Today's edition of quick hits:
* When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks about establishing a "clear red line" with regards to Iran's nuclear program, he apparently means that literally.
* Syria: "Roughly two months into this important yet scarcely documented battle, Syria's antigovernment fighters have succeeded in laying siege to the heavily fortified Abu ad Duhur air base. They have downed at least two of the base's MIG attack jets. And this month they have realized results few would have thought possible."
* Syrian officials, meanwhile, sent text messages over cell phones nationwide with a message for rebels challenging the Assad regime: "Game over."
* Eurozone austerity: "The Spanish government on Thursday presented a draft budget for 2013 with a package of tax increases and spending cuts that, while unpopular with the public, it said would guarantee the country could meet deficit-cutting targets agreed to with the rest of the euro zone."
* GDP revisions: "The U.S. economy grew even more slowly than originally thought in the second quarter of 2012, according to new data from the Commerce Department. One culprit? The severe heat and drought that has dented crop production in the Midwest this summer."
* In another scoop for Mother Jones' David Corn, there's a new video of Mitt Romney explaining that his private-equity firm, Bain Capital, intended to "identify potential and hidden value in companies, buy significant stakes in these businesses, and then 'harvest them at a significant profit' within five to eight years."
* Heartbreaking: "Victims of sexual assault in military say brass often ignore pleas for justice."
* In the AP's defense, trying to fact-check Michele Bachmann is inherently tricky -- most of what she says is detached from anything resembling reality.
* Fox News joins the conservative chorus that believes women earning less than men is "not a national problem."
* Very cool: "The landing site of the Mars rover Curiosity was once covered with fast-moving and possibly waist-high water that could have possibly supported life, NASA scientists announced Thursday."
* And actor Samuel L. Jackson has some not-safe-for-work advice for Democratic voters.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
Waitaminnit, Iran's program is to make a cartoon bomb?
Quick! Divert defense money into scissors, buckets of water and U-shaped tube development!
just-john
Didn't you see the ACME label on it? So Bebe is using the same artist as the Coyote is.
I saw Boris and Natasha. And of course, Bullwinkle!
I saw this in Mad Magazine's spy vs spy
Ah but his is a sophisticated version, note the threee stages!
What gets to me about this graphic is why did Netanyahuuse it? I personally if I wanted to be taken seriously about a matter I considered of imminent danger wouldn't use such a cartoonish graphic. Images matter and I wasn't swayed by that image and I am Jew. I know we're a more creative people than that.
I guess right-wing reactionaries come in all stripes, Bibi's been whining for years about Iran. But in all fairness, since Israel has nukes, then the rest of the neighborhood needs nukes also - or they can all just disarm....
It's amazing the audacity this WAR MONGER displays when he talks about starting a war in the middle east. With cartoon drawings made to look like bombs , and red markers to display "Red Lines" that Iran cannot cross ?...
He reminds me of another WAR MONGER who was also beating the war drums a couple of years ago after 9/11!... DICK "Halliburton" CHENEY !...
All Netanyahu wants to do is BOMB Iran into the stone age !... that is his goal !
And he wants the United States to provide military and political cover because he knows that world leaders will NOT agree to use military force against Iran. The consequences of a military strike against Iran will make the middle east explode into more violence , it will destabilize the whole region and the United States and our soldiers will be pulled into the conflict and the result will be not only the deaths of more of our american troops in Afghanistan and those still in Iraq , but also it could lead our fragile economy into a double dip recession because Iran will move to close the straits of hormuz and gasoline prices will shoot up through the roof , we will probably end up paying six or seven dollars a gallon in the near future. A military strike right now against Iran , will have dire consequences for the U.S. Economy as a whole !.
Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve would have to work overtime to prevent the U.S. Economy from going into a double dip recession!..
And I think it would definitely cost Obama his re-election , the American People are sick and tired of all these UNFUNDED and "UNFOUNDED" WARS !...
What the American People really want is Nation Building here at home !...
Saw the video of Romney talking about the harvesting of business' by his company.All I could think of was what came after the harvest. Gleaning every last dollar out of those business',whether successful or not.
Saw the video and he is one shewed business man. He shows he did not truly care for the 47% then and he dose not now. Romney is in bed with the Chinese and we have to wonder whats he really up to?
I'll bet those Spaniards really regret returning the party that is heir to Franco's to power.
The difference between dealing with German Bankers and the Waffen-SS is the bankers kill you with briefcases full of paper instead of Tiger tanks.
This is all the result of letting the Germans institute their Mittel Europe Kustoms Union, their World War I war aim, and their Reichsmark Plan from World War II to make the German currency dominant by destroying all other European currencies.
It's really not the return of the "Franco party."
The Germans don't have their own currency. They are part of the Euro. The burden to stabilize that currency falls on the Germans because they have the strongest economy.
I think the inherent problem with Netanyahu, outside of the fact that he's talking out his @ss. The guy has been advocating going to war with Iran for years now. But he wants us, as in The US to fight it for him. Sorry dude, but the time of him being the little brother who runs his mouth knowing his big brother is close by, days are over. If he wants to have a war with Iran, fine go to war. But don't ask us to fight it for you. If you are going to have the balls to strong arm the US into one. You should be strong enough to fight the wars you start yourself.
I have nothing against Israel as a county, or it's people. I have a problem with those leaders, who feel like we and the rest of the world, still have to coddle and baby them like they are victims. Israel has by it's own actions created a lot of hits own problems. But for whatever reason we have to sit back and take their side in matters. As if the inherent idea of fairness start with ideas from their side.
I'm longing for the days when The US and the rest of the world, just drops Israel on their @ss, not as a people, but as a Government, and say you made this mess, it's your problem deal with it. Instead of always running to fix the crap they have a hand in messing up in the first place.
I am sick of Netanyahu's paranoia, and from what I read, Israelis are getting sick of it too! I am also sick of Netanyahu's "meddling" in our politics for his "good buddy" Romney.
I am alos sick of Presidents who evaded the draft (like Romney and Bush) trying to find wars for our young soldiers to die in!!!
Err....president and wannabe president - God help us if Romney ever becomes President!!!
Things that make you say huummm ????..
Would Mitt Romney be as eager as Netanyahu to go to war with IRAN if he knew one of his five sons would have to be in the front lines ?...
I think we all know the answer to that ....
It's so funny how all these political wanna be 1%ers are so eager to demonstrate how tough they are when it comes to foreign policy, and then turn around and send someone else's sons and daughters to fight their wars for them ?...
Draft dodgers DICK CHENEY and GEORGE W. BUSH come to mind...
And as far as Netanyahu, he should stay meddling in his OWN government affairs and stop trying to influence the political outcomes of our elections !...
The guy is just another conservative NEOCON , WAR MONGER...
I have nothing against ISRAEL'S right to defend itself , especially from a tirant like Ahmadinejad who has killed his own people in order to remain in power. But when you try to force the United States into engaging in a conflict that willl bring about serious financial costs to our fragile economy and make our soldiers in the middle east the target of every jihadist and Iranian soldier just because you want to obliterate Iran back into the STONE AGE , eventhough your own government already has Nuclear weapons , That I have a serious problem with...
And president Obama deserves to be given the respect as commander in chief of the greatest military force in the western hemisphere...
BARACK OBAMA is the president of these United States of America !...
He is NOT a stooge for ISRAEL or Benjamin Netanyahu !...
I could not love Samuel L. Jackson more.
Judging from the graphics Bebe was using, I'm assuming that Israel can interdict Iran's nuclear program by rescuing Moose and Squirrel.
Does Israel think they can interdict Iran's nuclear program by rescuing Moose & Squirrel?
" In another scoop for Mother Jones' David Corn, there's a new video of Mitt Romney explaining that his private-equity firm, Bain Capital, intended to "identify potential and hidden value in companies, buy significant stakes in these businesses, and then 'harvest them at a significant profit' within five to eight years."
Scoop? Who is this news to?
From the Bloomberg article cited by Media Matters:
"That isn’t to say the gap hasn’t narrowed as full-time female employees are now better educated, less likely to be married and more likely to delay childbirth. Those developments have helped shrink the median-pay disparity for all occupations to 77 cents for every $1 earned by men from 61 cents during the last 50 years, according to the census figures, which cover earnings for more than 95.5 million full-time, year-round American workers over the age of 16."
How could those things have narrowed the gap, unless they were responsible for the gap in the first place?
Please concentrate on the White Horse aspect of Rmoney's days at BYU and beyond.
Beep, Beep. Never worked out well for Wiley either...
One pill sells you Ryan and one pill sells you Mitt and the crap that they are selling will turn your world to $h1ttt, go ask Rachel, I think she'll know.
Are you, maybe, confusing Samuel Jackson with Laurence Fishburne?
hey monk, as an old one myself i got the "white rabbit" reference. google "jefferson airplane" and "grace slick."
now there's a voice that could drive nails - and they'd like it!
MM
I think nomoremagical is channeling Grace Slick.
Steve? I've been waiting ALL DAY for you to comment on Karl Rove's advice to call the President a liar. Honest to God...
Technically, Fox Propaganda is actually correct, for once: the income differential between women and men is not a "national problem"; it's an international one. It's just that our nation is the only one we can really directly affect.
Get Enraged and Engaged:
Mooch the Vote 2012!
;-)
This whole 77% thing is nonsense contrived by interest groups. Even the census bureau states it is an aggregate number not one based on comparative analysis at the micro level. The Ledbedder case involved one incident which was wrong. To extrapolate this is a national crisis is a reach
Tom
You're obliviously not a woman in the workplace.
"'harvest them at a significant profit"
Is this anything like seemingly friendly Aliens talking about having Humans for dinner. Oh - how nice - a Meet and Greet. Oh - wait - the humans are the Main Course!!
Creepy!!
Romney was a farmer - who knew!!!
Netanyahu needs to chill,,
Steve, good to see you on the Ed Show with a piece on "Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity."
Carry on....
Nice to put a face to a bloke..er
samual jackson sees what i see........simple....not under a sheet....out for all the world to see and confident. thats not good.all people down on obama, i didn't see any of you at the whitehouse trying to help obama work his way thur those first couple of years, he had hisself and his god. now he knows how to get around the crap and just how much power he truly has and how to use it to get what he needs done. 4 more years wont hurt any of us, 4 years of mitt, everyone will hurt and bleed. he is a businessman not a poliition. he see government from the outside, what his money moves for him, 47 or 87 percent, his way is down hill and deeply hidden. everyone just vote....either way just vote.
Thank you
We should treat foreign leaders with dignity and respect. More so in light of our obsession with free speech.
I submit Rachel owes the Iranian leader an apology for the way she denigrated him.
Your best new thing in the world was too cute by half and only feeds into the hysteria to find a reason to attack Iran. Iran's president DOES NOT HAVE the power or authority to go to war with anyone, unlike the office of president in the US. Second, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad NEVER called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the map - that was a very convenient Israeli and neo-con mistranslation that has been well documented on news services around the world's everywhere but here. Regarding Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, yes, he is a DICK! And a holocaust denier. However, he has far less blood on his hands than wannabe war criminal and violator of international humanitarian law than Bibi Netanyahu.
Since you found the UN walk-out so funny, you might have at least balanced that with Bibi's little poster of the Acme co's. bomb and a history of how many times Iran has been "months away" from a bomb.