Attack on US sailors by Turkish protestors may be connected to incident during Iraq War.

Courtesy of CNN:  

Three U.S. Navy sailors were assaulted and had bags placed over their heads during a stop in Istanbul, Turkey, according to U.S. military officials. 

The incident, captured on video, happened Wednesday when sailors from the USS Ross were attacked by members of the Turkish Youth Union, according to local Turkish press accounts. 

"US Navy officials are working with the embassy and NCIS to investigate the incident. The three sailors were unharmed and are safely back aboard. They did not require medical attention," Capt. Greg Hicks, a spokesman with U.S. European Command told CNN. 

The assailants appeared to be neo-nationalists shouting slogans like "Yankee Go Home," according to local press accounts. They did not appear to be tied to ISIS, which is based in neighboring Syria.

Like many of you I saw this video yesterday but was a little confused as to why Turkish protesters were so upset with American military members. I thought we were cool with Turkey.

So I did some digging around and found what might have been the trigger.

See for yourself:

The Hood event (Turkish: Çuval Olayı) was an incident on July 4, 2003 following the 2003 invasion of Iraq where a group of Turkish military personnel operating in northern Iraq were captured, led away with hoods over their heads, and interrogated by the United States military. The soldiers were released after sixty hours, after Turkey protested to the United States. 

Though neither side ever apologized, a US-Turkish commission set up to investigate the incident later issued a joint statement of regret. In addition, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote a letter to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressing sorrow over the incident. The Hood event damaged diplomatic relations between Turkey and the United States and marked a low point in US-Turkish relations. While the incident received comparatively little coverage in the United States, it was a major event in Turkey, many of whose citizens saw it as a deliberate insult and nicknamed it "The Hood event".

You know it may take decades for us to realize just how badly America's reputation has been damaged by the invasion of Iraq, and there is little doubt that more Americans will be hurt or possibly killed because of it, either in attacks overseas or terrorist attacks here at home.

I just know that the Right Wing will try to find some way to blame this on Obama, but if this incident was indeed the trigger, I think we all know where the fault lies. 

Hopefully the lessons we learn from this absolutely unnecessarily military action will not be forgotten, like the ones from Vietnam clearly were.

Well I think this seems very appropriate this morning.

I don't usually like to wish ill on anybody but it would be awfully great if a couple of our least favorite justice's had some health concerns that forced them out of the Supreme Court either before the need of Obama's term, or during Hillary's eight years in office.

It does not have to be fatal or anything, just severe enough to force them into an early retirement.

Retired Army general, and Fox News contributor, offers to lead disenfranchised Marines in surrounding White House. In a non-treasonous way of course.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A retired Army general and Fox News analyst told a Tea Party group that he would lead a military coup against the U.S. government, if only reluctantly. 

Paul Vallely, a retired major general and senior military analyst for the conservative news channel, told the Surprise, Arizona, Tea Party Patriots during a Dec. 3 speech that other retired military personnel and veterans groups had contacted him about the possibility. 

“I had a call this afternoon from Idaho, the gentleman said, ‘If I give you 250,000 Marines to go to Washington, will you lead them?’” Vallely said as the group laughed and gasped. “I said, ‘Yes, I will, I’ll surround the White House and I’ll surround the Capitol building, but it’s going to take physical presence to do things.” 

Yes because there are 250,000 Marines ready to commit treason by marching against this President, and surrounding his residence in a threatening manner. 

Seems totally reasonable.

He said such a protest would be a continuation of Tea Party activism. 

“The great things the Tea Party did, I mean, they were out there in the community, standing up, being seen,” Vallely said. “They did things, so we’ve got to go based on what the Tea Party has done and elevate it into something and get more younger people involved. So I don’t know how else to do it.” 

The retired general has suggested that a new George Washington could be drawn from the ranks of retired military personnel to lead an insurrection because his aims could not be achieved even through this year’s congressional midterm elections. 

“I don’t want to be criticized for starting a revolution, but I’d certainly head it if we had to,” Vallely said as the crowd applauded. “We all love a good fight if it’s worth it, right?”

Totally worth it. If you mean by "worth it" that it will result in arrest, embarrassment, and imprisonment.

I swear these Fox News/Tabagger types seem to exist in some kind of alternative universe where if they were to march toward Washington with a contingent of ex-military types that the ranks would grow until they had an army on their side large enough to challenge the might of the US Armed Forces.

Instead what is more likely to happen is that the few elderly veterans in the group would run out of air in their oxygen tanks, or the battery would go dead in their mobility scooters, and they would be forced to drop out before ever reaching their goal, and the handful that did make it would be too out of breath to chant or hold their protest signs aloft.

What a bunch of morons.

Sporting a drowned varmint wig, pink shirt, and faux patriotism, Sarah Palin answers questions from Greta Van "So Sucks to be interviewing Palin again."

Click receding hairline to play video.

This short interview was on Greta's show last night, which I missed because I forgot they gave her slot to Megyn Kelly.

To be honest it really is more of the same inflammatory faux patriotism flavored word salad that we have all heard before.

However at one point Greta asks soggy britches where all of this ends, (I assume she meant the shutdown, and not Palin's party crashing of protest rallies.) and Palin gets very agitated and high pitched:

"Where does it end. It ends with the people at places like this, having their voices heard. Telling out leaders that they better get their priorities straight. Priorities like, no you don't shut down our World War 2 memorial, and keep the President's golf course open at the same time. (The course on Andrews Air Force base is paid for with user fees. Caution, link leads to Breitbart.) You don't make these stupid decisions that stick it to the people, because the people are being used as pawns. (Yes, by YOU!) Our government is to be working for us. You guys hired the politicians, they work for you, so it ends when the people's voice is loud enough to be heard all throughout Washington D. C., so that they'll listen to us."

Greta then points out that the more moderate Republicans (The ones who would end the government shutdown.) disagree with the tactics utilized by Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. And asks Palin how she reconciles that:

"I think the people would say, 'Thank you good guys for being there fighting the good fight for the rest of us.'" 

At this point it almost seems as if Palin, within her childlike fantasy world, does not recognize that the very individuals she thinks the people should be thanking, are the ones who engineered the shutdown that is making those protestors so angry.

Palin continues to pander to the crowd, all while waving her tiny "Made in China" flag, and seems to have NO idea that she is knee deep in hypocrisy by claiming that the President is using the veterans as pawns when being caught on camera doing that very thing herself.

What was it that Forrest Gump said? "Stupid is as stupid does."

Sarah Palin posts insulting quote from military leader in order to prove her pro-war status.

The above graphic was posted to the Little Dopey Annie's Facebook page.

She had somebody alter the original quote which read, “When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pussy,” to what you see above. You know, because she such a good Christian and all.

Of course a truly good Christian might have a little something called compassion.

And that compassion would likely inspire an anti-war sentiment of their own. After all the end result of war is death and human suffering. And what kind of Christian could want that?

Right?

In fact, as many of us know, many of he MOST ardent anti-war protestors are ex-military members who have been subjected to numerous deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq and who have seen first hand the death and devastation that has resulted from our presence in those places.

More than a few are also suffering debilitating injuries that have resulted from those deployments.

Are those soldiers ALSO considered "pussies?" (I'm sorry, "wussies?")

If this is yet another attempt to promote herself as the military supporting mother of a "combat veteran," then it is especially egregious in that her son Track has NEVER faced combat!

In fact numerous reports have him as far away from the fighting as possible.

One could only imagine how the Grizzled Mama's attitude might have been changed had her only natural born son been horribly disfigured, or even killed, while fighting overseas.(Though, to be honest, there is the possibility that it would not have changed her at all. After all, that takes compassion.)

However if Palin wants to know where the "wussies" actually live, she need look no further than the mirror to see a coward who hides behind ghostwriters, and fake glasses to make herwelf look smart. Or who plays the victim every single time there is even the slightest criticism.

Or if she wants to see a REAL "pussy" perhaps she should come back to Wasilla and look at her own husband. A man who preyed upon young women in order to make money by selling their bodies to business associates. Is there ANYTHING more weak and pathetic than that?

So on behalf of the war protestors let me just say, "Fuck you Sarah Palin."

Just remember the War on Women has been happening for thousands of years.

This was taken fro ma tweet by Connie Schultz.

Good Lord. pic.twitter.com/RzBejrxjmG
— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) July 7, 2013

But if you think that his is a minority opinion shared only among certain Fundamentalist Christians than, like the guy said, you have probably not read your Bible.

That mysognist crap is EVERYWHERE. And modern men have NO problem using it t obully their women into submission.

"Hey, honey it's not like I want you to do obey my every command and raise my kids while i treat you like a possession. It's in the bible! You  wouldn't argue with God's will  now would you?"

Just in case you still doubt any of this, here let this Christian pastor straighten you out.

No argument here.

I think we could also add "how human reproduction works," the true teachings of Jesus Christ," and "their jobs."

Orthodox Christian ministers lead thousands in Georgia to assault and chase gay rights protestors. (Disclaimer: This is Russia not America.)

Courtesy of Global Post:  

Two dozen stunned pro-gay rights protesters stood in a stranger’s kitchen last week. Blood streamed down a young woman's face where it had been struck by a rock. 

Outside the building, an angry mob was gaining in numbers and ferocity as the protesters’ outnumbered police escorts frantically debated how to evacuate them. 

“All this crowd, like zombies, they simply wanted to kill us. Not beat or humiliate, they simply wanted to kill us,” said Nino Kharchilava, one of the protesters. “At some point, I definitely thought, ‘We’re going to die here, and that’s it.’” 

Using their bodies as shields, the police eventually formed a narrow corridor through the throng of Orthodox Christian counter-protesters to a minibus the police had appropriated for their ad hoc escape plan. 

A widely circulated video shows Orthodox protesters accompanied by priests assaulting the minibus, breaking windows with rocks and fists and trying to drag the terrified activists out as the van slowly made its way through the crowd. 

The confrontation took place on International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), when Kharchilava and her fellow activists were headed toward a small rally in the center of the Georgian capital. They were representing the Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG), an NGO that promotes gender education. 

Tens of thousands of anti-gay protesters organized by priests thwarted the demonstration by breaking through police lines and chasing the activists. 

Twenty-eight people were injured in the incident, which drew condemnation from human rights organizations and Western embassies. 

Often I hear that there is a vast difference between Christianity and Islam, in that Christians are less likely to use violence in order to suppress opposition to their world view or kill those that they deem sinful, but in reality such is not the case.

It is not the religion itself which instructs its peaceful existence within the community, it is the community's demand that it curtail its more aggressive and judgmental components that determine how it interacts with those unlike themselves.

When there are fewer willing to challenge the religious leaders, nor any government willing to hold them accountable, THIS is the result.

An even more effective conduit for organizing and leading people other than politics, is through religion. And the battle for supremacy, and control of the populace, between those two factions is never ending. Fragile treaties are only established once one gains dominance over the other, as we saw happen when the Fundamentalists took over the Republican party in this country.

Don't think for a moment that if our government were suddenly rendered impotent, and unable to maintain order, that the most strident and radical among the religious leaders in this country would not establish their own version of order that would see the murder and torture of all who did not adhere to their faith or dared to challenge their right to lead.

Indeed the streets would run red with both non-Christian and Christian blood and it would all be done in the name of God. And the thickest pools of blood would belong to the homosexuals and atheists.

Why do YOU think the Right Wing is constantly trying to sabotage government?

So this happened in Germany the other day.

Courtesy of Newsmax: 

Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted he "liked" the topless protesters he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel encountered while touring an industrial fair in Hanover Monday. 

The women, who appeared to be representing the feminist Ukrainian group Femen, were stripped to the waist and painted with the slogan "f*** dictator." 

"As for the protest, I liked it," Putin said at a press conference after the fair. The event's organizers should "say thank you to the Ukrainian girls, they helped you promote the trade fair," he said. 

On its Facebook page, Femen said the protest was an "anti-dictatorial attack on Putin." The group criticized the Kremlin, Russia's Federal Security Service, and the Russian Orthodox Church, saying that Femen was against "dictatorship, homophobia, and theocracy." 

So I guess evil dictators don't mind being protested against just so long as you are topless.

By the way the woman were incredibly aggressive and essentially launched themselves in Putin's direction resulting in some not very delicate handling by his security staff.

As you can see for yourself in this video of the interaction.

(I kind of feel badly for Merkel here as she looks completely freaked out by the painted breasts being thrust in her direction.)

Somehow considering just how Putin deals with his detractors ("What another political enemy died in his sleep? What a bizarre coincidence!"), I guess acting like a misogynist pig is probably hardly worth a mention.

Men armed with loaded assault rifles show up to intimidate group of mothers who are protesting for more gun control laws. The very definition of manly.

Courtesy of Think Progress:

Several men with assault rifles and hand guns crashed a Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns National Day to Demand Action event in Indianapolis, Indiana on Thursday and stood silently as the state chapter of Moms Demand Action held a rally in favor of limiting the availability of military style weapons and universal background checks. 

At least two or three men showed up at the rally site before the event began and engaged in a discussion about gun regulations with the group, two participants in the action told ThinkProgress. The armed men — who were later joined by another man carrying a hand gun and a woman who runs Indiana Moms Against Gun Control — insisted that they had a right to carry the loaded weapons.

A member of Moms Demand Action said that she felt unsettled by their presence and said that the organizers would have to think twice before holding another event, particularly one where children could be present.  

“It is my right to have this firearm, and I don’t have to defend, or show a need for, this firearm to own it.” What brilliant reasoning for showing up at a peaceful rally with an assault weapons strapped to your chest to intimidate mothers and their young children.

What kind of pathetic excuse for a man shows up to a rally at which children might be present carrying a weapon designed specifically to murder human beings?

Fucking POS!

Yet more rioting in Libya. Wait, WHO are they rioting against?

Courtesy of the Daily Mail:  

Hundreds of protesters in Libya have launched an attack on the jihadist militia responsible for killing the U.S. ambassador last week. 

The pro-American backlash on Friday night saw the Ansar al-Sharia Brigade driven out of its base in the city of Benghazi, where Chris Stevens and three other U.S. officials were murdered in an attack on the local consulate. 

The unprecedented movement suggests that ordinary Libyans are rising up against Al Qaeda fighters who seek to hijack the democratic reforms of the Arab Spring. 

Ansar al-Sharia militants initially fired in the air to disperse the crowd, but eventually abandoned the site with their weapons and vehicles after it was overrun by waves of protesters shouting 'No to militias.' 

'I don't want to see armed men wearing Afghani-style clothes stopping me in the street to give me orders, I only want to see people in uniform,' said Omar Mohammed, a college student who took part in the takeover of the site. 

No deaths were reported in the incident, which came after tens of thousands marched in Benghazi against armed militias. One vehicle was also burned at the compound. 

Wow! So perhaps it is time for Americans to realize that not ALL Muslims are radical Jihadists determined to spread violent and disharmony among the people o the Middle East.

Gee didn't Sean Hannity and Latino Sarah Palin rip into our President just a few days ago for trusting these people to make the right choice on their own instead of having a prefabricated, by America of course, government foisted upon them? Yeah, I kind of think we did.

Well I wonder what their response to this might be? Oh never mind, if they can't somehow fault President Obama in some way they will simply ignore it.

P.S. By the way these protests have openly spread since this  incident and protestors have now seized a raft of other paramilitary bases as well.

Seems fair.

For those who believe the "Occupy" movement has died, here is a picture of German police removing their helmets and escorting a march of 20,000 for an Occupy Frankfurt protest.

This from the article:

German police officers escort an anti-capitalism protest march with some 20,000 people in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, May 19, 2012. Protesters peacefully filled the city center of continental Europe's biggest financial hub in their protest against the dominance of banks and what they perceive to be untamed capitalism, Frankfurt police spokesman Ruediger Regis said. The protest group calling itself Blockupy has called for blocking the access to the European Central Bank, which is located in Frankfurt's business district.

It looks like the Occupy movement is not only a live and well, it seems to be gaining support from some rather surprising places.

P.S. For those of you who are wondering how the protest is doing these days you can check here at Occupy Wall Street for updates. Though we hear little about it these days it appears to be going strong.

"Stop raping people!" Andrew Breibart loses it at Occupy crowd protesting CPAC.

Okay I would like to present some argument against Breitbart's atttack on the protestors, but I just don't have any idea what his point was supposed to be.

I mean what the hell?

Could it just be that he's a douche?

So you think that Obama's decision to not to veto the National Defense Authorization Act means he can throw Americans into military detention.? Well it doesn't.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

Following the Obama administration's withdrawal of its veto threat Wednesday, the National Defense Authorization Act passed both houses of Congress easily and is now headed to the president's desk. 

So what exactly does the bill do? It says that the president has to hold a foreign Al Qaeda suspect captured on US soil in military detention—except it leaves enough procedural loopholes that someone like convicted underwear bomber and Nigerian citizen Umar Abdulmutallab could actually go from capture to trial without ever being held by the military. It does not, contrary to what many media outlets have reported, authorize the president to indefinitely detain without trial an American citizen suspected of terrorism who is captured in the US. A last minute compromise amendment adopted in the Senate, whose language was retained in the final bill, leaves it up to the courts to decide if the president has that power, should a future president try to exercise it. But if a future president does try to assert the authority to detain an American citizen without charge or trial, it won't be based on the authority in this bill. 

So it's simply not true, as the Guardian wrote yesterday, that the the bill "allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay." When the New York Times editorial page writes that the bill would "strip the F.B.I., federal prosecutors and federal courts of all or most of their power to arrest and prosecute terrorists and hand it off to the military," or that the "legislation could also give future presidents the authority to throw American citizens into prison for life without charges or a trial," they're simply wrong. 

The language in the bill that relates to the detention authority as far as US citizens and permanent residents are concerned is, "Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States, or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States."

What it does do is write into law an assumed role for the military in domestic counterterrorism that did not exist before. In my opinion that is a slippery slope, and I am not at all happy that this bill is going to pass.

But it does not change the existing laws in this country as they pertain to American citizens, or legal aliens visiting this country. I am not sure why the President decided to let this pass without a fight, though in the past we have seen what has appeared to be a defeat turn out to be a victory, but in doing so he did not put any American protestors in danger of military incarceration. That is simply false.

You can read more about this at Please Cut the Crap.

President Obama responds to Occupy Wall Street "mic check" with class.

Now look everybody who comes here knows that I support this President.

I also support the OWS protesters, and I find no conflict with that.

So of course it is perfectly reasonable to expect our President to get a mic check just like any OTHER politician who has not done enough to address the fact that Wall Street and banks have done such damage to our economy and today remain virtually unscathed. 

However having said that I have to point out how incredibly well the President handled himself during that interruption. He did not storm of the stage like Michele Bachmann, or yell back at them like Karl Rove, he handled it calmly and even quieted his own supporters who were trying to shout the protesters down.

I watched the entire speech and the President also made a point to go back and mention the protesters, and his support for their cause, a couple more times.

That is how a REAL leader handles dissent.

The new face of the Occupy movement? Update.

Courtesy of The Star:

Photos of 84-year-old Dorli Rainey being helped by fellow activists after Seattle police blasted a crowd of Occupy protesters with pepper spray Tuesday have popped up on news websites and blogs around the world. 

Occupy Seattle condemned the force, posting a statement on its website shortly after the incident saying “we offer our sympathies to the many protesting patriots that were indiscriminately pepper sprayed including a 4’10” 84 year old woman, a priest and a pregnant woman who as of this writing is still in the hospital.”

Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel told the Associated Press he didn't have the details on the Rainey confrontation, but he said pepper spray is “is not age specific. No more dangerous to someone who is 10 or someone who is 80.” 

It is images like this which are going to inspire more and more people to support this movement, and to start believing that the police of this nation are nothing more than jack booted thugs doing the bidding of the 1% instead of fighting alongside their fellow 99% for a better future for them and for their children.

And it is incidents like this that which me wonder if the police are actually getting the proper training they need to understand how dangerous pepper spray can be to certain individuals, such as the elderly, the sickly, or pregnant women?

This device was created to be a non-lethal alternative to drawing a gun in response to a dangerous altercation, it was NOT designed to be indiscriminately sprayed into a crowd of peaceful protesters.

And on that topic here is a statement from the priest who was also sprayed during this incident.

Update: Keith Olbermann interviews Dorli Rainey. This is a MUST SEE! Could the police have chosen a sweeter person to abuse? Like I said, this is going to really bite them in the ass.

OWS protestors interrupt Michele Bachmann speech forcing her off the stage. Yet another reason to support the protestors!

Courtesy of Fox News:

About 30 Occupy Wall Street protesters have interrupted a foreign policy speech by Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann in South Carolina. 

Bachmann was delivering the speech Thursday on the deck of the mothballed aircraft carrier USS Yorktown near Charleston when the protesters stood up and began shouting, "Mike check!" 

They told her she was more concerned with dividing Americans than helping them. They chanted for about three minutes while the Minnesota congresswoman left the stage. 

The protesters eventually walked off the ship after she left.

This is a breaking story, so the facts are still coming in, but I believe this protest may have been in response to Bachmann complaining about the OWS protestors the other day and telling them to stop blaming the top 1% for the country's problems. She needs to realize that the protestors were not going to accept that without an argument.

Personally I really enjoy watching somebody shut Bachmann up once in awhile.

Occupy Oakland protests turn violent. Update!

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Okay this is exactly what I have been worried about.

If this becomes the norm, or if it gives the mainstream media the excuse they need to simply write these protesters off as hooligans, than the movement is doomed.

At this point I do not know what the circumstances were that led up to these destructive and aggressive behaviors on the part of the protestors, but it is in sharp contrast to the peaceful and very appropriate attitudes we have witnessed in the recent past.

It is my hope that the protestors recognize how damaging this kind of activity will be to their cause, and take aggressive steps to curtail it in the future.

I, like many Americans, want very much to support the movement, but cannot condone, nor excuse, vandalism and violence toward the police or innocent bystanders.

Update: it appears that the vandalism may NOT have been the work of the protestors:

Although most of the marches were peaceful, at least three banks – Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America – were damaged during the day, with windows smashed and cash machines put out of service. 

Much talk in the camp was of a rogue group having committed the acts, without the backing of most protesters. Bubb Rubb, from Oakland, was unimpressed with "these people in black clothes, with black flags". 

"They bamboozled us. They wanted violence," he told the Guardian. 

Many of the sites that were vandalised bore posters next to where the incident had occurred, saying it was "not the actions of the 99%".

Okay if this is accurate reporting, and I certainly believe that it is, then this needs to be spread far and wide, because I can guarantee that the images of vandalism and barricades set ablaze will be all over the mainstream media for the next several days.

Just in case you thought OWS were simply fair weather protestors. Think again.

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