Explaining Barack's fashion sense

Barack frequently looks weird in his suits -- not just when they're tan.

Now the reason becomes clear.

They're not so much suits as pant suits from the 70s, check out the back of that jacket.

Apparently, Barack got Dinah Shores' old clothes at an estate sale.

Benghazi and the United Nations

Last week, the United Nations issued a press release:


On 19 November 2014, the Security Council’s Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee approved the addition of two names to its list of individuals and entities subject to the targeted financial sanctions, travel ban and the arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2161 (2014), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.
The Committee stresses the need for robust implementation of the Al-Qaida Sanctions Regime as a significant tool in combating terrorist activity, and urges all Member States to participate actively by nominating for listing additional individuals, groups, undertakings and entities which should be subject to the sanctions measures.
As a result of the new listings, any individual or entity that provides financial or material support to the individuals and entities listed below, including the provision of arms or recruits, is eligible to be added to the Al-Qaida Sanctions List and subject to the sanctions measures.
The details of the new listings are as follows:
B. Entities and other groups associated with Al-Qaida
QE.A.145.14. Name:  ANSAR AL CHARIA DERNA Name (original script): أنصار الشريعة – درنة A.k.a.: a) Ansar al-Charia Derna b) Ansar al-Sharia Derna c) أنصار الشريعة (Ansar al Charia) d) Ansar al-Sharia e) Ansar al Sharia F.k.a.:  na  Address: a) Operates in Derna and Jebel Akhdar, Libya b) Support network in Tunisia  Listed on: 19 Nov. 2014  Other information: Associated with the Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (QE.T.14.01), Ansar al-Shari’a in Tunisia (AAS-T) (QE.A.143.14) and Ansar al Charia Benghazi (QE.A.146.14.). Runs training camps for foreign terrorist fighters travelling to Syria and Iraq.
QE.A.146.14. Name:  ANSAR AL CHARIA BENGHAZI Name (original script): أنصار الشريعة - بنغازي A.k.a.: a) أنصار الشريعة (Ansar al Charia) b) Ansar al-Charia c) Ansar al-Sharia d) Ansar al-Charia Benghazi e) Ansar al-Sharia Benghazi f) أنصار الشريعة بليبيا (Ansar al Charia in Libya (ASL)) g)  كتيبة أنصار الشريعة (Katibat Ansar al Charia) h) Ansar al Sharia F.k.a.:  na  Address: a) Operates in Benghazi, Libya b) Support network in Tunisia  Listed on: 19 Nov. 2014 Other information: Associated with the Organization of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (QE.T.14.01), Al Mourabitoun (QE.M.141.14), Ansar al-Shari’a in Tunisia (AAS-T) (QE.A.143.14), and Ansar al Charia Derna (QE.A.145.14.). The leader is Mohamed al-Zahawi (not listed). Runs training camps for foreign terrorist fighters travelling to Syria, Iraq and Mali. 

For further details relating to the listings, please refer to the narrative summaries of reasons for listing of the above-mentioned names, available on the Al‑Qaida Committee’s website in accordance with paragraph 36 of resolution 2161 (2014):  http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267/narrative.shtml.


Ansar al-Sharia?

That's the group behind the September 11, 2012 attack on US facilities in Benghazi.


Back in 2013, Jonathan Karl (ABC News) reported on the CIA version of the events from an early draft:



Like the final version used by Ambassador Rice on the Sunday shows, the CIA’s first drafts said the attack appeared to have been “spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo” but the CIA version went on to say, “That being said, we do know that Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qa’ida participated in the attack.”  The draft went on to specifically name  the al Qaeda-affiliated group named Ansar al-Sharia.



Susan Rice left out that detail.

That's Dirty Rice above in a calmer moment, as captured by Isaiah in "Alice In Barackland."

Dirty Rice wasn't the only one spinning.  In a laughable 'report' at the end of 2013, David D. Kirkpatrick and The New York Times went on to insist there was no connection to the group and al Qaeda.

(For a serious takedown of that awful 'report,' see C.I.'s  "2013: The Year of Exposure" and the "Iraq snapshot" for January 2, 2014.)

Last week, the United Nations publicly affirmed the two groups were linked.  Few outlets bothered to cover that. 

xx

Benghazi and Mike Rogers

Friday, the House Intelligence Committee released a report on Benghazi.  Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham denounced it as "full of crap."

We agree.

But for different reasons.

The head of the Committee is Mike Rogers.



Mike Rogers is the most dishonest member of Congress -- including on why he didn't seek re-election this year.

He's also been an apologist and enabler for the CIA and the NSA.

We wouldn't believe a word he said or wrote.

This edition's playlist

1)  PJ Harvey's Let England Shake.

2)  Tori Amos' Unrepentant Geraldines.

3) Prince's Art Official Age.

4)   Neil Young's Storytone.

5) Ann Wilson's Hope & Glory.

6) Chrissie Hynde's Stockholm.

7)  Stevie Nicks' 24 Karat Gold Songs From The Vault.

8) Aretha Franklin's Aretha Sings The Great Diva Classics.

9) Cat Power's The Greatest.

10) David Rovics' Halliburton Boardroom Masscre.

Murray: “Just one suicide, just one veteran in crisis, or just one family struggling to make it through is just one too much.”

Senator Patty Murray serves on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and Chairs the Senate Finance Committee.  Her office issued the following last week:

Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee and serves on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (which she formerly Chaired).  Her office issued the following:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      CONTACT: Murray Press Office

Wednesday, November 19, 2014                                                        (202) 224-2834

VETERANS—MENTAL HEALTH: Murray Concerned That VA and Local Communities Unprepared to Help Veterans in Crisis

 

VIDEO: “Just one suicide, just one veteran in crisis, or just one family struggling to make it through is just one too much.”

 

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a senior member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, attended a hearing to examine mental health and suicide among veterans. According to recent data, suicide rates have continued to increase among female veterans who use VA care and among male veterans ages 18-24 who use VA, the rate has skyrocketed to 79 per 100,000.

“There is no issue as pressing as providing quality, timely mental health care and suicide prevention programs to our nation’s heroes. The problem is familiar to all of us, but the solutions still seem elusive,” Senator Murray said at the hearing. “Just one suicide, just one veteran in crisis, or just one family struggling to make it through is just one too much.”

 

Senator Murray’s full remarks as prepared:

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing today. There is no issue as pressing as providing quality, timely mental health care and suicide prevention programs to our nation’s heroes. The problem is familiar to all of us, but the solutions still seem elusive.

 

“Twenty-two veterans per day die by suicide. Rates have continued to increase among female veterans who use VA care. Among male veterans age 18 to 24 who use VA, the rate has skyrocketed to 79 per 100,000. And finally, according to VA’s access data, wait times for new mental health patients are virtually unchanged -- at 36 days -- over the five months that VA has provided this data.

 

“Mr. Chairman, I am very concerned about whether VA and local communities are prepared with the resources, policies, and training to help veterans in serious crisis. When our men and women in uniform have the courage to come forward and ask for help, VA must be there with not only high quality and timely care, but also the right type of care to best meet the veteran’s needs. We must demand progress on each of these areas.

 

“Mr. Chairman, a few months ago we passed a VA reform bill to help veterans get into care.  It included a temporary authority to improve access to community providers for veterans having trouble accessing VA care.  However, a recent report by the RAND Corporation raises serious concerns about whether private sector providers are ready to give high quality care to veterans. It suggests we need to do more to expand use of evidence-based treatments - and much more to help providers understand the unique needs and culture of servicemembers and veterans. The reform bill also included critically needed funds to build and strengthen the VA for the long-term. 

 

“But there will be more needs going forward. VA must start planning and requesting the necessary resources now, so it will be prepared to meet the growing demand for mental health care far into the future. There is clearly much, much more work to be done. 

 

“Just one suicide, just one veteran in crisis, or just one family struggling to make it through is just one too much. So I want to take a moment to thank Mrs. Selke, Mrs. Pallotta and Mr. and Mrs. Vanata for being here today. It’s incredibly difficult to talk about these issues. We admire your courage and your strength for being willing to share your stories with us.

 

“Thank you, and your family, for your service and sacrifice to our nation.

 

“Mr. Chairman, I hope as we head into a new Congress that stories like theirs will continue to be told as we work together to fulfill the promises we have made to those who have served. Thank you.”

###

---

Meghan Roh

Press Secretary

Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray

Mobile: (202) 365-1235

Office: (202) 224-2834

@PattyMurray | @MegRoh

This is from Workers World:

Nurses strike over lack of Ebola preparedness

By E. Catalinotto, RN on November 23, 2014

Nurses at White House during national strike for health and safety.

National Nurses United held a day of strikes and demonstrations in 16 states on Nov. 12 demanding effective personal protective equipment and “continuous, rigorous interactive training for RNs and other health workers who might ­encounter an Ebola patient,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, NNU executive director. “That includes practice putting on and taking off the hazmat suits where some of the greatest risk of infection can ­occur. The lack of concern for nurses and ­patients in a world where corporations have taken over our community health care has been magnified during this deadly Ebola crisis.”


In the African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Ebola kills at least half the people who contract the disease, according to a World Health Organization fact sheet. In the United States, as of Nov. 16, eight out of 10 Ebola patients have recovered. Survivors received early diagnosis and supportive care: prevention of dehydration with intravenous fluids, replacement of blood components, oxygen, nutritional support, and treatment for hemorrhage, shock and co-existing bacterial infections.


It is unknown whether blood plasma from survivors, which in theory contains antibodies to fight the virus, or the drug Zmapp, played a role in their recovery. These have not yet been tested in human beings to determine their safety or effectiveness.


Thomas Eric Duncan is the only Ebola patient treated in the U.S. to have died. An uninsured Liberian man, he was turned away from a Dallas hospital on Sept. 26 after a CAT scan, despite having fever and a history of travel to an area with much Ebola. He did not receive any treatment until several days later, when he returned by ambulance, critically ill. Two nurses at the nonunion hospital were infected with Ebola while caring for Duncan without proper training. They have recovered.


It appears that basic supportive care can greatly reduce the Ebola death toll. However, since the 1980s, the International Monetary Fund has enforced policies that led to a deterioration of health care infrastructure in countries now hit by the disease.


According to Rick Rowden in the Oct. 30 issue of Foreign Policy magazine, IMF policies that prevent “developing countries from scaling up long-term public investment in public health systems … have led to dilapidated health infrastructure, inadequate numbers of health personnel and demoralizing working conditions that have added to the ‘push factors’ driving the migration of nurses from poor countries to rich ones. All this has undermined public health systems in developing countries, including the ones now trying to cope with Ebola.”

Articles copyright 1995-2014 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Election turmoil lies behind Labour crisis (Alex Callinicos)

This is from Great Britain's Socialist Worker:

Election turmoil lies behind Labour crisis

by Alex Callinicos

---

Ed Miliband at Labour's conference this year (Pic: Anthony Mckeown on Flickr)

---

Last week I found myself being bombarded by “We Back Ed” tweets. These were a reaction to the latest plot against Ed Milband, much-hyped in the media.


Reading the tweets I was reminded of the line from Hamlet, “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”


I’m sure shadow health secretary Andy Burnham was right when he said “powerful vested interests” would prefer a continuation of the present Conservative-Liberal coalition or an outright Tory government to Labour.
But this doesn’t alter the fact that Labour is running far too weakly in the polls against an unpopular, shambolic government six months before the general election.


Last weekend’s polls put Labour ahead again after the Tories had inched into the lead. But the difference is very narrow—only two or three percentage points.

The problem isn’t primarily the hapless Miliband. It’s true that he comes over as neither flesh nor fowl nor good red herring.


His “fightback” speech on Thursday of last week attacked the “zero-zero economy”—zero hours contracts and zero taxes paid by the rich. But Miliband hasn’t broken with the heritage of New Labour that helped to create this economy in the first place.

The deeper problem is indicated by the fact that Labour and the Tories combined are currently polling at less than the 65 percent share of the vote that they won in the 2010 general election. Even the latter figure represented a historic decline compared to the 97 percent share of the vote Labour and Conservatives received in 1951.

In an excellent article in the latest issue of the London Review of Books, Ross McKibben argues that Labour is the victim of a dual crisis—“a crisis of the British state” and “a general crisis of social democracy”.

Class

I think this right although McKibben, no Marxist, implies that Labour’s decline is a consequence of the decline of the industrial working class. Other academics use a version of the same argument to argue that Ukip is displacing Labour as the party of the “manual working class”.

Such analyses rely on too simplistic an understanding of class. There has been a shift in the structure of the working class from manual and industrial occupations to white collar and service jobs.

But Labour cut itself off from many in this restructured working class by the policies it pursued under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. McKibben aptly summarised these as “the further privatisation of the state and its institutions, the private finance initiatives, the outsourcings, the Iraq war”.


The experience of New Labour in office proved particularly damaging in Scotland. It undermined loyalty to the Union and gave the Scottish National Party (SNP) the opportunity to position itself as the defender of social democracy against neoliberal London politicians.


As McKibben points out, “Labour has (or had) an electoral interest in keeping Scotland in the Union. The Conservatives do not.”


As traditionally the dominant party in Scotland, Labour played the key role in winning the referendum for the No campaign.


But this has proved a Pyrrhic victory as old Labour strongholds in working class neighbourhoods voted Yes.


The SNP lost the referendum but has stormed far ahead of Labour in the Scottish polls. No wonder, as puzzled (and stupid) London commentators observed, the party’s recent conference was a victory celebration.


Does all this mean Miliband has no hope of becoming prime minister? Not at all. At the British level we now have five major parties (Tories, Labour, Lib Dems, SNP, and Ukip). Who will come out on top in these circumstances under the first-past-the-post electoral system is anybody’s guess.


But probably no party will win a majority of seats. Nigel Farage hopes Ukip will make a big enough breakthrough for him to become the kingmaker.


But the Scottish polls suggest the SNP may have a bigger chance of playing this role. No wonder Alex Salmond is rumoured to be eyeing a Westminster seat. In the immortal words of Bette Davis, “Fasten your seatbelts—it’s going to be a bumpy night.”

Payments © Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.     

Highlights

 This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.

"Meet The Bad Hair (which won't hide the lies, Sylv..." -- most requested highlight by readers of this site.

 "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot" and "Iraq snapshot" -- C.I. reports on the Senate Veterans Affair Committe hearing.

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Men of NBC..." -- Isaiah's most recent comic. 

 "Loser of the week" and "Idiot of the week: James Coogan grand liar" -- Mike picks them.

"Tina Turner" and "Diana Ross will be on The Voice" -- music coverage from Elaine and Betty. 

"And this is why politicians can't be trusted" -- Ann breaks it down.

"Ty Herndon" -- Trina on coming out.

"scandal goes out with a yawn," "How To Get Away With Mundane?," "How To Get Away With Murder," 

"Fan boys are ruining TV," "The Mindy Project," "Stalker," "Grimm," "Arrow,"  "The Flash -- on a fast course to snooze ville," "revenge - the good,"  "Bye-bye Hot In Cleveland," "revenge - the bad" and 

"The Originals (is Eli on strike?)" -- Rebecca, Betty, Ruth, Stan, Ann, Mike, Elaine and Marcia cover tV.

"22 Jump Street" -- Mike loves a movie.

"Mike Nichols body of work and fascination with the male body" -- Stan on a passing.

"Justin Raimondo reviews Sharyl Attkisson's book" -- Marcia notes a book review.

"Postal workers rally" and "Barack goes right wing on immigration" -- Betty and Ruth use their sites to amplify and important article. 

"Debt Man and Blunder Boy" -- Isaiah dips into the archives.

"Cosby, rape, Dorothy Dandridge," "ben affleck accuses bill cosby of sexual assault," "Cosby" and "Bill Cosby's latest accuser has a story that doesn't make sense" -- Kat, Rebecca and Betty weigh in.

"Nancy Pelosi lost her brains on the plastic surgeo...," "Corrine Brown is not fit to serve," "corrupt corrine brown set to be ranking member," "It's a shame the Democrats won't do what's best for veterans," "Corrine Brown is nuts," "Corrine Brown, show some integrity and step aside," "What I like about Corrine Brown," "Exclusive interview with Corrine Brown" and "THIS JUST IN! CORRINE SPEAKS!" -- some of the Brown coverage in the community.

 "Salon -- even more unpopular than ObamaCare" and "THIS JUST IN! SALON STILL SUCKS!" -- Cedric and Wally serve Salon.