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Friday, December 25, 2015

Paul Begala parrots pitiful ‘Ebola budget cuts’ spin; Gets schooled

http://twitter.com/#!/Of_Angelis/status/521503503316164608

Snicker. That last part should be an evergreen tweet. So, what happened? This:

Gee, thanks, Republicans! CDC head: We"d Have Ebola Vaccine if Not for Budget Cuts. http://t.co/xUKdznZJ6J

— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) October 13, 2014

The always absurd Paul Begala pushed the ridiculous claim, made by the NIH director, that there would be an Ebola vaccine already if not for icky old Republicans and their budget “cutting” ways. He was so anxious to politicize the dangerous and frightening disease that he first got the lie-info wrong.

CORRECTION: NIH (not CDC) chief says budget cuts have delayed Ebola vaccine. (Thanks, GOP) http://t.co/xUKdznZJ6J

— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) October 13, 2014

Then he took the waahm-bulance for a ride by retweeting “hate” tweets.

Love the hate RT "@rubycramer: have to say, @PaulBegala has a real knack for picking THE best angry tweets to retweet.”

— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) October 13, 2014

Pathetic.

One of the hate tweets?

@Settledownass @PaulBegala Hey dickhead, I"m a pharmaceutical research scientist. The NIH is just another sewer for tax dollars.

— Mike Merc (@mikemerc57) October 13, 2014

Sorry, Begala, but his point about a sewer is solid.

@PaulBegala This was a really bad strategy. Oppo researchers find every dumb program CDC/NIH ever funded and make them look silly.

— Rich Galen (@richgalen) October 13, 2014

@richgalen @NoahCRothman @PaulBegala You mean like this? http://t.co/UhwTuToQDA

— Just Karl (@justkarl) October 13, 2014

Ding, ding, ding! And it happened, natch.

cc @PaulBegala RT @TwitchyTeam Don"t look now @NIH director, but here are things that #TookMoneyFromEbolaResearch http://t.co/mafs6LVQtb

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) October 13, 2014

That’s right. Conservatives swiftly pushed back on the false narrative and torched the idiocy with things that #TookMoneyFromEbolaResearch.

They also rightly gave Begala the business.

@PaulBegala Reckless claim the Director made, and equally reckless for you to jump on it.

— Nancy (@Of_Angelis) October 13, 2014

@PaulBegala obviously u didn"t read the article. It was the NIH director. CDC director isn"t dumb enough to say something so blatantly false

— John Patrick (@john_pat_rick) October 13, 2014

@PaulBegala Haven"t Ds controlled the Presidency and at least one chamber in Congress for the past six years? Gee thanks, Ds

— Rich Galen (@richgalen) October 13, 2014

@Tark31 It"s also noteworthy @PaulBegala is discussing GOP spending cuts instead of NIH"s horrendously wasteful spending. @CounterMoonbat

— Jason Whitman Photo (@JasonBWhitman) October 13, 2014

@GPollowitz Maybe @PaulBegala can explain this waste of $90M by NIH? http://t.co/QesL3LCjPx

— Jason Whitman Photo (@JasonBWhitman) October 13, 2014

@PaulBegala Are you really so stupid you don"t remember the President is a Dem and the Dems ran the house and senate for how long??

— Faye Hamilton (@FayeHamilton1) October 13, 2014

FIFY. RT @PaulBegala Gee thanks @TheDemocrats, if y"all could competently build a website we"d have an Ebola vaccine.

— Ollie (@texasollie) October 13, 2014

.@PaulBegala Oh, hey again Paul.. pic.twitter.com/PzlzZo4BGJ

— S.M (@redsteeze) October 13, 2014

This tweet sums it up:

“@PaulBegala: Gee, thanks, Republicans! CDC head: We"d Have Ebola Vaccine if Not for Budget Cuts."

Gee, you"re desperate!

— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) October 13, 2014

Yep. The desperation, it reeks.

And an exit question:

@PaulBegala @Of_Angelis How does it feel to use dead people to score cheap political points? Is "politics" really that important? Sad.

— Benjamin P. Glaser (@BenjaminPGlaser) October 13, 2014

Don’t look now NIH director, but here are things that #TookMoneyFromEbolaResearch

Sunday-night bombshell: NIH director claims budget cuts have prevented an Ebola vaccine; Conservatives spotlight budget waste

Paul Begala parrots pitiful ‘Ebola budget cuts’ spin; Gets schooled

budget cuts, Ebo, Ebola, ebola vaccine, Iraq, NIH, NIH budget, nih director, Paul Begala

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Militants In Iraq Say They Executed 1,700 Soldiers, Post Gruesome Images Online

Militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria said on Twitter that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi government soldiers, The New York Times reports. On Sunday, a string of bombs went off, killing 15 and wounding over 30.

1. The Islamic militant group in northern Iraq that captured two major cities last week has posted graphic photos that appear to show its militia executing captured Iraqi soldiers, The New York Times first reported.

View this image ›

AP / Via nypost.com

3. The images appear to show the militants loading soldiers onto flatbed trucks, and then forcing them to lie face-down in a ditch with their arms tied behind their backs.

As The New York Times reported, the legitimacy of the images is not confirmed:

The authenticity of the photographs and the insurgents’ claim could not be verified, and Iraqi government officials initially cast doubt on whether such a mass execution took place. There were also no reports of large numbers of funerals in the Salahuddin Province area, where the executions were said to have been conducted.

View this image ›

AP / Via nypost.com

5. If the claim is true, however, the killings would be the biggest mass atrocity in either Syria or Iraq in many years, surpassing even the chemical weapon attack outside of the Syrian city of Damascus last year, in which 1,400 people were killed.

View this image ›

AP / Via nypost.com

7. Erin Evers, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Iraq, also expressed doubt that the pictures were real:

We’re trying to verify the pics, and I am not convinced they are authentic. … As far as ISIS claiming it has killed 1,700 people and publishing horrific photos to support that claim, it is unfortunately in keeping with their pattern of commission of atrocities, and obviously intended to further fuel sectarian war.

The news was kept under wraps in Iraq for several days, since last week the government blocked a number of websites, including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

View this image ›

AP / Via nypost.com

Update — June 15, 5:00 p.m. ET: The government increased security around Baghdad Sunday, a day after hundreds of armed Shiite men took to the streets after Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called on Iraqis to defend their country, The Associated Press reports

Despite the increased security, a number of explosions killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30 in Baghdad on Sunday, police and hospital officials told the AP.

One car bomb went off in the city center, killing 10 and wounding 21. Another explosion hit the area in the evening, killing two and wounding five. The third bomb went off near a falafel shop in the Sadr City district of the city, which killed three and injured seven.

View this image ›

AP / Via nypost.com

View this image ›

AP / Via nypost.com

Militants In Iraq Say They Executed 1,700 Soldiers, Post Gruesome Images Online

back., car, commission, execution, Facebook, image, Iraq, killings, mass execution, militants, New York Times, number, people, place, Read, reports, security, shop, Syria, times, true, Twitter, View, View this image

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Democratic Vets Warn Washington Against New Iraq Entanglement

“We broke the country, and we do need to fix it. But we need to do it without risking more men’s and women’s lives.”

View this image ›

Iraqi military fighters AP Photo/Iraqi Military via AP video

WASHINGTON — The veterans who served in the last war in Iraq and are now seeking Democratic votes in 2014 have been warning their fellow Democrats this week.

They say even limited steps that put U.S. military forces back in harm’s way in Iraq would be a big mistake with ramifications for the future of Middle East foreign policy — and the Democratic Party’s credibility with its progressive base.

“If we have airstrikes, we’ll kill as many civilians as we do fighters. And that’s not right or effective,” said Seth Moulton, a former Marine Corps officer who led forces into combat during four tours of duty in Iraq. “We need to engage this problem. But it needs to be political engagement that comes first.”

Moulton is out of the Marines and running for Congress in Massachusetts, mounting a primary bid against Democratic incumbent Rep. John Tierney. Moulton’s campaign has been endorsed by former Iraq War commanding Gens. Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus, but Moulton is quick to say unprompted that the war all three men served in “was a mistake.”

More military engagement in Iraq would be doubling down on that mistake, he said.

“You have to make decisions in the present; you can’t just make decisions based on past mistakes,” Moulton said. “But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the past. We have to be very thoughtful about the long-term effects of our actions.”

Progressives have warned the White House in recent days that a new engagement with Iraq could divide the Democratic base ahead of the 2014 elections, turning the anti-war left against Obama (who in 2008 was the movement’s champion). Moulton said a Democratic split over Iraq could be in the cards if Obama goes ahead with military action.

It’s a sentiment shared by Ruben Gallego, a former enlisted Marine and Democratic member of the Arizona state legislature. He’s running in an open Democratic-leaning seat, and has taken a strong stance opposing new military action in Iraq. He said he’s watching the run-up to new military action in Iraq, strongly favored by many advocates of the last Iraq War, in disbelief.

“It’s like a horrible sequel to a horrible movie,” he said. “The people that caused us to launch the invasion of Iraq are coming out for the after vaudeville show and trying to basically recuperate their reputations with further potential bloodshed. It’s ridiculous.”

“The men and women who died on the errors of these men and the hubris of these men should never be forgotten,” he continued. “To think that they have any kind of validity in Washington or in the media in terms of their opinion when it comes to Iraq is absolutely sickening. It would be like asking Bernie Madoff to give advice on how to reform Wall Street.”

Moulton says airstrikes are a bad idea, full stop. Gallego said it’s possible to use military assets in Iraq, but the bar he set for military action was very high.

“[Obama] has to prove that there’s an absolute national interest in us getting involved and that Iraq cannot handle it themselves,” he said. “He has to prove that it will be done with minimal impact to the United States military in terms of putting actual people in harm’s way and also, at the same time, the Iraqi people. We cannot engage in another war where civilians are killed because it’s only going to cause more of a problem.”

Both Democratic vets favor a political, non-military solution to the current chaos in Iraq — a solution that is a difficult one to see — and insist that military intervention will only cause long-term problems. Moulton and Gallego say Obama needs to consult with Congress before taking military action, but they’re not entirely sure that Congress is all that helpful when it comes to war.

“They’re completely out of touch. We’ve never had fewer veterans in Congress in our nation’s history,” he said. “And there are very few people in Congress today who have any first-hand knowledge or experience with the Middle East.”

“Statistically, that means we’re more likely to go to war,” Moulton said. “Which shouldn’t be hard to understand. Veterans understand the costs. And it means that when we have to make very difficult decisions about places like Syria, Iran, and Iraq, we don’t have as many people in Congress with the background or experience to make those decisions wisely.”

Moulton and Gallego are Democrats running in blue states, where taking an anti-war stance is an easy move for a candidate to make. But some of their concerns about new military action in Iraq are shared by Sen. John Walsh, a Montana Democrat and Iraq War vet appointed to replace Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who retired. Walsh is in one of the toughest races in country and on Wednesday he took to the Senate floor to urge Obama and Congress to use caution before engaging in new military action.

“America cannot afford another Iraq financially or the human costs that are associated with war,” said Walsh, who earned a Bronze Star after leading his regiment from the Montana Army National Guard in Iraq. Though Walsh didn’t expressly warn against airstrikes, he called on members of Congress itching to put forces back into battle in Iraq to slow down before it’s too late.

“I think that too many of my fellow members of Congress are too abrupt and think too quickly about what we should do in Iraq,” he said. “I think they need to take a a step back and think about the impacts, the second and third order effects of continuing to send our men and women over to Iraq.”

Not all Democratic Iraq War vets are speaking out. Staff for Illinois Rep. Tammy Duckworth, who was severely wounded serving as an Army helicopter pilot in Iraq, did not make her available for an interview. Hawaii Rep. Tusli Gabbard, who served in Iraq, said this week about airstrikes, “Not only will they not be effective, they will actually be counter-productive” because “they will strengthen this Shiite-led government in Iraq, which is a puppet government for Iran, and will strain those tensions and further entrench us in what is a generations-old civil war.”

Obama has ruled out ground troops in Iraq. But just about everything else — including unilateral military action without a vote in Congress — is still on the table. In a meeting with top congressional leaders at the White House Wednesday, Obama reportedly said the options he’s considering don’t need congressional approval.

Meanwhile the White House has been explicit in keeping military options on the table.

“The only thing the president has ruled out, and I want to be clear here, is sending U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said at Wednesday’s briefing. “But he continues to consider other options.”

To veterans of the last Iraq War who politically side with Obama, the continued focus on military options is missing point of the the legacy of Iraq War, Gallego said.

“We have to be engaged in Iraq in one manner or another. But we need to be doing it in a constructive manner,” he said. “We broke the country, we violated the Powell doctrine, and we do need to fix it. We need to do it without risking more men and women’s lives, and also to create a sustaining, long-lasting democracy that is accepting of all the tribes and cultures of Iraq.”

Democratic Vets Warn Washington Against New Iraq Entanglement

Democrats, Iraq, obama, White House

Monday, June 22, 2015

‘Tone-deaf and sad": John Kerry addresses Iraq ‘crisis’ at last, royally blows it

http://twitter.com/#!/senatorshoshana/status/478902219744354304

Because priorities!

As Twitchy reported, this morning, Secretary of State John Kerry and Bill Nye the Not-a-Real-Science Guy teamed up for a Twitter forum about the ocean. That’s right. The ocean. Tweeters couldn’t help but wonder why Kerry would be futzing around with fish when Iraq is crumbling before our eyes.

Well, not to worry. Today, Kerry finally addressed the elephant seal in the room, thanks to a deep question from Nye:

http://twitter.com/#!/TheScienceGuy/status/478900525522374656

Wait … what?

http://twitter.com/#!/redsteeze/status/478902117206196228

Surely a professional like Kerry wouldn’t dignify such stupidity with a response, right? Pffft. Of course he did!

http://twitter.com/#!/JohnKerry/status/478900942927306752

Dude. That’s it? That’s his answer?

To his credit, Kerry did retweet a question from an irate tweeter wondering why the heck the ocean ranks higher on the State Department’s to-do list than mass human slaughter:

http://twitter.com/#!/JohnKerry/status/478903393097097216

Unfortunately, because he’s John Kerry, his answer demonstrated about as much intelligence as a hunk of seaweed. And that’s being generous:

http://twitter.com/#!/JohnKerry/status/478903860065755136

Profound. John Kerry, ladies and gentlemen.

http://twitter.com/#!/ChrisBarnhart/status/478906496978132995

Oh man, @TheScienceGuy asks John Kerry if Iraq-Iran are aware of global warming?

Tone deaf and sad.

Stop this nonsense #oceanchat now.— Ryan N. Maue (@RyanMaue) June 17, 2014

***

‘Great moments in tone deafness’: John Kerry warns of ‘threat too great to ignore’

‘Iraq?’ Never mind that — it’s The Life Aquatic with John Kerry and Bill Nye

Full Twitchy coverage of John Kerry

‘Tone-deaf and sad": John Kerry addresses Iraq ‘crisis’ at last, royally blows it

Bill Nye, climate change, Iraq, john kerry, Twitchy

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Progressive Caucus Chair Expects Congress To Roll Over On Iraq

“People are happy to let the president [move unilateraly] because leadership on both sides of the aisle know pretty well that the American people have Iraq fatigue pretty bad.”

View this image ›

AP Photo/Iraqi0Revolution via AP video

WASHINGTON — A top liberal in the House expects lawmakers will largely relent on the issue of congressional authorization following President Obama’s decision Thursday to send military advisers to Iraq and begin laying the groundwork for possible airstrikes.

In the immediate aftermath of Obama’s announcement there were signs in the Senate that Democrats were going to let the president ramp up U.S. involvement in Iraq without a formal sign-off from Congress.

Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, chair of the House Progressive Caucus, said he expects most of the rest of Congress to follow suit, despite bipartisan outcry before Friday from lawmakers demanding a say in future military involvement in Iraq.

Now that the broad outlines of the president’s plan — no ground combat, no commitment to air strikes, reserving the right to launch limited attacks on ISIS — have been sketched out, Grijalva said most members of Congress will be happier not having to go on the record about the military involvement in Iraq one way or the other.

“Because, I believe, public opinion is not for an escalated re-engagement in Iraq by our military, [lawmakers] would rather have the president take whatever heat is coming from this, and there is heat, and take the political hit than have to deal with it [themselves] while we’re in the throngs of a midterm election,” Grijalva said. “And that goes for both sides.”

Grijalva opposes Obama’s moves in Iraq, calling the sending of advisers and the gearing up for airstrikes “a slippery slope.” When it comes to congressional approval, he said demanding it is a “consistent” stance for members like him who complained George W. Bush acted unilaterally in Iraq in violation of the War Powers Act.

Progressives in Congress do have the outlines of a strategy to make their voice heard, but Grijalva Thursday afternoon it was still coming together in the wake of Obama’s announcement. Early plans are to rally votes for a House amendment sponsored by California Democrat Barbara Lee banning “boots on the ground” in Iraq, though there was some disagreement over whether or not the 300 military advisers Obama is planning to send count or not. Grijalva said they did to him but said they didn’t to Lee; Lee’s office was slow to respond to questions about the amendment. The rest of the early plan centers around banging the drum about the War Powers Act and trying to force Obama to bring his plans to Congress for approval.

Some progressive groups have already begun laying the groundwork for organized opposition to Obama’s moves in Iraq. In the hours after Obama’s announcement Thursday, a couple of liberal groups put out statements condemning the president’s plan while other groups said they were taking time to consider Obama’s plan before putting out their own statements.

Both inside Congress and without, Grijalva says he doesn’t expect the level of complaints to reach anywhere near what it was in the early 2000s.

“There are going to be the predictable voices,” he said. “But the fact that [members] aren’t saying anything about it should be an indication that they are worried a little bit about what their own constituencies are thinking in their individual districts. I don’t think there will be the human cry. It’s a very limited engagement. But like I said, it’s a slippery slope…and if it escalates, then I think the volume of the opposition is going to increase.”

Progressive stalwarts in the House were already expressing fretting that the president may soon find himself in another war — whether he wants one or not.

“The President does not want to get into another endless war. When you start increasing the advisors there, things happen, you get sucked deeper and deeper and deeper,” said Rep. Jm McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “I have no doubt the president doesn’t want to get into another pro-longed war but I worry that we may be positioning ourselves where we may get sucked into one. I hope I’m wrong but thats where my anxiety is.”

Kate Nocera contributed to this report.

Progressive Caucus Chair Expects Congress To Roll Over On Iraq

Iraq, obama, progressives, raul grijalva, White House