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You have an opportunity to hear John Podhoretz - Editor of Commentary Magazine, Speak - February 16, at The PLANTATION CLUB under the auspices of The Skidaway Island Republican Club, at 6PM!
Cost of the dinner $125 pp.
For Reservations Contact: Tom Osborn @ tomosborn
===
Part of refreshing transcript of an interview aired on Al Jazeera, where Scott Morrison, MP was invited for comment.
Transcript Station:
Al JaZeERa ENGLISH
Date:
9/1/2015...
Program: The STREAM Time:7:06 AM
Compere:
AL JAZEERA Summary ID:W00059934129 (See 1 below.)
Al JaZeERa ENGLISH
Date:
9/1/2015...
Program: The STREAM Time:7:06 AM
Compere:
AL JAZEERA Summary ID:W00059934129 (See 1 below.)
===
More church humor::
A little boy was overheard praying:
'Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.
I'm having a real good time like I am.'
'Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.
I'm having a real good time like I am.'
A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they
Were on the way to church service,
'And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?'
One bright little girl replied,
'Because people are sleeping.'
Were on the way to church service,
'And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?'
One bright little girl replied,
'Because people are sleeping.'
A father was at the beach with his children
When the four-year-old son ran up to him,
Grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore
Where a seagull lay dead in the sand.
'Daddy, what happened to him?' the son asked.
'He died and went to Heaven,' the Dad replied.
The boy thought a moment and then said,
'Did God throw him back down?'
When the four-year-old son ran up to him,
Grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore
Where a seagull lay dead in the sand.
'Daddy, what happened to him?' the son asked.
'He died and went to Heaven,' the Dad replied.
The boy thought a moment and then said,
'Did God throw him back down?'
A wife invited some people to dinner.
At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,
'Would you like to say the blessing?'
'I wouldn't know what to say,' the girl replied.
'Just say what you hear Mommy say,' the wife answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said,
'Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?'
Golf Humor:
A gushy reporter told Phil Mickelson,
"You are spectacular; your name is synonymous with the game of golf.
You really know your way around the course.
What's your secret?"
Mickelson replied,
"The holes are numbered."
The bride was escorted down the aisle and when she reached the altar, the
groom was standing there with his golf bag and clubs at his side.
She said: "What are your golf clubs doing here?"
He looked her right in the eye and said, "This isn't going to take all
day, is it?"
===
Hopefully, two more years will pass quickly. (See 2 below.)
===
So you think Condell is lying? (See 3 below.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This is what Israel is all about: http://vimeo.com/92807000
===
An old, very dear friend and fellow memo reader sent me the following and I responded:
"Hi Dick:So, our Dear Leader won’t meet with the living Prime Minister of Israel, but he’ll cut short a trip to India to visit a dead Saudi king. Am I getting this right? Unbelievable. J--"
My reply: "In all honesty Netanyahu's visit is a poke in Obama's eye and he is very miffed and justifiably so except he has a terrible relationship with Netanyahu which he started. So what goes around comes around. Still not a wise move on Bibbi's part even though understandable by someone called a chicken s---, by this White House." Me
===
This past week Obama saw Yemen collapse and perhaps this coming week he will preside over Ukraine's demise. Stay tuned. (See 4 below.)
===
DickAt the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,
'Would you like to say the blessing?'
'I wouldn't know what to say,' the girl replied.
'Just say what you hear Mommy say,' the wife answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said,
'Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?'
Golf Humor:
A gushy reporter told Phil Mickelson,
"You are spectacular; your name is synonymous with the game of golf.
You really know your way around the course.
What's your secret?"
Mickelson replied,
"The holes are numbered."
The bride was escorted down the aisle and when she reached the altar, the
groom was standing there with his golf bag and clubs at his side.
She said: "What are your golf clubs doing here?"
He looked her right in the eye and said, "This isn't going to take all
day, is it?"
===
Hopefully, two more years will pass quickly. (See 2 below.)
===
So you think Condell is lying? (See 3 below.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
This is what Israel is all about: http://vimeo.com/92807000
===
An old, very dear friend and fellow memo reader sent me the following and I responded:
"Hi Dick:So, our Dear Leader won’t meet with the living Prime Minister of Israel, but he’ll cut short a trip to India to visit a dead Saudi king. Am I getting this right? Unbelievable. J--"
My reply: "In all honesty Netanyahu's visit is a poke in Obama's eye and he is very miffed and justifiably so except he has a terrible relationship with Netanyahu which he started. So what goes around comes around. Still not a wise move on Bibbi's part even though understandable by someone called a chicken s---, by this White House." Me
===
This past week Obama saw Yemen collapse and perhaps this coming week he will preside over Ukraine's demise. Stay tuned. (See 4 below.)
===
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) "...MORRISON: I’m sorry. I have to interrupt here. I’m sorry I am not going to sit here and listen to people stupidly suggest that the French or the magazine or anyone brought this on themselves. Are you for real? We have a dozen people dead, killed in the name of a religious belief and you are seriously going to even slightly justify this?
MORRISON: Well that’s not what I am hearing. I’m hearing this vaguely worded defence that France shouldn’t have done this and Sarkozy said that two years ago, and if they didn’t draw Mohammed then this might not of happened or whatever. It is obscene and a gutless way of almost saying they all deserved this. Well if you believe that you are about as bad as the idiot who thinks the pretty girl in the short skirt is asking to be raped so she better watch out.
COMPERE: That’s a ridiculous comparison.
MORRISON: Is it ridiculous? Tell me how? It’s the “you were asking for it” way of thinking. Your logic is those who drew the pictures should have known better and should have known what the response would be. Where as I say, if you can’t accept that people have different views to you then maybe the problem is with you if your response is the pull out an AK and go nuts.
COMPERE: Well, the material was designed to offend.
MORRISON: And so what. A lot of what I’ve heard here today has offended me but if you’re civilised, and I think that’s a major issue with some of the people we are talking about, if you are civilised you just get on with it. We shouldn’t have to have special rules for special people.
COMPERE: No-one is suggesting special rules just an understanding that some things are offensive.
MORRISON: So OK, we can have a bit of fun with the Pope, with Buddha, Jesus Christ on the Cross, The Dalai Lama, The Queen, Barack Obama. Want to add to the list? But not anything or anyone associated with Muslims. They’re special apparently. And that’s where all this free speech talk I’m hearing falls to bits. If you defend free speech then you defend offensive speech as well. It’s real easy to stand up for the nice stuff but sometime it gets ugly and if you are fair dinkum, as we say in Australia, you stand for all. Now, I’m not fond of Jesus Christ jokes but if you crack one you shouldn’t fear a few goons showing up with AK47s and shooting everyone in the office dead at their desks. So please, spare me the justification garbage for these terrorists being upset and just responding to provocation. If you think they are even slightly justified for killing people who drew some pictures then I’m afraid you are over in their column.
COMPERE: OK I take your point but if you deliberately set out to offend there are consequences.
MORRISON: Yes there are. People might not buy your magazine or you get nasty letters in the mail from upset people but not a dozen of your workmates dead at their desks, and here we are again talking about consequences. It’s back to the same argument as the pretty girl in the bar example. If you think she’s asking to be raped you are, in my view, unfit for civilised society. You are uncivilised and maybe that’s something we should be spending a bit of energy on... "
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2) 'Fruit Loop' Obama's Peculiar Priorities
Barack Obama is a man who painstakingly sets his priorities. Take, for instance, the recent funerals of two NYPD officers who were shot in the head by a radical Islamist thug as they sat in their parked police cruiser. Sadly, the president was not able to attend either Officer Ramos’s or Liu’s funeral.
However, while the Big Apple was steeped in unbearable heartache, with a heavy heart about being otherwise committed and under much emotional duress, a greatly shaken Obama and the first lady did manage to soothe their grief with a $1,000-a-couple dinner at the swanky Hawaiian Vintage Cave.
Then there was the terrorist attack in France that killed 17 people. Following the bloodshed, a million-person march descended on Paris. French President Francois Hollande and 44 foreign dignitaries, including leaders from Germany, Italy, Britain, Turkey, Israel, and the Palestinian territories, attended the protest.
One would think that not even another fundraiser in Gwyneth Paltrow’s backyard could stop Barack ‘Citizen of the World’ Obama from participating in the show of unity. But again, unfortunately, the president was mysteriously engaged elsewhere, possibly doing whatever he was doing on the night of the Benghazi attack.
No matter which way you slice it, Barack Obama is a very busy man with an ever-growing list of concerns to attend to.
Consider all the time it takes for him to finagle free college tuition for 13th and 14th grade, or to plot how to veto Republican sanctions against Iran. Then there’s the effort he’s investing in releasing every last Islamic insurgent from Gitmo in time for them to get back on the battlefield to do some real damage, and the blood, sweat, and tears it takes to reprimand anyone who says the forbidden words: “Islamic terrorist.”
There are only so many hours in a day to clean up the planet and punish overachievers. Moreover, it’s probably Barack Obama himself who chases down and recruits former Democrat campaign staffers to play down-and-out housewives at State of the Union addresses.
And let’s not forget -- when he’s not “fixing” our “broken” healthcare system, Obama is actively about the business of decimating our military, upping the minimum wage on behalf of the “hardest working people in America,” waving millions of illegal immigrants with infectious diseases across the border, and purposely contributing to racial unrest.
As if all that effort and responsibility isn’t enough to tucker one man out, now in the midst of “fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” without consulting the president, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner goes and invites Bibi Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress on the dangers posed to Israel and the U.S. by Islamic extremism and a nuclear Iran.
Why, pray tell, does the Israeli prime minister have to issue this cautionary tale? After all, when and if he decides to, the president will be more than able to convince Iran to do things like release the imprisoned Christian pastor Saeed Abedini. In like manner, with a minimal amount of mediation on his part, an amicable Iran will also happily submit when Obama politely requests that they relinquish their nuclear ambitions.
That’s why, when the Israeli prime minister arrives in America, there is absolutely no reason to cut into the president’s packed schedule to meet with a man who was once left sitting in a White House meeting room for daring to defy Obama’s Palestinian-friendly wishes concerning Jewish construction in East Jerusalem.
To sum up, the president has no time to attend the funerals of slain police officers, or stand in solidarity with world leaders against radical Islamic terrorism, or waste time feigning hospitality toward allies like France, or worse yet, Bibi Netanyahu’s Israel.
Gone are the days of frivolous #bringbackourgirls hashtags. Instead, Barack Obama attends to truly pressing issues by granting interviews to #YouTubeAsksObama.
So, while House Republicans and an incensed Bob Menendez (D-NJ) look forward to gleaning insight from Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama, a man who’s certain his priorities are in order, chats it up with the likes of Hank Green. Hank, together with his brother John Green, author of The Fault in our Stars, rants on YouTube about “Harry Potter, Hong Kong, net neutrality and farting.”
While ISIS lines up teenage boys in front of firing squads for watching soccer games and Boko Haram kills thousands, with her green lipstick and occasional Ebonics the self-proclaimed “Queen of YouTube,” comedian and Internet sensation GloZell Green interviews the president.
The buxom GloZell is renowned for YouTube videos such as My Push up Bra will help me get my man; How to Draw Perfect Eyebrows; and GloZell’s Cereal Challenge, where the curvy woman with the unruly curls writhes around in a bathtub filled with Fruit Loops and milk.
Sad to say, but at this juncture it seems natural to utter the words Obama and Fruit Loops in the same sentence.
Nonetheless, during the mesmerizing interview, reminiscent of Obama’s “if I had a son” Trayvon Martin reference, GloZell told the president that, to keep her husband from getting shot by the “po-po,” she cut the hoods off all his hoodies.
Finally, Derek Hough’s dramatic paso doble partner on "Dancing with the Stars" last season, Bethany Mota, also gabbed with the president, who, by the way, did some dancing of his own with Ellen DeGeneres.
Via YouTube, Bethany announced that she put up Christmas decorations right after Halloween because she “...just decided that [her] room looked really sad.”
Speaking of “really sad,” that’s pretty much how Barack Obama has made America look on the world stage.
And so, short of volunteering to inflate deflated footballs or bowing to international protocol and flying off to Saudi King Abdullah’s funeral, as usual, while the world burns Barack Obama believes he has his priorities in order.
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3)
| Iranian Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari: goal is full obliteration of Israel |
| IRGC to help Muslims fighting Israel: Gen. Jafari The chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the elite forces will continue to help the anti-Israeli axis of resistance in the Middle East region until full obliteration of the Zionist regime. “The IRGC…will continue and deepen its support for the Muslim combatants and fighters in the region until full removal of this very epitome of evil from the geopolitics of the region,” Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said in a statement on Tuesday. The statement came two days after the killing of an IRGC general in an Israeli airstrike on the occupied Golan Heights in Syria that also killed six members of the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah. Jafari said the assassination of Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi showed that "we should not distance ourselves from jihad." "The Zionists should await annihilating thunderbolts,” he added. Allahdadi had traveled to Syria to provide consultation and help the Syrian government and nation counter the Takfiri and Salafi terrorists in the war-stricken country. On Sunday, an Israeli military helicopter fired two missiles into Amal Farms in the strategic southwestern city of Quneitra, close to line separating the Syrian part of the Golan Heights from the Israeli-occupied sector. Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah confirmed the death of six fighters saying its response will be painful. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4)Red Alert: Rocket Fire Could Signal New Offensive on Mariupol Stratfor Analysis
Reports of heavy rocket artillery firing on the eastern parts of the city of Mariupol, Ukraine, as well as a statement made by a separatist leader, indicate the potential preparation of an offensive on the city. While this would be a significant escalation and an indicator of Russian intent to push further into Ukraine, potentially forming a much-rumored land connection to the northern border of Crimea, there are also several indicators required for such an offensive that are currently still missing.
Reports of heavy rocket artillery firing on the eastern parts of the city of Mariupol have been widely reported, with the death toll rising to 27 people. Mariupol has been shelled in the past, notably in early September, but as the cease-fire took affect separatist forces generally conducted attacks only outside of the city. It is not clear whether this is simply an intensification of relatively static fighting along the front between Russian and pro-Russian forces on the one side, and Ukrainians, or the beginning of a Russian-led offensive to widen the pocket, or the opening move in a broader strategic offensive to link up with Crimea, 200 miles to the west of the pocket.
The widespread use of Grad Multiple Launch Rocket Systems indicates that this is a planned action with significant logistical support that it involves extensive use of Russian troops, though Grad fire has been widely used throughout the conflict. There have been indications that Russian forces, including Russian Marines, have moved into the eastern Ukraine pocket controlled by pro-Russian forces, giving the Russians offensive options. Heavy artillery preparations frequently precede Russian attacks, particularly by concentrated MLRS attack. Given the amount of munitions needed to supply concentrated fire, the Russians tend not to use them casually. The presence of Grad missiles indicates the possibility of artillery preparation for a broader offensive.
The attack comes days after the Russian forces secured the Donetsk Airport, important in defending the right flank of any offensive westward. It also comes days after Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, came to Ukraine and publicly announced that a small number of U.S. Army trainers would be arriving in Ukraine. While any large-scale offensive would have been considered and planned for much longer, the decision of the United States to send Lt. Gen. Hodges could have affected the dynamic of internal Russian calculations.
In any event, we do not yet know Russia’s strategic intentions. This could simply be an attempt to signal the danger Russia could pose to their negotiating partners in the west. It could be an attempt to extend the pocket they hold modestly. It could, finally, be the opening of an offensive toward Crimea.
The Russian position in Crimea is untenable. Crimea is easily isolated should Ukranian forces strengthen or Western forces get involved. Russia holds Crimea only to the extent that the West chooses not to intervene, or to the extent that it extends a relatively wide and robustly defended land bridge from Russia to the Crimea. Crimea and the Sevastapol naval facilities are of strategic importance to Russia and the decision to hold these facilities but not extend their power makes diplomatic sense, though it is not militarily rational. Either Russia can build the geographical structure to support Crimea, or it becomes a permanent weak point in the Russian position. The Russians do not want a massive confrontation with the West at a time of economic dysfunction, yet at the same time, having made the decision to hold Crimea, they will not have a better moment for consolidation.
This is an ongoing conversation in Moscow. It is not clear that it is over. The artillery may simply be a minor probe or it could be the preface to an assault. We know that there has been a significant increase in Russian presence in the pocket, but it does not seem to us that the Russians are logistically ready for a major offensive yet.
Taking Mariupol is a first step to a broader offensive. It is also an end in itself, anchoring the southern flank in the city, though may not even be that. However, the MLRS barrages on Mariupol open the door to multiple avenues of exploitation and have clearly moved the fighting to a new level, not so much in intensity, but in raising serious questions of strategic intention.
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