America’s Plans For Middle East Not Going To Happen

  Still much rain, thunder, and lightening here in West Central Florida, but it is beginning to taper off.

   Meanwhile.

 Watching America

Maariv, Israel
The American Window Is Closed

By Ofer Shelah
Everyone seems to understand that the dream of Washington forcing an 'American Peace' is nothing but an outdated myth. Everyone but Israel.
Translated By Jay Estes
22 March 2011

Edited by Mark DeLucas

Israel - Maariv - Original Article (Hebrew)
It seems like everyone is disappointed in the U.S. and no one is more disappointed than us — Israel. Ever since the strong winds of revolution touched down in the Arab world, the question “Where is America?” has become the centerpiece of many newspaper columns. How can it be that Mubarak falls, Saudi Arabia is unstable and Washington does nothing? Where is George W. Bush — the man who fought two wars lasting longer than World War II — when we need him?
In addition to this feeling of disappointment is the added dimension of concern which is only publicly displayed in blogs and posts: the suspicion over Barack Hussein Obama. It is no wonder that websites and those who surf the Internet are very active participants in spreading rumors about Obama’s origin and the legality of his election as president. It seems that all of our worries magnified by the president’s very name are coming true.
What exactly are the Americans supposed to do? Are they supposed to just drop forces into Tahrir Square? Should they repeat Operation “Shock and Awe” but against the Shiite demonstrators in Bahrain? Perhaps they should send in the CIA to overthrow the governments as was done to Mosaddeq in Iran or to fight the revolutionaries in Central America? Those who hold similar sentiments are no different than the leftists who have been wishing from time immemorial that America take firm action and force Israel from the Territories.
It seems that here in Israel, more so than in the rest of the world, it has been difficult to grasp the idea that not only has the Cold War come to a close but that America as the only global policing nation has ceased as well. It is difficult to understand how Obama took over the reins of a superpower whose economy is weak (the result of unrestrained waste during Bush’s time in office) and its forces stretched to their limits and not budging at all. In essence, America no longer has the convenience to do as it pleases.
The Landlord of Old
There is no coincidence that America’s president, in dealing with Libya, was led but did not lead, “allowed” but didn’t initiate. Who understands the damage done to the United States by his predecessor, due to his government’s lack of restraint and justification of its actions, better than Obama? In 1990, at a time when the Soviet Union was collapsing, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (later Bush’s Vice President) initiated a review within the U.S. government to formulate a strategy for maintaining U.S. preponderance.
Two documents asserting two very different opinions came to light. The first was written by the Chief of Staff (later the Secretary of State) Colin Powell, a Vietnam veteran. Powell wrote that we can’t enter a war without an “exit strategy.” We have the responsibility to ask ourselves if the goal is clear enough and if American interests are at risk. Can we mobilize sufficient resources and maintain them for as long as necessary? Is there support for such action coming from Congress or the nation? Have we exhausted all other options? Only if the answer is in the affirmative to the questions above may we go to war and finish it as quickly as possible.
The second document was written by two people who led the government, at least conceptually, during George W. Bush’s term in office: Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby. They weren’t deterred from taking an unequivocal stance that action is crucial, not necessarily stemming out of an internal or international consensus but rather to encourage countries to adopt a model like America. Their reasoning was ideological: America serves as a paradigm for the rest of the world. Practically speaking, we have a window of opportunity after the collapse of the Soviet Union and before the rise of a new world power.
Even the zealous neoconservatives realize that this window has already closed. However, it was Bush who used this open window to focus on the wrong target in Iraq. They understand that Obama has no other way to proceed besides the current one and that anyone still entertaining the idea of a forced “American Peace” in the rest of the world is simply a captive to an outdated myth. They understand that it is just not possible to send aircraft over unless there is an urgent call for humanitarian action, as indeed took place in Libya, and it is impossible to send forces on the ground to just about anywhere. They have accepted what is known the world over — except in a frightened small town on the shore of the Mediterranean where they continue to anticipate the landlord of old.

CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL VERSION

© 2010 Watching America and WatchingAmerica.com. All Rights Reserved

Technorati Tags: Israel,Barack Obama,America,Middle East,Current Events

Nasty Weather In Florida…

   ….and judging from the radar look when I got home from work, the bad weather is going to continue for at least 3 or 4 more hours.

 

UPDATE 3 P.M. EST

   TECO power say 88,000 customers without power.

  Tampa and surrounding areas have had some really heavy winds, tornado’s, and some unbelievable rains. Folks in this area do not know how to drive, so naturally, there has been many accidents due to people driving to fast, to close behind other vehicles, or stop lights failing.

   If we are lucky, maybe some of the Republicans Florida Taliban will get washed away in the flooding.

   I am soaking wet after waiting for the first bus that I catch home for 45 minutes. Rain came down like it normally does, and then the winds blew it at me straight across. So much for the umbrella.

   I’ll be back after I dry out, dry off, and pitch a bitch!

Technorati Tags: Tampa,Florida,Storms,Tornado's,Current Events

Make. It. Stop. FL Teabag lawmakers LEGALIZE payoffs

   Original Article brought to you by    SemDem for DKos Florida                 Tue Mar 29, 2011

I don't know if you realize this, but our state government has a reputation for corruption.  (And all of this was before we elected a criminal to lead us.)

Well, our new Teabag overlords in the state legislature have finally figured out a way to end the illegal practice of taking payoffs under the table for favorable legislation.

They made it legal.

Just a few days ago, the GOP leadership overwhelmingly fast-tracked a law to bring back slush funds that will be, get this, directly managed by our legislative leadership. 

The ignorant massess are none too happy.  Here's columnist Howard Troxler from the St. Pete Times:

The Florida Legislature proved this past week, once and for all, that it is the utter Whore of Babylon.

It is now legal in our state to pay off the Legislature directly. Who says so? The Legislature.

This is not a joke.

This is not satire.

This is Florida — where the laws of our democracy are now openly, officially For Sale.

First time our legistlature has been called a whore, won't be the last.

The teabag lawmakers who even bothered to try to justify it (and really, why bother?) actually said it would be better to take direct payoffs because it is more "transparent".  And besides, they are just sick of trying to hide it.

Former gov. Charlie Crist vetoed this last year, saying these funds were a "vestige" of Florida's corrupt political past and pointed out that the MASSIVELY scandal-ridden Florida GOP shouldn't be fighting so hard to bring them back.  (A Democratic-controlled legislature banned these slush funds over 20 years ago.)

These funds will be HUGE special-interest fundraising machines for the GOP. Now, our legislative "leaders" are allowed to steer these unlimited amounts of campaign cash directly into separate accounts they control.

The worst thing about this isn't the fact that they will be taking bribes, even though this legislation streamlines the process.  The worst thing I foresee is that our corrupt legislators will be able to "shake down" certain groups or businesses for contributions for exemptions to some of the draconian laws they are poised to pass.  (So, eh, MickeY, right? Enjoying your little gun exemption?  Ya know, some of the boys think it time we allow MAC-10s to be openly carried in the park.  I might be persuaded to call it off, but I could use a little more "encouragement"...)

Everytime I think they can't go any lower, they pull out a stick of dynamite.

Technorati Tags: Florida,American Taliban,Rick Scott,Legislature,Elections,Current Events

Republicans ( American Taliban ) Are Not Real Americans…

    …and that is something that I would hope that you have figured out by now. Their ONLY allegiance is to America’s big corporation and the rich fuckers who pay them to help fuck up America. The American Taliban has only one purpose when it come to the “ real “ working Americans in the United States and that is to make them corporate slaves who will settle for the little hand-outs from the employers who may be nice enough to give them a job. They are attempting, and doing quite well, to make the American citizen stupid and dependent on their mode of how us poor workers should be. Think I’m kidding? Let’s set aside the tax cuts for the rich and for corporations who pay no taxes as is, and look at the GOP budget cuts which will reign in the deficit. That is NOT going to happen.

  Let’s see. Oh yes, let us cut the funding for education and let us pay our teachers as little as possible. Kids don’t need books or smaller classrooms anyway. They most surely do not need better schools. We’ll save tons of cash by dragging the schooling system down in to the gutter and by then letting private companies educate the little bastards. That will help our bank accounts out just fine, thank you. We don’t need an educated work force when an “ low information “ worker will be okay for our plans.

   Let’s cut funding to the E.P.A. while we are at because we do not care if all of those big companies who pay for my family’s vacations pollute the air, and the water, and the dirt all around those poor people.

  But wait! There’s more! The Un-American  Party

Original Article   (Edited for this post )

Krugman: Republicans are un-American

by pollwatcher                  Mon Mar 28, 2011

Paul Krugman is not holding back, and good for him!  Have the Republicans no shame?  Does it take an Economics professor to finally stand up and say, the way the Tea Party Republicans are acting is truly un-American?

But watch out!  The right wing propaganda machine is going to get really wound up over this one, and their politically correct speech police (thou shall not criticize Republicans) will be screaming about the outrage of calling a Republican un-American.

Here's what Krugman said.

The Cronon affair, then, is one more indicator of just how reflexively vindictive, how un-American, one of our two great political parties has become.

...

Back in 2009 climate skeptics got hold of more than a thousand e-mails between researchers at the Climate Research Unit at Britain’s University of East Anglia. Nothing in the correspondence suggested any kind of scientific impropriety; at most, we learned — I know this will shock you — that scientists are human beings, who occasionally say snide things about people they dislike.

But that didn’t stop the usual suspects from proclaiming that they had uncovered “Climategate,” a scientific scandal that somehow invalidates the vast array of evidence for man-made climate change. And this fake scandal gives an indication of what the Wisconsin G.O.P. presumably hopes to do to Mr. Cronon.

If you mention NAZI and anyone in the same sentence, the outrage from both parties will quickly dismiss anything you have to say.  But just because Eisenhower built America's interstate highway system based on the NAZI Autobahn, it doesn't make him a NAZI.  Just because the American military copied the rocket designs of the NAZI military, it doesn't mean our military are NAZI's.  And just because the Republican Oligarchs have built a finely tuned propaganda machine with it's own TV, radio, and newspaper networks, that rivals that of Germany in the 1930's,  it doesn't make them NAZI's, but it certainly makes them un-American.

The Republican party has become nothing more than a misinformation megaphone to manipulate those who are too lazy to do the work to become the informed citizens that our founding fathers intended.  The Republican elected officials are at war with the middle and lower classes of America in an effort to keep most Americans economically dependent on the ruling Oligarchs.  Their tools are lies, money, intimidation, voter suppression, and manipulation.

Through the most ridiculous anti-citizen rulings of the conservative Supreme Court, to the crushing of any government help to the most needy of Americans, the Republicans repeatedly act against the many, for the benefit of the few.

Remember, the American revolution was not started on the grand premise of democracy for all over the birth right ruling of a single man.  It was an economic revolution, when the ultimate Oligarch (king George III) decided to crush America's middle class by taxing them into poverty, the revolution began.  The only difference today is there is more than one Oligarch, and rather than taxes to crush the middle class, they use the tools of a modern economy to steal the last material things that make a modern life bearable.

The Declaration of Independence declared the "pursuit of happiness" as an unalienable right.  Living in unpayable debt, poverty, jobless with no hope, and having sickness with no care, most certainly will prevent the pursuit of happiness.  And yet this is exactly what the Republican policies are doing to millions of Americans and they know it, and they don't care.

Is trying to crush the middle class and the poorest among us for the benefit of the wealthiest among us un-American?  Are Supreme court rulings that directly put the citizens of a country at an elective disadvantage to the corporations of a country un-American?  Are trying to prevent citizens from voting un-American?  Is creating a huge media propaganda machine to misinform the public un-American?

You're damn right it is!

Update:  Just noticed another Krugman diary very well worth the read:
Krugman and the Smears of the Cracked Teapot Party
Obviously Krugman is on to something here.

Technorati Tags: American Taliban,Republicans,Taxes,Fraud,Paul Krugman,Current Events