THIS JUST IN! UNCLE CRACKER SAY WHAT?

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

POOR CRAZY RON BRYNAERT, WHO KNEW HE COULD PICK UP WIFI UNDER WHATEVER  BRIDGE HE'S SET UP CAMP CURRENTLY?

THE ONE TIME RAW STORY EMPLOYEE GOT FIRED AND IT'S BEEN NOTHING BUT 'YOU GO GIRL!' WHISPERS AND ATTACKS AND CONSPIRACY TALK EVER SINCE.

REMEMBER THE CONGRESSMAN WHO TWEETED THE PHOTO OF HIS OWN COCK AND THEN RESIGNED?  NOT SO SWEARS CONSPIRACY RONNIE!  SOMEONE ELSE TWEETED IT!

THAT DOESN'T EXPLAIN WHY THE CONGRESSMAN WOULD RESIGN BUT FACTS AND LOGIC WERE LEFT BEHIND LONG AGO BY LITTLE RONNIE WHO TRASHED SOMEONE IN A TWEET FALSELY AND WHEN CONFRONTED WHINED HE NEEDED ATTENTION AND HE KNEW IT WAS FALSE AT THE TIME BUT HE NEEDED ATTENTION.

MOST RECENTLY WHITE RONNIE HAS TAKEN TO LECTURING THE COUNTRY ABOUT WHAT IS AND WHAT IS NOT RACISM.  NOW USING THE N-WORD IS CONSIDERED TO BE RACIST IF YOU'RE WHITE.  BUT NOT IF YOU'RE RONNIE.

APPARENTLY RON BRYNAERT IS THE ONE WHO HANDS OUT THE PASSES TO WHITE PEOPLE.  REMEMBER, DON'T BLAME JOHN MAYER, BLAME RONNIE.

RONNIE FELT THE NEED TO USE HIS LITTLE BRAIN TO DEFEND QUENTIN TARANTINO AGAINST CHARGES OF RACISM AND HE BRAGGED ABOUT ALL QUENTIN HAD DONE FOR 'THE BLACKS.'  BUT WHEN STAN POINTED OUT THE REALITY, WHEN STAN CRUNCHED THE NUMBERS AND FOUND THAT LESS THAN 18% OF THE LEAD ROLES IN TARANTINO'S FILMS WERE AFRICAN-AMERICAN, TRASHY RON COULDN'T STAND IT.

WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN OBVIOUS TO ANYONE WHO WASN'T A RACIST WAS NOW OBVIOUS TO EVEN RON.  SO DOES RON APOLOGIZE?

HELL TO THE NAH!  WHITE MAN ATTACK!

ALL WE CAN SAY IS, WE PITY YOU, RON.  YOU'RE SO UGLY YOU LOOK INBRED.

BUT MOST IMPORTANT, WE'D NEVER BE STUPID ENOUGH TO ATTACK MARCIA'S COUSIN.  OH, RON, LIFE IS ABOUT TO GET INTERESTING FOR YOU.


 FROM THE TCI WIRE:

A major bombing in Iraq today has again underscored how there is no peace or end of war for the country the US invaded in 2003 and now controls via the puppet Nouri al-Maliki who was first installed in 2006.   Today was the culmination of the Arbaeen rituals which AFP estimated resulted in 15 million pilgrims going to Karbala over the last tend days.  They explain, "Arbaeen marks 40 days after the Ashura anniversary commemorating the slaying of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's most revered figures, by the armies of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD.  Sad songs blared from loudspeakers throughout the city and black flags fluttered alongside pictures of Hussein and his half-brother Imam Abbas, both of whom are buried in the city."  A pilgrim from Basra explained how long it had taken him to get to Karbala on foot and how he was taking part to defy terrorism.  That was before the bomb struck.   CNN reports it was a car bomb in nearby Musayyib. Mu Xuequan (Xinhua) adds, "A police source in Babil province told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that the blast took place at a car park when pilgrims returned from the Shiite holy city of Karbala in southern Iraq."  BBC News cites a police source for their news that "the bomb went off close to a bus stop where coaches that carry pilgrims from Karbala to other Iraqi cities drop and collect them."  Reuters quotes eye witness Ali Sabbar, "I was getting a sandwich when a very strong explosion rocked the place and the blast threw me away.  When i regained my senses and stood up, I saw dozens of bodies. Many cars were set on fire.  I just left the place and didn't even participate in the evacuation of the victims."   NBC News Wire Services quotes teacher Ibrahim Mohammed stating, "The explosion shook the whole block and smashed the windows of my house.  I ran to the scene of the explosion only to find charred bodies and burning cars.  There were women screaming and searching for their missing children." 

 

Michael Peel and Abeer Allam (Financial Times of London) count 27 dead.  Reuters notes at least sixty people were injured.  KUNA points out, "Over the past few days, Iraqi authorities have carried out tight security measures in the areas, including air surveillance."  Deutsche Welle points out that today's "violence hit despite" those security measures.  Omar Al Saleh (Al Jazeera) observes, "We understand that security is very tight, and it's obvious that this is a breach of security, this is a setback for the security of this country."

 

Let's move from real violence to pretense and also to money -- the US taxpayer money. 

 

 

First up, Victoria Nuland.  We've covered Icky Vicky repeatedly.  For those late to the party, she was the Deputy National Security Advisor to Dick Cheney during Bully Boy Bush's first term which allowed her to take Dick's plans for world domination and help make them happen.  She is not a neocon just because she worked for Dick Cheney on 'national security.'  She is also a neocon because she married into the Kagan family which is the neocon family. 

 

In the 60s, the US government's war on Vietnam allowed some Communists in the US to take stands on peace and on fairness.  It allowed other Communists to go running for a Daddy to comfort them from their night terrors.  Donald Kagan is one of those former lefties who ended up a conservative -- although this transformation was also said to be in part as a result of Cornell creating a Black Studies program.  He is one of the leading lights (or dimmest bulbs) in what is the neoconservative movement.  With the Project for the New American Century in 1997, they began publicly calling for war on Iraq.  Donald Kagan is Victoria's father-in-law.  She's married to Robert Kagan (who is a neocon -- and probably their strongest theorist -- but he rejects the label).  Her brother-in-law is Fred Kagan and her sister-in-law is Kimberly Kagan.  Donald, Fred and Robert all signed the Project for the New American Century screed entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses."  Fred has a wide ranging background with a variety of fields and expertises.   Most recently, as Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Washington Post) exposed, it was learned that he and Kimbergly Kagan were advising then Gen David Petraeus while he was heading up the US mission in Afghanistan.  Kimberly Kagan is seen as the most personable of the Kagans.  She married Fred and is liked by the press because she's seen as less intense as the others (including Nuland).  She's in charge of the Institute for the Study of War.  Victoria and her family all wanted war on Iraq. 

 

Somehow it was decided, after Barack Obama was elected president based on his pretense of being against the Iraq War, that Victoria Nuland was the perfect face for the State Dept -- begging the question of had anyone seen that face?

 

At the State Dept, Victoria Nuland usually handles the daily press briefing which allows her to ignore Iraq.  Yesterday was one of those rare times she bothered to mention Iraq.

 

QUESTION: On Iraq, what do you make of the protest in Iraq? I mean, obviously, there are more – they're now in Anbar, in Mosul, and they're even – they've moved to the – blocking the highway that connects Iraq into Syria and Jordan, the international highway, and they're protesting against the – Maliki's regime, their government, they're against what they call sectarian practices, arresting women and torturing them. That's – these are their claims. What do you make of these protests?


MS. NULAND: Well, first, let me just make the general statement that we always make, which is that we support the right of peaceful protest around the world. That said, we have been concerned by violence by parties during these protests, and we call on all those involved to exercise restraint, to respect that right of peaceful expression, and to apply that right responsibly without inciting further tensions. And any actions by any party to subvert the rule of law or provoke ethnic and sectarian tensions risks undermining the significant progress that Iraq has made towards peace and stability, and the important work that the U.S. and Iraq have been doing together.
So we want to see these difficult issues settled through consultation among Iraqi leaders, and we want to see them reach an agreement on the path forward for Iraq.

 

The Iraqi protests have not been violent.  They've been taking place since December 21st and only one has had any violence -- when an unpopular politician showed up, refused to take the stage and his guards fired on protesters.  I filled in for Rebecca last night and noted that Nuland was deliberately distorting reality in order to play the protesters as 'wrong doers.'  Sure enough, the Albany Times, reporting on her remarks at the press conference, headlines their piece The Albany Tribune headlines this 'news,' "U.S. Concerned Over Violent Protests in Iraq."

 

She knew exactly what she was doing.

 

It's interesting, isn't it, that she didn't rush to talk about the need to allow the press to do their work?  As noted in Friday's snapshot, Nouri used the military to keep reporters away from protests so that they couldn't cover them. 

 

In today's press briefing, Nuland experienced a little push back on the topic of Pakistan and on the topic of Iraq.  Here she is taking offense to a pretty fair characterization of her lackadaisical, flat affect when it comes to Iraq.

 

QUESTION: Iraq.

 

MS. NULAND: Yeah.

 

QUESTION: The country is teetering nearly on the verge of explosion yet we are – I am struck by your position towards what's going on in Iraq. I mean, there is a threat that Kurdistan may break away. There are elements of – there is heightened sectarian tension, there is violence going on every day, and so on. And your reaction is like that of Switzerland. I mean, the United States has invested blood and treasure, to repeat the common term, in Iraq. Yet, share with us what are you doing behind the scene to basically mitigate this explosive situation?

 

MS. NULAND: Well, I would completely reject your characterization of our dialogue and our interaction with Iraq and Iraqis. We have been extraordinarily active for many, many months now with Iraqis of all stripes and all groups, and maintaining the highest level contact with leaders across the country in support of political dialogue among them to protect and preserve the gains that they have made, and the constitutional structure of the country that provides for human rights protections and power sharing among the various different Iraqi groups.

So you know that we want to see Iraq continue on a stable, peaceful, democratic trajectory. That's going to – that takes work. It takes commitment by all forces in Iraq. And we've been making the general point about issues of concern between communities being settled by dialogue. But we've also been quite active when individual issues have cropped up, including recently with regard to Iraqi forces in the Peshmerga, et cetera. So we are continuing to be enormously vigilant. We have an enduring commitment and agreement to support Iraq, but it is undergirded by our desire to see Iraqi democracy protected in all of its forms.

 

QUESTION: On that very point, on the constitution, and it was shepherded by the United States of America, there are some major things that have not been followed through on despite commitment to the contrary, like the hydrocarbon law.

 

MS. NULAND: Right.

 

QUESTION: Like the power sharing. Like many, many, other things, Article 140 that regulates whatever between Kurdistan and the central government. Could you share with us how much progress have you made in the last two, three years?

 

MS. NULAND: Well, again, I don't think anybody's satisfied by how difficult it's been to resolve some of these issues that have never gotten settled, including the question of the hydrocarbon law and energy sharing, et cetera, inside Iraq. I think Iraqis, among all of us, are the most frustrated by that. But, again, these issues can only be solved politically, they can only be solved democratically, they can only be solved through dialogue. That's the course that we continue to urge, and we continue to use our influence to try to encourage Iraqis to talk to each other and work through these issues.

 

 

 

The point of the neocons was war with Iraq and they latched onto Nouri al-Maliki as the answer to stealing Iraq's oil.  That's why the Bush administration installed him in 2006 and why Barack Obama refused to let Iraqiya have the prime minister post in 2010 despite the fact that Iraqiya beat Nouri's State of Law in the parliamentary elections.  (Doubt Barack's neocon connections.  Listen to the 2012 State of the Union address again -- that's Robert Kagan's The World America Made that he's riffing on, as even Random House noted.)  Michael Rubin's a neocon as well (you don't post pieces like this one unless you're a neocon).  Rubin's not an idiot.  So at Commentary today, he really isn't as stupid as he comes off.  He's lying the way neocons always lie.  Protests are taking place in Iraq against Nouri.  Against Nouri.  Rubin knows that.  Rubin knows Nouri's a joke on the international stage.  Rubin knows the best way to distort the protests and improve Nouri's image is to pretend that the protests are "anti-Shi'ite."  Here are facts that Rubin hopes you don't know Ayad Allawi, head of Iraqiya, is Shi'ite.  Allawi has endorsed the protesters.  Moqtada al-Sadr, Shi'ite cleric and movement leader, has endorsed the protests.  Today another Shi'ite group endorsed the protesters.

 

These are not anti-Shi'ite protests.  But Rubin hopes if he lies about it, it'll take some of the pressure off Nouri, the neocon pet.  Getting rid of Bush did not end the neocons.  In fact, Rubin still is the adviser to US military officers when they're about to be shipped off to the Middle East.  Do you get how offensive that is?  This is under Barack's administration. 

 

 

Please grasp that the US government has spent and wasted billions of tax payer dollars on Iraq -- on the illegal war, on propping up puppet Nouri and so much more.  When Bully Boy Bush was in the White House, the State Dept was required to publish a weekly report on Iraq -- and they did.  Back then, the Defense Dept was in charge of the billions.  Now it's the State Dept in charge and in charge of billions of dollars.  In Fiscal Year 2013 (which started October 1, 2012), the State Dept plans to spend $4.8 billion in Iraq.  How?  Don't you know the State Dept is not accountable to you the taxpayer.  Apparently, the State Dept is like the Bell Telephone Company before the break up. "We are not subject to city, state or federal legislation.  We are ominpotent," Lily Tomlin's Ernestine used to say.

 

They won't answer the Congress, they won't answer the Special Inspector General on Iraq Reconstruction.  No one can get a straight answer out of them.  In a functioning democracy, they would be denied all Iraq funding as a result.  And asked today, "Could you share with us how much progress have you made in the last two, three years," Nuland had nothing to offer.  How telling.  $4.8 billion wasted this year that could have been better spent.

 

Instead, they get the bulk of Iraq funding.  The bulk.  Not the only.

 

The US Defense Dept is still in Iraq, still spending money despite claims that all US troops are out.  Look at the DoD's budget request for FY2013 [PDF format warning, click here].  It is in this Feburary 2012 document that you'll find all sorts of interesting information including this:

 

Years of effort have helpd enable the Iraqi government to take the lead in protecting its people and providing essential services.  While U.S. forces will continue to play important roles in providing force protection and targeted counterterrorism operations, there are no performance goals included in the Department's Annual Performance Plans (Exhibit B) in FY 2012 and FY 2013 for this objective area.

 

That's chapter seven's page thirty-seven, by the way.  (Each chapter in the request starts numbering their pages with page one, FYI.)  On chapter six's page five, you'll find this:

 

OSC-I: $508 million for the operation of the Office of Security Cooperation - Iraq (OSC-I), which is a cornerstone for achieving the long-term U.S. goal of building parternship capacity in the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).  The OSC-I will conduct the full range of traditional security cooperation activities such as joint exercise planning, combined arms training, conflict resolution, multilateral peace opeartions, senior level visits and other forms of bilateral engagement.  Additionally, the OSC-I will conduct security cooperation activities in support of the ISF to include providing: Academy instructors; Ministerial and Service level advisors; logistic and operations capacity building; intelligence integration; and interagency collabortion.  The OSC-I is the critical Defense component of the U.S. Mission Iraq and a foundational element of our long-term strategic partnership with Iraq.

 

$508 million.   That's a pretty big figure when Barack kept saying in the debates that he brought all US troops home. 

 

Let's move over to the protests that the US administration refuses to support.  Alsumaria reports Nineveh Province Governor Ethel al-Nujaifi (also spelled Atheel) noted today that the protests against Nouri al-Maliki and his oppressive government continue.  He states that the demonstrations will continue until the protesters demands are met.  The Governor is the brother of Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi and yesterday their family suffered a loss when the son of their cousin Abdul-Rahman Khalid al-Nujaifi was shot dead in Mosul.  AFP reports today that the son killed, Abdulrahman al-Nujaifi, was only ten-years-old and that Governor al-Nujaifi states Nouri's anti-terror brigade killed the child, "This anti-terrorist brigade, we call it the golden brigade, in Mosul, opened fire on the car and killed the young boy in public, in front of everyone. They followed the car, and they opened fire with no regard.  The young boy was in the car with his brothers and the driver, returning from school."

 

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