As the US, EU and Britain huff and puff in barrel loads of clichés: "red lines" are "crossed", "sovereignty and territorial integrity" has been "violated", they stand "shoulder to shoulder" with their shoe-horned in fascist government in Ukraine, they are "resolute" against "Russian aggression", and will not "stand idly by", sanity seems in short supply.

US Secretary of State, John Kerry representing a country which makes Genghis Khan look like a wimp when it comes to illegal invasions, still retains the prize for jaw dropper of the decade: "You just don't, in the 21st century, behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext", he pontificated on CBS' "Face the Nation."

On the thirteenth anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq and the total destruction of it's "sovereignty and territorial integrity", by America and Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron has scuttled off to Brussels for a meeting of European Union Ministers to agree a "robust response" to Russia - who has fired not a shot, invaded no one and threatened nothing except to respond that if sanctions were imposed on Russia they might consider a trading response. Fair enough, surely?

The government of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea called a referendum, distinctly disturbed by the threat by Kiev's US proxy government that the Russian language was to have no status, and Jews and blacks would not be tolerated.

A fraction under 97% voted to cede to Russia, with a turnout of over 80% - an electoral enthusiasm of which Western governments could only dream.

As much of the main stream media and the usual politicians thundered of voting under pressure or even at gunpoint, one hundred and thirty five international observers from twenty three countries said, consistently, they saw no pressure of any sort, and they had "not registered any violations of voting rules."(1)

Ignoring President Barack Obama's veto threat, the House voted on Wednesday for a bill that would expedite congressional lawsuits against the chief executive for failure to enforce federal laws.

The vote was 233-181 in the Republican-led House as GOP lawmakers excoriated Obama for multiple changes to his 4-year-old health care law, steps he's taken to allow young immigrants to remain in the United States and the administration's resistance to defend the federal law banning gay marriage.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., sponsor of the ENFORCE the Law Act, delivered a fiery speech and read a series of statements by Obama when he was an Illinois senator in which he warned of the encroachment of the executive on the powers of the other branches of government.

Iran's official news agency is reporting that Iran and Russia have discussed a draft agreement to build two more nuclear power plants in the Islamic Republic.

The report Wednesday by IRNA said visiting Russian official Nikolai Spassky and Iranian nuclear officials reached an initial agreement about building two new nuclear power plants for Iran. Each plant would have 1,000-megawatts capacity plus water purification capabilities.

It said a formal agreement would be signed later. It did not elaborate.

Iran built its first nuclear power plant in southern port of Bushehr with Russia's help. That plant has been online since 2011 with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

The Kansas House Standing Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice has introduced a bill that will require private citizens who file complaints against police officers to sign an affidavit, acknowledging that if their allegations are proven false, they can be charged with perjury, which is a felony charge.

Furthermore, this bill prohibits a Kansas law enforcement agency from opening an investigation into a complaint if another law enforcement agency has already investigated the complaint and found in favor of the officer.

In other words, this bill would allow police departments to arrest the people who file complaints against police officers. In Wichita, Kansas, complaints are almost always dismissed, by the Wichita Police Department, so, according to this bill and its vague wording, the WPD, could now go arrest the people who file complaints against their officers.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has published a reciprocal sanctions list of US citizens, consisting of 10 names, including: House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, Senator J. McCain; and advisers to President Obama D. Pfeiffer and C. Atkinson.

These officials, along with another five named by the Foreign Ministry, are banned from entering the country.

The move comes in response to US sanctions imposed against Russian officials after the March-16 referendum in Crimea, which Washington considered "illegitimate."

A senior Russian diplomat says Moscow may change its stance in the Iranian nuclear talks amid tensions with the West.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted Wednesday as saying by the Interfax news agency that Russia didn't want to use the Iranian nuclear talks to "raise stakes," but may have to do so in response to the actions by the United States and the European Union.

The statement is the most serious threat of retaliation by Moscow after the U.S. and the EU announced sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein's bombshell accusation about the Central Intelligence Agency Tuesday set off a scramble on Capitol Hill - with Democrats and Republicans ignoring the usual party lines in response to her claim that the agency improperly interfered in a congressional investigation.

Feinstein (D-Calif.) won immediate backing from top Democrats like Majority Leader Harry Reid and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy while some Republicans, including Lindsey Graham and John McCain, began to echo her concerns. Have these same Senators supported the NSA spying on average Americans? The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

The U.S. will not take military action in the Ukraine crisis, President Barack Obama told NBC 7 San Diego Wednesday.

"We are not going to be getting into a military excursion in Ukraine. What we are going to do is mobilize all of our diplomatic resources to make sure that we've got a strong international correlation that sends a clear message," President Obama said.

The president's statement on the possibility of military intervention was part of an interview Wednesday with NBC 7's Mark Mullen, who traveled to Washington, D.C. to talk with the president about a range of topics, from military cuts to raising the minimum wage.

News of Israel's claim to have intercepted an Iranian arms shipment near Sudan allegedly headed to Gaza last Wednesday has been all over the media: mainstream media coverage in the US included the Washington Post, NYT, NPR, CNN, Fox. You name it, they reported it.

Iran flatly denied the charge. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif immediately countered that Israel was lying.

An Iranian ship carrying arms for Gaza. Captured just in time for annual AIPAC anti Iran campaign. Amazing Coincidence! Or same failed lies.
- Javad Zarif (@JZarif) March 6, 2014

Well.... coincidentally, there was another big arms interception story that broke two weeks before that the U.S. media somehow managed to miss. It involved Israeli arms shipments headed to Iran seized by authorities in Greece and violating the arms embargo and sanctions on Iran. US Homeland Security is reportedly investigating.

"We are paying very close attention to the situation in Ukraine. We hope all parties can calmly maintain restraint to prevent the situation from further escalating and worsening. Political resolution and dialogue is the only way out."

This, via Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong, is Beijing's quite measured, official interpretation of what's happening in Ukraine, tailored for global consumption.

But here, in a People's Daily editorial, is what the leadership is really thinking. And the focus is clearly on the dangers of regime change, the "West's inability to understand the lessons of history", and "the final battlefield of the Cold War."

Yet again the West misinterpreted China's abstention from the UN Security Council vote on a US-backed resolution condemning the Crimea referendum.

The spin was that Russia - which vetoed the resolution - was "isolated". It's not. And the way Beijing plays geopolitics shows it's not.