I know I'm really getting out there these days, but....
"Space station astronauts get special Easter delivery" by Marcia Dunn | Associated Press April 21, 2014
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space station astronauts got a special Easter treat: a cargo ship full of supplies.
The shipment arrived Sunday morning via the SpaceX company’s cargo ship, Dragon.
‘‘Gentlemen, the Easter Dragon is knocking at the door,’’ NASA’s Mission Control said as the capsule was bolted into place.
The Dragon spent two days chasing the international space station after its launch from Cape Canaveral. Astronauts used a robot arm to capture the capsule 260 miles above Egypt.
What happen, they get lost?
More than 2 tons of food, spacewalking gear, and experiments fill the Dragon, including mating fruit flies, a little veggie hothouse, and legs for the resident robot. NASA also packed family care packages for the six spacemen.
On Wednesday, the stakes will be even higher when the two Americans on board conduct a spacewalk to replace a dead computer. NASA wants a reliable backup in place as soon as possible, even though the primary computer is working fine. The backup failed April 11.
The SpaceX delivery wasn’t exactly express. The launch was delayed more than a month.
A minor communication problem cropped up during Sunday’s rendezvous, but the capture still took place on time and with success.
SpaceX flight controllers, at company headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., exchanged high-fives, shook hands, applauded, and embraced once Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata snared the Dragon with the station’s hefty robot arm.
‘‘Great work catching the Dragon,’’ NASA’s Mission Control radioed from Houston. ‘‘Thanks for getting her on board.’’
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NASA is paying SpaceX as well as Virginia’s Orbital Sciences Corp. to regularly stock the orbiting lab. These commercial shipments stemmed from the 2011 retirement of the space shuttles. This was the fourth station delivery for SpaceX.
So NASA became a check-cutter for the privati$ation of the $pace program?
Russia, Japan, and Europe also make occasional deliveries.
You know, I was kind of wondering about that because couldn't the Russians basically hold our guys hostage?
On Sunday, a private company announced that a lucky citizen of the United Arab Emirates could soon get the chance to be rocketed into space.
I wonder who they will choo$e.
Related: 3 UAE women attacked with hammer at London hotel
Time to abort relations.
Government-backed Aabar Investments will hold a competition to award an Emirati a free spot aboard Virgin Galactic’s spaceship when it begins ferrying paying tourists on suborbital trips promising a taste of weightlessness and a view of the Earth’s curvature.
The United Arab Emirates is a seven-state federation that includes Dubai and the federal capital Abu Dhabi. The OPEC member country has a nascent satellite program and is eager to develop its own space industry as part of a broader push to diversify its economy.
Contest details have yet to be worked out, but it appears the millions of expatriates who far outnumber the local Emirati population are not eligible.
Aabar is a partial owner of Virgin Galactic along with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.
The company, one of several state-linked investment firms backed by Abu Dhabi, gave Virgin Galactic a major financial jolt in 2009 by agreeing to pay $280 million in exchange for just under a third of the space startup.
It raised its stake to nearly 38 percent in 2011 after pumping in additional funds that would go toward developing a satellite launch program.
The free ride on offer is a way to give something back to the United Arab Emirates, Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides said. ‘‘Without the support of Aabar Investments, this program would not be where it is today,’’ he said.
Al-CIA-Duh wouldn't be what it is without Zaudi $upport.
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Back down on earth:
"US considers Europe troop exercises" | Associated Press April 21, 2014
WASHINGTON — The United States is considering deploying about 150 soldiers for military exercises to begin in Poland and Estonia in the next few weeks, a Western official said.
Way to deescalate.
The exercises would follow Russia’s buildup of forces near its border with Ukraine and its annexation last month of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
Oh, man, this stuff reads like Iraq 1991.
Ground exercises in Poland and Estonia would last about two weeks but such exercises would continue on a rotating basis off and on over time.
And that will cost the austerity-laden US taxpayers how much?
And other locations in Eastern Europe would be considered, the official said Saturday. An announcement is expected this week.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said last week that the United States is looking for ways to reassure its NATO allies of its strong commitment to collective defense.
I'm not reassured, are you?
The Pentagon’s press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, said American officials are considering a range of additional measures. Kirby’s statement about additional measures did not offer specifics.
‘‘Some of those activities will be pursued bilaterally with individual NATO nations. Some will be pursued through the alliance itself,’’ he said.
So when does the invasion of Russia begin?
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"Photos buttress Ukraine’s claims of intervention; Russian forces appear to be seeding unrest" by Andrew Higgins, Michael R. Gordon and Andrew E. Kramer | New York Times April 21, 2014
"If ever there was a "Presstitute in Chief", shilling for the US government's lies with which to support a war agenda, it has to be this guy." -- whatreallyhappened.com
Related: Peddler of Iraq War Lies Now Pushes Lies On Urkaine to Drum Up Confrontation with Russia
Seems like the whole crew over there to me.
See: Prop 102: Iraq and Government Lies
At least he confessed to them, right?
KIEV — For two weeks, the mysteriously well-armed, professional gunmen known as “green men” have seized Ukrainian government sites in town after town, igniting a brush fire of separatist unrest across eastern Ukraine. Strenuous denials from the Kremlin have closely followed each accusation by Ukrainian officials that the world was witnessing a stealthy invasion by Russian forces.
There he goes again!
Now, photographs and descriptions from eastern Ukraine endorsed by the Obama administration on Sunday suggest that many of the green men are indeed Russian military and intelligence forces — equipped in the same fashion as Russian special operations troops involved in annexing the Crimea region in February. Some of the men photographed in Ukraine have been identified in other photos clearly taken among Russian troops in other settings.
I can't think of a better reason to not believe it.
So when are they putting out the pictures of their hired thugs and such? Btw, those photos were presented without context. No dates, no nothing. It could be a complete fraud or photos from somewhere else. Wouldn't be the first time the U.S. government did something like that.
And Ukraine’s state security service has identified one Russian reported to be active among the green men as Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, a Russian military intelligence operative in his mid- to late 50s. He is said to have a long resume of undercover service with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian general staff, most recently in Crimea in February and March and now in and around the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk.
He must be the mirror of the Mossad guy Israel had directing things on the Maidan.
“There has been broad unity in the international community about the connection between Russia and some of the armed militants in eastern Ukraine, and the photos presented by the Ukrainians last week only further confirm this, which is why US officials have continued to make that case,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said Sunday.
Nothing about the Nuland/Pyatt conversation, 'eh?
Russia’s role in eastern Ukraine has a critical bearing on the agreement reached Thursday in Geneva among Russian, Ukrainian, US, and European diplomats to ease the crisis. US officials have said that Russia would be held responsible for ensuring that the Ukrainian government buildings were vacated, and that it could face new sanctions if the terms were not met.
The Kremlin insists that Russian forces are in no way involved, and that Strelkov does not even exist, at least not as a Russian operative sent to Ukraine with orders to stir up trouble.
“It’s all nonsense,” President Vladimir Putin said Thursday during a four-hour question-and-answer show on Russian television. “There are no Russian units, special services or instructors in the east of Ukraine.”
Why do I believe him more than my pos president and mouthpiece media?
Pro-Russian activists who have seized government buildings in at least 10 towns across eastern Ukraine also deny getting help from professional Russian soldiers or intelligence agents.
But masking the identity of its forces, and clouding the possibilities for international denunciation, is a central part of the Russian strategy, developed during years of conflict in the former Soviet sphere, Ukrainian and US officials say.
John R. Schindler, a former National Security Agency counterintelligence officer who now teaches at the Naval War College, calls it “special war” — “an amalgam of espionage, subversion, even forms of terrorism to attain political ends without actually going to war in any conventional sense.”
Where did he get that, a CIA handbook?
And one country, Schindler noted in an article last year in which he coined the term, that particularly excels at special war is Russia, which carried out its first post-Soviet war to regain control of rebellious Chechnya back in 1994 by sending in a column of armored vehicles filled with Russian soldiers masquerading as pro-Moscow Chechens.
No wonder the U.S. is losing worldwide.
Russia’s flair for disguised warfare has become even more evident under Putin, a former KGB officer whose closest advisers are mostly from that same Soviet intelligence agency.
Okay, NYT.
We had a president who was director of the CIA.
In eastern Ukraine Sunday, a shootout at a checkpoint run by pro-Russian militant separatists near Slovyansk left at least three people dead.
Looks like a provocation to me!
At about 2 a.m. on a road lined with blossoming apricot trees, four cars drove toward the checkpoint and their occupants opened fire, killing three local men who were standing guard, according to pro-Russian militants who control the town.
The Ukrainian police said an undetermined number of attackers had been killed or wounded in the gunbattle. Pro-Russian militants and Russian state television said two of the attackers were killed, the Associated Press reported.
“We thought nothing would happen because it was the holy night,” said Yevgeny Bondarenko, 62, who said he had been there to celebrate Easter with the people at the checkpoint. “Who can we trust now?”
It was unclear whether the shooting was an event staged by provocateurs, an accident or an attack on pro-Russian militants.
I think we can safely deduce what it was.
The difficulty in sorting out what happened will resonate far beyond Slovyansk, the linchpin of a string of midsize towns north of the regional capital, Donetsk, that are controlled by pro-Russian militants.
That's as close to a confirmation as I will see.
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"Moscow, Kiev trade more charges on civil unrest" by Will Englund and William Booth | Washington Post April 22, 2014
We wouldn't want to leave out the other half of the war media duet.
MOSCOW — Russia blamed authorities in Kiev on Monday for the violence in eastern Ukraine, accusing them of trying to ignite a civil war in the region, but a top US diplomat warned that Russia has ‘‘days, not weeks’’ to abide by an international accord aimed at stemming the crisis.
Or el$e!
The United States has said it will order new economic sanctions against Russian officials and entities if Moscow doesn’t follow through on the provisions in last week’s accord.
Gregory Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, said it was still too early to tell whether the deal would succeed, but he added, ‘‘The ball is really in Moscow’s court.’’
Type of the devil!
‘‘There needs to be concrete results,’’ Pyatt told reporters in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. He said the United States would make a decision on whether the agreement is working within days.
Vice President Joe Biden arrived Monday in Kiev to confer with political leaders, activist groups, and diplomats on the crisis, in which pro-Russia militants are continuing to occupy government buildings in the east in defiance of the central government.
How would AmeriKan officials felt had Medvedev flown in and stood with Occupy Wall Street protesters. How would that have gone over?
Biden is bringing US economic assistance to Kiev as well as warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin that future intervention in Ukraine’s volatile east will incur new costs.
Looks like deescalation to me!
Only AmeriKa is allowed to intervene!
But Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow will intervene militarily if bloodshed continues — even as Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of stirring it up.
‘‘There has been a surge in appeals to Russia to save them from this outrage,’’ Lavrov told a news conference here, invoking a time-honored Russian rationale for military intervention in another country. ‘‘We are being put into an extremely complex position.’’
$hit-covered propaganda pre$$ pot calling the kettle black, except the kettle is mostly clean!
‘‘Those who are deliberately pursuing a civil war, in a possible attempt to start a big, serious bloody conflict, are pursuing a criminal policy,’’ he said. “And we will not only condemn this policy but will also stop it.’’
Lavrov said Kiev was ‘‘flagrantly’’ disregarding its obligations under an agreement reached Thursday in Geneva. Russia demands that a protest camp at Kiev’s Independence Square, known as the Maidan, be disbanded before further steps toward a resolution can be taken, he said.
The square was the center of protests against pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February.
Biden is the most senior administration official to visit Ukraine since its crisis with Russia began two months ago, leading to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s autonomous Crimea region in March.
A senior American official said the vice president would meet with top Ukrainian officials Tuesday and reveal a US technical support package aimed at boosting the country’s economy, energy sector, and political reform efforts before presidential and mayoral elections May 25.
So when are they going to start taking care of the neglected American people with such things instead of the locked-in budget cuts?
Un-flipping-believable!
Under the Geneva agreement, which has the approval of the United States and the European Union, armed groups are supposed to vacate the buildings they have seized. But in eastern Ukraine, there has been no movement so far in that direction.
Lavrov also took a shot at Washington on Monday, saying there was no way Russia could be effectively isolated.
He's right! My propaganda pre$$ mouthpiece won't tell me so, but they are cutting deals and end-running around the dollar. That's why the new$paper drops it and changes the subject.
Ukraine’s leaders fear Putin is looking for an excuse to take more direct action in the nation’s east, where many residents speak Russian and distrust central authorities in Kiev.
Maybe he should accuse Ukraine of building nuclear bombs and hiding WMD.
‘‘President Putin has a dream to restore the Soviet Union, and every day he goes further and further, and God knows where is the final destination,’’ Ukraine’s acting prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said Sunday on NBC’s ‘‘Meet the Press.’’
I cannot tell you how happy I am that I never watch those programs. In fact, I'm here blogging when they are on with the TV off.
The United States says that about 40,000 Russian troops are gathered along Russia’s border with Ukraine.
And no one believes them!
Biden will meet Tuesday with Yatsenyuk and Oleksandr Turchynov, the acting president. He is also scheduled to meet with legislators from across the country and democracy activists before returning to Washington on Tuesday night.
There was a burst of violence Sunday in a village outside Slovyansk, in which at least three local people were killed during a shootout at a checkpoint that was manned by pro-Russia troops.
Now they are no longer militants or insurgents, but actual troops.
The propaganda doesn't get any better than this, and it's shameful!
Militants and Russian media said two of the attackers also were killed.
Ukrainian and Russian officials each blamed the other for instigating the attack.
The White House said it was trying to determine who was responsible and had no independent verification of what happened,’’ White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
C'mon! It's what we thought it was!
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Even as officials sorted through this latest disturbance, the State Department sought to build a public case against Russia for the wider unrest, the Associated Press reported.
Much like they sought to build a public case against Iraq in the first quarter of the year 2003!!!!
The United States asserted on Monday that publicly available photographs from Twitter and other media show that some of the troops in eastern Ukraine are Russian special forces, and officials said the photos support their argument that Moscow is using its military to stir unrest in Ukraine.
This is gross stuff, folks, and I'm not buying one word from this lying, war-mongering government or its mouthpiece!
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Straight from the horse's ass:
"Ukraine’s stability depends on neutrality, pressure on Putin" | April 19, 2014
THE ONLY way the United States can stabilize Ukraine is to....
Stop destabilizing it!
Right now, there is little doubt that Putin is fomenting unrest, but as contrived as the pro-Russian protests in eastern Ukraine appear to be, Putin is capitalizing on real resentments.
Little doubt, like Hussein's WMDs.
And they wonder why I resent them?
Eastern Ukraine voted overwhelmingly for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president who was ousted by activists in Kiev after choosing a trade deal with Russia over one with the European Union. Yanukovych’s political party, the Party of Regions, has its stronghold in the east. Some of his political allies there are still loyal to him, and are furious that he was ousted from power.
It does not help that the new Ukrainian government formed with the blessing of the United States and European Union contains few politicians from the eastern part of the country and virtually no members of the Party of Regions.
And illegitimate all the same.
The interim prime minister, deputy prime minister, and acting president are all members of the pro-Europe Fatherland Party, which Yanukovych narrowly defeated in 2010. The new cabinet also contains a disturbing number of politicians from Svoboda, a far-right, ultra-nationalist party that has expressed hostility toward ethnic Russians.
That's not what Kohn Kerry's State Dept. says!
Although polls indicate that fewer than a third of the people in eastern Ukraine desire to unite with Russia, they also show a deep divide between Ukraine’s east and west. Seventy-two percent in the Russian-speaking east think Ukraine is going in the wrong direction, compared with only 36 percent in the Ukrainian-speaking west.
Ultimately, Ukraine should be neither a protectorate of the West nor an extension of Russia. Ukraine needs ties with both to survive. An agreement struck this week in Geneva to de-escalate the conflict appears to be a step in the right direction. But so far, pro-Russian groups have refused to end their occupation of city halls and town squares until a new government is elected in May. It is important that the people in the east view the new elections as legitimate.
Rigged to validate coup-installed government.
An increasing number of voices are calling for the United States to arm the new government of Ukraine. US officials are rightly wary of his dangerous path. The current government in Kiev is a weak and divided collection of individuals thrown together temporarily by a hasty agreement. It faces enormous economic problems, even without the uprising in the east. It cannot fight a former superpower and win.
Early in the crisis I was told they could, but now....
It would be wiser for the United States to show Putin how costly intervention would be for him. In order to do that, the United States and Europe must do a much better job coordinating their sanctions....
Ah, yes, the $avior of $anctions that will shoot us in the foot!
Putin must be made to understand that if he moves to dismantle eastern Ukraine, it will be impossible for France to deliver the four amphibious landing ships for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, and that Boeing and Lockheed Martin will have no choice but to stop cooperating on a satellite launch program.
And how will the petulant child Putin(?) respond?
If Putin sees US and European officials making plans to wean Europe off of Russian oil and gas, he will begin to understand the long-term consequences of his actions.
I'm wondering if the delusional and in denial mouthpieces can do the same.
Lastly, it is worth considering a federal system for Ukraine. The proposal has been dismissed out of hand, because it is an idea Putin is pushing. But any proposal to keep Ukraine whole, and avoid a civil war in Europe, ought to be discussed.
Oh, that is SO HILARIOUS! Just shows you really can not take all the editorial spew seriously!
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And what expert did the Globe cite? None other than Stephen Sestanovich, a Russia specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Just wondering, readers, but could the terrorists possibly be.... aliens?
