Wednesday, January 23, 2013

THIS JUST IN! FAKING IT!

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

AS NEWS EMERGED THAT BEYONCE'S SINGING AT THE INAUGURATION MONDAY WAS FAKE, PRINCESS BARRY O HAD TO ADMIT THAT HER FAKING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM WAS A LOT LIKE "THE FAKING I'VE DONE THE LAST FOUR YEARS."

PRINCESS BARRY DECLARED THAT FROM NOW ON WHEN HE WAS CALLED OUT FOR CAVING AND SELLING OUT HE WOULD SIMPLY DECLARE HE HAD BEEN LIP SYNCHING.  HE THEN INSTRUCTED THE WHITE HOUSE PLUS-SIZE SPOKESMODEL JAY CARNEY TO SING "I THINK I LOVE YOU" WHILE HE PRETENDED TO SING BACK UP.



FROM THE TCI WIRE:





Yesterday in the United States it was time for a for-show inauguration. The real inauguration took place on Sunday but celebrity Barack Obama couldn't compete with football and Honey Boo Boo so he was sworn in again on Monday and everyone pretended that was an inauguration. The White House noted Sunday (link contains photos), "Today, in two separate, private ceremonies, President Obama and Vice President Biden were officially sworn into office, marking the start of the second term." At Press TV, David Swanson observes:


In fact, he runs through a list of men, women, and children on Tuesdays, hung over from inaugurations or not, and picks whom to murder and murders them.
Meet the new boss who, upon his inauguration, declared that the right to life is unalienable. Let me be clear, that does not mean he cannot take yours.
We are not supposed to call it murder, of course, because it is properly assassination. Except that no public figures are being assassinated; 98% of those killed are not targeted at all; some are targeted for suspicious behavior without knowing their names; one type of suspicious behavior is the act of retrieving the dead and wounded from a previous strike; and those targeted are not targeted for politics but for resisting illegal occupations. Moreover, an assassination is a type of murder.
We're not supposed to call it murder, nonetheless, because it sounds more objective to call it killing. But murder is a type of killing, specifically unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought. Killing by accident is not murder and not what the president is doing. Killing legally is not murder and not what the president is doing - at least not as far as anyone knows or according to any interpretation of law put forward. Killing indirectly by encouraging poverty or environmental destruction or denial of healthcare may be things the president is doing, but they are not murder and not drone wars.



Or as Media Channel's Danny Schechter puts it at Z-Net, "Dr. King is remembered for 'I have a dream.' Barack Obama for 'I have a drone.' How sad is that?" The Center for Economic and Policy Research's Dean Baker observes at CounterPunch, "In 2008, President Obama ran on a platform of hope and change. After four years, the biggest change is that there is no hope."


As Susan (On the Edge) points out, "Anybody who had even remotely followed his career knew this guy was trouble."  But who will follow the money?  In his first term, not a lot of people did. Now he's attempting to ease one of the few out the door.  Saturday,  Ernesto Londono (Washington Post) reported:


The mandate and funding of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which was established in October 2004 and is known as SIGIR, expires in March. It will mark the end of an effort to document and fix the myriad failings of the most ambitious U.S. rebuilding effort since the Marshall Plan. The extent to which U.S. military personnel abused their positions during the war is a part of the legacy of the deeply unpopular conflict that has gone largely unnoticed. 


Barack was sworn in for his second term yesterday.  In all the hagiography, did you find any reality?  The State Department is over billions of US tax dollars that are going into Iraq.  Who's watching that money?  The Inspector General of the State Department?

There is no Inspector General.  Barack refused to appoint one for four years.  For his entire first term there was no Inspector General for the State Department.  The last Inspector General was Howard Krongard who stepped down at the start of 2008.  The Inspector General is responsible for ferreting out abuse, fraud and mismanagement. 

September 11, 2012, there was an attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi and a CIA annex.  Tomorrow Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  In the December 19th snapshot, we covered the [PDF format warning] unclassified report on the investigation led by former Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Retired General Mike Mullen (former Chair of the Joint Chiefs).  December 31st, a second report [PDF format warning] "Flashing Red: A Special Report On The Terrorist Attack At Benghazi" was issued by the Senate Committee On Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.  Both reports fault State for not preparing and anticipating.  Maybe Hillary needs to be asked if lack of supervision -- such as not having an Inspector General -- allowed State to go soggy when they should have been strong?  Now if they failed at the basics of protection, why are we trusting them in other areas?

The posts of Inspector General were created for a reason.  What's very clear is that there is no sunshine in Barack Obama's administration.  The Inspector General of the State Department is an office that was established during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration.  For fifty years, all presidents were in compliance -- even Richard Nixon.  Barack Obama is the first one to go a term without appointing anyone to that position.  That's outrageous.  It's equally outrageous that the 'functioning press' has forgotten to mention these facts in the last four years.

For the current Fiscal Year, State requested $4.8 billion for Iraq (State and USAID).  That kind of money needs to be watch dogged.  Hillary Clinton should be asked to explain why it's not being watch dogged.



Turning to repeating versus reporting. AFP repeats that 400 prisoners and detainees have been released. That 'report' is based on what Nouri's government says. Missing from the AFP repeat is the fact that provincial governors are stating the Ministry of Justice refuses to hand over a list of the names of people allegedy released. The Voice of Russia repeats the claim made today in Baghdad by Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani that 888 prisoners have now been released.  No one wants to talk about -- or repeat? -- the reality that provincial governors have asked the Ministry of Justice for a list of those released but have been denied such a list.  When departments are unable to document their actions, the appropriate response is skepticism.   Need another reason to be skeptical?  Azzaman reports "that the female prisoners claimed to have been released by the Iraqi authorities at a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Shahristani did not return to their parents."  Where are those women?


In addition,  All Iraq News notes that Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc is calling Nouri's release of 355 prisoners this week as proof that innocent people are populating Iraqi prisons and detention centers.  This has been the assertion of many protesters.  Over 400 women are imprisoned due to the 'crime' of being related to some man the government wants to arrest but can't find.  al-Shahristani may be seen as a trusted source by AFP and The Voice of Russia but not everyone sees him as so honest.  Alsumaria reports that Deputy Speaker Arif Tayfur has stated that Nouri's point-person on the protests, Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani is not negotiating with the protesters

Equally true, the prison-system needs to be cleared up immediately.  What's going on is not only illegal and inhumane, it's hurting Iraq's reputation.  Al Arabiya reported Saturday, "Twenty Saudi detainees in Iraqi prisons were tortured after the Iraqi national team lost the Gulf Cup football tournament to the UAE in a match supervised by a Saudi referee, according to Thamer Balheed, head of the Saudi detainees in Iraq."  True or false, that story was all over Arabic social media this weekend.  





RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"
"At least 25 dead in today's violence (46 injured)"
"ExxonMobil, Nouri's ongoing problem"
"Kat's Korner: Taylor Swift glows on Red"
"Ruth's Radio Report." 
"Barry O and the Dronettes,"
"Protests, bombings, another day in Nouri's Iraq"
"Hejira"
"Nouri protects his wives in Tahrir Square"
"I Hate The War"



"His fans wish he were someone else"


"THIS JUST IN! HE'S SO WEAK!"