The Point Is The Process

The peace process has begun with Syria! The NY Times restrains their exuberance in advance of the peace conference in Geneva:

“For any political conference to succeed in trying to defuse, much less settle, an intense conflict, the ground has to be laid,” said Dennis B. Ross, a former Middle East envoy. “An agenda needs to be agreed, the parties have to want some minimal achievement, the convening co-sponsors have to share some basic goals, and there has to be sufficient leverage on those doing the fighting to permit some compromises to be made. Most of these conditions are lacking.”

Added a Western diplomat involved in preparations for the talks: “We don’t have a Plan B.”

However, Plan C is for the delegates to spend a lot of time in local comedy clubs. John Kerry has contributed to the levity:

Unlike the Middle East talks, in which Mr. Kerry set a nine-month goal for completing a peace treaty, there is no target date for completing the Syria peace talks or establishing a transitional administration that could take over if Mr. Assad agreed to relinquish power. In a closed-door meeting with the Syrian opposition last year, Mr. Kerry noted that Vietnam peace negotiations had gone on for years.

Those would be the Paris Peace Talks that eventually led to a deal which the North Vietnamese ignored and the US abandoned. Quite the reassuring precedent, Johnny.

Comments

[narciso]

Everybody's trying standup'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2014/01/21/kerrys-spine-stiffens-but-too-little-and-too-late/

the facts on the ground, favor Assad, game set match;

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

TomM-- what are you talking about? As far as John 'Effin' Kerry is concerned the whole Vietnam Negotiation thing ended splendidly-- especially with those helos picking up evacuees on the US Embassy roof, and then being shoved overboard into the China Sea.

[Captain Hate]

Reporting for Doody should've brought the house down with that comment at the donk convention but nobody got the joke. Or the hook.

[narciso]

Once you see the program, the players are not that sympathetic;

http://narcisoscorner.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-syrian-imbroglio-by-narciso-old.html?view=classic

[Ignatz]

Presumably Barry and his team are following their brilliant Egyptian model for eliminating AQ type terrorists.
We'll undermine Assad until the terrorists take over, then when the citizens revolt against the terrorists Assad regains power and kills the now unpopular, exposed and vulnerable jihadists and their networks.

That was Barry's plan in Egypt, right?

[The swamp is a bitch]

I feel a little sorry for Kerry. Imagine having to follow Dubya's horse picking up the pieces from Iraq.

Since Kerry deserves some of the credit for that victory, the sympathy for his plight is mitigated, but seems like an appropriate sentence sans jail-time. Instead he's wearing the orange jump-suit while doing community service (picking up the trash placed by himself and others)

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Did anybody tell Barry the Mullahs were disinvited? I guess Barry said OK, the Mullahs don't go to Geneva to drink champagne and chase tail, but Barry gave them the Mullah Bomb, so they're good with this. And by disinviting the Mullahs, Barry made some Sunni Jihadis happy, so half a loaf I suppose as far as Barry is concerned.

[Janet - the districts lie fallow, while the Capitol gorges itself]

"John Kerry has a long history of rushing into negotiations that he doesn’t understand. Kerry didn’t understand what was going on in Syria and got taken. He didn’t understand what was going on in Vietnam or in Nicaragua. Instead he eagerly picks the side to the left and begins moving proposals around with no clue as to what the motivations of either party are."
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/john-kerrys-flying-circus/

[narciso]

The times is quite nearly totally useless for this, as with other instances;

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/01/islamic-front-isis-rebel-clashes-syria.html#

[The swamp is a bitch]

Gawd Flahida is a pointless swamp.

ST. PETERSBURG — As Americans honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, a Republican candidate for Florida House District 68 said President Barack Obama should be hanged for war crimes.

"I'm past impeachment," Joshua Black wrote on Twitter. "It's time to arrest and hang him high."

The tweet caught the attention of Chris Latvala, a Republican candidate for House District 67.

"You aren't seriously calling for the killing of Obama are you?" Latvala replied. "I know you are crazy but good heavens. U R an embarrassment."

Latvala added: "I make it my business when so called GOP candidates become an embarrassment to my beloved party."

Black, 31, of Pinellas Park moved to Florida in 2007 after practicing street evangelism in St. Louis and works as a taxi driver. According to his campaign website, Black entered politics in 2012 when he tried influencing the presidential primary.

[narciso]

Now that tape may not be up to date, but it's also besides the point;

http://www.rferl.org/content/doku-umarov-dead-questions/25236011.html

[narciso]

I don't doubt there is some of this, Setmarian was released so apparently was his deputy, Al Suri'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10585391/Syrias-Assad-accused-of-boosting-Al-Qaeda-with-secret-oil-deals.html

[Truthbetold]

What Did Our Wars Win?

http://cnsnews.com/commentary/patrick-j-buchanan/what-did-our-wars-win

[narciso]

well this is what retreat has given us;

http://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2014/01/21/to-hell-in-a-heavily-armed-handbasket/

[matt]

Don't mind those war crimes over there, all you Syrians. Nothing to see. Move along.

And screw Buchanan. Obama lost both Iraq and Afghanistan. Criminal mismanagement and a typically Left Wing antipathy in engaging our military or understanding its use.

Micromanagement on the level of LBJ according to Gates' book. They simply could not have gotten it more wrong.

[Ignatz]

Andrew Cuomo has magnanimously decided that people who disagree with him may remain in his state.

He does note however the problem was caused not by his comments but by the NY Post irresponsibly and accurately quoting them.

[miss Marple]

Buchanan is consumed with the idea that we might accidentally do something to help Israel.

[Truthbetold]

miss Marple

Tell me how the war in Iraq helped Isreal?

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

No Scud launches from Iraq's western desert, no payments to palestinian mass murderers to blow up buses and pizzerias. Just sayin'...ya know.

[miss Marple]

Thanks, NK, I just got back and would have answered the same.

Amazing how people don't know these things. Myself, I was glued to the TV following the war.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

"No Scud launches from Iraq's western desert, no payments to palestinian mass murderers to blow up buses and pizzerias. Just sayin'...ya know."

Give Barry and JFK a little more time, they're working on it.

[Captain Hate]

Pat never misses a chance to let out his inner joooooo hater.

[boricuafudd]

There is also a perhaps unintended consequence is that the tensions between Shiite and Shia have been rekindled taking the focus away from Israel.

Regardless, Buchanan is asking the wrong question as that should have been what should we have won in those wars?

[narciso]

What becomes clear, is in part Bashir's bet failed, back in the Oughts, he gave sanctuary for the Baathist and the Salafi,

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

JimmyK@1:13-- alas that's true. "where there's a will, there's a way', and Obummer and Effin' John certainly have the will to destroy Israel.

[Jane]

Yeah TBT, if there is no permanent solution, make sure the massacre continues, right?

[boricuafudd]

I wanted to add, that Buchanan and others that feel that Israel is the source of all the tension in the ME, ignoring the historical problems in the area that existed long before the Israeli state was establish.

In Libya, Syria, Yemen, Mali, Egypt and so on it is Muslim against Muslim that are fighting against each other.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

As horrible as it is to admit, Israel has more enemies right now in the WH and Foggy Bottom than in Baghdad, Cairo and Riyadh.

[Louie Gohmert]

As to the disproportionate military responses to bottle-rockets wreaking havoc on sand dunes, my considered opinion is that one Israeli is worth a hundred Palestinians, so it is properly proportionate.

[Louie Gohmert]

Of course those numbers should be adjusted since so many children are justly slaughtered.

Given their smaller stature, make the ratio one to TWO hundred.

That seems fairer, still.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

The simple truth is that since 9/11, the situation has evolved to one where the KSA and Sadaam no longer pay Palestians to blow up buses and pizzerias, and now instead, the Cairo Generals and the Saudis pressure Hamas to not attack Israel and the Mullahs harass --ineffectively-- Israel through Hezbolah. The Mullah harassment has been enabled by Obummer. So yes, the remaining bad actor as far as Israel is concerned is a creation of Obummer. Anything else?

[Captain Hate]

In Egypt, we helped overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and hailed the election of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammad Morsi.

A year later, we green-lighted Morsi's overthrow by Mubarak's army.

Terrorism has returned to Egypt, the Sinai is now a no man's land, and almost all Egypt hates us now.

Pat's fractured fairy tale, proving you can give an idiot a good education but afterward he's still an idiot.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Pat B? -- for reasons I don't understand (OK I'm not interested in understanding), Pat B just doesn't like Jews. Obummer will give him a job no doubt.

[jimmyk]

Just another case of Dems messing something up, and then idiots drawing the wrong lesson from it. (See Health Care, Education,..., well, it would be easier to list the things they haven't messed up.)

[jimmyk]

Moby alert on aisles 138 and 142.

[narciso]

Back in the Pleistoscene era, circa 2009, Lurch thought Mubarak and the Chinless ones, were splendid dinner conversation, then he had a bout of amnesia and forgot all about that,

Realistically, we know Egypt is the land that gave us Sheikh Rahman and Atta,

[jimmyk]

On average, Lurch, Stedman, and the opthalmologist have normal-sized chins.

[Louie Gohmert]

It may seem disproportionate but 4800 American deaths in Iraq is just about right for the horrible numbers of Israelis (800) who died because of terrorist attacks.

It's a quid pro quo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_suicide_attacks

[Miss Marple]

My personal feeling on Egypt is that Obama was working WITH Morsi and engineered the quick election so that Morsi could grab the presidency before any viable opposition formed.

Mr. Buchanan neglects the part where Obama dragged his feet on recognizing the military government, cut off some aid, and generally abandoned Egypt.

As my Egyptian hotel clerk in London told me right after Mubarak was arrested, "Who will ever trust the United States again?"

[narciso]

Where AQ recruited their mid level operators from,
and Zawahiri, the Saudis headed top management,
Syria was the outfit that bedeviled coalition forces in Iraq, handmaiden to Hezbollah in Beirut

[jimmyk]

No one seemed interested when I posted about the DC Appeals Court decision, but this guy thinks Scotus will overrule. I'm skeptical.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/01/william-levin-obamacare-death-throes.php

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

JimmyK-- wasn't that a DC District Court decision (Friedman, J.), that will now go up to the DC Circuit? I too am very skeptical that SCOTUS will ban subsidies to Federal Exchanges. Too political. Now waivers from a Tax law OTOH....

[Account Deleted]

jimmyk,

I read your original link and was very interested until I remembered the Chief Ninny's "reasoning" leading to the creation of a... was it a tenalty or a pax?

Levin makes a very well founded argument but the Dread Pirate Roberts is already an expert in discerning emanating penumbrae and I fear he may discover the power of the aura.

[JiB (On the 6th Ring of Typhus Hell)]

Are subsidies taxable income and if not, why?

[henry]

NK, today's SC argument on public unions got very political... Except for Roberts looking fo a small technicality to avoid setting any precedent.

[JiB (On the 6th Ring of Typhus Hell)]

NK,

Just got word from Southampton Patch that they are shutting down MacArthur at 3:15pm today. Very unusual, so it must be quiet an accumulation in the Islip-Bohemia-Ronkonoma area.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Henry-- had not heard of that case until this past weekend (WSJ?). Thanks for the link... SCOTUSBlog's Lyle D is an 'honest liberal', but as we all know, tea leave reading from argument is fraught. TBD in June!

JiB-- I'm surprised MacArthur is open now. My Wife is stranded in Stowe, her meetings cancelled b/c the people flying up from St Pete had their connection in Newark cancelled, no flights back into NYC until tomorrow afternoon--earliest. MidTown looks like Nome, steady and blowing snow and temperature dropping. Check the weather radar, Southampton is in a dark blue band of snow and will be for hours. I think South Fork gets a foot of Gore.

[Jack is Back!]

NK,

Webcam at corner of 39A (The Highway from Hell) and Hampton Road and Flying Point Road

Then go to the Cooper's Beach cam - its got sound:)

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

JiB-- How cool. Please send me the link with tomorrow's aftermath, a lot of snow by then I bet.

[Thomas Collins]

Count on Judge Friedman's decision being upheld by SCOTUS. SCOTUS will give the IRS maximum deference in how IRS administers the taxing statutes.

[Captain Hate]

On average, Lurch, Stedman, and the opthalmologist have normal-sized chins

The math is settled!!

[Thomas Collins]

JiB, because the subsidies are tax credits, they wouldn't be taxable income.

[Jack is Back!]

Thanks TC, I think I knew that but I am pissed that my taxed income is being used to subsidize someone else who has been forced to buy a product they probably don't want. I don't even think the Soviets could have come up with this flim-flam back in their day.

[henry]

NK, I quit reading tea leaves and expect doom. On occasion my expectations are crushed by sanity. ; )

[jimmyk]

Yes, I stand corrected, it was DC District, not Appeals.

[Danube on iPad]

I was intensely interested, but didn't post anything. I'm skeptical, too.

[cathyf]

I am pissed that my taxed income is being used to subsidize someone else who has been forced to buy a product they probably don't want.

Well, to be fair, a lot of those people 1) desperately want the insurance; 2) had insurance before the ACA outlawed it; 3) had insurance at a lower price without any subsidy; and 4) don't actually have insurance because the government has totally fscked the process up.

But I bet your tax money is being consumed by "subsidies" that are being swallowed up somewhere although the "subsidized" people are not actually insured and no one is receiving subsidies on their behalf.

[chuckleheads unite]

Some just can't afford their premiums and will pay the fine. Is the fine a tax on schtoopid?

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20140120-rep.-gohmert-drops-health-coverage-blames-obamacare.ece

[Truthbetold]

" Anything else?"

NK

Are you under the impression that Obama is calling the shots?

[Fox Mulder]

the truth is out there

[Fox Mulder]

bet it is those pesky greys...I've been looking for them for years.

[Truthbetold]

CSIS

Defending the U.S. Homeland

http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/textnew.pdf

[centralcal]

Washington Post news...

Out: Ezra Klein

In: Volokh Conspiracy

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Excellent X-Files reference. Salute!!

[there's always another magic bullet.]

They are trapped in that small space F'Obama. He is whiter than Bush and that really pisses them off. Of course, he returned to the Plantation when he sought public office. The slavery inherent in presenting freedom in the context of a covert police state makes his limp response to NSA suckling pigs like Hayden and Clapper suggests the stories about coded messages are true.

'You want to end up like Kennedy?'

[lyle]

You've probably seen this twitter but...

"Wendy Davis needs a man like fish needs a rich bicycle that will pay its way through fish law school and take full custody of its spawn."

I bagged it from Insty.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

How is Ezra 'Sandbox' Klein out at waPo?

[Ignatz]

Volokh's comment section, already usually a bit of a swamp, should be headed for the primordial soup now.

[Dick Perle]

Clarice?

[Truthbetold]

Dick Perle

Call Clarice Feldman on her cell phone, you have her number.

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Now that's a gun:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2543240/The-Backpack-Cannon-Smith-Wessons-new-monster-revolver-great-gun-hunting.html

[maryrose]

lyle:
How true that statement about Wendy Davis from Insty.
She is toast,put a fork in her.

I think we are in a good position now to capitalize on the utter chaos happening in the dem{prog party} They are imploding like their stupid healthcare bill that insures less than 11% of people who didn't have insurance to start with. This was a fools'errand that has cost millions of American citizens affordable healthcare. Boondogle doesn't go far enough to describe the absolute failure of this prog attempt to spread the health insurance around.

[jimmyk]

NK:

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/ezra-klein-leaves-washington-post-102424.html

[Truthbetold]

maryrose

That "Boondogle" as you call it, is what will usher in government run healthcare.

And the Republicans are complicit.

[jimmyk]

One would like to think Klein's departure was a momentary flash of sanity on the part of WaPo, but in fact it's just Ezra thinking he's God's gift to humanity and the WaPo viewing him as only slightly less than that.

So now there are apparently other backers willing to give Ezra his own news operation. Hard to see what such a dimwit can offer the public, given that PuffHo has captured the dimwit market, but some fools want to be parted from their money.

[narciso]

He wanted a staff of 36, what did he think Bezoz a fool, a rhetorical question,

[lyle]

Have both of Ezra's testes dropped yet?

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

Ding Ding Ding we have a thread winnah@4:12. Congrats Lyle!

[NK(withnewsoftware)]

I doubt Bezos has stopped laughing since he saw Klein's 'business plan' for the 36 JournoShop. No doubt some schmuck in show business will pay this sandbox dweller to peddle his tripe. Their loss, it's a free country.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Count on Judge Friedman's decision being upheld by SCOTUS. SCOTUS will give the IRS maximum deference in how IRS administers the taxing statutes.

Geez TC, if I trust anyone's opinion on this it is yours, but don't you think the Supremes are getting a little nervous about Obama's power grab?

[Pyle]

"Have both of Ezra's testes dropped yet?"

He's waiting for your hymen to break.

[narciso]

O did detect a certain pattern;

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/jan/21/hidden-face-of-russian-security/

[Dave (in MA)]

Jane, we still haven't seen flake #1 here and Mini-Me has postponed tonight's State of the Commonwealth Address. I guess we'll have to wait for another day to find out how much more of our paychecks he plans to "invest".

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

CC, that's great news, but I thought Ezra was back in good graces with the Post.

It's snowing like a banshee here. Is it there TC? Dave?

[Ignatz]

--Have both of Ezra's testes dropped yet?--

Assumes glands not in evidence.

[lyle]

Oooh, burn.

George Costanza shows up again on JOM. Pathetic cretin.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Thanks Jimmy, I should have read on.

Clarice, if you are reading, I doubt you are going to get out today.

[Ignatz]

--Now that's a gun:--

The 500 Smith and Wesson is a bit more powerful, NK, and on my list.

And whatever dope wrote the Eastwood caption had to be a Brit.
Harry of course used a 44 Remington magnum not a 375, which is a very rare silhouette target round in handguns and a Holland and Holland magnum in rifles.

[lyle]

True, Ig, true.

[Dave (in MA)]

Jane, looks like I foresaw your question.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

It's coming Dave, it started here a little before 2 - tiny tiny flakes because it is so cold, but a lot heavier now.

I really can't stand Deval. And I'm absolutely sure he is running for President - if not in 2016, than 2020. He's another corrupt Chicago pol.

[lyle]

He's another corrupt Chicago pol.

Redundancy alert.

[Dave (in MA)]

He's not just another corrupt Chicago pol, he was Axelrod's beta test version of Obama.

[Thomas Collins]

Jane, I think that on recess appointments, SCOTUS is going to deliver a smackdown to the 404 Administration. I just down see it happening, though, on the administration of the federal taxing power in this context.

[Thomas Collins]

Don't see it happening. And I don't even have Droid auto-correct to blame this time!

[Danube on iPad]

Harry referred to it as a Smith & Wesson.

[matt]

Cardinal Dolan was on catholic Channel earlier ripping Cuomo a new one on his fascist comments. It sounds as if he has had just about enough of the leftist scum.

It is very dangerous to rile the bishops.

For stopping power .45, .357, and .44 magnum in that order. One of the issues out there still is ammo. It doesn't seem to matter if it is powder, primers, or lead it is difficult to come by.

In a capitalist economy where supply normally rises to meet demand I find this tolerable curious. There should be a few young E.I. DuPont's out there. It ain't rocket surgery.

[Cecil Turner]

"John Kerry has a long history of rushing into negotiations that he doesn’t understand.

That's one interpretation (the most charitable, I might add). Another is to recognize Kerry as a remarkably able and effective negotiator . . . for the other side.

[Truthbetold]

Does this comment board know who it was that George W Bush put in charge of the 10 state ACORN investigation?