He can't help it

This would be comical if people weren't killed and a very dangerous situation unfolding.

Netanyahu just can't help it. Any opportunity to give Barack Obama a good bitch slapping is more than he can resist, and the combination of the Gaza flotilla and a planned meeting with the prez was a golden one.

Now the US will probably have to veto a UN resolution, and the Turks are going to get a lesson on US priorities. That was an act of war, but not for our best friends, so shut up, Turkey.

It's going to take a firm hand in Washington to calm this crisis down, and Obama is dangerously weak and disconnected from everything but politics. The Israelis know, so do the Turks.The situation could get very ugly in a hurry.

And listen Obama, Netanyahu will call on you when he feels like it, and not before. Bitch.

UPDATE: Gee, what happened to the Korea crisis?

DPRK in the dock

Stephen Gowans has posted an interesting discussion of the sinking of the South Korean ship, and all the evidence that it was not done by the North Koreans.

Unfortunately, the points have all been ignored by the media, and it is now accepted as fact that the North Koreans did sink the ship. Only the Chinese appear somewhat unconvinced. The Japanese are so panicked that they renewed the US bases on Okinawa, the South Koreans are girding up their loins, and Hillary Clinton has adopted the most severe, schoolmarm from hell attitude yet. Scary!

The upshot of all this remains to be seen. If the North Koreans are innocent, their paranoia will be heightened to a fever pitch. It won't take much to push them over the edge. It's a situation that demands a nicety of judgment that the Obama administration has seldom, if ever, shown.

Why, why, why???

This is a must see video about the gulf oil spill.
It's very hard to understand why the US government is trying to hide what is going on in the gulf. The people in the video are talking about real solutions to problems that are being covered up. Once again, why?

Proposal

Since those crazy Pakistanis believe all kinds of weird conspiracy theories, I propose setting up modern madrassas there, where reading, understanding and believing the NYT is taught.

Here comes the cavalry

Besieged Arizonans, trembling beneath their beds as the relentless tide of illegal Mexicans rolls over their state, must be breathing a sign of relief upon the news that Obama is sending 1200 National Guard troops to the border, plus $500mn to beef up other stuff.

I certainly don't envy those troops, summer in southern Arizona will give them a taste of hell, though they might have already had that in Iraq. At least you can get a drink in AZ, and Mexicans don't use IEDs, yet.

Obama once again swings right with the wind. It doesn't take much, a slight zephyr sends him spinning like a dradle. The main reason for illegal immigration is that US agriculture needs workers, but that is now conveniently forgotten by our intellectual president. Now even more dangerous and expensive routes will be found for the desperate people that work in the fields. More will die.

Americans might have to spend another nickle for their lettuce. Shit!

Terror War

Gareth Porter reports that the new new strategy for Kandahar will be night raids using information supplied by Wali Karzai, the Mayor of Kabul's brother.

The previous offensive in Marjah has just been described by COIN genius McChrystal as a 'bleeding ulcer', that was to supply a 'government in a box', that government has seemingly remained inside the box, perhaps finding the it snug and cozy and rich in creature comforts.

With the demise of the government in a box strategy, you have to go to war with the government you have, and that's Karzai. He will supply 'intelligence' about his enemies, and McChrystal will send out his death squads. Winning hearts and minds will be replaced by blowing out brains. Snatch a few guys, torture them, and then there are more targets for the death squads, a.k.a. 'our boys'.

And not only that. The terror war is undergoing a major expansion, as presidential candidate Petraeus takes time off to devise a new expansion of death and kidnapping squads into Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and God knows where else.

So the War on Terror morphs into the Terror War. Drones, kidnapping and torture, death squads; onward to Victory, whatever that is.

Who do you believe?

The New York Times, today:

BP, the company responsible for cleaning up the spill, says it is now able to siphon 3,000 of the 5,000 barrels of oil flowing daily from the ruptured well beneath the gulf with the mile-long tube in inserted last Sunday into the riser pipe.

McClatchy, today:

The latest video footage of the leaking Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico show that oil is escaping at the rate of 95,000 barrels — 4 million gallons — a day, nearly 20 times greater than the 5,000 barrel a day estimate BP and government scientists have been citing for nearly three weeks, an engineering professor told a congressional hearing Wednesday.

The figure of 5,000 barrels a day or 210,000 gallons that BP and the federal government have been using for weeks is based on satellite observations of the surface. But NASA’s best satellite-based instruments can’t see deep into the waters of the Gulf, where much of the oil from the gusher 5,000 feet below the surface seems to be floating.

Clear failure

It's now clear that Obama's response to the Great Oil Spill has been one of obfuscation, his interest only in avoiding political damage, and protecting the interests of Big Oil.

The US Coast Guard is working as the private police force of BP, threatening reporters with arrest for trying to film an oil covered beach. The NOAA serves as spokespersons and shills for BP, assisting in minimizing damage and hiding information from scientists and the public.

But all this is entirely consistent with his other policies and their implementation. Hiding behind his words and calm demeanor, the policies of Bush/Cheney have been continued in almost every way. War without end, curtailment of civil liberties, economic plundering of the middle class and the ongoing destitution and misery of the underclass, handouts to the financial elite and the owners of the insanely expensive health system, the failures are beginning to multiply their effects in the country and in the world.

Sometimes I try to imagine what the guy is thinking. Is he convinced in what he's doing, or is he trapped by his lack of courage and convictions, or does he just not care? To the victims of these insane policies, and that will be most of the world, I guess it doesn't matter. What he has made clear is that there is no hope in the political system, and what hope there might be is still below the horizon.

Merrily we roll along

Glenn Greenwald goes back and forth with Matt Yglesias about whether Obama is curtailing civil liberties because of public opinion, Glenn saying (rightly) no.

Many good points are made refuting the argument, but I think he misses the biggest one, that the administration has deliberately used the press to generate public opinion that favors curtailing civil liberties. Though perhaps used is not the right word, rather Obama and the press have skipped their way down the merry lane to fascism hand in hand, officials leaking a constant drip of cherry picked information, and the press Oh-ing and Ah-ing breathlessly at each drop.

The act is, by now, so well rehearsed and polished that its almost predictable. Each network has their own style in presenting the facts, but to my mind, the worst is PBS with their panel of 'experts', usually interviewed by the odious Judy Woodruff.

That they're able to make this work with only the ITMC (Incompetent Terrorist of the Month Club) is a testament to the addle-brained US public. If they were any smarter, there might have to be real attacks.

That was quick

If Clinton isn't just blowing smoke, trying to stampede China into the new sanctions she says they have agreed to, the other alternative is panic, and a very watered down version of what the US was hoping for. We shall see.

Open window

While it is important that Turkey and Brazil have had the courage to defy the big blue meanie and sign a deal with Iran, it must have been obvious from the get-go that the US would try to negate its meaning and keep beating the drum for more sanctions. In addition to negating its meaning, there will be a push to break the deal outright. Let's see what Obama/Clinton have up their sleeve.

In real terms, it matters little if Iran stops its enrichment program or not, the US will always insist that they are cheating and doing clandestine enrichment, and continue the sanctions. Just ask Saddam. The effort has nothing to do with Iran getting a bomb, it's about regime change and the installation of another puppet ruler. Only that will end the sanctions.

It's going to be interesting to see how China plays it now. Whether it gave any backing to Turkey or Brazil, further sanctions were not in its best interest. This opens a window to opposing new sanctions, but the window won't be open for long.

He just noticed

NYT:

President Obama angrily denounced the finger-pointing among the three companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a “ridiculous spectacle,” and vowed on Friday to end what he called the “cozy relationship” between the government and the oil industry that has existed for a decade or more.

Buy, boys!

The PPT (Plunge Protection Team) springs into action!

Incompetent, or fiendishly clever?

The newest member of the 'Incompetent Terrorist of the Month Club' has taken all the usual kudos from the media, matched only by the heroism of the passengers/street vendors that are the only thing between us and a terrorist spawned disaster of untold magnitude. Maybe.

Joe Lieberman's answer to this awesome tide of awfulness is typical, since we are forced by activist judges to 'Mirandize' US terrorists, and thus severely hamper our law enforcement agencies, a simple expedient would be to strip these dastards of their citizenship in one fell executive swoop, and then allow the unchained minions of law and order act, well, lawlessly. 24, baby.

For now, the already expanded no-fly list will now be sped up, as well as super-sized. Panels of experts will glumly inform us that we need to sacrifice our 'rights', otherwise more and more incompetents will be emboldened to try to set off their bozo bombs.

This guy didn't even want to die in the attack. Suiciders being all the rage in jihadi circles, such a faux pas must have raised some eyebrows back in Waziristan. Here it was pretty well ignored. No one has raised the possibility that he didn't want to succeed, and just wanted to cause more mass hysteria.

Funny

President Obama speaking at the White House Correspondent's Dinner:

Jonas brothers are here, they're out there somewhere. Sasha annd Malia are huge fans, but boys, don't get any ideas. Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming. You think I'm joking?

I mean, "Ha, ha!", what?

(h/t A Tiny Revolution)

Some more fun from Barack baby: