Monday 11 March 2013
Photo, above: Rival football fans in Egypt have protested over sentences handed down over riots at a match in Port Said in February last year. The court upheld 21 death sentences and handed down prison terms to other defendants over the violence, which claimed 74 lives. Most victims were supporters of a Cairo team, and fans there criticised the sentencing for not going far enough. In Port Said, fans of the local team accused the court of unfairness. Many people believe police in the city stood by during the rioting in revenge for the role of football supporters in the unrest which toppled Hosni Mubarak as president a year before. Police deny the accusation. Ahead of Saturday's sentencing, the army assumed policing in Port Said, which saw fresh unrest last week. Police in at least 10 of Egypt's 29 provinces have been holding an unprecedented strike in protest at being used by the government of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to confront protesters.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
Hour One
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, and Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor, in re: U.S. Defense Minister Chuck Hagel canceled his first joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on March 10, just hours after Karzai accused U.S. officials of secretly negotiating with the Afghan Taliban leadership, The Guardian reported. Though U.S. officials cited security concerns as the reason for the cancellation, Afghan officials denied the existence of any such security problems. On March 9, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide attack against the Afghan Defense Ministry, saying it was a message to Hagel. Karzai Says Taliban 'in Service to America' Afghanistan's fraying ties with the U.S. hit a new low, as President Hamid Karzai said before meeting the new U.S. defense secretary that the Taliban kill Afghan civilians "in the service of America." 2 'militants' reported killed in US drone strike in Pakistan The two "militants" are said to have been on horseback when they were targeted. The strike is the first reported by the US in Pakistan in 29 days. Al Nusrah Front seizes control of Syrian city of Raqqah Al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria teamed up with the jihadist Ahrar al Sham Brigade to take control of the provincial capital. The jihadist alliance effectively controls most the Euphrates River Valley in Syria all the way to the Iraqi border. The Al Nusrah Front also carried out two suicide attacks in Hom
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 1, Block B: Bill Roggio, Long War Journal and FDD, and Tom Joscelyn, Long War Journal senior editor: continued
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 1, Block C: . Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review; Lara M Brown, Villanova; Mona Charen, NRO, in re: VENEZUELA Chavismo and Us The Left’s willful ignorance. The story of where American voters are today, in terms of partisan split, is the same as it was heading into the 2000 presidential election. We are a country split down the middle, leaning slightly Democrat. Much has happened since that 2000 presidential race between Democrat Al Gore, a sitting vice president, and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, a Republican. But back then, no one was really paying attention to the race. That feels ridiculous today, given our over-wired culture's obsession with all things political. Yet, remember: No major events, such as the 9/11 terror attacks or a collapsing economy, drove 2000's voters. No larger-than-life personality chewed up 2000's scenery or the storyline of that election cycle. So both parties turned out their respective bases and, at the end of the day, we had a tie reflecting our normal partisan split. Since then, Bush took the Republican Party way up and also took it way down. And Barack Obama appears to be replicating that pattern. Both the 2010 midterms (historic losses of U.S. House and state legislative seats for Democrats) and the 2012 presidential election (Obama is the first to win re-election with fewer votes than in his first victory) show signs of putting Democrats click here for link.
GOP Strategist Says Party Is Not Good Place for Women Republican strategist Steve Schmidt told Meet the Press that his party is not very friendly to women. Said Schmidt: "It's one of the problems we have structurally in the Republican Party... Any company, any organization in today's day and age that doesn't give equal opportunity to women, that doesn't advance women to the table, is going to be an organization that has difficulty competing."
Judd Tells Advisers She's Running: Ashley Judd (D) has told key advisers that she is planning to announce her candidacy for U.S. Senate against Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Huffington Post reports. "Judd told one close ally that she plans to announce her run for the Democratic nomination for the 2014 race 'around Derby' -- meaning in early May when the Kentucky Derby brings national attention to Louisville and the Bluegrass State."
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 1, Block D:
Hour Two
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 2, Block A: . Larry Johnson, NoQuarter; John Fund, National Review Online; David M Drucker, Roll Call, in re: John O Brennan moves from NS to CIA; for a resume flash? Interview with Speaker Boehner: "We Need to Do a Better Job." . THE SENATE An Opening in Michigan Levin retiring, but a GOP win won’t be easy. What Rand Paul Misses: A right way to accomplish his objective
Jeb Bush Says There's No Bush Baggage Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) says the Bush family name "will not drag down his political ambitions as he left open the possibility of running for president in 2016," The Hill reports. Said Bush: "I don't think there's any Bush baggage at all. I love my brother. I'm proud of his accomplishments. I love my dad. I'm proud to be a Bush and if I run for president it's not because of something in my DNA that compels me to do it." He added: "It would be that it's the right the thing to do for my family, that the conditions are right and that I have something to offer."
Rand Paul Draws Blood and Scares the [Living Daylights] Out of the Neocons »
The warmongering chicken hawks that led us into an unnecessary war in Iraq are nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room of rocking chairs filled with five-year-old boys. Their tails are getting squashed and Rand Paul is doing the damage. My proof? Consider the following. The Washington Post editorial board, which was a neocon bastion, screeched the following:
AFTER SEN. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) held the Senate hostage Wednesday in order to warn that American citizens could be targeted by drone strikes on U.S. soil, he was rightly taken to task for gross and irresponsible mischaracterizations of the Obama administration’s policy. We’ve got another complaint: Mr. Paul and his followers are distracting attention from the real issues raised by the administration’s secret warfare.
Want more proof? Here is neocon John Podhoretz trying his best to adopt the tone of a disappointed friend in waving the red flag about the dangers of Rand Paul:
And yet, while Paul’s brilliant advocacy and command of the public stage were remarkable, in the end it is . . .[more]
Panopticon State On the all-seeing drone.
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 2, Block B: .continued.
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 2, Block C: . Reza Kahlili, author, A Time to Betray, in re:
IRAN NUKE-SITE BLASTS CONFIRMED, SABOTAGE SUSPECTED Could a Stuxnet-like virus have been snuck into Fordow? General Karbani, General Ahmad Vahi __, a main security figure, more important than defense minister. These two have taken over all intell and control. Huge fear of sabotage as a result of Fordow. Talks in Turkey and Almaty. Jan 21 undergr0und nuclear site collapses while North Koreans arrive to aid in uranium enrichment. Reports of vast explosion – seventy-plus dead, many injured, many have signs of radiation contamination. IAEA is clueless. Was the North Korean software the vector for a virus? From late Feb, no activity at Fordow; not even cleaning or repair. Full stop. Since Reza has reported a great deal about Fordow, he's been the focus of attacks, incl disinformation, by Washington, London, Teheran and the IAEA. Fordow is over 300 feet underground and is unbombable.
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 2, Block D: Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: Carrying through on its threat four days before it said it would, Pyongyang ends armistice, shuts down hot line, and shuts down DMZ crossing points. Sanctions; joint mil exercises, US-ROK military exercises; new South Korean president, and a new leader is always severely hectored by the North. Kim Jong-eun has been in power 15 mos, purging officials who were loyal to his father (major expansion of prison camps for them and their families). North Korea owes its continuing existence to the PRC, which expects the US to come begging for Chinese help. Chinese goal is probably to force the abrogation of the US-Japan mutual security treaty. Beijing could rein in North Korea with one phone call. Upstream of Shanghai, armies of pigs were ill with a virus; farmers just pushed them into the river, poisoning the water of millions of Shanghainese.
Hour Three
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Hezbollah spectacularly murdered Rafik Hariri; these years later, a handful f people have volunteered to testify – and awoke to find on the front page of the Hezbollah newspaper their names, phone numbers, addresses, where they work. In Egypt, the young blogger who revealed damaging information about some of the authorities was tortured to death. Sinai is way out of control – gangs of young Bedouin kidnap Ethiopians, demand money from their impoverished families at home, and kill them en masse if money isn’t forthcoming. Tunnels: Egypt finally decided to flood the smuggling tunnels into Gaza. Hamas and Gazan smugglers now just pump the water out. Iran: budget submission is ninety days late, A US carrier will not be deployed in Persian Guf, along with other asses. Germany & India & Turkey used to smuggle material in, around sanctions; German & Turkish bust today.
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 3, Block B: . Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Iran's nuclear program collaborating with North Korea. Der Spiegel reports US is training "rebels" to go into Syria; planeloads of armaments from Zagreb, in Croatia – 75-plus since November – offloaded in Amman and sent to Syria. Al Qaeda now extremely active in Iraq. Americans said to be training Syrian rebels in Jordan
Party leaders summit ends, negotiation teams to carry on talks
US senator, Treasury press EU to blacklist Hezbollah
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 3, Block C: . Eric Lichtblau, NYT, in re: The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking Researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have found that the Germans had vastly more work camps and ghettos than anyone knew: 42,500 camps, incl slave labor camps of almost every ethnic group invaded by the Germans; also ghettos where hundreds, thousands, a half-million people were incarcerated. Thousands within Munich and major cities; impossible for German citizenry to have been unaware, let alone the entire Wehmacht. "Care centers" where pregnant women were taken: child was aborted or, if not enough time, just killed, then women sent back to slave-labor camps. Likely many, many mass graves.
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Mary Anastasia O'Grady, in re: Venezuela - Chávez 'The Redeemer. Opposition leader and governor of Miranda state Henrique Capriles on March 11 announced that he would be the presidential candidate of the opposition coalition, El Universal reported. Capriles said, "Clinging to God, I will fight along with all of you. Nicolas (Maduro) I am not going to clear the way for you. We will defend our ballots, whatever it costs." Former Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in as acting Venezuelan president March 8. The United States has expelled two Venezuelan diplomats in response to the expulsion of two U.S. Embassy employees from the South American country a week ago, an unnamed U.S. official said March 11, CNN reported. The Venezuelan diplomats, named Orlando Jose Montanez Olivares and Victor Camacaro Mata, were declared personae non gratae and ordered to leave the United States over the weekend, the official said. Notably, the decision to expel the U.S. Embassy employees and to blame the United States for Chavez's sickness seems to indicate that Maduro plans to fall back on blaming the United States for domestic challenges in order to strengthen his position.
Hour Four
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 4, Block A: Chris Nicola, in re: The Secret of Priest's Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 4, Block B: Jed Babbin, American Spectator, in re: The American Spectator : Kim Inching Toward War
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 4, Block C: Wendell Jamieson, in re: Crime of His Childhood In 1973, a man committed an unthinkable act against a Brooklyn boy named Josh Miele. Still haunted decades later, a neighbor searched for answers.
Monday 11 March 2013 / Hour 4, Block D: David Kirkpatrick, NYT, in re: Angry at Public and Officials, Security Forces Strike in Egypt Officers said they were protesting official pressure to crack down on demonstrators and public demands for restraint.
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Music
Hour 1: 300, Cowboys & Aliens
Hour 2: Frost/Nixon, Gears of War 2, Tomorrow Never Dies
Hour 3: Gears of War 2, The Good German, Quantum of Solace
Hour 4: The Good German, Brake