OT 07-55
No post today, as I'm a bit tired and in need of some mental diversion. So I'll leave you with Evil himself.Use this as an open thread ...
Posted by b on August 12, 2007 at 18:18 UTC | Permalink
« previous pagein memoriam - raul hilberg - counterpunch
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 15 2007 22:42 utc | 103
fracture an Iraqi detainee's skull with a baseball bat and then try to cover your tracks did you?
here's your "formal, written censure". let that be a lesson to you.
US Miltary justice. a fucking oxymoron if there ever was one.
could our contempt for our colonial subjects be any clearer?
Posted by: ran | Aug 16 2007 5:29 utc | 104
Robot warriors have already seen action in Iraq, and the US Army plans to replace one-third of its armored vehicles and weapons with robots by 2015.
I'm telling you, they still think that if they can hang on a few years more until technology catches up, that they can win this whole thing in Iraq. And without many troops, too.
The future is certainly shaping up to be even more dytopic than I could have imagined with robot killers and drone spies.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 16 2007 5:30 utc | 105
I like it when I'm right ... :-)
A week ago, discussing Musharraf's threat to impose emrgency rules, I wrote
It is about U.S. pressure on Musharraf to let Benazir Bhutto in again and to hand her the keys in the elections at the end of the year. (Bhutto was prime minister in 1988 and kicked out for kleptocraty.)Musharraf has no personal urge to share his position and is looking for an excuse to cancel the elections. Obama's (misinterpreted) threats and such are helping him to do so.
Today the NYT writes at the top of its homepage:
The Bush administration, struggling to find a way to keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power amid a deepening political crisis in Pakistan, is quietly prodding him to share authority with a longtime rival as a way of broadening his base, according to American and Pakistani officials.Took'em a full week ...General Musharraf, an important ally since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has lost so much domestic support in recent months that American officials have gotten behind the idea that an alliance with Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, would be his best chance of remaining president.
robots fueled by DU dust
controlled by pubescent online gamers
drinking red bull and eating GMO twinkies
in their bedrooms halfway around the world
ender's game redux
Posted by: catlady | Aug 16 2007 5:50 utc | 107
Booby traps ... hard to overcome ...
'House Bombs' a Growing Risk for U.S. TroopsSoldiers Being Lured Into Buildings Rigged to Explode; Commander Cites Insurgents' 'Continually Evolving Tactics'
Military commanders say the number of similar incidents -- those in which soldiers are lured into a house rigged to explode -- has risen dramatically across Iraq in recent months.
...
The tactic appears to have spread south from Diyala province, northeast of the capital, where three house bombs have killed several American troops in the past two months. The U.S. military typically classifies house bombs with other IED attacks, so the exact number of Americans killed by the devices is difficult to determine.
b., as for youtube videos: for some reason (long ago install of buggy video layer) my PC doesn't like Flash-based, or any other video to show in my favorite Firefox browser.
So I have to copy the link into an Internet Explorer window and hope for the best.
Most people seem to have no problem with Flash or embedded video but as a member of the non-video enabled group I would ask that at least some comment in text might describe the punch line of the joke or give me some knowledge of whether it is worth my time to figure out how to watch it.
Posted by: jonku | Aug 16 2007 7:56 utc | 109
@b 106:
Amazing how talk of Democracy can drone on and on unperturbed while the NYTimes can talk openly about overthrowing the government of the six most populous country in the world. How do people live with such cognitive dissonance? Where are the critical thinking skills?
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 16 2007 13:37 utc | 110
Critical thinking? Who is he when he is at home? ;) For the US (meaning those now in control who supposedly represent its interests) to maintain its position as world dominator it has no choice. It has to use its long term investment to conquer more and more, expand in its own way. The old post WW2 order, based on Nation States, International Agreements, Treaties, Protocols, has been voided. (Mostly, but not only, by the US.) It thus becomes normal in bar-room or high-level-strategy meetings to chat about invading this or that country. Pakistan! nOO, Iran! North Korea, don’t forget! Saudi!, those f***, etc. etc. The stance rests on assumed power, itself necessary to see ‘a way forward.’
All very dangerous and built on illusions. See for ex.:
The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/80fa0a2c-49ef-11dc-9ffe-0000779fd2ac.html>Financial Times com, Aug. 14 2007
Posted by: Tangerine (ex Noirette) | Aug 16 2007 17:02 utc | 111
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It's an Australian fund, but it was invested in U.S. mortgage papers ... Basis Capital fund faces 80% loss
"fluid and uncertain"?The ECB says the problem is about over and the Fed tells us there is no contagion. Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes.
Posted by: b | Aug 15 2007 18:05 utc | 101