😉
b, could you clean that up!
8 million? something tells me that figure has tripled. li’l ‘ol me too?
bwwwwahhhh

Posted by: annie | May 20 2008 5:40 utc | 3

i think it was through Uncle i found the last roundup, and it’s not a pleasant read. Naomi Klein’s rolling stone article about China’s all-seeing eye is also worth reading (sorry i can’t find the link)
MAIN CORE is just another nefarious strand in the virtual meta-structure that fuels the extremes of the conspiratorial market (of course it’s a market!)…and is it accurate? yeah, it probably is, but when has the will of power ever turned down a chance to control its resources, and isn’t that the category most of fall into: things to be used?
to a certain degree the conspiracy niche is just another vein of exploitation charlatans like David Icke use to sell books, and apparently it works, because i’m almost done with the exhausting doorstop of his latest load of shite, and i really can’t stand it. just another reality tunnel feigning for attention in the chaos.
and why should David Icke be shunned when Tom Cruise can believe in an intergalactic warlord who vaporized prisoners of a galactic war in volcanoes?
it’s all a scam, and these are the golden days never to be had again.

Posted by: Lizard | May 20 2008 6:35 utc | 5

CBOT Commodity Traders Open New Human Slavery Bourse
Tom Terrific, CBOT’s chairman, enthused to reporters, “There are 3,000,000,000
potential human futures for CBOT to pimp, er, sell. This is the greatest growth
industry since bottled water, and CBOT expects to be in the forefront! We’ll
make trillions for our investors!”
Way to go, Team USA!!

Posted by: Tiny Pepe | May 20 2008 15:08 utc | 7

Sons of Iraq Or Baghdad’s Soprano’s?

But doing business with the gunmen, whom the U.S. military has dubbed Sons of Iraq, is like striking a deal with Tony Soprano, according to the soldiers who walk the battle-blighted streets, where sewage collects in malodorous pools.
“Most of them kind of operate like dons in their areas,” said 2nd Lt. Forrest Pierce, a platoon leader with the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment. They shake down local businessmen for protection money, seize rivals for links to the insurgency and are always angling for more men, more territory and more power.
For U.S. soldiers on the beat, it means navigating a complex world of shifting allegiances, half-truths and betrayals.

What a great reason to join the Army; go to Iraq and perform muscle work for some anonymous local thug. Sure sounds like freedom on the march to me. Not only are contractors being turned into soldiers, but it looks like soldiers are being turned into contractors.

Posted by: anna missed | May 20 2008 18:36 utc | 9

Abortio debate → Link to it

Posted by: Cloned Poster | May 20 2008 19:27 utc | 11

re #12 – same symbolic crap conyers & the dems passed last yr

No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act of 2007 or NOPEC – Amends the Sherman Act to declare it to be illegal and a violation of the Act for any foreign state or instrumentality thereof to act collectively or in combination with any other foreign state or any other person, whether by cartel or any other association or form of cooperation or joint action, to limit the production or distribution of oil, natural gas, or any other petroleum product (petroleum), to set or maintain the price of petroleum, or to otherwise take any action in restraint of trade for petroleum, when such action has a direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply, price, or distribution of petroleum in the United States.
Denies a foreign state engaged in such conduct sovereign immunity from the jurisdiction or judgements of U.S. courts in any action brought to enforce this Act.

Posted by: b real | May 20 2008 20:11 utc | 13

‘Big Brother’ database for phones and e-mails
from Clare in the comments…

Posted by: dan of steele | May 20 2008 21:18 utc | 15

@remembering #16
Nomad reports from SA on the ET blog.
more details and debate in the comments.
divide et impera…

Posted by: DeAnander | May 20 2008 23:44 utc | 17

and cheers once again to Obama for keeping it real in the face of all that the totally crass, craven, grace-less She who would be president has thrown at him. I actually once admired her and today resent myself for it. It seems the Repugs were right all along about She who would do anything to get what She wants.
also props to the 30% or so Whites who by disposition do not know any better than to give merit where its due regardless of race.
God Bless America

Posted by: jony_b_cool | May 21 2008 0:39 utc | 19

on the topic of addicts
from secdef gates’ prepared testimony tuesday before the senate appropriations defense subcommittee, urging congress to pass the pentagon’s 2009 submitted budget even though, as he admits, DoD is already spending fourth quarter funds from the 2008 appropriations:

In addition to the $515.4 billion base budget, the Fiscal Year 2009 request also includes $70 billion in emergency bridge funding. There is, however, a more immediate concern: Congress has yet to pass the pending $102.5 billion Global War on Terrorism request for Fiscal Year 2008 and, as a result, the Defense Department is currently using fourth quarter funds from the base budget to cover current war costs. Shortly, two critical accounts will run dry:

First, Army military personnel account. After June 15th we will run out of funds in this account to pay Soldiers – including those currently serving in Afghanistan and Iraq; and

Second, Operations and Maintenance account. Around July 5th, O&M funds across the Services will run out, starting with the Army. This may result in civilian furloughs, limits on training, and curbing family support activities.
If war funds are not available, the Defense Department can transfer funds from Navy and Air Force military personnel accounts to pay soldiers, but that would get us only to late July. Using the limited Transfer Authority granted by Congress would also help us get to late July. Doing so, however, is a shell game – a temporary one at that – which will disrupt existing programs and push the Services O&M accounts to the edge of fiscal viability.

from defense news
Gates, Mullen: Base DoD Budget Must Be Passed

If U.S. congressional leaders opt against passing a 2009 base budget for the Department of Defense, it would trigger dangerous budgetary and programmatic aftershocks, two top Pentagon officials said.
Some key House aides have let it be known that the chamber is considering forgoing action on the 2008 defense appropriations bill, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said during a May 20 Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee session.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed they have heard such talk, with both expressing concerns about the potential budgetary and programmatic fallout.
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee, the panel charged with drawing up the lower chamber’s annual Pentagon budgets before they are taken up by the full committee, has yet to place a markup of the 2009 spending measure on its docket. Should congressional leaders decide against approving a 2009 base Pentagon budget, lawmakers would instead consider a continuing resolution that would fund programs during 2009 at the levels appropriated for the current fiscal year. That would kick in on Oct. 1, the first day of the new fiscal year.

and they’re worried that they might not have enough “walking around money” for extracurricular activities…
the hill: Pentagon leaders press for jobs program in Iraq, Afghanistan

Pentagon leaders are urging Congress to pass the emergency war-spending bill swiftly to avoid closing down a popular program designed to respond to urgent local needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen told a Senate panel Tuesday that the Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP) will be out of money by June.
“It is the single most effective program to enable commanders to address local populations’ needs and get potential insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan off the streets and into jobs,” said Gates in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee.
The Pentagon requested $1.7 billion for CERP in the 2008 war emergency supplemental, but Congress only approved $500 million as part of 2008 supplemental funding it passed last year. At least one senator has expressed concerns about the growing scope — and expense — of the project.
Without the remaining $1.2 billion, “this vital program will come to a standstill,” Gates warned. The Pentagon cannot extend funding beyond the $977 million authority provided in the 2008 defense authorization bill, Gates explained.
CERP is a military-led effort that pays for urgent local projects both in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If field commanders learn that a certain area is in dire need of facilities, such as water compact units, sewage pumps, health centers or school renovations, they can immediately undertake the projects since they have authority over the money. Oftentimes, young captains are given access to this money to respond quickly to the needs of local communities.
The money is also used to pay salaries for the Sons of Iraq, who provide security in a number of communities, explained Mullen. As the U.S. forces advance in securing more areas across Iraq, CERP has become “ammunition for success throughout Iraq where security has improved,” said Mullen.

CERP was initially funded w/ the cash stolen from ba’athist party vaults after the invasion of baghdad – rather than return the money to the iraqi people, bremer created CERP and gave the (iraqi people’s) money to u.s. commanders to spend however they deemed appropriate in winning/greasing/bribing iraqi heart & minds. (and fixing/protecting the nation’s oil infrastructure at the same time!)

Posted by: b real | May 21 2008 3:53 utc | 21

Considering that CERP has never been audited, and a cursory examination of open contracts in Aghanistan amounts to little over 3% of CERPs request, while Iraq is
so awash in overlapping regular fund and emergency fund money it isn’t funny, you
have to wonder what “pot of money” (as NPR started referring to these “critical
defense funding initiatives”) that Cheney and his Black Ops staff are laddering up
for after the elections, so there’s no disruption to the grift pipeline to Dubai.
CERP is where you go around to the last remaining passengers on the Titanic, and
demand their furs and jewelry, in return for a lifeboat seat that already sailed.
The Oil War is bankrupt! CERP’s just picking up nickels and dimes off the floor.
O Kairos, retrograde Kremlin’s stars, for the Casa Blanca is in the poorhouse now!

Posted by: Terrence Michaels | May 21 2008 4:33 utc | 23

bwahh twice for me, annie, when bread goes for $15 a
loaf, gas is $15 a gallon, and your electric bill is
$15 a day, when all the homeless are filling
WalMart’s parking lots and newly dead are being piled
up by the street sweepers, then when they stop you at
the border in your car, or at the airport, or the bus,
and refuse to let you leave the gulag for warmer climes,
because you got yourself on a No-Fly computer at Langley.
People are already living in their cars in hordes in CA,
and I’ve seen the dead on the street every morning in NYC.
First onseys and twoseys, then horders, they’ll eat your
chickens and goats, sell your children for ransom, then
you’ll join their march of tears, trying to reach Tijuana.
Oh … wait … Dancing with the Stars is in finals! GTG!!

Posted by: Sulaman Shah | May 21 2008 5:02 utc | 25

Sulaman Sulaman Sulaman !
then
you’ll join their march of tears, trying to reach Tijuana.
i’ll head for the hills! you’ll find me on top of some precipice in the sierras! (freezing my ass of in late fall descending, facing the roads blocked by the empire guards at the base of kennedy meadows…

Posted by: annie | May 21 2008 7:38 utc | 27

#22 Tiny Pepe: accurate and colorful (ist day is great!), except that at this point there are no gambles, only purchases.

Posted by: Anonymous | May 21 2008 13:45 utc | 29

re b #1 chinahand link: thanks. didn’t know site before (I’ve missed a lot of posts, only rarely catch all in a given week)
less rice = higher rice/food prices. Rice bought by bureaucracies especially drives same up.
Also whole thing is warning us we’re property, Gaia’s mad at us, will cleanse a great portion of we “usless eaters”.
Uncle $ recently (3 weeks?) put up here link and this quote
“Others are engaging even in an
eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.
Defense Secretary Cohen 4/28/07 (11 years warning)
(I’ve also put up at least once, noting I suspect a vibrational method for the earthquake part)
and a link to HAARP info after the Christmas tsunami (God’s mad too, people can take their pick. Insurance companies have been waiting for an Act of God like this for a long time.)
It’s also looking like the man-made global warming people are right: earth is warming from below. I’ve mentioned magma under NE Greenland & W. Antarctica here before, also over 200,000 underwater volcanoe cones recently mapped, and estimate of 3 million total. (from story last summer, I didn’t see until winter after link on a NY Times blog)
The great mass of carbon dioxide up there is released from the warming seas, now aide from earth and (no longer) permafrost. Seems to be in tune with a sun cycle, so it looks like cooling instead might indeed happen soon.
I suspect J.P. Morgan got enough info from when he backed Tesla on the wireless transmission (mostly underground) of very cheap electricity to know such was desirable, but not yet, business can wait until he dies to get the rest, papers claimed by the Feds January ’43 when he died. You know OSS loved wacky weapons and CIA loves same and all above love contracts, contracts, contracts in the name of
sacred Defense.
It’s Bizarro land, and they’ve made us so cracked we can’t realize it, like thinking of your parents having sex. Don’t like it, do you?
sorry my own stuffed animal cartoon website is down, will get back up after I settle personal credit card stuff (have substituted my used bookstore site)
(or more likely, I’ll get a free site)

Posted by: plushtown | May 21 2008 14:47 utc | 31

plushtown: i think if we don’t entertain the idea that one of the major goals of the global elite is massive depopulation, we miss the scope of what is happening. unfortunately Bizarro land is an uncomfortable realm to explore for most people. even though Tesla’s breakthroughs aren’t conspiracies, and HAARP’s ability to manipulate the ionosphere is no fantasy, these are just a few of the dots that connect to a meta-reality of conspiratorial omnipresence the global elite hope we swallow hook, line, and sinker.

Posted by: Anonymous | May 21 2008 15:50 utc | 33

(via secrecy news blog) 2008 Defense Intelligence Strategy
from the preface by under secretary of defense james clapper

The Intelligence Community understands that further transformation of the larger national security infrastructure is required to build effectively for the future.
…
For defense intelligence professionals, this means our missions will be diverse and multidimensional, punctuated by persistent regional engagements requiring a range of military, humanitarian, and diplomatic capabilities and assets to be used simultaneously. Cultural awareness, social modeling, and language proficiency will be as important as new intelligence systems and technologies. We will need to develop a sizeable cadre of immediately deployable experts with disparate skills.
…
As we begin to understand that the threats we will face in the coming decades cannot be addressed by any single government agency, we must not only leverage the capabilities of our partners but also improve our ability to ingest and archive large amounts of data, and extract and disseminate to our customers and partners all relevant information. This data will come from people and sensors deployed worldwide, with the capacity to penetrate areas that have proven difficult to date. Because data management and information extraction will be done increasingly in a networked environment, more research on availability, confidentiality, and the integrity of data is vital.
…
This urgent need to prepare—and do so in a logical, thoughtful, and considered manner—is the impetus for development of a Defense Intelligence Strategy. Its purpose is to ensure that the coalition of those involved in protecting the nation’s security understand the direction and priorities of defense intelligence as part of a larger universe of military and intelligence communities.

no time to digest the doc now, but

This new strategy highlights the following four strategic goals (four E’s):
* Extend the full advantage of the U.S. intelligence enterprise to all defense users to ensure timely and accurate decisions, as well as ensure defense intelligence is available to the broader U.S. intelligence enterprise.
* Enhance all services and capabilities provided by the U.S. intelligence enterprise to satisfy the changing needs of defense intelligence users.
* Explore concepts, technologies, and strategies to address customer requirements and emerging threats.
* Enable us to counter and deny adversary capabilities to acquire and exploit our technologies or knowledge of the battle space.

Posted by: b real | May 21 2008 19:39 utc | 35

@annie at #27:
Tehipite Valley on the Kings R. or Nine Mile Camp on the Kern R. are both ‘winterable’ locales. Very hard to get to, even with helicopters. Plenty of trout, berries, and miner’s lettuce and wild onions.

Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | May 21 2008 22:26 utc | 37

amazing stuff breal @36. thanks again for sharing your research here.

Posted by: dan of steele | May 21 2008 23:29 utc | 39

“and cheers once again to Obama for keeping it real ”
right, heard him the other day giving our shitty, murderous little apartheid mini-me Israel a long, loving fellating on the glorious occasion of their 60th anniversary. dude’s “keeping it real” alright.

Posted by: ran | May 22 2008 4:51 utc | 41

The following two links need not be swallowed whole to be interesting, and this one leaves me wondering about “ER” ‘s particular virtues and vices.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | May 22 2008 7:48 utc | 43

@44 funny and in reality they’d be feasting on that baby

Posted by: jcairo | May 22 2008 8:17 utc | 45

@45 they’d be feasting on that baby
or themselves 😉

Posted by: annie | May 22 2008 9:08 utc | 47

#45 annie, #45 jcairo, yes.
Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, said in ’90’s and on video sold by Amazon etc that others of the group The Process also killed, idea was to spread “chaos”. I encountered Process members in 1971 in the Chicago Loop, in one piece monks robes passing out sheets about “4 Godheads”: Jesus, Jehovah, Satan, Lucifer. I figured this meant “anything goes” so best avoid, and was told later by a sophomore that they “had good parties but people disappeared.
Berkowitz claimed income came for “spreading chaos”, also from drug trade and snuff film production. Here’s quote from a “letter to a minister”
“this group contained a mixture of Satanic practices, including the teachings of Aleister Crowley and Eliphas Levi. It was blood oriented…The coven’s doctrines are a blend of Druidism, teachings of the secret order of the Golden Dawn, black magic, and a host of other unlawful and obnoxious practices…
…Satanists are peculiar people. They aren’t ignorant peasants or semi-literate natives. Rather, their ranks are filled with doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and basically highly responsible citizens…They are not a careless group who are apt to make mistakes. But they are secretive and bonded together by a common need and desire to mete out havoc on society. It was Aleister Crowley who said: “I want blasphemy, murder, rape, revolution, anything bad.”

Posted by: plushtown | May 22 2008 13:26 utc | 49

garowe: Feud erupts inside Puntland Cabinet’s weekly meeting

BOSSASO, Somalia May 22 (Garowe Online) – A disagreement has erupted within the government of Puntland, in Somalia’s northeast, during Thursday’s regular weekly Cabinet meeting, inside sources told Garowe Online.
…
President Muse offered a brief review of his nearly two-month-long trip aboard, where he visited the capitals of the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti.
The Puntland leader told his Cabinet that, while in Addis Ababa, he signed an agreement with Ethiopian government officials to “hand over” any individual who is a “threat” to Ethiopia’s national security.
The Cabinet meeting erupted in discord immediately after President Muse’s revelation, with many Puntland government ministers expressing their opposition to the extradition program, a Cabinet source who did not want to be named in print told Garowe Online.
Since April 22, a handful of Somalis have been arrested by Puntland security forces and extradited to neighboring Ethiopia, a country that human rights groups accuse of torturing domestic dissidents.

no doubt a similar agreement exists w/ the u.s.

Further, Cabinet ministers discussed the nonpayment of the regional government’s civil servants and members of the security forces. According to the Ministry of Finance, Puntland government employees have not received their regular salary for the past five months.
President Muse announced that he had appointed a committee to investigate the Ministry of Finance and the continued lack of payment for government employees, a development that reportedly angered Finance Minister Mohamed “Gaagaab” Ali.
Mr. Gaagaab defended himself by arguing that 80% of revenue managed by the Ministry of Finance was used directly by President Muse and Vice President Afqura, “for operations or other purposes.”
However, the Finance Minister did not detail exactly how those funds were allegedly used by the President and his deputy, according to our sources.
…
During the Cabinet meeting, the Puntland leader was specifically asked how money donated by foreign exploration companies was used.
At one point during the heated debate, a Cabinet minister accused President Muse of spending public funds “like a store he personally owns.”
The comment angered the Puntland leader, to which he replied by threatening to “fire” Cabinet ministers, although he did not mention any specific names.
When Garowe Online asked one of our Cabinet sources why Puntland government ministers are now bold enough to question Muse, he replied: “Less than one year remains for this government, so there is no fear.”

maybe they didn’t see this rpt from monday
Somalia’s leader pursuing one-year extension for Puntland ruler

GAROWE, Somalia May 19 (Garowe Online) – The interim president of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) is secretly backing a measure to extend the four-year term for Gen. Adde Muse, leader of the Puntland region in the northeast of the country, inside sources tell Garowe Online.
TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf, himself a former Puntland ruler, is secretly backing the initiative and has already begun holding preliminary discussions on the issue with traditional elders and politicians who wield influence in his home region of Puntland.
The Somali leader held closed-door talks with Puntland leader Gen. Muse in London in late April, where the two men discussed the one-year term extension at length, according to reliable sources who are familiar with the talks.
Gen. Muse’s constitutional term in office ends in January 2009, when presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Puntland.
But President Yusuf wants the Puntland elections to be postponed until after the 2009 Somali presidential elections, marking the end of the transitional mandate for Yusuf’s Ethiopian-backed interim government in Mogadishu.
…
It is not clear how the local population will respond to a term extension for the incumbent Puntland ruler, who has been criticized for weak leadership and held responsible for the worsening situation in the region since his rise to power.
But in mid-2001, then-Puntland ruler Yusuf wanted to extend his term in office but faced stiff resistance from local clans and eventually led Gen. Muse to leave his peaceful home in Canada and wage war against Yusuf.
Although Muse lost that war badly, he later reconciled with Yusuf and supported the latter’s election to the Somali presidency in October 2004.
Muse is deeply unpopular with local clans, many of whom have accused the Puntland leader of catastrophic failure in security and economic issues.
Under the Muse administration, the Puntland government lost control of the key town of Las Anod to the rival separatist region of Somaliland.
Piracy and human trafficking activities have been on the increase, attracting international attention and prompting foreign military intervention.
Most recently, the Muse government has been accused of detaining Somali civilians and handing them over to Ethiopian intelligence services without being charged with any crime against Puntland.

Posted by: b real | May 22 2008 18:52 utc | 51

Please. I want a frog march.

Posted by: beq | May 22 2008 19:13 utc | 53

Heh. Boggles the mind…
Thank you, annie =)

Posted by: beq | May 22 2008 23:23 utc | 55

Get out the blue pencil. Run-on, pls check punct

Posted by: catlady | May 23 2008 0:11 utc | 57

#58, skd, the important part is the sliding precipitated by earthquakes stimulated (or no longer suppressed) by lightening ice. Thanks for looking, saying something. Curtailment of fossil fuel use will come automatically with culling of the herd.

Posted by: plushtown | May 23 2008 0:31 utc | 59

Spending On Iraq Poorly Tracked – Audit Faults Accounting for $15 Billion in Work

Of the $7.8 billion in payments detailed in the audit released yesterday, about $1.4 billion did not meet the most minimal requirements for documentation, making it highly possible that waste, fraud or abuse had occurred, according to auditors. In one case, there is a copy of a $5.6 million check from the U.S. Treasury paid to an Iraqi contractor but no documents saying what was purchased. In another, a South Carolina contractor was paid $11 million, according to a voucher, but auditors said they could not tell what goods or services were received.
…
Waxman said the poorly documented expenditures of seized Iraqi assets included a $320 million cash payment for employing 1,000 people that was handed over to the Iraqi Finance Ministry with “little more than a signature in exchange.”
…
The inspector general found that the Defense Department could not account for 12,712 of 13,508 weapons, including assault rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers for Iraqi forces.

Posted by: b | May 23 2008 6:15 utc | 61

“Game on.”
In Iraq, a Surge in U.S. Airstrikes

Since late March, the military has fired more than 200 Hellfire missiles in the capital, compared with just six missiles fired in the previous three months.
…
On Wednesday, eight people, including two children, were killed when a U.S. helicopter opened fire on a group of Iraqis traveling to a U.S. detention center to greet a man who was being released from custody, Iraqi officials said.
…
During a recent visit to the base, a reporter saw a missile addressed to “Haji,” an honorific for people who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Many U.S. soldiers use it to refer dismissively to Iraqis and Arabs in general. Someone wrote “rock this thang” on another.
…
“You’ve been building up for this for three years and now you’re going to get to do what you were trained to do,” he said. “You get this bit of excited rush feeling, like right before you get out of the locker room before a game. We got in the helicopter and started flying up and you start looking down and you’re like — wow. I’m in Iraq now. This isn’t back in Texas where we were just training. People down there are going to try to shoot me. This is for real. Game on.”

Posted by: b | May 23 2008 6:23 utc | 63

@ b 61
Spending On Iraq Poorly Tracked – Audit Faults Accounting for $15 Billion in Work
This is not new. It was reported on in detail in a long article in I think the London Review of Books back in 2005. It is somewhere on my hard disc.
The major point made was that there was an absolute difference between the accounting methods used for Iraqi money and for US money under the Bremer CPA in Iraq in 2003-4. US money was very carefully accounted for, but Iraqi money, contractors could walk off with palette-loads of dollar bills. I was slightly involved in this myself, as I received an offer of a job for a million dollars from a US administrator in Iraq at that time. No doubt most of the money was intended to go into his pocket. I didn’t take up the offer.

Posted by: Alex | May 23 2008 8:10 utc | 65

On Isaias Afewerki, I have some comments.
He is an old guerilla leader and appears to believe firmly in the power that comes from holding the guns. He evidently cares not for diplomacy. The party for Democracy and Justice (formerly Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front) has been purged of internal opposition and now his one person rule is firmly established.
Both Eritrea and Ethiopia has been trying to become the US “ally” of choice in the region as the means to get the upper hand. Ethiopia has been more successfull at it. US installations in Eritrea can from an Eritrean point of view be seen as lessening the risk of US support for an Ethiopian attack. At the same time Eritrea supports Ethiopia (and thus US) enemies in Somalia. Enemy of my enemy and all of that.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | May 23 2008 12:48 utc | 67

Thanks to both skod and b real for your comments, which,
as always, I read with interest and appreciation. They have helped
improve my sour mood today, resulting from having read this

With the senator’s health now in question, Kennedy’s nephew, former Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, D-Mass., is seen as a possible heir. He is sitting on about $2 million in leftover campaign funds.
But the younger Kennedy, who provides low-cost heating oil to the poor through Boston-based Citizens Energy Corp., has balked at running for governor in recent years and shows scant interest in jumping back into politics.
There is the possibility one of the senator’s sons, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., or Edward Kennedy Jr., could seek their father’s seat. Kennedy’s wife, Vicki, has been mentioned, too. There are other Kennedys, too, who could decide to run.

found here.
To my knowledge seats in the U.S. Senate are not (yet) hereditary benefices, but, being old enough to remember Ted Kennedy’s first election campaign, I won’t be surprised if the voters of Massachusetts take another step toward elective aristocracy.
Even the flying phallus attack on Kasparov couldn’t cheer me up (and perhaps that too is no laughing matter).

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | May 23 2008 16:33 utc | 69

i’m guessing this is that al jazeera interview – Riz Khan – Isaias Afwerki – 22 May 08

Posted by: b real | May 23 2008 18:48 utc | 71

Israel Arrests Outspoken Academic Norman Finkelstein

American academic Norman Finkelstein has been arrested and ordered deported from Israel. Finkelstein arrived in Tel Aviv earlier today on his way to the Occupied Territories. He was immediately detained and told he is banned from Israel for ten years. He’s expected to be deported tomorrow. Finkelstein is known one of the most prominent academic critics of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza

.
WTF!?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 23 2008 21:47 utc | 73

AHHHHHH!!!
i guess it’s time to assassinate Obama, incite national riots, declare martial law, postpone the election, ignite the middle east, arrest domestic dissidents, publicly execute Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein to send a message to the broken left wing, and generally run amok with unchecked power and well paid death squads peopled by professional mercenaries and desperate soldiers who, without intensive treatment for PTSD, will always carry the war around with them in their head.
…and, as i’m typing away, i hear the disembodied voice from liberal feel-good radio, NPR, saying that Denver might look like Chicago circa 1968 if protesters get their chance. well, you know what, fuck NPR because Rush is nudging his audience in the same direction, planting seeds, but if there is violence it will probably come in the form of planted provocateurs, ensuring the shameless corporate whores in the MSM can feed some juicy loops to their endless cycle, you know, like China did with Tibet, and Chavez’s CIA backed enemies (who own most the airwaves) did in the failed coup six years ago.
these next six months should be interesting…

Posted by: Lizard | May 24 2008 0:31 utc | 75

more on the un peacekeeper scandal
inner city press: UN’s Congo Scandal was Covered-Up, Former OIOS Investigator Says, Accountability Delayed

UNITED NATIONS, May 23 — Faced with evidence that UN peacekeepers traded guns for gold with rogue militia leaders in the Eastern Congo, the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services engaged in a cover-up and issued a whitewash report, its deputy chief investigator in the Congo announced in a detailed article published Friday morning.

that article, by the dismissed “deputy chief investigator with the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services in Congo”
iht: PEACEKEEPERS IN CONGO: A UN whitewash?

The United Nations, facing criticism that it has failed to police itself, has hit back in recent days. Press officers insist that there is no problem. Based on my own experience, I disagree.
The BBC and Human Rights Watch have both brought forward evidence that the United Nations covered up evidence of gold smuggling and arms trafficking by its peacekeepers in Congo. The peacekeepers are said to have had illegal dealings with one of the most murderous militias in eastern Congo, where millions have died in one of the bloodiest, yet least visible, conflicts in the world.
Last month, Inga-Britt Ahlenius, the head of the Office of Internal Oversight Services at the United Nations, told the BBC that her investigators drew the right conclusions based on the evidence they found: that there was little that warranted prosecution or further investigation.
I wish that were true. I was the investigator in charge of the UN team that in 2006 looked into allegations of abuses by Pakistani peacekeepers in Congo and found them credible. But the investigation was taken away from my team after we resisted what we saw as attempts to influence the outcome.
My fellow team members and I were appalled to see that the oversight office’s final report was little short of a whitewash.

the inner city press blog has more info & links as he’s been right on top of the story. [i linked to some of those sources in an april comment here]

Posted by: b real | May 24 2008 3:47 utc | 77

Parviz,
though it seems rather silly, this law you speak of it nothing more than a resolution that establishes another office in the state department. the co-sponsors are all the usual suspects of course.
it does beg the question, why is there not a similar resolution for the Church of Latter Day Saints who have experienced state sponsored kidnapping in the great state of Texas?

Posted by: dan of steele | May 24 2008 13:05 utc | 79

Why was my thread removed? Have I been banned from this Blog? I simply asked whether anyone in this Blog has ever read the most racist and totalitarian piece of legislation ever passed by the U.S. Congress, namely, the Anti-Semitism Law in which the U.S. State Department lists the following set of beliefs as anti-Semitic”:
1) Any assertion “that the Jewish community controls government, the media, international business and the financial world” is anti-Semitic.
2) “Strong anti-Israel sentiment” is anti-Semitic.
3) “Virulent criticism” of Israel’s leaders, past or present, is anti-Semitic. According to the State Department, anti-Semitism occurs when a swastika is portrayed in a cartoon decrying the behavior of a past or present Zionist leader. Thus, a cartoon that includes a swastika to criticize Ariel Sharon’s brutal 2002 invasion of the West Bank, raining “hell-fire” missiles on hapless Palestinian men, women and children, is anti-Semitic. Similarly, when the word “Zionazi” is used to describe Sharon’s saturation bombing in Lebanon in 1982 (killing 17,500 innocent refugees), it is also “anti-Semitic.”
4) Criticism of the Jewish religion or its religious leaders or literature (especially the Talmud and Kabbalah) is anti-Semitic.
5) Criticism of the U.S. government and Congress for being under undue influence by the Jewish-Zionist community (including AIPAC) is anti-Semitic.
6) Criticism of the Jewish-Zionist community for promoting globalism (the “New World Order”) is anti-Semitic.
7) Blaming Jewish leaders and their followers for inciting the Roman crucifixion of Christ is anti-Semitic.
8) Diminishing the “six million” figure of Holocaust victims is anti-Semitic.
9) Calling Israel a “racist” state is anti-Semitic.
10) Asserting that there exists a “Zionist Conspiracy” is anti-Semitic.
11) Claiming that Jews and their leaders created the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia is anti-Semitic.
12) Making “derogatory statements about Jewish persons” is anti-Semitic.
13) Classifies the New Testament as “Anti-Semitic” (?!?)
Here is the link:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/102406.htm

Posted by: Parviz | May 24 2008 15:02 utc | 81

Being Luciferian is anti-Semitic and anti-humanity, but our laws and training go the other way.

Posted by: plushtown | May 24 2008 15:07 utc | 83

@Parviz – welcome back, and yes it is Public Law – a quite stupid one.

Posted by: b | May 24 2008 16:18 utc | 85

Parviz, I realize I am not the brightest bulb around here but I did link the public law from the congressional website.
indeed anyone can read it.
sometimes it is better to check your facts before going off into a rage

Posted by: dan of steele | May 24 2008 17:42 utc | 87

“Orientalism” and its Discontents
Historian Robert Irwin reviews two books critical of Edward Said’s Orientalism. Irwin’s own critique received positive and mixed reviews. In this brief interview, Said explains what he was trying to do in Orientalism.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 24 2008 20:48 utc | 89

just a few hours ago while discussing Hilary’s RFK assassination statement (mis-speak or fatigue-gaffe or freudian slip or subliminal interest/wish or whatever …), a friend referred to her as “Dan Qualye with breasts”.
not to condone the potentially sexist overtone, but its certainly an exceptionally well earned measured insult.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | May 24 2008 22:04 utc | 91

U. Utah Phillips, Wobbly folk singer, has died.
don’t mourn, organize, wait! …there’s a sale on ipods!

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 25 2008 0:34 utc | 93

dos
Perhaps there’s too much douglas sirk in me & not enough rw fassbinder
Watched tonight & needed to – ‘La Meglio Gioventù’ translated badly in french as nos meilleure années – sometimes i think there is simply not enough tenderness in this world
the english translation is truer & closer to the poem by pasolini – the best of youth
that is those who seek beauty truth & justice in a butchershop of a world – of a world confined by the ethics of the slaughterhouse & the easy morality of morgues

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 25 2008 2:00 utc | 95

this will be interesting to see how the u.s. govt responds, seeing as how they complain about the “pirate” attacks that have multiplied since they installed the TFG to power
first, a little backstory from a may 18 article at garowe online – Somali rebels seize two more towns

KISMAYO, Somalia May 18 (Garowe Online) – Islamist rebels in Somalia seized control of two more towns in the central and southern parts of the country, sources said.
In Somalia’s central Mudug region, the town of Harardhere fell to the control of Islamist rebels Sunday morning.
…
A rebel commander told Harardhere residents that the Islamists would not allow illegal militiamen to set up extortion roadblocks in or around the town.
The commander, who did not identify himself, told locals that the Islamists would fight against piracy in the region. The town of Harardhere lies along Somalia’s Indian Ocean coast and has been renowned in recent years as a hub for pirate activities.
…
Heavily-armed guerrillas entered the town of Kamsuma early Saturday morning, hours after clan militias withdrew towards the southern port of Kismayo, locals reported.
Kamsuma is located approximately 90km north of Kismayo, the country’s third-largest city. Kismayo has been governed by clan militias since June 2007, when Somali government troops divided along clan loyalties and dueled for control of the strategic port town.
Two days earlier, Islamist gunmen seized control of the town of Jilib, which is part of Middle Jubba region.

one of the reasons that the islamic courts union gained so much traction in early 2006 was b/c their militias rid the country of illegal roadblocks, banished the bandits, waylayed the warlords, and punished the pirates so that somalia actually stabilized for the first time in more than a decade.
of course, the illegal invasion by the u.s. and ethiopia destabilized the country again and we appear to be watching early 2006 repeat itself to some degree.
earlier this week, there was this from mareeg
Islamists threaten to forcefully free hijacked vessel in central Somalia

Union of Islamic courts [UIC] forces said that they will intervene and forcefully release a ship being held by pirates near the port town of Hobyo, Mudug region central Somalia.
Qayre Muhammad Mahmud, a UIC forces senior official, in central regions told the media that they will free the ship by force.
The UIC official said that they are waiting to hear from the businessmen whose goods are loaded in the ship for a green light.
Reports from central regions indicate that armoured vehicles belonging to the UIC forces are headed for the location where the ship is being held.
The statement by the UIC forces comes after the collapse of talks between the pirates, businessmen, and clan elders belonging to the same clan as the pirates.
…
Somali pirates hijacked the Jordanian ship carrying sugar to Mogadishu, Somalia, on Saturday in the latest in a string of attacks off Somalia’s lawless coast, the head of a seafarers association said.

on friday, the pirates collected a ransom & released the ship
afp: Six killed in clashes between Somali pirates and Islamists

MOGADISHU (AFP) — At least six people have been killed in clashes between Islamic fighters and Somali pirates in a Somali port, local elders said Saturday.
The Islamist fighters attacked the pirates in Hobyo, 450 kilometres (270 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu on Friday, just after they had released a Jordanian-flagged cargo ship seized nearly a week earlier.
“Two Islamists and several pirates died in the fighting which lasted more than an hour,” one of the elders, Abdinasir Diriye, told AFP by telephone.
An Islamist leader said four pirates and two Islamists had been killed in the shoot-out, adding that they had also arrested several of the pirates.

iran’s press tv reports ICU fighters kill nine pirates in Hobyo

Fighters from the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) kill nine pirates, who had stormed a Jordanian cargo ship off the coast of Hobyo in Somalia.
ICU fighters pursued the pirates, who were heading towards Haradheere region in Hobyo on foot after ransacking the ship. Nine pirates were killed and four others captured, said the Press TV correspondent in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

a saturday article at garowe online reports that

Six people – four pirates and two Islamist guerrillas – were killed in the gun battle that lasted well over an hour, according to an elder in Hobyo who spoke with Garowe Online by telephone.
An Islamist commander named Kheyre Mohamed Mohamud confirmed the death toll, but was quick to point out that the Islamists captured six of the pirates alive.
…
Hobyo and the surrounding coastal area is considered a hub for pirate operations along Somali shores. Islamist commanders recently issued a strong warning against piracy in the region.

the press tv article also added

Meanwhile, armed bandits attacked a truck near the town of Jowhar, 90 kilometers northeast of Mogadishu, killing three civilians and injuring four others. The bandits were also reported to have raped two Somali women.
A spokesman for Al-Shabaab fighters, ICU’s military wing, vowed to capture the bandits, saying they would not escape justice.

Posted by: b real | May 25 2008 4:47 utc | 97

thanks uncle for posting about Utah. i am at a little loss for words. he was such a great story teller. there’s so much to say about him. i lived in nevada city for a few years so my appreciation of him stems from my impression of what an intregral part of the local community he was.
nevada city has got to be hurting tonight. especially north san juan ridge.
just.. i don’t know what to say, there is so much to say.
what a full person, a full life, very well loved this man.

Posted by: annie | May 25 2008 5:52 utc | 99