RWC Unfiltered 11-6-11

• Strange Cub Scout Recruiting Ad Campaign
• Turkey’s Military Spending Surge
• Egyptian Crisis
• Smokin’ Joe Frazier In Hospice Said Dying Of Liver Cancer
• Nearly 100,000 Troops To Remain In Kuwait and Area After Year end
• 56% Say Cut Public Employee Pay, and About the Same Say Cut Pensions Too.
• Swiss Muslims Adopt Hitler-like Anti-Jew Symbol
• OWS Park Got $700K in Taxpayer Money
• Hizbullah Readies Attack on Israel
• Report on Iran’s Nukes Due This Week

An ad campaign via Oglivy Atlanta features bearded 8-year olf boys with the slogan “Be one with the wild” is apparently to recruit Cub Scouts. It is not offensive but just looks a little bit silly.

It’s not as bad as the 2008 ads for United Way Milwaukee that featured provocatively posed  13-year-old girls sporting photo enhanced d-cup breast overflowing from unbuttoned blouses ostensibly to combat statutory rape. That ad campaign collapsed within hours.

Obama looked more confused in Europe than Chaz Bono at a urinal.

Turkey has allocated nearly $5 billion for military procurement in 2011. This marked a 20 percent increase over 2010 and would enable the launch of several major air force and navy projects. It is focusing on in-country manufacturing as significantly reduced procurement of the F-35 from Lockheed Martin amid a dispute over coproduction and technology transfer.

Turkey has send at least 20,000 troops deep into Iraq against the Kurds. Some say the Turks harbor hope form a resurgent Muslim Ottoman Empire

36% say they would be “uncomfortable” with a Mormon President; 60% would not.

A report by the U.S. Army War College asserted that neither the White House nor Congress would support the continuation of the $1.3 billion in annual defense aid to an Egyptian regime controlled by either the Muslim Brotherhood or the military.  The U. S. money is about 80% of Egypt’s military spending. When Obama tacitly approved of the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February he dismissed the prospect of the rise of the Brotherhood admitting that would be the worst case scenario. But, that appears to be about to happen.

A takeover by such radicals would likely mean the end of the peace treaty with Israel; denial of U. S. overflights and even an end to unlimited  transit of the Suez Canal.

The U.S. military found U. S.-made radio controls in Iraq in unexploded bombs. They said the devices were manufactured by a company in Minnesota and exported through Singapore and Hong Kong. A worldwide network of Iranian agents bought them and other material reportedly sfter deceiving the company Criminal indictments have been issued and sealed for more than a year. The  exports have stopped.

Former Heavyweight Champion Smokin’ Joe Frazier now 67-years old has liver cancer and is under hospice care. His prognosis is bleak.

Frazier was the first man to beat Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali, knocking him down and taking a decision in the so-called Fight of the Century in 1971. Frazier would go on to lose two more fights to Ali, including the epic “Thrilla in Manila” bout.

Frazier was bitter for many years about the way Ali treated him then. More recently, he said he had forgiven Ali for repeatedly taunting him.

Smokin’ Joe was a small yet ferocious fighter who smothered his opponents with punches, including a devastating left hook he used to end many of his fights early. It was the left hook that dropped Ali in the 15th round of their “Fight of the Century” at Madison Square Garden in 1971 to seal a win in a bout where each fighter earned a then unheard of $2.5 million.’

The bushy browed curmudgeonly Andy Rooney died Friday due to complications after a minor surgery, He was 92   Rooney retired in October 2011 after 33 years on CBS’ 60 minutes..

The United States has finally reported the size of its military presence in Kuwait.

The Defense Department said it was deploying 23,000 American troops in Kuwait. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said those troops would be on alert for any emergency in the region.

“We have about 40,000 troops in that region, about 23,000 in Kuwait, along with a large number of troops in other countries as well, along with the fact that we have 100,000 troops in Afghanistan,” Panetta said.

In remarks on Oct. 23, Panetta provided the first official account of the U.S. military presence in Kuwait. Estimates of the U.S. military presence in Kuwait, employed as a logistical base for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, ranged from 15,000 to as many as 70,000. Most of the troops were said to consist of members of the U.S. Third Army.

Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher who confronted Obama during his 2008 campaign is now a candidate for Congress in Ohio’s 9^th district

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey (11-3-11) of American Adults shows, when given the choice, 56% would rather reduce promised benefits for public employees than pay higher taxes to ensure that all promised benefits are paid. Twenty-one percent (21%) would rather pay higher taxes than reduce public employee benefits. Another 23% aren’t sure. 41% favor a 10% pay cut for all state employees in order to help reduce spending in their state. Forty-two percent (42%) are opposed to the idea while 17% more are undecided.

A friend reminded me of the duplicity of media’s treatment ot Herman Cain and how it ignored the philandering Martin Luther King Jr, of course there is also the persecution of now Justice Clarence Thomas.

The mortgage agencies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, in business with the federal government, paid almost $13 million in bonuses to their top executives last year. That is an outrage because those agencies currently owe the American taxpayer at least $141 billion.

The White House is scampering around to distance itself saying, “these entities (Fannie and Freddie) are independent, and therefore they are independent decisions. The White House is not involved and nor should it be.”

Of course it goes without saying that President Clinton’s pressure on both to underwite sub standard mortgages resulted in the biggest federally promoted financial collapse in history.

The hottest temperature recorded on earth is El Azizia Libya at 136 F, the coldest was -134 degrees fahrenheit in Vostok Antarctica. The hottest average temp is in western Australia, it is 96 degrees year round on average.

Former New Jersey Democrat Governor and US Senator John Corzine’s company has filed for bankruptcy but investors are screaming because as much as $700 million appears to be “missing.” Corzine’s cronies contend it isn’t gone but invested in mostly foreign banks and the Corzine company just hasn’t gotten it back yet.

If it bankrupts it would be the largest in U. S. history. There are profound questions about how such a thing could happened even while Security and Exchange Commission investigators were on site. Corzine resigned and will forego the $12 million bonus. Corzine has retained a criminal defense lawyer.

This is going to get more stinky because a major figure in liberal Democrat Jon Corzine’s bankrupt firm, MF Global, worked for hedge fund operator and Democratic Party financial patron George Soros. Hundreds of millions of dollars are missing from the MF Global’s customer accounts.

Starbucks has ignited something of a tempest by issuing holiday coffee cups featuring an image that looks like the infamous Guy Fawkes mask. Fawkes is villified as the ringleader of the 1605 Gunpowder plot by a Jesuit lead catholic anarcist gang that planned to blowup parliament killing all it members and protestant King James. The company says it is just conincidental.

Swiss Muslim activists took to the streets of Bern over last weekend to protest policies they characterize as discriminatory. But it wasn’t their demonstration that got the attention, rather their wearing yellow six-pointed stars on their clothing resembling the symbol Jews were forced to wear during the Nazi era.

The double trinity symbol. Is two superimposed isosceles triangles used as symbols of a Jews when yellow; when a red triangle was suoperimposed that was a Jewish political prisoners; pink a aex offenders or homomosexual;  criminal when green; gypsies when brown all targets for extermination by Hitler’s NAZI trugs.

There are stars that are over 600,000 times as bright as the Sun.

The owners of Zuccotti Park - Occupy Wall Street’s home base - have pocketed nearly $700,000 in government handouts since the 9/11 terror attacks.

Brookfield Properties has received at least three six-figure grants meant for small businesses hurt by 9/11, even though it’s an $8 billion company with 2,500 employees, records show.

Brookfield got the money because the state agency that doled out the cash treated one of the huge company’s small affiliates as an entity unto itself - effectively turning it into a small business to make it eligible.

Between 2000 and 2010, Brookfield principals like its CEO Richard Clark gave heavily to Democrats. Clark made at least $169,950 in contributions to PACS and committees such as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Association of Real Estate Trusts and various politicians such as Kristen Gillibrand(D-NY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Records also show that Clark has given to Super Committee Member Chris Van Hollen (D-NY).

John Zuccotti’s contributions between the years 2002 and 2010 were $195,300 to many of the same committees, PACs and politicians as Clark.

Who says greasing politicians palms doesn’t pay off?

It takes an enormous 16 million horsepower to break loose from the Earth’s gravitational pull.

Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, in coordination with Teheran, has been meeting senior commanders to plan for war with Israel. Nasrallah has ordered his commanders to prepare for long-range missile attacks that would target Tel Aviv and other major Israeli cities.

“Nasrallah’s recent escalation of public statements stems from heightened fear in Hizbullah that an Israeli and/or American attack on Iran is drawing nearer,” the report said. “As a strategic arm of Iran, Hizbullah sees itself as Iran’s first line of defense against Israel.”

“Hizbullah forces are being trained to fire at least 10,000 missiles, right at the war’s outset, at military and strategic targets such as airfields, military camps, and vital facilities including maritime ones, followed by the firing of rockets from launch sites whose location will come as a surprise to Israel,” the report, titled “Hizbullah Discusses Its Operational Plan for War with Israel,” says.

Many of the missiles were smuggled out of Lybia right from under NATO’s and U. S. noses. Iran has been and is arming Hizbullah and is now openly encouraging them to war against Israel.

The report, released on Nov. 2 says Nasrallah has also ordered a ground force invasion of northern Israel. Hizbullah, with at least 20,000 fighters, was said to be planning to deploy 5,000 special forces troops trained in Iran to capture Israel’s Galilee region.

Shapira, a retired brigadier general from Israeli military intelligence,said the Hizbullah plan was formulated with Iran. He said the Iranian Army has already mined Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley where Israeli special forces were expected to land in any regional war.

The report said Hizbullah has also been equipped with so-called “smart” anti-tank guided missiles from Iran. These missiles were said to have been designed to knock out Israel’s fleet of Merkava-class main battle tanks,which played a marginal role in the last war with Hizbullah in 2006.

“Hizbullah’s conclusion from the lessons of the Second Lebanon War [in 2006] is that, next time, Israel will have no red lines in waging all-out war against Lebanon and Hizbullah,” the report said. “Hence, Hizbullah is planning ‘many surprises’ that will change the force equation with Israel both at the start of the conflict and during its operational phase.”

In February, Nasrallah announced Hizbullah plans to conquer northern Israel. Since then, Hizbullah has been training for such a mission,including deploying rocket and artillery in the Bekaa Valley as well as mining possible landing sites by Israeli helicopters in southern Lebanon.

The preparations were said to have been overseen by Hizbullah operational chief Mustafa Badr Eddin, who replaced Imad Mughniyeh, assassinated in 2008. Badr Eddin was also said to have arranged for a recently-completed special commando course by 727 fighters in Iran.

Hizbullah’s engineering units were also said to have reinforced positions in Maydon in the western Bekaa. The report said Hizbullah has formed five brigades, with each consisting of 1,000 troops, to invade Israel.

Brigade 1 has been assigned the capture of the northern Israeli city of Nahariya, located about five kilometers from the Lebanese border. The report said Hizbullah was believed to be preparing 150 special forces troops transported by speedboats to attack Nahariya from the Mediterranean Sea.

“This force’s mission is to take as many hostages as possible so as to prevent Israel from bombing the Hizbullah forces in this sector,” the report said.

Brigade 2 was said to have been assigned to capture the Israeli border town of Shlomi and cut military supply lines. Brigade 3 was ordered to conquer Carmiel and cut off the road to Safed, the headquarters of Israel’s military Northern Command.

“Brigade 4 will take over the communities of Malkiya, Ramot Naftali and Yiftach in order to prevent the IDF from firing from these areas into southern Lebanon,” the report said. “Brigade 5 will serve as a strategic reserve force for special missions.”

The report said Hizbullah was believed to have also discussed its war strategy with Syria. On Oct. 27, the Lebanese daily Al Akhbar published a detailed account of a visit by Nasrallah to President Bashar Assad in Damascus. The following day, Al Akhbar, regarded as close to Hizbullah, said the Assad-Nasrallah meeting never took place.

“It could be that, on second thought, Hizbullah decided the timing of the article was unwise,” the report said. “As Assad kills his people, Hizbullah faces bitter criticism for supporting him and is losing its standing in the Arab street.”

The net worth of members of Congress has increased an average of 24% since 2008 to an average of $3.8 million.

Pakistan has successfully test-fired nuclear-capable stealth cruise missile that could penetrate anti-missile defenses like the U. S. ship borne Aegis anti-missile system. Almost coincident Russia tested what looks like a new generation submarine launched ballistic missile reportedly with a 6,000 KM (3,728 mile range). While there is no evidence either would sell the missiles it raises the ante as Iran plunges ahead with its nuclear warhead efforts.

Reportedly Pentagon war planners are increasingly convinced that Israel will take out Iran’s nuclear weapons plants. There is a lusty rumor that the U. S. will not contest any such air strike by Israel.

For the first time, Israel has acknowledged that Egypt’s military was conducting unauthorized flights in the Jewish state.

Officials said the Israel Air Force has detected flights by Egyptian military aircraft in Israel. They said helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles were allowed by Israel to operate in Egypt’s eastern Sinai Peninsula since mid-2011.

The latest Egyptian overflight took place on Oct. 30. Officials said an Egyptian Air Force helicopter flew into Israel and ignored warnings to turn

back. In all, the official said, the Egyptian helicopter, identified as the Russian-origin Mi-8, remained in Israeli air space for at least 25 minutes.

“There were those in the military that warned that this would be the result of changing the demilitarization clause of the [Egyptian-Israeli] peace treaty,” an official said.

This marked the first reported Egyptian helicopter overflight into Israel. Officials said the helicopter was flying at low speed and only turned back into Egypt when an F-16 multi-role fighter opened fire

“A complaint has been filed with Egypt,” the official said.

Officials said the new Egyptian military presence in eastern Sinai has not blocked the massive arms flow from Libya to the Gaza Strip. They said Egyptian soldiers have ignored the smuggling of missiles, rockets and other military equipment to the Hamas regime as well as Palestinian militias.

Israel’s military detected previous Egyptian overflights inside the Jewish state. Officials said those flights were of UAVs believed to have conducted reconnaissance of Israel’s Negev desert, particularly the area of the Dimona nuclear plant.

Your brain operates on 10 watts of power: It’s true: The amazing computational power of your brain only requires about 10 watts of power to operate.

Tiny 24 square mile San Marino is the world’s oldest constitutional republic - it was founded in 301 by a Christian stonemason fleeing persecution under Roman Emperor Diocletian. Its constitution of 1600 is the oldest written constitution in the world. San Marino is the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world, as the continuation of the monastic community founded on 3 September 301, by stonecutter Marinus of Rab. Legend has it that Marinus left Rab, then the Roman colony of Arba, in 257 when the future emperor, Diocletian, issued a decree calling for the reconstruction of the city walls of Rimini, which had been destroyed by Liburnian pirates.

The constitution of San Marino, enacted in 1600, is the world’s oldest constitution still in effect.^]The country’s economy mainly relies on finance, industry, services and tourism. It is one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of GDP (per capita), with a figure comparable to some of the more developed Italian regions, such as Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. San Marino is considered to have a highly stable economy, with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, no national debt and a budget surplus.

Portland, Oregon, where it rarely snows, is about 130 miles farther north than Toronto, and over 200 miles farther north than Boston.

The sudden rush of military news Wednesday, Nov. 2, is part of an orchestrated Western performance to convince Tehran that the US, Britain and Israel are on the verge of a military operation against its nuclear installations. Directed from Washington, it is meant to warn Iran that the play could become a reality show if it refuses to give up the drive for a nuclear weapon. Obama may then decide to strike Revolutionary Guards Corps targets, the bulwark of the Islamic regime, and its strategic infrastructure, thereby knocking over the key props holding up the regime of the ayatollahs.

Contributing to the menacing climate hanging over Iran were four headline events involving Israel - all on the same Wednesday: Israel conducted a successful test launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile, Jericho 3, which foreign sources report is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead 7,000 kilometers (4,349 miles).

After that, the IDF released photographs of Israeli Air Force squadron leaders reporting  from Italian air base runways  to the media on joint exercises they had conducted in long-range maneuvers with the Italian air force “and other NATO nations,” to familiarize the IAF with NATO military tactics.

The inference was clear: The Israeli Air Force was strengthening its cooperation with Western allies in preparation for a NATO assault on Iran. The IAF also got a chance to study the lessons Western alliance air force tacticians had drawn from the eight-month Libyan operation which ended on Oct. 31.

Next, the IDF’s Home Command announced a large-scale anti-missile exercise in central Israel starting Thursday morning, Nov. 3.

Finally, Defense Minister Ehud Barak left for an unscheduled trip to London shortly after a secret visit to Israel by the British chief of staff General Sir David Richards earlier this week as guest of Israel’s top soldier Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz.

If the British general was in Israel only this week, why was Barak is such a hurry to visit London?

The answer came from the British media, which reported as soon as he arrived that the Ministry of Defense in London had accelerated and upgraded its contingency planning for participation in a US-led assault on Iran. They carried an account of plans for deploying large naval units including submarines to the Persian Gulf.

The UK was reported to have asked Washington for permission to station its fighter-bombers on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia for launching bombing sorties against Iran.

This whirlwind of military activity was said to have been prompted by the approaching publication of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Iran report next Tuesday, Nov. 8 and the conclusion the nuclear watchdog had reached: Inside 12 months, Iran will have tucked all its nuclear and ballistic missile facilities away in deep underground tunnels where they will be invulnerable to attack.

A potential US-British strike to pre-empt this move would also be timed for the run-up to America’s next presidential election in November 2012. Insiders say a U. S.  led attack on Iran would likely tip the expected close election to Obama.

Military sources report that if the US, Britain and other NATO nations, such as France, Italy and Germany, participate in the attack, Israel will not. Its army, air force and navy will defend the home front, be available to engage Iran’s allies to prevent them from striking the assault forces from the rear, and act as a strategic reserve. The danger would come from Syria, the Lebanese Hizballah, and the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami in the Gaza Strip.

These contingency plans are subject to changes, especially if Obama and other NATO allies decide after all against attacking Iran in the coming year. The hyperactivity will then subside and Israel will be thrown back on the dilemma of having to decide whether or not to conduct a lone military operation against Iran.

There is not much time for contemplation. Syria and Hizballah are reported by military sources to be in the throes of separate preparations for attacking Israel if their respective grips on power are shaken. For now, those sources rate the chances of Israel facing a military clash with Syria and/or Hizballah much higher than a NATO-Israeli showdown being mounted against Iran.

The entire country of England, with over 50 million residents, is a wee bit smaller than the state of Louisiana.

This week, the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to release its latest report on Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions. If the leaks are to be believed, that report will accuse Iran of constructing a steel tank at the Parchin military complex for testing explosives associated with atomic weapons design. The allegation is hardly new. Since 2004, there have been suspicions of work at Parchin related to weapons design and in May this year the agency listed a series of research projects it suggested could not make sense unless related to weapons research.

If the report is significant, it is because with each new IAEA report on Iran comes a familiar diplomatic ritual of threatened new sanctions from the US and its allies and reports of threatened military strikes from Israel. If there is a difference this time, it is in the strong impression, after years of veiled threats from Israel, that it will act alone if necessary to stop Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon, that the country’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and his closest allies in a cabinet split on the issue would like to launch a pre-emptive military strike, a view opposed by other senior figures in Israel’s security establishment.

There are many reasons for the international community to oppose Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, not least the fact that nuclear arms proliferation is a dangerous and retrograde step in a world that has been reducing its stockpiles. Indeed, there is much merit in calls by many Arab states for the Middle East to be a nuclear-free zone whose major sticking point, ironically, is Israel’s insistence on maintaining a substantial and undeclared nuclear stockpile.

Despite that caveat, the doctrine of pre-emptive retaliation - being invoked to justify a possible attack on Iranian nuclear facilities - is one with a dangerous and disreputable history. It was used most recently by President George W Bush and his allies to launch the invasion of Iraq.

To have any justification for its use, it requires an immediate and proximate threat, as existed when Israel was faced with Egyptian tank divisions manoeuvring on its borders to the loud drum beat of war, which persuaded Israel to attack first in the 1967 Six Day War. For the suggested pre-emptive strike against Iran, however, no such justifications exist.

While those favouring an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities hope that this week’s IAEA report will contain conclusive proof that Iran is engaged in weapon design, ownership and use are very different issues. Tehran, despite its recent history of interference in the region and its support for groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Shia militias in Iraq, has avoided overt aggression against any of its neighbours.

Indeed, Iranian regional power, far from being on the rise as seemed to be happening only a handful of years ago, has been eclipsed by recent events, not least the repositioning of Turkey, the events of the Arab Spring and its own failed Green Revolution which has focused its attention inwards.

Colorado voters rejected Proposition 103 last Tuesday by an overwhelming 2 to 1 margin. The ballot measure proposed raising $3.9 billion in new taxes over five years for education. Voters firmly rejected that idea and polling shows broad support for cutting salaries and pensions of all state workers including teachers that idea was not on the ballot. The tenure system is broadly unpopular.