RWC Unfiltered 5-15-2011

· Not A Hobson’s Choice on the Mississippi River

· What Were Obama’s Thinking in Hosting Vile Rapper

· U.S. intel: Evidence at bin Laden compound points to contacts by ISI

· Frustrated Mitchell Quits as Obama Midast Envoy

· IRAQ Set to Fall Withiout U. S.

· Christian Appeal For U. S. Protection Frrom Muslim Attacks.

· Boxer Lambasts Ensign for Lawbreaking

· Are You On Obama’s Enemies List?

· Obama Perfidy Wearing on NATO Allies In Libya.

· Former NAZI Death Camp Guard Convicted In Munich Court

· Congressmen Urges Turkey To Stop Arms Flotilla to GAZA in June.

Burson-Marsteller confirmed on Thursday that it was secretly hired by Facebook to run an anonymous campaign disparaging Google.

In what is being inaccurately described as a Hobson’s Choice be The Army Corp of Engineers opened flood gate upriver from Baton Rouge and New Orleans to save those cities by sacrificing tens of millions of dollars of crops and thousands of homes that lay in the flood plain. It is a classic dilemma or Sophie’s choice.

A Hobson’s choice is a free choice in which only one option is offered. As a person may refuse to take that option, the choice is therefore between taking the option or not; “take it or leave it”. The phrase is said to originate with Thomas Hobson (1544–1631), a livery stable owner in Cambridge, England. To rotate the use of his horses, he offered customers the choice of either taking the horse in the stall nearest the door or taking none at all.

Hobson actually had had an extensive stable of some 40 horses and therefore there appeared to be a wide choice when in fact there was simply the choice described above. This was to prevent the best horses always being chosen, which had previously caused those horses to become over used. An ultimatum game is a form of Hobson’s choice.

Dilemma: a choice between two or more options, none of which is attractive (including Sophie’s choice, a choice between two persons or things that will result in the death or destruction of the person or thing not chosen)

Last week Michelle Obama invited and her husband hosted rapper Common at the White House setting off anger from law enforcement nationwide. especially from New Jersey police officers who still remember what happened to Trooper Werner Foerster back in 1973. He was 34-years-old and had two children.

The FBI’s “Wanted” poster for Chesimard AKA Assata Shakur. Now 61, says, “On May 2, 1973, Chesimard, who was part of a revolutionary activist organization known as the Black Liberation Army, and two accomplices were stopped for a motor vehicle violation on the New Jersey Turnpike by two troopers with the New Jersey State Police. At the time, Chesimard was wanted for her involvement in several felonies, including bank robbery. Chesimard and her accomplices opened fire on the troopers, seemingly without provocation. One trooper was wounded and the other [Foerster] was shot and killed execution-style at point-blank range. Chesimard fled the scene, but was subsequently apprehended.”

The Black Liberation Army was an outgrowth of the Black Panthers, a black militant group that described police officers as “Pigs” and called for their deaths, supposedly in “self-defense.” A tribute to Foerster notes, “The BLA was responsible for the murders of more than 10 police officers around the country. They were also responsible for violent attacks around the country that left many police officers wounded.”

“In 1977, Chesimard was found guilty of first degree murder, assault and battery of a police officer, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to kill, illegal possession of a weapon, and armed robbery,” notes the FBI. “She was sentenced to life in prison. On November 2, 1979, escaped from prison and lived underground before being located in Cuba in 1984. She is thought to currently still be living in Cuba.” In 1987 itv was disclosed that the revolutionary group engineered the escape and asylum in Cuba via the Bahamas.

Among other offenses Common wrote a song praising Chesimard.

A classified 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad reveals U.S. government concerns at that time for covert Pakistani assistance to terrorist groups.

Discussing a visit of Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani to the United States, the Feb. 19, 2009 cable stated that “we need to lay down a clear marker that Pakistan’s Army/ISI must stop overt or tacit support for militant proxies (Haqqani network, Commander Nazir, Lashkar-e-Taiba).”

The government of Pakistan, especially its military and intelligence service, are coming under intense criticism for the role or ignorance of the five-year residence of Osama bin Laden who lived near a military base 35 miles from Pakistan’s capital.

U.S. intelligence agencies have uncovered evidence that Pakistani intelligence and military officers appear to have been in contact with bin Laden at his hideout. The information was gleaned from captured computers and flash drives as well as documents obtained during the raid.

U.S. intelligence officials believe the Pakistani military intelligence service ISI, and in particular its Directorate S, is the key source of support for Al Qaida and Taliban terrorists.

The unit is believed to be staffed by Pakistani military intelligence officers who share the Islamist extremist world view of Al Qaida, a view cultivated during the 1980s under Pakistani Prime Minister Zia ul-Haq.

Islamabad insists it knew nothing of the compound in Abbottabad where bin Laden was killed May 2 in a U.S. raid. However, U.S. officials have said the denials strain credulity.

Folks along the Mississippi are facing one of the most unpleasant consequences of flooding an invasion of water moccasins. Once when wading up to my neck to cut thrush in a pond once came for me so I can imagine their displeasure.

Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, 78, is quitting after two futile years as Obama’s Mideast envoy.. He is Obama’s first appointee. Mitchell has served as Obama’s point man in the region as the administration has ineptly tried to keep Arab-Israeli peace talks on track.

His resignation comes at a pivotal moment in the Arab world. Obama is scheduled to deliver an address next week on the “Arab Spring” — the uprisings that have shaken long-standing autocratic regimes across North Africa and the broader Middle East.

In addition, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Obama and deliver an address to Congress next week. Both speches will be carefully watched.

Mitchell, a Democrat from Maine, was named Mideast envoy on January 22, 2009, two days after Obama took office.

Among other things, Mitchell also played a key role in Clinton-era negotiations regarding the status of Northern Ireland that resulted in the Good Friday Peace Agreement.

Mitchell has repeatedly reaffirmed the importance of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, including Israeli-Palestinian agreement on a two-state solution and normalization of relations between Israel and both Syria and Lebanon.

New questions about the viability of the stalled peace process were raised earlier this month in the wake of a formal reconciliation agreement between the two largest Palestinian factions: President Mahmoud Abbas’ party, the West Bank-based Fatah and the Islamist group Hamas, which rules Gaza.

Both Israel and the United States consider Hamas a terrorist organization and have voiced strong opposition to the inclusion of the group in any unity government, demanding that it first renounce violence, recognize the state of Israel and abide by all previous agreements.

Netanyahu has called on the Palestinian Authority to pull out of the deal, saying it would jeopardize prospects for a peace agreement.

A senior Israeli government official recently told CNN that the government views Hamas’ involvement as a “fundamental impasse.”

The agreement between Hamas, Fatah and smaller Palestinian factions calls for the establishment of a new Palestinian caretaker government and for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held next year.

Mitchell Is often characterized as too passive or too weak to achieve mideast goals.Others say Obama’s dithering, indecision, and perfidy tied Mitchell’s hands assuring he’d fail -= hje did. Speculation is that Mitchell has fundamental disagreement with Obama Rodney King-like foreign policy that has dones much more to divide the region than unite it.

Mitchel is of Iresh-Lebanese extraction and is considered an Arab-Americanmaking his selection a natural. His Father was orphaned and adopted by a Lebanese family and married a Lebanmese woman; Mitchel was born in Maine where his father worked as a janitor at Colby College. George graduated from Maine’s prestiogious Bowdoin College

A Santa Maria, Calif., man bought a 1969 Chevy Camaro SS on eBay in February. Then contacted the California Highway Patrol after certain features of the car didn’t match the model. Police discovered the vehicle had been stolen 32-years ago from Newark, N.J., on July 8, 1975. Police are checking prior owners to try to find the thieves

With seven months left until the U.S. withdrawal, and despite $20 billion Iraq’s 800,000-man security forces remain ridden by corruption and incapable of protecting the country, a report said. They are terrorized by al Qaeda nearly 240 Iraqi officers and 120 civil servants have been assassinated.

A U.S. government report asserted that Iraq’s military and security forces were unable to halt Al Qaida or even protect senior officers from assassination. The report by the Office of the Special-Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said Iraq also failed to capitalize on U.S. equipment and training.

“Insurgents continued to wage a campaign of intimidation and assassination against certain GOI [government of Iraq] military and civilian personnel this quarter, killing or attempting to kill several dozen officials,” the report said.

This forebodes a grave decision for Obama who most say has been complicit by broadcasting the U. S. withdrawal date.

Few 13-year-old boys are examples of decorum including an Ohio seventh-grader who was suspended last week for doing arguably the most predictable thing a 7^th grade boy boy could do for a laugh on the school bus. He loudly passed gas. His parents say his suspension reeks.

Egypt’s Christian minority has asked for international protection amid renewed Islamic attacks. Leaders of the Coptic community have warned that Islamic attacks have become intolerable. They asked the West, particularly the United States, to intervene with the new military regime in Egypt, which they said has not protected them.

“Oh Tantawi, where are you?” Copts, referring to military council chief Hussein Tantawi, chanted in a demonstration on May 8. “They burned down my church in front of you.”

Coptic leaders said the eight-million-member community has come under increasing threat since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February. They said Al Qaida supporters, called Salafists, were attacking churches and Coptic homes on the pretext that they were harboring converts from Islam.

Officials have acknowledged what they termed increasing sectarian tension and ordered the army to help protect Copts. Over the last few days, they issued warnings against both Copts and Salafists.

“Egypt has already become a nation in danger,” Justice Minister Abdul Aziz Gindi said.

In the Cairo neighborhood of Imbaba, which contains nine churches, about 2,000 Copts and Muslims fought with everything from firearms to sticks. The Interior Ministry said at least six Christians and six Muslims were killed and 220 were injured, many of them by gunfire on May 8. Nearly 200 people were arrested.

Copts in Cairo have begun forming defense groups to protect against Salafist attacks. They said the army and police have failed to provide sufficient protection, which has only encouraged the Salafists.

The leader of the Salafists was identified as Mohammed Hassan. Copts said Hassan was provoking violence in an effort to carve out a role for the Salafists ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2011.

Analysts have assessed that the Salafists were being quietly supported by members of the former Mubarak regime. They said the two elements appear to have formed a partnership similar to that by the military regime and the Muslim Brotherhood.

“They [Salafists] think that violence achieves power,” said Nabil Abdul Fatah, an analyst at the state-owned Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

No one expects Obama to take the side of persecuted Christians.

Mysophobia (my-suh-FOH-bee-uh) noun: An irrational fear of dirt. Etymology From Latin myso-, from Greek mysos (filth) + -phobia (fear). Earliest documented use: 1879.

Former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Sed. Baarbara Boxer (D-Ca) were never busom buddies but now Boxer is kicking the disgraced Ensign when he is already down. She is leading the charge to prosecute Ensign alleging a array of crimes spaeked by his illicit affair with a female aide.

The Senate ethics committee on Thursday took the rare step of asking federal agencies to investigate a former colleague, saying it found “substantial and credible evidence” that Nevada Republican John Ensign broke federal laws while trying to cover up an extramarital affair with a political aide.

The panel presented its case against Ensign in blunt language delivered on the Senate floor, suggesting that his alleged violations could lead to formal charges from the Justice Department. It was the first time since 1995 that the committee had referred a case about a current or former senator to federal investigators.

Nevada Sen. John Ensign announced he will resign amid an ethics investigation. He said he has not violated any laws or rules, but said he could no longer subject his family, friends and constituents to further investigations. (April 21)

Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said the evidence was “substantial enough to warrant the consideration of expulsion” had Ensign not resigned in early May.

In a 75-page report, a special counsel hired by the committee painted a stark portrait of a narcissistic lawmaker whose affair with his wife’s good friend spiraled into a tale of devastated families, payments to buy silence and the ultimate downfall of a rising political figure.

The aide, Cynthia Hampton, has since filed for divorce, begun bankruptcy proceedings and started to work for a Christian organization. Her husband, Douglas Hampton, is under federal indictment. Ensign, who portrayed himself as a devout Christian conservative, resigned from the Senate rather than testify under oath, ending a political career that once carried presidential ambitions.

On Thursday, his attorneys denied that their client had broken any laws or Senate rules.

“Senator Ensign has admitted and apologized for his conduct and imposed on himself the highest sanction of resignation. But this is not the same as agreeing that he did or intended to violate any laws or rules,” Abbe Lowell and Robert Walker said in a statement.

A Justice Department aide would say only that the ethics report had been received.

Boxer and Sen. Johnny Isakson (Ga.), the ranking Republican on the evenly divided six-member committee, cited eight findings in which there was substantial evidence that Ensign committed legal violations or broken Senate rules.

The most prominent accusation was that Ensign broke federal “cooling-off” laws when he helped Douglas Hampton, who had worked as an aide to the senator, gain lobbying employment and clients. Ensign dismissed both Hamptons after the affair became public.

The Justice Department’s public integrity unit indicted Douglas Hampton in March on charges that he broke a one-year ban on lobbying his former Senate boss.

The committee also alleges that Ensign engaged in “potential obstruction of justice” in the case, saying he had deleted e-mails after the panel began its investigation.

The report also alleges that $96,000 that Ensign’s parents gave to the Hampton family, which had been portrayed as a gift, amounted to severance money and violated federal campaign finance laws. The committee’s counsel, Carol Elder Bruce, alleged that Ensign provided false statements to the Federal Election Commission as it reviewed a complaint about the matter.

A former U.S. autoworker, 91-year-old John Demjanjuk has been convicted of aiding the Nazis in the murder of at least 28,000 Jews at the Sobibor Polish death camp during World War II. Demjanjuk, who suffers from an incurable bone-marrow disease and back pain, was released pending an appeal.

Obama’s silence on the National Labvor Relations Board’s attack on Boeing has been deafening.  Rather than rebuking this unprecedented imposition on a company’s right to move new business where it sees fit – Obama has hidden behind his goon squad like a fashionable gangster unwilling to get his hands dirty.

After Obama’s union goons set the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on the aircraft manufacturer Boeing’s right to locate a new facility in the right-to-work state of South Carolina, all subtlety that he is anti-free-enterprise has evaporated.

But, there, in a black-and-white complaint, is indisputable evidence that the Obama administration is waging war against the American free market on behalf of union thugs and entrenched government bureaucrats. It’s a costly war, too – one that’s being funded by trillions of tax dollars (and trillions more in deficit spending).

Last week Senator Ron Paul blasted blasting Obama for his recent threat to require government contractors to disclose donations to groups that participate in political activities.

“The president has said now that he’s going to ask contractors who do business with the government ‘Who have you contributed to?’” he said. “Mr. President, do you have en enemies list? Will you now punish contractors who have given money to Republican candidates? I’m concerned – there are two Republican Senators from Kentucky. Are we on your enemies list? Is Alabama on your enemies list? Is Texas on your enemies list?”

Paul’s invocation of a Nixonian “enemies list” provides a useful framework for examining the conduct of this administration – which is simultaneously trying to muzzle and strong-arm corporate and individual citizens.

Who else is on Obama’s enemies list?

What about shareholders in General Motors – whose assets were wiped out when Obama’s creative bankruptcy maneuvering handed control of the company to the government and the unions?

What about America’s private health care insurers, who in addition to being saddled with costly new government mandates were overtly threatened last year by Obama’s Medicaid czar Kathleen Sebelius?

More broadly, what about individual citizens who beginning in 2013 will be compelled to purchase health care insurance or face stiff fines?

What about American motorists, who face soaring gas prices due to Obama’s moratorium on offshore drilling and his refusal to support expanded domestic energy exploration?

What about the 13 million Americans who remain unemployed despite Washington’s costly efforts at economic “stimulation?”

And what about the American taxpayer – whose per capita share of the national debt now totals more than $123,000?

Perhaps the more useful question would be “who isn’t on Obama’s enemies list?” – other than bureaucrats and union leaders obviously.

In his relentless pursuit of a dependent citizenry, Obama is attempting to impose his will upon both the free market and the “marketplace of ideas.” Not only is he trying to dictate where private companies can expand their operations – but he’s simultaneously attempting to muzzle their ability to protest against such overreaching.

Sen. Paul deserves credit for standing up to both of these threats – and exposing the underlying motivations associated with each of them.

Have you seen these Republican presidential candidates? The only one that hasn’t had three wives is Mitt Romney — and he’s the Mormon! — Leno

NATO Allies are gumbling about Obama’s perfidy in enticing them into the Libyan civil war then tucking tail leaving them high and dry in a Two week war that is entering its third month of an increasingly costly quaigmire.

Both of Libya’s fighting camps are taking delivery of a surging influx of weapons shipments and military personnel – each hoping to use the extra aid for breaking the military standoff in its own favor,

Obama authorized a pair of armed Predator drones to help the Libyans rebels break breaking the siege of Misratah, while British, French and Italian military officers headed for rebel headquarters in Benghazi, part of a package of arms and military equipment from the US, Britain, France, Italy and Qatar.

On the other side of the Libyan divide, China, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Serbia are keeping the pro-Qaddafi camp’s arsenals stocked with new hardware along with combat personnel from Eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia.

Building up in Libya is a confrontation that recalls the 1999 war in Yugoslavia (Serbia today) when NATO’s four-month Operation Noble Anvil hammered Yugoslav forces to force their retreat from Kosovo. The Serbs too were backed then by clandestine Chinese-Russian support in tactical advice, intelligence, fighting men and arms.

Just like 12 years ago, our military sources report that from mid-March, hundreds of “volunteers” - professional soldiers ranking from colonel down to corporal - have joined the army loyal to Qaddafi. Calling themselves “nationalists” operating in paramilitary organizations without the knowledge of their governments, these foreigners claim they have come “to repulse the Western-Muslim onslaught on Qaddafi’s regime.”

Of course, the mercenaries are handsomely paid from Muammar Qaddafi’s plentiful war chest.

137 American police officers were killed the line of duty this past year a 37% increase from the prior year.

Retired U.S. autoworker John Demjanjuk, 91,- was convicted Thursday of 28,000 counts of being an accessory to murder as a low-level Nazi death camp guard, a groundbreaking decision setting a precedent that could open the floodgates to a new wave of prosecutions in Germany.

Demjanjuk was sentenced to five years in prison on 28,060 counts of accessory to murder for the number of people who were killed in the Sobibor death camp when the court said evidence shows he stood guard there in 1943.

But the 91-year-old will spend no immediate time behind bars after Presiding Judge Ralph Alt ordered him released from custody pending his appeal — a process that could take at least a year.

Though such a move is common under the German system, it drew the immediate ire of some of those who had been pushing for Demjanjuk’s conviction.

“We don’t think that that’s appropriate given the heinous nature of his crimes,” Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem.

He as tried in Munich and had bee anmd will receiove treatment for a bone marrow disease at he expense of this German people.

NYPD thwarted the 12^th terror plot against the city since 9-11. There have been 27 others elsewhere. Weapons, ammunition and at least one grenade were recovered from the two men. One of the men said he was motivated by and fedup with the way muslim’s are treated worldwide. The plan was to attack synagogues killing jews as well as attacking the Emprire State building.

A bipartisan group of members of Congress has written a letter appealing to the Turkish government to prevent a second flotilla from sailing to Gaza this June.

“We write today to express our serious concern over reports that the so-called Free Gaza Movement and the IHH are planning to send another flotilla to Gaza in the coming weeks to provoke a confrontation with Israel,” the members wrote in the letter, sent on Wednesday. “We ask you to help discourage these efforts and work with the Israeli government in a productive way as it continues to allow legitimate aid, but not weapons, to enter Gaza.”

The letter continued by stating that, “Israel, like any country in the world, must take whatever steps necessary to protect its citizens and that starts with preventing additional weapons from entering Gaza. If flotilla organizers carry out their confrontational plans, the Israelis will have little choice but to board the vessels and search for weapons.”

The representatives warned that, “We fear violence could erupt just as it did last year. We are seeking your active participation in finding a resolution that prevents violence.”

Thirty-six members signed onto the letter, spearheaded by Rep. Steve Israel (D-New York) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma).

U, S. Oil companies paid $36 billion in taxs last year and effectuive 41% tax rate. Domestic oil production has been choked to 7 millio barrels from 10 million the effective tax on those 3 million is over 18% generating billions but none is collected becaue they can not produce that oil.

Democrat Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc) said he won’t seek a fifth term has set the Democrats further back in their hopes of keeping the Senate during next year’s elections. Kohl is the fifth Democrat to retire after next year, or sixth if you count independent Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who caucuses with the Democrats. With Democrats defending 23 seats, and a short list of Democratic incumbents running in conservative and swing states, Republicans are seeing more and more opportunities to pick up. While Republican must defend 10.

A fight between a feisty 8 pound orange pussy cat protecting its turf from a a knife wielding man turned so bloody on Friday that the man had to be air-lifted to a Houston hospital.But, the brave kitty was so badly hurt it had to be euthanized.