article Military.com reports.

December 30, 2015 
by Hope Hodge Seck       

The Marine Corps (click here) is working with authorities in Japan to crack down on a dangerous practice in which civilians point lasers at the cockpits of aircraft in flight.
To date, there have been eight recorded incidents of "dangerous, flight-interfering" activities involving aircraft from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, 1st Lt. Joseph Butterfield, a spokesman for Marine Corps Installations Pacific, told Military.com. Five of them have involved laser pointers; two others involved high-flying kites and one involved a crane positioned in the path of aircraft.
The first of this series of laser-pointer incidents was recorded July 14, 2014, Butterfield said. And recent reports indicate that local authorities are taking them seriously. According to the Japan Times, this week a court in Okinawa fined local man Katsuro Hiraoka, 56, more than $4,100 for aiming a laser at a helicopter in July.
According to the report, the aircraft was carrying four Marines, and the incident forced them to stop their training.
The Marine Corps reportedly has 48 aircraft stationed in Futenma. Half of those are MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft that take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a plane....

Everything FOX reports on a regular basis including lazer beans is designed to instill fear. 

How do you feel about flying a jet with the potential for the pilots to be hit by lazer beams? Why get on a commercial flight in the first place? The reports by FOX are lies and they will stop as soon as they have their way with a Republican majority elected everywhere.

Does the fear element that FOX introduces to the American population serve Wall Street in any other way so no one complains about false reporting? 

Is everyone simply shrugging their shoulders at "infotainment?" Why? This is not infotainment. This is scaring people half to death.  People take this infotainment as the truth. This is crazy. It can be proven to not be infotainment. The comedians on major media in the PM are infotainment. People expect to laugh when they hear untruths. That is a very big difference. I think FOX has everyone intimidated because they have considerable media power. 

Where are the lawsuits? At the very least there needs to be a class action suit against these bozos.

There are three different reportings of this incident.

17 January 2016
Israel ordered (click here) a high-priority police investigation on Sunday into anti-Christian messages scrawled in Hebrew on the walls and doors of a Jerusalem monastery, saying they marked an assault on religious harmony.

It isn't just radical Muslims that are Anti-Christian.

The Republicans are seeking whatever means possible to oppression the November vote.

January 16, 2016

By Dan Kaufman

Shortly after his exit (click here) from an abbreviated presidential run last fall, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin returned to a more successful undertaking: dismantling what remains of his state’s century-old progressive legacy.

Last month, Mr. Walker signed a bill that allowed corporations to donate directly to political parties. On the same day, he signed a law that replaced the state’s nonpartisan Government Accountability Board, a body that is responsible for election oversight and enforcing ethics codes, with two commissions made up of partisan appointees. Now a new bill supported by Mr. Walker, which is expected to clear the Republican-dominated Legislature with a Senate vote soon, threatens to corrupt Wisconsin’s Civil Service.

In 1905, Wisconsin became the third state to enact Civil Service reform, helping establish it as a national model for clean government. The reforms were one of the many achievements of Gov. Robert M. La Follette Sr., who later founded the Progressive Party and ran for president on its ticket. But Mr. Walker’s new Civil Service bill replaces anonymous exams with résumés, opening the door to political or racial bias that would prove almost impossible to detect because personnel files are not part of the public record....

Walker is breaking the law. He is depriving citizens  of work for reasons other than lack of qualifications. African Americans do not have a long relationship with Republicans.

...And it centralizes hiring within the Department of Administration, the most politicized agency in the state’s government. Incoming résumés would be judged by one of the governor’s appointees....

This practice makes work an exclusive activity of the polling booth.

Evangelizing a different faith than the official religion of a theocracy is not at all appropriate.

January 16, 2016
By Jeremy Weber

Saeed Abedini has finally been freed.

The Iranian-American pastor (click here) from Idaho, held for more than three years, was exchanged as part of a prisoner swap in which Iran released four people and the United States released seven....

It was just a matter of time before the word got out about his work. He wanted to spread the word and bring Iranians to Jesus Christ and it did. His work achieved what he wanted and then it finally reached the Iranian government. 

Promoting religion can only take place in a country where freedom is accepted. Practicing in such capacities that are aimed to change an entire country is going to be met with government oppression.

Senator Cruz indicts his own citizenship.

January 11, 2016
By Laurence H. Tribe
...People are entitled (click here) to their own opinions about what the definition ought to be. But the kind of judge Cruz says he admires and would appoint to the Supreme Court is an “originalist,” one who claims to be bound by the narrowly historical meaning of the Constitution’s terms at the time of their adoption. To his kind of judge, Cruz ironically wouldn’t be eligible, because the legal principles that prevailed in the 1780s and ’90s required that someone actually be born on US soil to be a “natural born” citizen. Even having two US parents wouldn’t suffice. And having just an American mother, as Cruz did, would have been insufficient at a time that made patrilineal descent decisive....

John Bolton was never regarded as an important member of the United Nations. There are reasons.

The reason Bolton is at FOX is because he has no credibility. Bolton never even approached negotiations yet alone understand their brevity. The idiot even discusses Israel's program. Anyone want to wire his jaw shut?

Does FOX understand when they serve up spin as the truth that is called a lie?

By John Bolton
March 26, 2015

...In theory, (click here) comprehensive international sanctions, rigorously enforced and universally adhered to, might have broken the back of Iran’s nuclear program. But the sanctions imposed have not met those criteria. Naturally, Tehran wants to be free of them, but the president’s own director of National Intelligence testified in 2014 that they had not stopped Iran’s progressing its nuclear program. There is now widespread acknowledgment that the rosy 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which judged that Iran’s weapons program was halted in 2003, was an embarrassment, little more than wishful thinking.

Even absent palpable proof, like a nuclear test, Iran’s steady progress toward nuclear weapons has long been evident. Now the arms race has begun: Neighboring countries are moving forward, driven by fears that Mr. Obama’s diplomacy is fostering a nuclear Iran. Saudi Arabia, keystone of the oil-producing monarchies, has long been expected to move first. No way would the Sunni Saudis allow the Shiite Persians to outpace them in the quest for dominance within Islam and Middle Eastern geopolitical hegemony. Because of reports of early Saudi funding, analysts have long believed that Saudi Arabia has an option to obtain nuclear weapons from Pakistan, allowing it to become a nuclear-weapons state overnight. Egypt and Turkey, both with imperial legacies and modern aspirations, and similarly distrustful of Tehran, would be right behind....

Evin Prison should be dismantled. It's use today is a shame to Iranian leadership that conducted a revolution to end such practices.

Sunday, 14 June 2015

With a capacity now detaining 15,000 people, (click here) the Evin Prison has built a reputation of being Iran’s most notorious prison.

Located in northwestern Tehran, the facility has been nicknamed “Evin University” due to the large number of intellectuals, political prisoners, journalists and academics that have been incarcerated there.

It was the subject of the 2014 film “Rose Water,” written and directed by U.S. TV personality Jon Stewart, which told the story of an Iranian-Canadian journalist who was detained after covering the protests that broke following the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Maziar Bahari survived 118 days in detention and was released after a confession he said was extracted after days of physical and psychological torture.

Bahari’s account mirrors that of human rights organizations which attribute the prison’s notoriety to the brutality of the guards.

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, a prominent opposition group based in Paris, describes it as “hell on earth.”

The first prisoners entered Evin in 1971 under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi....

There is no doubt that Evin Prison in Iran is where political prisoners are held. But, that has been the case since the previous dictator ruled Iran.

April 22, 2014
By Shadi Paveh

...Iranian security forces, (click here) in anti-riot gear and using metal batons, beat political prisoners for approximately five hours on in Ward 350 of Evin prison, according to HRANA News Agency.

About 100 Iranian security servicemen stormed the prison on April 17, 2014, they said "for inspection."

The prisoners, apparently fearing that their few belongings would be confiscated, as before, asked that their possessions -- acquired with difficulty and at high prices, given the prison restrictions -- be inspected in their presence.

The security men then turned on them, seriously injuring dozens. Reportedly more than 30 prisoners were injured, and at least four had to be transferred to a hospital outside the prison -- a rare event, as medical aid is vehemently withheld from prisoners....

06 May 2014

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (click here) has released its weekly report on the human rights situation in the country. Several of the stories demonstrate the persistent sensitivity of both the regime and its opponents to the April 17 raid on ward 350 of Evin Prison.

The chain of events following the violent crackdown has reached into other prisons. In an editorial published last week by The Diplomat, British Member of Parliament Lord Carlile argues that the heroic defiance of political prisoners even in the face of such violence represents “the bright spot in Iran’s latest political repression.” The NCRI report contributes to that interpretation of events by showing that that defiance is persistent.

Six political prisoners began a hunger strike on Sunday in Karaj Rajaee Shahr Prison as an expression of support for the political prisoners who were targeted in the Evin raid. They were joined by 12 fellow inmates on Monday. The hunger strike seeks to bring attention to the events surrounding the raid, and to encourage the international community to put pressure on the Iranian regime to address prisoners’ complaints, return victims of the raid from solitary confinement, and grant them access to medical care and visitations....

How much of a burden is a woman expected to shoulder?

January 17, 2016
Celine Dion's brother Daniel (click here) has died aged 59 after losing his battle with cancer, just two days after the singer's husband also passed away.
Daniel Dion died this morning, just a day after his family revealed that they believed he had just hours to live.
Celine's husband René Angélil died from throat cancer aged 73 on Thursday.
Pop singer Celine Dion's representative said Friday that Dion's brother had cancer and didn't have long to live, even as funeral arrangements were announced for Dion's husband, who died a day earlier.
Kim Jakwerth confirmed reports on the prognosis of Dion's brother Daniel....

There are many sanctions to be repealed.

This is a very proud day for the people of Iran in electing President Rouhani to lead the country out of nuclear proliferation. There was no other leader in Iran that could accomplish what President Rouhani has.

There are real changes in Iran to comply with the agreement. The attorney with the ACLU has every reason to tout this accomplishment of peace initiatives.

Everyone conducted great work.

Iran's defense ministry inaugurated this carbon-fiber plant, seen in 2011, after international sanctions blocked the dual-use material's import. (Photo: Ho New/Reuters)

The United States, (click here) United Nations, and European Union have levied multiple sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program since the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog, found in September 2005 that Tehran was not compliant with its international obligations. The United States spearheaded international efforts to financially isolate Tehran and block its oil exports to raise the cost of Iran's efforts to develop a potential nuclear-weapons capability and to bring its government to the negotiating table....

People complain the charges against countries like Iran only occur when they break UN resolutions. That would be correct. But, that is no a minor achievement.

Ted Cruz shouldn't feel bad about unemployment in New York State because fracking is viewed as dangerous to air and water; there aren't that many jobs in the first place. It is not like the petroleum industry is hungry for labor. I am sure the ones left don't pay what they used to.

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Does anyone have an idea what the unemployment rate would be like AGAIN if the USA was dependent on the petroleum industry to infuse the income of US citizens? No, thank you. We'll take the alternative energies any day of the week. 

OMG, FOX will say anything. There are people in the USA trying to end gun violence and this is what FOX states regarding gun statistices, "...90 people are dead in the USA since San Bernardino simply because people are saying "I don't want to go to Syria.""

That is outrageous and gross malpractice of journalism. The most I listen to FOX the more evident how bad they are at journalism. 

Often people complain the IAEA only catches countries that break resolutions after the fact. That would be correct, but, it is nothing to complain about.

The Americans returning home were not hostages. They were charged with breaking Iranian law.

The right wing media in the USA is so grossly outside the bounds of professional reporting they are almost their own story.

January 16, 2016
By Sam Levine

Several Republican presidential candidates (click here) criticized the Obama administration's decision to swap seven Iranian prisoners for The Washington Post's reporter Jason Rezaian and three other Americans on Saturday.
Some of them, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), accused the administration of not pushing hard enough for the American prisoners' release when the United States negotiated a deal with Iran last year. A group of 21 senators, led by Rubio and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last year to demand the prisoners' unconditional release. Kerry has said that he repeatedly pushed for the men's release during negotiations.
On Saturday, Republicans said that Obama should not have given up Iranian prisoners because it made the United States look weak and that the U.S. prisoners should have been released without condition....

The American people are being misinformed by the right wing media. The people released by Iran today were held for trial. That is not at all the same as hostages. Hostages are innocent people held because they mean something politically to another country.

The right wing defends their propaganda by stating the US Government is playing with semantics. I suppose everyone in the country are simpletons and can't sort out the facts. 

Pope Francis did address the detention of a Christian on a national stage, a joint session of the US Congress.

September 24, 2015
By Jay Sekulow

Saturday (click here) marks the third anniversary of American Pastor Saeed Abedini’s imprisonment in Iran because of his Christian faith. During the last three years, there have been extensive efforts made to secure his freedom.
But now – in the days ahead – represents perhaps the most unique and important opportunity to raise Pastor Saeed’s plight on a global stage.
As part of his visit to America, Pope Francis – a champion of religious liberty and often a voice for suffering Christians – addresses a joint session of Congress and meets with the United Nations General Assembly.
Pastor Saeed’s wife, Naghmeh, is attending the pope’s address to Congress as a guest of Rep. Robert Pittenger, R-N.C. There are news reports that President Obama may ask the Pope to intercede with Iranian officials on behalf of Pastor Saeed and the other Americans imprisoned in Iran.
Iran should act now because the world is watching. And there’s no better time for Iran to release Pastor Saeed – to make a statement to the world – a humanitarian gesture of goodwill....

What Americans don't appreciate about journalists jailed in other countries, including entertainers such as "Pussy Riot," is that they actually did break the law. Journalists are often viewed the equivalent of spies. Countries are very different about CIVIL LIBERTIES. The USA has an amendment to it's constitution providing for freedom of speech, that includes the press. That is not the case in other countries.  

Investigative journalism is part of American life. We are appreciative of the truth telling and view it as a PROTECTION to life and to American values and freedom. Other countries see journalism as a form of treason. 

When Americans travel they need to realize how influential they are simply by being American. That status is not always welcome by the government of the country they are visiting. It gets them in trouble.

Americans always hope to bring about reform when it comes to civil liberties and freedom. There isn't anything wrong with that, but, it does put them in harms way. 

Americans should not tour a country expecting to be a mover and a shaker. Tourism is about appreciating the country, it's culture and natural areas. Americans need to walk softly while abroad. Their brevity in other countries can be dangerous to themselves.

There are some countries around the world that have a designated favored religion. That makes tourism all the much more worrisome. Other countries are allowed to have an official religion.

Where the interface of other countries meet up with Americans is a sensitive front and should be respected as such. To keep in mind, the judicial systems of other countries do not always bring the justice Americans are used to. Bringing Americans home when arrested or detained is not unusual. I am happy this is such a great day for the people returning and their families. 

No one speaking about the Iranians given clemency today are speaking in context of their legal status, in the USA or in Iran.

When wagging peace, it has costs and today we have witnessed clemency of people in the USA that have broken sanctions. That is all part of building trust and policy between countries.

No all those jailed around the world are Americans.

New York
January 15, 2016
Officials in Djibouti (click here) should immediately release two journalists arrested this week, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police arrested Kadar Abdi Ibrahim on Thursday, and arrested Mohamed Ibrahim Waiss on Monday, but have yet to charge either, according to the Facebook page of a local publication.

Kadar Abdi Ibrahim, a writer and the co-director of the monthly Aurore (Dawn), was arrested at his home on Thursday, US-based Djiboutian scholar Abdourahman Waberi told CPJ. Aurore is a publication of the country's opposition party, the Union Pour Le Salut National (USN). Police arrested Ibrahim immediately after the paper's most recent edition was published, Waberi said. 
"Journalists should not be jailed for reporting or commentating on events as they see them, even if they are deemed to work for politically aligned publications," said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Sue Valentine. "Djibouti authorities must either explain why these journalists are detained or immediately release them."...

There is no doubt there are human rights in some of the prisons foreigners find themselves. But, that was exploited by Cheney in CIA Black sites. Enough already. If the USA is going to play the purist of countries, then earn it. 

January 15, 2016

Jailed Turkish journalist Can Dündar (click here) has sent the Italian prime minister an open letter arguing the rapprochement between Turkey and the European Union over refugees should not overshadow violations of fundamental rights and freedoms in Turkey during the country’s EU accession process.

Daily Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül were arrested on terrorism charges on Nov. 26 last year over a story on state-owned trucks purportedly carrying weapons to Syria that was published on daily Cumhuriyet in early 2014.

The trucks owned by the National Intelligence Agency (MİT), Turkey’s state intelligence agency, were stopped and searched in the southern province of Hatay in January 2014, which had been highlighted on the daily’s front page at the time. The story resulted in the imprisonment of the journalists over their reporting....

13 January 2016
By Roy Greenslade

Turkey’s main opposition party (click here) has spoken up on behalf of the 32 journalists held in the country’s prisons. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) also pointed out that 156 journalists were arrested in Turkey during 2015 while 484 legal actions were launched against journalists.
And more than 770 journalists were fired for reasons related to their work, said CHP’s deputy chair, Sezgin Tanrikulu. He said seven Turkish media companies came under investigation in 2015 and that the government is using anti-terrorism laws in order to stifle press freedom.
He was speaking after a rally in Ankara by Turkish journalists in which they demanded the release of jailed reporters and editors.
And on Monday an inquiry began into alleged “terrorist propaganda” by Beyazit Ozturk, a TV presenter who has run a popular show for 20 years.
His so-called “crime” was to allow a woman to say that “children are dying” under curfew in the city of Diyarbakir, which has a Kurdish majority. Ozturk apologised following social media pressure....

Journalists can hope to count on their Facebook followers to bring about their release. Whether that is a fact is anyone's guess. I am not aware of a journalist having been released because of Facebook.

13 January 2016
By AFP

Palestinian journalist (click here) detained by Hamas for over a week described on Wednesday his "torture" at the hands of the Islamist group.
Ayman al-Alul, a 44-year-old journalist with the Arab Now news agency, was detained by security services in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on January 3 and released on Monday.
Alul, whose arrest had drawn protests from journalists and rights groups, said he was detained for comments made on his Facebook page where he has more than 30,000 followers....

Do releases in Iran incentivize other countries to carry out hostage taking? No more than before?

12 January 2016

Anjan Sundaram (click here) has authored a book - Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship - that is full of things about Rwanda and its leadership which not only bear very little resemblance to facts on the ground, but are outright fictions and distortions. Sam Gody Nshimiyimana who is one of the supposedly harassed Rwandan journalists frequently mentioned in the book as 'Moses' and who knows Sundaram and his wife very well refutes the many allegations in "Bad News"....

How is this dissuaded in the future?

I don't believe this will ever end. Journalists in the Free World are viewed frequently with esteem unless one is a Republican.

January 12, 2016

Can Dündar, (click here) the Cumhuriyet daily's imprisoned editor-in-chief, has accused the EU of remaining silent in the face of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's repressive policies in exchange for Turkey stopping Syrian refugees from crossing into Europe.
In an article published on Tuesday in French Le Monde, Dündar wrote that Erdoğan managed to secure 50 percent of the total vote in the Nov. 1, 2015 general election thanks to an intense propaganda campaign and an environment in which voters were deprived of the right to access information due to silenced media groups.
"The result has given Erdoğan the authority to wipe out what remains of free media. The EU prefers to turn a blind eye to his oppression in return for Turkey blocking the influx of Syrian refugees into its territory. I am currently observing the direction the EU is heading in from behind bars in my solitary confinement, and it is very dark," Dündar wrote.
Defining his article as a cry for press freedom emanating from a prison in the east of Europe, Dündar went on to say: "This piece is a call for help from hell, for media which was bottled up and thrown out to sea. It is a hand extended in solidarity to all colleagues in the world of journalism from a journalist who was arrested for reporting the news."...

But, for many countries, including USA allies the journalism industry is frowned on.  This countries see it as a matter of maintaining order and civil peace. If I were the President of one billion people or more I'd worry, too.

Senator Durbin backed the Iranian Nuclear Agreement. He is reading a statement about inflammatory propaganda,

Published on Jul 21, 2015

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today spoke on the United States Senate Floor to announce his support for the Iran Nuclear Agreement.

I have wondered how so many Americans watching FOX News are so misinformed.

Today, FOX News is stating billions upon billions are going to be coming to Iran as the sanctions are lifted. What does FOX think this is? Christmas.

Iran owes a lot of money to other countries. FOX News is not a good source of information. They exploit every topic and fact for political purposes. Today was simply astounding.

The USA has stated the individuals held are related to sanctions violations. If the violations are lifted there is no basis for the prosecution of those individuals. I suppose the USA could insist prosecution no matter what, but, that is hardly an understanding the USA wants with the global community. The clemency and extradition to Iran of these people are relieved because it is good international practice of the US State Department.

The article below is from:
The Reading Eagle (click here)
March 13, 2007

It is incredible the half-truths and blatant lies FOX News puts out within the span of 30 to 60 minues.

The ten American sailors did not fall under the Geneva Conventions. The USA and Iran are not at war.

Geneva Conventions, a series of international treaties concluded in Geneva between 1864 and 1949 for the purpose of ameliorating the effects of war on soldiers and civilians. Two additional protocols to the 1949 agreement were approved in 1977.
The development of the Geneva Conventions was closely associated with the Red Cross, whose founder, Henri Dunant, initiated international negotiations that produced the Convention for the Amelioration of the Wounded in Time of War in 1864. This convention provided for (1) the immunity from capture and destruction of all establishments for the treatment of wounded and sick soldiers and their personnel, (2) the impartial reception and treatment of all combatants, (3) the protection of civilians providing aid to the wounded, and (4) the recognition of the Red Cross symbol as a means of identifying persons and equipment covered by the agreement....

The USA does not have direct rights to inspections. The IAEA does well developed inspections.

However, Iran’s ability (click here) to break out or sneak out of its non-proliferation obligations is hampered by an inspection regime that keeps extremely close track of Iranian uranium enrichment facilities.
Herman Nackaerts, the deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and head of its Department of Safeguards, told Al-Monitor during a visit to Washington that “we would know within a week” whether Iran was diverting uranium from declared sites and seeking to enrich it to weapons’ grade level.
There are two to six IAEA inspectors on the ground in Iran every day, Nackaerts said, covering 16 Iranian facilities. On average, he said, that means that an inspector visits Iran’s enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordow once a week. If there are suspicions about any improper activities, they can go more often, he added.
It is always possible that Iran is secretly enriching uranium somewhere not known to the IAEA. But most experts believe that if Iran were to decide to make weapons, it would use its declared facilities and known stockpile of partly enriched uranium.

I wonder how a well established news agency can survive by breeding lies, but, they instill their half-truths and lies as part of a breaking news alert. So, FOX News engages in some of the worst possible journalism as the event is realized. They have an automatic EXCUSE to misdirect the facts. They put the lies and half-truths right at the beginning of the news alert and claim the facts were not clear in the beginning. That is the biggest pile of nonsense I have ever heard in my life.

IT IS WIDELY BELIEVED.

There it is. FOX must have their own union that widely believes any nonsense the networks spews. Absolutely amazing. There are lives hanging in the balance and FOX will say anything to promote their politics. FOX doesn't practice ethics. They have decided ethics gets in the way of political exploitation.

The Iranian Nuclear Agreement is an international document. The Americans coming home are a national occurrence. They are not at all related.

FOX wants everyone to believe the USA has control over every aspect of the world's condition. That is a very dangerous perspective. That is the ultimate lie. The USA does not have control of sovereign countries, including Iran. The Obama State Department has had an ambitious agenda to bring about open channels with countries that were not only slammed shut behind a door, but, that was locked under "W." The release of these Americans are all part of the US State Department's hard work.

I find myself wanting to wait until their feet are on the ground of allies.

Today is a happy day. Thank you Secretary Kerry. There is no relationship between the Iranian Nuclear Agreement and the release of these prisoners. President and Secretary Kerry are bringing all their efforts to a close by the end of the President's term. This has been a long time in coming.

The Washington Post has a timeline. (click here)

Jason Rezaian's wife was taken at the same time as he, however, she is an Iranian citizen and was provided bail.

January 16, 2016
By Carol Morello and William Braigin

Vienna — Iran (click here) released Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and three other detained Iranian Americans on Saturday in exchange for seven people imprisoned or charged in the United States, U.S. and Iranian officials said, a swap linked to the imminent implementation of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers....

...Secretary of State John F. Kerry flew from London to Vienna in the early afternoon local time. He went immediately into a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Coburg Palace Hotel, the scene of months-long final negotiations last summer that led to the deal between Iran and the world powers....

I just liked the picture.

Sikh devotees take selfies on the eve of the birth anniversary of the tenth and final Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, in Golden Temple, Sikh's holiest shrine, in Amritsar, India, on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. Gobind Singh is considered a forefather in the religion. (AP Photo/Prabhjot Gill)

The fighting is ongoing.

January 15, 2016
Mathieu Bonkoungou and Nadoun Coulibaly
Around 20 people (click here) have been killed in an attack by suspected Islamist militants on a hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso on Friday, according to the director of the university hospital who spoke to patients wounded in the attack.
"We have received around 15 wounded people. There are people with bullet wounds and people who are injured because of falls," said Robert Sangare, director of Ouagadougou's university hospital center....

Such a sweet little country and it has to be burdened with this mess. Damn bastards.

15 January 2016 By Pascaline Compaore

Following a troubled, (click here) 13-month transition period that culminated in a peaceful election on 29 November last year, Burkina Faso swore in Roch Marc Christian Kaboré as its new president on 29 December 2015.

As the new cabinet takes shape, the role of the military in the country's political and institutional landscape will be one of many challenges for the new authorities.

The military has been at the forefront of the Burkinabe political scene since 1966, when General Sangoulé Aboubacar Lamizana overthrew Maurice Yaméogo - the country's first president after independence. The 1966 coup d'état marked the beginning of military interference in the country's institutional sphere. Similar government takeovers took place in November 1980, November 1982, August 1983 and October 1987, when Captain Blaise Compaoré rose to power....

When I heard about the attack I was actually thinking about the country. There are militants in every country in the world and while more are able to cope with such violence, a little country such as Burkina Faso would not and now this.

I hadn't check to see if it is part of the African Union. (click here)

Burkino Faso is a suspended member of the AU along with the Central African Republic.

It was suspended over a coup. (click here) Sometimes a coup works out.

The country has a GDP of $11.58 billion. When hearing bout a coupe in Africa most of the time it surrounds an election. Either before because some group can't get their names on the ballot or afterward if they didn't win. They are precious people with strong feelings.

...The latest coup was orchestrated by an elite army unit loyal to deposed president Blaise Compaore who claim that interim president Michel Kafando was excluding Compaore's supporters from the upcoming October 11 polls.

"All measures taken by those who took power by force in Burkina Faso are null and void," Uganda's AU ambassador Mull Katende said....

They do not deserve this violence.

The AU needs to consider sending soldiers with UN help. If nothing else to protect the other countries from spill over of the violence. Everyone knows how bad it can get.

Oil is the same price today as before the "W" era.

The spike in 2008 occurred because Wall Street wanted to shelter their assets in commodities.

January 15, 2016
By Karl Russell

At less (click here) than $30 a barrel, crude is down more than 70 percent in the last 18 months. Over the years, the price tends to fluctuate in response to geopolitical and economic turmoil. Worries about China’s health is weighing on oil....

Standing down was the correct thing to do in Benghazi. No film is going to change that. The USA military has a responsibility to their soldiers and sending them into a dark ally is not one of them.

Military leadership sent a drone to come to understand what was occurring in Benghazi. They weren't going to send their soldiers into a circumstance they had no idea was occurring. That was correct. Save the existing and known lives before sending in the soldiers into rescue others. A rescue is not a rescue if the rescuers are dead, too.

The USA military made the right call. There was no way to save Ambassador Stevens. He died of smoke inhalation in a 'safe room.' The safe room became worthless as soon as the smoke penetrated the air he was breathing. 

...According (click here) to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), most fire deaths are the result of smoke inhalation rather than burns. NFPA notes that every 20 seconds somewhere in the United States a fire department is responding to a fire. Once a minute, a fire is occurring in a home or other building that most likely has occupants. Historically, some very famous and deadly fires have occurred in crowded, public settings such as night clubs and theaters, claiming hundreds of victims. Fortunately, that is not the norm. Fire experts find that most fires today occur in a person’s home or vehicle and generally involve one or two victims....

The outcome in Benghazi was dependent on the safe room. The safe room was compromised. Unfortunately, Ambassador Steven's outcome was decided before soldiers were told to stand down. 

January 15, 2016
By Adam Goldman and Greg Miller

It is the most fateful moment (click here) in a movie that purports to present a searingly accurate account of the 2012 attacks that left four Americans dead in Benghazi, Libya: a scene in which the highest-ranking CIA operative at a secret agency compound orders his security team to “stand down” rather than rush off to rescue U.S. diplomats under siege less than a mile away.
According to the officer in charge of the CIA’s Benghazi base that night, the scene in the movie is entirely untrue.
“There never was a stand-down order,” said the base chief known as Bob, speaking publicly for the first time. “At no time did I ever second guess that the team would depart.”
Nor, he said, did he say anything that could be “interpreted as equivalent” as an order to stand down.
In a lengthy interview with reporters from The Washington Post, Bob provided new details about the attacks and his interactions with J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya who perished in them. He agreed to talk on the condition his last name not be used because even though he has retired, his cover has not been lifted....

Dead citizens in defense of their country mean something.

"Natural Born Citizen" comes straight out of the US Constitution for a very real reason and it is about immigration.

The Founding Fathers wanted to be sure the new country was lead by people with an invested interest. At the time the USA Constitution was written there were many people immigrating to the new country. Those folks that immigrated were born on foreign soil.

For the very real reason of protecting the interests of the country, a person born within the USA was to be President of the Country. In that reality was the fact the President was Commander and Chief. The Founding Fathers wanted the President to defend the country where he/she were born. If a French or Spanish immigrant became President there was no real reason for adhering to military use for USA sovereignty. Foreign born have rights in other country and can return even if they came to the USA to reside.

This is a concept I thought would be interesting in tossing the topic around. If the next President is President Cruz, does that mean he can also run for Canadian Prime Minister, too? 

That is what the Founding Fathers addressed in that expression, "Natural Born Citizen." There is room for skepticism with a candidate with dual citizenship.

People died during the Revolutionary War. Why bother fighting a war if a Prince or Lord or whomever can come to the USA and take over the entire country by being President only to answer to the English King again?

Natural Born Citizen is more than simply 'being a citizen.' It means there is no dual citizenship so there can be no dual ruler. Naturally born Americans would have to emigrate before they could access the power structure of a country.

It is an issue. It is a voter issue. Even if the law were completely clear that a natural born citizen included those that had a dual citizenship, it would still be a voter's issue in deciding who they choose. 

Voting on a ballot is not the same as voting on a jury where the judge sets the terms of what to ponder in deciding a verdict. Voting is personal and any ideas can be considered in that vote including whether or not a candidate is a dual citizen.