Month: May 2014

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LATEST NEWS from KREMLIN: Kiev’s ‘punitive op’ in E. Ukraine irreparably severs Geneva accord – Kremlin

No surprise here if you followed my diaries about decisionmaking by NATO instead of in the European capitals. The U.S. – Russia relations have deterioted in a rapid pace. In March, before today’s announcement:

○ Vershbow: NATO prefers strategic partnership not new Cold War with Russia

NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow  has given an interview to Interfax correspondent Ksenia Baigarova in which he speaks about the Ukrainian crisis, its consequences for NATO-Russia relations, differences of the Kosovo and Crimean situations, and a possibility of a new Cold War.

NATO’s second-in-command says Russia is now an enemy, not a partner

(RT/AP) May 1, 2014 – The 61-year-old former United States ambassador to Russia reportedly told journalists this week that Moscow’s role in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine has forced NATO to reconsider the alliance’s opinion on Russia, and that additional troops may soon be mobilized to the region as tensions worsen.

AP journalist Robert Burns wrote on Thursday that Vershbow said the Kremlin’s perceived part in the recent events in Ukraine “marks a turning point in decades of effort by NATO to draw Moscow closer.”

NATO’s second-in-command reportedly told journalists that the alliance is now considering new measures meant to counter any future acts of aggression on the part of Russia aimed at partner nations, and soon could deploy a larger number of combat forces to Eastern Europe.

Journalists reporting for Civil.Ge wrote on Thursday that Vershbow told the audience at a panel discussion in Washington, DC one day earlier that NATO should deploy “defensive assets to the region.”

“We need to step up our support for defense reforms and military modernization of Russia’s neighbors, and not just of Ukraine, but also Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan,” Vershbow said, according to the Civil Georgia site.

NATO should think about “upgrading” joint exercises among partner nations, the site quoted Vershbow as saying during the event, while acknowledging that deploying forces to Georgia would be a “controversial” maneuver.

“It is also important for the United States to show leadership… to make sure that next steps that NATO will make, for example at the summit in September, will be adequate response to what’s happening in Ukraine,” the Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania said during the discussion.

“The West should now seize the opportunity and create the reality on the ground by accepting membership of aspirant countries, by putting purely defensive assets in aspirant countries and predominantly in Georgia,” Alasania added. “What is important now is to put some deterrent capabilities on the ground like air defense and anti-armor capabilities that will give us a chance to defend our freedom, because we know that if things go wrong at this point no one is coming to save us; we’ve seen that in 2008.”

Earlier this week, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said the buildup of NATO troops near Russia’s border was “unprecedented”. Weeks earlier, the US Air Force commander in charge of NATO’s military presence in Europe said that US troops may soon be deployed to the region as tensions continue to worsen near the border between Ukraine and Russia.

Awards: During his U.S. government career, Ambassador Vershbow received numerous awards including the Department of Defense’s Distinguished Civilian Service Medal (2012);  … the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award for his work as Ambassador to NATO (2001); the Department of Defense’s Joseph J. Kruzel Award for his contributions to peace in the former Yugoslavia (1997). One award stands out: Anatoly Sharansky Freedom Award of the Union of Councils of Soviet Jews for his work in advancing the cause of Jewish emigration from the USSR (1990). Alexander Vershbow was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His wife, Lisa, is a prominent contemporary jewelry designer and metalsmith.

Continued below the fold …

Bush has selected Alexander Vershbow as ambassador to Russia

(CBS News) – In August 1998, Vershbow put forward a proposal for a joint U.S.-Russian peace plan for Kosovo that the two nations would have brought to the United Nations Security Council for approval. The Clinton Administration ignored Vershbow’s plan. Instead, they let administration hardliners take charge. Eleven weeks, billions of dollars, and thousands of lives later, NATO and Yugoslavia were coming to terms on a peace accord that could have been concluded without a NATO bombing campaign.

Ambassador Alexander Vershbow stands for the stability of Russia and the development of a Russia that is a cooperative and constructive member of the community of nations. “We are allies today because we share common values and a common vision for the future, rooted in democracy, human rights, and political pluralism,” he said. “We share certain values, which underpin not only our security alliances, but also our foreign policy as a whole and the friendship between our peoples. These values are democracy, human rights, free markets and the rule of law.”

NATO And Russia: Redefining Relations For The 21st Century
Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation

US Defence Department Vershbow – Embarrassing Wikileaks Revelations Concerning U.S.-Israel Relations – 2009

(Tikun Olam) Nov. 29, 2010 – Here are some fascinating memos.  This one dated October 31, 2008, in particular is a bit of a jaw-dropper.  Usually, diplomats maintain a strict separation between their professional work and spying.  The CIA does the latter and diplomats concentrate on foreign policy matters.  Apparently, no longer.  A memo from the Rice-era State Department, which euphemistically notes that its contents call for assisting in compiling “biographical information” on Palestinians, calls for U.S. personnel to report credit card, frequent flier account numbers, and work schedule to their superiors in Washington …

A November 16, 2009 memo concerning a high level meeting between U.S. diplomats and senior Israeli military-intelligence confirms that the IDF repeats the same nonsense in such private sessions as it does publicly:

The U.S. projects a pragmatic interest in combatting Hamas through a public diplomacy campaign, to which the Israelis say: why waste your time?  Israel clearly argues for continued Palestinian fragmentation and divisiveness as a policy goal, a losing long-term proposition if ever there was one.

In this exchange on the Goldstone Report, the Israeli MOD’s director general sells the Yanks a bill of goods.  Not sure how making 300,000 calls to Palestinians warning them to get out of Dodge constitutes an “extraordinary step to mitigate civilian casualties,” when inhabitants had either already abandoned their homes or could not do so due to the fact that the IDF shot virtually anything that moved on the streets:

In bringing up the Goldstone Report, DG Buchris emphasized that the Government of Israel took extraordinary steps to mitigate civilian casualties, despite HAMAS's deliberate use of civilians as human shields.  He stated that the IDF made over 300,000 phone calls to alert civilians before bombing legitimate military targets.  He also compared
Israeli operations in Gaza to U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and stated that Israel would do whatever was necessary to protect its population.  In response, [Assistant U.S. Defense Secretary] ASD Vershbow recalled U.S. support for Israel in handling of the Goldstone report, and offered to share U.S. experience in investigating incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan as the GOI considered whether to conduct an additional investigation.

I’m not clear whether Vershbow’s “offer” in the last sentence is one to help Israel avoid serious investigation of Cast Lead abuses (since U.S. investigations of our own abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed miserably); or whether this constitutes what he believes is a serious offer to help Israel do the right thing.  If the latter, it’s a woefully naïve offer.

○ Kerry Preaching Policy Contra Russia @Atlantic Council  Apr. 30, 2014
○ Anglo-American Relationship, Atlanticists and Israel  Apr. 20, 2014
○ Former NATO Ambassador Ivo Daalder @Atlantic Council

My two diaries in March just about summarizes new US policy vs Russia. State Department lies, propaganda and
willful deceit of the global community. I won’t stand for it …

○ Making An Enemy – Demonizing Putin Endangers America’s Security
○ US ‘Diplomacy’ Dead-Ended In UN Security Council

You many not remember Hans Von Spakovsky, but he served in George W. Bush’s Justice Department before being recess-appointed (over Democratic objections) to serve on the Federal Election Commission. Here is a refresher on why the Democrats didn’t want him overseeing federal elections:

Von Spakovsky’s tenure at the Justice Department was marked by a focus on voter eligibility and voter fraud. In 2005, he led the Department’s approval of a controversial Georgia law requiring voters to produce photo ID, despite strong objections from Justice Department staff that the law would disproportionately harm and disenfranchise African-American voters. Von Spakovksy subsequently acknowledged that he had written a law review article supporting such photo ID laws under the pseudonym “Publius”, prompting concerns that he should have recused himself from the Justice Department decision. The Georgia law was subsequently overturned by a federal judge, who compared it to a “Jim-Crow era poll tax”. During von Spakovsky’s tenure, more than half of the career Justice Department staff left the voting section in protest.

Okay, so that is about as bad a record as someone can create working in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. More than anyone else, von Spakovsky is responsible for inventing the issue of voter fraud and instigating a nationwide effort to pass laws that are designed to disenfranchise disproportionally Democratic voters (usually racial minorities).

He was also a pain in the neck to work with.

A group of career Justice Department staff wrote a letter to the Senate arguing against von Spakovsky’s appointment [to the FEC], saying that he “played a major role in the implementation of practices which injected partisan political factors into decision-making on enforcement matters and into the hiring process, and included repeated efforts to intimidate career staff.”

In response to questioning from the Senate, von Spakovsky repeatedly asserted that he could not remember or recall his involvement in various controversial Justice Department decisions, drawing comparisons to the testimony of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

This is the main who just wrote the following at The Corner:

If there is any agency in the government where employees need to take extra steps in being nonpartisan and politically circumspect, it is the Federal Election Commission. The FEC is responsible for enforcing federal campaign-finance laws that involve one of the most sensitive areas of the First Amendment: political activity and political speech. In targeting candidates for investigation over possible violations of the law, the FEC must avoid even the appearance of acting in a partisan manner. I can’t think of a bigger black eye for the agency — or a more dangerous development — than having one of its own employees violate the Hatch Act for engaging in partisan political activity.

The gall of this man is planetary in size.

The Department of Health & Human Services has just issued its report on ObamaCare enrollments. It is time to drink the tears of your Republican neighbors. Not only did ObamaCare exceed enrollment expectations, but 85% of the enrollees are receiving some degree of subsidy. And nearly 70% of enrollees are white, proving that freeloading is a multiracial American tradition.

Key findings from today’s report include:

8,019,763 people selected Marketplace plans from October 1, 2013, through March 31, 2014, (including additional Special Enrollment Period activity through April 19th). Nearly 2.6 million signed up in the State Based Marketplaces and over 5.4 million in the Federally-facilitated Marketplace. About 3.8 million people, including nearly 1.2 million young adults (ages 18 – 34), enrolled in the Health Insurance Marketplace plans in the sixth and final reporting period, which began March 2 and concluded on April 19. Those 3.8 million individuals represent nearly 90 percent growth over February’s cumulative enrollment.

Of the more than 8 million:
54 percent are female and 46 percent are male;
34 percent are under age 35;
28 percent are between the ages of 18 and 34;
65 percent selected a Silver plan, while 20 percent selected a Bronze plan; and,
85 percent selected a plan with financial assistance.

Today’s report measures enrollment as those who selected a plan.

The federal Marketplace also reported, for the first time this month, the race/ethnicity of its enrollees. The application for coverage through the Federally-facilitated Marketplaces (FFM) contains questions on race and on ethnicity, both marked as optional. Thirty-one percent of enrollees did not report their race or ethnicity or chose “other.” However, of those enrollees who reported race and ethnicity:

62.9 percent of those reporting are white;
16.7 percent are African American;
10.7 percent are Latino;
7.9 percent are Asian;
1.3 percent are multiracial;
0.3 percent are American Indian/Alaska Native; and,
0.1 percent are Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

Based on the latest census data, a surprising level of Asians took advantage of ObamaCare, possibly owing to their tendency to work for small businesses that don’t provide health insurance. Blacks are slightly overrepresented in the sample. In contrast, Latinos are lagging behind. I wonder if the explanation for that has some cross-over that also explains their low voter participation. Some kind of civic disengagement, perhaps?

In any case, if you think ObamaCare is just a giant transfer of white people’s hard-earned money to shiftless minorities, the numbers don’t bear that out. Maybe if you look into the S-CHIP and Medicaid numbers you will find more evidence of racial wealth transfer. On the other hand, if you take the 8,019,763 who signed up for ObamaCare and add in the 4.8 million people who enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP, and the 5 million who got ObamaCare-compliant plans outside the exchanges, and the people who got to stay on their parents’ plans, it amounts to a lot of moochers!

Also, too, 34% of enrollees are younger than thirty-five.

Republican tears taste so sweet!

It’s very important for many people to know that they will be buried next to the person they loved, the person they married. How many married couples do you know who buy adjacent burial plots for this very reason. My parents did. I suspect many of your parents also chose to be buried next to one another. How would you feel if you were told that you could not be buried next to your spouse because the state did not recognized your marriage?

So imagine the distress of Madelynn Taylor, a veteran of the US Navy who was told that she and her spouse, a woman she married outside her home state of Idaho who died in 2012, would be denied burial in the Idaho State Veteran’s Cemetery because they did not have an official Idaho marriage license. Idaho does not permit same sex marriage. In effect, the state was telling her that, despite honorably serving her country, they would not recognize her marriage nor allow the ashes of her beloved spouse to be interred with her in a cemetery officially designated for veterans of the US Armed Forces. Apparently, some veterans are more equal than others in the eyes of the state of Idaho.

One person who heard about this injustice was a retired fellow veteran by the name of Barry Johnson. He served for 27 years and retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of Colonel. On Tuesday, his letter to the editor of the Idaho Statesman was published and here is what he offered her in his letter:

Then we have Madelynn Taylor, who seems like one heck of a lady. She cared for another person with all her heart and had to watch that person die. She is a veteran. She loves her country. She wants her partner by her side and she wants to eternally rest among veterans in the state she made home.

Madelynn, you deserve that.

I’ll tell you what. I will donate the plot I earned in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery to you and Jean. I am happy to give my fellow veteran that small peace of mind. And I do it to honor all the great Americans I’ve served with along the way – gay, straight, whatever. (I don’t know whether it is possible to donate my plot, but I am quite sincere about my willingness to do so.)

I encourage you to read the entire letter. Col Johnson writes from the heart and makes many valid points about the right of all people straight or gay, to enjoy the same benefits as every other American. He flat out says that he knew he served with many LGBT people in the military and that it simply did not matter to him or to many of his fellow members of the armed forces who their fellow soldiers, sailors and airmen chose to love. As he states rather eloquently, that when the “official” policy changed to allow LGBT people to serve openly in the military it was a bigger deal in the media than among his comrades.

Unfortunately, like Colonel Johnson, I do not know if the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery will see reason and permit him to transfer his burial plot to Madelynn Taylor so that she and her deceased wife, Jean Mixner, can be buried together. Perhaps, the state of Idaho will see the error of its ways and allow a couple of people who loved one another to be buried together. Or perhaps they will continue to insist on their mean spirited, bigoted response and deny Col. Johnson the right to transfer his plot to Marylynn and Jean. Regardless, Barry Johnson’s very public gesture of solidarity and support for his fellow veteran deserves our admiration and respect.

As he said at the end of his letter in the Idaho Statesmen:

Give Madelynn and Jean and others like them a break. Stop finding reasons to make life – and in this case, death – harder than it needs to be.

That’s just irritating as hell and disrespectful to boot.

Simple respect and dignity for all. What a concept, eh?

I think it’s inherently risky to lob accusations of anti-semitism at people who wholeheartedly support Israel’s right to exist but criticize their policies. If people fear that support for Israel as a “Jewish state” will dry up if it is seen as an “apartheid state,” then they should take the advice of their critics and get out of the West Bank and work on creating a two-state solution. Yelling at everyone who criticizes them threatens to lose them critical support, especially on the left. I can handle being called an anti-semite since I am secure in my own beliefs and know that my support of Israel is sincere. But being smeared with nasty slurs doesn’t exactly create good will. It’s kind of natural for people to turn against folks who are seeking to tarnish their reputation.