While The World Chatters About Obama And Greece, Israel's Credit Rating Goes UP

It's too good not to mention on a Friday.

International credit rating agency Standard & Poor's announced on Friday that it has raised Israel's credit rating from A to A+. The company said that the decision reflects the government's responsible economic policy. Company officials said they do not believe the national budget will explode despite the mass social justice protests demanding reformed economic policies. Standard & Poor's is the same company which, in August, lowered the credit rating of the United States.

The news is full of Greece's meltdown--how'd you like to have to borrow money at 80% interest for one year, just to keep the lights on?

Lots of chatter about Himself, including this bit from Doug Mataconis, who is no fire-breathing conservative.

The mosques in Syria will conclude services in a few minutes, and the bloodshed will pick up where it left off last Friday after prayers and wing-nut sermons, and more mothers will bury more of their children on Sunday. Nothing new here.

Libya is now being divided up amongst its various tribal warlords, including some very interesting-looking jihadist types. Are we surprised? Egypt is choatic, no news here. Gold is spiking, as is silver, but OS has decided to get out of the way of all the oncoming freight trains proceeding through the tunnel in his direction.

The world is so busy chattering about the turmoil, that they will barely notice this nugget of good news. The logical question is, of course, 'What are the Israelis doing right that we aren't?' it's a dangerous question, but it is the logical question.

The weather is lovely. The migration of mourning doves from points north has begun, and OS is cheerily leaving them cracked corn in abundance, to welcome them back. There is a very nice roosting area on an abandoned farm property behind OS's house, and ponds, and gravel roads for craw.

OS played a fun round with an old friend at an unfamiliar course yesterday. Luckily, his order of new golf balls was in his mailbox when he returned home. It's the weekend. OS has time, Mrs. OS, a few things to get done, and an immense sense of gratitude for his life. He will be looking for Israeli bond funds during the day, though.

Barack Obama, Winner Of The Nobel Peace Prize, On The Subject Of Civility In Public Discourse

Really, ya'll, he spoke these words a few months ago:

"At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do," the President said at the time, "it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds," he said.

Not a peep in the wake of Hoffa's hectoring of the crowd, telling them to '...take these sons-of-bitches out!', referring to members of the Tea Party.

OS concludes the rules must change when it gets to be election season, at least for Obama.

Yes, Indeed, Mr. Hoffa Said Those Ugly, Menacing Words

Video's here, if you must see it, yet again.

Mr. Hoffa did say:

"We got to keep an eye on the battle that we face: The war on workers. And you see it everywhere, it is the Tea Party. And you know, there is only one way to beat and win that war. The one thing about working people is we like a good fight. And you know what? They've got a war, they got a war with us and there's only going to be one winner. It's going to be the workers of Michigan, and America. We're going to win that war," Jimmy Hoffa said to a heavily union crowd.

"President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong," Hoffa added.

Given the loooong relationship between the Teamsters and elements of the Cosa Nostra, these are pretty chilling words, the kind used by people like Gambino, Gotti, Luciano, and company.

Surely, it gave a thrill to the crowd. And, oddly, it may have given a thrill to those who identify themselves with the 'sons-of-bitches' Mr. Hoffa wishes to 'take out.' The 'See-I-Told-You-So' thrill, the 'Let's-Make-Sure-We're-Packing-From-Now-On' thrill.

Old South, as horrified as he is by those words, and as scared as he is by what those words mean, really urges his readers, and everyone in general, to take a deep breath. Calm down. These are challenging times, and adrenalin does not help one think.

Hoffa is an idiot, a goon. Obama is a desperate man to stand on the podium with Hoffa at all, much less to not immediately take the high road and repudiate those words and the man who spoke them. Immediately, on the spot. He could have simply walked off and left when Hoffa staged his rant, which would have been the most effective course of action. But he didn't. And that was a tragic moment for him, and for the country.

But, still, everybody. Calm down, be thoughtful. Someone out there may think it would somehow be heroic to do violent things to union members, especially to Teamsters, to somehow 'get back' at Hoffa. It isn't. A face floats in OS's mind just now, a Teamster who is the gentlest soul for miles around, whose kindness forever contributed to OS's family. Other union members, in other unions, come to mind--good good people, who do not share Hoffa's view of the world. They don't deserve to get killed or injured in political violence.

In the movies, and on TV, we view fictionalized violence every day, knowing that the rounds fired are blanks, the blood is fake, it's all edited later, and after the scene is film, everyone gets up and goes home at the end of the day.

Real violence is not like that. It scars victims and aggressors both. People die, and leave shattered families behind. Gunshot wounds maim body and soul for life.

Calm down, everybody. Don't take Hoffa's bait, don't play in his sandbox. And, when you decide about who should be in office next, think about that poor politician who so desperately wishes to hold on to power that he will countenance even a Jimmy Hoffa's poisonous calls to violence. These kind of people, we don't need in office, at any level, from the county courthouse to the White House.

Calm down, and think about how to face what lies ahead for us all.

Perhaps THIS Is One Reason Gibson Guitars Was Raided?

By armed agents? To seize rosewood? Not meth, not guns. Rosewood and guitars.

The link contains the official statement from Gibson.

Doug Ross, who provides this statement to us, also notes:

As an aside, Gibson is a non-unionized shop while its competitors are largely unionized.

And Gibson's CEO is a Republican donor while his competitors -- who import the exact same wood without complaint from the government -- are Democrat contributors.

But I'm sure those are all just coincidences.

Before the twilight falls upon us, let us shed as much light as we can.

The CIA/MI6 And Colonel Gadaffi: Ifn' Yew Lize Down Wif Dawgs, You Gits Fleas

John LeCarre's secret of success is that he simply relates rather more polite versions of the idiocies that are carried out in our names.

(The release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing seemed unexplicable at the time. Now, the event is, well, perhaps, plausible and understandable. The governments of the US and the UK left the families of the victims hung out to dry. After all, the reasoning might go, that thing occurred in 1988, you know. How bad can the loss of a child to a terrorist murderer still hurt after all those years, and we have bigger fish to fry, and...)

From the BeeBeeCee, ever the bearer of glad tidings:

US and UK spy agencies built close ties with their Libyan counterparts during the so-called War on Terror, according to documents discovered at the office of Col Gaddafi's former spy chief.

The papers suggest the CIA abducted several suspected militants from 2002 to 2004 and handed them to Tripoli.

The UK's MI6 also apparently gave the Gaddafi regime details of dissidents.

The documents, found by Human Rights Watch workers, have not been seen by the BBC or independently verified.

But, wait, there's more, and more to come!

The papers outline the rendition of several suspects, including one that Human Rights Watch has identified as Abdel Hakim Belhaj, known in the documents as Abdullah al-Sadiq, who is now the military commander of the anti-Gaddafi forces in Tripoli.

The Americans snatched him in South East Asia before flying him to Tripoli in 2004, the documents claim.

Mr Belhaj, who was involved in an Islamist group attempting to overthrow Col Gaddafi in the early 2000s, had told the Associated Press news agency earlier this week that he had been rendered by the Americans, but held no grudge.

Riiight.

What could possibly go wrong?