MsGuy

So Netanyahu pops up on NBC's "Meet The Press" and lobbies America to elect a president who will "draw a bright red line" on Iran (meaning move 3 or 4 more carrier groups to the Persian Gulf and give 'em an ultimatum). OK, now if Obama were to plop his ass down on a news program in Tel Aviv during the home stretch of a national election and announce that any Israeli who cared about the US Alliance better hot foot it down to polls and dump Netanyahu, the howls of outrage over America trying to infringe on Israeli sovereignty would wake Helen Keller. Reports are that Bibi can't muster enough support in Israel to pull a unilateral attack but damned if I can see how this gives him licence to subvert our electoral system to extract a politically motivated commitment to act against the national interest of the United States. If we come to the conclusion that making pre-emptive war against Iran is what we have to do, well then so be it and we'll just have to live with the consequences. But I'll be damned if that's the kind of decision I want made under the pressures of a hotly contested presidential race with the prime minister of Israel saddling up and publically putting the spurs to the candidates. NETANYAHU DELENDA EST!

Well, the gentleman sub judice has the light colors down pat and I'll give him a bye on the purse. Times and fashions change. But long sleeves, no V neck, loose clothes and no noticeable muscles? Nope, I ain't buying it; definitely a straight guy trying way too hard to pass for homo. Gotta say though, the rings and scarf were a nice touch.

Barak is definitely right-wing in the context of Israeli factional politics, has long been associated with Bibi and, in the past, has been a public advocate of attacking Iran's nuclear assets. However, both The Jerusalem Post (center/right)and Haaretz (leftist) have reported persistent rumors that Barak is putting some distance between himself and Netanyahu. Publicly he has recently said that a unilateral Israeli attack is a very bad idea and rumors have it that he is privately putting some distance between himself and Netanyahu's jousting with the White House in an election year. Possibly as a result of pressure from many factions in Israel, Bibi himself has eased off on his criticism of Obama, at least for now. The Israeli press is also reporting 'not for attribution' type sources from inside Bibi's coalition that say at least some in the US administration are furious with Bibi's apparent efforts to throw Jewish support to Romney and are saying that there will be payback after the election. Contemplated paybacks are said to take the form of not vetoing anti-Israeli actions in the UN, pushing back really hard on Israeli settlements on the West Bank &/or taking a hard look at military hardware and technolgy transfers to Israel. As to whether there's any truth to the rumors, remember that this is Israelis talking to Israelis. Quite possibly these rumors are being pushed forward as part of the Byzantine maneuvering that passes for normal political discourse in Jerusalem & are intended purely for local comsumption. Strangly enough, at least judging from reaction in the English language Israeli press online, Netenyahu's partisan political gambit is much more controversial in Israel than in America. LOL, many Israelis seem more horrified at Bibi's open intervention in American politics than the Dems themselves. I can't count how many articles I've read where folks keep saying that 'disagreements between friends' are best handled quietly in behind the scenes talks. Even the writers who agree with Bibi's position usually caution that this is not the kind of thing that benefits from public discussion. LOL, welcome to the down the rabbit hole world of politics in our 'only reliable ally' in the Mideast.

You're in luck! The Malaysian Ministry of Education just published a handy, easily memorized 4 point check-list for spotting gays. Damn, I just wish I had had access to this kind of information back when I was in school. Thank Allah for the enlightened Muslims in Malaysia fighting the good fight to make these invaluable guidelines available to their youth!

Hahahaha, Romney has good company. Nelson Rockefeller once made a speech postulating that the average guy made $100,000/year (1962 dollars). Republicans lol...

The customs, mores and quaint antics of North American city folks are a surefire source of amusement. Why Nat Geo hasn't done a two hour special on them is beyond my comprehension.

AP appears to have a good lead on the actual identity of the fellow behind the movie. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, aka Sam Bacile aka Nicola Basily aka Erwin Salameh, convicted about 2 years ago on Federal bank fraud charges, has some sort of connection to varous anti-Muslim whack groups. He probably is originally Egyptian Coptic.

It's the real thing, Hito, such as it is. The question I'm puzzling over is whether he pocketed the money or whether it only existed in his imagination. Sure as hell didn't go into the film, assuming anything more than the trailer even exists. Given the uproar this escapade has caused, the truth will out and sooner rather than later. Folks in Israel are already denying the producer is an actual Israeli.

If anyone is interested in the video clip that set off the riots, you can google 'Muhamad Movie Trailer' or ' Innocence of Muslims', at least until UTUBE decides to take it down. The clip is amatuerish in the extreme (my brother did better produced and acted stuff in high school.) Muhammed, PBUH, is depicted as a clownish fraud, a hen pecked womanizer, a child molester, a vicious killer and pretty much a completely lame idiot. It was created under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Personally I suspect it represents a kind of 'Springtime for Hitler' fraud on the films backers. No way that $5 million dollars (allegedly raised from the film's funders) could possibly have been spent on this piece of shit. The WSJ gives us what little it has been able to feret out about the film in this article.

If the faction ridden world of Israeli politics has concensus on any two things, it's that Iran's nuclear program is an 'existential threat' (think a collective vision of nukes going off in Tel Aviv & Haifa) and that the tight bi-partisan political support of Israel in the US must be maintained no matter what. So far the early reaction in Israel to Netanyahu's current shenanigans is mixed. Most folks applaud his effort to squeeze the US for explicit military support for an attack on Iran and, at the same time, most folks are horrified that he appears to be indulging in a partisan political intervention in US presidential politics. Making support for Israel into a partisan political issue in the US strikes most Israelis as suicidal for the Jewish state as Iran having nukes. At least in the past, Mid-eastern wars have been insanely intense affairs. Munitions and other miltary consumables were blown through at extraordinary rates. Israel has on hand enough stockpile for 10 days to 2 weeks of all out war, tops. After that it must rely on an airlifted flow of munitions from the US strategic inventory (as it did in the Yom Kippur war). W/O that airlift, Isreal would be unable to deal with large convential armies, a circumstance most adult Israelis understand. And if support for Israel becomes a partisan political issue in the US, then every time the Dems control Washington, a window of opportunity could possibly open for Israel's enemies. Even laying aside thrir own truly weird internal politics, the Iran nukes vs US alliance conundrum makes for a real headbanger for thinking Israelis.

It appears that Romney is conceding Pennsylvania and Michigan to Obama, so the contested states are now down to nine. Yea for the good guys! Ten little, nine little... (not sure whether this picture passes current MER posting standards )

Netanyahu is openly intervening in the US presidential race. If Romney wins, all well and good for Israel, at least until the Dems get back in power. But if Obama's re-elected, then Israel will have opened a real breach with the only reliable ally it has. In fact, the ally on whose goodwill it's national security is entirely dependant. Netanyahu's problem is that there is no plausible way for Israel to take out Iran's nuclear program on it's on. Further, a clear majority of Israelis oppose any military strike on Iran that does not have the US in active (read military) support. He proposes to square this circle by demanding the US make a public committment to a 'red line' for Iran and a clear threat to attack nuclear support facilities if Iran does not submit. (In the good old days, this kind of diplomacy used to be called an ultimatum.) Aside from the domestic problem of explaining to an American public who appear to be sick of 10 years of war in the Mideast why we are getting into what appears to be a protracted war with Iran, right now we have the problem that we can't carry a single one of our Nato allies with us on an ultimatum. I only hope Romney can manage to keep at least a little bit of daylight between himself and Netanyahu's scheme to draw us into war.

My step father had a problem with ear wax clogging up his ears. Per his doc's orders, every couple of weeks he would load a eyedropper of weak solution hydrogen peroxide (the stuff you can buy over-the-counter in any drugstore) into his ear while lying on his side so it wouldn't run out. The solution reacts with ear wax and just bubbles away and floats it out. About 10 minutes per side and he was good to go for another two weeks. Sorry, EXPAT, but he did it for years w/o any noticeable problems. Gcursor, there was no pain what-so-ever. You do need to rest your head on an old towel because the proceedure can be messy and the peroxide will bleach the hell out of anything it drips on.

Agree with Hito: this report is rubbish.

You two might want to deploy nanny-cam monitors, just in case...

The NYT has an analysis of the post convention tracking polls that currently gives Obama a 79% chance of winning a majority in the electoral college. Personally I find betting odds resulting from real life people betting their own real life money on the election results an objective way of forecasting the election. Currently, folks are offering pretty good odds that Obama will carry Ohio and also that he will carry Florida (odds not quite so strong there). Given that there is no reasonable path to victory for Romney that does not go through Florida and only the most tenuous routes that do not also include Ohio, things are looking up for the good guys. Or not, lol, depending on your preferences.

Wow, I didn't think the old dog still had it in him. His nomination speech was a home run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUZuEbZ6lOU Friendly, warm, folksy as only Clinton can be and funny when skewering Romney's proposals. I hope Obama's speech is half as good.

Ozzie gets some love from a fan.

You should check out the Technocrat Movement, Hito. http://books.google.com/books?id=LONkb-rab1EC&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=%22government+by+engineers%22&source=bl&ots=K9ag38Z4ly&sig=bto6NvsL1VQDOUB_-5khyqV-FlY&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22government%20by%20engineers%22&f=false

I'm told by my former step-sister-in-law that 'oriental' is also offensive. Who knew? Of course she's an academic of sorts and a real bitch to boot, so what does she know?

No...Hito specified in his first post that he wasn't wearing his fancy shoes

ditto

Jesus God, now they are selling 'zero day' hacks to whoever can come up with the cash (well, anybody who can dream up a 'legitimate end use' lol)! And it's legal (except in Germany). And cheap really; what's $50 K for a zero day hack? Does this remind anyone else of those cyberpunk dystopias? http://www.washingto...41_story_2.html

Political biographies are always subject to amendment. Caesar's "Gallic Wars" was written to support his campaign for Roman consul and contains a few whoppers too.