USSR Watch

Russia: A totalitarian regime in thrall to a Tsar who's creating the new Facist empire

By JONATHAN DIMBLEBY

As ex-President Putin settles in to his new role as Prime Minister, he has every reason to congratulate himself.

After all, he has not only written the script for his constitutional coup d'etat, but staged the play and given himself the starring role as well.

Of course, he has given a walk-on role to Dmitry Medvedev, his personally anointed successor.

…

But the transfer of power from Putin to his Little Sir Echo, Medvedev, and the show of military strength with those soldiers and clapped-out missiles in Red Square on Victory Day which followed it last week, made it clear who is really in charge.

…

Just before he stood down as President, Putin declared: "I have worked like a galley slave throughout these eight years, morning til night, and I have given all I could to this work. I am happy with the results."

As he surveys the nation today he reminds me of that chilling poem by Ted Hughes, Hawk Roosting, in which the dreaded bird sits at the top of a tall tree musing: "Now I hold all Creation in my foot - I kill as I please because it is all mine - I am going to keep things like this."

…

Despite the fact that Putin's Russia is increasingly autocratic and irredeemably corrupt, the man himself - their born-again Tsar - is overwhelmingly regarded as the answer to the nation's prayers.

Russia has a bloody and tormented history. Its centuries of suffering - its brutalities, its wars and revolutions, culminating in the collapse of communism and the anarchic buffoonery of the Yeltsin years - have taken a terrible psychological toll.

Cynicism and fatalism which eat away at the human psyche have wormed their way into the very DNA of the Russian soul.

In a nation that has not tasted and - with very few exceptions - does not expect or demand justice or freedom, all that matters is stability and security.

…

In a country where the "separation of powers" has become a bad joke, the law courts are no less corrupt.

Except perhaps for minor misdemeanours at local level, the judiciary is in thrall to the Kremlin and its satraps.

The threat of prosecution for tax fraud is the Kremlin's weapon of choice against anyone who dares to challenge its hegemony.

When Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, used his oil wealth to promote human rights and democracy, Putin detected a threat to his throne.

The oligarch was duly arrested and convicted of fraud. He now languishes in a Siberian jail where he is in the third year of an eight-year prison sentence.

None of this is a matter of public debate in Russia where the media has been muzzled by the Kremlin, their freedom of expression stifled by the government.

Almost every national radio and television station is now controlled directly or indirectly by the state, and the same applies to every newspaper of any influence.

In the heady days immediately before and after the collapse of the Soviet empire, editors and reporters competed to challenge the mighty and to uncover scandal and corruption.

Now they cower from the wrath of the state and its agents in the police and the security services.

That diminishing number who have the courage to investigate or speak out against the abuses perpetrated by the rich and powerful very soon find themselves out of a job - or, in an alarming number of cases, on the receiving end of a deadly bullet.

Some 20 Russian journalists have been killed in suspicious circumstances since Putin came to office. No one has yet been convicted for any of these crimes.

Putin calls the system over which he presides "sovereign democracy". I think a better term is "cryptofascism" - though even the Kremlin's few critics in Russia recoil when I suggest this.

After all, their parents and grandparents helped save the world from Hitler - at a cost of 25 million Soviet lives. Nonetheless, the evidence is compelling.

The structure of the state - the alliance between the Kremlin, the oligarchs, and the security services - is awesomely powerful.

No less worryingly is popular distaste - often contempt - for democracy and indifference to human rights.

In the absence of any experience of accountability or transparency - the basic ingredients of an open society - even the most thoughtful Russians are prone to say: "Russia needs a strong man at the centre. Putin has made Russia great again. Now the world has to listen."

The new Prime Minister has brilliantly exploited the patriotism and latent xenophobia of the Russia people to unify them in the belief that they face a major threat from NATO and the United States.

This combination of national pride and insecurity has been fuelled by the America with its proposed deployment of missiles only a few hundred kilometres from the Russian border, allegedly to counter a nuclear threat from Iran.

No serious defence analyst believes this makes any strategic sense, while even impeccably pro-Western Russians recoil from this crass assertion of super-power hegemony by President Bush.

Similarly most Russians feel threatened - and humiliated - by the prospect that Ukraine and Georgia, once the most intimate allies of the Soviet Union, may soon be enfolded in the arms of NATO.

…

With communism consigned to "the dustbin of history", there is no ideological conflict of any significance. And there is now only one military superpower.

[Editorial Comment: WHAT?]

Prayers With You....

My sincere prayers go out to Senator Kennedy and his family. I wish you quick recovery.

AI: Waterboarding

CIR Radio Tonight 04/25/2008

2100hrs Friday. Broadcasting from DC Area.

I DO NOT LIKE TIME MAGAZINE

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Since my guess is that everyone that reads this is educated they will realize the travesty of this cover. But just in case you don’t, and as a reminder to the rest of us…

The flag raising at Iwo Jima represents a proud moment in history and one that came at extreme cost. That photo came to represent the United States Marine Corps. It is the most recognizable image from WWII, in my humble opinion… and I think someone must have agreed along the way if it is the basis for the National Memorial to the USMC.

I spoke of the cost, let us think about the constant speak in our current war about how the cost is unacceptable in order to obtain victory. Iwo Jima was a strategic island that saw the brunt of 110,000 of our forces. (Comparable to today’s numbers.) Out of that: 6,821 died to take that island, and did those loses occur over a long fought 5 years? No. 35 days. 35 DAYS!

That photograph represents the true heroism of our armed forces, specifically the USMC in this case, and to bastardize it by a quick Photoshop to make it fit your purpose of Global Warming is sick and shameful.

Some of the veterans who were at the World War II Pacific battleground of Iwo Jima are hopping mad at TIME magazine’s latest cover.

It’s a takeoff on the famous picture of Marines raising the American flag. But TIME’s cover has substituted a tree and talks about a war on global warming.

The Marine who led the platoon that raised the flag on Iwo Jima says that “global warming is the biggest joke I’ve ever known.”

Another Iwo Jima veteran says, “It’s an absolute disgrace. Whoever did it is going to hell. That’s a mortal sin. God forbid he runs into a Marine that was an Iwo Jima survivor.”

TIME managing editor Richard Stengel isn’t backing down. He says, “There needs to be an effort along the lines of preparing for world war two to combat global warming and climate change.” (Link)

I hope that Time Magazine gets beaten upon the head repeatedly, metaphorically of course. If you wish to help with this “virtual beating” please join me in showing your frustration. Many people think it is good to write a form letter and have everyone sign it. Companies, people in general do not care if they get a 1,000 of the same letter with a different name. 1,000 each written shows the person actually cared enough to take the few moments to object with their own mind. It does not have to be long, but please join me:

letters@time.com

Customer Service Department

1-866-550-6934

Lets keep the honor where it is earned and deservedly placed, not with a fight for a cause that does not exist! And even if you do believe in the Global Warming cause, at a minimum have the honesty to fight for your cause by your own means. Not by using the suffering, honor, integrity, and death of others to advance your cause.

CIR Radio Tonight 04182008

2100hrs Friday. Broadcasting from DC Area.

OPERATION MYSPACE TONIGHT!

CIR Radio Tonight 04112008

2100hrs Friday. Broadcasting from DC Area.
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A case of "the Mutha's" is going around the Hill.

"McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they (the missiles) get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues," Rockefeller said.

He apologized to Senator McCain. That is all fine and good but don’t you think he owes and apology to all USN, USMC, and USAF aviators? He should go get a room with Murtha, because all he did was call fighter pilots blood thirsty mindless killers. Maybe he did it in a slightly more polite manner, but that is no different than Murtha and his “cold blooded killers” comment. I urge you to contact him and ask “is that how you really feel about the fine pilots of the military? If not, you owe and apology to more than just McCain!’

Email

Washington, DC 531 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-6472 (202) 224-7665 Main Fax

Beckley 220 North Kanawha Street Suite 1 Beckley, WV 25801-4514
(304) 253-9704 (304) 253-2578 Fax

Charleston 405 Capitol Street Suite 508 Charleston, WV 25301-1749
(304) 347-5372 (304) 347-5371 Fax

Fairmont 118 Adams Street Suite 301 Fairmont, WV 26554-2841
(304) 367-0122 (304) 367-0822 Fax

Martinsburg 217 West King Street Suite 307 Martinsburg, WV 25401-3211
(304) 262-9285 (304) 262-9288 Fax

Defend the homeland, missile defense.

“What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack, that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies?” - President Ronald Reagan, March 23, 1983

It seems as though the paranoia that came hand in hand with the Soviet Communist rule has returned. For a long time I have documented President Putin’s hostile words towards us, his added military actions in our direction, sales of SAMs to Iran, and fury over missile defense.

Our Constitution charges the Federal government to “provide for the common defense” and that is why I have been behind POTUS on making sure it becomes reality. Why would it be hard to understand one good idea to defend the country would be to prevent nuclear warheads from detonating over our heads? Does it stop there? Of course not, however it is one piece of the puzzle.

In the most recent trip by POTUS, NATO has invited Croatia and Albania to join. Of course as more countries join Putin has become more and more tense. I suppose it is not good for him to not be able to manhandle countries, knowing they have others willing to support them. Who supports Russia? They make friends by selling arms to Iran and communist regimes. My tears are just that of sweet joy hearing Putin complain over our plans for radar and interceptors in Europe.

Why so? He knows full well that the interceptors cannot impact his missile force, nor could the limited number of 10 interceptors threaten Russia’s vast ICBM power. In addition the radar used is directed in a certain position, meaning it is not going to be doing this so called “invasion” on Russian national security. So Putin cries over two problems…THAT ARE NOT REAL! If you have to resort to making up problems either things are going very well for you, or you are trying to misdirect people from looking at the real problems. I feel he is trying to misdirect people away from the fact he is making an effort to restore the Soviet ways.

As we have Iran pushing forward in nuclear development, Israel took out a site in Syria where nuclear work was being done with the help of North Korea. As Israel now reportedly confirms this to Japan it only heightens the reasoning for having a system to protect out allies in Europe (and the USA as their range increases in future years) from ballistic missile threats and ICBMs from the middle east.

Another welcomed change is that of congressional democrats not using there time to DESTROY the idea of missile defense. In the past you had a variety of democrats either attacking the overall idea of MD, saying it was too expensive, or of course that it didn’t work. Tests continue to show progress and success. Just think the most recent GAO numbers say that out of 20 tests, 80% were successful. Oh, and of the 20% failed, half of them failed because there was a failure on part of the target missile. So in reality 80% succeeded, and 10% failed due to the missile defense interceptor. I’d like to ask congress if they manage to get 80% of their proposed legislation through.

*As always Mike's America can provide added details over the week's events.

Gone.

See everyone soon. Quick update I had to make note of a fantastic piece...

The Use and Abuse of "4,000."


"The intelligence was bad. Pre-invasion planning was fundamentally flawed, with confusion about what followed the initial invasion’s success. There were severe shortages of critically needed equipment. The field generals lacked confidence in their superiors. The enemy’s strength was underestimated and their tactics surprised U.S. planners, dashing hopes for a quick victory. And more than 4,000 Americans died as the operation dragged on and on." Read on...

What to make of things...

What to make of things when those who spend their time harping about “follow the rules” decide to bend them?

The Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi demanded that a legislator’s gay partner be allowed to accompany Representative Baldwin to Europe. Why an issue? They were taking a military aircraft. As of now officially it is spouses allowed to travel together. A quick breakdown of where I stand:

Marriage is a religious ceremony. As of now my religious beliefs say marriage is between a man and a woman. I am fine with civil unions so that gay couples are able to see one another in emergency rooms, other basic rights. Do I include trips to Europe upon official Government property one of those rights? No.

DoD policy, like it or not does not support the use of its aircraft to carry friends, it is “spouses.” I mean she may very well “love” her partner however I love my friends, so do we start letting law makers take good friends, roommates, where does it stop? As of now it should stop here, President Clinton signed into law the DOMA which allows the Federal Government not to recognize marriages not recognized by the states (this situation falls in to that category). And as much as Barney Frank wants to think this is a Republican harsh treatment of the representative, last I checked (30 seconds ago) President Clinton is not a republican.

So what do we want, our federal government following its own rules… or just making it up as we go? It would sound as though the policy is like that of Space-A, meaning they could decline another passenger due to needing the seats. Since it is the left going on and on about our strained military resources, how about putting your money where your mouth is and saying “my partner will not go in order to cut down on any added strain”?

Now on the heels of the Obama and Clinton fibs, is Pelosi yapping about the “Hastert let them do it!” I thought that was the corrupt congress you were going to get away from Madam Speaker! However the Politico and AP are finding sources saying Hastert did nothing of the sort and only approved of the travel companion because the trip had already started.

“But that’s really as far as it goes,” Pentagon Spokesman Geoff Morrell continued. “This should not be viewed as a precedent which would now permit all nonspouse travel. That said, Secretary Gates will, on a case-by-case basis, entertain the speaker’s future requests to make exceptions.”

We’re full circle back to this idea of exceptions, so much for that tight ship operation Pelosi was going to run! My favorite is that the Pelosi camp is trying to say that she is in NO WAY trying to micro-manage the use of military aircraft. Of course not, she only called SECDEF to tell him what to do, then sent him a letter of exemption. No, who could dare come to the conclusion she is trying to play CINC???

Do we need to remind her that she is THIRD in line to taking over the Executive Branch, and POTUS/VPOTUS are still very much alive and in power.

Politico Link

Democrats: Lies or misinformed?

All the corruption that exists in the world is on the right side of the aisle, right? Of course. Let us see how all this plays out...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a Michigan nonprofit group, of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of
Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary.

At the time, the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq.

The lawmakers are not named in the indictment but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and Mike Thompson of California. None was
charged and Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said investigators "have no information whatsoever" any of them knew the trip was underwritten by Saddam. (Cont...)

Happy Easter!

CIR Radio TONIGHT

C.I.R. Radio

2100hrs east

Painful loss.

Good friend for a LONG time on the blogs Mike, from Mike's America, has recently lost his beloved blog assistant.

Hobbes

1992-2008

"Iraq Failures"

"Iraq is an abject failure" is what one of our best-est friends on Blogtalk radio said. However the moron did a show about this right as the following comes out. So I ask you to look in to the poll...

There are PLENTY of problems still existing, but this idea of only looking at the failures disgusts me. Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Excuse me, how do you feel about security?

Excuse me, how do you view the US?

I thought the idea that Iraq was a noble cause was solely a right-wing talking point. I was not aware that Iraqis are registered Republicans?!

The Poll
The article referring to the poll from the right-wing media people over at ABC.

Iraq ABC failure liberals OBM BlogtalkRadio.com CIR Radio

NYC Recruiting Ceneter

Historic New York City recruiting center bombed. I hold Berkeley responsible for this. Why, am I far reaching? No, the encouraged disrespect towards the military... So I do say they had a hand in this.

CIR Radio Tonight 02/29/08

2100hrs Friday. Broadcasting from DC Area.
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Feb. 28th Round Up.

C.I.R. Press Editorial

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- I have mentioned on CIR Radio that my schedule is becoming bogged down. So my posting will slow and I am looking in to the very possible need to put CIR Radio on hiatus for a few weeks. We shall see.

But right now I wanted to give you a run down on a few stories that drew my attention.

Number one, right off the bat. Medvedev will most likely be "elected" as the new President of Russia. Putin will take a "step down" but be appointed PM. This actually scares me a bit, because he is not the KGB resume holder like Putin. So he will present the "softer-side of the USSR" while Putin has idle hands behind the scenes...no spot lights on him. I think the saying "idle hands are the devil's workshop" came from the idea of a previous Soviet era KGB gone president, now with idle hands.

Next, I have my issues with the press and especially their interaction with the military. From the AP:

The U.S. military said today a journalist working for Canada's CTV television network, who has been held for four months without being charged, has been designated an unlawful enemy combatant.

Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan who is also known as Jojo Yazemi, was allowed to make a statement before an enemy combatant review board, which determined there was credible information to detain him because he was dangerous to foreign troops and the Afghan government, said Maj. Chris Belcher,
a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.

Next up, FISA and from the White House Press:

This brings us to immunity and the issue of immunity. The bills have prospective liability protections, so going forward with our activities. Then there's the issue of what to do about retroactive liability protection. And this involves the program that the President spoke about on December 17, 2005, in his radio address.

The Senate committee report is perhaps the best source of information about this. I would commend all of you to read it. They did an exhaustive analysis of this. The bill passed out of the Senate Intelligence Committee 13 to 2. Of course, you know it passed the Senate with 68 votes.

What do they say in that report? They say it's absolutely vital to our intelligence community mission that we have the cooperation of the private sector. It says that their help is indispensable to the safety of the nation. It also says -- it goes through what they call the unique historical circumstances after the attacks of September 11th, the fact that the private parties were given documentation showing that the President had authorized the program, and showing that the legality of the program was also certified by high-level administration officials. It said that they had a good-faith basis for cooperating with the government. It does not make a judgment about the ongoing discussions about the respective powers of the Congress and the President, and make an ultimate legal determination about that program.

Next, back to the USSR. Putin within the last month made a speech that accused the United States of sparking a new arms race. Yet, do not forget it was last August that PUTIN authorized for combat missions of bombers over the Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific ocean. Numerous times had been intercepted by us as well as the British. In multiple cases either nearly or actually violating our airspace. Need I remind you of their "buzzing" of our carrier? They will be adding 11 new Topol-M advanced ICBMs (One more than the number of interceptors to be placed in Europe). Then the replacing of older missiles by the newer RS-24. In addition to the bragging of placing 3-6 new launch systems online every year. But our development of a system to be 100% defensive obviously is the major problem in the world!?! What the hell wacky-tabacky do they smoke over there?

I think I will stop there and allow you to ponder. Sweet Dreams.