Lebanese PMS flotilla

UN 1701: Hezbollah setting up missile launchers in Southern Lebanon is fine, but a floating Premenstrual syndrome is against the rules.   it was postponed before because of the public relations backfire from the original flotilla turning out to not be a humanitarian venture.  I still don't get how this is not against UN 1701

A ship full of women - including nuns, teachers, doctors, lawyers and a very pregnant mother - is due to leave Tripoli, Lebanon on Sunday night, on its way to Cyprus and then - organizers hope - to Gaza.

The Saint Mariam, or Virgin Mary, has a multi-faith international passenger list, including the Lebanese singer May Hariri and a group of nuns from the US. "They are nuns, doctors, lawyers, journalists, Christians and Muslims," said Mona, one of the participants who, along with the other women, has adopted the ship's name, Mariam.
The Mariam and its sister ship, Naji Alali, had hoped to set off several weeks ago but faced several delays after Israel launched a diplomatic mission to pressure Lebanon to stop the mission.
The co-ordinator of the voyage, Samar al-Haj, told the Guardian this week the Lebanese government had given permission for the boats to leave for Cyprus, the first leg of the journey, this weekend.
Israel says it is concerned a flotilla from Lebanon, with whom it has ongoing hostility, will smuggle weapons to Gaza. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gabriela Shalev, has warned that Israel reserves the right to use "necessary measures" in line with international law to stop the ship.
But al-Haj says the mission is purely humanitarian. "Our goal is to arrive in Gaza," she said. "It is the responsibility of the government to deal with the politics. We are not political."

In Israel, we are not impressed.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told Israel National News, “There are no limits on goods going to Gaza, and any ships trying to bring so-called aid to Gaza will be regarded as provocations.”
The sight of women—supposedly unarmed—facing Israeli naval commandos trying to stop it from breaking the sea embargo on Hamas-controlled Gaza faces Israel with a new public relations challenge. The women have dramatized possible violence by preparing to travel equipped with blood test equipment “in case we come under attack from Israel and you need a blood transfusion," al-Hajj said.
She added, "We will not even bring cooking knives” in order to prevent accusations that they are armed.
...
Israel has warned that allowing ships, even those with aid, to reach the Gaza coast would set a precedent that would allow Hamas to freely import advanced weapons.
Hamas recently has complained that much of the aid on the six-ship flotilla May 31 included useless medical equipment and outdated medicines. The Mavi Marmara ship, whose activists clashed with Navy commandos, was later found to be sailing without any humanitarian aid.

Here's betting that if the Cypriots let the boats go (they may not), they will be non-violently disabled and towed into Ashdod.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Hamas hiding behind women and children again

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Lebanon Used American Weapons To Attack Israel

“Hezbollah says they’re only armed because the LAF too weak to defend Lebanon, so if we visibly strengthen the LAF then Hezbollah will have to disarm.”
doesn't seem like they are interested or threatened in Hezbollah.

two pictures of LAF soldiers who were on the ground for last week’s cross-border ambush of the IDF. The guns they’re holding are M16’s. Or, as the rifles are better known in the context of Lebanese security assistance, “American-made M16’s:”

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Of course, as Foreign Policy gamely notes, you can never be sure. There’s at least a chance that these rifles are M16 knockoffs made by China, Iran, or Pakistan. Security assistance apologists – then – wouldn’t have to explain why we’re supplying the LAF with the specific weapons that they’re using to incite regional conflict. They’d only have to explain why we’re supplying the LAF with cutting-edge weapons while the Lebanese use different weapons – acquired either from our rising hegemonic rivals or from intransigent nuclear rogues – to incite regional conflict.
Now these M113 APC’s, the ones the LAF used to back their ambush?

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Those definitely came from us [PDF]:

via mererhetoric.com

Media Spins Michelle, but fat chicks wobble with the Sauds

there will be a meeting between Michelle Obama and Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, governor of Riyadh and brother of the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, while another meeting is shuffled from the first lady with the owner of Málaga CF, billionaire businessman, son of Qatar's Interior Minister and member of the Qatari royal family, Abdullah Al Thani.

via ibloga.blogspot.com

I thought the media stopped running these absurd stories once they realized this woman was a few dozen pounds (at least) overweight? But I guess they're still living in the Land of Make Believe that she's some sort of fitness guru or something.

The First Lady says you can have your cake and eat it, too.
The fabulous and fit Michelle Obama loves eating pie and deep-dish pizza, but makes up for it by exercising plenty and eating a vegetable-rich diet, she told Ladies’ Home Journal in an exclusive interview.
“One of the reasons I talk about pie and burgers is because if you tell people they can never have the stuff they love, they'll shut down,” she told the outlet. “What is life without the things you love to eat? For me it's pie.”
But to get that famously toned physique, Obama exercises daily with her husband, waking up at the crack of dawn.
While early morning fitness may seem excruciating to some, Mrs. O has advice.
“Don't think about how you're feeling during the workout. Think about an hour and a half from now, how good you're gonna feel the rest of the day," she said.
Although she sometimes cheats the routine, she makes up for it with an extra-hard workout.
“So, yeah, there are absolutely times when you just don't feel like [exercising]. That's why the times that I do feel like it, I push myself,” she told LHJ.

Yeah, she's pushing it alright. To the tune of a couple hundred thousand dollars for a trip to Spain.
Have some more cake, chumps.

via jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com

I don't remember the media being as nice to Barbara Bush

noahdavidsimon's posterous