I have been reading reports for months waiting to read about such a move.   Believe it or not we have a serious weakness in our naval operations around the Strait of Hormuz.  The US may outspend the Islamic Republic nearly 90-to-1 on defense. But Iran, heir to ancient Persia’s naval innovation, has a well-honed asymmetric strategy designed to reverse that advantage.  A 2002 US military exercise simulating such a conflict proved devastating to American warships.

Iran has a fleet of small, fast, and highly maneuverable ships that can easily lay mines despite our presence.   In addition Iran has a fleet of 300 drone speedboats which can be used in attacks against larger warships and vessels such as oil tankers.   The goal of Iran doesn’t need to be “closing” the strait, they can do significant economic harm in just clogging up the traffic which flows through the strait.

(Washington Post) The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats.

In response to requests from U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show. (more…)

Election cycle – Iran….  Keep a close eye on the inner Chicago circle……  Strategic Deployment is Step 1

(RT) The United States is not at war with Iran yet, but just in case,the Pentagon says they want to be prepared. To do so, the Department of Defense has dispatched 15,000 troops to the neighboring nation of Kuwait.

Gen. James Mattis, the Marine Corps head that rules over the US Central Command, won approval late last year from the White House to deploy the massive surge to the tiny West Asian country Kuwait, which is separated from Iran by only a narrow span of the Persian Gulf. (more…)

Note where Eric Holder chose to make his accusations.   South Carolina.   Coincidence?

(Politico) — Attorney General Eric Holder used Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy on the anniversary of the civil rights leader’s birthday Monday to emphasize the Obama administration’s dedication to protecting the American people from discriminatory voting practices.

“Despite our nation’s record of progress, and long tradition of extending voting rights – today, a growing number of citizens are worried about the same disparities, divisions, and problems that Dr. King fought throughout his life to address and overcome,” Holder said at an MLK Day event in Columbia, S.C. (more…)

Following the political call to arms at the church in Atlanta, the Chicago machine held a voter registration drive after the service……   Think about it?   These are just the first test shots being fired…..

On the Sunday before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett visited Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to give a political speech, in support of her boss (Barack Obama) and congressional Democrats:

“Teachers, and firefighters, and policemen, whose jobs are now in jeopardy because Congress–well let me be specific–because the Republicans in Congress,” Jarrett told the crowd. According to the CBS affiliate in Atlanta, at this point, “Before she could finish her sentence, people in the congregation were laughing, and applauding.”

People wonder what’s in store for Summer 2012.  How about the left spinning the 10th amendment to be racist…..   Yep, “States Rights” = “The New Racism”.   These are but the first test shots being fired…

(Politico) —  The Rev. Jesse Jackson says he wants to hear the candidates at the Republican presidential debate tonight — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — discuss racial issues, which the civil rights activist says the GOP hopefuls have avoided throughout the campaign.

“I want to hear from them — do they support Dr. King and the New South movement? Do they appreciate Dr. King’s legacy?” Jackson told POLITICO. “These candidates talk about free enterprise, but do they understand that there would be no Boeing plant in South Carolina if blacks and whites couldn’t work together? That you couldn’t have CNN with a segregated Atlanta, or a Disney World in a segregated Florida?”

“I’ve not seen one of them with African-Americans in their ads or going to an African-American church,” Jackson said of the 2012 hopefuls. “It is an irony that they are having a debate on Martin Luther King Day, when all of them are running on state’s rights.” (more…)

It’s going to be THIS ugly.

……………. or worse

This picture is about two years old and quite funny.   I think we used it when we were discussing the lavish vacation Michelle Obama took to Costa Del Sol during President Obama’s 49th birthday.  Mrs. Obama took the kids and a host of friends and family to Spain in August 2010 and met with Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia while there.

Most people would look at this and say the creator was mocking her lavish vacations (Spain, Vail Colorado, Hawaii, Africa, etc. ) and poking fun at her “well-toned” arms the media has a passion for discussing.   But now we have entered the election cycle everything is based on the Obama deflective narrative of “racism”. 

(LA Times)  A baldly racist depiction of First Lady Michelle Obama that appeared Tuesday on a right-wing website is based on a 1775 portrait of Marie Antoinette by Jean-Baptiste André Gautier-Dagoty (1740–1786). The full-length painting hangs outside Paris in the Palace of Versailles. (more…)

Final Result Mitt Romney Wins Iowa by 8 Votes Over Senator Rick Santorum

In the final result, after two precincts having trouble with their final tallies, and the RNC finding under reported results favoring Mitt Romney, Mittens is declared the winner in the Iowa caucus by an 8 vote margin (.000065%) out of 122,255 total votes cast.    The story forward is the exceptional and some would say surprising finish by former Senator Rick Santorum who from all accounts is the winner from this first primary.

It will take 2 weeks for the official certified totals from each precinct to be finalized.

(more…)

TEHRAN, Iran –  Iranian scientists have produced the nation’s first nuclear fuel rod, a feat of engineering the West has doubted Tehran capable of, the country’s nuclear agency said Sunday.

The announcement marks another step in Tehran’s efforts to achieve proficiency in the entire nuclear fuel cycle — from exploring uranium ore to producing nuclear fuel — despite U.N. sanctions and measures by the U.S. and others to get it to halt aspects of its atomic work that could provide a possible pathway to weapons production. (more…)

(The Washington Times) — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. claims Jim Crow is returning. In a recent speech, Mr. Holder said that attempts by states to pass voter identification laws will disenfranchise minorities, rolling back the clock to the evil days of segregation. He said that a growing number of minorities fear that “the same disparities, divisions and problems” now afflict America as they did in 1965 prior to the Voting Rights Act. According to the Obama administration, our democracy is being threatened by racist Republicans. Hence, the Justice Department must prevent laws requiring a photo ID to vote from being enacted.

Mr. Holder argues that voter ID laws disproportionately discriminate against poor blacks and Hispanics — citizens who cannot afford to acquire a driver’s license, passport or other form of photo identification. The latest victim is South Carolina; its voter ID law has been blocked by the Justice Department. Liberal Democrats — taking their cue from the White House — are portraying the national movement for election reform as an authoritarian assault upon civil liberties. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has even petitioned the United Nations, asking it to declare states’ voter ID laws human rights abuses. For the radical left, America has become Vladimir Putin’s Russia. (more…)