literally, there is no end to their obscenity – bush in his ‘speech’ at the manhattan institute blmaes once again – the poor & the dispossessed. there is not one sliver of human decency in these monster. not one

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 13 2008 19:06 utc | 4

@5,
Check the date, for starters.

Posted by: biklett | Nov 13 2008 19:42 utc | 6

@6
I checked the date and it is satire. I understand that. But I bet you a nickle that this jackass does believe that peace in Iraq is around the corner. This man is a liberal neocon no different than the conservative neocons. He is a member of the war party.

Posted by: ndahi | Nov 13 2008 19:49 utc | 8

there is this one aspect to firedman, kristol et al – is their sordid sanctimony – something i think they have learnt from the prosperity preachers who look for a buck – the commentariat do it for the same reasons & the imbecilic illusions of influence

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 13 2008 19:57 utc | 10

What sick satire this is. Must be over my head.

Posted by: Rick | Nov 13 2008 20:16 utc | 12

argh, sorry

Posted by: annie | Nov 13 2008 21:19 utc | 14

A fine Bushism on the economic crisis, maintaining that the system is not to blame:
“It would a terrible mistake to allow a few months of crisis to undermine 60 years of success”
No, but eight years of gross mismanagement is enough to get the ball rolling, eh?

Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 13 2008 21:59 utc | 16

so Obama reanimated the corpse of that proud butcher of Iraqi kids Madeleine Albright eh?
and he wants $50 billion for our worthless Big 2.25 and a Car Czar to oversee their slide into irrelevance.
the winds of changeiness are indeed blowing! feel it?

Posted by: ran | Nov 14 2008 0:03 utc | 18

taboos & ties/that arebinding/from that time/over thirty years
in adelaide australia/culture as tedium/was created carefully/by a surgeon
who wrote epistles/who wrote scripture/who wrote sacred/who wrote words
that form thread/i am sewing/into the cloth/i have before/me i’m me
that is legacy/i have to/live with this/nearly every second/is accounted for
rendering a dimension/as scientists do/in their laboratories/but perhaps i’m
influenced by reading/robert louis stevenson/walking down damned
corridors to cure/miracle in mind/that’s kept on/going to divine
principles to pursue/path to promise/i was made/by a father/when only ten
not so long/after he died/i became him/without the tubervulosis
which wasn’t romantic/diseas by 1960’s/testament of poverty/we were born
in a suburb/on the outskirts/of small city/that pretended it/was in europe
though it definitely/was in australia/between a desert/& antartica assuming
it was country/i’ve no lyalty/to its tradition/if it has/one to embellish
dance i’m discovering/as i drop/to the floor/in another room
that’s somewhere else/other than where/i am statue/crumbling into crevices
you’re running over/graves of great/scholars & saints/are poor cousins
to a living/humanity i’m dull/enough to want/to say this/vulgarlly & veering
towards sacred stones/i have dropped/into the sands/where lawrence slept
when he dreamt/of all conflicts/resifing in body/he had wanted/to torment trinity
he had written/something to that/effect in seven/pillars of wisdom
though i can’t/reassure you reading/was performed/meticulouslly
since i was/standing quite still/watching a film/an angelopolous allegory
above an abyss/on winter morning/i shall dream/of a suicide/plutarch might have
committed while chasing/after a subject/he had wanted/to discuss decisevely
we are still/listening to that/though under different/circumstances & names
though it doesn’t/matter at all/no it doesn’t/matter at all/when tyrants try
another effort out/of us simple/proletarians or jacobins/or even luddite
i have become/representation of realisation/we wouldn’t make/if we were
wise or wounded/we will walk/observing the oracles/we have built/for some other
time is said/not to wait/for any man/i saw this/written on monument
on the way/to a school/that was far/away from home/where i could/learn to live
like an aristocrat/gathering his clan/i moved amongst/class & gender
as a thief/i never felt/i owned anything/that has stayed/with me tonight
where i’m loved/in a way/that was refused/me so long/ago is distance
i can measure/inch by inch/second to second/i haven’t forgotten
fear that followed/fishermen who forgave/sins we settled/score is sketched
in a drawing/by goya certainly/one of few/men who coul/colour his climb
black & white/yes & no/these sophisticated words/are still enough
to get you/by in world/you only need/to grunt gragariouslly
brando suggested this/in last tango/in paris bertolucci’s/finest film filed
amongs the papers/i have written/for no other/that to say/i have survived
sentence you spoke/two decades ago/wishing me well/as i hit/rock bottom there
i have detailed/the slow walk/back to boundary/peeople & purpose
though you wouldn’t/recognise it here/in the grammar/i am grinding/words with will
i’ve not sutdied/under the master/as i should/have you done/that a tear
dropping down face/on this day/delivering this deliberation/on what’s passed
for my history/is public record/in three continents/that aren’t linked
other than in/you are out/in that city/london i hated/from first step
on that island/i learnt lesson/that is still/with me here/i remember then
without any nostalgia/i can tell/you what days/meant to me/then & now
i’m blind immigrant/who is prepared/to pay bill/you have placed/on the table
challenge & crisis/i must meet/as a man/as any man/who has lost
more then he/has gained gift/that ish shared/in every waking moment/i’m with you
wanting to be/with you always/carrying the message/opening any door/to honest men
straightening out signal/we’ve been given/when we performed/a beautiful ballet
attending an audience/that sweated search/when they shook/their hands together
in only prayer/we are capable/of so much/more than this/at this time
pleading this position/on paper ship/i am boarding/to haul cargo/over the side

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 14 2008 1:52 utc | 20

how’s Mandela supposed to take this. One million plus deaths later, millions of lives traumatized & displaced & Tom climbs off his high horse pleading for forgiveness for having been so insanely & pathologically wrong ?
Your the man Tom Friedman, you really thought you were the shits. You could have made Mandela the old fool who did’nt know what he was talking about.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Nov 14 2008 2:33 utc | 22

the cia is trying to box obama into a corner w/ the bogeyman threat – here’s some bullshit from hayden, before the ‘think-tank’ the atlantic council of the u.s.
CIA warns of increase in ‘western’ terrorists

Growing numbers of westerners are travelling to the tribal areas of north-west Pakistan to receive terrorist training, the head of the CIA warned yesterday.
In a rare meeting with journalists at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think-tank, General Michael Hayden also said that al-Qaida is growing in strength in North Africa as well as in East Africa, in particular Somalia, and in Yemen.
“All the threats we have to the west have a thread that takes it back to the [Afghanistan-Pakistan] border,” Hayden said. Westerners were prized by al-Qaida because they could blend in, the kind of people he said who would not attract attention in an airport queue.
Hayden described Osama bin Laden’s network as a “determined and adaptive enemy” in a “war that is far from over” and warned: “If there is a major strike on [the US], it will bear the fingerprints of al-Qaida.”

and how do you think this stmt would hold up to legal scrutiny – he parses his words very carefully

“In East Africa, al-Qaida is engaging Somali extremists to revitalise operations,” Hayden said. “The recent bombings in Somalia may have been meant, at least in part, to strengthen bona fides with al-Qaida’s senior leaders. A merger between al-Shabaab and al-Qaida could give Somali extremists much-needed funding, while al-Qaida could claim to be reestablishing its operations base in East Africa.”

no parties have yet to come forward to claim responsibility for those bombings in northern somalia & some of those arrested in the immediate aftermath have already been released. i still think it has more to do w/ the skirmishes b/w somaliland and puntland, or internal political strife related to the pending elections in both regions, rather than being related to al shabaab or the insurgency to the south. jendayi frazer is the only source i’ve seen for claiming that they’re related to al qa’idah, and she pulled that one out of her ass the same way she did in late 2006 when she told the world that AQ was running the islamic courts – complete bunk.
hayden’s up to the same tricks
from an AP story today

Hayden said there has been no spike in terrorist “chatter” to suggest an attack on the United States linked to the presidential transition.
“But we don’t know what we don’t know,” he said.

no kidding. but then you hardly know that which you believe to know, too.

Posted by: b real | Nov 14 2008 5:17 utc | 24

and maybe this is just coincidence… or an indication of some other sort of influence?
but i couldn’t help noticing the similar phrasing of these two articles — one from reuters on thursday, the other from AP on wednesday — on events in somalia
reuters:

Masked fighters from the al Shabaab group — on Washington’s list of foreign terrorist groups — moved into the towns of Elasha, Arbis and Lafoole overnight, terrifying many residents already uprooted by the guerrillas’ two-year-old rebellion.

ap:

Militants from Al-Shabab — which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization — have refused to take part in the peace talks, saying Ethiopians troops that support the government must leave first. The group aims to impose Shariah law on Somalia.

interesting. (other articles over the last couple of days follow a similar pattern, adding the u.s. allegation in the same breath after mentioning al shabaab, however these are the only two i’ve seen using the dashes)
both articles are primarily disinfo pieces. reuters is conflating al shabaab and the ICU, as it was the latter that moved into the named towns.
for instance,

In Elasha, resident Said Sahra Sheik said more than 100 heavily armed fighters entered the town Wednesday night after the pro-government militia fled.
“The Islamic militia are patrolling in the streets,” shopkeeper Fadumo Hussein Dahir said in a telephone interview from Elasha, where thousands of people are living after having fled the country’s 2-year-old insurgency. “They have dismantled a roadblock, where pro-government militia used to take extortion money from passing vehicles. … Now things are quiet.”
A spokesman for the fighters, Abdirahin Isse Adow, said, “Our fighters have taken the control of the area to provide the security of the displaced people, who have been suffering from insecurity.”
But 60-year-old Nure Guled Ali said she was worried that the Islamists might clash with the government soldiers and Ethiopian troops who frequently use the road running through Elasha.
The Islamists are not a homogenous group and they face internal divisions. Al-Shabab, which is spearheading the insurgency and holds the most territory, is on the U.S. list of terror groups.
The militia that took over Elasha is allied to a relatively more moderate faction, called the Council of Islamic Courts. Both groups aim to impose Shariah.

and, as w/ the ap article, imposing sharia on somalia is not something that can be attributed to the guerillas. as i pointed out last night in another thread, the 2004 transitional federal charter for the republic of somalia, which was imposed on the country by a coalition of foreign countries, including the united states, declared that somali would be an islamic state governed by sharia law.

Posted by: b real | Nov 14 2008 5:46 utc | 26

“guerillas”
[must.get.sleep.now]

Posted by: b real | Nov 14 2008 5:50 utc | 28

Surgar Weekly English Edition, Kandahar, Afghanistan
World readies for Obama Executive
Editorial – Peter Torbay
Speaking at Evergreen State College today, home of the patron saint of all Arabs, Rachel Corrie,
As’ad Abu Khalil, Cal State professor and blog editor for
The Angry Arab News Service reiterated his belief that Barack Obama will be a Red Army-Blue Army
clone of the same oligarchical coin minted when America first colonized Hawai’i and the Phillipines.
Now as America prepares for a “softer, gentler” version of Der Dimwit, As’ad wallowed in his fears
that Obama’s choice for Chief of Staff, the middle-of-the-road dual-citizen Israeli, Rahm Emanuel,
is a signal, or “code language” in As’ad’s analysis, for ReZionification of America-Arab apostasy.
As’ad spoke across a wide-range of views, at one point denouncing the left as humorless, tinfoil
hat wingnuts who cling to stale Marxist-Trotskyist lexicons, then digressing to World War II and
Forrester’s warning that Israel would destroy America’s foreign policy, before careening forward to
the Neo, calling King Abdullah’s Saudi Arabia the ‘most brutal dictatorship on earth’, and closing
with his wry observation that the American left is powerless, given the tripartite Federal system,
reduced to chosing either a doddering incompetent to succeed Der Dimwit, or a venally competent.
“Change will come from the fringe,” As’ad concluded.
In question-and-answer, asked whether the Neo-Crusade would continue into an Obama Executive, or if
Afghanistan is meant as a wasteland warehouse to redeploy combat troops and keep DoD’s meter running,
As’ad ventured that in the first few months of any ‘liberal, feminist’ US administration, there will
be a Yudkeivavkei event of Shekinah (“shock and awe”),
enough to remind the American people that terrorists are no longer defined as non-status fighters
who covertly attack civilians, but transmogrified by the McCainaanites into any person, political
party or nation that resists or opposes an American Free Trade worldwide hegemony.
That likely prospect may not be Iran, but Pakistan, enough to destabilize and IFMize the government,
so that special forces can destroy the very real Pakistani intercontinental nuclear missile threat.
Iran’s petroleum resources are just too valuable to leave them glowing in the dark for 20,000 years,
but then, again, petrochemical supply destruction has been the Bush-Cheney game plan all along.
—
Pakistan facing severe austerity measures
In NRO news, “Pakistan is clamping down on foreign exchange dealers in a bid to stem the flow of
capital leaving the country as it teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. The government, led by the
Pakistan People’s Party, has taken controversial measures to restore international confidence in
its economic policies before important meetings next week. Pakistan needs a rapid injection of
US$4billion (Dh14.7bn) to prevent it defaulting on debts by the end of the month (November).”
From World Socialist, “Pakistan to impose IMF-approved economic restructuring program. A senior
Pakistani official told the country’s Senate Tuesday that the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition
government will be seeking International Monetary Fund (IMF) approval of its economic program.”
IMF loan requirements to governments typically involve severe austerity measures, mandatory cuts
in government employment and health & human services programs, with extensive privatization of
national resources, in addition to a usurous interest burden on top of the loans’ repayment.
—
Zabul tribal leaders accuse officials of corruption
Zabul Surgar: Tribal leaders in Zabul accused some Afghan governmental officials of not delivering on
food-for-work items they have earned in exchange of their labor. An assembly organized in the province
capital Qalat, and eight district tribal leaders representing their people complained about the issue,
accusing the Rural Development ministry of not delivering on its promise.
According to the assembly speakers, the development department claims it is handing out food items
to those who work, but Tribal leader Shenwari of Shenki district maintains workers haven’t been given
anything. The speakers also stated that rural development officials responsible for delivering food
also have a hand in Civic Development Communities who manage food items.
Engineer Abdul Razaq Sodmand, the rural development department director, rejected the accusations and
said his department has delivered work-for-food items on time to all districts of the province. Zabul
province governor deputy Gulab Shah Ali Kheal said he has some food items on hand which will be sent
to the district in the near future.
Zabul is a province with severe winters which experiences frequent highway and district roads blockages
Last year roads that lead to the province’s capital and main districts were blocked by heavy snows,
which lead to the death of several people due to starvation.
According to some non governmental organizations about six million Afghans face hunger.
—
Secret Police announce cash-rewards for kidnappers
Kabul Surgar: The National Secret police department has announced cash rewards for those who inform them
of kidnappers’ whereabouts in Kabul, or provide police with any kind of information. Wanted posters of
some well-known kidnappers have been posted around Kabul city, as the secret police urged locals to help
them find the kidnappers. Secret Police department spokesman Sayed Ansari said anyone providing factual
information which will help them find the kidnappers will be awarded 50000 cash Afs.
—
Muslims urge Muslim countries to unite
Kabul Surgar: Many concerned Muslims leaders and Muslim countries representatives called on Muslims worldwide
to reunite and solve the problems that Muslims face in their lives. Talking to an assembly organized by the
Muslim Brotherhood Society, participants urged Muslim countries around the world to take part in ending the
cycle of violence in Afghanistan, and to take current insecurity issues seriously.
The Islamic party of Afghanistan’s head and a member of the Wolsi Jirga National Assembly, Burhanadin Rabani,
said there are foreign agents-provocateur trying to create a divide among Muslim groups around the world.
Rabani said now the time has arrived for all Muslim countries to reunite, hold hands together and put away
their differences against the common foreign enemy. He also spoke appreciatively of those Sunni and Shia
Muslim scholars who have made vigorous attempts to identify foreign agents acting against Muslim society.
In an example in Iraq, the Golden Dome of Samarra was allegedly destroyed by foreign demolition experts
acting as Muslim security guards, an act provoking years of civil war between Sunni and Shia’a communities.
Now the Golden Dome is being reconstructed, allegedly to hide any remaining evidence of foreign techniques.
Another assembly speaker, Ayatullah Mohsini, accused unspecified Muslim countries of not having political
freedom. Mohsini said until Sharia Law is enforced in a country and Islamic advocacy are respected, it
would be almost impossible to bring justice to such a society.
—
Latest coalition air strikes condemned
Kandahar Surgar: The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) condemned the recent coalition
indiscriminate bombing deaths of civilians in Kandahar province and called it disgrace to human rights.
AIHRCs South Region Office in Kandahar published a report on November 8th condemning the recent U.S.-led
coalition troops’ air strikes, which killed tens of innocent civilians in Shawali Kot district. The officials
said local people complained, claiming the dead included women and children who were all innocent civilians.
Coalition forces such air strikes have been deeply condemned and both sides at war are asked to avoid civilian
deaths and casualities in the future. Afghan president Hamid Karzai also condemned the bombing of villages,
talking to the victims’ families by phone, and conveying his condolences to those who lost their loved ones.
Mr. Karzai called on the new US president-elect Barack Obama to change war tactics and policies in Afghanistan
and avoid civilian killings to the utmost extent.
The Afghan parliamentarians also urged the Afghan government to put pressure on foreign troops to avoid murder.
Ubaidullah Asakzai, Kandahar province National Assembly (Wolsi Jerga) representative, said such careless tactics
will create a wedge between Afghan civilians, the Afghan national army and coalition troops. He claimed if the
people turn against them, it would be impossible to repair the breach of trust.
—
Kandahar farmers receive improved wheat seeds
Kandahar Surgar: Rahmatullah Raofi, Kandahar’s governor, told reporters that Canada has provided about 300 metric
tons of improved wheat seeds which will be distributed to approximately 36000 farmers of the province. According
to the governor the improved wheat seeds will be distributed to Daman, Panjwaye, Shawali Kot and Zhari districts
of southern Kandahar province.
The Kandahar governor pointed out that farmers will stop growing poppy crops if they are provided improved wheat.
The improved seeds will be planted on 2000 hectares of land, and put an end to the lack of wheat in the country.
Officials intend to distribute the seed to farmers for about 1/4 of their actual cost, as an incentive to change.
Income from sales of the improved seeds will be applied to other agricultural projects by MERCI, the organization
which will conduct the wheat distribution program.
Lisa Burg, Canada Peoples’ Deputy representative, spoke to a co-conference with the Kandahar governor, and told
reporters the recent seed aid will bring gradual improvement to Afghanistan’s agriculture. Ms. Burg said she will
try to distribute the wheat seeds before the upcoming winter, and will continue helping Afghans until it succeeds.
___________________________________________________________-
Afghan cultural association attempts national benefits
Kabul Surgar: In an assembly organized by a Afghan cultural and literature association, participants and members
made efforts to build closer understandings among the country’s literature and cultural organizations, and worked
to increase benefits on the country level.
Dr. Khushal Rohi, an active member of the cultural association, made these remarks in the first annual ceremony
held in the Afghan capital Kabul. The association members have gained some notable awards during its first year.
Dr. Rohi said the Afghan cultural and literature association is destined to strengthen its language and culture.
The ceremony covered issues for arranging a seminar under the title of Pushtu and translation, resuming population
census, linguistic expressions improvements in higher educational studies, and creating an understanding among all
the literature associations of the country. According to Dr. Rohi, the Afghan government has not paid much attention
to cultural and literature programs during the last three decades. A association members made endless efforts on their
own to spread their literary arts. Providing education in their mother tongue for approximately 35000 students was
another endeavor achieved by the cultural and literature association, Mr. Rohi said.
Dr. Rohi said he has plans to hold a seminar in order to publish twenty volumes prepared by the association.

Posted by: Shah Loam | Nov 14 2008 6:29 utc | 30

Below is the headline article from Debka today and it is troublesome. Maybe it is just a feeler for opinion.
Resumed Gaza terror outcome of Israel’s passivity and over-reliance on Cairo

The prime minister said that a large-scale military confrontation with Hamas is waiting at the end of the road, whereas Barak said that while action must be taken against terror threats, it is important to preserve the truce.
It was clear to the soldiers listening to them that the truce belonged to the past.
Suspense ahead of Hamas aggression was so high Thursday, Nov. 13, that Israel revoked the permission given a few hours earlier for a 30-truck convoy to pass through into the Gaza Strip with food and goods for the population. And a handing-over ceremony for the Gaza Division commanders was called off.

Although Israeli crackdowns are nothing new, tonight I am in a bleak mood. I just see this as part of a bigger, partially interrelated, picture of bleakness as one looks into the future. With only a quick glance one or two days ahead, the scene is breathtaking in a bad way. But then, what importance are 30 trucks of food/provisions if you don’t live in Gaza? And viewing to the West, there are rumors this afternoon/evening of a big sell-off on Wall Street tomorrow, even though Asia’s markets are on a surge for Friday as I write this. But what importance are stock prices to someone like me, who like most of the other billions of souls in this world, don’t invest on Wall Street? Heck, maybe even my good fraternity brother from PU who has worked as an Electrical Engineer at GM for decades, may still get some of his retirement money. Never mind that the GM stock price dropped again, now trading under $3/share, whereas last year, it was over $32/share. Anyways, a few tens of billions thrown that way should fix those problems, eh? Well, for many of us, we can look into this weekend’s big to-do, known as the G20 Summit, a meeting without any published agenda poised to offer its solutions on the global economic crisis. Is everyone excited? Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson appears to have no clue where to throw the next few hundred billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money, and he and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke won’t say how they have blown the last two trillion dollars either. Is it true that since September, U.S. government debt per person has risen from $3,000 to almost $35,000? Oh well, “Easy come, Easy go!” Again, that is just looking at the situation today, tomorrow and the next with narrow vision. I don’t suggest looking any further without close friends or family at your side.
PS – Got interrupted before I could finish this. It is now 1:30am Friday, U.S. Eastern Time Zone. Looks like the Futures are down as predicted.

Posted by: Rick | Nov 14 2008 6:53 utc | 32

Obama will prosecute torturers! (On or after 2012, if he wins again)
Salon reports today that those who engaged in torture will be investigated by a non-partisan commission formed shortly after Obama takes office.

The catch: “Between the time necessary for the investigative process and the daunting array of policy problems Obama will face upon taking office, any decision on prosecutions probably would not come until a second Obama presidential term, should there be one.”

More:

On Wednesday, a person participating in the talks confirmed that some people involved in the planning felt strongly that the commission would amount to “bullshit” and that Bush officials should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Also see, Disappointment Watch

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 14 2008 10:41 utc | 34

U$,
not a bad re-election strategy for 2012: if people know the authorities are breathing down Bush and Cheney’s backs and they have to re-elect Obama to finally see justice done, then they will vote for him…

Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 14 2008 11:01 utc | 36

b @ 24:
Hayden makes KAOS’ Ziegfried look downright prescient… a little bit Chauncey Gardner, a little bit Maxwell Smart, w/a dash taken from characters in CANADIAN BACON’s war room.
Sarah Palin would fit right in.

Posted by: jdmckay | Nov 14 2008 13:37 utc | 38

Heads up, as we speak, This week and into next, NorthCom and NORAD are conducting a joint exercise called “Vigilant Shield ’09.”

What Is NorthCom Up To?
By Matthew Rothschild, November 12, 2008
This week and into next, NorthCom and NORAD are conducting a joint exercise called “Vigilant Shield ’09.”
The focus will be on “homeland defense and civil support,” a NorthCom press release states.
From November 12-18, it will be testing a “synchronized response of federal, state, local and international partners in preparation for homeland defense, homeland security, and civil support missions in the United States and abroad.”
NorthCom is short for the Pentagon’s Northern Command. President Bush created it in October 2002. (The Southern Command, or SouthCom, covers Latin America. Central Command, or CentCom, covers Iraq and Afghanistan. And the new AfriCom covers, well, you get the picture.)
Vigilant Shield ’09 “will include scenarios to achieve exercise objectives within the maritime, aerospace, ballistic missile defense, cyber, consequence management, strategic communications, and counter terrorism domains,” the press release states.
NorthCom’s press release also says that other participants in the exercise include the U.S. Strategic Command’s “Global Lightning 09,” which is a plan to use nuclear weapons in a surprise attack.
The Pentagon’s “Bulwark Defender 09” is also involved in the exercise, and it is a cyberspace protection outfit of the Pentagon.
Something called the “Canada Command DETERMINED DRAGON” also is participating, as is the California National Guard and California’s “Golden Guardian.”
California’s involvement appears to center around planning for a catastrophic earthquake.
“Under the leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger and direction of his Office of Homeland Security, the nation’s largest state sponsored emergency exercise will take place November 13-18,” a press release from the governor’s office states.
“Golden Guardian 2008 tests California’s capability to respond and recover during a major catastrophic earthquake. The Golden Guardian 2008 full-scale exercise scenario focuses on a simulated, catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake along the southern portion of the San Andreas Fault.”
NorthCom is being shy about giving out additional information about Vigilant Shield ’09. When I called for a fact sheet on it, I was told there was none.

Also see, NORAD, USNORTHCOM participate in Exercise Vigilant Shield 09

VS09 will run concurrent with other Department of Defense-sponsored and international exercises to more realistically test the synchronized response of federal, state, local and international mission partners in preparation for homeland defense, homeland security and civil support missions in the United States and abroad.

Posted by: PSA from Uncle $cam | Nov 14 2008 15:20 utc | 40

b #41,
I wonder if these Bucksbaum guys of GGP are coming out of this as loosers. Too quick a conclusion here maybe.

Posted by: Rick | Nov 14 2008 16:21 utc | 42

I have trouble believing that anyone above a certain income/influence level is ever punished for anything.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 14 2008 17:28 utc | 44

followup to #3
center for media & democracy: The Eisenstadt Hoax:A Real-life Example of a “Fake Fake”

For anyone who has not yet figured this out yet, here’s the story in a nutshell:
The hoax in this case is Eisenstadt’s claim that he was the source for Carl Cameron’s report on Fox News. Cameron never spoke to Eisenstadt and did not use Eisenstadt as the basis for his reporting.
Got it? If you’re still confused, read the above paragraph a second time, or a third time if you need it. If you still have any doubts, read the New York Times story carefully. Its wording is a little less clear than it ought to be, but it also makes the point I just emphasized. Carl Cameron is standing by his story, and apparently Sarah Palin really was confused about Africa.

[italics in the original post]

Posted by: b real | Nov 14 2008 19:35 utc | 46

Can You Spel Nuklur?
You don’t need to be an astrophysicist, to see the writing charcoaled on the wall.
Adding to deliberate energy supply-destruction regulator insults, looming carbon cap-and-trade tax regulations like those up and down the West Coast, that will tax everything you use, from annual vehicle licensing fees, to winter heating oil, to household appliances, construction materials, even … even … your poop!.
When I worked at EPA in the 1970’s, we were just glad to get the rivers to stop burning or glowing in the dark at night. Tighten up discharge pipelines, clean up and liner landfills, put scrubbers on powerplant stacks and platinum catalysts on cars, hey, you got it dicked. The EPA ran out of reasons for being ten years ago.
Now they plan to: cut our access to heating, manufacturing and transportation fuels; increase our tax-fee burden; and apply those tax revenues to hiring a bazillion more EcoNazis to pencil flip their way to the next Profit Millenia:
Carbon credits for dying! Man, … you’re stinking up the joint! With our new patented Miracle Eco-Go, you’ll get a $100 cap-and-trade credit for shoveling your carcass underground. Use it to pay off your assisted suicide family medical bills!
Soylent Nuklur! Arghlll…..

Posted by: Larry Holmes | Nov 14 2008 23:29 utc | 48

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium
Liable to walk upon the scene
(To illustrate his last remark
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
Just when everything looked so dark)
Man, they said we better
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
Do you hear me, hmm?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/14/afghanistan.child.beggar/index.html?iref=mpstoryview#cnnSTCVideo
http://www.aschiana-foundation.org/index_files/page0001.htm
Can we expect your donation of $100?

Posted by: Shah Loam | Nov 15 2008 1:50 utc | 50

reuters is still spreading disinformation on events in somalia (not a big surprise overall, but the specific focus on al shabaab right now could indicate something in the works)
the incorrect reuters story that i pointed to yesterday which stated that al shabaab was in those three towns got picked up by several other sources & spread pretty far. for instance, VOA and al jazeera incorporated the reuters attributions into their own pieces which also were disseminated across the web.
the somali media, though, continue to only report that it was the ICU visiting these towns and that al shabaab & the ICU have still not made up – that is, they are still antagonists. i have to believe that is still the case, otherwise the somali media would be all over that.
yet reuters continued on friday to insist that al shabaab was, or still is, in these towns & they’ve even tried to amplify the scare-o-meter w/ this new headline
Somali Islamists approach Mogadishu, impose sharia

MOGADISHU, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Islamist rebels moved on Friday into a small town on the outskirts of Somalia’s capital near a checkpoint manned by Ethiopian troops, sparking fears among residents of renewed fighting.
This week’s advance by al Shabaab militants towards the capital Mogadishu has raised the stakes in a two-year insurgency and is a setback for a fledgling U.N.-brokered peace process to end 17 years of conflict in the Horn of Africa nation.
Al Shabaab fighters, who are on Washington’s list of foreign terrorist groups, moved into Elasha town overnight, 2 km (1 mile) from Sinkadheer, where Ethiopian troops are based.
Sinkadheer is 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Mogadishu.
“We have been fighting to get peace, we shall defend the people around Elasha and nearby areas from robbers or Ethiopians,” said Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, a spokesman for the Islamic Courts Union whose fighters were alongside al Shabaab members in Elasha.

nobody else has reported the two working together so i am quite positive that reuters is fabricating that last bit
re sharia, that same article continues

On Wednesday, the Islamists seized Merka, a strategic port 90 km (55 miles) southwest of Mogadishu used by the U.N. World Food Programme for food aid deliveries, giving al Shabaab its closest foothold yet to Mogadishu.
Al Shabaab spokesman Mukhtar Ali Robow addressed a crowd of Merka residents on Friday, telling them Islamic sharia law would be applied in the town.
He also warned against any attempt to re-take Merka.
“Any group, whether they are from the Transitional Federal Government or any clan, if they try to attack, Mujahideen fighters will fight against them and defeat them inshallah.”

okay, if marka port is al shabaab’s “closest foothold yet to Mogadishu”, at 90 km, then how can reuters claim several paragraphs earlier that al shabaab moved into elasha biyaha “overnight” only 15 km from sinka dheer, which itself is only 15 km south of mogadishu? they’re betrayed by their own contradictions.
yes, al shabaab led the armed forces that took marka port, reportedly w/o any resistance. a stmt in robow’s address that reuters chose not to quote was

“We will launch Islamic court in Merca town that will rule the people with the Islamic sharia, we will not allow clannish rules and oppression” Robow said.

as they approached marka port on wednesday, the group led by al shabaab scared out the militia led by an ex-warlord named yusuf indha ade. a rpt at garowe online states that

Yusuf “Indha Ade” Mohamed Siad, for years the warlord-ruler of Lower Shabelle region, fled the provincial capital Marka hours before al Shabaab fighters poured into the port town yesterday.
Insiders said al Shabaab spokesman Muktar Robow “Abu Mansur” personally spoke with Indha Ade on the telephone before the al Shabaab forces advanced on Marka and requested Indha Ade to surrender his weapons.
“The weapons I have belong to a clan” was Indha Ade’s response, according to Garowe Online sources.
Indha Ade belongs to the Habar Gedir sub-clan that traditionally inhabits the central regions of Mudug and Galgaduud.
For years, Indha Ade used Habar Gedir clan militia to subjugate Lower Shabelle’s unarmed native clans and imposed rules that unfairly placed his clansmen in positions of power.
He returned to Marka last month for the first time since Ethiopian-backed government forces ousted the ICU from Mogadishu and other regions in December 2006.
But his pledge to establish an Islamic court for the region was rejected by native clan leaders.

given that context, robow’s announcement that “we will not allow clannish rules and oppression” is more understandable. other sources on wednesday & thursday reported that the citizens of marka port welcomed the liberation from the clan militias.
and specifically on sharia in marka port, a shabelle media article states

The Alshabab fighters seized Merca towns have vowed new laws those will be applied into the town within days.
Speaking to thousands of residents Sheikh Abubakar who is one the commanders of the fighters in the town has read the follwing articles:
– to modify the behaviors of the town’s youths
– to close entire business site at the prayers times
– not to carry arms in the town
– not to take tax money from the residents

i’d reckon that last one refers to the shakedown that the clan militias were exctracting & pocketing from the locals. as marka port was seized on wednesday, the liberators also closed a series of illegal roadblocks that burdened local traffic, including that of humanitarian supply shipments.
so why is reuters spreading this particular disinformation?
some possibilities:

to buttress the u.s./u.n. attempts to isolate the al shabaab as the spoiler in somalia, esp wrt the ineffectual djibouti agreement

ties in w/ this week’s cia push to sell the AQ threat as part of the GWOT & make it a priority for the incoming washington administration

they simply don’t know what they’re talking about & filter things through subjective biases – and/or maybe being strung by compromised stringers/sources

Posted by: b real | Nov 15 2008 7:46 utc | 52

Yeah, that is all Bush is good for. I think the Democratic Party leaders appreciate that too.

Posted by: RIck | Nov 15 2008 11:45 utc | 54

Here is another opportunity to make bets on how long it will take the MSM to find their way back, if they can, from lies they so eagerly disseminated:
U.S. Task Force Found Few Iranian Arms in Iraq

(snip)
The caches that included Iranian weapons thus represented just 2 percent of all caches found. That means Iranian-made weapons were a fraction of one percent of the total weapons found in Shi’a militia caches during that period.
The extremely small proportion of Iranian arms in Shi’a militia weapons caches further suggests that Shi’a militia fighters in Iraq had been getting weapons from local and international arms markets rather than from an official Iranian-sponsored smuggling network.
(snip)
That treatment of EFPs in the caches appears to contradict claims by U.S. officials throughout 2007 and much of 2008 that EFPs were being smuggled into Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. The allegedly Iranian-manufactured EFPs had been the centrepiece of the U.S. military’s February 2007 briefing charging Iran with arming Shi’a militiamen in Iraq.
(snip)

To be read together with MoA threads from Feb 2007
New Anti-Iranq Propaganda
Weapon Smuggling: Intelligence vs. Evidence

Posted by: Alamet | Nov 15 2008 23:10 utc | 56

Put your hand up if you think that this weekends little G-20 party accomplished nothing…

Posted by: Al | Nov 16 2008 8:26 utc | 58

“…The American Institute for Science and International Security, headed by David Albright, one the world’s top experts on nuclear weapons and the prevention of nuclear proliferation, has urged President-elect Barack Obama to press Israel to halt production of its nuclear weapons…”
–> http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75555&sectionid=351020202
Quite a bold (unrealistic?) recommendation, though one that I would support, for the sake of (hopefully, one day) peace in the Middle-East.

Posted by: Anonymous | Nov 16 2008 11:50 utc | 60

general, only the cabinet has approved thus far. parliament votes nov 24.

Posted by: annie | Nov 16 2008 18:17 utc | 62

Spreading democracy, freedom, mom and apple pie part 357
Islamabad borrows $13b to shore up economy
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has agreed to borrow US$7.6 billion ($13.52 billion) from the International Monetary Fund to stabilise the economy of the strategically important nation on the front lines of the United States battle against al Qaeda and the Taleban.
The Government had been reluctant to go to the IMF but had little choice once even close allies – the US, China and Saudi Arabia – snubbed its pleas for significant bilateral aid.
Pakistan’s finance chief said the IMF agreed to the bailout after endorsing plans to tackle the country’s huge budget and trade deficits.
US blamed for Pakistan deaths
8:15AM Saturday Nov 15, 2008
Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected United States missile strike has killed at least nine people in a village near the Afghan border.
Two officials said the strike hit a house in the North Waziristan tribal region yesterday. There was no immediate word on the identity of the victims.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 16 2008 19:21 utc | 64

The Congo ceasefire was good while it lasted.

Posted by: Monolycus | Nov 17 2008 12:50 utc | 66

Two articles I just read in the International Herald Tribune worry me.
– 1: Supposedly, the Taliban have threatened to attack Paris unless the French pull their troops out of Afghanistan. I was planning on going over to Paris sometime soon, but this just freaks me out. I mean, who knows if this threat is rubbish or legitimate, and how do you verify which of the two it is? And what the hell is the French government supposed to do? Seriously. You can either pull your troops out and hope that the Taliban keep to their word (crazy, I know, but this is an option) or alternatively keep your troops in Afghanistan in a bid to ‘win’, thereby risking more of your soldiers dying and further inflating anti-French sentiments within Afghanistan and the Taliban. How the hell do you, as a government, calculate which of these two options is most appropriate?
http://iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/11/17/europe/OUKWD-UK-TALIBAN-FRENCH.php
– 2: This article just disturbed me because I interpreted it as being quite aggressive and hostile in nature. Why even print / publish this sort of stuff in the mainstream media? It serves only to inflame existing security related concerns held by the governments and people of the nations in regard (the U.S. and China)…
http://iht.com/articles/2008/11/17/america/ship.php?page=2

Posted by: Al | Nov 17 2008 16:30 utc | 68

Python Eats Bird Alive

Posted by: annie | Nov 17 2008 16:53 utc | 70

Pirates Capture Saudi Supertanker
By itself this is an isolated incident only affecting the shipowners, but I’ve seen more and more of these attacks in recent months. If insurance rates and overall risk rise to the point where it’s no longer cost-effective for the shipping companies to run these routes, or risk rises to the point where it’s no longer cost-effective for Lloyd’s and others to underwrite the oil supertankers running these routes, it could have a large impact on the amount of oil reaching Europe and the US.
If there’s anything a global empire ought to be doing, it’s protecting international shipping. Yet despite the 5 carrier groups the US has in the Persian Gulf area, this clearly isn’t being done. Like so many other situations, something about this doesn’t add up…

Posted by: Chemmett | Nov 17 2008 18:22 utc | 72

adding to the strange circumstances re #72
Hijacked Saudi oil tanker in Arabian Sea freed: TV

DUBAI (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)
A Saudi crude tanker hijacked by pirates in the Arabian Sea on Monday has been freed, AlArabiya TV reported citing an unnamed official Saudi source.
The U.S. Navy, which earlier reported the hijacking, said the Saudi-owned super tanker seized by pirates off the coast of Africa is approaching the Somali coast.
Saudi Aramco, which owns the supertanker, said it had no knowledge of any release.
The U.S. Navy earlier said that pirates have taken control of a Saudi oil supertanker off east Africa.

Posted by: b real | Nov 17 2008 19:49 utc | 74

a bit of dark humor, illustrating, as has been pointed out here repeatedly, just how little power the djibouti agreement holds on the ground in somalia
Posted: 9:12:00 AM — AU troops deployed new army base

Burundian army official major general Nyayangura Javanol told Shabelle by phone that their troops have been deployed at Jalle Siad former military camp in Mogadishu as parts of activities wanted to put into operation the ceasefire peace pact jointly signed by the transitional government and the opposition group of ARS.
Weve made new military academy and we deployed our troops at Jalle Siad to precede Djibouti peace agreement Javanol said.
He further said that they would deploy troops on new areas but he declined to reveal specific location they are planning to deploy troops.
The AU AMISOM troops in Mogadishu based little specific areas in Mogadishu but this is the first time they’ve widely announced deployment of their troops in new army bases..

Posted: 8:43:00 PM — New AU peacekeepers army base attacked

Armed insurgents fighters have assaulted a Burundian troops based a new army base in the Somali capital later on Monday, residents said.
The clash started when Former Jalle Siad Military camp have been under fired by Islamist fighters where AMISOM troops based sparking heavy fighting.
The two sides have pounded with different kinds of weapons including artillery shelling that created huge fears to the nearby residents.
Its yet unknown the exact causalities of that attack although sources close to Burundian forces told Shabelle that their troops have suffered indefinite causalities as their officials have declined to comment on the latest clashes.

Posted by: b real | Nov 17 2008 20:09 utc | 76

Annie,
Yeah Annie, I agree. I loath war and have always believed that it, along with all variations of violence, is ultimately futile, and that it serves primarily to engender in the oppressed an increased amount of hate within them, to be then re-directed at their oppressors.
But still, no one can trust anyone.
Pull out, stay in, trust them or not? Repercussions for the French vis-à-vis their trans-Atlantic relationships if they do decide to thrown in the towel? It’s fucked. Deciding these sorts of things is tremendously difficulty, I think.

Posted by: Al | Nov 18 2008 2:14 utc | 78

Since the MSM is finally getting on to the real story on EFP’s and weapons smuggled into Iraq from Iran (didn’t happen), maybe they’re ready to move on to a point I beat like a dead horse last summer – that the real Iranian influence in Iraq wasn’t the “special groups” but the Iraqi government itself.

Posted by: anna missed | Nov 18 2008 6:12 utc | 80

Peter Shiff on fox news throughout 2007-8 predicting the financial meltdown against the (repeated) mockery and howling laughter of the regulars. Shameless fools.

Posted by: anna missed | Nov 18 2008 8:44 utc | 82

It’s not a matter of whether the war is not real or if it is. Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won. It is meant to be continuous…The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects. And its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact.-1984, George Orwell
nypost.com — Get Osama bin Laden! That’s President-elect Barack Obama’s mission, he said last night in his first interview since winning the White House. “It is a top priority for us to stamp out al Qaeda once and for all,” Obama told CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
While I am dubious of the NYP, ABC and LA times has confirmed this (I haven’t watched 60 minutes and don’t plan to) “I’ll Get Osama”. “Top Priority” Obama Vows…
I have nothing else to offer or say that even resembles sanity…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 18 2008 12:22 utc | 84

hmmm..

Posted by: b real | Nov 18 2008 16:47 utc | 86

dos
the democrats gutlessness with lieberman – spectacular

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 18 2008 17:47 utc | 88

@89 – heh. didn’t realize the link changes or i wouldn’t have posted it. at the time that i did, it was to show that we had a visitor from ‘israel ministry of defence’ (195.160.240.#) hitting the southern sudan thread 23 minutes after i posted a comment there, which i found slightly interesting, esp given that the subject of the thread is the hijacked mv faina

Posted by: b real | Nov 18 2008 20:06 utc | 90

chicago tribune article, part validation of what we’ve been warning of & part propaganda
‘BACK IN COLD WAR MODE’
African armies receive U.S. expertise, ammo

TADJOURA, Djibouti—In hundreds of military training programs from the Sahara to the Seychelles, the U.S. is quietly bolstering Africa’s ragtag armies to fight extremism so the Pentagon won’t have to.
Some experts have taken to calling this strategy — not always admiringly — “America’s African Rifles” after an indigenous African unit organized by Britain to fight its bloody colonial wars of the 19th Century.
Over the past five years, 21 African countries have hosted military instructors in the biggest-ever U.S. training effort on the continent.

in her testimony before the subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs of the house committee on cversight and government reform [hold on a moment… let me catch my breath!.. okay] back on july 15, 2008, ms. theresa whelan, DoD’s deputy asst secdef for african affairs [wheez!], told congresscritters that

we have actually military-to-military relations with pretty much every country in Africa with the exception of the government of Sudan, currently Zimbabwe, although we actually do have an HIV/AIDS program that continues with Zimbabwe, and Eritrea.

back to the tribune article

“We’ve worked with hundreds of Kenyans, Ethiopians and now Djiboutians,” said Staff Sgt. Albert Ignacio, 44, a fireplug of a man who had spent just 45 days at home during a three-year stint in Africa. “Africans are hungry for our help. They have so little. Most of the time, they don’t even have ammo to shoot. We bring it.”

guy’s a regular comedian, eh? africans hungry for our help… they have so little… not even ammo to shoot
the article itself then gets a little silly after pointing out that using proxy forces didn’t work out so well in somalia, when it uses the phrase “a deadly Islamist insurgency” to describe the successes on the ground in forcing out the deadly occupation by both the ethiopian forces and the warlord TFG regime barely standing in mogadishu & baidoa. or the rationale that the proxy war has backfired b/c it is “damaging counterterrorism efforts” in somalia. there was no need for any legitimate CT operation in somalia prior to the 2006 invasion. most objective analysts & observers now acknowledge that the ICU did not pose a real threat outside of some irredentist ideas toward the ogaden region of ethiopia, which is full of somalis anyway, and recognize the u.s. exaggerations of AQ ‘affiliations’ & threats for what they were – lies
but ignore that stuff – it’s typical western propaganda & it’s all over the place right now, ranging from the hypocrisy of russ feingold to the keystroke output of nearly every wire service and not why i’m posting this
all that talk doesn’t discourage the cold-warrior fireplug featured in the article

Ignacio took a long view of U.S. involvement in Africa.
“We’re back in Cold War mode,” he said, recalling how he trained Honduran forces during Ronald Reagan’s shadow conflicts with the Soviets in Central America. “When will we be done here? Not for a long time.”

this is exactly what i was warning about nearly two years ago, as well as the reference to the militarization of central america

Posted by: b real | Nov 19 2008 4:10 utc | 92

Thanks breal, your posts are always excellent -both your info and personal comments.

Posted by: Rick | Nov 19 2008 12:43 utc | 94

A particularly disturbing comment made by Ron Widdows (chief executive officer of Neptune Orient Lines, South-East Asia’s biggest cargo transport group), reported in the FT:
”The negative conditions we are seeing in the market place are unprecedented in our industry’s history… What we are seeing goes beyond a normal cyclical downturn…[we are expecting] a severe and prolonged downturn in global container shipping that could last over the next few years”

Posted by: Al | Nov 19 2008 16:10 utc | 96

lrmagzbfsoepmlcywell, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch 😉

Posted by: Obtaistaffeddy | Dec 27 2008 21:11 utc | 98