Last Call: A Case Of Syria's Misjudgment

Meanwhile, our GOOD FRIEND ISRAEL is bombing the crap out of suspected Syrian chemical weapon convoys, and Syria is treating it as an act of outright war.

A series of massive explosions illuminated the dark sky over Damascus early Sunday, igniting renewed claims that Israel has launched attacks into the war-torn country.

Syria's government said the explosions were the second Israeli airstrike in three days. The latest target, officials said, was a military research facility outside the Syrian capital.

A top Syrian official told CNN in an exclusive interview that the attack was a "declaration of war" by Israel.

Syrian authorities vowed to retaliate against Israel but did not specify what action they would take.

The Israeli military would not confirm or deny the Syrian claim that Israel fired rockets that hit the Jamraya research center in the Damascus suburbs.

Syria is apparently giving Hezbollah the green light to attack from Syrian territory and as a result, we've got all but open war about to kick off in the Middle East.  The problems are much bigger however, as it looks like we may have been lied into another war yet again.

U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

"This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.

I keep telling people that the Syrian rebels are not exactly the sunshine and flowers committee, and I keep telling people we can't get involved in the Syrian civil war because there are no good guys.  Now the UN is saying that one of the rebel groups, not the Asaad regime, that used sarin.  That's exactly what the rebels would want to do in order to draw Israel and the US into a wider international conflict, and Israel has happily obliged them.

Now we've got a shooting war on our hands unless some kinds of miracle happens.  Enjoy, folks.  Syria's going to get turned into a parking lot, and Israel will have all the excuse it needs to take Syrian land.

It's going to be an ugly week, folks.  Stay turned.

Meet The New Boss, Just As Insane As The Old Boss

Meet the NRA's incoming president, Alabama attorney Jim Porter.  Here's a guy who continues a long tradition of insane paranoia and persecution, only he's in charge of an organization of millions of heavily armed people, and dammit, it's Obama's fault.

“Last fall, just before the elections, as community-organizer-in chief, President Obama demanded that his followers extract revenge,” Porter said. “I can’t remember a president ever publicly using that word against fellow Americans. Revenge is what’s motivating the president’s unrelenting attacks on gun owners today.”

The statement was an apparent reference to the president’s Nov. 2 statement at a campaign rally that “voting’s the best revenge” after his supporters booed the mention of Republican congressmen.

Porter also said the president’s push for expanded background checks on gun sales was motivated by revenge, calling it a “national gun registration” incited by the defeat of the Toomey-Manchin amendment in the Senate.

“What this universal scheme would have done is to make honest citizens do a criminal act,” Porter said. “Sell a gun to a good neighbor, just like you would do today, become a felon. And the government takes your guns. But losing in a Senate vote is not going to stop Obama. He’s now threatening Democratic senators who are friends of [the] NRA. He will destroy them, if he can.”

Porter is of course outright lying.  The Manchin-Toomey legislation specifically made using background check information in creation of a national gun registry a federal felony, not less than three times in the bill.  The current Brady Bill legislation also prevents that.  Jim Porter is, like Wayne LaPierre before him, a complete liar, but it doesn't matter.

Paranoia with a hair-trigger is an awesome way for someone involved in all this to get hurt or killed.  But the NRA doesn't care:  if they did, they'd be pushing responsible firearm ownership instead of this nonsense.  It sure is making gun and ammo manufacturers a lot of money, however.

Funny how that works, huh?