Thursday, May 01, 2014

THIS JUST IN! JUSTY'S TROUSER SNAKE TAPS SOME PRESIDENTIAL WHAT!

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

FADED CELEBRITY BITCH BARRY TOOK A PHOTO WITH JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE TODAY.

EXPLAINING HIS PANTIES WERE DAMP AND THAT HE NEEDED TIMBERLAKE TO REACH A "DEEP ITCH," BITCH BARRY HEADED TO THE LINCOLN BEDROOM WITH THE SINGER.

REACHED FOR COMMENT LATER, BARRY O ASKED, "WHY CAN'T I F**K AROUND LIKE THE MEDIA DOES?"

LOOKING AT THE PEOPLE TREATING THIS AS SERIOUS NEWS, HE MAY HAVE A POINT:




Justin Timberlake 'May' meme goes presidential

CNN (blog) - ‎19 minutes ago‎
What are the odds that April 30 will one day officially be known as Justin Timberlake Day? Thanks to the singer's drawl on the 'N Sync song "It's Gonna Be Me," he's forever reminding us that "It's Gonna Be May." Obviously, that comes in handy at the end of ...

Obama Gets In on 'It's Gonna Be May' Meme

WPRO - ‎19 minutes ago‎
(WASHINGTON) -- It's May 1, and that means your social feeds are probably stuffed with seemingly endless iterations of the "It's Gonna Be May" meme. Inspired by the way Justin Timberlake pronounced the word "me" in the 'N SYNC hit "It's Gonna Be Me," the ...

Barack Obama Delivers A Special Message To The World Courtesy Of Justin ...

PerezHilton.com - ‎1 hour ago‎
[Image via Barack Obama/Facebook.] Tags: annoying, barack, barack obama, facebook, floods, highlarious, image, internet, joke, jt, justin, justin timberlake, love, love it, pic, president, president obama, pretty. Email this ». « Previous story · Hey, Justin Bieber!

Barack Obama's Facebook Page Joins 'It's Gonna Be May' Meme

TIME - ‎1 hour ago‎
Organizing for Action's Barack Obama Facebook page posted a photo late Wednesday of President Barack Obama looking at Justin Timberlake's phone with the caption “It's gonna be May,” a riff on a popular online meme. The post has racked up more than ...

'It's Gonna Be May' Memes: 9 Funny Pictures To Celebrate This Month With ...

Latin Times - ‎1 hour ago‎
A few days ago, memes featuring Justin Timberlake and the phrase "It's Gonna Be May" started making rounds online. Here are some of the best. Memes. It's Gonna Be May. It's Gonna Be May Memes. It's Gonna Be May. It's Gonna Be May Memes. It's Gonna ...

Obama & Justin Timberlake (*N)Sync Their May Love

Refinery29 - ‎3 hours ago‎
... his people) shared a snap of the prez and JT giggling at something on Timberlake's phone. Never mind Queen Latifah lookin' fly with the first lady in the background, it's Obama's caption — "It's gonna be May" — that wins the day. Post by Barack Obama.

Even Obama gets in on the Justin Timberlake 'It's Gonna Be May' meme

Entertainment Weekly (blog) - ‎3 hours ago‎
But I suppose it has to survive at least through 2014 – because even Barack Obama got in on the action April 30, when he posted the above photo to Facebook. The caption? You guessed it: “It's gonna be May.” So now, it's May. Which means we have 364 ...

Great Thing of the Day: Barack Obama Has Out-Memed Us All

Elle - ‎4 hours ago‎
OF COURSE YOU HAVE. Because undoubtedly every single person you follow on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr has alerted you of the fact by posting the ubiquitous Justin Timberlake meme on your feed. And it's funny. Sure, it was funnier 14 years ago when ...

Obama Shares 'It's Gonna Be May' Meme

Business 2 Community - ‎5 hours ago‎
President Obama, like the rest of us, is pretty excited that it is finally May. The president, like the rest of us, is also a big 'NSync fan. So it's not to surprising that Obama joined the “It's Gonna Be May” meme last night. The President took to Facebook yesterday to ...

President Obama Makes A Classic 'It's Gonna Be May' Joke, And It's Totally ...

Crushable - ‎6 hours ago‎
But I bet you never expected to see that joke coming from President Barack Obama. “Never!” you say. “The President of the United States isn't aware of silly millennial puns related to Justin Timberlake.” Well, the president himself might not be aware (although ...

'Its Gonna Be May' Justin Timberlake Meme Goes Viral [PHOTOS ...

Crossmap - ‎6 hours ago‎
The "Its gonna be May" meme has gone viral... again. The old Justin Timberlake joke resurfaced on April 30 on Twitter to remind users that its literally "gonna be May." Although the funny meme has been around for quite a while, social media users never get ...

President Obama drops an 'N Sync reference, takes us back to 2000

The Week Magazine - ‎12 hours ago‎
Was President Obama a huge TRL fan? All signs point to "yes," after he made an 'N Sync joke on his official Facebook page. The president (OK, let's be honest, it was a member of the White House's social media team) posted a photo of himself with Justin ...


President Obama uses an 'N Sync reference, takes us back to 2000

The Week Magazine - ‎12 hours ago‎
Was President Obama a huge TRL fan? All signs point to "yes," after he made an 'N Sync joke on his official Facebook page. The president (OK, let's be honest, it was a member of the White House's social media team) posted a photo of himself with Justin ... 





FROM THE TCI WIRE:

A lot is at stake in these elections.  For one thing, Iraq will need to find a new president.

That's not open to debate.


December 2012,  Iraqi President Jalal Talabani suffered a stroke.   The incident took place late on December 17, 2012 (see the December 18, 2012 snapshot) and resulted in Jalal being admitted to Baghdad's Medical Center Hospital.    Thursday, December 20, 2012, he was moved to Germany.  He remains in Germany currently.

Obviously, health issues prevent him from continuing as prime minister.  So does the Iraqi Constitution -- Jalal has termed out of office.

So one thing the new Parliament will have to do is pick a president -- a new president.

They may or may not get to select a prime minister.  In 2006, the White House selected (imposed) Nouri al-Maliki for them.  In 2010, the White House demanded Nouri get a second term.

Will this happen again?


It very well could.  Whether it does or not, the White House would be smart not to support Nouri anymore. Tim Arango and Michael R. Gordon (New York Times) report:


American intelligence assessments have found that Mr. Maliki’s re-election could increase sectarian tensions and even raise the odds of a civil war, citing his accumulation of power, his failure to compromise with other Iraqi factions -- Sunni or Kurd -- and his military failures against Islamic extremists. On his watch, Iraq’s American-trained military has been accused by rights groups of serious abuses as it cracks down on militants and opponents of Mr. Maliki’s government, including torture, indiscriminate roundups of Sunnis and demands of bribes to release detainees.

And a new leader could lower tensions.  Not necessarily permanently.  But Nouri is the common bond that has created resistance in Iraq.  A new leader could mean a reset.  We covered this in April 12's "I Hate The War,"


It's also true that a third term for Nouri could result in real recruitment for the armed resistance.  Not within Iraq.  Iraqis who would be part of the armed resistance are pretty much already there.  Four years of Nouri targeting Sunnis, persecuting them and terrorizing them have done the trick and the only new segment from Iraq will be young boys and girls who come to maturity and join the ranks.


But a third term of Nouri in Iraq?  Sunni fighters from outside Iraq might decide Syria's less important and begin targeting Iraq -- in which case Nouri's paranoid rantings might come true.  There's already talk in Arabic social media about the huge number of Iraqi Shi'ites going into Syria to fight.  At some point, a third term of Nouri would mean Sunni fighters from outside Iraq take the battle into Iraq (a) to defend the persecuted Sunni Iraqis and (b) to force Iraqi Shi'ite fighters out of Syria and back into Iraq.  A third term for Nouri likely means the babble of expanding the fight in Syria -- that so many have warned about and quite a few have pretended has already happened -- becomes more than that.

If you're not getting it, even the Tehran Times carries an article today which notes, "But the violence returned, stoked in part by al-Maliki's moves last year to crush protests by Sunnis complaining of discrimination under his government. Militants took over the city of Fallujah in the Sunni-dominated province of Anbar and parts of the provincial capital of Ramadi."  The persecuted Sunnis in Iraq are becoming well known in the region.

Ranj Alaaldin (Guardian) observes, "Fearing that Bashar al-Assad's downfall would allow Syria's Islamist-dominated opposition to intensify its support for Iraq's militants, Iraq's Shia-dominated government has in turn allowed Syria-bound Iranian cargo flights to use Iraqi airspace. It has also turned a blind eye to Iraqi Shia militias entering Syria to support the Syrian regime. These militias have ensured the survival of the Assad regime alongside other Shia actors such as Hezbollah."

If you're a non-Iraqi an armed Sunni group that wants to help Syria, Nouri's actions mean you're going to have to take the battle into Iraq at some point and confront the government which is backing Bashar al-Assad.

Voting had barely ended before Nouri's State of Law began whispering to the press that Nouri had won.  Nouri himself wasn't whispering.  AFP quotes him stating he was "certain" of his own victory. NINA has him insisting that 'he is assured we will win."   These remarks were made and reported despite Moqtada al-Sadr's bloc cautioning against people running with their own non-official totals.  The IHEC itself denounced claims of leaked results and stated those making the claims of how many votes they'd received were wrong.  As for the official results, All Iraq News notes the IHEC has declared, "The results of the elections will be announced within 20 to 30 days from today."  Jason Ditz (Antiwar.com) offers this prediction, "The post-vote coalition negotiations are going to be difficult, with no one likely to willingly deal with Maliki after the last time, and no group likely to successfully take power without his permission."  Martin Chulov (Guardian) reminds, "The 2010 election, in which Maliki's state of law list came second to the cross-sectarian grouping of the former prime minister, Iyad Allawi, involved a nine-month period of horse trading, during which decision making was paralysed across Iraq."  Jane Arraf (Christian Science Monitor) reports:

Already, one of Maliki’s main rivals, Ayad Allawi, is indicating he will leave politics before dealing with Maliki – even if the prime minister wins a majority of seats.
Mr. Allawi, Iraq’s first interim prime minister after the war and head of the biggest Sunni bloc, says the prime minister needs to comply with a two-term limit for prime ministers that was approved in parliament but struck down in court. 
“What is happening now is lots of atrocities, lots of violations. The constitution is swept under the carpet. Now he controls part of the judiciary, he controls everything, and not only that, he is embarking on a policy of divide and rule… We can’t accept this after eight years of bloodshed in Iraq and total loss of security,” says Allawi.



On Baghdad's corrupt government, Nadezhda Kevorkova (RT) speaks with the "Head of the Prime Minister office" Muhavad Husam al Dine Al Bayati.  Excerpt.

MB: As you know the corruption in this country is very huge. And there is a lot of money in the hands of some politicians not necessary only from the block of prime minister. There are so many other blocks that stole so much money from the country. They can buy votes and support from IHEC [the Independent High Electoral Commission which approved the voting system and the counting method for 2014 parliamentary elections]. The results will not be very clear.
We do not have foreign observers or people who are watching the elections. 

RT: People say that 65 American observers came to Iraq especially for the elections, is it so?


MB: What can these 65 do? Can they work on the street? Can they go to the governorates? Can they go to the election boxes and see how people vote and how their votes are counted? No, they cannot. 


In addition to US observers, IHEC notes that there were 26 observers from the Arab leagues who were monitoring Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Erbil, Dohuk and Sulaymaniyah provinces.  NINA notes Nikolai Mladenov, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Iraq, praised the international observers for their work today.  The IHEC noted by mid-day that 34% of the electronic voting cards they distributed had been used.  Later, Xinhua reports, "the country's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said that a preliminary estimate showed that Iraqi voters made about 60 percent turnout when more than 12 million eligible voters out of over 20 million fanned out to polling centers across the country on Wednesday."



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