Look what the President is doing:
The budget difficulties that long delayed the development of the Iron Dome rocket-interception system have apparently been resolved. The Pentagon informed the Defense Ministry on Wednesday that U.S. President Barack Obama had approved $205 million in special aid for Israel to establish 10 control centers for operating the system.
Iron Dome was successfully tested in January, convincing U.S. defense officials of the system’s effectiveness in intercepting short-range rockets such as Qassams fired from the Gaza Strip and Katyushas from south Lebanon.
I guess we’ve determined the Chinese already have this technology, so we can go ahead and allow Israel to have it and it won’t matter when they turn around it sell it to them. Because Israel is our closest ally, as we are told all the time.
On the upside, maybe it will stop some of those awful rockets, and it is definitely more to throw in the faces of the idiots who keep claiming Obama hates Israel and Jews.
jeffreyw
“Iron Dome”? Isn’t that what Oddjob wore?
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
You’re a meme behind. He now hates Protestants. He’s all lovey with Jews since that’s all he nominates to the Supreme Court. So says Pat.
Will
Maybe it’s a sneaky way to fuck the Chinese. We sell the Israelis a missile defense system that doesn’t work (the only kind we make). The Israelis sell it to China.
Come WWIII, we’ll look like geniuses.
Brachiator
Wait a minute. This is the storyline to Iron Man 2. Barak Obama is really Tony Stark.
fucen tarmal
we need israel to figure out what is wrong with the thing and make necessary corrections. our wartowelfare industrial complex just can’t communicate the particulars of the shiny new objects to the people who make decisions on them….
we have outsourced critical evaluation.
cleek
oh goody, more aid for Israel !
that’ll teach ’em to dis our VP!
SRW1
@Will:
That strategy probably won’t work, because the Israelis will give it a field test in the next round with Hezbollah. As a matter of fact, providing the system to Israel may accelerate that next round.
jl
I am a white Protestant. I am a victim. Help me. Please. Uncle Pat tells me so.
Help me, Oh Lord, for there is not one godly man left.
The GOP incumbent ratfinks have forsaken repeal of the 17th amendment
And they speak of the effectiveness of the AntiChrists’ stimulus behind the peoples’ backs.
The ungodly walk on every side.
when they are exalted, childish white men are put to rebuke.
But the words of Sarah are pure words, and her truth shall comfort me.
Edit: See TPM blog today for GOP Senators backpeddling on repeal of 17th amendment, and saying that they really really would like to explain to their TOP and teabag constituents that Obama’s stimulus has done some good (with nuance and stuff like that), but their stiff-necked and rebellious people will not harken to the truth. Oh, the humanity!
cat48
The new ads are dangerous because they make me want to shop. The old ads did not except for Amazon. Hope they feed the fat birds.
de stijl
In Israel did Obama Khan/A shaky Iron Dome decree
t jasper parnell
@jeffreyw: And with the Iron Dome you need the Full Metal Jacket. I’ll be here all week.
robertdsc
What, no whining about the deficit? Bleh.
Mark S.
@jl:
Repealing the 17th Amendment is simply mystifying to me. Even if I thought it was a good idea (which I don’t), it would be so far down on the list of things I’d want changed that I couldn’t imagine expending any energy on it. I mean, if you were a wingnut, wouldn’t you rather repeal the 16th (income tax)?
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
I genuinely hate to say it, but those awful rockets are the only thing keeping Israel from carpet bombing the civilian population of Lebanon again. Anti-missile systems are offensive weapons. All this does is give Hezbollah an incentive to develop/buy a new generation of missiles.
Comrade Dread
@robertdsc: Silly librul, war spending doesn’t contribute to deficits.
Moonbatting Average
@Brachiator: Hey man, I am going to go see that movie tonight… Can I at least get a “Spoiler Alert”? :-P
de stijl
@Mark S.:
You’re assuming that they’re mathematically literate. Maybe they wanted to kill federal income tax and just counted wrong.
Seriously, what is the Tea Party “rationale” to revert Senate elections? Actually, that may not be very revealing at all – it’ll be self-justifying legalese bullshit. What is the tactical and strategic reason why they are pursuing this?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I have a better idea. Let’s let Israel pay for the defense shield with their own #%#@ money.
de stijl
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.):
Can you explain your point more fully?
It looks incorrect on its face, but I think you’re meaning something deeper than that.
jl
@Mark S.: My guess is that some liaison between corporate funders and the front end of some astroturf organization told some flack to tell the teabaggers that repealing the 17th amendment would bring ‘the America they knew and loved’ back.
I can’t think of anything else that would be gung ho for it other than reactionary outlaw corporations. And teabagger gulls.
Elisabeth
@jl:
When you’ve painted the president as a commie/sochulist/fascist/nazi dictator who hates blacks/whites/men/woman it’s hard to suggest something he signed off on isn’t the end of America as we know it (whatever that means).
Bruce (formerly Steve S.)
@de stijl:
If you neutralize your adversary’s primary weapon then you are free to act offensively in any way you see fit. An anti-missile system coupled with a tepid offensive capability could perhaps be called purely defensive, but that doesn’t describe Israel or the U.S.
The U.S. and Soviet Union recognized that a successful ABM system would be a dangerous destabilization to the relationship, hence the treaty of 1972. The U.S. eventually tossed aside its treaty obligations as it so often does, but thankfully President Obama has chosen to stand down a bit from the idiotic anti-missile policies of Bush in eastern Europe. Myself, I consider this to be by far the most positive accomplishment of his young Presidency.
AhabTRuler
@Bruce (formerly Steve S.): Fortunately, anti-ICBM missiles are pretty difficult things to get to work. IIRC, none of the tests to date have come even remotely close to realistically simulate the firing of a single warhead (no countermeasures or decoys, much less knowing the damn thing’s track), and the record ain’t great.
OTOH, the shorter range stuff should be easier to accomplish, and I can believe that mortar shells and small rockets and missiles shouldn’t be two difficult to disrupt in flight.
Paris
I’m too lazy to look it up – are they repealing enfranchisement of women or prohibition? or the repealing the repeal on prohibition.
de stijl
@Paris:
The 17th amendment changed election of senators to a direct popular vote rather than being selected by the state’s legislature.
Mark S.
@de stijl:
And it’s the tool of the devil!
/wingnut
handy
@de stijl:
So to a teabagger freedom means disenfranchisement. Actually that makes sense, seeing as how they went after ACORN.
Observer
This is a tragedy. Hamas is entitled as a democratically elected government of a repressed peoples to shoot missiles into civilian areas.
Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix
@Observer: I know, right? If the Palestinians would simply lie down and die in their ghettos, surely Israel would start dealing with them like human beings (even though we all know they’re just mud slime who deserve what they get). I too hope the new rocket shields the US has gifted Israel will finally allow those subhumans to be kept in their place without any price to the Israelis at all. Only an anti-semite would disagree.
Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix
@handy: The arguments for repealing the 17th that I’ve seen assume that appointing senators will make them immune to campaign finance bribery. Of course, this also assumes that state representatives can’t be bought.
At best, repealing the 17th would require the big money boyz to buy off a big chunk of a state leg. to own one senator, spreading the bribe money more widely than the present, which makes this idea remarkably socia1istic.
The Tim Channel
@Paris:
For the record I just wanted to note that we currently DO possess disruptive flight technologies. Just ask any of the mosquitoes zapped to death by the amazing laser death ray.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C5vkbtpdN4
Enjoy.
Observer
@Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix: No that can’t be right. Hamas is blameless and terribly misunderstood. The world will understand that eventually. A world without Israel will be a more just and peaceful world.
Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix
@Observer: So true! And I think we can agree that only people whose governments are blameless deserve civil rights, or even the right to not live in a mud-pit ghetto with no hope for a better life.
Why, that’s just the same common sense that tells us that a handful of people being killed by aimless rockets justifies killing a few thousand trapped and desperate people. It’s simple mathematics, as our old pal BoB would say.
Some people are just inherently better and more worthwhile than other, ahem shadier people. You’re absolutely right.
Phoenix Woman
Thanks for this, John. The small but vocal and politicially-wired Likud/Kadima faction of American and Israeli Jews — the portion from which guys like PNAC’s Doug Feith come — will never accept any Democrat no matter how much he or she grovels. That’s why I’m so happy that J Street was formed — it gives a voice to the sane majority of American Jews.
Phoenix Woman
@Jrod, Slayer of Phoenix: Well played, sir! (Even if I am a semi-mythical bird.)
By the way: John, thanks for the 589-comment hypocrisy thread. Just a quick note to say that somebody in there forgot to close their HTML code for “strikethrough” text.