Steely Dan

This is getting very weird indeed. Two days ago we had Obama hailing 'our incredible security services', for foiling a dastardly Al Qaida plot to blow up an aeroplane with an underpants bomb. Now it turns out that the bomber is an employee of the US government. Whisked aboard the plane, bypassing passport and immigration checks, by these same CIA / FBI 'incredible security services', then arrested in a fanfare of publicity. The whole thing planned and carried out by the CIA, in order to justify their existence, and their budget, not to mention their desire to step up operations in Yemen. Why on earth would any right minded person believe anything they say anymore? I mean, really, fabricating terrorist threats and expecting us all to be frightened. In an earlier post Steely Dan suggested it was a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale to believe that the 'incredible security services' could be capable of this kind of thing. Well, it might be wise for the CIA, FBI, Obama and the rest of them to educate themselves by reading some Hans Christian Anderson themselves, paying particular attention to the moral of the story about the boy who cried wolf! American tax payers must be really thrilled that their hard earned dollars are being spent so wisely! Just as an afterthought, maybe this could all be a plot by the CIA to humiliate air travellers even more than they do already by making us stand in line at immigration and passport control with our underpants outside our trousers, like Batman and Superman!

During election year I could believe the incumbents to be capable of just about any sort of false flag operation. But those who cast aspersions about for example the failed Iranian bombings in Bangkok must also surely recognize that for a false flag operation this was unbelievably clumsy and incompetent, even by the standards of the current administration. Not that it really matters as I can't see anyone being gullible enough to vote for Obama on the strength of his foreign policy.

A very unfortunate bit of happenstance, probably.

I think the new French President's attitude towards Iran and Israel is certainly fair game to discuss.

I think we should go farther and say nothing to do with Israel in 40 years the majority of people shall be unemployed Moslems and Paris will look like a 4th rate African City.

No way to blame this on the Jews, Goodbye white Christians they will like Christians in Lebanon or Jordon

If I were to make a prediction it would be that by the next French general election Marine Le Pen's party will poll around 30% of the vote.

Of course yes, in reality drone attacks probably do get ordered for every viable target. However in other ways we send very mixed messages such as considering prisoner releases in exchange for promises of future good conduct. The issue is the terrorists can and do act with impunity knowing they will incur no further sanction for their deeds. This is what has to stop. Why not cancel any prisoner releases unless the U.S citizen is released. Also as per Mossad put a death sentence on any terrorists responsible and hunt them down however long it takes. Finally the U.S gives Pakistan billions in aid yet they cynically play both sides and show little resolve to sort out the situation themselves, why not cut aid to Pakistan unless their army rolls it's sleeves up and crushes the Taliban, you are in effect then demonstrating that there are indeed consequences attached to hostage taking.

Quick update, on an EU national newspaper, the bomber real ID has been revealed as a CIA agent....surprise surprise!

weren't they all?

I remember reading about the underwear guy seen by folks being escorted past security onto the plane.

And I remember reading Hans Christian Anderson.

Well the odious "Gorgeous George" Galloway blows your theory out of the water about immigrant (and I presume you mean Asian/muslim immigrants) support automatically falling behind left of centre politicians like Hollande or UK's labour party.

Au contraire. I stated Muslim populations tend to block vote for an Islam friendly candidate. George Galloway ran his campaign by portraying himself as a better Muslim than the Labour candidate. He was believed in this respect and the useful idiots of Labour were dropped big time. I can see French Muslims, especially in the case of local politics, deserting Hollande the moment they have the numbers to vote and elect a candidate on sectarian grounds. Oslo city Council has a majority of immigrant councilors, which demonstrates perfectly what can be achieved by an organized block vote, Eurabia skeptics take note.

I would avert your eyes if you don't like bloodsports. Meanwhile the clown in chief announces victory after sneaking into Ka-Boom over night whilst all the time he's negotiating the terms of our surrender including releasing terrorists from gitmo if they promise to play nice. They'll be trying on new flight underwear quicker than you can say taqiyya.

If you have the time ... a balanced view maybe at ...

The Leaky Boats (Documentary)

Exactly, should have been on Liveleak rather than Youtube mind you.

... Who got in with a small majority leaving guess who as the swing vote thus ensuring a disproportionate say in French policy.

interesting AP article:

http://www.theglobea...e2418022/page2/

Treating all French muslims in terms of their political activity and allegiances as a single bloc is simplistic and contrived. Perhaps the 17.9% of voters who picked Le Pen in the first round had far more of a disproportionate impact on the election.

Actually Muslims, when they see a clear Islam friendly candidate do indeed block vote as recent examples in the UK and Norway show. As it is some 80% of UK immigrants vote for Labour, who as you know are Hollande's counterparts, I don't see the French figures being radically different. As for Le Pen, well yes 17.9% racists or bigots according to left wing orthodoxy, of course I don't believe that for a minute, but it does show considerable public discontent. Hollande will indeed have a difficult balancing act if France is not to become increasingly divided and sectarian in it's politics.

P.S I take population predictions with a pinch of salt, but apropos Eurabia, a concept devised by Hollande's predecessors - well it does exist and a document declassified in 2005 proves this.

http://www.andrewbostom.org/blog/2012/05/04/u-s-state-department-witnessed-1974-birth-of-eurabia/

likely as Steely Dan converting to Islam!!

Would you take a Cat Stevens as a replacement?

It's almost worth doing to shut you lot up, but would they take an atheist Jew, I believe even Islam has some standards.

The Taliban are still responsible for the vast majority of civilian casualties and unlike ISAF they do deliberately target civilians. But outrage as we all know is a function of who did the killing as well as who was killed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...e-east-17984117

Looks like the Egyptian media and military are trying to "shape" the upcoming election. Could make things very interesting in this vitally important country.

After deposing King Faroukh Nasser put the Islamists back in their box having made temporary alliance with them. The BBC article is not very credible imho as previously the Muslim brotherhood polled about 48% and the Salafists half of that. I can't see however much the media spin this that the Islamic block fails to gain a majority.

Of course should the election be scrapped or rigged against the Islamists I would not shed a tear and I have little doubt the U.S would either probably realizing the monumental blunder they made cutting Mubarak loose. Autocracy rather than theocracy any day of the week.

Saudi came in 5th only just behind France in terms of popularity for aspiring migrants.

http://www.gallup.co...de-Migrate.aspx

There is also a huge difference between aspiration and execution!

Indeed.

If you import the third world you become the third world, let those without papers go back and get some for starters. Those who obeyed the rules and went through legal channels are far more likely to integrate and should be treated differently from economic migrants.

Go back to where?

This has been the problem the last 30+ years or so.

Where can you send someone without legal papers?

The last country they legaly came from has the responsibility to check their papers.

If the papers are in order in that country, then good bye.

If they get rid of their papers after that, it is the receiving countries responsibility to prove their identity.

And funnily enough it's mainly the Anglo-sphere that's on the receiving end, never for instance Saudi Arabia. Perhaps if the Country where the boats are registered was obliged to take responsibility that would focus a few minds.

Hollande impresses me as a very solid, sober, mature politician. I think he shows promise as a leader no matter your ideology. If nothing else, Franco-Dutch relations should be better than ever!

I guess you might be correct except for 93% of French Nationals in Israel voted for Sarkozy.

Not sure why this is relevant. An even higher percentage of Israelis dislike Obama. Yes, I realize many French Jews don't feel safe in France anymore but that's not exactly a major political issue for France.

I only mention it because you said, "he shows promise as a leader no matter your ideology" Apparently that is not the case if your ideology is Jewish. Francois Hollande, a socialist with heavy ties to anti-Israel populations.

... Who got in with a small majority leaving guess who as the swing vote thus ensuring a disproportionate say in French policy.

Hollande impresses me as a very solid, sober, mature politician. I think he shows promise as a leader no matter your ideology. If nothing else, Franco-Dutch relations should be better than ever!

I guess you might be correct except for 93% of French Nationals in Israel voted for Sarkozy.

I guess they can see the writing on the wall.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/05/06/Jews%20Prepare%20to%20Leave%20France%20For%20Israel

According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, over 5,000 Jews from throughout France attended a fair in the heart of Paris about immigrating to Israel. The fair was attended by the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, former member of Knesset, Soviet expatriate and dissident Natan Sharansky. “I cannot recall having seen such a massive number of people interested in aliyah [immigration] since the days when lines of people stretched out of the Israeli embassy in Moscow,” said Sharansky.

Hmm,

Looks like I'm not the only one to pick up on the possibility of a weakening of the French stance towards a nuclear Iran and North Korea. That the Japanese prime minister chose to bring this point up at the same time as congratulating Hollande on his victory is quite telling.

If you import the third world you become the third world, let those without papers go back and get some for starters. Those who obeyed the rules and went through legal channels are far more likely to integrate and should be treated differently from economic migrants.

I think this is a good result for France. Sarkozy deserved to lose.

Hollande has been quoted as saying he 'hates the wealthy', so no surprises if you get the politics of envy fueled by cynical gerrymandering of the electorate as those who can leave in droves to be replaced by those who can't. It's been the sad tale of Eurabia for decades now, only the speed of decline increases with a socialist in charge.

P.S And as a side issue Europe will be losing the most hawkish voice with respect to Iran for someone in hoc to his natural voting constituency.

Oh oooh! Big changes, big u-turns, big uncertainties in the markets!

Nope nothing is going to change, Holland is "la gauche molle" soft left. He said Capitalism was "his enemy",then when the financial markets started to express their concern, he went to London and told them "I am not dangerous"

Regardless who was going to be elected the markets are going to speculate against our debt so France gets on its knees like Spain

The French debt is a product of French excesses and their bloated pensions and benefits schemes. No one forced the French to get into debt. However, they do like their fat public sector pensions and their 8 week holidays. Comes at a price.

I did read he promised to reduce the pension age, which leaves even more burden on the taxpayers to support the armies of culture enrichers. Perhaps the ship is indeed heading a little faster than before towards the iceberg.

It's just the continuation of a trend that's been happening in the west for a while now; namely the gap between party policies has narrowed so you get a rudderless consensus approach instead of anything truly radical which may cause real change.

Immigration will continue to be an ever-present feature of this world as. Careful management and progressive forms of assimilation/integration will be vital.

Similarly religious, ethnic, tribal, national and racial tensions will be exploited by those with an agenda as they always have been.

Apocalyptic and overly sensational websites/blogs can feed characters like Brievik and provide a "justification" and a "logic" for their actions. As ever it's a classic case of "be careful what you wish for"....

You may find this of interest from the left wing Huffington post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/james-howell/the-standoff-at-aldgate-w_b_950328.html

For one thing it describes the UAF attempt to smear the EDL as an inspiration to Breivik as 'ludicrous'. It also hauls UAF over the coals for it's illiberal tactics trying to shut down any debate that it does not like. Of course when the EDL demonstrate, as they did the other day in Luton there were but two arrests. UAF usually manage dozens and in Bonn on the same day the Salafists clocked up 100 arrests with running battles with the Police leaving 29 officers injured, two seriously.

The fact is that time and time again the left wing demonstrations are far more violent than the right wing ones, yet the press never seems to pick up on this. Coming to think of it the tea party 'terrorists' have seldom any arrests yet the OWS demos leave a trail of arrests, criminal damage and garbage wherever they go.

Same old same old.

Just like the Mafia disappeared after the end of prohibition.

The connection is inescapable. Stop the war on drugs, and I mean worldwide, not just on the part of the U.S. Then you can dismantle the drugs gangs before they can adjust and gain revenues elsewhere.