09:29 – I’m amazed that Israel has responded with such restraint to islamic terrorists launching hundreds of missiles a day into Israeli territory. Israel has responded with just a couple hundred surgical airstrikes that give high priority to minimizing “civilian” casualties. If islamic terrorists in Gaza were launching 300 missiles a day at me, I’d be inclined to cover the entire Gaza Strip with cluster bombs and burning napalm, and the hell with “civilian” casualties.
There’s no doubt that the goal of Hamas is to destroy Israel and wipe out its population. They’ve said as much. Why should Israel show any restraint? The obvious answer is that Netanyahu is afraid of American public opinion turning against him, and more particularly of Obama withdrawing diplomatic and logistical support.
Barbara is cleaning house today. I need to get the library cleared out, as well as some stuff I have stacked in the den. We’ll be moving Saturnalia decorations upstairs today, and she needs those areas clear.
“The obvious answer is that Netanyahu is afraid of American public opinion turning against him, and more particularly of Obama withdrawing diplomatic and logistical support.”
Obama would be committing political suicide if he did that.
It doesn’t matter to him. He can do anything now that he’s in his second term.
Miles_Teg, RBT is correct but doesn’t go far enough. “Political suicide”, at least in the US, means some mixture of destroying any hopes of being re-elected and destroying any hopes of accomplishing one’s political goals. Obuttbreath can’t be re-elected as Prez under the Constitution (though note that that scrap of parchment is getting more and more ragged and will probably be completely ignored before long) and is unlikely ever to run for lower office, so the first half of the fork doesn’t matter. As for the second half, he’s shown complete willingness to rule by fiat in the form of Executive Order, selective enforcement of laws, and bureaucratic regulation. Unless stopped by impeachment and expulsion from office, I see no limit on what he can and will do to see the accomplishment of his dream, the destruction of traditional American culture. And the likelihood of him being impeached with the current House of Representatives is very low, and the likelihood of him being convicted in the current Senate is zero.
Bottom line, there is no downside for Obugger doing anything he likes regardless of law or standards of civilized behavior.
That’s one way to look at it. But he still needs friends to get anything done. He can’t make enemies of *everyone*.
That’s just it. He doesn’t. Obama rules by fiat. I haven’t checked, but I’d be willing to bet that Obama has issued more Executive Orders than all other presidents. Combined.
Actually, he hasn’t. Ref http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/disposition.html . However, not all executive orders are created equal. Bush41’s Executive Order 12790, an amendment to an earlier order establishing the Southwest Asia Service Medal, is rather less a destruction of Constitutional principles than Barky’s Executive Order 13594, which explicitly ignores a Congressional Act (ie, a Law) freezing federal employee’s pay.
Yeah, that’s what I meant. They’ve all issued scores of executive orders for trivial matters. I’m talking about the ones that override laws passed by Congress, create agencies without Congressional approval, and so on.
Is the Gaza-Israel conflict so clear-cut? Everywhere else I read suggests Israel is, if anything, even more to blame than Gaza.
Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., etc. are:
None of our business.
Long, long past time to cut ’em loose and let them have at it with each other. In which case, the Israelis probably would at that point wipe most of the hadjis off the map out of sheer survival needs. Whatever; we need to get out of that area once and for all, and close most of the military bases and installations around the world and bring just about all of our troops home to secure our borders, coastlines, and air space.
Nosferatu II will probably do less damage around the world in this regard than Bishop Mittens would have, but otherwise he will do as others here have already stated; continue the Long March designed to destroy what’s left of the American republic and culture. This is actually to our benefit, because more people are seeing now what has been going on and what he’s doing. They may stupidly ascribe it exclusively to him but it started a very long time ago and other presidential administrations are at least as guilty as the incumbent piece of trash.
I say let’s get it on and laissez les bon temps rouler, mes amis!
I agree completely. And the day is rapidly approaching when the US will be able to tell the fucking muslims to drink their fucking oil.
A good start on reducing the Defense budget would be to close all overseas bases, ports, etc. I think it will take a President with a giant pair (balls or tits) to even propose it.
On a good note (for me), my wife’s primary buisness these days is selling her leadership programs to schools (K-12 primarily, parents and educators). Obama is going to pump billions more into the education system and I shall reap the rewards. My wife is already rich under Obummers standards. She’ll probably be double rich in the new year.
Most recent prediction I’ve read of the year that’s going to happen is 2020, just eight years away. We should just tell them that now anyway and ramp up other means, but still, our days of endless Happy Motoring are coming to an end at some point.
I really think that if Mittens had gotten in that would have been a green light for Bibi and Likud to hit Iran, and much as I can’t stand the Incumbent, that would have been an utter disasters for us all for years, if not decades, to come. We have seen way too many instances of “blowback” over the past century to just let our little chickenhawk suits at the Pentagon and Foggy Bottom to have the key to the candy store anymore. Them and their bloody empire need to be shut down ASAP by hook or by crook.
“I agree completely. And the day is rapidly approaching when the US will be able to tell the fucking muslims to drink their fucking oil.”
You’re assuming that Obama and the lunatic fringe Democrats and environmentalists will let that happen, which is a very big assumption.
No, massive cuts in dependence on foreign oil is part of Obrainless’s plan. Of course, he plans to do it by making sure there are no petrol-burning automobiles or lawnmowers in private hands. There’ll still be some cars, but only those owned by the government.
By the way, that’s yet another bit of evidence that Global-Warming-We’re-All-Gonna-Die-ism is hokum: The Environmental Protection Agency, among other government agencies, bought a whole honkin bunch of new vehicles. OK, fine; the agency likely has no Constitutional grounds for existing, but given that it does, it needs some cars. But the EPA didn’t buy small, fuel-efficient cars that would produce tiny amounts of the dread greenhouse gas CO2 – which the EPA is regulating and using as a club to demand more fuel-efficient vehicles. No, the EPA bought a whole honkin bunch of big-ass SUVs, which use four times as much gas per gallon as they’re suggesting that private cars should use. To get to the point I started out from, I may start to believe the Earth is warming and that it’s caused by human activity when the people making that claim start acting like it.
“Is the Gaza-Israel conflict so clear-cut? Everywhere else I read suggests Israel is, if anything, even more to blame than Gaza.”
In what way?
SteveF wrote:
“But the EPA didn’t buy small, fuel-efficient cars that would produce tiny amounts of the dread greenhouse gas CO2 – which the EPA is regulating and using as a club to demand more fuel-efficient vehicles. No, the EPA bought a whole honkin bunch of big-ass SUVs, which use four times as much gas per gallon as they’re suggesting that private cars should use.”
Yeah, I know I’ve told this story a million times before, but…
Years ago I overheard a conversation where a guy who worked in the local territory parliament providing stuff to the politicians said that the Green MP had ordered, as she was entitled to do, the largest, most high performance, gas-guzzling car available under the scheme. Most or all of the other MPs had been far more modest in their requests.
“By the way, that’s yet another bit of evidence that Global-Warming-We’re-All-Gonna-Die-ism is hokum:…”
But, but…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-19/world-bank-issues-global-warming-warning/4379634
You mean you don’t trust the World Bank? 🙂
Here is a good part of the reason I have not had anything to do with the Republican party since AuH2O:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121117/16492521084/that-was-fast-hollywood-already-browbeat-republicans-into-retracting-report-copyright-reform.shtml
Think piece from the Republican Study Committee urging copyright reform. But wait—they did not get approval from the RIAA and the MPAA. Oops! Within hours, retract it!
Dowload link of the original PDF:
http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/direct/113633834?extension=pdf&ft=1353297544<=1353301154&source=read+page&uahk=NkcV4lp7sSXMBNvHWnhdpUDoLFU
Not sure how long that link will work, however.
Damn incompetent greedy chicken-shit hypocritical bastards! If there were a hell, they should join Abe Lincoln there.
One of the young men in my church just headed over to Afghanistan for his 4th trip to the Suck. Twice to Iraq and now twice to Afghanistan. I am very proud of him as he is now a 1st Lt. in the Guard and just graduated with his criminal justice degree. I can remember teaching him in bible hour two decades ago. Actually my wife taught, I was just the bouncer.
His mom and my wife talked this morning and decided that his one year daughter was really going to miss her daddy for the next year. I did not know that we were sending Guard units to Afghanistan. Does not seem smart to me.
It is time for us to pull our troops out and back. Afghanistan, Iraq (yes, we still have 30,000 troops there), South Korea, Okinawa, Germany, etc. I do not know about our carriers in the persian gulf but maybe the Charles D. Gaul should be spending every other month there also since we have three on constant duty.
But Abe went to heaven! I have a picture of him being welcomed there by George Washington…
Boy am I glad I don’t live in the US. Our politicians are bad but not nearly as bad as yours.
Chuck wrote: “Damn incompetent greedy chicken-shit hypocritical bastards!”
Damn it Chuck, don’t mince your words or pull your punches, tell us what you *really* think.
The Israelis moved in there several decades ago, destroying swathes of Gazan settlements. They run a state close to apartheid, where the Gazans are kept under curfew, aren’t allowed to live in their settlements, etc. Israel has killed something like five times as many people as Palestine. Israel has supposedly killed about ten times as many children as Palestine has. Israel keeps significantly more political prisoners – IIRC thousands – whereas Palestine keeps a handful. Israel has, at various times, established a blockade around Gaza. Gazans (I believe) suffer comparable losses from Hamas rockets, and most of them don’t even support Hamas – beyond hating Israel because it has killed their families.
Wow, you’ve really drunk the muslim kool-aid, haven’t you?
Hamas, and the muslims in general, are unconcerned with civilians deaths, Israeli or their own. To them, every dead Israeli is, well, a dead Israeli, and a dead “palestinian” is a propaganda opportunity. Despite the fact that hamas intentionally puts legitimate military targets in the midst of civilian homes, the Israelis have made every effort in their responses to minimize collateral damage. Hamas simply wants to kill every Israeli and destroy every structure in Israel. The Israelis are civilized; the muslims are murderous slime.
A proportionate response by Israel to hamas firing missiles into Israel aimed at Israeli civilians would be for Israel to target muslim civilians. A proportionate response to hamas launching hundreds of missiles toward Israel would have been for Israel to launch hundreds of missiles in response toward gaza. And, just as hamas is attempting to kill as many Israelis as possible, a proportionate response by Israel would be to attempt to kill as many gazans as possible.
Oh, and these peace-loving Palestinians have never attacked Israel? Israel started the wars with Egypt, Syria and Jordan?
Israel is better at killing because this is their last stand. Figure that out and then tell the Palestinians. The Jews have no place to go. They’ve been thrown out of countries, and fed into ovens. This is IT, for them. The Line in the Sand. Either kill them all, (and why a billion Arabs can’t manage to figure out to kill 8 million Jews is beyond me) or accept that Israel is here to stay and grow up.
eristicist,
As Larry Niven says “Never throw shit at an armed man”, or in Gaza’s case, “Never stand next to a man throwing shit at an armed man”. Maybe Hamas should be rounded up and have their shit taken away.
Hamas, maybe; but not all muslims are Hamas. To be clear, I hate Islam as I hate all organised religions. But I’ve known plenty of good muslims, as I’ve known plenty of good christians. From what I’ve heard, the Israelis have not been so restrained as you describe. As I said, about five times as many Palestinian civilians as Israeli are meant to have died in the conflict.
The response is hideously disproportionate when you consider the innocence of those Palestinian civilians.
I don’t remember saying anything about that. I don’t claim Hamas is peaceful. I don’t claim the state of Palestine is peaceful. I was pointing out that Israel and Palestine are comparable in their aggression – and if any one is worse at the moment, it’s Israel.
Are you talking to me or to Hamas? I don’t want to kill anyone, BGrigg… Of course Israel is there to stay. But they could be a lot better about their treatment of Palestinians. Removing their apartheid system would be a good start. Recognising Palestine as a state would also be good.
The US (and, to be fair, the UK) are collectively in the process of throwing figurative shit onto an entire generation of people in the Middle East. Do you think US and UK citizens should suffer retaliation? Hamas are awful. Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is also awful.
But this was all started by the Palestinians. The Israelis are desperate for peace. The rockets must stop before Israel does anything more.
And as long as Iran is wagging the dog, nothing will change. Expecting the Israelis to stop protecting themselves is just silly. Nation recognition goes both ways. Israel has earned their right to stay. And has made concessions in the past, which they’ve immediately regretted. They’ve ceded land back, only to have the rockets move onto that land, closer to Jerusalem.
And I was talking to Hamas. Obviously you don’t want anymore dead. Who truly does?
Of course Israel is there to stay. But they could be a lot better about their treatment of Palestinians. Removing their apartheid system would be a good start. Recognising Palestine as a state would also be good.
The Israelis aren’t stupid, unlike most Western nations. They can see that, given the slightest opportunity, the Muslims will swamp any other nations citizens. They are not going to give the Muslims the chance to do that, either in their own nation or in a tightly-integrated next-neighbour. The Israelis are being incessantly attacked, they are in a state of war, they and their citizrenry and their attackers know it, and Israel is under war-time laws.
The same is true of most Western nations these days, although most of us don’t see many direct external attacks other than from illegal immigrants. We need the same sort of control Israel exercises, but we are too damned stupid and too bloody PC to do it.
Also, I meant to ask … “political prisoners”? AFAIK, Israel does not now and never has held any political prisoners, any more than Australia, Canada, the UK, the US, Germany, France, Japan, or any other civilized nation does. Israel holds criminal criminals, muslim murderers and terrorists whose stated intent is to slaughter all Israelis by driving them into the sea.
The fact that you can even begin to equate Israel’s actions in its own defense with the actions of muslim terrorists is simply incredible. That five times as many deaths have occurred in gaza as in Israel is meaningless. The stupid bastards put missile launching sites in residential areas and military headquarters in private homes. They do it on purpose. That Israeli retaliation has killed so few muslims is a testament to how careful Israel is being.
Put it this way: the muslims have launched something close to a thousand missiles at Israel, attempting to kill Israelis. If Israel had simply responded proportionately by launching a thousand missiles at gaza, attempting to kill gazans, how many gazans do you think would be dead right now? A hundred thousand? A quarter million? More? The fact that the Israelis are hugely better at both offense and defense has no bearing on this question.
“The US (and, to be fair, the UK) are collectively in the process of throwing figurative shit onto an entire generation of people in the Middle East.”
Hmm. So much for Obama’s love tour of all things Muslim. Ever hear of 9/11/01? Those weren’t soldiers. I want to kill anyone who does this to me, unlike you.
Islam is a cancer. Muslims are the enemy of humanity. I wasn’t kidding on 9/11 when I said that Bush’s response should have been to nuke Mecca as a warning shot. Nor was I kidding about bombing muslim countries into the stone age by destroying all of their infrastructure and keeping them there by re-bombing them as often as necessary.
“… I did not know that we were sending Guard units to Afghanistan. Does not seem smart to me.”
No. And I am kinda surprised you did not know this. Fifty governors and their states have rolled over for the Fed leviathan and either already sent or will send Guard units to the Sandbox, or The Suck. Including my own state of Vermont. Rest assured, if I was governor here, the Feds would do this over my dead carcass. Guard units are meant to stay and guard their states, flood control, disaster relief, those kinds of things, not run ice-cream and steak convoys on IED-laden highways from across the borders to the fucking Green Zones. Needless to say, I hope your former Sunday School student is OK on this latest tour. Outrageous.
As for Eretz I’sra’el and the surrounding hadji countries, I say again, let them have at it; none of our biz. There is plenty of blame on both sides over the decades, atrocity piled on atrocity, and why we send our goddamned tax money without our consent and our armaments over there to fuel the flames is beyond me, other than, of course, as usual, enriching and empowering the usual suspects who run our criminal State. And I agree with Bob somewhat on what our response should have been right after 9/11: I would have sent spec ops teams in concert with our friends’ spec ops guys to hit the Saudi princes who finance the madrassahs, and any and all of the hadji terror network operations they could locate. Another such attack on us and yeah, go ahead and nuke Mecca, Medina, Cairo, whatever. Quit fucking around with these murderous germs.
I knew that we were sending Guard units to Iraq. I did not know that we were sending Guard units to Afghanistan. Not a good idea.
Sending the Guard units to Iraq did not work so well. My son’s Marine battalion replaced a Guard unit in Iraq in 2005 and “fixed” an area on the Syrian border by having 12 FOBs with 40 Marines each. The Guard unit was locked up in a small city and never ventured out beyond their walls.
In fact, during 2005 and 2006, the Surge, we had half of the Marine Corps in Iraq at any given moment. Nothing bad about Guard units but they just do not get the training that Marine units do.
I cannot conceive of any circumstances under which National Guard forces should be deployed overseas. Not even if we were in a active war. I don’t think NG troops should ever set foot outside their own states, other than perhaps to assist in disaster recovery in a neighboring state or in neighboring parts of Canada, assuming the other state or province asked for assistance.
As to deploying militia in a shooting war zone, what kind of cretins do we have making these decisions?
The kind who don’t send their own children off to war.
What da three of you just said: agreed in full. Icing on da cake, of course, being SteveF’s: I hate deep in my guts and in the twisting coils of my black heart and throughout whatever part of my brain is still left, in sinew and bone, the fucking sons of bitches and chickenhawk cocksuckers who keep screaming for war in every generation but never go themselves or send their own children to the bloody, gaping jaws of Moloch, as they worship Mammon back home. I will see them and meet them in Hell when the time comes.