Monday, August 19, 2013

It is the lawlessness of militias that seem to believe they don't have to abide by laws so much as make them.

The West did not expect this level of unrest following the removal of dictators and tyrants. In the case of Libya, Gaddafi was murdering people in numbers. He wanted to kill everyone in Benghazi. The West believed the people would be anxious to have their democracy. There are many factions in the Middle East and they all have their own priorities. A burning hatred of everything that came before was going to have it's effect. Appeasement under the dictators only oppressed the people's will and when that leader was removed it set fire to all those oppressed. Now, they are afraid to relinquish their own authority over their lives and stand as martyrs to god in defiance.
 
Mohammed al-Sheikh said he had not received the financial and moral support to implement his reforms


...The interior ministry (click here) has come under pressure to deal with violence that has plagued Libya since the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Mr Sheikh is the second cabinet minister to quit in the past two weeks.
Awadh al-Barassi resigned as deputy prime minister on 4 August.
He said the government had failed to deal with the unrest, win the people's trust, and provide state agencies with adequate resources.
In a letter read out to the GNC on Sunday, Mr Sheikh said he was resigning "namely because of a lack of support from the prime minister", MP Abdullah al-Gmati told the AFP news agency.
He also complained that he was "not getting the financial and moral support to implement his reform programme and said he did not have sufficient prerogatives to carry out his policies", Mr Gmati added.
The former colonel in Tripoli's police force also spoke of being put under "pressure" from GNC members after trying to sack officials....

This is the same level of hatred witnessed in Iraq post invasion. Saddam was gone and all others found their footing after decades of repression. I don't want to say the genie has been let out of the bottle, it isn't that sort of thing. But, it is people afraid of further oppression. To some extent this violence throughout the region is rational. Dangerous, but, rational.

Currency issues aren't exclusive to Tunisia, but, the instability is a problem.

Tunisia: Experts fear political instability is damaging economy (click here)

With a massive drop in the value of the dinar and rising inflation and debt-to-GDP ratio, worries over the effect of political instability are increasing
 
Written by : Adel Al-Nouqti
on : Sunday, 18 Aug, 2013

...Latest figures indicate a decline in foreign direct investment (FDI) in Tunisia by 1.3 percent in 2013 over the same period in 2012. There is 6 percent inflation and the national debt is 47 to 48 percent of GDP. The value of the Tunisian dinar has been declining rapidly, and has been at its lowest levels ever since July.
In a statement this week, the Tunisian Association of Economists issued a warning about the “gravity of the current economic situation in Tunisia” and “the extent to which the country is able to repay its debt.” In their own statement, the Assembly of Expert Tunisian Accountants emphasized that “the economic situation requires urgent action in order to restore the country’s fiscal balance,” indicating that the task may require reconsideration of the 2013 budget.
Perhaps most dangerous of all is the claim from some parties, especially among the opposition, that the Tunisian government will be unable to pay the salaries of employees in the coming period...

The only thing the USA has to worry about in regard to Egypt is Israel.

Right now the Jerusalem Post is debating the accusations that the UN discriminates against Israel.  As Israel has frequently stated, "This is the Middle East."

Ban Ki-moon: 'I don't think there is discrimination against Israel at UN' (click here)
By MAYA SHWAYDER

08/19/2013 21:05
 UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon denied on Monday there is any bias in the UN against Israel.
At a press "encounter" at the UN Headquarters in New York on Monday, a reporter for Israel Radio pressed Ban about his comments last Friday while meeting with students at the UN headquarters in Jerusalem....
...The Secretary-General was in Israel on Friday where he met with students at the UN headquarters in Jerusalem, and reportedly did admit to these students that there is bias against Israel in the UN.
“Unfortunately because of the conflict, Israel has been weighed down by criticism and suffered from bias – sometimes even discrimination,” Ban said at the time, according to several media sources.
On Monday in New York, Ban retracted these comments, and emphasized that "incitement against any group of people, any religion or tradition…is unacceptable."...

I think Gaza is closed after the attacks. And then others wonder why Israel seeks control of the borders. I didn't think the rioters wiped out the entire Egyptian military, did they?

Egypt army on high alert in Sinai, Gaza border said shut following deadly ambush (click here)
By REUTERS

LAST UPDATED: 08/19/2013 13:04
...The authorities portray their campaign as a fight against terrorism. The Brotherhood renounced violence decades ago and denies any links with armed militants, including those in Sinai who gained strength since autocrat Hosni Mubarak fell in 2011.
Mounting insecurity in Sinai also worries the United States because the area lies next to Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, as well as the Suez Canal.
At least 36 Islamists died in government custody on Sunday, in an incident that the Brotherhood described as "murder" and the authorities said was a thwarted jailbreak.
"The murders show the violations and abuses that political detainees who oppose the July 3 coup get subjected to," said the Brotherhood.
The Interior Ministry said 36 Brotherhood detainees had been suffocated by tear gas during an attempted prison breakout near Cairo. A legal source said 38 men had died from asphyxiation in the back of a crammed police van....

Everything is not as one sided as the American press likes to paint it. There have been killings on both sides of this and no one is innocent.

It would appear there are many unhappy folks these days. I suppose it is difficult taking the dog for a walk, but, then I hear that is a problem in some areas of California.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

08/19/2013 18:22
...Following the Egyptian example, (click here) a group of activists has launched a Palestinian version of the Tamarod (“Rebellion”) campaign to remove Hamas from power in the Gaza Strip.
Tamarod is a grassroots movement in Egypt that led the campaign to oust president Mohamed Morsi.
The Palestinian group on Monday shared a video announcing a series of anti-Hamas activities as of November 11.
“Repression and tyranny have reached their peak and we can no longer remain silent,” the group said in the video. “The time has come to reject death under Hamas’s security club.”
The group said that the Palestinian Tamarod movement consisted of youths “of all colors and affiliations.”
Denouncing Hamas as medieval gangsters, the group accused the Islamist movement of torture, sabotage, smuggling, bribery and thuggery....

Ya really get the feeling they aren't patient with elections and the democratic process.

Give them an inch and they take a mile.

Yucca Mountain is the worst idea anyone could have ever thunk up. The USA needs to reprocess it's nuclear fuel and reuse it. Storing it forever is not a solution. 

By Jacob Kastrenakes on

...But the ruling may only be a symbolic step forward. (click here) The NRC only has $11.1 million remaining in its budget for reviewing the government's application to use Yucca Mountain, and as the court writes, "$11 million is wholly insufficient to complete the processing of the application." The NRC hasn't said how much it'll need, but the US government believes that, overall, $15 billion has already been put toward the project. Whether Congress is willing to fund it further remains up in the air. The court notes that the NRC originally ended its review due to lack of funding, and that "Congress, of course, is under no obligation to appropriate additional money."...

If Yucca was open today it would be full. There is that much spent nuclear fuel in the USA currently stored in cooling pools. We don't need Yucca, we need to stop the use of this hideous energy.

Imagine that mountain with solar fields. Now realize how hideous nuclear energy sincerely is. 

The USA already uses reprocessed weapons grade uranium. Approximately every tenth home in the USA is provided electricity by reprocessed 

Russian uranium.Russia delivers uranium to US nuclear power plants 
17.07.2012  

...Reprocessing (click here) is implemented by a Russian corporation "Rosatom" and the cost of the fuel delivered to the United States has already exceeded nine billion dollars.

"For 20 years of the execution of the agreement the state budget received a total of about $18 billion. At the very beginning, when we signed the contract, its cost was estimated at about $12 billion," Alex Grigoriev, CEO of "TENEX" told radio station "Echo of Moscow". This company is part of the "Rosatom," and provides over 40 percent of the world demand for uranium enrichment services for nuclear power plants with reactors of Western design.


The electricity produced from the reprocessed uranium from Soviet nuclear bombs is consumed by nearly every tenth house of the United States. The Russian-American program "Megatons to Megawatts" will be in effect until 2013....

What was that about seimic activity? Morons. Yeah, yeah, there is money thar. Now there will be more than hydrofracking fluid in the water supply, it will be radioactive besides.

...In Nevada, (click here) at least two companies hope to use the technique to find oil.
State wells spat out roughly 427,000 barrels of oil in 2010, just 0.02 percent of the total oil production in the United States. About 87 percent of the state’s oil came from Nye County, and the rest came from neighboring Eureka County, according to the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology.
State regulators typically issue three or four permits each year for oil and gas drilling, but this year, they issued 13 by late September. With fracking growing more popular throughout the country, some companies have started to turn their attention to Nevada, said Alan Coyner, administrator of the state’s Division of Minerals.
No company has used hydraulic fracturing in Nevada, but some now want that option in their permits, he said.
Oil and gas producer Noble Energy plans to explore for crude oil on 350,000 acres it is leasing in northeast Nevada. The company, which gave the project a 55 percent chance of success, aims to start production in 2014....

Pennsylvania now has a Hydrofracking Casualty Map

Sunday Times review of DEP drilling records reveals water damage, murky testing methods (click here)

Published: May 19, 2013

State environmental regulators determined that oil and gas development damaged the water supplies for at least 161 Pennsylvania homes, farms, churches and businesses between 2008 and the fall of 2012, according to a cache of nearly 1,000 letters and enforcement orders written by Department of Environmental Protection officials and obtained by The Sunday Times.
The determination letters are sent to water supply owners who ask state inspectors to investigate whether oil and gas drilling activities have polluted or diminished the flow of water to their wells....

 

Not guilty does not return him to leadership.

CAIRO | Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:46am EDT
 

Mubarak, 85, (click here) was arrested after he was ousted. In scenes that mesmerized Arabs, the former leader appeared in a court-room cage during his trial on charges that ranged from corruption to complicity in the murder of protesters.
More than a year on, the only legal grounds for Mubarak's continued detention rest on another corruption case which his lawyer, Fareed el-Deeb, said would be settled swiftly.
"All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours. He should be freed by the end of the week," Deeb told Reuters.
Without confirming that Mubarak would be freed, a judicial source said the former leader would spend another two weeks behind bars before judicial authorities made a final decision in the outstanding case against him.

The Right Wing propaganda machine is dying and the RNC is throwing in with it.

These are teaser articles no different than the RNC rants about "Hillary favoritism." The RNC is going to go by way of their propagandists, unfunded and outdated.

...This proposed idea, (click here) however, creates a biased platform for the 2016 GOP primaries. By rendering exclusively conservative moderators during RNC political debates, the risk for political bias is high. Hannity, Limbaugh, and Levin are considered charismatic conservative entities which may very well sensationalize the program; these men are known for their strong opinions. Their personal politics will steer the debate toward stactics that belong on a polarizing talk show, not a debate floor....

It is all a bunch of lies and then Americans wonder what happened to their country.  The politicians are busy pandering to their donors and adverse philosophies of what is best for the country while the country's problems go unsolved. The RNC is the biggest problem the country has.

By Brigid Schulte, Published: August 18
...It’s been exactly one year and one week (click here) since Allen-Starks agreed to take part in the District’s new Rapid Re-Housing Program, which is aimed at getting people like her out of the overcrowded D.C. General family homeless shelter and on a path toward self-sufficiency....

"Good Night, Moon"

The Waxing Gibbous 

94.5 percent full

12.5 days old

There is a Blue Moon on August 20-21, 2013. It is not the second full moon in the month, however,...

...It’ll be a Blue Moon (click here) by the seasonal definition, that is, the third of four full moons to take place in a season, in this case between the June 2013 solstice and September equinox. The last Blue Moon by this definition happened on November 21, 2010....