Riehl World View

Subtle Diplomacy

Personally, I prefer the not so subtle kind. Honey, let's pass on the summer home this year. You know how I hate those pesky fly ... bys.

Israeli warplanes buzzed the summer residence of Syrian President Bashar Assad early Wednesday, military officials said, in a message aimed at pressuring the Syrian leader to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier.

The officials said on condition of anonymity that the fighter jets flew over Assad's palace in a low-altitude overnight raid near the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria. Israeli television reports said four planes were involved, and Assad was home at the time.

Do you think it would help if we put in some of those citranella torches?

Heavens, no, dear ... I don't think anything involving light right now is a good idea.

Can you imagine? Ah ... it's so hard to get away when you're a terror sponsoring despot these days.

Clinton Staffer: "You Suck!"

LMAO Now where have we heard that one before?

The Clinton aide, Laurie Rubiner, was overheard saying to Reid spokeswoman Rebecca Kirszner, “You suck” and “How could you do this?”

Adding Insult To Injury

It's bad enough that the press can't seem to restrain itself from publishing classified information. They compound it when they refuse to report a balanced view of programs they've exposed, allowing readers to misinterpret the impact of their decisions. That's bias times two.

Interesting for what it took to put together ... but geesh, talk about too much time on one's hands. Bush doing Bono

Must Be The Moon

The AP is busy trashing Limbaugh over Viagra - Biden wants to stay home and do his wife. Meanwhile, one blogs so hard up, they're trying to score with the fat Dixie Chick. My money's on Chip!

New Talk Of Possible Finance Misdirection, Lying And Anti-Semitism Swirl Around DailyKos

Update 2 and Ouch!: If this from DonkeyCons is Armstrong on a cancelled CBS report on the Iraq War - it's going to leave a mark. This isn't Anti-Semitism, it's racism.

Who cares. It's not like we need CBS to tell us that trying to create democracy with a bunch of iraqis is stupid.

As if it didn't have enough troubles, some readers and former readers of DailyKos are coming forward with new allegations about the goings on within the Netroots movement. Given other developments, said movement may find it increasingly difficult to mount a believable defense.

Up until now the leaders of the so-called Netroots movement have relied upon their credibility to fend off critics and those questioning their motivations. Said credibility could be damaged if, as it seems, the leadership of the Netroots allowed DailyKos Blog father Jerome Armstrong to tell a very public lie without taking him to task. As they say, it's always the cover up that turns out to be more damaging than the crime. That's why I'm addressing the potential credibility issue first.

When revelations of his star gazing past surfaced last week, blogger become political consultant to a would be Presidential contender Jerome Armstrong brushed them aside.

Oh yea, on the astrological stuff. I have done the new age type things over the years--life's never boring that way. Down that line, I dabbled with planets and predictions in the most abstract manner, as one of several different predictive mathematical disciplines, when coming out of finances and into politics during my early blogging days (nobody is surprised that remembers the early 2001 days here), and since then have completely tapered out of it over time. . .

So yea, the cons got me on this one being a little out of the ordinary... It has nothing to do with what I consult with in on line political strategy.

But one needn't remember things as they were in 2001, as it appears Armstrong has continued posting his in depth and detailed astro-political observations while performing his political consulting work right up through March 2005 as would be star-swami Vis Numar. I'm linking cached posts, so you'll need to scroll down or use find word.

Sally, did you see Jerome Armstrong on C-Span yesterday morning? He was representing MYDD, of course, and I couldn't help but think I was looking at Vis Numar. But what do I know? hay hay - He was very impressive!!
Keep up the great links folks, it is wonderful.
Posted by: Laurie on June 30, 2005 12:19 PM

In The Rise of The Theo-Con,  posted on March 21, 2005, star swami Vis Numar tells us the GOP is obsessed with 'gonad politics' which manifestated the plutonic sexual tensions that exist in the Republican Party. And he goes on:

What's notable about the Jupiter-Mercury oppositions of retrogrades in the law passed by Bush, is that they exactly T-square the Sun of the Republican Party and the USA chart. Hence, a hasteful move has been spearheaded through ideology to impact the judicial branch. ... The Republican Party does well when it deals with Neptunian issues ... but when it comes to issues surrounding Pluto, the sexual and the bodily emerge from shadows, and they go toward excess.

I could go on about how Dean's natal Uranus signals that Dean is going to get a new look by the people, and the "Dean Scream" is no longer going to be his tar baby. But I think we'll leave it at tar baby coming from the mouthpiece of the would be Warner campaign .. just for yuks! I'll let Crooks and Liars weigh in:

When I heard Tony Snow use the term "tar baby" while responding to a question in his first televised Press conference today, it actually startled me. Doesn't Tony understand what that phrase means to many people in this country?

Somewhere among the ramblings Vis Numar even points out that Presidential candidates who declare when Mercury is in retrograde are doomed to lose. No doubt he'll be sure to pass that timely bit of advice along to any current employer. The notion that he is dabbling is likely nonsense, the fact that he might not have come clean about some star crossed pre-occupation would amount to a lie. Assuming this is the case, what's so new and noble about the new political paradigm the Netroots professes to enjoy? Looks like the same old duck and cover for one another to me. It appears to have been a not so well kept secret that Armstrong is Vis Numar.

Mickey Kaus recently posted: Read my lips ... no new planets. Sorry Mickey .. you should get Armstrong on TV now, maybe we'll all learn the truth.

Before moving on from Armstrong, what I'd really like to know is if he's Freeper Vis Numar circa 2001, who made plenty of posts. And whether or not he had no real political background before the Internet as he said here, or was arrested several time with Greenpeace and Earth First as he recently told Salon.

Were you involved in politics before you went online?

Jerome Armstrong: Not much. I voted, that was it. Political participation
wasn't on my radar, really. I did some field organizing in in Portland,
Oregon in the early '90s.

via Salon: was arrested repeatedly at protests with EarthFirst! and Greenpeace.

I had wanted to stay clear of the Anti-Semitism charges some former KosSacks have emailed me about. But upon learning that Kos himself placed this item on his front page today, I thought I should bring it up. He cleaned it up but linked to the whole post.

I've always gotten a lot of traffic from Daily Kos, and my name is listed first under "Kos Alumni" on the home page...

Kos, and his blog allies and followers, appear to have touched an extremely raw nerve with tribunes of modern neoliberalism (like neoconservatism, but without the strength of its convictions.) ...

The overriding concern for the neolibs, I think, is not that Kos and the netroot activists will lead the party off to the far-left fringes, but rather that they are willing, even eager, to form alliances with conservative nationalists like Jim Webb (the Va. Senate candidate) who've been forced out of the GOP because of their opposition to the neocons and their insane schemes. From Marty Peretz's point of view, this is very bad. Left unchecked, it could even pose a threat to the sacred alliance with Israel.

It's not that Kos (or Webb, for that matter) are outspoken critics of the special relationship. Far from it. But it is clear that the constituencies they represent, or hope to represent, are much more skeptical about U.S. intervention in the Middle East than the Democratic old guard -- which, let's face it, is practically welded to the Israel lobby.

Kos' decision to link that post on his front page today while endorsing the likes of Ben Nelson and Jim Webb, yet fighting tooth and nail against Lieberman is hard to fathom. Either he has no issue with Anti-Semitism, or the Netroots political movement has the judgment of a bunch of Not Ready for Prime Time Players, as opposed to a movement come of age.

If you simply take Nelson versus Lieberman, there's no solid rationale for supporting one and not the other. The Netroots talks about a progressive agenda in all fifty states. By their own definition, they should have challenged Nelson and they didn't. Yet, even against party opposition, they are strident in their opposition to a loyal Democrat and the first Jewish Vice Presidential candidate in American history. It makes little sense.

Yet, as I'm not a regular reader, I'll provide another link for those interested to further explore any Anti-Semitism charges. The Protocols of the DailyKos via LGF And as best I can tell, it is absolutely KosSacks and former KosSacks who emailed me to complain and asked me to look at the issue. I've no desire to trump the charge up. And individuals should read the postings there and decide for themselves. I admit to not having read Kos much myself. If nothing else, it looks like that community needs to have the debate. Some who contacted me insisted they were usually shouted down when bringing the issue up.

Which leaves the latest allegation of impropriety including some possible misdirection of political funds through an inappropriately designed ad for a campaign run by Armstrong and placed throughout the Netroots network of blogs. The posts detailing that can be found via the Buckeye State Blog here, with two additional links in the body of text below.

Shortly after that Brown, who's internet strategy was being directed by Armstrong bought a massive blog ad buy. The ads themselves were especially deceptive, picturing both Brown and Hackett's face on them and initially directing people to Browns fundraising site, until later changed to an actblue general election fund page - after many people complained about it. It was all a mistake was the claim.

At this point I had had enough. I wrote these 2 pieces, here and here, laying the initial opinion of payola.

In an email exchange with kos, he played down the ad buy claiming that Hackett was going to be running ads in 2 weeks - there was no conspiracy. Hackett never did run any blogads.

Update: DC also points out that vis numar was quite a hit at DU.

Tragic and So Very, Very Sad

(June 27, 2006)--The U.S. military now says explosives experts had to dismantle three roadside bombs to reach the brutalized bodies of two missing U.S. soldiers.

In a statement, the military says the remains were found tied together with a bomb between one soldier's legs.

A U.S. military official said last week that one and possibly both young men were tortured and beheaded.

Michelle has images and a round up of some links. As someone appears to point out - and it occurs to me, as well, President Bush has been slow to speak out on this ordeal. Were I him, if at all possible, I would consider attending the services for both men.

It's impossible to look at the image at Michelle's site with the young woman, her hand clasped to her mouth, without imaging a tremendously sad and most terrible pain.

May God comfort her and all the friends and family members of both men through these days.

Update: h/t Michelle

The arrival of Menchaca's remains on Monday was especially hard on his family, who had seen him in early May, when he visited Houston and Brownsville while on leave. They have been torn by reports of that insurgents tortured Menchaca and another soldier after reportedly kidnapping them June 16 in an area outside Baghdad known as the ''Triangle of Death."

After the chartered jet arrived at 12:04 p.m. at the Brownsville/South Padre Island International Airport, Menchaca's casket was escorted from the plane to a black hearse by a military honor guard from the soldier's unit, the 101st Airborne Division of Fort Campbell, Ky.

Ten close relatives met the plane. Among them was Menchaca's widow, Christina, 18, of Big Spring, who married the soldier only three weeks before he left for Iraq last year. She sobbed loudly and appeared on the verge of collapse before relatives helped her from the back of the hearse so it could leave the airport runway.

As Menchaca's remains were escorted from the airport to the Brownsville Events Center along a route decorated with yellow ribbons, the U.S. military in Iraq issued more details of the soldier's kidnapping and mutilation.

Has The War Been Too Easy?

Too easy for us here at home, allowing us to believe we aren't really in one? This Boston Herald editorial has a point.

Five years on, some people remain unaware that this is war; that we are facing an enemy that will do anything in its power to destroy us.

The fact that on any given day we are free to fly around the world, drive our cars without restriction and buy as much food as we like in rich variety seems to have confused them.

And for something less confusing, there's always corruption in Mexican politics. Pundita has the scoop. We need to start paying more attention to it if we really want to solve the illegal immigration problem here.

"Millions of poor Mexicans have been threatened with exclusion from health care and social assistance programs if they do not vote for various [political] candidates ... Others, mostly in rural areas, have been given cash payoffs of $40 to $60 for their votes, a tidy sum in a country where the poorest families subsist on less than $4 a day," writes Manuel Roig-Franzia in yesterday’s Washington Post ( Dirty Politics 'Ingrained' in Mexico)

The WaPO - Obviously Steele Can't Be Black

It's a wonder the Washington Post didn't just come out and call Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele an Uncle Tom in this piece. Evidently Steele ain't s'posed ta rub shoulders, or, heaven forbid, take money from da white folk! What a disgrace.

The fundraiser thrown for Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele on Thursday night, while ordinary in most ways, struck some African American leaders as notable because of the host.

Unlike the dozens of high-dollar events across the country in his U.S. Senate bid, this event was thrown by the producer of the famous "Willie Horton" ad, the 1988 commercial that came to symbolize the cynical use of skin color as a political wedge.

I don't recall the Washington Post taking too much notice when Hillary Clinton made her plantation comments at a black church in New York. Do you think they would bother to point out that were Senator Robert Byrd in attendance, that he has former ties to the Klan? I don't think so.

It seemed a most unusual choice for Steele, the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland ...

Unusual by whose standards? By what rules? He's a Republican, why wouldn't he avail himself of traditional Republican party apparatus? Is he not allowed? Should Republican supporters and consultants put second doors in their offices, ones that only the black people use?

The entire article only holds up if you buy into the Liberal interpretation of race relations in America. That isn't the only one any longer. And this nonsense below:

The donations underscore a political quandary for Steele and the handful of other black Republicans seeking national office this year: As they look for financial help from GOP stalwarts, they risk forging relationships with people liable to turn off black voters.

Black voters? Sorry, I don't think so. I'd wager the average white and black voter couldn't even tell you who did the Willie Horton ad, or any other from a now distant political campaign. Black Republicans are threatening the established Liberal group think when it comes to race in America - and more than that, they are threatening the electoral stranglehold Democrats have held on Blacks for years.

And that power structure, be it the Washington Post or the NAACP is doing nothing but playing the race card by putting out this type of garbage.

What's Going On

Michelle Malkin has a round up on the kidnapping of Galid Shalit.

Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has the latest on the whole Kos controvery - with some laughs.

Sadie is keeping an eye on the culture, but, geesh! Did she have to keep an eye on the second photo down?? See it before lunch, or you might just lose it. Lita Ford? I should have known it was Jeff. lol Check it out.