“I thought this World Cup was going to be a total fiasco. Everyone did.” said Sardo Lima, 53, a retired bank teller working as a taxi driver during the World Cup in Fortaleza. “But thanks to God, everything is going relatively well, apart from some sporadic traffic. But of course, that doesn't change the fact that millions were stolen for the stadiums and many of the programs promised were never delivered.”
Perhaps in part because he was an immigrant, Fouad was also more optimistic about American purposes than most of his academic colleagues. He supported the war in Iraq and refused to abandon the effort even when it would have been advantageous for his career. He appreciated American idealism even as he saw it run up against the cynical realities of the Arab world and radical Islam. He thus fulfilled one obligation of the public intellectual, which is to take responsibility for the consequences of his views. His elegant prose adorned our pages for 27 years and the world will miss his wisdom.Also, "Fouad Ajami on America and the Arabs: Excerpts from the Middle Eastern scholar's work in the Journal over nearly 30 years."
"No Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." ~~ Barack Obomba. pic.twitter.com/2YSIoj4CCt
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 22, 2014
So many Republicans have been conned by lying, libertarian filth like @SenRandPaul into thinking that libertarianism is something it isn't
— Patrick Dollard (@PatDollard) June 22, 2014
WATCH, MORON OF THE CENTURY-@SenRandPaul: Stopping A Terror Attack On The U.S. Is Not 'A Clear-Cut American Interest' http://t.co/ObksspObZZ
— Patrick Dollard (@PatDollard) June 22, 2014
WATCH - @SenRandPaul: Blame Bush For Return Of Al Qaeda Power In Iraq Since Last Year, Not Obama http://t.co/4jjjRDfsjn #teaparty #lnyhbt
— Patrick Dollard (@PatDollard) June 22, 2014
Also at NBC, "Sen. Rand Paul's Full Interview on Meet the Press."
WARSAW, Poland — A Polish magazine said Sunday it has obtained recordings of a conversation in which Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski says the country’s strong alliance with the U.S. “isn’t worth anything” and is “even harmful because it creates a false sense of security.”And the Guardian UK's got the dishy quotes, "Report: Polish minister says US ties worthless":
In a short transcript of the conversation, a person identified as Sikorski by the magazine Wprost tells former finance minister, Jacek Rostowski, that Poles naively believe the U.S. bolsters their security. Using vulgar language, the person argues that such beliefs are nonsense, and that the Polish-U.S. alliance alienates the Russians and Germans. There has been no official confirmation that it is Sikorski who speaks in the conversation.
Wprost last week set off a political storm in Poland with the release of a recording of a conversation between central bank head Marek Belka and Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz. In the recording the two discussed how the bank could help the governing party win re-election in 2015, an apparent violation of the bank’s independence.
That publication has already threatened to bring down the government of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and the new recording is expected to add to the troubles. Although the latest conversation doesn’t reveal any illegal actions, the strong language and opinions would likely put the foreign minister on the defensive if they are confirmed to be true.
A Polish news magazine said on Sunday it had obtained a secret recording of Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, in contention for a senior European Union job, saying that Poland's relationship with the United States was worthless.PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.
The Wprost news magazine said the recording was of a private conversation earlier this year between Sikorski and Jacek Rostowski, a member of parliament with the ruling Civic Platform who until last year was finance minister.
The magazine did not say who recorded the conversation, or how it obtained the recording.
Aides to Sikorski and Rostowski said they had no immediate comment. A government spokeswoman said it was hard to form a view based on a few excerpts of a conversation, but there might be a comment later.
According to a transcript of excerpts of the conversation that was published by Wprost on its Internet site, Sikorski told Rostowski: "You know that the Polish-US alliance isn't worth anything."
"It is downright harmful, because it creates a false sense of security ... Complete bullshit. We'll get in conflict with the Germans, Russians and we'll think that everything is super, because we gave the Americans a blow job. Losers. Complete losers."
MCALLEN, Tex. — With the Border Patrol distracted by a surge of Central American migrants crossing into south Texas, Mexican cartels have had an easier time smuggling illegal drugs across the border, according to agents and state officials here.
The arrival of large groups of women and children on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande is pulling agents away from their patrol stations elsewhere along the border, creating gaps in coverage that the traffickers can exploit, according to Chris Cabrera, the Border Patrol union representative here.
The smugglers wait on the southern banks of the Rio Grande as migrant groups as large as 250 wade across at dusk and turn themselves in to the Border Patrol, he said. Then groups of single men proceed to cross under cover of darkness, hoping to slip through.
“After that they send over the dope,” Cabrera said, with U.S. officers too busy to stop it.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) and Gov. Rick Perry (R) have echoed the complaints. In a letter this month to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Abbott asked for $30 million for law enforcement officers to fill in the gaps because “we have grave concerns that dangerous cartel activity, including narcotics smuggling and human trafficking, will go unchecked because Border Patrol resources are stretched too thin.”
The most recent statistics from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) show that narcotics seizures have fallen across the entire border with Mexico this year, with the drop being larger in Texas than the average.
In Texas, combined seizures of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine fell by 34 percent — from 374,812 to 246,976 kilograms — between Jan. 1 and June 14 compared with the same period last year. Seizures in Arizona and California fell by 26 percent in each state. The decline was greatest in New Mexico — 62 percent — and the overall amount of drugs captured was also far lower than in other states...
This is how we do. No new war in Iraq! U.S. out of the Middle East! #antiwar #bringthemhome pic.twitter.com/TGSCfYOzHu
— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) June 21, 2014Crowd gathering around watching @EugenePuryear and @tighebarry @codepink at @WhiteHouse explaining reasons for war pic.twitter.com/vPAnZdqqbf
— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) June 21, 2014Our nat'l coordinator Brian Becker breaking down U.S. foreign policy and reasons for war @ #DC demo to say #NoNewWar pic.twitter.com/uoQrc644mK
— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) June 21, 2014In #DC right now: @VFPNational @codepink #MilitaryFamiliesSpeakOut & community unite to say #NoNewWar in #Iraq pic.twitter.com/DGwQ9mZGh1
— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) June 21, 2014Money for #jobs & #education not for #war & #occupation! #NoNewWar! We want #peace now! @VFPNational @codepink pic.twitter.com/6KjetWzVRl
— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) June 21, 2014The IAC [International Action Center] has been described as a Stalinist organization and one that supports authoritarian regimes and communist dictatorships. Incidentally, both Serbia and Iraq have retained [former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey] Clark as their U.S. counsel. The IAC is affiliated with the Workers’ World Party, which is affiliated with ANSWER. All of these organizations are advocates of Arafat.More at Discover the Networks.
Thx 2 Obama, Terrorist Group ISIS May Be Coming 2 America http://t.co/kPYuhTMGKY … … via @IBDinvestors - pic.twitter.com/uVdEn4HHir
— Daniel John Sobieski (@gerfingerpoken) June 21, 2014As what the feds call "other than Mexicans" and MS-13 gang members stream across our border, just what is keeping the head of ISIS from keeping his promise, "I'll see you in New York"?More.
We already know how ruthless the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is, so much so that media pundits such as Kirsten Powers, who should know better, insist that even al-Qaida is said to be distancing itself from the group.
You know: the same al-Qaida that slit throats with box cutters and then turned passenger jets filled with fuel into cruise missiles aimed at the World Trade Center.
ISIS is as determined as it is ruthless and has plans that go beyond the mini-caliphate it has established in Iraq and Syria — the caliphate for which President Obama, through his politically motivated troop withdrawal, served as midwife.
This caliphate, as the staging ground for future attacks on infidels worldwide, was also the dream of the precursor of ISIS, al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), and its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a dream shared by al-Qaida itself.
ISIS is working on the game plan outlined by al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in an October 2005 letter to the late al-Zarqawi. Zawahiri wrote: "The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq. The second stage: Establish an Islamic Authority ... over as much territory as you can spread its power in Iraq ... in order to fill the void stemming from the departure of he Americans. The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq."
And from there, the world, restoring an Islamic empire that once extended to the gates of Vienna...
The hook-up culture denounced by conservatives is the very same rape culture denounced by feminists. Who wants it? Most college women do not; they ignore hookups and lament the loss of dating. Many men will not turn down the offer of an available woman, but what they really want is a girlfriend. The predatory males are a small minority among men who are the main beneficiaries of the feminist norm. It’s not the fault of men that women want to join them in excess rather than calm them down, for men too are victims of the rape culture. Nor is it the fault of women. Women are so far from wanting hook-ups that they must drink themselves into drunken consent—in order to overcome their natural modesty, one might suggest. Not having a sociable drink but getting blind drunk is today’s preliminary to sex. Beautifully romantic, isn’t it? The anonymous Harvard woman by getting drunk was unfortunately helping to pressure herself into consenting to a very bad experience. But she is right that the pressure comes with the encouragement of the culture. And the culture comes from the dogmas of feminism that made this mess for women and men too.A great piece.
