Malaysian paper adds fuel to speculation that pilots rerouted the missing jetliner...
Things fall apart....
U.S. President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on 11 Russians and Ukrainians on Monday blamed for Moscow's military seizure of Crimea, including ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, and Vladislav Surkov and Sergei Glazyev, two aides to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin himself, suspected in the West of trying to reconstitute as much as possible of the former Soviet Union under Russian authority, was not on the blacklist. In Brussels, the EU's 28 foreign ministers agreed on a list of 21 Russian and Ukrainian officials to be subject to travel bans and asset freezes for their roles in the events. The EU did not immediately publish their names. Washington and Brussels said more measures could follow in the coming days if Russia does not back down and formally annexes Crimea. "Today's actions send a strong message to the Russian government that there are consequences for their actions that violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including their actions supporting the illegal referendum for Crimean separation," the White House said. A senior Obama administration official said there was "concrete evidence" that some ballots in the Crimea referendum arrived in some Crimean cities pre-marked.Speaking from the White House this morning, President Obama said, “as I told President Putin yesterday, the referendum in Crimea was a clear violation of Ukrainian Constitutions and international law, and it will not be recognized by the international community.” Obama then went on to outline “a series of measures that will continue to increase the cost on Russia and on those responsible for what is happening in Ukraine.” Among those measures are sanctions on a number of specific individuals and entities, as well as continued consultations with European partners on additional measures. From Obama’s statement Monday (transcript from the Washington Post):
Democrats are starting to get nervous about the 2014 midterm elections and an increasing number of them don't want the president's help when it comes to campaigning. You know things are getting bad for Democrats when you read something like this in the New York Times...
Fireworks exploded and Russian flags fluttered above jubilant crowds... [as] the United States and Europe condemned the ballot as illegal and destabilizing.There is no question that many ethnic Russians live in that part of Ukraine. To find out why, take a look at some history of the area:
The chart shows a collapse in the population of native Crimean Tatars from 34.1% in 1897 to zero in 1959, marking brutal harassment leading up to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's forcible deportation of the entire population in 1944, with nearly half dying in the process. It took decades for the population to climb back to 12% by 2001. While the population of Ukrainians and especially Russians rose, the percentage of the population falling into an unlisted category also fell from more than 20% in 1921 to around 5% in 1959. This was a consequence of the deportation of Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, and other groups.Here's the chart:
So when word started circulating that an anti-Israel, BDS hate group was preparing to pressure Neil Young into canceling his upcoming summer show in Tel Aviv with a petition of about 6,000 people...it was a piece of cake to call upon an already established base of people instead of having to start from scratch.
It took the BDS crowd almost two months to pull together 6,000 people; we blew past them in a week and are still growing, I support Neil Young against the haters.
The key thing is that we did this with no budget, no advertising and no infrastructure of any kind, while the BDS movement (the ubiquitous "haters") have an organization, a staff and allegedly an army of volunteers.
This may seem surprising, but it really shouldn't be.
Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source. To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, click here. Branco’s page is Cartoonist A.F.Branco...
"If you lose the Senate, turn out the lights because the party's over"...
Russian state media said Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russia on Sunday, as Kiev accused Moscow of pouring forces into the peninsula and warned separatist leaders "the ground will burn under their feet". RIA news agency said 93 percent backed annexation, citing an exit poll released as voting ended at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT). Another Russian agency said turnout was over 80 percent. Caught in an East-West crisis reminiscent of the Cold War, Kiev said Russia's build-up of forces in the Black Sea region was in "crude violation" of an international treaty, and announced plans to arm and train 20,000 members of a newly-created National Guard to defend the nation.The White House had already denounced the vote ahead of the official results, calling the referendum illegal and citing Russian intimidation.
As many of you may know, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently said, in regards to those pesky Tea Party activists challenging GOP incumbents for Senate seats: “I think we are going to crush them everywhere. I don’t think they are going to have a...
"[Harvey] had stopped and brought his arms up to the side. Then I heard the two shots fired. "...
The Democratic Party has made it clear that they're planning to run on "income inequality" in 2014. Liberal Washington Post writer Greg Sargent has even suggested this strategy is part of the reason for Senator Harry Reid's recent attacks on the Koch brothers. It's ironic that...
It looks like the special election earthquake that shook FL-13, sending Republican David Jolly to Washington D.C., may be being felt in other ways in the land of real earthquakes -- California. I recently covered the severe drought that is impacting the Golden State, which is...
Came across this motorized billboard on a corner of Wilshire Boulevard on L.A.'s Westside after dropping the son off at school. He's becoming quite a politically incorrect joker and I'd just given him a little lecture to be cautious around his teachers; that it's much safer to give the teacher a rotten, non-organic, non-fair-trade apple than to challenge his/her political sensibilities. Anyway, behold the peak of evolution of the car as pop-art-political statement. I call it, "Driving the Narrative: When Life Imitates Art Imitating Life: A Conversation with Still Life." 1) "Marriage = heart + heart." My wife has disproved this theory. 2) "Democracies Die Behind Closed Doors." Whereupon they go to The Afterlife on the backs of cars. 3) "Earth Without Art is Just 'Eh.'" Spoken like a true cavewoman. 4) "Imagine What We Could Accomplish if We Weren't so Afraid of Each Other." You first. 5) "The Most Powerful Mind-Altering Substance is the Truth." Yeah, but I suspect the buzz it gives you won't feel too good, lady. 6) "The Time to do the Right Thing is Always Now." Tony Robbins just gagged. 7) "Got Aloha?" Yeah. You? 8) "I'm Already Against the Next War." Oh! You're a Prepper!
Rep. Trey Gowdy: "I’m going to read a quote, and then you tell me who said it...
Ukraine accused Russia on Saturday of invading a region bordering Crimea and vowed to use "all necessary measures" to ward off an attack that came on the eve of the peninsula's breakaway vote. The dramatic escalation of the most serious East-West crisis since the Cold War set a tense stage for the referendum on Crimea's secession from Ukraine in favour of Kremlin rule -- a vote denounced by both the international community and Kiev. The predominantly Russian-speaking Black Sea region of two million people was overrun by Kremlin-backed troops days after the February 22 fall in Kiev of a Moscow-backed regime and the rise of nationalist leaders who favour closer ties with the West. President Vladimir Putin defended Moscow's decision to flex its military muscle by arguing that ethnic Russians in Ukraine needed "protection" from violent ultranationalists who had been given free reign by the new Kiev administration. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had told Secretary of State John Kerry in London on Friday that Moscow "has no, and cannot have, any plans to invade the southeast region of Ukraine."The full statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine website demanded Russia withdraw forces from the territory of Ukraine immediately.
