Maybe.

But then along came the Russians to open an escape route. Acting in response to another unscripted remark, from Secretary of State John Kerry, they proposed to place Syria’s chemical gas arsenal under international control. The Syrians responded by not only admitting that they had such weapons, but offering to surrender them.
The proposal sounded implausible and impractical, but it had too many things going for it to be passed up. Most importantly, it serves the interests of every important party. It spares the Syrian regime a damaging attack by the United States. It spares the rebels being gassed again. It validates the great power status of Russia — and might even win Vladimir Putin a Nobel Peace Prize.
Not least, it saves Obama from looking like an appeaser, a warmonger or an incompetent. It even allows Kerry to portray the administration as unsurpassed in its diplomatic brilliance.

Or maybe.

Can we please get over the silliness I’m hearing from a few quarters that President Obama had gamed out the whole Syria affair before it even happened? It’s embarrassing. […]
There’s really no reason to go down this path anyway. If you want to give Obama credit, give him credit for something he deserves: being willing to recognize an opportunity when he sees it. I can guarantee you that George W. Bush wouldn’t have done the same.  […]
In the meantime, it’s rock solid certain that Assad isn’t going to launch another gas attack anytime soon, which means that, by hook or by crook, Obama has achieved his goal for now. 

I note something here…

It’s an uncannily fortunate turn of events for Obama, but this is the guy who won his 2004 Senate race after his chief Democratic opponent, and then the Republican nominee, fell victim to lurid scandals.
This is the guy who got Osama bin Laden after his own experts said there was only a 40 percent chance the al-Qaida leader was in the targeted building. This is the guy who got to run against John McCain and Mitt Romney, both masters of self-destruction.

(1) It was somewhat risky to take the plunge in 2004 in the first place, but he put himself out there.  Note that four years previously, he tried for a Congressional seat and got knocked down.  (2)  McCain and Romney were the best bets the Republican Party had.  This path of his history goes back to “recognizing the opportunities”.   Or…

And then into the partisan critics…

Pat Buchanan called Putin’s op-ed in the New York Times “outstanding.”
Yeah, well, Buchanan has already come out in support of Putin — for re-orienting his country away from its Communist past and toward its Religious past… visa vie their anti-gay laws.  A real bull-wark against the corrupting West.  (as opposed to bringing us back to Kruschev?)
Rush Limbaugh believes Putin gets “American exceptionalism” better than Obama.
It’s easy when you’re writing from a position of mockery.
And The Donald thinks Putin’s “Amazingly well-written op-ed” makes Obama look like a “schoolchild.”

Okay.

Then there’s…

Obama leadership? No, just being a politician going with the prevailing wind.
As far as doubt of another gas attack: if you are among the few who actually believe Assad was behind it, probably not more. If you are with many foreign intelligences that believe they are at the hands of one of the rebel factions, the Saudis, or CIA false flag, stand by for another one.

The few who believe Assad was behind it? As in 80% of the American public? The CIA conducted a false flag operation to send chemical rockets from Assad territory into rebel held neighborhoods? Exactly how did they pull that off?

Shill for MSM and MIC

Actually I think “Big Mama” is a gate-keeper, bringing this tract up to hide from the real secret.

Krauthammer and O’Reilly…  And into another funny bit of comments land which… goes nowhere real.

Well, if Obama’s getting played by Putin here (for being in part hum-strung in any hawkish move by American public opinion), at least we have McCain… McCain’s going to meet Putin tit for tat and write an op-ed for Pravda.  That’ll show Putin!

Bill Maher’s point is conflicted — it would make more sense if he dragged the concerns over chemical weapon use below “solving our own problems”…  But never mind.

Your other weird question that I can answer… “Where is the anti-war left?” — ie: no mass protests in the streets…  (answered by some Ron Paul enthusiasts with some “Turned to the anti-war libertarians now that the old communist vanguard is dying off” — no, that was actually in an article about this question) … yes, part of it was partisan (Obama, Bush) … and as we see Ed Asner battle the question about on Russian TV… you’re reminded that part of the real purpose of “marching” at the dawn of the Iraq War was the question “Have Americans gone insane?”, that the polls showing mass support are pretty much true… in the case of Syria.  — what’s the point?  (Besides which, you’re always a little squemish that you’re marching with and merging your politics with such conspiracy theorists as Ed Asner.  I suppose if the anti-war left is getting by passed, as Justin Raimando insists, by his brand of libertarians — we’ll be stuck at the same point under the coming Jeb Bush Administration…)

In other analysis…

Fringe conservative radio host Alex Jones said this week that an effort to avert a U.S. attack on Syria with diplomacy was actually a United Nations plot for the extinction of the human race, which would be replaced by “globalists” like President Barack Obama who would become cyborgs by using “life-extension technologies.”

Makes as much sense as anyone else.

If I understand how the Australian Election System works…

Your technical explanation here, but let’s shove it aside…

… you have your major parties.  Vote for them and you’re pretty much assured that your vote will go to them.

Then you have a whole slew of “micro-parties”.  Vote for them, and your vote will jump about.

And here’s how the Sports Party and the Motoring Enthusiast Party gets elected…

All the left of center parties are advocating for their second, third, and fourth choices different left of center parties.  All your right of center parties are advocating for their second, third, and fourth choices different right of center parties.

It’s interesting, because in America you would assume that, maybe your Green Party vote would jump eventually to the Democratic Party, or that your Constitution Party vote would jump eventually to your Republican vote.  But not necessarily… your Green Party might still hold off against the Democrats as a group of career opportunists only interested, and not want to go there.

Instead we have this bandy about of innocuous political parties of non ideological stripes.  Hobby and Activity Parties.

So your fifth choice of both the Right wing parties and left parties is … your Motoring Enthusiast party and your Sports Party.

The Lowest Common Denominator.  In a way, it’s how your broad-based major party system works in enthusing a bunch of political aims into one general mesh of compromises.  And in  a way, it’s just as well…

Because the vote for both the Socialist and Equality Party and the Palmer United Party ended up going to advancing Motor Enthusiasm.

Because maybe they’re not enthusiastic about Motoring, but they’re at least not hostile toward it.

Or… hugs.

And now today Australia is trying to figure out how to stop the Motoring Enthusiast Party.  The Motoring Backlash has commenced.  While the Party itself takes on a populist note of your “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” rhetorical trope.  (And he will buy a suit.)

Hm.

The man responsible for the helping several of the micro-parties to electoral success is political consultant Glen Drury. 
Mr Drury has told the ABC the current system is designed to keep the balance of power with the major parties but there is a way to manipulate the preferences to advantage smaller parties. 
“Initially I explained to them how the system worked. The system that was imposed upon all of us by the major parties many years ago. The system that was imposed on us to keep minor parties out, by the way. And I showed these people that there is a way through. I don’t think they ever really figured out that somebody would learn how to use the system”. 

I assume he was consulting the rich tycoon of the Palmer Uniteds… somehow I doubt it for the others.

Hm.

Former Spur Dennis Rodman?

It’s, I suppose, a tongue in cheek, ala the Onion headline about “Laker Great Karl Malone“…

erm.  Celtics Great Shaquille O’Neil?

Rodman…

Rodman, an NBA Hall of Famer who starred for the Chicago Bulls, Kim’s favorite team, flew Tuesday from Beijing to Pyongyang, his second trip to see the eccentric North Korean leader ) (as opposed to the previous non-eccentric North Korean leader?)  , whom he has referred to as a “friend” and “an awesome kid.” “I’m not a joke,” Rodman said at a press conference, while sitting in front of a bust of his own head and next to the owner of an Irish bookmaking site, notes Yahoo Sports. “Take me seriously.” No other avenue appears to be open for seeking freedom for Bae. 

And

Today, he announced a partnership with Paddy Power to create the Dennis Rodman Paddy Power Invitational. This will bring former NBA players to North Korea for a week in January with the backing of the North Korean government. 

AND

Dennis Rodman Is a Joke.

AND

“I held their baby Ju-ae and spoke with Ms. Ri as well. He’s a good dad and has a beautiful family,” Rodman was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

AND

Rodman went on to reveal that he had also been asked to write a book about international relations with North Korea’s leader.
“It’s gonna be a best-seller,” he said. “He gave me the rights for me and him to sit down for one month and me and him are gonna write a book together.”
Still, it’s not like Rodman hasn’t thought this through: he’s planning a January basketball tournament between the two powers, not to mention he’s now apparently considering writing Kim’s biography. (Rodman has previously penned his own autobiographies, entitled Bad As I Wanna Be and I Should Be Dead By Now.)

Oh, about Kenneth Bae, who you understand the press was very curious about whether Rodman would talk to his Best Friend… urm...

Rodman shot down reporters’ questions saying they should address their queries to U.S. President and Secretary of State who he thought were “a**holes.”
 “Ask Obama about that, ask Hillary Clinton about that… Ask those a**holes!” Rodman said.

The Sports Party gets in with a candidate having won … point 22 percent of the vote.  The Party does not have a platform beyond Sports, which they are highly in favor of.

Despite being within touching distance of pinching a Senate seat from under the noses of Labor and the Nationals in Western Australia, Mr Dropulich admitted his party has not yet devised policies on any non-sporting issues. If it’s not sports-related, at this stage we are just going to wait and see if we get in, then we can address all those issues,” he said.
And he also conceded he will be on a steep learning curve if this week’s vote count delivers him to the Senate despite getting just 0.22 per cent of the primary vote.
“Up until a couple of days ago, I was just another member of the general public, getting my information from various media outlets. If we do get in I’ll look forward to getting into the Senate and listening to what all those issues are and listening to both sides of the argument, and making informed decisions,” he said.
With just over 1900 primary votes, his polling numbers were every bit as small as his policy platform. But Mr Dropulich denied that his success will come courtesy of preference flows from less politically engaged above-the-line voters.
Counting is ongoing, and a final result is not expected until next week, although all predictions suggest Mr Dropulich will be Canberra-bound.
The Australian Sports Party used a sporting analogy to describe the situation to its fans on Facebook, alongside a photograph of a pair of AFL umpires.
”The review is underway & it looks like the Aust Sports Party has kicked a senate goal!!!” it said.

Hm.  It’s kind of like the campaign rhetoric I imagine we’ll get when Tim Tebow runs for political office… or, better still since Tebow will bring out some religiosity into the mix, the type we got from Chris Dudley.

Meanwhile, the Motoring Enthusiasm Party, who has come into the Senate having won point five two percent of the vote — well, now that he’s in it’s time to unload the scandal sheet of his past.

In a video taken from his YouTube account, which was made private soon after the election on Saturday night, Mr Muir appears to be filmed taking part in a backyard kangaroo faeces fight.
The video, titled “Family Fight in Australia”, appears to depict the likely senator, who sports a thick moustache and goatee, running around a garden with his friends, who are hurling kangaroo faeces and laughing hysterically.
We know it is kangaroo faeces because the person holding the video camera picks up a brown pellet, examines it, and says: “This is kangaroo poo. Yum yum.”

How does he defend this?

Comment was sought from Mr Muir, but the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party’s media spokesman Keith Littler said Mr Muir would not be available to talk at all on Monday.
Asked whether Mr Muir denied taking part in the faeces-throwing video, Mr Littler said: “No, he’s just not available”.
Would the likely senator respond at all?
“What’s the right of response anyway?” Mr Littler said. “People have fun in their lives. What’s the big deal?”

Hm.  If a Sex Party candidate ever gets in, he can just copy and paste the Motoring Enthusiast Party.  Here’s the more official comment.

“Before all this come around I was just an ordinary Australian, my past does not represent who I am now and has nothing to do with the party,” he said on the Seven Network.
“The past is the past.”
And an explanation for the kangaroo poo throwing?
“My brother and myself were just having a bit of a wrestle that day and you just end up on the ground,” he said.
“If you haven’t spent much time in the bush, you go up there and you discover there is poo everywhere.”

Okay.  But why does he feel the need to post this revelation on youtube?

The Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party website says its core values include ”mateship”, small government, lower taxation and ”taking pride in our vehicles”.
Maybe the American Tea Party can pick up the “motoring enthusiasm” angle?

And then there’s this…
In May 2011, when Osama bin Laden was killed, Mr Muir tweeted: ”Media is reporting that the person who orfered [sic] the 911 terror attacks is dead . . . what a load of shit, george bush is still alive!”

You know, if it weren’t for the “Kangaroo Poo fight incident”, this would be the major marker that the media reports on this new Senator… but no, this is what we’re getting:

Unemployed father of five Ricky Muir, the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party candidate once involved in a kangaroo poo fight, is one who could win a seat off the back of a complex flow of preferences.

The 9/11 Truther comment (or joke?) gets second billing to the kangaroo poo fight.

Anyway, these two lead a pack of 6 “WTF” new Senators.

Self-described “senator for the donkeys” (his name appeared first on the NSW Senate ballot paper) is staunchly pro-gun.
David Leyonhjelm is likely to pick up a NSW senate seat due to a combination of preference deals, donkey votes and the fact voters mistook his Liberal Democrat party for the Liberals.
Mr Leyonhjelm says it is “objective fact” last year’s Sandy Hook massacre could have been prevented if teachers had guns, and is advocating for a new approach to Sydney’s gun crime problem which involves giving people licences to carry weapons.

Finally I have an understanding of who “Palmer” is in the “Palmer United Party”… it’s like if Donald Trump set up a political party.  Or, if I look down to the “CIA / Greenpeace Conspiracy Theory” to destroy Aussie Industry … hm… a hybrid of Trump and Ross Perot?

Former soldier Jacqui Lambie began her Senate campaign as an independent before turning to Clive Palmer because she was running out of money.
And against same environmentalism and sex marriage.  Hm.
FORMER rugby league prop Glenn Lazarus, who once posed naked with only a brick, looks set to hold a Queensland Senate spot.
I don’t know if this helped him or hurt him in the election.

And the Family First Party seems to be just what you expect from the name…

The contradictions of selling a limited strike in Syria to a war weary American public.

See what Kerry tells us…

Reacting to comments by Kerry that any attack on Syria would be “unbelievably small,” Obama said any attack would not be felt like a “pinprick” in Syria.
“The U.S. does not do pinpricks,” he said in the NBC interview.

Wait for it… wait for it…

“Our military is the greatest the world has ever known. And when we take even limited strikes, it has an impact on a country like Syria.”

This is one of those statements that needs to go with a stated “comma sniff” — “America is the Greatest country on Earth comma Sniff”… “America is the Best Hope for Mankind comma sniff” — the problem comes in the talk up of the military … in a post 9/11 World, when our political figures made this comma sniff comment about “our military”, they did so with the full backing of the American public.  In a Post-Iraq War nation, and when trying to thread a needle about what the plan is for in Syria — arguing that it is something small but major — it becomes disorienting.

Oddly, the case that Obama is making here is about the same as the anti-war figures — see Tom Tomorrow here.

“Well, actually, we know what Assad’s capabilities are and, you know, Mr. Assad’s are significant compared to a bunch of opposition leaders, many of whom are not professional fighters,” the president said Monday evening. “They’re significant relative to over 400 children that were gassed. They’re not significant relative to the U.S. military.”

A real rag-tag band of misfits, the Syrian Opposition Forces are.

A relevant partisan break-down chart.

No, I don’t quite understand the full dynamics of Australia’s Electoral “Voters Preference” system — shift through this mapping at your leisure to see who you’re actually voting for when you vote for some “Sex Party” or “Hemp Party” or the Australian Larouchies of the Citizens Electoral Council

And what is worth pointing out is what happens when a major party shifts priority voting from one to another… or, this  calling out of the (ultimately victorious) Conservative Party’s candidate Tony Abbott for ranking the “Green Party” below the “Citizens Electoral Council” .

The effect from the stand-point of the CEC is seen here is that we see here, at Number Seven, that their votes have been allocated to … whomever.  974 votes have been re-allocated from the CEC (and candidate Craig Isherwood) to the “Family First” Party.  So, congratulations.  If you voted for the CEC in this election, you voted for the “Family First Party”.

And skip forward to Number 33… where the “Family First” Party’s votes get re-allocated, and these 974 votes for the preference of Australia’s Larouche Party gets re-allocated to… The Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party!

Who is now elected.  Ricky Muir — your Larouche backed figure in the Australian Senate!

This is apparently part of a big fuss in the nation… and it gets interesting…

In Monday’s counting, it became clear that Liberal Zed Seselja would defeat Greens candidate Simon Sheikh for the second ACT Senate spot. In Western Australia, there remained a chance that the Palmer United Party could edge out the Sports Party for one Senate spot, while Labor was vying with the Greens for another. In Tasmania, the Palmer United Party, Sex Party and the Liberal Party were competing for the sixth spot.

Note that the Sex Party is the party that got Ricky Muir over, meaning that Ricky Muir owes the Sex Party big time and in the “go with what brung you” rule of politics, will have to work in the Senate on behalf of both his Motor Enthusiast constituency as well work on the issues of the Sex Party.  The CEC, not so much.

Okay.  Another election over here.  And what do we got?  130 votes for the CEC (were nipped in the bud, I note, by such parties as the Stable Population Party and the Sex Party — surely down the list on the CEC’s voters preference list).  Skip to Count 3.  If you voted for Vernon Work, your vote now goes to the A.F.N.P.P. …  Skip to Count 7, and these votes are reallocated to… Australian Independent … Skip to Count 9, and the CEC is now backing “Shooters and Fishers” Party (kind of darkly amusing to note that this is where the “Stable Population Party” gets dumped) … and to Count 10… and the CEC is split between the Australian Labor Party and the Palmer United Party.
And that’s how 65 CEC votes go into the victorious Australian Labor Party.

A long list of parties, being reallocated down the line.  And one “Huh” after another.

It’s a bit more effort than it’s worth finding the results for candidates… Ann Lawler, Michael Gough,  Chris Lahy, Andrew Harris…

At yesterday’s debate you wore shorts and thongs, if you are elected and have to go to Canberra do you realise you will need to dress appropriately and do you think you are ready for that?
Andrew Harris: Good to see level of discussion appropriate to dilemmas facing the population from a collapsing world economy. As for dressing appropriately in Canberra I feel it would be a little bit too cool down there for shorts and thongs.
Did you fall asleep in yesterday’s debate? It looked like you did from the dm’s live stream…

Greg Owen  – oh dear more single issue candidates gone in first round counting.  … Basically because I am very concerned about the future of the country and not just Dobell but I mean the whole country, in fact humanity when you think about it […]  It’s a bit disappointing that the media doesn’t give them the attention they deserve and I think the reason is because their policies and their views aren’t popular. 

Jean Robinson, Peter Davis, Richard Witten,  Lindsay Cosgrove who –    has decided against completing a how to vote card, with his party saying they would prefer voters make up their own minds. — so his votes aren’t going anywhere?.  Costas Goumas

AUSTRALIA VOTES!!!  And debates.

had anyone else heard that Bush went to war in Iraq to thwart Gog and Magog?
so I just checked my enrollment details via the AEC site, found out who I can vote for, googled the parties I hadn’t really heard of (the Citizens Electoral Council and teh Future Party), and checked how to vote for the senate (either a 1 above the line, or all boxes below the line)
have you checked the preference flow deals between parties?
http://preferences.theglobalmail.org/
there’s a few surprises in there

Is that wanker (La Rouche) still alive?????  Yeas, he still lives.  What a tosser he was/is!”.

Hume’s CEC believes… and is interviewd here on audio I’m not listening to…

Pegged:  Citizens Electoral Council: CT’ers and global warming deniers

Ann Lawler really packs in the votes with this rhetoric:

Since 1997 when I became aware of the CEC and what they represented nationally and globally through their association with the American physical economist Lyndon LaRouche I have contested every federal election in the House of Representatives and once in the Senate. Once I discovered the moral truth of why nation states globally are being systematically destroyed under the Anglo-Dutch system of international finance centred around the Crown, I had to take a stand.
Winning will not be determined by votes, winning will be acting on the CEC’s knowledge and direction before things really deteriorate to a point of no return. We can’t sacrifice the people to prop up unpayable gambling or go to war to defend global tyranny.

AND:  I love the CEC. The weirdness of Scientology with the zeal of internet libertarianism.

CEC discounted here…  read up on the Citizens Electoral Council and LaRouche.  Gulp!  That candidate had to go behind the majors.  Then I read up on each of the independents and the PUP candiate. 
It’s a sad circumstance when the PUP candidate sounds like a reasonable option ahead of the major parties.

THE CAMPAIGN COMMENCED.

Got this in my PO Box today:
Thought it was interesting. Mind you I’m still not voting. I also hope we do have a bank bail-in here in Australia. It might/will wake a few people up.

I check out the CEC video release on youtube every week.  Always some interesting stuff.
But as well there is always the usual ranting from them:
* “Lyndon LaRouche says XYZ”  <– CEC think he is the second coming, even though his predictions rarely come true
* Very anti the Queen and British Monarchy  <– They weave it into most conversations

In my opinion the Citizens Electoral Council are nuts. They fall into the trap of hating socialism but end up being so protectionist they economically are national socialists.

They probably are. I kept their brochure because it will fit my bird cage perfectly.
IMO they have a TBSR of about 1:10 (Truth to Bull $hit Ratio). Much of their writing is very conspiratorial.

 AND

I have to admit, I always rather look forward to the Citizens Electoral Council, because you never know quite what will be on the policy list this time, but you can be sure there will be something magnificently grandiose and just a little bit mad.  I like that in a political party.
Also, the CEC are local – our Senate Candidate also runs in our local government elections sometimes, so I feel a certain neighbourly affection.  We have our very own Coburg crazies and now, we get to export them to the world!  Or at least, to the rest of Victoria.
Sadly, not too many of the major parties share my affectionate feelings for the CEC, so they don’t tend to get very far in the Senate.  If I’m being sensible, I have to acknowledge that this is probably a good thing.
The CEC have a split ticket, but on each of them the first preference goes to the Family First Party, followed by the DLP, Wikileaks and Katter’s Australian Party.  This is alarmingly mainstream of them, but this affection is not reciprocated – Family First and Katter put them in the middle of the ticket, DLP put them a third of the way down, and Wikileaks put them dead last.  The ticket then wander through an apparently random selection of fairly right-wing parties, with One Nation coming in in the late 40s, but things diverge at 61 on their ballot, with one ticket going Democrats, Labor, Coalition, HEMP, Stable Population, Greens and Palmer United, and the other going Palmer, Coalition, Democrats, Labor Greens, and then HEMP and Stable Population.  The very bottom of the ticket is reserved for the Socialist Equality Party, with Drug Law Reform, the Sex Party and Animal Justice making up the rest of the bottom four.
Let’s have a look at their website, which is very busy looking, and immediately informs me that we must STOP the Bail-In, which is the British Crown’s Plot for Global Genocide.
Ah, CEC.  Don’t ever change. […]

Preference 84, 85… can’t help but admire the Space Program as Economic Recovery idea.

Hm.

“The media circus over Cate Blanchett is irrelevant,” Citizens Electoral Council leader Craig Isherwood declared today. “The real issue is George Soros’
Anyone know what “Citizens Electoral Council” is about?
LaRouchites: absolute loving loony right-wing conspiracy theorists.
They’re basically a cult.
@ikiriki they want a new world order of banking/finance,+ think Syria is some sort of british conspiracy. they win my last vote on ballot.

The LaRouchites (Citizens Electoral Council) always go to the bottom of my list & this year I had Julian Assange to deal with (he got spot 87).

MORE RESULTS
As widely anticipated, the Nationals’ Barnaby Joyce has romped home into the seat of New England in Saturday’s federal election, capturing 54.1 per cent of first preferences.
Runner-up was Independent Rob Taber with 14.26 per cent of the vote, followed by Country Labor’s Stephen Hewett (11.72 per cent), Independent Jamie McIntyre (6.77 per cent), Palmer United Party’s Phillip Girle (5.19 per cent), the Greens’ Pat Schultz (4.3 per cent), One Nation’s Brian Dettmann (1.67 per cent), Christian Democratic Party’s Aaron Evans (1.62 per cent) and Citizens Electoral Council’s Richard Witten (0.38 per cent).

 AND  Citizens Electoral Council candidate for Lyne Michael Gough said he enjoyed the election campaign.
“It really opened up a while new world,” he said.
“It was a gruelling campaign, hard work but worth the effort.”
Mr Gough’s vote count was 282 on preliminary figures.
While New World?  Whole New World?  Whichever… huh?

AND  Mr Taylor vied with nine other candidates for the seat. He gained 47,674 votes after preferences, defeating Labor candidate Michael Pilbrow ( pictured below) who polled 29,889 votes. […]  Of the other candidates, Adrian Van Der Byl of the Christian Democratic Party polled 1182 votes and Lindsay Cosgrove from the Citizens’ Electoral Council 1033 votes.