East Coast Cheerleading Championships

This was a trip. Two days of non-stop frenzy at the convention center. Too bad this outfit didn't bring in some professional stage lighting -- it would've made for much better photos, for sure. Especially when the admission was $20 per day. Still, even if the photos are grainy, you can see the action...

Oopsy!

Add caption

Sweetie Pies

Seriously into it

The biggest threat to the US

For public consumption via the corporate media circus, we have worthies such as Jim Clapper, the director of mis-named national "intelligence," give the following assessment of the so-called "threats" the the US:

The Associated Press: Al-Qaida in decline, but threats to US multiply: "WASHINGTON (AP) — Al-Qaida is in decline around the world but is still a leading threat to the United States, joined by others like Iran, the top U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday in an annual report to Congress on threats facing America.
Iran's leaders seem prepared to attack U.S. interests overseas, particularly if they feel threatened by possible U.S. action, Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee."

Unfortunately for a continuously gulled US public, heads swimming in a sea of consumerist choices and the peccadilloes of celebrities like Kim Kardashian, they will never see the threat right before their faces.

The biggest threat to the US is the US government. Iran and Al-Qaida can't old a candle to the plutocrats and oligarchs that have seized control of the government in order to have it serve their aims and agendas.

Oakland police riot

The corporate press is in full-on propaganda mode following the police riot against Occupy Oakland protesters that led to 400 arrests.

Occupy Oakland diverted police from calls, officials say - latimes.com: "Oakland officials said the massive Occupy Oakland demonstration on Saturday diverted police resources from calls elsewhere in the city, stymieing the Police Department's crime-fighting efforts.

An estimated 400 demonstrators were arrested during the protest, with some activists breaking into City Hall and vandalizing it.

Mayor Jean Quan condemned the local movement's tactics as "a constant provocation of the police with a lot of violence toward them" and said the demonstrations were draining scarce resources from an already financially-strapped city. "

From the start, the media narrative has been a tearful story of a beleaguered, cash-strapped city being vandalized by rioters and mobs. Instead of images of police firing concussion grenades, tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and beating the hell out of peaceful protesters with clubs, we get a heart-rending tale of how a US flag was burned in city hall.

Here's the real story of a police force out for violence and intimidation, and beating hell out of citizens exercising their 1st Amendment rights:

We need to carry on the fight against the lies of corporate media every chance we get...

Drive-by jihadi pleads guilty in DC shoot-em-up

What's this? A trigger-happy American jihadi taking pot-shots at the Pentagon, breaking windows and harming the stone facade of US power... Now he'll live out his days in the slammer:

Pentagon shooting: Drive-by jihadi pleads guilty | Alaska Dispatch: "An Alexandria, Va., man admitted in federal court Thursday that he fired live rounds into the Pentagon and three other government buildings and planned to desecrate graves at Arlington National Cemetery in support of Islamic militants overseas.

Yonathan Melaku pleaded guilty to damaging government property, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and attempting to damage a veterans’ memorial.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, prosecutors will request a 25-year prison sentence. In addition, Mr. Melaku faces up to $750,000 in fines and restitution of $111,215.98 for the damage he caused to buildings and windows."

It's all good. The government will have the guy on the hook for almost a cool mil, so if he ever does get out -- which is unlikely while "hostilities" continue -- he'll go from a penal institution to a debtor's prison. No doubt, that will be a future of the USA of the future.

Think about it, though. Aside from being a reckless act and causing some damage to federal buildings, what has this guy really done?

One thing he's done is show us the outrage that percolates in the Islamic world over the cruel and degenerate behavior of the US in its various and sundry wars in the Muslim world. Instead of pock-marked buildings and broken windows, we leave behind a wreckage of lives, cut short by drone-fired weapons of mass destruction. To those who are the victims, we categorize them into the oblivion of "collateral damage," where their suffering goes to be forgotten.

The impotence of one man standing up to an unstoppable militaristic machine is the true measure of futility. It seems vain and foolish on the one hand, while on the other, one can only wonder at the capacity of the world's victim class to suck up the continual slights and indignities cast upon it.

Will they reach their limit before the US military machine kills 'em all?

Screaming Buttmonkeys of the Pentagon budget

What a relief: the US government is going to cut its military expenditures:

Pentagon: Fewer Soldiers, More Drones Will Save Money - ABC News: "Defense Secretary Leon Panetta detailed today how the Obama administration plans to achieve $487 billion in cuts over the next decade, in part by reducing the number of ships, planes and troops, but continuing to fund elite special forces -- and support technologies like unmanned drones."

What a heartening development: Instead of an army of deranged psychopaths assassinating foreign enemies, the US government will attempt to replace them with Robot Assassins, who kill by remote control, at great distance -- turning mass killing into a demented form of entertainment.

An army of listless, bored youths can be enlisted to sit on their couches in suburban America and blow away the families of the brown-skinned inhabitants of lands rich in resources the USA covets.

Less overhead, and some of these youths are obsessed with their virtual world, and spend endless hours working their joysticks for a cheap thrill.

This is the great payoff for the investment the US government made in developing the internet: a virtual tool for the waging of war for fun.

When is kidnapping not kidnapping?

Today's big story -- vying for the top spot with Obama's State of the Empire speech -- was the daring Navy SEAL operation to "rescue the hostages":

Somali captors holding an American move their hostage 3 times after deadly SEAL rescue - The Washington Post: "U.S. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said U.S. officials have been in contact with the family of the latest American kidnapping victim.

“We are also working with our contacts in Kenya and in Somalia to try to get more information,” Nuland told reporters in Washington.

“Obviously we condemn kidnapping of any kind and call for the immediate release of the victims — any victims. We also would note that our travel warning for Somalia does caution U.S. citizens about the risk of travel.”"

Such a meme still resonates with the US public, even decades after the Iranian students held the US embassy staff in Tehran back in '79. Shades of the "helpless giant" are useful to drum up support for military operations to prove the mettle of US forces -- it's a pride thing.

There's also a tiny bit of irony about the whole kidnapping thing, however, but you won't read about it in the WaPo.

The US has had a quite active program of what's euphemistically called "extraordinary rendition" -- which is simply justice department jibber-jabber for... kidnapping.

As in, whisk some guy off the street in Rome, for instance, put a bag over his head and fly him to Egypt to be tortured.

Eventually he may end up in Guantanamo, or dumped out of a car somewhere in Bulgaria or other swell tourist destination, and forced to make his way home. That's called good old American hospitality.

So let's condemn kidnapping if we're really against it, but not do our own version with smug indifference to the ethical consequences. This is the powerful force that's warping the mind of the USA's minions.

Cheerleading battle

We had a cheerleading competition in town this past weekend: the Coastal Productions Richmond Battle was held at the convention center. Admission was $12.

It was the usual youthful revelry and exuberance. The place was packed, too. It appeared that almost everyone was having a splendid time.

Here are a few photos for your perusal:

Chillin'

Renounce terrorism?

This just in from US Propaganda Central:

US Envoy: Taliban Must Renounce Terrorism to Participate in Talks | USA | English: "A top U.S. diplomat visiting Afghanistan says the Taliban must renounce international terrorism and endorse peace initiatives if it wants to participate in negotiations to end the 10-year war."

What would they say if the Taliban said the US must renounce terrorism before it can participate in negotiations?

Of course, the answer would be, you mustn't do what we do to you...

Letting the air out of Romney inflates Gingrich's gas-bag

It's almost as if Mitt Romney is suffering a bout of ED, while Newter Gingrich gets a dose of priapism:

Gingrich camp: Romney in 'panic' mode as poll suggests collapse - latimes.com: "Two new polls out on Friday suggest trouble for Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney.

Gallup’s tracking poll shows Romney’s lead nationally – which was 23 percentage points last week – has fallen considerably. He still leads the pack of Republican contenders – which is now considerably smaller after the departure of Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry this week – but by just 10 percentage points.

Romney has 30% support, followed by Newt Gingrich with 20% and Ron Paul and Rick Santorum, who are tied at 13%

“Clearly things are collapsing,” Gallup political director Frank Newport said in an appearance on MSNBC earlier today."

Give the Newter credit for turning his moral turpitude into an asset during the latest debate. He was all over John King's question about his wayfaring wanger, knocking it out of the park and down the throat of the hapless moderator. Hey, in any comedic routine, somebody's got to play the fall guy.

Clearly, being an adulterer is no handicap to the white, southern GOP voter. Most of 'em have been forgiven by Jesus for their sins -- probably a number of times -- so there's no point in knocking a fellow traveler down the road to moral failure.

Are we to infer that Romney's not sufficiently born again, and hence not eligible for redemption in the express lane down at the Winn-Dixie?

It was recently noted in a news report that he's been married to his wife since 1969 -- but perhaps she's not as averse to "open marriage" as Newter's ex, or maybe he's just a true-blue Mormon, and just doesn't swing that way.

In any case, it looks bad for -- of all people -- Ron Paul, who could've used a breakthrough moment right about now. He's at least consistent about that freedom thing, so he's not going to be dogging out Newter of his sexual predilections.

Unfortunately, that's not going to win him any votes, either, from a TV audience that likes bombastic shows of hypocrisy, like the one by a former house speaker who persecuted a sitting president for a blow job, while he himself actually had sex with that other woman.

Issues are boring. Character questions are old hat. What the folks at home want to see is red meat, preferably still dripping blood, from their politicians -- all that pent-up hostility and rage given voice by cheap, snake-oil salesmen in seersucker suits, so that everyone gets a big old orgasmic release at the end of the show.

Major powers play games with Iran

We have today an item from Reuters that claims the "Group of Five" nuclear powers seeking to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear activities has formulated a list of demands in order to resume talks:

Major powers to disclose terms for Iran talks | Reuters: "(Reuters) - The major powers seeking to negotiate an end to Iran's suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons are expected to issue documents on Friday laying out what Tehran would need to do return to talks, a diplomat said.

A statement by Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States would be the latest signal the diplomatic path remains open to Iran despite tougher sanctions and renewed speculation of a military strike on its nuclear facilities."

Why on Earth would the Iranians negotiate with these nuclear powers anyway, so long as the IAEA can provide no evidence that the Iranians have breached their obligations under the NPT? The treaty stipulates that nuclear weapons states are obliged to reduce and eventually eliminate their arsenals -- which none, obviously, have any intention of doing.

Why is Iran being held to a higher standard? Because the Israelis -- who are non-signatories, and possess a large nuclear weapons stockpile -- have complained about Iran?

This is all unfortunate bullshit. It's a shame and a travesty that Russia and China are participating in the charade. Russia doesn't need Iran, of course, but China could sure use the Iranian oil, so why don't the reds man up?

We all know -- as it's a subject that's been beaten to death -- that Iran's crime is not related to its nuclear program so much as its refusal to knuckle under to US/Israeli hegemony in the region. Iran has something they want, and they aren't likely to stop trying to get it.

The nuclear issue is but a smokescreen. It's a repeat of the WMD farce the West played with Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

We would have hoped that the international community would have perhaps run out of patience with rogue states waging wars of aggression to control strategic resources -- but they're not there yet.

They say Gingrich may be ahead in SC

USA Today, which is the USA's corporate hometown paper, says that Newter Gingrich may be ahead in the primary race in South Carolina:

Gingrich may be surging in South Carolina: "Newt Gingrich seems to be surging in South Carolina -- the question is how much, and whether it will be enough to overtake Mitt Romney before Saturday's primary.

Drawing large crowds, and challenging Romney's conservative credentials, Gingrich's campaign is now touting a poll showing him actually ahead in the Palmetto State."

The again, maybe he's not.

Either way, according to the corporate press, you are obliged to care about it, because in their calculus, it's important!

It's important enough that you should click on the link to express yourself as someone who cares -- like you have skin in the game.

Of course, no one does, except those who are bankrolling the Super PACs of shit that have defined the political landscape since the Supreme Farce of Citizens United.

May the most lavishly financed candidate win!

Finally, while we don't know if Gingrich is ahead in SC, we know he's a dick head no matter where you go.

US talks with Iran an empty gesture

The VOA is the US government's "official" propaganda arm, which makes it first among equals when disseminating policy for worldwide consumption. Thus, this item from today's wire is interesting, if only for the skewed and completely false representation of the causes of conflict between the two sides:

Iran Says US Should Be Willing to Talk Without Conditions | Middle East | English: "Iran says the United States should make it clear that it is ready to hold talks without conditions, and urged other countries in the Middle East to not put themselves in a "dangerous position."

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi made the comments Thursday during a visit to Turkey.

They come a day after the United States said it is open to resuming negotiations with Iran about its controversial nuclear program if Tehran is "serious" about discussing it openly.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday it is up to Iran to rejoin talks with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, a group known as the P5+1. The parties last met a year ago."

The US, of course, persists in the fiction that the tempest concerns Iran's nuclear activities. These rank less than zero on the scale of true irritants between the sides, but you will never catch a US official saying so openly.

The US, and Israel, want what's euphemistically referred to as "regime change" in Iran. They want a pliable, obedient government in Tehran which is willing to do "business" on the US' terms. For its part, Israeli wants any challengers to its regional hegemony removed.

The flows of resources, so masterfully outlined by Pepe Escobar in his reporting for Asia Times, is the primary motivator of the incipient conflict. The nuclear issue, not so much. While removing the West's option of attacking with impunity, the nuke specter is of far less concern than old reliable, the money.

The US continues with its tired storyline, while its clients in Europe and Asia bristle under the yoke of its painful and economically ruinous demands. Oil supplies are tight enough already, and asking nations whose budgets are already under strain to take the fall for Washington's hubris has the potential to bring alliances to their knees.

Will these countries allow the US to throw them under the bus for the neocon dream of monopolizing the world's remaining energy resources? You can bet your ass they're all for a "diplomatic solution."

To bad all they'll get is unctuous gestures, while the real drama is played out in the skies over the Persian Gulf by a has-been superpower that was too punch drunk to know when it's been licked.

David Cameron is a remorseless, imperialist thug

When will David Cameron be ready to talk about his country's sordid history of rape, rapine, exploitation, imperialism? Or has he not yet run out of fault to find with others?

David Cameron accuses Iran of supplying Syria weapons - Telegraph: "The Prime Minister revealed that British officials had been told that weapons shipments from Iran to Syria had been intercepted by Turkey and that intelligence reports confirmed that Hizbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement, was actively involved in the slaughter of Syria.
"There is now growing evidence that Iran is providing a huge amount of support," he told the House of Commons. "There have been interceptions of some shipments by Turkey which are particularly interesting.
"People should also know that Hizbollah is an organisation standing up and supporting this wretched tyrant who is killing so many of his own people.""

Somebody needs to deal decisively with these rancid turdburgers, who spread their noxious propaganda while glossing over their own nefarious history.

Britain, in particular, has had a particularly revolting record in the countries of the Middle East, where now the prime minister feels so entitled to spew his hypocritical muck over the incumbent regimes of the region. Were it not for abundant imperial mischief in those parts in the preceding centuries, who's to say how much more enlightened and progressive the current regimes may have turned out.

They are certainly no better for the legacy of the imperialists, nor is the present agitation on behalf of the corporate patrons of today's crony regimes a healthful or benevolent influence.

May David Cameron take his condemnations of other regimes, and shove them up his ass. He's got a whole country that's on the brink of coming apart at the seams, and this tawdry spectacle of a bone-headed bitch showering the developing world with mouth manure is completely unnecessary.

Any criticism of Israel is 'inflammatory'

So Nick Clegg over in London has stirred up the hornet's nest by criticizing Israeli settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Nick Clegg risks damaging peace process over 'inflammatory' Israel settlement remarks - Telegraph: "During an official visit to London, Danny Ayalon offered a hard-hitting response to the Deputy Prime Minister's statement on Monday that Israel's construction of settlements on occupied land amounted to "deliberate vandalism".
Mr Ayalon told the Daily Telegraph that Mr Clegg's intervention had been "gratuitous", adding: "I think it was ill-informed, I think it is unfortunate, and mostly it is damaging, because not only is it not true, but it gives the Palestinians more excuses to raise the bar of preconditions, and not to negotiate freely."
The Palestinian Authority has declined to reopen formal peace talks unless Israel halts the expansion of settlements. Israel, for its part, wants negotiations to start without preconditions. This impasse has paralysed the peace process since a partial and temporary freeze on settlement activity expired in 2010."

He has violated the cardinal rule of diplomacy in the wacky world: never criticize the Israelis. No matter what they do, or to whom.

Actually, Clegg would've been more honest if he had stated the obvious, which is that the Israelis do not seek to come to terms with the Palestinians under any circumstances. They may gnash teeth about how beset and beleaguered they are by a sea of antagonists arrayed against them, but that's the result of their own provocations and sneering response to any and all overtures toward a peaceful settlement.

The bottom line is that the Zionists have an expansive territorial agenda, and will not settle for less than the whole nine yards. There's no accommodation with those who talk in ultimatums.

Israel says, so what?

The latest spin out of the Israeli government is that they're not itching to attack Iran:

Israel says decision on attack on Iran is not close - CNN.com: "Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that a decision on whether to strike Iran's nuclear program was "very far off."
Speaking to Israeli Army Radio, Barak would not offer a concrete estimate as to when he believes Iran may develop a nuclear weapon.
"I don't know its a long way off. Some will say a few years some will say six months. It really doesn't matter.""

Since anyone who's really paying attention knows this is patently ridiculous, the question becomes, what is the motive for putting out an obviously false story?

It probably presages some "false flag" incident which will be blamed on Iran, which will be said to have forced their hand and made an attack mandatory.

Just remember, kids, all governments lie, but the ones in the US orbit lie exponentially.

And the bulls-eye is on your back.

Self-serving protests by internet giants

Now that TPTB have the internet in its crosshairs, now we've got some of the giants of the industry rising in protest:

Google Plans Home Page Protest Against U.S. Piracy Measures - Businessweek: "Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. will place a link on its home page tomorrow highlighting its opposition to anti-piracy measures in U.S. Congress, joining a demonstration by other Internet companies against the Hollywood-backed legislation.

Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, and Facebook Inc. are among companies opposing House and Senate bills they say they will hurt the growth of the U.S. technology industry. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia where users contribute entries, said it will shut the English version of its website for 24 hours tomorrow to protest the measures."

One question: Where were they when NDAA was being debated, and our rights were being eviscerated? Where were these supposed-media companies when the government was tearing Wikileaks out the frame, and trying to send Assange to Guantanamo?

Even so this blog appears courtesy of Google's Blogger, no one should presume that the corporation cares a whit about its customers and the values of good citizenship. This is all about using their muscle and financial clout to protect their financial interests -- rather than standing up against the power of a government run amok.

If not these economic giants, then who?

The Associated Press: a bunch of suckers with typewriters

The Israel military establishment has cried to the AP that it might not have a free hand to intimidate and wage aggressive military campaigns against its neighbors if Iran were to possess a nuclear deterrent:

The Associated Press: Israel: Nuclear Iran could deter military action: "JERUSALEM (AP) — A senior Israeli military official says a nuclear Iran could make it tougher for Israel to act against enemies closer to home.
Military planning division chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel says a nuclear-armed Tehran could constrain Israel from striking Iranian-backed Islamists groups in Lebanon and Gaza — Hezbollah and Hamas respectively.
Eshel said Tuesday that if Israel is "forced to do things in Gaza or in Lebanon, under the Iranian nuclear umbrella it might be different.""

It does not occur to the AP to ask Israel's neighbors how the Zionist nuclear arsenal makes it harder for neighboring countries to act against their adversaries -- as if none exists, or their interests are irrelevant.

This is yet another of the plentiful examples of why the AP and other US-corporate media entities are nothing but government-propaganda shills, providing a lopsided and totally useless perspective on the international scene.

If you want spin or incessant pro-imperial bias in your reporting, you've come to the right place: the AP is a dependable mouthpiece for the oppressors of working people everywhere.

US Marines piss on everything sacred

It isn't just the bodies of their Afghan adversaries that US Marines are pissing on -- it's civilized values as a whole.

US Marines Soul Searching After 'Urinating' Video - ABC News: "The U.S. Marine Corps is launching an internal investigation into the culture of the Corps in response to a video that purportedly shows troops urinating on the corpses of suspected Taliban fighters, a Marine official told ABC News today.

The probe will attempt to answer the question "What happened in the Marine Corps that this happened?" according to the official.

"It'll be a holistic look at everything surrounding this issue," he said."

And if you believe that bullshit, they'll piss on you, too!

Fact is, what these guys did is emblematic of what the US does to the rest of the world. There are chumps who take it and smile, because they're on the gravy train, but it really is nothing but a mockery of what the US so assiduously promotes as human rights and rule of law.

The US fighting man (and woman, for that matter) is typically a beast and a barbarian; an ignorant lout who does what he's told for his 40 pieces of silver. Honor went out of the game a long time ago, and now it's all about intimidation and brute force, to take what the US government and the oligarchy for which it stands wants, and fuck the rest.

What happened to the Marine Corps is what happened to the US generally: it was corrupted by easy money that comes from shaking down the weak and defenseless. Oldest game in town.

Not even Attila the Hun did it better than this band of hired killers.

Once the government has finally played out its hand, and is destitute and desperate, what the US will be left with is gangs of armed thugs like these marauding across the countryside, raping and pillaging -- because that'll be all that's left for them.

You shouldn't be looking forward to that day, when it comes. And it will.

Republicans are fucking crybabies

Osama bin Obama may be their sworn enemy, but the congressional GOP can't even appreciate him when he's hewing to their very own agenda:

Republicans on reorganization: Why weren't we consulted?: "Republicans in Congress complained Friday that President Obama didn't consult them before recommending a government reorganization to better serve the business community.

In a sign of the continuing political discord in Washington, GOP leaders were quick to criticize the way in which Obama proposed something they actually favor."

These guys are a bunch of ineffectual putzes if ever there were any. They put their narrow partisan agenda before everything else. If the fucking capitol was burning down, they'd fight off the fire department for being unionized.

The US voting public, of course, is getting exactly what it voted for in 2010: a republican house majority that would ensure legislative deadlock and a politics of continual partisan squabbles. It never dawned on the supposedly so wise and common-sensical American public that the one thing to be avoided above all others is a hopelessly deadlocked politics. Absolutely nothing that is needed to pull the nation out of its perennial morass can be enacted because of the current political alignment in Washington.

This is, naturally, perfectly suitable for maintaining the status quo, that serves those best who benefit most: the oligarchs.

So let the puff-ball politicos have at it. The bumper cars of the mind goes on with hideous abandon. All in HD.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

Another tragedy involving an Iranian nuclear scientist, and the predictable US response:

BBC News - US condemns bomb attack on Iran nuclear scientist: "The US has condemned the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist in a car bomb attack in north Tehran.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said the US "had absolutely nothing to do" with the attack."

The old schoolyard taunt comes to mind: Liar, liar, pants on fire!

The US may have had "absolutely nothing to do" with the attack -- depending on how you define "nothing".

If it was the Israeli Mossad, for instance, that could provide a thin veneer of plausible deniability, but the US claim is still palpably false.

The number of unexplained explosions and assassination that are destroying Iranian military and scientific assets is simply too outrageous to be coincidence or happenstance. As has been argued on these posts before, there is an active military campaign being waged from abroad against Iran and its interests -- and it simply follows that the leaders of the public campaign to sanction and isolate Iran are just as active, and perhaps more active, in covert activities to achieve their goal.

That goal, it should be remembered, is control of Iran's massive energy resources, and the wealth that would accrue to the Western corporate interests that manage to obtain control of them. The nuclear file is simply a canard, while the real action is in redrawing the map in which Pepe Escobar calls "Pipelinistan".

These ham-handed attempts to instigate a military confrontation will continue to be a staple of the daily news digest until the desired hot conflict is triggered.

It can't be too far off now.

Obama Ready to nuke Iran

Why is this a surprise to anyone?

Obama Ready to Strike to Stop Nuclear Iran, Former Adviser Says - Businessweek: "Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- No one should doubt that President Barack Obama is prepared to use military force to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon if sanctions and diplomacy fail, the president’s former special assistant on Iran said.

Obama has “made it very clear” that he regards a nuclear- armed Iran as so great a threat to international security that “the Iranians should never think that there’s a reluctance to use the force” to stop them, Dennis Ross, who served two years on Obama’s National Security Council and a year as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s special adviser on Iran, said in an interview yesterday."

Obama is a tool and a flunky of the resource-extraction industry, the Israel-firsters and the central-banking oligarchy.

If they want to start a shooting war with Iran, then Obama will gladly oblige.

It will have nothing to do with Iranian nukes, of course. An Iranian nuke simply complicates the basic mission, which is to seize Iran's energy resources for the exclusive exploitation by Western corporate interests.

Israel will smilingly accept the elimination of a threat to its own territorial ambitions, but is in no way menaced by any weapon Iran possesses. Israel is perfectly capable of wiping Iran off the map at any time.

Sanctions and diplomacy? The powers have already been waging war on Iran in everything but name. The provocations come hot and heavy these days, and Zionist stooges like Dennis Ross serve as useful idiots in the march of a global bankster empire spreading its tentacles across the energy heartlands of the planet.

Obama is the marionette who dances when the piper calls the tune.

Israel wages false flag cyber terror attack

When Israel is concerned about being attacked by some one or some thing, you can be assured that it is the one doing the attacking, preemptively and presumptuously. From the authors of Stuxnet come these accusations about so-called "Saudi hackers":

Israel concerned may be under cyber attack | Reuters: "JERUSALEM, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Israeli officials said on Friday they were concerned the country may be under cyber attack after a wave of credit card code thefts in the past week by a hacker who claims to be operating out of Saudi Arabia.

Credit card company officials said 14,000 numbers had been posted on line on Tuesday and another 11,000 on Thursday. However, they said some of the codes had expired and that the active cards were all being cancelled.

The hacker has identified himself as OxOmar and says he is part of a Saudi Arabian hacker team. In a post on Thursday he said he had leaked information about more than 400,000 Israelis and said the "Jewish lobby" was hiding the scale of the attack."

Any attack that may be taking place is beyond the capabilities of the most-hapless Arabs, who are adept and blowing themselves and others up, and murdering people for "disrespect," but their usual MO does not include cyber crime. Sorry, but that sounds more like an internal problem for the Israelis do deal with.

It is, however, a good ruse to elicit sympathy for the worlds greatest victims. Nothing that happens to Israeli or Israelis is ever provoked -- they are merely innocent bystanders.

Tell that to the Iraqis, or the Lebanese, or most of all, the Palestinians -- who don't even exist, according to the best Israeli authorities.

In any case, stealing some credit-card numbers doesn't exactly rank up there with industrial sabotage, or wanton attacks against public infrastructure with the intention of causing maximum civilian casualties.

Let's try to keep these things in perspective...

Obama's bark worse than his bite

The US is essentially bankrupt. Were it not for the dollars that the bankers can print endlessly through their personal playroom press at the Federal Reserve Bank, we'd not even have the proverbial pot to piss in. Without the dollar being the world's reserve currency, we'd be nowhere at all.

So now we have Barky Obama, leader of the free world, on the stage and giving his best imitation of a man instead of a muffin. The government has no choice but to downsize its military machine, lest it finally lose all credibility with its bankers in Asia, while still maintaining at least the fiction of having an overwhelming military machine:

Obama: Leaner U.S. military will maintain superiority | Reuters: "(Reuters) - President Barack Obama, rolling out a new defense strategy to shrink the country's armed forces at a time of tight budgets at home, pledged on Thursday to maintain the United States as the world's dominant military power.

"Our military will be leaner but the world must know - the United States is going to maintain our military superiority with armed forces that are agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats," Obama told a news briefing at the Pentagon."

This, as all the rest of the world knows, is pure catshit. From the tinny yapping of a little dog, Barky Obama is also a changeling and able to channel a pussycat when called upon. His rhetoric has filled the catbox with fresh, fragrant turds.

The invincible US military is bulked up on steroids, so to speak. With "shock and awe," their remote-controlled gee-whiz weaponry was able to deliver death and destruction on a massive scale to a sleepy Baghdad at the beginning of the Gulf War, but when the awesome military machine got bogged down on the ground, trying to pacify as restive population, it was undermanned and under-provisioned -- not in it for the long haul. The US is good at quick and dirty, but not such a winner on a long, arduous slog. That was what lost the war in Iraq (only the appearance of "success" was gamed by taking sides in a nascent civil war), and it's what makes Afghanistan such a dismal prospect for the great white dopes.

Only the US public must not ever know the truth about their wholly unexceptional armed forces, which they support at what will become most unbearable personal sacrifice in the years ahead. The empire needs the support of a clueless and ignorant populace, gulled into believing in imaginary threats which hide under every bed. The oligarchy requires a willing suspension of disbelief, and of consciousness and awareness, too, if it is to pursue its goals of global hegemony and control over the energy resources of the planet over the medium term.

This was the subject of Pepe Escobar's most prescient essay today on Asia Times, where an unsuspecting public will never learn that the true stakes that have the US mired in all these god-forsaken backwaters like Afghanistan and Iran has nothing to do with terrorism or threats to the homeland, but with securing easy pickins' for the resource-extrication industry, so bravely championed by stalwarts like the Koch brothers, and their empire of right-wing propaganda organs -- hired guns of warmongering for fun and profiteering.

Poor Barking Obama, the puny, piddling poodle of the neo-con conspiracy. Force to walk the plank to dismantle cherished democratic social welfare programs, he does dirty double duty as the hitman on the left gunning for the military establishment, so some more gung-ho candidate can come along and tear his ass out the frame... this is the thanks you get for being a lackey in the USA.

Only the best for my puppy!

Have you ever heard of Pepe Escobar?

"Bets are off on which is the great story of 2011. Is it the Arab Spring(s)? Is it the Arab counter-revolution, unleashed by the House of Saud? Is it the "birth pangs" of the Greater Middle East remixed as serial regime changes? Is it R2P ("responsibility to protect") legitimizing "humanitarian" bombing? Is it the freeze out of the "reset" between the US and Russia? Is it the death of al-Qaeda? Is it the euro disaster? Is it the US announcing a Pacific century cum New Cold War against China? Is it the build up towards an attack on Iran? (well, this one started with Dubya, Dick and Rummy ages ago ...) "

So begins "Playing Chess in Eurasia," Pepe Escobar's latest dispatch at Asia Times,, where he's a regular contributor.

Escobar isn't a cartoon character -- far from it. As an analyst and writer, he's the real deal. This piece, for example, makes one realize how unrelentingly juvenile the official narrative among the cognoscenti is in the (dis-)United States. We orbit in a figure 8 pattern between pure evil, represented by distant resource-rich states that don't follow orders, on the one hand, and the unfailingly good and generous spirit of the American people, who yield to no one in their pursuit of exceptionalism -- regardless of the cost (so long as it's borne by the taxpayers, and not the oligarchs who so richly benefit from their subjects' sacrifices on their behalf).

Anyway, you owe it to yourself to Google Escobar and Asia Times, which will take you straight to his "best of " page. Feel liberated from stupidity and the insipid truisms of mass-production intellect suction.

Hijacked by Russian gangsters

Ever wonder why this blog runneth over with new posts for a while, only to turn bone dry almost without warning?

It's not that I've lost the fire, it's because of the spammers in Russia who fraudulently rack up page views in a way that totally skews the numbers.

Frankly, I have no use for a lot of web traffic. In fact, I would rather have no views at all than bogus ones. When I see the world map in the Blogger Stats tab showing all page views coming from a part of the world where no one is reading -- but instead is promoting spam and spasms of shit -- I simply lose interest.

I'm waiting for them to vacate, and hope that comes about by not adding content. But if this strategy fails, I may be forced to move my ramblings to a new location, even more obscure and invisible.