Sic Semper Tyrannis

Palin at Gettysburg

 
"The sun was barely up Tuesday morning when supporters and reporters gathered in front of Sarah Palin’s bus in a hotel parking lot, hoping to catch a glimpse of the former Alaska governor, whose third day of her East Coast tour is expected to include stops at the Civil War battlefield here and possibly later at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia." Poltico

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"Home, boys, home!  Home is just beyond that hill!"  Thus spake a Tennessee officer as his regiment approached the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge in what is generally called "Pickett's Charge." 

Is anyone going to ask her where she is while she is at Gettysburg?  I think a quiz would be appropriate.

Questions:

- Who was the Union commander in the battle?

- Why was the battle important?

- Did the battle end the war?

- Does she have any CW/WBS ancestors?

- Who held the battlefield after it ended?

And then, when they arrive in Philadelphia ask her a hard one, like, what role did Thomas Jefferson play in writing the Constitution? 

I actually think that a president ought to know a little history.  pl

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55919.html#ixzz1NvzdYPtu

 

Birthday

 
To me!  71 tomorrow.  pl

The Return of Hell - Richard Sale

 
   

The world is full of killing.  As I write this, one thousand people die violent deaths every day in wars in Afghanistan, in Iraq, the Mexican drug war, Sudanese nomadic conflicts, the South Yemen insurgency.

    But the reasons for the arrest of former Serbian leader Ratko Mladic last week were different from the killing described above.  The massacres ordered by the Serb leader were not the result of one hostile force being pitted against another in a struggle of endurance and wills. Instead, the campaigns of the Serb were the deliberate actions of a national group that had taken upon itself the extinction of its rival neighbors. Such a group moves with industrialized precision, and acts with no pity, no imagination, no soul, and no regret. One immediately thinks of Hitler’s slaughter of the Jews or his wholesale murder of Soviet soldiers and prisoners.

Israel minister: Strike on Iran could be necessary - AP

 
"An Israeli Cabinet minister said the civilized world must take joint action to avert the Iranian nuclear threat, including a pre-emptive strike if necessary.

Moshe Yaalon — the minister for strategic affairs — made the statement in an interview with Russia's Interfax news agency released Monday ahead of a visit to Moscow."  AP

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Bravo!  I wish the Israelis all the success in the world so long as the United States does nothing to support them. nothing, no re-fueling, no SAR, no ECM, no BDA, nothing.   They want to fight?  Let them fight using the weapons, aircraft and money that we have provided them, but no 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. strike by the US while the Israelis contemplate the wreckage of their air force, pl

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110530/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_israel

IRAN AND THE BOMB - How real is the nuclear threat? by Seymour Hersh

"Despite years of covert operations inside Iran, extensive satellite imagery, and the recruitment of many Iranian intelligence assets, the United States and its allies, including Israel, have been unable to find irrefutable evidence of an ongoing hidden nuclear-weapons program in Iran, according to intelligence and diplomatic officials here and abroad. One American defense consultant told me that as yet there is “no smoking calutron,” although, like many Western government officials, he is convinced that Iran is intent on becoming a nuclear state sometime in the future.  " Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/06/110606fa_fact_hersh

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Hersh quotes me quite a lot in this piece.  I would like to make it clear I that am not the "retired military intelligence official." Nor am I the source in any passage that does not name me as such.  I have not read or had saccess to the NIE of 2007 on Iran, nor have I read or had access to the "Memorandum to holders of the Iran NIE" of 2011.  I have had no access to classified US Government information on this subject.  pl 

Gasoline prices and investors.

 
What role Wall Street investors play in the high cost of oil is a hotly debated topic in "Washington. Despite weak demand, the price of a barrel of crude oil surged more than 25 percent in the past year, reaching a peak of $113 May 2 before falling back to a range of $95 to $100 a barrel.

The Obama administration, the Bush administration before it and Congress have been slow to take steps to rein in speculators. On Tuesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a U.S. regulatory agency, charged a group of financial firms with manipulating the price of oil in 2008. But the commission hasn't enacted a proposal to limit the percentage of oil contracts a financial company can hold, while Congress remains focused primarily on big oil companies, threatening in hearings last week to eliminate their tax breaks because of the $38 billion in first-quarter profits the top six U.S. companies earned."  KC Star

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Jump ball! 

- There is no oil shortage presently driving high prices.

- We are being screwed by traders, hedge fund managers, etc.

-  The Saudis do not love us.  They will probably join in the "screwing" soon, if not already.

Go for it.  pl

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/25/2903397/saudis-often-warned-us-about-oil.html#ixzz1NlU59pvo

 

Egypt and the "Revolution"

 
"Holding out Poland's transformation to democracy as a model for the world, President Barack Obama on Saturday exhorted Western allies and the American public alike to extend their support, energy and vision to those now reaching for democracy in the Middle East and North Africa."  Washpost

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110528/ap_on_re_eu/eu_obama

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"The New York Times reported last week that Egypt’s transitional military council intends to try deposed President Hosni Mubarak for conspiring to kill unarmed protesters. Conviction could mean the death penalty. The new regime also plans to prosecute Mubarak and his two sons, along with a wave of business cronies, on charges of corruption."  David Ignatius

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-whiff-of-revenge-taints-the-arab-spring/2011/05/26/AGqytyCH_story.html?hpid=z5

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Well, David, what did you think was going to happen?  Do you really have so little knowledge of this region and its political culture that you thought that the "revolutionaries," the Islamic zealots and the military junta that Mubarak illegally left in charge would all just "kiss and make up," shrug their shoulders and convene something like our constitutional convention?  Did you think that, or was this piece all tongue in cheek and a rhetorical flourish?  I hope the latter.

Does Obama think that people are "the same everywhere?"  My god, I hope not.  He shouldleave that to the navel auto-inspectors in academia  pl

 

 

"The dilemma of defense cuts" - Washpost Editorial Board

 
"Said Mr. Gates: “The tough choices ahead are really about the kind of role the American people — accustomed to unquestioned military dominance for the last two decades — want their country to play in the world.”"  Washpost Editorial Board

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"There will  be wars and rumors of wars.'  "Only the dead have seen the end of war."  These are favorite quotations in the US Army.  Memorial Day is almost upon us.  I wonder how many Americans really feel the impact of those words.

In this editorial the Washington Post Editorial Board staff reveals itelf as not only the neocon group that they have shown themselves to be for so long, but also, as "boosters" of an imperialist spirit that lurks among the populace waiting to be encouraged.

"Accustomed to unquestioned military dominance..."  That is how the Post sees the American people.  They perceive among the citizens an attitude toward military power that wishes to dominate the world, not an attitude that defends the Republic, no, a power that "dominates" the world.

To that end they are quite willing to cut soldiers pay and benefits, to renege on promises of retirement benefits that lured people into service and medical benefits that keep old soldiers alive betond the time of their usefulness.

Anything and everything can be sacrificed in the Post's view so long as the ability to "dominate" the world is maintained.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-dilemma-of-defense-cuts/2011/05/27/AGdVNxCH_story.html

On Tribalism...

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

COL Lang has absolutely, 100% hit the nail on the head regarding Dr. Krauthammer's views pertaining to US policy in the Middle East, especially regarding Israel.  The best evidence of this is MJ Rosenberg's recounting of Dr. Krauthammer's behavior at Yom Kippur (for the non-Judaica informed: The Day of Atonement, the Holiest Day of the Jewish religious calendar) services from 2001:

"About three years ago, I saw Krauthammer flip out in synagogue on Yom Kippur. The rabbi had offered some timid endorsement of peace — peace essentially on Israel's terms — but peace anyway. Krauthammer went nuts. He actually started bellowing at the rabbi, from his wheel chair in the aisle. People tried to "shush" him. It was, after all, the holiest day of the year. But Krauthammer kept howling until the rabbi apologized. The man is as arrogant as he is thuggish. Who screams at the rabbi at services? For advocating peace?"**

This would be the equivalent of going after the Archbishop at either Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve or Good Friday or Easter Sunday Mass for saying something in his homily that one disagreed with.  Dr. Krauthammer is without doubt a smart man.  He is without doubt an educated man.  He is also, without a doubt, a Jew without Mercy.

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College.  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College or the US Army.

**MJ Rosenberg's original link to his archive where he recounted the Yom Kippur incident is dead/missing.  He refers to the incident in several later posts and columns, which I've hyperlinked to for you all, and then links to the Washington Monthly's post that quotes his original story, which I've also hyperlinked to for you all.

Post on "The Athenaeum" for Memorial Day

 
My sister, Maureen, has a new Post for Memorial day.  pl

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2011/05/memorial-day-2011.html