Saturday, May 26, 2012

THIS JUST IN! THE BAD NEWS KEEPS COMING!

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX -- THE KOOL-AID TABLE


CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O HAS BEEN ANNOUNCING HE HAS CUT SPENDING AND RELYING ON A STUDY TO PROVE HE'S RIGHT BUT THAT STUDY IS MORE THAN FLAWED, IT'S OUT RIGHT WRONG.  AND THE A.P. FACT CHECK BRINGS BAD NEWS FOR BARRY O -- AS MOST FACT CHECKS DO.

EVEN IN AUSTRALIA, THEY'RE NOTING THAT BARRY O IS WORSE THAN BULLY BOY BUSH:


Obama has undermined more individual rights and hoarded more presidential power than Bush ever did. It's not that he has simply failed to roll back Bush's anti-terror excesses. (Although that is true, as well.) It's that Obama has trumped them. More than 10 years after the September 11 attacks, the White House is still amassing extra security powers. On December 31 last year, Obama signed the National Defence Authorisation Act.
This act allows the military to arrest and indefinitely detain anybody within American borders, and without any judicial authorisation.
This power is quite an increase. Under the Bush administration the military could only legally arrest and detain people in other countries. American citizens were protected by an 1878 act banning domestic military deployment. Obama no longer observes this legal nicety.
And Obama has claimed the right to assassinate any American citizen he deems a terrorist threat, at any time, according to nothing but his judgment, anywhere in the world. As a former CIA chief recently pointed out, while the President needs a court order to eavesdrop on Americans abroad, he does not need a court order to kill them.
 
 AND AS BAD AS THINGS ARE GLOBALLY FOR BARRY O'S IMAGE, IT APPEARS MORE AND MORE THAT DOMESTIC WILL BE BARRY O'S BIGGEST NIGHTMARE.




FROM THE TCI WIRE:



 
Starting in Russia. Yesterday it was learned that four Russian bikers were grabbed in central Iraq by Nouri's security forces, imprisoned and beaten.  The four are: Oleg Kapkayev of Saint Petersburg, Alexander Vardanyants  and Maxim Ignatyev of Vladimir and Oleg Maximov of Tula.  Russian Legal Information Agency reports that the wife Oleg Maximo spoke to her husband and he told her they were being moved to another location. 
 Dmitry Rogozin is the Deputy Premier of Russian Government tasked with the defense and space industry.
Задержанные в Ираке байкеры уже находятся в Посольстве РФ. Мотоциклы пока не отдали. Спасибо всем, кто помогал

 
That Tweet reads: 'The Russian bikers detained in Iraq are at the Embassy of the Russian Federation [in Baghdad].  Motorcylces have not been returned yet.  Thanks to everyone  who helped.'  The Moscow Times notes, "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin has been forging good relations with the biker community in the past two years, riding motorcycles and attending biker events."   RIA Novosti adds, "The four men will leave for Russia on Saturday morning, the bikers' lawyer Alexander Orlov, also a member of the Moscow-based motorcycle club Rolling Anarchy MCC (RAMCC), told RIA Novosti."
 
As many are noticing, the US press has ignored the story completely.  That may be due to the fact that there's a detail that's inconsistent -- not on-message -- with Barack Obama's current campaign for a second term as US President.   Ekaterina Saviba (Gazeta) reports  it today:

They came to Iraq on May 17 and were detained by the Iraqi military on May 20. "Our attempt to go towards Baghdad failed because of Yanks in Hummers – they didn't let us in. Our guys decided to go round the American checkpoints and pass north of them," report motorcyclists' friends on the Russian motorcycling forum Ruriders.ru. "They managed to ride several dozen kilometers a day, while having long heartfelt conversations with local authorities, all while the outside temperature was 42 Celsius."

Again, that was also in yesterday's reports.  The Russian bikers, en route to Baghdad, were unable to enter the city and had to go around due to Americans blocking them in Hummers, due to American checkpoints.  The 20th was Sunday and the US may have activated some branch still in Iraq (there are many) to put up checkpoints in advance of the meet-up in Baghdad.  They may have pulled the units stationed outside of Iraq -- in Kuwait for example -- back in to set up those checkpoints.
 
Along with the usual Russian contingent which staffs the country's Baghdad embassy, other Russian officials were in the country this week as Nouri's Iraq hosted talks with Iran about the nuclear program.  Ali Arouzi (NECN News -- link is text and video) reports, "International nuclear talks being held in Baghdad this week with Iran ended inconclusively with both sides at a stalemate."  A stalemate grows in Nouri's Baghdad?  What a complete lack of surprise?
 
The ongoing political stalemate in Iraq could see Nouri al-Maliki face a no-confidence vote that, if successful, would remove him as prime minister.  Alsumaria reports that the 'Badr brigade' says this would be the worst thing that could happen.  The Badr brigade only split or 'split' from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq when it had to (or risk ISCI being outlawed).  They still take their orders from Ammar al-Hakim and the US has been very successful in buying al-Hakim's support for Nouri.  al-Hakim has already made statements like those made similar statements out of his own mouth.  Now he uses the Badr brigade as a megaphone in the hopes that this will give the (false) appearance of a wave of support for Nouri surfacing. 
 
How did things get to this point? 
 
Iraq's currently in Political Stalemate II.  Political Stalemate I followed the March 7, 2010 elections in which Iraiqya -- headed by Ayad Allawi -- came in first and Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law came in second.  Despite herculean efforts on Nouri's part -- some legal but most questionable or outright illegal -- to walk away with the election, he was runner up. But Nouri wanted to be Miss Iraq, he wanted the crown and felt he did very well in the swimsuit competition.  He had the backing of the White House and the Iranian government. for his desired second term as prime minister.  The Iraqi Constitution, the election results and the will of the Iraqi people were all against Nouri; however, Barack Obama doesn't care about rule of law or democracy.  He wants what he wants when he wants it.  And like Bully Boy Bush before him, Barack packed a chubby for Nouri. 
 
So for over eight months things were at a standstill.  Then in November 2010, the US brokered an agreement among the political blocs.  This is known as the Erbil Agreement (because it was signed off in Erbil).   In exchange for giving Nouri a second term, the US insisted, the blocs would receive concessions that they wanted.  This is the agreement that was agreed to.
 
The Erbil Agreement wasn't about all the political blocs saying, "We don't want anything.  Give Nouri a second term!"  To get the blocs on board it was  necessary for them to be offered arrangements that would benefit them.  And with everyone agreeing to the deal -- including Nouri -- and with the US government brokering it and insisting it was sound, the political blocs fel tthey deal was solid.
 
Nouri used it to become prime minister-designate and then, in December 2010, beging his second term as prime minister.  But that's all that happened.  He refused to implement the agreement.  He offered one excuse after another as is his way.  He distracts and stalls and hopes the other side gives up.  He's done that over and over.
 
By last summer, the Kurds had enough of the stalling.  They publicly demanded that the Erbil Agreement be implemented.  Their call was quickly joined by Iraqiya and Moqtada al-Sadr.  And it wasn't implemented.  And it's still not implemented.  April 28th, there was another Erbil meet-up and among those participating were Moqtada, KRG President Massoud Barzani, Allawi and Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.  In their meeting they agreed that Nouri needed to implement the agreement or face a no-confidence vote.  They also agreed that Moqtada al-Sadr's 18-point plan needed to be implemented.  Moqtada delivered the message, implement the Erbil Agreement or face a vote of no-confidence.  As the end of the month gets closer, the number of MPs reportedly  willing to vote out Nouri grows.  This week alone, it's grown from over 163 to 200.
 
A list of potential replacements has been named.  All on the list come from the National Alliance (a Shi'ite group which ISCI, State of Law, Moqtada's bloc and others belong to).  Kitabat reminds that the National Alliance is supposed to be naming a single choice of who should be Nouri's replacement.  But through it all, Moqtada has repeatedly noted publicly that Nouri can stop this at any point prior to the vote.  All he has to do is implement the Erbil Agreement. 
 
Not only does he refuse to, the White House refuses to call that out.  They brokered the agreement, they gave the political blocs their word that the agreement was legal and would hold.  The White House brokered the agreement and swore it would be upheld.  They have betrayed the Iraqi people.  These are the betrayals that lead people to stop trusting the US.  These are the type of betrayals the people of Iran spent decades living with.  It's not smart to betray people, it's not smart to make a promise and not keep it.
 
 
And all those promises
That you made me from the start
Were filled with emptiness
From the desert of your heart
Every sweet caress
Was just your second best
Broken promises
-- "All Those Promises," written by Janis Ian, first appears on her Folk Is The New Black
 
  


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