ASSAD'S WAR CRIMES—SHELLING OF CIVILIANS IN SYRIA

I realize that the government of Russia does not want to see another Libya ending in Syria.  The capture, torture and killing of Col. Gaddafi was disgusting and barbarous.  However, Bashar al Assad's shelling of Syrian cities and towns is also revolting.


In his quest to hang on to power, Assad shows himself to be the Butcher of Damascus.  Shelling and bombing of civilian homes and dwellings—certainly these things constitute disgusting war crimes.

STOP TRAVESTY TRIAL OF PUSSY RIOT IN RUSSIA!

Three young ladies from Pussy Riot are on trial today in Moscow for "desecrating" the cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church.  What did they do?  They sang a ribald song by the high altar mocking President Vladimir Putin.  And for that, they could be in jail a very long time.

This legal action is a travesty and a blot against justice.

Where is the concept of free speech in Russia today?  It appears not to exist.  Say something in church against the ruling ecclesiastical or political authorities and you could wind up like members of the Pussy Riot facing a sentence of seven years.

ROMNEY WOULD APPROVE AN ISRAELI MILITARY STRIKE AGAINST IRAN, DESTROYING WORLD PEACE FOR NEXT 500 YEARS

Mitt Romney is in Israel and, in a talk that he will give today, he makes it clear that he would approve of any military strike that Israel may decide to carry out against Iran.  According to Romney, Israel has the right to bomb Iran to stop any nuclear "capability."  This means Romney would approve attacking Iran even if it never developed nuclear weapons, yet it had the "capability."

Harriet Sherwood writes in The Guardian:

"In comments echoing Netanyahu's position that a nuclear Iran is the biggest threat to the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Romney will say: "We have seen the horrors of history. We will not stand by. We will not watch them play out again."

"Preventing the Iranian regime developing a nuclear weapons capability "must be our highest national security priority," Romney will say according to excerpts of the speech released in advance. "The security of Israel is in the vital national security interests of the United States.""


And here's the irony—Israel has refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and has about 100 nuclear warheads, maybe more, while Iran is a signatory to the NPT, and has said that it has no intention of producing a nuclear warhead.

This is madness. Romney cavalierly approves of a strike against Iran for the act of processing uranium, something allowed to all signatories of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty! How many Iranians will the Israelis need to kill in order to stop Iran from developing nuclear power and even a nuclear deterrent?

Imagine Romney as President.  He would allow an illegal war against Iran that kill thousands of Iranians.  The result would cause hatred and killings for at least the next 500 years.

AN AMERICAN ANTAGONIZES BRITISH ISLES - MITT ROMENY

Mitt Romney is in London for hardly a day, and he antagonizes the whole British Isles.  The American Prospect calls him a Nitwit in London.

Romney is the epitome of the guy next door who thinks he knows it all, especially in his attitude of superiority to you and everyone else on the block.

This is the guy that Republicans are coalescing behind?  Romney may have made a lot of money at Bain Capital, but he is sure lacking in humility and diplomacy.

OLYMPIC GAMES REALLY ABOUT MONEY, NOT ABOUT ATHLETES

Mitt Romney now in London has caused quite a political storm, questioning London's readiness to stage a successful Olympics.

Hélène Mulholland reports on Romney's statements in The Guardian:

"The US presidential candidate Mitt Romney has questioned the readiness of London 2012, saying there have been "disconcerting signs" in the buildup to the Games – but said the focus would soon switch to celebrating the athletes.

"Before meetings with David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband on Thursday, he told US television: "It is hard to know just how well it will turn out.""

But Romney goes on to perpetrate the biggest myth about Olympic Games—that they are all about athletes and competition.

That is the biggest baloney.  Romney, having managed the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, no doubt knows the vacuousness of his assertion.

The Olympics are all about money, money to be taken in by the Olympic Organizing Committee and the Olympic directors.  Athletes are merely the pawns used by the Olympic organization to lure spectators, TV contracts and advertisers.

MITT ROMNEY BELIEVES THAT VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ IS THREAT TO U.S.

The NY Times today has a report on comments of Mitt Romney's campaign, criticizing Barack Obama,

Write Helene Cooper and Richard A. Oppel Jr., quoting a spokesman for the Romney campaign:

"President Obama thinks visiting our closest ally in the Middle East is a ‘distraction,’ that Hugo Chávez is not a ‘serious’ threat, and that the right response to Russia is to promise more ‘flexibility’ in exchange for giving him ‘space’ before the election,” said Mr. Romney’s campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul. “It is clear that President Obama’s foreign policy is confused, ineffective and has weakened our influence in every region of the world. Governor Romney understands the difference between our allies and those who will challenge us. He will stand by allies and restore American strength and resolve to protect our interests abroad and defend our values.”

The point I find amazing, no, astonishing, is that Mitt Romney must believe Hugo Chavez is a threat!  Mr. Chavez is suffering from cancer, probably colon cancer, is currently on chemotherapy and radiation, and overall is seriously ill. 

To consider Hugo Chavez a threat underlines the danger if Mitt Romney wins the election.  The U.S. under Romney would be fighting wars all over the world on the basis of defeating imaginary enemies and putting down dreamt-up threats.  True, in the case of Hugo Chavez, democratically elected president of Venezuela, Chavez did once call George W. Bush "Satan" at the United Nations, and added that the U.N. speakers podium smelled of sulphur after Bush talked.  But is that the basis of the threat that scares Mitt Romney?

Please, save us from this hillbilly!

MITT ROMNEY, DON'T RELEASE YOUR TAX RETURNS!

Living in Utah as I do, I marvel at the overwhelming support for Mitt Romney.  I hazard a guess that it is about 99% for those who are church-going Mormons.

But membership in the LDS Church has in the past brought problems for those Mormons who pick a fellow Mormon over a "gentile," whether in business, politics, investments or whatever.  Someone who appears trustworthy and honest principally because of church membership sometimes turns out to be the worst scoundrel.

Now I don't say Mitt Romney is a scoundrel or a crook or dishonest.

But I do think that he comes across as all or some of the above when he refuses to release his tax returns.  The Week lists five reasons why stonewalling on tax returns is a bad idea for Mitt Romney.

I concur with all the reasons in The Week:  especially since Romney is rich; he must be hiding something; there will surely be areas where his tax returns will embarrass him; the Democrats have a club to hit Romney over the head as long as he (and his wife, Ann) stonewall.

Personally, I hope Mitt Romney does not cave it.  I hope he keeps stonewalling.  Don't release your tax returns, Mitt!

BASHAR AL ASSAD NOW PLEADS FOR KOFI ANNAN'S PEACE PLAN

Bashar al Assad now calls the UN general, Robert Mood, pleading for a ceasefire, this according to a report in today's The Guardian on line, written by Ian Black and Luke Harding.

Report Harding and Black:

"Diplomats revealed that Assad had phoned the head of the UN monitoring mission, General Robert Mood, pledging to implement Kofi Annan's peace plan shortly after Wednesday's devastating bomb attack in Damascus, which killed four senior members of his military-security command. The UN says Assad and the rebels have failed to observe a ceasefire."

By the way, yesterday, one of Iran's ministers complained that the United States has a double standard, complaining about some assassinations and not others. (Sorry, no cite for this.)  Why, for example, had the U.S. not condemned the bombing assassination of the four senior members of the Syrian government's defense department?

This criticism seems misplaced and totally not germane.  The men who were killed in Syrian Defense headquarters were the very ones responsible for ordering and putting into effect the shelling of civilian populations in Homs and Idlip and many other cities where there have been anti-government demonstrations.  They approved bombing civilian homes and killing civilians indiscriminately.  These were war crimes.  The fact that they were the targets of a bombing planted by the insurgents prompts musings that they themselves received justified punishment for their egregious war crimes.

As to the progress of the insurgents in fighting the Syrian government, Harding and Black write:

"The capture of Syria's borders by the opposition was an important moment, analysts said, and showed Syria's 16-month conflict was now a fast-moving guerilla war. Fawwaz Traboulsi, a Beirut-based historian and columnist, said the tactics and strategy of the Free Syrian Army had improved, in contrast to the early days of the uprising.

"It's conducting a war that is very close to a guerrilla war. The FSA can move very easily. It can withdraw. It is taking whole regions and holding them," he said."

NETANYAHU BLAIMES IRAN FOR BULGARIA BOMBING. WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?

Israel's prime minister Netanyahu says that Iran is behind the bombing of a bus of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.  How he knows this is a mystery;  he has not produced any evidence.


It is unfair to blame Iran unless there is clear and convincing evidence.  So far, there is none.


Perhaps Bibi just wants to take the spotlight off his approval of more settlements in the occupied West Bank.  Under international law, if one country, Israel, seizes land from another, Palestine, through a military conflict, the victor, Israel, must give it back.  The war occurred in 1967.  So far Israel refuses to give it back.


Israel is flouting this principle of international law, figuring that it can get away with it.  Iran happens to be an easy diversion.

CATHOLIC CHURCH AND MORMON CHURCH'S INFLUENCE ON BOY SCOUTS' DECISION TO BAN ELEVEN YEAR OLD BOYS SHOWING HOMOSEXUAL TENDENCIES

The Boy Scouts of America, in what was crafted to sound high-minded and principled, announced that it would refuse to accept boys who showed homosexual tendencies or publicly admitted they were gay.

How old does a boy have to be join the Scouts?  Eleven or twelve?  So if he has "homosexual tendencies, the Scouts will not allow him to join?

How about some equal protection for eleven-year olds?  Who is to say that another person has homosexual tendencies?  And even if he does, why are the Scouts afraid of him?

Is it because the Boy Scouts of America have a problem with straight adult leaders who have abused boys in their charge?  Perhaps the Boy Scouts are trying to deflect justified criticism that the organization has not done nearly enough to protect young boys from sexual adult predators.

Nancy Goldstein writes in The Guardian that the Boy Scouts share many similarities with the  Catholic Church when it comes to treatment of sexual predation among their leaders.  They try to conceal, deny and cover up.  What they don't do is allow the public to see evidence of their acceptance of predators in their organization.

Goldstein writes that the decision of the Boy Scouts to ban children who they perceive to show homosexual tendencies stems from the pressure of two religious groups, the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church.

Writes Goldstein:

"Ignore all of the Scouts' official mumbo-jumbo about the (unidentified) leaders who comprised the special committee of top Scout leaders that made this decision, especially the part about their alleged "diversity of perspectives and opinions". As the LA Times notes, what's really happening here is a business decision about the organization's sustainability, driven by the influence of two of the Scouts' most powerful benefactors: the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches. About 400,000 of the 2.7 million members left in the dwindling organization, "belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", which "encourages members to become involved in the Boy Scouts, and has its own section on the Boy Scouts of America webpage. "

MITT ROMNEY HAS NO SYMPATHY FOR LATINO ECONOMIC IMMIGRANTS

If Mitt Romney wins the election for the U.S. presidency, all immigrants will need to worry.  Romney says that he will make life uncomfortable enough in the United States that immigrants lacking proper documents will "self-deport."

Mitt Romney's great-grandfather fled to Mexico to escape penalties against polygamy in the United States.  Mitt Romney's father, George Romney, came back to the U.S. as a young boy.  Because of this, Mitt Romney says that his family is an immigrant family, as if to imply that he understands what it means to be a Latino immigrant.

But the truth is, Mitt Romney has no understanding or basic sympathy for the plight of Latino economic immigrants.  He treats them as mere gardeners or housekeepers.  He would rather see them all deported.

For their sake, let's hope that Obama wins in November.

MITT ROMNEY WOULD BE A DISASTER

Imagine the disaster if Mitt Romney wins the presidential election.  Mitt promises to visit Israel as his first country, he promises to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), he promises to treat Russia as an enemy.

I wonder how anyone can support these outrageous and dangerous proposals?  How can anyone be a Republican?  How can anyone with a grain of sympathy for those who have no health insurance want to take away a plan that tries to make health care an inviolable right?