Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Chuck Hagel has experience and vision; the neocons attacking him have nothing but ideology

Secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel should be a wish-come-true for conservative Republicans. In the Senate, Mr. Hagel was 100 percent pro-life, voted for tax cuts, opposed affirmative action and special rights for homosexuals, and amassed an 87 percent pro-business rating. Mr. Hagel has stated that his only oath of allegiance as a senator was to the U.S. Constitution and not to any president or foreign nation. Unlike many Republican superhawks who may have suffered a few paper cuts in their fantasy-war games, Mr. Hagel is a decorated veteran who bears the scars of war and understands the mission of our military and the perils of war.
Yet the divine coalition of neoconservatives, Israel-first evangelicals and defense-pork profiteers have all unjustly slandered this American patriot. The shadowy "Emergency Committee for Israel" fronted by William Kristol and Gary Bauer -- not exactly alpha males themselves -- is out to destroy the reputation of Chuck Hagel. According to these purists, Mr. Hagel is not pro-Israel enough, not committed to preventive war with Iran and bent on "hollowing out" our military. In other words, he has the courage and realism to pursue a Dwight Eisenhower-like foreign policy completely at odds with neocon dogma.

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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Neocons Get More Outrageous

Listening to FOXnews on Sunday evening, January 6, I was impressed by the oceans of venom that greeted the nomination of Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense. At 6:30 PM, the usually sober Brit Hume remarked for the umpteenth time that this "nominee was a strange choice" and one who was clearly unsuited for the position he sought. I then listened to Bill Kristol tell us how shocked he was by Obama’s appointment. According to Kristol, the President should have nominated "someone else," including a Democratic feminist who Kristol deemed to be good on "defense needs" (read bending to the will of the Likud coalition in Israel). The other panelists in a discussion group on FOX that followed the evening news deferred to the smirking Weekly Standard editor, who spent about ten minutes dumping on the nominee, without ever taking the grin off his face.

After this display of animosity, we got to see several Israeli dignitaries rage against Hagel as an enemy of the Jewish state. We then beheld the "conservative" Senator from South Carolina Lindsay Graham, indicating that he would never vote for this odious nominee. (John Podhoretz in the New York Post actually referred to the same person as an "ugly choice.") Although, unlike Graham, Hagel was a decorated warrior during the Vietnam War, it seems that Chuck could not meet Graham’s exacting patriotic standards. We know that Graham is a special kind of patriot because he predictably supports John McCain, every time that Arizona senator calls for military action somewhere in the Solar System. Like McCain, Graham slams other politicians who, in his judgment, do not back the Israeli government unconditionally at all times.

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Neocon Rand

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took what very well could be considered his most pro-Israel stance yet, saying in an interview that an attack on Israel should be treated as an attack on the United States.

Asked whether the United States would stand with Israel and provide it foreign aid if the Jewish state were attacked by its enemies, Paul went a step further.

“Well absolutely we stand with Israel,” he said in an interview with Breitbart News, “but what I think we should do is announce to the world – and I think it is pretty well known — that any attack on Israel will be treated as an attack on the United States.”

Source

Sunday, January 27, 2013

What is a NeoCon? – A Symposium

Back in the heyday of the Fondanistas, the Tom Haydens and the other assorted leftist tripe in our country, there was little to glean from the newspapers that was not worthy of publication in Pravda or Uncle Ho’s party newspaper. After all, the Dhimiratz had a monopoly on the media. In a divided country such as we had then, truth was hard to come by.

For a conservative kid growing up in such a world, finding alternative voices that embraced American exceptionalism and the brilliance of the Founders could rarely be found outside of the Public Library or the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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Saturday, January 26, 2013

Example of a Neocon Article Placement

In researching AIPAC, I remember running across an extensive account of how the organization used public relations methods that include letter-writing, placement of articles in media, and speeches in order to influence public opinion. This came to mind today when I noticed that my Google News (tailored to Western New York) had a headline reading "Hezbollah's terrorism a threat to upstate NY" in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Now this idea is so far out, meaning it is so nonsensical and exaggerated, that I clicked on through to inspect the contents. They are here. The article in this newspaper is written by Benjamin Weinthal who is from a suburb of Rochester named Brighton. Lo and behold, he's a "Research Fellow" of the neocon outfit I've mentioned before, namely, Foundation for Defense of Democracies. It's one of those William Kristol outfits that purports to deliver research and evidence, but instead specializes in scare tactics wrapped in a mantle of pseudo-objectivity.

Accurately evaluating Hezbollah and its activities in this hemisphere takes a lot more than this newspaper piece of Weinthal. The strongest allegation of a Hezbollah presence has been an accusation made by the House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management. It claimed that Hezbollah was allied to the Mexican drug cartels, and it claimed a threat in the Southwest. However, high Mexican officials categorically denied that Hezbollah had drug cartel connections.

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Friday, January 25, 2013

Marco Rubio and the Neocon Resurgence

Florida Senator Marco Rubio just made a small but significant move that indicates he is preparing to run for the presidency. He has hired Jamie M. Fly, until recently executive director of the Foreign Policy Initiative and a former Bush administration official, to serve as his senior national security adviser. It's a shrewd decision, at least within the context of a Republican party that refuses to acknowledge that the Iraq War was less than a roaring success, and one that further testifies to the mounting dominance of the neocons. By and large, they set the template for the discussion of foreign policy in the GOP. Their ascendance suggests that it is most improbable that a debate, let alone a civil war, will erupt within the GOP over foreign affairs. On the contrary, the neocons appear to be more firmly in control than ever.

The Foreign Policy Initiative is an organization that was created in 2009 by William Kristol to groom new and younger cadres. The organization appears to be a success, boasting no less than three separate leadership programs, with one in New York and two in Washington, DC. Fly is himself a savvy and energetic neocon who has staked out a very hard line in foreign affairs on issues ranging from Syria to Afghanistan to Israel. This past fall, in Foreign Policy, he declared that Obama

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Hillary Clinton’s 5 Most Neocon Moments

Outgoing secretary of state argued for democracy promotion, internationalism, and American exceptionalism during congressional testimony Wednesday

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified for hours Wednesday before House and Senate committees on the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack, and one theme began to emerge: Hillary Clinton sounded an awful lot like a foreign-policy neoconservative. Daily Beast reporter Eli Lake even called one of her responses the “full neocon.”

Don’t believe us? Here are Hillary’s top five neocon moments:

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Friday, January 18, 2013

Neocon nightmare: The truth behind the attacks on Chuck Hagel

If President Obama's second term includes decision-making as bold and intelligent as his nomination of Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense, his presidency might finally fulfill the promise of audacity and change that rallied so many to his campaign five years ago. In fact, the more ridiculous the claims being made by Hagel's critics become, the more the real reasons they don't want him -- and the wisdom of the choice -- come into stark relief.

The latest canard is about Hagel's supposed "temperament." The charge was made this past Sunday by Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, appearing on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." "I think another thing, George, that's going to come up is just his overall temperament," said Corker, "and is he suited to run a department or a big agency or a big entity like the Pentagon?" Given that this was a new one, Stephanopoulos asked, slightly incredulously, "Do you have questions about his temperament?" Corker replied, "I think there are numbers of staffers who are coming forth now just talking about the way he has dealt with them."
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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Albright Follows Warrick Into Full Neocon Mode, Presents Iran Sanction Manifesto

On January 7, I noted that the Washington Post’s Joby Warrick had allowed the neocon think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies to frame his discussion of the newest round of sanctions set to take effect against Iran. It now is clear that the article from Warrick was meant to prepare the ground for the unveiling, one week later, of David Albright’s new working group developed precisely for the purpose of furthering the neocon position on Iran sanctions. By taking on additional policy members in this working group, Albright is now branching out from his usual area of commentary on technical issues (where Moon of Alabama has dubbed his Institute for Science and International Security the “Institute for Scary Iran Stories“) all the way into policy and now promotes the full neocon position that Iran is dangerously close to having a nuclear weapon and therefore sanctions must be ratcheted up further.

Note how the press release from the working group opens:
Warning that time is running out as Iran accelerates its nuclear program, the non-partisan Project on U.S. Middle East Nonproliferation Strategy called on President Obama to use current U.S. sanctions laws to implement a “de facto international embargo on all investments in, and trade with, Iran (other than provision of humanitarian goods)” before Iran achieves “critical capability” – the point at which it could produce enough weapon-grade uranium (or separated plutonium) for one or more bombs so rapidly that neither the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nor Western intelligence agencies could be able to detect the move before it was too late to respond. 
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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Obama’s Drone Gang vs. Neocon Battalions

The principal distinctions between Obama’s faction and the opposing group of more extreme warmongers would seem to be along the following lines: Obama represents a faction which wishes to avoid the large-scale commitment of US conventional military forces to foreign wars. This kind of costly conventional warfare is by contrast the stock in trade of the opposing forces who sometimes choose to speak through the neocons. Instead, the group above and behind Obama proposes the use of economic warfare and economic sanctions, color revolutions, coups, subversion, special forces raids, drone attacks, assassinations, and multilateral buck-passing or leading from behind - playing an ally or an enemy against an enemy in the hopes of destroying or weakening both, as with Obama’s current use of Turkey against Syria.

Brennan presides over Terror Tuesdays at the White House, when the drone death list for the week is compiled. John Kerry ran for president in 2004 promising not to end the Iraq war, but to fight it smarter - meaning along the lines now embraced by Obama in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan policy favored by Obama has been articulated by Joe Biden and also in the CIA’s Devine Plan - special forces, drones, occasional bombing, and espionage, with very few boots on the ground.
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Monday, January 14, 2013

Chuck Hagel is opposed by 'neocon' Bill Kristol who pines for the good old days

Former Republican United States Senator Chuck Hagel has been nominated by President Obama to become the next Secretary of Defense, with the hopes of succeeding the highly successful Leon Panetta.

The "neocons,' like The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol, want a piece of Chuck Hagel. President Obama is moving toward his legacy in the second term, naming less hawkish and more dovish nominees. President Obama is leaning toward a less confrontational foreign policy.

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John ‘Little Cheney’ Brennan, the Neo-Con Don of the CIA – Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

With all the screeching, tearing and gnashing of teeth by GOP mouthpieces from silly little Lindsey Graham to angst driven decrepit old men, like Johnny McCain - trying to recapture his boyish Jet-Jockey sociopathy-concerning nominees for Secretary of State, there is an audible silence on behalf of the professional Congressional loud mouths - Not a word, not a peep, by those very same naysayers, questioning the 2nd nomination announced in President Obama’s speech, January 7, John Brennan.
“For the last four years, as my Advisor for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, John developed and has overseen our comprehensive counterterrorism strategy — a collaborative effort across the government, including intelligence and defense and homeland security, and law enforcement agencies,” said Obama. “And so think about the results. More al Qaeda leaders and commanders have been removed from the battlefield than at any time since 9/11.”
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Saturday, January 12, 2013

Will Sean Hannity Be Sent to the Neocon Woodshed?

Possibly, for speaking favorably about secession on his radio show today and forecasting that some states may secede if the communist/fascist (a.k.a. Democratic/Republican) regime in D.C. continues its "radicalized and abusive" ways. The racial racketeers at the Southern Poverty Law Center are sure to issue one of their libelous "intelligence reports" smearing Hannity as a perveyor of "Neo-Confederate Hate Radio."

Source

Friday, January 11, 2013

Matthews revisits neocon ‘bomber boy’ saying Iraq war would be over in 2 months

Chris Matthews minced no words introducing the neocon opposition to Hagel the other night:


Let me start with this, the folks who quack for Iraq have a knack for bad ideas. They pushed us into war ten years ago, they made their case with lies and half truths and flimflam. We had to get revenge for 9/11 so let's attack Iraq even though it was al Qaeda that hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. We have to attack Iraq because we've got evidence they have weapons of mass destruction, WMD, even if there's no evidence they have nuclear weapons and it would turn out they didn't have chemical or biological either. We have to attack Iraq, the hawks, they promised it would bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The road to Jerusalem runs through Baghdad it was said. What we've got instead is the loss of even a chance for peace in the Middle East. Well, tonight the people who sold America the Iraq war are out selling more warfare in the Middle East. They want military action against Syria, they want war waged against Syria, and they want Chuck Hagel out of the way. Why? because he's just the kind of guy who will ask, what should we have asked when W took us to war in Iraq? Is this really the smart thing to do for us?

How blunt and refreshing. Matthews interviews Sam Stein, political reporter at the Huffington Post, and reads from Stein's Hagel article The Combustible Politics Of Obama's Clearest Break From Bush before asking him what the neocons have in store for us. Note Stein's last sentence here:

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AFP applauds President Obama on his choice to head the war department

Perhaps more important than his change of heart on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the
fact that Hagel, while still in the Senate, had the courage to thumb his nose at the powerful Jewish
lobby and vote against sanctions on Iran. And if that was not bad enough for the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee and the ADL, he went on record opposing war with the Persian nation. He
believed that talking with the Iranian government was the best way to resolve any conflicts our two
countries may have.


Hagel’s common sense and patriotism are anathema to the Israel-first media, the spokesmen
for which characteristically find the futile, thankless and expensive policy of internationalismto be
the proper course for America no matter the cost in defeat, destruction, death and onrushing national
bankruptcy.

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Hagel Nomination: The Revenge of the Realists

To say that the events of September 11, 2001, had a distorting effect on American foreign policy is to seriously understate the case. What happened in the wake of that catastrophe, in the highest councils of the US government, has been called a coup by none other than Washington insider Bob Woodward. Citing Colin Powell, Woodward wrote:

“Powell felt Cheney and his allies – his chief aide, I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and what Powell called Feith’s ‘Gestapo’ office – had established what amounted to a separate government.”

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Thursday, January 10, 2013

Hagel nomination just payback to neocon foes

It’s official. President Obama has named former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.. as his nominee for secretary of defense. Hence, we may be in store for the worst defense secretary nomination fight since George H.W. Bush’s failed appointment of Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, more than 20 years ago.
 
The interesting question is: Why? Why waste the political capital? Why pass over more qualified candidates who would sail through confirmation, including Michele Flournoy — who’d be the first female defense secretary?
 
The most ridiculous answer is among the mainstream media’s favorites: bipartisanship. According to Politico, the choice “appeals to Obama’s bipartisan spirit.” The Washington Post, in a front-page news story, says that “Hagel’s successful nomination would add a well-known Republican to the president’s second-term Cabinet at a time when he is looking to better bridge the partisan divide, particularly after a bitter election campaign.”
 

The Neocons vs. Chuck Hagel

Among the chicken hawks of Washington, William Kristol is the bantam rooster. Though Kristol never served in the military, for almost two decades the editor of The Weekly Standard has been the true brains behind the neoconservative movement, advocating the aggressive projection of U.S. military might around the globe.

And now Kristol is leading the neoconservative fight against Chuck Hagel, the Defense secretary nominee whose policy record amounts to a living rebuttal of Kristol’s worldview. In a recent "special editorial" in his magazine, Kristol delivered the following diatribe against the former Nebraska senator:

"His backers can cite no significant legislation for which Hagel was responsible in his two terms in the Senate. They can quote no memorable speeches that Hagel delivered and can cite no profound passages from the book he authored. They can summarize no perceptive Hagelian analysis of defense or foreign policy, and can appeal to no acts of management or leadership by the man they'd have as our next secretary of defense.”

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Israeli Think Tank Defends Hagel Against Neocon Smears

An Israeli think tank on Wednesday vigorously defended Chuck Hagel against right-wing smears that he is anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and weak on Iran.

Molad, the Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy, wrote in a report released today that Hagel’s nomination as the next Defense Secretary should not have anything to do with Israel, but the fact that Israel’s “self-anointed supporters” dragged the Jewish state into the debate, the group felt compelled to respond:

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Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Return of the neocons: This time, they’re attacking Hagel

The nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel is under attack on several grounds, including being insufficiently pro-Israel. But the shockingly candid full neoconservative version of the attack I heard last night on TV was much more fundamental: Hagel should not be the leader of the Pentagon because he prefers to stay out of wars and may not believe that the United States should run the world.

After a brief heyday during the George W. Bush administration, the foreign policy orientation dubbed “neoconservatism” has largely slipped into the background. The neocons were the geniuses behind the Iraq war and the larger idea that U.S. military power could, should and would turn the Mideast into a happier, more peaceful sea of pro-Western democracy. After it turned out that U.S. troops didn’t have a cakewalk in Iraq, weren’t greeted with candy and flowers, and that the war was sold on cooked intelligence, neoconservatism piped down for a few years.

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Neocon smear of Hagel ricochets around web before ‘Atlantic’ article strikes it down

Whatever your thoughts are on the now official nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense, one thing’s for sure: he deserves to get a fair hearing (both in public and in the Senate), free from smears. But the neoconservative machine doesn’t quite work like that, and it's in overdrive.

One of the latest examples of the odious neoconservative smear campaign waged against Hagel is a claim that, in the midst of a dispute over whether to close the USO port in Haifa, Hagel said “Let the Jews pay for it” in a meeting with Jewish leaders. The context for the claim is that, according to the Washington Free Beacon story, Hagel led the “charge” to shutter the USO port in Haifa, Israel. The USO is a quasi-governmental support organization for American troops.

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Is Ted Cruz feigning neocon?

"If he is nominated, it is hard to imagine the circumstance I could support the confirmation. If the president is bound and determined to proceed down the path despite Hagel's record is troubling on the nation of Israel and not a friend to Israel and in my view the United States should stand unshakable to Israel and he has consistently advocated weakness with respect to our enemies and nation of Iran, opposing sanctions over and over. The job of the Secretary of Defense is to be a serious credible strength and deterrent and unfortunately, I think weakness in a Secretary of Defense invites conflict, because bullies don't respect weakness. " - Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX)

Source

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

Getting the Neocon Band Back Together Again

Today, President Obama officially nominated John Brennan to direct the CIA, since the previous director made a sudden departure (note to prospective Brennan biographers: Watch your step), but the other appointment, of former Nebraska Republican senator Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense, is what got all the attention. Republicans dutifully trooped to the cable cameras to say somberly that they are "troubled" and "concerned" by Hagel's nomination. Though Hagel was once their esteemed colleague, he made them very angry by turning against the Iraq War after having voted for it in the first place. Because, as they will tell you, the war went swimmingly, and anyone who fails to understand that may not have the judgment to lead the Pentagon.

Though they'll almost certainly lose the battle over Hagel's nomination and look like extremists in the process (noticing a pattern here?), Republicans are plainly spoiling for a fight. Bill Kristol's Weekly Standard has gone all-hands-on-deck to oppose Hagel; the magazine's website was promoting four separate anti-Hagel pieces today. And let it not be said that Kristol ever fails to deploy all the resources at his disposal; his Emergency Committee for Israel, whom we last heard from airing ads advocating the bombing of Iran, has already cut anti-Hagel ads (if all that is reminiscent for you of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, a pressure group that grew out of Kristol's Project for a New American Century with the purpose of promoting the Iraq War, you've got a good memory). Today Politico reported that the Hagel nomination is just the first piece of Kristol's plan to remake the Republican party in his image. They're getting the neocon band back together! What could possibly go wrong?

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Warrick Promotes Neocon Framing of Newest Iran Sanctions

Despite crippling smog in Tehran that may well derive from sanctions aimed at refined gasoline and the UN noting several months ago that US sanctions against Iran “appear to be affecting humanitarian operations in the country”, Joby Warrick chose to frame the newest round of US sanctions against Iran in language provided directly by the neocon “think tank” Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.


Warrick does briefly note in his opening paragraphs that the sanctions against Iran have its “economy already reeling”, but he doesn’t dwell on the impact to Iranian citizens of that reeling economy. Instead, he moves directly into neocon “think” with this passage (and Warrick doesn’t even get the group’s name correct):

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Chuck Todd: Neocon Dan Senor Is Best Man To Discuss Hagel

I don't know why anyone would think that Baghdad Bob a.k.a. neocon Dan Senor would be on anyone's short list to discuss the nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, but MSNBC loves this guy so much that he's now apparently renting out Pat Buchanan's old cot in the back of the studios, ever since the Romney campaign hired him as an advisor.


The campaign might be over but sadly, our days with Senor on the air are not. He's been on Morning Joe so much over the year or so, there were weeks I was starting to wonder if he was going to take Mika's place as the co-host. If Chuck Todd and MSNBC are going to bring this guy on to talk about foreign policy, maybe they should let their viewers know that his Foreign Policy Initiative with the lovely sounding name is just the latest reincarnation of PNAC. A few more of them might be familiar with that group's name and how effectively they beat the war drums to get us into Iraq.

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Monday, January 07, 2013

Neocons Set to Reject Key Insider as Secretary of State

Get ready for theatrics as the globalist insider Chuck Hagel heads to Capitol Hill to face neocon Senate Republicans opposed to his nomination as Defense Secretary.

The former Nebraska senator is co-chair of Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board and is also a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board. He heads up the globalist Atlantic Council.

The Rockefeller Brothers funded Atlantic Council works closely with the RAND Corporation, the Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute, the Trilateral Commission, and the Council on Foreign Relations to forge the establishment’s foreign policy.

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Sunday, January 06, 2013

NeoCon Zionism – America’s 5th Column

American’s “pop culture” news is filled with stories of Iran suffering financially under sanctions. Sitting in a nation, long bankrupt, $16 trillion dollars in debt, bleeding cash into Israel, money spent to push America into another losing war, and all our press can talk about is Iran.

It would be fair to talk about the worldwide financial meltdown but even then some difficult questions might be asked such as, “Who caused it?”

Nobody wants those answers because then they would have to do something about it.

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Saturday, January 05, 2013

Morning Joe Crew Calls Neocon Anti-Hagel Smear Campaign ‘Unbelievable,’ ‘Disgusting’ & ‘Disgraceful’

Former Republican congressman turned MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Friday lambasted those attacking former GOP senator Chuck Hagel, who’s name has been floated as President Obama’s choice as the next Secretary of Defense.

Since word spread that Hagel may be the nominee, neocons led by the Weekly Standard and its editor Bill Kristol started a smear campaign against the Nebraska Republican, calling him an anti-Semite and anti-Israel and criticizing him for urging caution against attacking Iran over its nuclear program.

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Friday, January 04, 2013

Top Neocon: Flournoy is Great

Top neocon war hawk Paul Wolfowitz has not disappointed me. He is out with a WSJ piece that shows Flournoy may have impressed senior military even more so than Paula Broadwell:
Now that Michele Flournoy is being mentioned as a serious candidate to succeed Leon Panetta as secretary of defense, it is important that she be judged on her merits—not because she'd be the first woman in that job, not simply because she was an effective defender of President Obama's policies during the recent campaign, and not because she isn't Chuck Hagel.
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