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Obama on Iran versus Reagan On Poland

notarobot says...

Reagan began his speech by eloquently deploring the violent acts of bullies who threaten freedoms of individuals and ends it by making threats of his own, thereby becoming bully himself. --No doubt the cold war (nuclear?) threats were meant intimidate the neighbours of a country occupied (at least in part) by the American military (ie West Germany).

The similarity to the situation in Iran is that it too is bordered by countries presently occupied by U.S. troops, has been subject to intimidating rhetoric from the U.S., and is nearby to Russia (sharing a trade border via the Caspian Sea). Many of the conflicts the U.S. has been involved with since the conclusion of WWII have had the partial aim of creating either a firm foothold or civil unrest about the doorstep of the Soviet Union--to "prevent the spread of socialism."

Reagan's comments in 1981 did little to defuse the cold war. If nothing else, his threats likely heightened existing tensions, and the cold war itself. Hannity seems to want to step back into the Fear-driven state that the Cold War was, when the tyranny of Fear was used to whither personal liberties in exchange for state-provided personal "safety" set in motion by McCarthyism.

The difference now is that most people are weary of occupying foreign lands, and tired of footing the bill for such imperialistic conquests to the sole benefit of war profiteers. The comments made by Obama and his administration reflect those wishes not to create even more conflicts than they are engaged in already. Earlier this year in his statements to Iran, Obama made effort to extend an olive branch to take the chill off that diplomatic climate. Rescinding that gesture will do nothing to aid the Administration's goal of creating a sense of stability in their policy, foreign and domestic.

Besides that, America can not afford another war-not even a cold one-and most of the world knows it.
Hannity stands alone in his ignorance.

Media Convergence - How It Has Changed Over The Past 30 Yrs

honkeytonk73 says...

What about change in content over the years? Depth and quality of coverage?

What about the fact that a majority of media broadcast in the United States all project the same core story/perspective using identical words with little to no variance?

Example: Russia invaded Georgia and they were the aggressor...when it was proven factually that Georgia initiated the invasion, resulting in an overzealous destructive response by Russia. The media had little to no mention regarding the US/Georgia relationship, US's oil pipeline interest through the Caspian region, and the US' support in training, militarizing, and supporting Georgian oil and business interests. Zero mention that the Georgian soldiers wore the SAME uniforms as US soldiers, and that a US soldier was reportedly captured by Russia. Another was reportedly killed. All by foreign media sources of course.

What about unbiased reporting?

In order to garner viewers, media outlets (i.e. CNN and FOX) will incur perspectives which are notably less than unbiased in order to 'satisfy' and 'maintain' a core viewership that fall along certain political lines? Why does the news media so readily fall into the 'everything the government says is true' box, often neglecting to ask the REAL HARD questions on issues that matter?

Why are alternative perspectives often unheard, or if they are, they are broadcast for the sole sake of causing unintelligent argument and conflict for the sake of entertainment value instead of actual substance?

Why are non-mainstream presidential candidates ALWAYS sidelined and not given equal exposure, no matter what their so-called 'popularity' factor is?

Why? Because the news media no longer works for the self interest of the citizen or the truth, but instead focuses on sensationalism for the sake of maintaining profitability in an advertisement funded medium. News outlets are also heavily influenced by political positioning by their ownership/corporation and resultant Washington connections through lobbyists.. such as over media/broadcast regulation issues, market ownership (tv vs radio vs print and regional restrictions).

Deny these problems if you wish News Media. But we the people (at least those of us with open eyes) see it.

Movies of 2008

deputydog says...

(from youtube)

List of Movies (in order of appearance):

-The Dark Knight
-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
-Wall-E
-Quantum of Solace
-Iron Man
-Defiance
-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
-Australia
-Forgetting Sarah Marshall
-Wall-E
-The Curious Case of Benjamin
-The Dark Knight
-Frost/Nixon
-Wall-E
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-Slumdog Millionaire
-Milk
-Seven Pounds
-Revolutionary Road
-Pineapple Express
-Speed Racer
-Burn After Reading
-Ghost Town
-Revolutionary Road
-Quantum of Solace
-Rachel Getting Married
-Australia
-Role Models
-Choke
-The Tale of Despereaux
-Cloverfield
-Zack and Miri Make a Porno
-The Visitor
-Milk
-Be Kind Rewind
-Synecdoche, New York
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-Doubt
-Wall-E
-W.
-Get Smart
-Iron Man
-Tropic Thunder
-Iron Man
-Tropic Thunder
-Doubt
-The Reader
-Happy-Go-Lucky
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-Valkyrie
-Frost/Nixon
-Yes Man
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-The Wrestler
-Revolutionary Road
-Snow Angels
-In Bruges
-Waltz with Bashir
-Wendy and Lucy
-Rachel Getting Married
-Get Smart
-Hamlet 2
-Hancock
-The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
-Cloverfield
-Wall-E
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
-The Day the Earth Stood Still
-The Dark Knight
-FADE OUT

-FADE IN
-The Dark Knight
-The Incredible Hulk
-Wall-E
-Seven Pounds
-Wendy and Lucy
-The Wrestler
-Australia
-The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
-The Dark Knight
-Wall-E
-Cloverfield
-Australia
-Miracle at St. Anna
-Waltz with Bashir
-Valkyrie
-Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
-Rachel Getting Married
-Pineapple Express
-The Dark Knight
-Defiance
-Che
-Valkyrie
-Australia
-Defiance
-Quantum of Solace
-Slumdog Millionaire
-The Wrestler
-Revolutionary Road
-The Dark Knight
-Defiance
-Australia
-Iron Man
-Cloverfield
-The Strangers
-Defiance
-Wall-E
-Slumdog Millionaire
-Revolutionary Road
-Synecdoche, New York
-Defiance
-Iron Man
-The Day the Earth Stood Still
-Waltz with Bashir
-The Dark Knight
-Australia
-The Wrestler
-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
-Cloverfield
-The Dark Knight
-Pineapple Express
-Defiance
-Rachel Getting Married
-Milk
-Quantum of Solace
-Defiance
-Kung Fu Panda
-Pineapple Express
-Seven Pounds
-The Wrestler
-Iron Man
-Eagle Eye
-Frost/Nixon
-Revolutionary Road
-The Reader
-Milk
-Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
-Gran Torino
-Che
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Afraid of Flying.. any help - seriously! (Wings Talk Post)

mintbbb says...

Hihi

I am alive, back in the States again! I THINK I did better. When we got to the cruising altitude, I just kept reminding myself that as long as we are up and running, we are fine. I had a few good books, and thanks goodness, the transatlantic plane had a dozen movies on a loop and 2 free drinks.

I ended up watching 'Get Smart', ' Narnia: Prince Caspian' and the newest Indiana Jones. I was very happy that the longest flights went without panic, I rather hated sitting whiteknuckled and listening to the engine noises for 8 hours.

The shirter flights were still kind of grabbing the arms of the chair and having very sweaty palms. But I behaved well, no crying, screaming, or getting arrested by an air marshall =) I think I could handle a single flight, just these 4 in one day and 4 more a week later are kinda rought.

But I am hone.. gett8ing stuck in some weird mid-atlantic time zone, since I am waking up at 4am EST and not getting back to sleep. Oh well, I have today off, I'll worry about being sane in workr tomorrow =)

Again, if anybody still checks this thread, thanks for all the help and suggestions. I made it, it went better than I thought and I am sooooooo happy to be back home! I was frigging honesick the whole trip! =)

1 Minute Vacation - Yosemite Falls

Russia and Georgia fight, casualties ensue :(

Farhad2000 says...

*doublepromote

Watching a news broadcast on Euronews, something struck me, this isn't simply an operation to secure western influienced lands by Russian forces. It represents a political and strategic reclamation of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the route of the future Trans-Caspian Oil pipeline.

Post collapse of the Soviet union the only oil routes for central Asian and Caspian states lead directly into Russia, giving the Russians a large degree of political and strategic influence over the energy flow into Europe.

There have been countless proposals to circumvent it, the BTC pipeline and the Trans-Caspian are routes that cross Georgia and through Turkey. Other routes use Afghanistan such as the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline.

Seemingly this is a false flag operation to dominate the last really untapped reserves of oil and natural gas found in Central Asia.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (1979)

The Iran McCain Would Rather You Not See

kulpims says...

iran would be well on it's way to become a democracy by now were there no interventions by the US and Israel, which won't give up it's strategic control of mid-East. like 1980-88 iran-iraq war, sponsored and instigated by the US. thus the clerics are still in power. there's a lot of well educated young people in Iran that want to establish normal relations with the west. my ex-girlfriend was in Iran in 1989, had trouble with the "ethics police" in Teheran, a bunch of armed youth and old war veterans that patroled the streets. apparently her feet were to "exposed" (she wore sandals and huge sunglasses) also her long blond hair peeked a bit from under all that disguise, so she was an easy target. she was with another guy and they had to pretend they're married to get a hotel room. they were pushing it a bit when they went skinny dipping in the Caspian sea (they entered from north, through Turkey) but they both came home with good impressions. they met a dozen educated mid-class iranians who were very eager to welcome them in their homes and talk to them about politics, life in Europe and the stuff that was bothering them like strict religious laws and the double lives they lived - out on the street or at work they always have to be careful about what they say, how they behave or what they wear. when at home they're much more relaxed and openly talk about life in Iran.
we shouldn't bomb them, we should help them make a better country for themselves or at least just leave them the fuck alone so they can get their shit together on their own. the US policy for the last few decades certainly didn't do any good to the evolutionary process in that part of the world.

A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn

kulpims says...

I'm sure most Americans would have a different opinion on the matter if you'd experience the madness of war first-hand. But then, US has never been in that situtation; your houses were never burnt down, your women never raped by foreign invaders, your friends and relatives never layed dead in the streets. On the other hand US military has been involved in every major conflict around the globe since WW1 under the guise of "exporting democracy" or some other bullshit catch phrase like "nation building". You just outsource wars like everything else and the only numbers that matter to you are the financial cost of war and american military casualties (4000+ now in Iraq). Rarely have I seen mentioned on any american mainstream TV network the real number of casualties among Iraqi civilian population (or they've been played down by a factor of 10 or more). So, please, do us all a favor and stop pretending you're the good guys here, the 50s are long gone and so is the cold war (you've ran out of excuses to invade other coutries cause no one buys this "war on terror" crap anymore). It's time to wake the fuck up and do something about it; like NOT voting McCain who's likely to start nuking Iran first month in office to get his big oil buddies what they want - access to the last fucking drops of cheap oil on this planet, that are buried under the Caspian sea basin. If he's elected president, of course. Alas the dems are just the flip-side of the same old broken record and Ron Paul chickened out of running as an independent so I guess we're all screwed either way...

Kosovo's independence (Worldaffairs Talk Post)

kulpims says...

update: taiwan recognised kosovo's independence yesterday and made china very angry seems like kosovo will be the next, european taiwan since this issue again divided the EU countries... who knows, maybe that's why the US put so much diplomatic effort into making kosovo an independent entity - it's always nice to have some leverage with your competitors... but i'm more interested in what will this mean for serbia since the nationalists are very strong there (serbians despite starting and eventualy loosing the 90s balkan wars didn't go through the same catharsis as the germans did after the fall of 3rd reich, the hague court can't even begin to compare with the nuremburg trials after the WW2 although the hague war crime tribunal was meant to be exactly it). i think the US made balkan it's playground back in the 90s, an expirement like the Mid-East. it's potential strategic value is great, since it covers the entrance from Mediterranean to the Black Sea and is also a buffer zone between the west and islam. US seeks control over the region cause of Caspian oil and whatever else it can squeeze out of it in the process - it's as simple as that. the old oil economy must be sustained for another decade or two for the US to survive it's own brutal economic policy. the only thing that for the moment keeps the dollar money machine going is US's military supremacy and this expansionist politics they run since before WW1. the problem is US has grown from a playground bully to a black trenchcoat kid with yielding a fucking shotgun...

Kosovo Declares Independence from Serbia - Crisis looming?

Kosovo's independence (Worldaffairs Talk Post)

Krupo says...

>> ^kulpims:
Few years ago nobody in EU dared to stir this mess but seems US interest prevailed after all. Albanians in Kosovo wanted autonomy for a long time but I don't believe they would have gone for it without substancial US backing. Bare in mind that in Kosovo, after the 1999 bombing of Serbia, US has built the biggest “from scratch” foreign US military base since the Vietnam war. There are two main reasons for building Camp Bondsteel:
1. Kosovo is rich in minerals such as copper, zinc and lead and even uranium
2. it is situated near AMBO (Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria Oil) pipeline project. This pipeline would supply oil (monthly deliveries valued at $600 million) from the Caspian Sea basin to Albanian shore and eventualy to the American market. The size restriction for tankers traveling through Bosporus is 150.000 tons while the Otrant straight from Adriatic to Mediterranean can accomodate 300.000 ton tankers. This will also ensure that in the future the US will be less dependant on oil from the Persian gulf. The main investor in this project is Halliburton.
Basicaly, if you look at this map, you can see that all diplomatic and military effort the US put in the countries around the Caspian sea basin, the so called central Asian countries, Pakistan, the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and current threats to Iran are all aimed at cutting off Russia and China from access to those rich reserves (many estimate them to be equal to those currently in the Gulf).
Great plan. And quite perverse. I can't blame the Russians for being so pissed off.


BTW, thanks for the background, that makes perfect sense. As usual, truth is found. On the sift.

Kosovo Declares Independence from Serbia - Crisis looming?

Kosovo's independence (Worldaffairs Talk Post)

kulpims says...

Few years ago nobody in EU dared to stir this mess but seems US interest prevailed after all. Albanians in Kosovo wanted autonomy for a long time but I don't believe they would have gone for it without substancial US backing. Bare in mind that in Kosovo, after the 1999 bombing of Serbia, US has built the biggest “from scratch” foreign US military base since the Vietnam war. There are two main reasons for building Camp Bondsteel:

1. Kosovo is rich in minerals such as copper, zinc and lead and even uranium

2. it is situated near AMBO (Albania-Macedonia-Bulgaria Oil) pipeline project. This pipeline would supply oil (monthly deliveries valued at $600 million) from the Caspian Sea basin to Albanian shore and eventualy to the American market. The size restriction for tankers traveling through Bosporus is 150.000 tons while the Otrant straight from Adriatic to Mediterranean can accomodate 300.000 ton tankers. This will also ensure that in the future the US will be less dependant on oil from the Persian gulf. The main investor in this project is Halliburton.

Basicaly, if you look at this map, you can see that all diplomatic and military effort the US put in the countries around the Caspian sea basin, the so called central Asian countries, Pakistan, the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and current threats to Iran are all aimed at cutting off Russia and China from access to those rich reserves (many estimate them to be equal to those currently in the Gulf).

Great plan. And quite perverse. I can't blame the Russians for being so pissed off.

Russian plane that flies on water documentary

Farhad2000 says...

In the front were 8 engines, each capable of 10 ton lifting capability, most of the power was mostly needed for the initial take off. 2 similar engines in the back were located in the keel, enough to keep the tail up.

The Caspian Sea Monster trails started in 1966, at Caspian Sea. The first flight lasted 55 minutes, with a height of 4 meters off the water and a speed of 400-450 km/h. While the flight looks smooth, there were problems, the body of the plane was built for flying and started to weaving like a snake under pressure. The solution was simplicity itself, to strengthen the body of the plane with metal sheets 20mm thick. But the Caspian Sea Monster did its assigned part convincing officials and earning Alexis a contract to develop more Ekranoplans called the A-90 Orlyonok.

The Orlyonok, launched in 1977, combined everything that has been learnt from the Caspian Sea Monster trails. The Orlyonok showed good results, with liftoff off the water at low speed, high lifting capability, and high speed in flight made this apparatus unique in its use and application.

"This is a marine transport Ekranoplan, capable of transferring 140 marines, or 2 APCs with troops. For load up, these locks are unlocked and the entire front side opens like a large gate."

Orlyonok could take up to a maximum up to 200 troops or 2 water based tanks, it could take off from 2 meter wave seas, and in several hours carry the troops a distance over 1500 KM. The speed of the Ekranoplan was 450 Km/H, no mines or bombs would pose it threat, it offered excellent maneuverability and control. Its low flying height of 2 m and high speed meant it was invisible to radar.

*The following part talks about how difficult it was to control for new pilots, once crashing it and tearing off the entire wings off. Once the engines failed catastrophically, but the pilots managed to make it glide to a stop into the coast*

5 Orlyonoks were built, one for static display, and 4 for flights. 2 were lost, in one of them a pilot died, leading the project to stop for a while.

One last derivative of the Caspian Sea Monster (KM ) was the armed Lun, work started on it in early 70s. The Lun-class was 8 M longer and 3 M higher then the KM. It was armed with 6 3M80 Mosquit rockets, capable of destroying any modern battleship. In 1971, the Lun passed firing exercises for it's weapons with flying colors.

"The Ekranoplan Lun-class was the killer of the seas, for this it has 6 rockets, in its time it performed marvelously. But it was not really accepted and 14 years later still awaits its fate in this dry dock"

The Lun was the best (most practical) of the Ekranoplan that Alexis had completed before his death; it could fly in Level 6 to 7 storms the original Caspian Sea Monster could only fly in Level 3 storms. The speed and armaments of the Lun transport, made it 3 times cheaper then the conventional battleship. However it was not built for the replacement of the battleship, but for support of sea based forces in enclosed seas such as the Baltic, Black or the Mediterranean seas.

"In 1993 they showed the flight of this plane, the one right behind me, to American delegates and after that the flights were basically stopped."

It was a strange occurrence, the Americans always wanted to see the Ekranoplan. They saw it, were marveled and left. And the Ekranoplan faded into obscurity. The USSR collapsed, and not one new version of the plane has been developed. The hard character of its developer, the difficulties in its constructions and the catastrophes of the trails while no military technology came without its difficulties, the Ekranoplan has had far worse fate. What is the fate of this Russian wonder? Seeing as NATO is experimenting with similar technologies, maybe it's not long before in Russia they will remember the work of Rastislav Evegniy Alexisy.



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