A reporter who was covering the convention says she was targeted and taunted because of her Muslim headdress. ● Heba Said, a senior at the University of Texas at Arlington, is the opinion editor of the school paper, The Shorthorn. The 22-year-old said she applied for media credentials and attended the convention hoping to share with her readers what it was like to sit in on panel discussions with delegates. Instead, Said writes, “I discovered a cult-like hatred that is simply disgusting.” From her report: As I walked through the halls, people stopped in their tracks and frowned and shook their heads at me. Panelists threw the word “Islamist” around as if it were perfectly OK, and one man even asked if I felt alone at a meeting. I was referred to as “you people” and “y’all Muslims” more times than I can count. The worst part was the way delegates looked at me, as if I were something to fear when I approached them.

What would you say if I told you that Americans are nearly 60 TRILLION dollars in debt? Well, it is true. When you total up all forms of debt including government debt, business debt, mortgage debt and consumer debt, we are 59.4 trillion dollars in debt. That is an amount of money so large that it is difficult to describe it with words. For example, if you were alive when Jesus Christ was born and you had spent 80 million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent 59.4 trillion dollars by now. And most of this debt has been accumulated in recent decades. If you go back 40 years ago, total debt in America was sitting at about 2.2 trillion dollars. Somehow over the past four decades we have allowed the total amount of debt in the United States to get approximately 27 times larger. This is utter insanity, and anyone that thinks this is sustainable is completely deluded. We are living in the greatest debt bubble of all time, and there is no way that this is going to end well.

The Islamic militants who overran cities and towns in Iraq last week posted graphic photos that appeared to show their gunmen massacring scores of captured Iraqi soldiers, while the prime minister vowed Sunday to "liberate every inch" of captured territory. ● The pictures on a militant website appear to show masked fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, loading the captives onto flatbed trucks before forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch with their arms tied behind their backs. The final images show the bodies of the captives soaked in blood after being shot at several locations. Chief military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi confirmed the photos' authenticity and said he was aware of cases of mass murder of captured Iraqi soldiers in areas held by ISIL. He told The Associated Press that an examination of the images by military experts showed that about 170 soldiers were shot to death by the militants after their capture. Captions on the photos showing the soldiers after they were shot say "hundreds have been liquidated," but the total could not immediately be verified. [Photo: Associated Press/ HuffPo]

RT.com: ISIS 'execute' 1,700 Iraqi soldiers, post gruesome pictures
Daily Bhaskar: Horrific: More than 1,700 Iraqi government soldiers executed in cold blood, claims ISIS

James Cogan ■ Civil war escalates in Iraq amid reports of sectarian massacres || ISIS-linked sources claimed over the weekend to have executed 1,700 Shiite soldiers, police and government officials captured in the Tikrit area. The claims were accompanied by images of terrified prisoners standing in front of shallow trenches and facing what appeared to be a firing squad of ISIS fighters. Other images show mounds of bodies tossed into trenches. [...] The Obama administration’s response to the catastrophic consequences of the US invasions and intrigues in the Middle East is to prepare to unleash more death and destruction. The aircraft carrier George HW Bush and support ships have deployed into the Persian Gulf to provide “additional flexibility should military options be required.”

Patrick Martin ■ Obama responds to Iraq debacle with military escalation || The New York Times, which played a key role in promoting the Iraq war lies, has taken the lead in this campaign, publishing two columns Sunday, one by Nicholas Kristof and the other by Thomas Friedman, absolving the United States for the worsening catastrophe in Iraq. Kristof writes: “The debacle in Iraq isn’t President Obama’s fault. It’s not the Republicans’ fault. Both bear some responsibility, but, overwhelmingly, it’s the fault of the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri Kamal al-Maliki.” Friedman pronounces: “Maliki had a choice—to rule in a sectarian way or in an inclusive way—and he chose sectarianism. We owe him nothing.” What a grotesque exercise in buck-passing! Who installed Maliki? His regime was the culmination of the supposed transformation of Iraq into a “democracy.” His election was hailed as a great success, first by George W. Bush, who launched the war, and then by Obama, who completed it on the schedule laid down by his predecessor. The US military and media suppressed reports of Maliki’s repressive methods. Throughout, the United States deliberately encouraged sectarian divisions.

xymphora ■ "New York Times says 'Lack Of Major Wars May Be Hurting Economic Growth'" The United States continues to go through the largest and most disastrous economic experiment in history and has definitively determined that wars - in this case, Wars For The Jews - completely wreck and ransack an economy. In fact, I would argue that the American inability to look after things like its infrastructure, education, and health care, despite being the richest country that has ever existed, is determined entirely by a real lack of wealth, wealth which has been poured down the Jew-hole. All the blocking of reforms blamed on right-winger obstructionism (generally explained in terms of 'values') is really just a reflection of what nobody wants to admit, the money is gone and Americans really can no longer afford 'nice things'. It is logically impossible to be 'progressive' and not also an 'anti-Semite'. [...] "The seven people who need to STFU about Iraq right now"

Robert Creamer ■ Only Two Words for Neo-Con Critics of Obama Iraq Policy: Brazen Chutzpah

Sky News: Boris Tells Blair: Put A Sock In It Over Iraq
Senior Labour figures distance themselves from Blair after he refuses to accept blame for new crisis

Why are politicians and military analysts awed, shocked and stunned by ISIS militants speed, capture and control of key resource areas and strategic infrastructure? Because they are likely delusion lying schizophrenics. With 24/7 drone surveillance, satellite imagery and intelligence officers on the ground, ISIS movements were being monitored by military intelligence and the Pentagon did nothing to forewarn or possibly withheld intelligence from Iraq officials of ISIS military forces preparing and pulling off a blitzkrieg through Northern Iraqi cities.

The Chinese, on the other hand, would have a much harder time if Iraq’s 3.7% of global production suddenly went offline. China, which is increasingly dependent on energy imports, is now that country’s largest foreign customer, taking an average 1.5 million barrels a day, almost half of Iraq’s production. China National Petroleum Corp., a state enterprise, swooped up Iraqi oil after last decade’s war—Beijing, by the way, sold arms that ended up in the hands of insurgents fighting Americans—by accepting Baghdad’s razor-thin margins and onerous conditions. Then, many said it was China that won the Iraq War because it signed the major oil deals afterwards. As a result, Beijing now has a lot riding on the outcome in Iraq as ISIS takes on the Shiite-dominated ruling group in Baghdad. No wonder the Chinese Foreign Ministry in recent days has been coming out with announcements supporting the Maliki government.

Remember the assault on the Russian Embassy in Kiev? Well here is some footage of the Ukie Foreign Minister - the counterpart of Sergei Lavrov - who, when he came to express his support for this violation of the Vienna Convention, is heard agreeing with a demonstrator and saying "Putin khuilo". The word "khuilo" can be translated as "dick" or "fucker" or "dickhead" (no need to believe me, the Guardian and Maidanites agree). See (and hear) for yourself. And that, my friends, is literally the "voice of the Ukrainian diplomacy". So please understand that when I speak of "freaks" in Kiev I am not being over the top at all - they are truly and literally freaks. Ditto for the crowd of Euromaidanites which immediately begins to chant this now apparently official slogan. This is why I refer to these degenerates as "Ukrainian Interahamwe" - they are exactly the type to use a machete to murder their neighbor.- My reaction? Glory to the Ukraine! To the heroes glory! (what else can I say?!) - The Saker

RT.com: ‘Ukrainian officials show ‘adolescent foolishness’, not diplomacy’

While barely covered in the western media as a result of the curious blackout of recent developments in the Ukraine civil war, for nearly a month Ukraine has had a new president, 48 year old billionaire businessman, Petro Poroshenko. In order to cut through the fog, we decided to go straight to the source on what the US has to say about the country's new leader, who for now at least, appears to be in the good graces of both Putin and the US, namely the leaked Wikileaks cables. Readers will hardly be surprised to learn that he features quite prominently.