As the public debates some of the more controversial ways the US deals with foreign policy and safety, it's prudent to remember some of the less than fruitful foreign policy items where America invested its time and money.
This photograph is from 1983, when Reagan and the CIA were dancing around the idea of arming Mujahadin fighters in order to fight back against Soviet incursion in Afghanistan. The result was a well-armed, well-trained group of jihadis who resisted (some say defeated) the onslaught of superior Soviet weaponry.
Once the Soviets retreated, the U.S. lost interest and pulled the funding. Osama bin Laden took interest, and filled the vacuum, later fathering the Taliban.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Often erroneously paired with this photo is a Reagan quote, "These gentlemen are the moral equivalent of the founding fathers."
Reagan was in fact referring to Nicaraguan fighters and another initiative to arm them, this time against the U.S.'s own treaties.
We all know how that worked out as well.
Researchers investigating three giant holes that have appeared in the Siberian wilderness may have solved the mystery.
Andrei Plekhanov, a researcher who led an expedition to the original 262ft wide opening, believes rising temperatures, not aliens, could be the cause.
He said that warmer summers in the region, in 2012 and 2013, might have contributed to the permafrost thawing, before collapsing and releasing methane gas trapped underground.
His team discovered that air near the bottom of first hole,found in the Yamal Peninsula, contained an unusually high concentration of methane gas.
They say more tests need to be done to confirm their theory and want to study the methane concentration in the air trapped in its walls.
However Plekhanov, from the Scientific Centre of Arctic Studies in Russia, believes it will be difficult as “its rims are slowly melting and falling into the crater”.
He told science publication Nature: “You can hear the ground falling, you can hear the water running, it’s rather spooky.”
Earlier this year, the Department of Justice, who is defending the six Bush Administration officials, responded to the lawsuit by requesting that the case be dismissed. The Bush tribe is claiming that the planning of the war occurred within the scope of their employment and therefore they have immunity.
Rather than dismissing the case, the Judge asked for additional information. So Mr. Comar filed a 2nd amended complaint back in June. The amended complaint provides more details about the planning of the Iraq war and when it started.
Comar essentially made two points to the court.
The first argument he made was something called judicial estoppel. It prevents a party from taking a position in a case which is contrary to a position they have taken in earlier legal proceedings. In this case, Comar used the Nuremburg Trials as an example.
The Nuremburg Trials, which the United States views as legitimate, held Nazi leaders accountable for their acts of aggression. Comar held that judicial estoppel dictates the Bush Administration and DOJ can’t argue that leaders aren’t accountable for acts of aggression because it runs contrary to the US’s position at Nuremburg.
The second point that was made referred to the Augusto Pinochet trial. In 1999, British Lawyers determined that Pinochet did not have immunity for certain acts he committed while in office such as torture and other violations of international law. These Brits held that Pinochet was not immune because Chile had signed the convention against torture.
Comar’s evidence, shows the Bush/Cheney team started planning the invasion of Iraq as far back as 1997. The amended complaint also explains that the war was motivated by personal enrichment and the war was a “crime of aggression.” and - In light of the treaties and charters that the United States has signed, Comar stated that the defence can’t now claim that acts of aggression are above a leader’s authority. In this case, the Bush Administration.
From Ana Marie Cox (the original Wonkette) at the Guardian. This is one reason I read the European news outlets. You wouldn't see stories like this one in the American press anymore:Conservatives are stuck in a perpetual outrage loop. The reappearance of Todd Akin, the horror-movie villain immortality of Sarah Palin, the unseemly celebration of the Hobby Lobby decision – these all speak to a chorus of "la-la-la-can't-hear-you" loud enough to drown out the voice of an entire generation. Late last week, the Reason Foundation released the results of a poll about that generation, the millennials; its signature finding was the confirmation of a mass abandonment of social conservatism and the GOP. This comes at a time when the conservative movement is increasingly synonymous with mean-spirited, prank-like and combative activism and self-important grand gestures. The millennial generation has repeatedly defined itself as the most socially tolerant of the modern era, but one thing it really can't stand is drama.The rest is HERE.
Republicans were already destined for piecemeal decimation due to the declining numbers of their core constituency. But they don't just have a demographic problem anymore; they have stylistic one. The conservative strategy of outrage upon outrage upon outrage bumps up against the policy preferences and the attitudes of millennials in perfect discord.
We all can recognize the right's tendency to respond to backlash with more "lash" (Akin didn't disappear, he doubled down on "legitimate rape"), but it seems to have gained speed with the age of social media and candidate tracking. The Tea Party's resistance to the leavening effect of establishment mores and political professionals has been a particularly effective accelerant. Palin's ability to put anything on the internet without any intermediary has rendered her as reckless as any tween with a SnapChat account. Akin's whiny denouncement of Washington insiders is likely to make him more credible with a certain kind of base voter. The midterms are, as we speak, producing another round of Fox News celebrities, whether or not they win their races: the Eric Cantor-vanquishing David Brat, Mississippi's Chris McDaniel and the hog-castrating mini-Palin, Jodi Ernst of Iowa.
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| Seen from the Gay Village. |
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| Can't believe almost the whole thing is captured in this one shot. |
Oil giant BP has suffered a setback in its attempt to limit payouts over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill.
A US court has refused to reconsider its decision that firms do not have to prove they were directly harmed by the oil spill to get settlement payouts.
It means the compensation claims process, which has been suspended since a separate court ruling in December, should now be able to resume.
BP said it was "disappointed" by the decision and mulling its legal options.
It had argued at an earlier court hearing that some firms had filed fictitious spill claims.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans voted 8-5 against BP.
Legal battleThe court hearing was the latest in a long series held to determine who BP owes money to following the largest oil spill in US history.
The oil giant will now have to decide whether to progress to the next legal stage, and take its case to the US Supreme Court.
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig four years ago killed 11 workers, and pumped millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
In the latest ruling, Judge Leslie Southwick stated that a 2012 policy statement, issued by the court-appointed claims administrator and developed with "input and assent from BP," clearly spelled out the criteria for business compensation claims.
Mr Southwick said all parties agreed to the relevant criteria, before court approval of that 2012 settlement deal.
Motorists in Delaware were buzzing with one of the most unusual police alerts ever: “Transient bee swarms in the area.”
A tractor-trailer hauling 460 hives from Florida to Maine overturned on a northbound on-ramp on I-95 in Newark, Del., releasing between 16 million and 20 million bees and causing police to advise drivers to avoid the area.
The driver, 55, and two passengers in their 20s suffered minor injuries in the crash, but were each stung by between 50 and 100 bees.
"(They) were running down the street covered in bees, receiving multiple bee stings," Lawrence Tan, chief of New Castle County Paramedics, told WPVI. The station also sent out a photo of the accident scene:
The three were taken to a hospital and are in stable condition, according to multiple reports in the local media.
The state police have had a contingency plan in place for the removal of bee swarms for 14 years, but until now, it's just been words on paper. (bolding mine)
"This is the first time we've actually activated the plan," Sgt. Paul G. Shavack told Delaware Online.
With so many bees around the truck, it took at least an hour before police could even get near it -- so they called in experts, as the plan advises.
“Having traveled up from Florida, up here they’re probably thirsty, now they’re all disoriented and angry I’m sure,” beekeeper Dave Feinberg told CBS Philadelphia.
"They've been traumatized so they're pretty upset now," Paul Dill, another beekeeper, told CSNPhilly.com.
Beekeepers advised police not to attempt to round them up but to disperse them with water. Video of the scene shows firefighters spraying the wreck.
The bees were being brought to Maine to pollinate blueberries, NBC Philadelphia reports. But it's estimated that 90 percent of the bees were lost as a result of the accident.
It's not a total loss for everyone, though. Local beekeepers are being allowed to keep whatever bees they can roundup.
The current health situation being the exception. But, I'm not going there today. 
