OT 08-40
Open thread - news and views ...
Posted by b on November 19, 2008 at 21:15 UTC | Permalink
@Juannie -I looks authentic.
Like 'authentic' Pentagon propaganda looks.
Can anybody identify the aircraft?
F-18
Like I said b, that’s why I became military when I became pubescent. Back then we didn’t have Steppenwolf but we had a myriad of F86D testosterone stimulating PR catches. Actually, if I remember correctly, the F104 was in the air by the time I joined for Cadets. The best I got to fly was the T34 that belonged to the Aero Club at my base. My all time favorite is the Champ. 35 hp, again if memory serves me.
You’re news catches and dissections are phenomenal, as always. Another long overdue thanks.
Posted by: Juannie | Nov 19 2008 22:26 utc | 3
Via CNN, Cardinal James Stafford:
"His rhetoric is post-modernist and marks an agenda nd vision that are aggressive, disruptive and apocalyptic. Catholic weep over his words. We weep over the violence concealed behind the rhetoric of our young president-to-be. What should be do with our hot, angry tears of betrayal?"
h/t Digby
I am of the opinion that this is very dangerous rhetoric coming from the Major Penitentiary of the Curia, and I wonder what you guys are thinking about it?
Posted by: Li | Nov 19 2008 22:28 utc | 4
Li@4
I think that the Catholic Church is the only worthwhile institution in the world.
Posted by: jlcg | Nov 19 2008 22:45 utc | 5
Cernig at the Newshoggers follows up on the much hyped uranium traces:
El-Baredei: Uranium Traces At Syrian Site Not Conclusive
... El-Baradei called specifically for more cooperation from Damascus, saying it needs "a lot of transparency on the part of Syria." He said he was hopeful that Syria would allow inspectors back into the country to carry out further tests.But he also said Israel needs to provide more information to address Syrian allegations that the uranium may have come from Israeli bombs dropped on the site during the September 2007 raid.
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 19 2008 23:18 utc | 7
Looks like Obama's Bolivia advisor Greg Craig is the legal representative of Bolivia's fugitive ex-president Sanchez de Lozada who is wanted for his role in a 2003 massacre. And Craig is now tapped to be White House Counsel.
(Found via BoRev.)
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 20 2008 0:33 utc | 8
"I think that the Catholic Church is the only worthwhile institution in the world."
haha
Posted by: Al | Nov 20 2008 1:12 utc | 9
My curiosity got the better of me and I had to wade back through links about the whole motley crew of papal godbotherers before I found much about what this paid vatican spokesperson said about the president elect of a foreign nation.
The reason I did it, you see, was that I imagined for some silly reason, that the crew of brown-nosing little boys' shirt-lifters serving under former nazi pope benedict had finally sprouted a conscience and had determined to offer a little foreign policy advice to prez elect Obama. I had figured if the joker was concerned about "the violence concealed behind the rhetoric of our young president-to-be" that violence would have to be the 'young president elect's' oft stated desire to murder many more unwhites in Pakistan/Afghanistan, since that is his most outrageous promise thus far, especially considering the notion of a foreign official commenting on domestic policy matters is shall we a say "a bit of a no-no" especially between supposed allies.
Tish tosh. Pish pash. I should have known better. The instigators of Latin America's holocaust (far bigger, longer and more brutal than what benedict's former fuhrer dreamed up for the jews, gypsies, shirtlifters and disabled - but that's another story) weren't worried for the unwhite Pashtu or any of their fellow countrymen for that matter. No, Stafford and co are trying to make a drama outta the thankfully returned to the background of the amerikan national affairs debate, issue of whether humans can decide what they want to do when parenthood has unexpectedly appeared into that citizen's personal life. That is Stafford is trying to beat up abortion into a "hell no we won't go for it" rallying cry once again.
Now setting aside the fact this is an amerikan domestic issue well outside the purview of any foreign official , and that Stafford and his colleagues don't have to worry too much about unexpected parenthood because their sexual partners are most often the wrong gender/and or age for pregnancy to be an issue - that would be petty and might get me talking about the mate of mine whose father was a catholic priest, a missionary to the traditional, remote aboriginal community my friend's mother (at the time a 14 year old school pupil of the missionary) lived in. And that would be petty and unforgiving which would be very un-Xtian, so lets set that aside and consider the other bit.
Which is why when some foreign nation's official picks the new prez elect's position on an issue that really only concerns individual citizens and is absolutely no concern of any government, city state, national or world there is summat askew in the state of Denmark. Why that? Rather than confronting the prez elect on the undeclared war amerika is waging on a swathe of sovereign nations whose single common demoninator is the citizens of those nations practics a different religion (Islam) than the religion practised by the largest chunk of amerika's citizens.
That's a good solid issue for any foreign official to get into, after all amerika has only had one catholic prez (to my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong.)
Which surely means that the vatican or some other catholic nation could be the next cab off the rank for a generalised attack, if they were judged to hold values deemed untenable by the protestant amerika.
Surely that issue should rate higher up the batting order of 'things to harangue Barak Obama over'?
The answer is of course brand. Over the last 40 years the catholic church has singled out abortion as one of their primary of not number one, brand differentiation issues. Sure some amerikan baptists, episcopalian and presbyterian denominations are violently outspoken against abortion but that stance isn't held universally by all of those churches within amerika even, let alone across the rest of the world.
The catholics have done their number crunching and concluded that a sizeable swathe of catholics musta voted for Obama and those voters have to be corralled back into the fold in a way that doesn't turn them offa the church by makin em choose between barack and st xavier's or whatever, and certainly doesn't dilute the brand by sounding like they have reneged on their anti-abortion stance.
So they attack a speech Obama made make in the day. Blitzer who likes to imagine that anyone anti-abortion is pro-Republican seeks to muddy the waters with his vitriolic hyperbole against the cardinal or whatever rank this god botherer is.
Also interesting is why the subject was deemed worthy of a post into here? Most MoA readers don't carry a torch for Barak or the catholic hierachy and therefore couldn't give a flying proverbial about what one professional bible thumper says to or about another professional bible thumper on issues which should be of no concern to either.
The
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 20 2008 1:21 utc | 10
lotsa syntactical errors as well as semantic above cause I was yapping with someone in the real world Sorry bout that:
So they attack a speech Obama made make in the day should read "So they attack a speech Obama made back in the day."
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 20 2008 1:24 utc | 11
"catholic church the only worthwhile institution in the world?" haha is right. and so is haha.
i'm a recovering cath-aholic. the best thing i got from them is their propensity for alcohol. if i have to, i can drink like a sailor. lucky me.
my whole family is goofy - horrible examples of christianity. but... they go to church on sunday and say the rosary. halleluia.
and, the only kind of meat a priest can eat on friday is...? (hint: cheech and chong's "up in smoke")
Debs is dead; I posted this because it seemed to me to be a rather direct attack on a head of state by the Church, before he took office, in an effort to de-legitimize him. This combined with the threat I've heard bandied about to withhold communion from Obama supporters seems rather like an effort to reinstate papal supremacy, which might seem outlandish until one thinks about how 'old-fashioned' Ratzinger is. And, of course, all of the evangelicals and racists that are spouting their belief in Obama-as-antichrist could lead to something like a civil war or insurgency in the US. . .
If you want to think of something that could have a very negative effect upon global security, the Pope acting like he's in charge of the world could be very destabilizing in the short run, and perhaps catastrophic in the long.
Posted by: Li | Nov 20 2008 1:50 utc | 13
If you want to think of something that could have a very negative effect upon global security, the Pope acting like he's in charge of the world could be very destabilizing in the short run, and perhaps catastrophic in the long.
For Catholics, maybe. For the rest of us:
...destabilizing in the short run, and definitely hilarious in the long.
Posted by: Rowan | Nov 20 2008 3:24 utc | 14
I grew up on US Air Force bases. Yes, its a flight of F-18's.
I took my architecture at Notre Dame and have seldom been in a church since. And ND's is a liberal theology. The cardinal's remarks are appalling.
Posted by: Allen/Vancouver | Nov 20 2008 3:42 utc | 15
Haven't seen this mentioned yet at this blog... anyone else catch the story in Der Spiegel about the Estonian feeding NATO intel to Russia? Link
Posted by: Dan | Nov 20 2008 3:55 utc | 16
And, of course, all of the evangelicals and racists that are spouting their belief in Obama-as-antichrist could lead to something like a civil war or insurgency in the US. . .
I rely on the assumption that They who run the show are too cautious to whip up the culture war into an actual war — if they did it, they'd risk losing control.
Posted by: | Nov 20 2008 4:45 utc | 17
Saw that one, Dan. It wasn't Estonia itself, just the head of the intelligence service who went off the reservation for a bigger slice of the good life. At least that's the story.
"Herman Simm, 61, who was responsible for handling classified and top secret material in the Baltic state’s capital, Tallinn, reportedly had access to “nearly all” documents circulated within NATO and the E.U., the German magazine Spiegel reported."
It will be interesting to see if Russia steps up to the plate like the USSR to bring their asset home. I bet they will.
Also of interest is the fact that searching for 'Simm Estonia' on the NYT returns no link to this story, I guess it is not fit to print.
Posted by: Dick Durata | Nov 20 2008 7:02 utc | 18
Dan, oops, I read Estonia where you wrote Estonian, my apologies.
Posted by: Dick Durata | Nov 20 2008 7:03 utc | 19
U.S. Aid Not Always Apolitical, Report Finds
The headline should have been U.S. Aid Always Political ...
Interesting titbit:
During the past decade, the Pentagon's share of the U.S. overseas development-assistance budget has grown from 3.5 percent to 18 percent, said George Rupp, president of the International Rescue Committee.
I'm quite surpised all the old religions are still managing to hold on...at least in the educated nations...
To anyone who adheres to a religion, answer me this question, I'm curious to hear your answer:
It is the human brain, responsible for our (relative) state of higher consciousness, which enables us to concieve of an ultimate creator - this same human brain enables us to pursue scientific expeditions into space, and to analyse and comprehend the world aroud us, so, instead of building a 'church' like building and worshipping 'jesus' or 'god' or whoever it is you people worship...isn't it far more logical to build a gigantic model of the human brain, hollowed out, and for all humans to adopt as one religioun the worship of the human brain?
Posted by: Al | Nov 20 2008 8:06 utc | 22
It is becoming painfully clear to me that the only change Obama will be bringing to the White House is changing it back to the Clinton administration. Apparently he is so rabidly loyal, Rahm Emanuel even volunteered to be the new Monica Lewinksy.
Posted by: IanTheGreat | Nov 20 2008 9:01 utc | 23
@ b real The only interesting information I have seen on the Dahlak
Archipelago were a couple of comments from Debka some years back (2002), and
this article from the Village Voice on file at the Global Security Org website.
Assuming that the major activities there are indeed for maintenance of Israeli subs and joint NSA - Unit 8200 operations might explain the lack of material: the military spooks tend to keep a lower profile than their civilian counterparts. Obviously I have no first hand knowledge for any of this.
Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | Nov 20 2008 9:32 utc | 24
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/11/fruits-of-zirp-japanese-elderly-steal.html>Geriatric crime wave in Japan a prelude for the U.S. - grandpa get your gun.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 20 2008 9:59 utc | 25
Years ago I joked about the "Magnum Lottery" pension system: Buy a lottery ticket every week until you're 65. If you haven't won by then, go buy a gun and hold up a bank.
Worst that can happen is that you get caught, at which point you at least have a roof over your head, three meals a day and medical care...
Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 20 2008 11:12 utc | 26
More abuse of NATO and Africa: NATO chief offers to train African forces
NATO troops could train African soldiers so they are ready for the continent's conflicts, the military alliance's secretary-general said.Speaking Wednesday at a dinner in Accra marking the start of his three-day visit to Ghana, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said: “Africans must be in the lead to find solutions to problems that confront the continent.''
A rebel group recently pushed to the edges of a major town in Eastern Congo. Spooked, the country's ill-equipped and badly trained army fled in droves. Because the army is unable to adequately protect civilians, the Congolese are calling on the U.N. to send more peacekeepers a situation that could be avoided if the country's security forces could be righted.
“Millions of Africans who have become victims of war (need to) see that it can be done,'' de Hoop Scheffer said.
How does everyone else feel about bailing out the U.S. Automakers? I say no way, considering that it will be business as usual, the loans will never be paid back, they don't have a viable business plan and they will just keep knocking at the door for more, just like every other entity under the sun in the U.S. right now. Meet the new Welfare Queens.
Of course, I thought the TARP was wrong from the start, as well, and I've been proven correct, hence the talk of a TARP II. Is that like Type II Diabetes?
You know what would be interesting? If we instituted wage controls in the U.S. Starting January 1, 2010, everyone will be making the same wage. How do you think that would shake out? Is Hank Paulson any more important than the men who collect my garbage? Is it all about perception, just like valuing a diamond? Are gems really precious?
Posted by: Obamageddon | Nov 20 2008 13:36 utc | 28
Ob,
Go to MaxKeiser.com and download Max's recent podcasts (right, top side of page). The guy is on the ball. Made a (very big) stack working alongside the infamous Mike Milken on Wall St in the 80s, and has long predicted this entire financial fiasco, along with the likes of Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, Alex Jones & Steven Keen. The 'bailout' is just the corrupt Wall St banking cartel (primarily Goldman-S & JP-M) looting the Govt through the Treasury and the Fed, at the expense of the tax payer. Essentially, it's a bank heist. The whole thing is so corrupt it would be humorous, were it not in fact reality. For christ's sake, Dictator Paulson just came out and said the 700B wasn't intended to contribute towards an 'economic recovery', and then went even further by doing a bait and switch by declaring that the TARP will not be used to buy the worthless junk they originally claimed it would be used for.
Basically, there are no legitimate perspectives on the 'bailout' in the MSM. The whole thing is a scam, fraud. The so-called saviors are nothing but representatives of those who are responsible for, and profiteering from, the financial crisis. Bailout's and tax cuts in the US cannot save the irrevocably doomed economy, however, as Bloomberg correctly states ("What's good about this is that it's not money being handed over by the government, but something that will help everyone"), tax cuts are a more equitable and fair (though similarly useless) way of trying to deal with this disaster.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aGUbtb7dOuwU
Posted by: Al | Nov 20 2008 14:05 utc | 29
Download or watch online the C-SPAN videos of the Congressmen grilling Kaskari or whatever the chumps name is, the Goldman-S guy who Paulson told the public is responsible for dolling out the TARP: watch him grin and smirk like a little smart-ass throughout. It goes for three hours or so though it is necessary watching for anyone seriously interested in understanding the extent to which this is, in actual fact, nothing more than a bank heist, committed by shockingly arrogant twats, directly in front of the motionless customers.
Posted by: Al | Nov 20 2008 14:11 utc | 30
Al, what do you believe is the ultimate goal? Is this Shock Treatment, as Naomi Klein describes it? Are we the next Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, or Argentina? Is this the purposeful destruction of the U.S.? If it is the next Chile, are we being set-up for a Military Dictatorship? Will we have our Pinochet? If so, those of us here at MOA will surely be some of the first to be dropped from helicoptors into the sea after having our stomachs ripped open.
What role does Obama play in all of this? I believe he was chosen for a specific role, whether he is witting to it, or not, is a topic for debate, but what is that role? Is he to be deposed by a military dictatorship?
Posted by: Obamageddon | Nov 20 2008 14:45 utc | 31
ralphieboy, how do you say magnum lottery in japanese?
``Some elderly, particularly men who lost their wives, even turn to crimes to be put in jail so they can be fed three times a day,'' Yamada said.
al, there are no legitimate perspectives on the 'bailout'
this is from the same team that calls occupation 'liberation'. everything they name is always the opposite of what it is. this is not a 'get out of jail' card for the economy, it is voluntary indentured servitude.
Posted by: annie | Nov 20 2008 14:46 utc | 32
indeed-di-doo, however, both teams are the same in their relations to their financial masters. the inconvenient truth is that both 'teams' are owned.
Posted by: Al | Nov 20 2008 14:57 utc | 34
Ob,
The aim is, or net result will be, for the super-ultra rich to further vertically integrate the economy by consolidating power through the buying up of the 'real economy', maximising profits at whatever costs necessary. Many people would answer 'yes' to your questions. But many would answer 'no' and some would answer 'maybe'. I am probably in the later category. Truth is, I don't know; I'm just a schmuck spectating. Re: the helicopters - I don't think so. We are small, unimportant fish.
Posted by: Al | Nov 20 2008 15:11 utc | 35
I think the formula for vertical integration is:
a) loan us all the money you have
b) we will use it to buy everything you own
c) you can then use the loan repayments to rent it back from us...
Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 20 2008 16:51 utc | 36
flood or fire
does it matter
no it doesn't
matter
at all
times taut
as line
i am
betraying
in this
hour whenever
that is
it is
time to tell
whatever it was
that happened
certainly it
happened hour
before or after
deluge determined
elsewhere ecclesiastes example
you might have
read another
text entirely
constructed from
cuttings kept
from old
journals
you yearned
to live
bach then
whenever that was
that was
so they say
some other
time i
taught it
everything it
knows this
& that
& some
other always
there or here
for that
matter maybe
all that
there is
this & that
so little so
much to carry
now & here
wherever that was
it is
still so strange
i believe
i am
somewhere else
wherever that was
learning lines
from godfather
in dream
only dialogue
meeting need
whatever that was
it is
still somewhere
still in
side by side
stand this self
an old soldier
from forgotten
war in future
whenever that was
it still is
somewhere so
close i could
crawl all way
there or here
for you
or them
whomever they were
they are always
around assuming
this & that
whatever they want
it is
not here
or there
for that
matter mentioned
livermore laboratories
somewhat sensitively
by bad
man making marks
on blackboard
proving point
to whomever
it was
resting against wall
calculating
this & that
seven days
seven night
one god
too much water
so someone said
ecclesaistes example
you can look
up or down
whenever you want
go down
into valley
where we were
vanquished & vain
we called ourselves
& no one
came to
this & that
conclusion
you have
arrived at
of you own
accord & agreements
with whomever
it was
you called
your master
went walking
long time ago
into water
some sea somewhere
knowing that
there was
too much water
so much water
on this
& other
journeys
prepared in plan
you left
in cabinet
with all
medicine
you would take
day & night
with monkey
& other
angels i assume
we were
discussing dividends
back then
whenever that was
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 20 2008 17:47 utc | 37
A TARP is nothing but a large piece of heavy cloth. HankyPanky grabs one end and Helicopter Ben grabs the other. They throw it over a bunch of taxpayers. While the taxpayers are scared and confused, Hank and Ben invite their rich friend in to steal their wallets.
Posted by: Sgt Dan | Nov 20 2008 17:48 utc | 38
The oligarchs are happy,
They tread with iron shod boot.
The store houses now are empty,
There's nothing left to loot.
"Veni, vidi, vinci"
Caesar said it best.
They have stolen history
And the treasure chest.
Posted by: whimsy mugwump | Nov 20 2008 17:50 utc | 39
indeed-di-doo, however, both teams are the same in their relations to their financial masters. the inconvenient truth is that both 'teams' are owned.
they are both owned, but the promises they make have a different theme. whether they make headway on that theme, is another thing.
President-elect Barack Obama's incoming White House chief of staff challenged chief executives and other business leaders Tuesday night to join the new administration in a push for universal health care, saying incremental increases in coverage won't be acceptable.
"When it gets rough out there, a lot of business leaders get out of the car and say, 'We're OK with minor reform.' I'm challenging you today, we're going to have to do big, serious things," Rahm Emanuel said, speaking to The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council, a conference convened to elicit corporate opinion on the challenges facing the new president.
big serious things about health care? i will believe it when i see it, but it sure sounds good. lest you think this theme isn't gaining traction here's another (murdock) WSJ opinion piece about card check(this isn't a snark, if you can believe that) titled
But it is also possible that, for once, the public weighed the big issues and gave a clear verdict on the great economic questions of the last few decades. It is likely that we really do want universal health care and some measure of wealth-spreading, and even would like to see it become easier to organize a union in the workplace, however misguided such ideas may seem to the nation's institutions of higher carping.
those broke republicans are lining up at the public trough just like everybody else when there is no bread at the table. maybe the difference of the 2 parties is at least one is offering a trough.
Posted by: annie | Nov 20 2008 18:02 utc | 40
With regards to piracy, Josh Marshall makes an interesting observation:
[H]istorically, the rising incidence of piracy has frequently, if not always, been a sign of the receding reach of whatever great power has taken on responsibility for policing the sea lanes. The decline of the Hellenistic monarchies in the Mediterranean before the rise of Rome. Caribbean piracy during Spain's long slide into decrepitude and before England decided she lost more than she gained from it. There are many examples. I note too that the Russians just announced that they're sending a few more warships to try to get things under control off the coast of East Africa.
god
or whatever
you wanted
to call
this & that
way back
whenever
maybe melbourne
when
you were
climbing over crates
i built
with bare hands
i dream
day & night
of this
& that
forgetting everything
& almost
nothing
a little
more than this
less than that
& that’s that
when
you arrive
at top
of this
& that
thought you threaded
carefully into career
with songs
you stole
from friend
who was
waving to woman
you were
betraying bodies
before & after
whatever it was
you called
salvation
length & breadth
of land
wherever that was
we were
once upon
a time
so specific
you can
make it
into tale
to tell
old ones
whenever
they come
from exits
wherever they are
they are
ruling out
schemes she sought
so long ago
i cannot
remember cards
that i was
holding for her
whoever she was
she skated
on ice
& other
means of locomotion
proving this
& that
when i was
flying forever
at least
that what
i imagined
going distance
wherever that was
somewhere down
at bottom wherever
that was
so specific
someone screamed
some science
for us
to add
it all
up or down
whatever
direction determined
by darts thrown
at sheets
of paper
wrapped around wire
wherever that was
it was
sometime
so far
away in another
country australia
i assume
certainly canada
vaguely vancouver
one night
in bed
of some
beautiful girl
who once worked
plantations or poems
some sort
of slavery
certainly
i climbed inside
here there
or her
does it matter
no it doesn’t
matter at all
when you are
watching fields burn
all night long
there & then
going to gates
wherever you wailed
for others
who are without
sin so sacred
i wanted
to commit
each & every
one seven
days seven
nights twenty four
hours a day
disguised
as ancient excursion
to territory
you once were
so many
& so few
che in bolivia
an example
of angels
arriving too
late for this
or that
excavation or elaboration
whatever you want
to call
this & that
whatever it is
it is
bar in barbes
where
white horses
hold your attenion
stampeding
towards what
stronger call
truth taken
on hour
every hour
with a little
water covering
earth & fire
i find
here & there
on way
to words
we are
this & less
so someone said
herr heidegger
maybe merleu ponty
one of boys
who
had it all
sewn up
somewhere sorbonne
perhaps prague
another city
somewhere on earth
whatever we want
to call that
in this
hour of hours
song of songs
permitting passion
of a kind
that you dont
follow instructions
formal & finite
in way instruction
are less
than this
or that
whatever it was
it was
sleeping on staircases
sacred spaces
so they say
& i believe
them so thorough
they miss
almost everything
elaborated here
or there
wherever that was
it is
made for martyrs
whoever they are
they are
taking tears away
from here
to there
distance so defined
ghosts grab rails
en route
to heaven
or other
sites they see
when looiking out
windows & doors
delivered daily
perhaps by post
perhaps another process
entirely excepted
up above
wherever that was
it is
still so still
i tremble terribly
& have
for some
time now
later & before
detonating dream
in way
that i am
expert exploding
amost anything
in these hands
these beautiful hands
falling
to my side
there are battallions
arriving with answers
i assume i
don't know
this & that
& that's that
as far
as you are
concerened with calculations
& other
concerns so crucial
i will interrupt
only with oracles
only i can
confess here
& ther
for that
matter
so substantial
i surrender
second after second
to whatever
it was
you were
back then
whenever that was
it was
time so taut
i hung
condemned
as any
man you mention
in chronicles
you cried
out some
day or night
it doesn't matter
no it doesn't
matter at all
maybe you missed
it anyway
will happen
again after
whenever that was
it was
way warriors wept
that
i forget
almost everything
& absolutely nothing
passes this point
wherever it was
it was
where you are
whenever
you are
there or here
that is threat
i insert
here & there
like so many
quotation marks
on quest
that isn't
what you think
beside the point
here & later
then & now
whenever that was
it was
something
someone sung
internationale something
like that
something so
sacred something
that stays
in soul
so they say
whatever that was
it is
not much
use
at all
value theory
surplus value
that this
worth a little
more than labour
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 20 2008 23:42 utc | 42
Just so Ian, here's an LA Times piece on the growing alarm over all the hawks Obama's surrounding himself with.
I'll give you the executive summary: Obama to his antiwar base: "drop dead".
He's "against" the Iraq war but being a contemptible warmongering assclown (Hillary, Rahm, Biden, Gates, etc.) seems to be de rigueur for a high-level post with his administration.
Posted by: ran | Nov 21 2008 0:12 utc | 44
Dick Durata: It's an amusing irony that in NATO's push to expand up to Russia's borders, they haven't realized that it's that much easier for Russia to penetrate NATO intelligence circles.
An interesting excerpt from The Economist:
the consensus in the world of shadows is not that new members of NATO such as Estonia are unreliable. On the contrary, Estonia’s intelligence and security services are well-regarded, which makes them a worthy target for foreign espionage. It was good counter-intelligence work that led to the arrest. And in most NATO countries, notes a seasoned Baltic-based spook, such scandals are usually hushed up, not prosecuted so gutsily.
It's a good point. Why ARE we hearing so much about this?
Posted by: dan | Nov 21 2008 2:34 utc | 45
just now catching this, but in the nov. 8th issue of the somaliland times, their lead story has the intriguing headline
Investigators Of The Oct 29 Terrorist Attack Report Progress In Identifying Suspects Including Holder Of American Green Card
but the linked article has been pulled so now you only get a 404
the first few lines of the article read
Hargeysa, Somaliland, November 8, 2008 (SL Times) – Somaliland officials investigating the triple car bombing attacks that shook Hargeysa on October 29, 2008 are reporting of making progress in identifying a number of people who may have been involved in some aspects of the planning, preparation and execution of the blasts.
i've tried searching for a reposted copy using a number of search engines, but no luck. anybody have an idea if there's a way to find a copy or cached version of the original? lexis-nexis, perhaps? seems to have been wiped from the web. would like to see exactly what it said. it could have been embarrassingly sloppy reporting, as was an article in the previous issue falsely stating that al shabaab claimed credit for the attacks, which they did not, nor has anyone else, and also trying to tie in that kid's suicide video i mentioned a few weeks ago, which was actually from last april. the u.s. media also tried to tie in the video to the attacks, so i'm guessing there was some media manipulation going on (similar to how AQ vids get suspiciously disseminated). but i'd still like to see what the somaliland times wrote. the day of the bombings jendayi frazer immediately shouted to reporters in nairobi 'sounds like AQ', so the report's mention of a suspect thought to be involved in "planning, preparation and execution of the blast" possessing a green card definitely is of interest
Posted by: b real | Nov 21 2008 5:02 utc | 46
"if only songs were sung to guide the doubtful ones"....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs6WFMJGxE8>unattainable
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 21 2008 10:16 utc | 47
On another note, looks like the Coen Brothers must be directing http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/20/sarah-palin-holds-news-co_n_145375.html>Sarah Palin's press conferences. As in Fargo.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 21 2008 10:34 utc | 48
Where's "The Magic Christian" when we need it most?
Posted by: Dr. Wellington Yueh | Nov 21 2008 17:03 utc | 49
maliki admits the difficulty to approve sofa, parliament spokesperson leads the opposition
Hilarious reaction reported today from Zebari saying that the task of the parliament is to accept SOFA and not to discuss it.AL-Quds Al-Arabi revealed today that parliament spokesman “Al-Mashhadani” is leading SOFA opposition from his house in Baghdad.
Alliances of various political blocs (Allawi, the Sadirsts and Ba’athists from outside Iraq) want to fail the voting on the security agreement in parliament.
The source said that there is a sense of the difficulty of passing the agreement in parliament, the effort right now is to extend the U.S. troops presence in the UN -Security Council.
Maliki acknowledged the difficulty today in his press conference saying that his government is prepared to go to the UN – Security Council to extend the U.S. presence.
There is no way to negotiate again with the Americans about SOFA.
Maliki said that he don’t want to take the SOFA’s responsibility alone.
As Al-Hayat report said that Sunni MPs will decide the fate of the security agreement, Al-Dujaili on Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas explains more, saying that SOFA will pass but the political disorder will increase.
The writer splits the Iraqi parliament into three categories: 1) The pro-SOFA. 2) The opposition 3) The undecided.
Both parties are trying to attract the votes of the undecided, who are worried waiting for which way the wind blows, they are more interested in their personal benefits.
But Kurdish MP Fouad Ma’soum told Al-Khaleej newspaper that all those who reject SOFA are seeking a deal for a bigger role in the government.
Iraqi security source on Al-Watan; denied the existence of “Judgment Day” Brigade, newly formed by Muqtada Al-Sadr saying that all these talks [about the new brigade] are only rumors or speculations, but the source admits the raids Sadr stronghold “Najaf” city to arrest possible, future leaders of such brigades.
Posted by: annie | Nov 21 2008 18:39 utc | 50
vendee sometime 1977
with somone so
young i yearned
for what would
never come
at that time
or any other
for that matter
at all times
under measurement
with word
i wring
from this
& that
memory i mangle
in this hour of hours
song of songs
i stutter
so sadly you begin
to cry
over this
or that
but it doesn’t
matter no
it doesn’t
matter at all
times i tune
gifted as any
guitarist going
through this
or that
variation villa lobos
someone else
does it matter
no it doesn’t
matter at all
times i teach
teachers who teach
little other
than this
or that
whatever you want
to call
that or this
in this
hour of hours
moment by moment
song of songs
i salvage
almost everything
from this
& that
in memory moved
this way
& that
perhaps for purposes
you can
interpret for innocents
whoever they are
they are
somewhere still
so they say
& i believe
that may be
here & now
then or later
whenever that was
it still
is this that
so someone said
somewhere i stole
whatever
doctor dropped
in big bag
i carried
from continent
to continent
clawing way
to here
or there
wherever that was
it still
is this that
or something
else entirely
someone said so
long ago
whenever
that was
it still
is this that
when birds
gathered in garden
we forgot
fruit on trees
then or later
i imagine i
never had
taste for apples
or any other
temptation you
might have
brought me
this or that
or something
else entirely
whatever it was
i was not
hungry
then or now
for that
matter maybe
i mentioned
something so sacred
it was
forgotten with fruit
we left
to root
on earth
so soiled
nothing could
grow here
or there
does it matter
no it doesn’t
matter at all
adorno asserted
somewhere
in minima moralis
something like that
learned work
wearing itself
out & in
rooms so regretful
you never
wanted to return
to this
or that
or something else
whatever it was
stones so sacred
i carried them
all way
here or there
to wherever
it was that
i went
with winds
as do
most travellers
wherever we are
we are
working for queens
& other
subsidiaries so substantial
you fall
in love
before you leave
for another
watching waves
as they crash
against another
whover that was
mentioning mu name
whatever that was
i have forgotten
& still spend
most mornings
researching this
or that
for another
whoever they are
they are
queens of this
& that perhaps
something elses
i am
not speaking
during this
song of song
in this
hour of hours
some bar
early seventies somewhere
cairo
assuredly
nodding off
with nurses
so callous
they forgot
you were
so battered
it was
hard trying
to give
anything other
than careless caress
whatever that was
there were
so many
so many
nights & days
i howled
wild as any
wolf we wounded
mabe in mountain
in spain certainly
another country
i am
forgetting all
of this
& that discoveries
i made
precious as pasteur
curious as curie
sometime marseille
drinking defeat
with workers
of this
& that
curse they cultivated
for what
it was
worth more
so much more
than that
& i do
not know now
why i walked
away fro all
this & that
perhaps
it was way
lawyers lied
about this
& that
degredation i detailed
here & there
for whatever
it was
worth not much
not much
at all
times i tore
my skin
my beautiful skin
& hated it
healing for herd
whoever they were
they were
not nietzsche’s
or anyone
emse’s for that
or this
so they say
& i believe
them so thorough
they do not
leave anything out
here or in
there wherever
that was
it was
saigon
sometime seventies
breaking bottles
over this
body this
beautiful body
whatever that was
i wrapped
it in
leather or letters
you didn’t
send to soldier
i had become
this & that
so much mess
than that
yet i yearned
for battles
clear as creons
answeriung antigone
whoever she was
she was
good girl
so they say
& i believe
maybe she mentioned
my name
as she sang
to you
in another
city i claimed
in discoveries
i had left
for someone else
who wore
me down
oh yes
me down
oh me down
oh yes
me down
draining veins
with all
other organisms
surrendering survival
to this
& that
world we wept
for so
long so long
i came out
singing something
sinatra miight have
stolen from sicilians
he adored
big boys
with guns
in their trousers
so he said
somewhere i am
seeking story
so you’ll stay
fro another
night & day
i might not
howl holding
on to order
i maintain
firm as any
fascist i’ve become
maybe mussolini
fat & florid
with words
he wept
for all
& for all
wept for him
so they say
somewhere in sicily
perhaps palermo
where
men of honour
had hard time
during these days
whenever they were
they still are
here or there
or wherever
you are not
so far
not so
near
to this
or that
whatever it was
it still
is this that
or something
suspicious to singer
who stops
sending signs
to other
who is
whoever you want
it to be
heidegger had hesitated
in heidelberg
holding rag doll
something like that
way philosophers
do this
do that
whatever
you want them
to do
this & that
carvinga career
from this
& that
trying to tell
alison another
i dont
know now
who you are
some poet signing
stones you steal
from this
or that
pocket full
of this
& that
memory marrying
another altogether
wherever they are
they are
burning bright
as any
book blake
opened & offered
to his fellow
man or beast
hard
to decide
which is which
arriving
only by accident
at another
someone said
assuming its arendt
also another
girl heidegger grabbed
on her way
to furnace
in sky
so solid
i still
smell
it or that
& that’s that
whatever
you think
it all
passed
to wherever
past went
so you say
somewhere its suggested
ezekiel an example
comes
to mind
whatever that was
i have for
gone that conlusion
whatever
it was
it was
& still
is somewhere
here or there
today or tommorow
analysis or alchemy
altered
here or there
wherever that was
it still
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 21 2008 18:50 utc | 51
#48--Re: the Palin/turkey slaughter video--Pretty amazing what the MCM* can find to video when it wants to slice up some public figure.
And the faux shock over what is done to the the turkeys? Where do people think turkeys come from anyway?
BTW, my brother raised turkeys for a couple years back in the 70's. Brown feathers, free-range. He got the chicks a bit too early, cost him dearly in feed, and some of the birds were so huge they had to be cut in half to fit into a normal oven and largest roasting pan. But soooo delicious; so much better than factory farm raised.
Even frozen, they were some of the tastiest turkey I have ever eaten. My brother sold some of the birds, gave some away, and kept some in commercial deep freeze for awhile--turkey at every big family dinner for quite awhile! I keep hoping he'll want to do some turkey raising again, but, no, too much work and too messy. Plus he's done some landscaping.
The turkeys loved to play with the inflated balls his little children played with. If the ball got into the turkey pen, they would run after it, hitting it with the side of their heads, then chase some more. It was really delightful! They would also do call and response: We would go to the deck, do a gobble-gobble call, and the whole flock would join in repsonding. Kept it up until we got bored with it.
My brother made a strikingly beautiful a-frame shelter for the birds (he was a thwarted architect), but some had to be urged under shelter during rain. They would stand, looking up, sometimes beaks open, in the rain. It was said turkeys could drown that way.
Now, he only has wild turkeys visiting occasionally.
Anyway, in order to have turkey to eat, they must be raised and then slaughtered.
I think this will only increase respect for Palin in some circles. For those stuck in Don't-Hurt-Bambi mode, it will be just too icky. (I was there as a kid, even young adult--now I think about how suburban deer can destroy remaining forest land when they overpopulate, then will crash in numbers due to starvation. We humans are the only remaining predator in my area of NJ--Northwestern NJ has some bears, but I don't know if they do deer and I think coyote are too small to take one down. No wolves in the state that I know of.)
Again, it's an MCM decision to do something like this, and it is an indicator of how much they love destroying some figures more than others. Gore was a favorite for years for the MCM to mock--even when he won the Nobel. Hillary still brings out amazing hate and ridicule, but that seems to be focussed more on the hate now--she got too many votes to be a subject of pure ridicule. Kerry was mocked during his presidential run. Howard Dean, of course, with that Dean Scream thing. I don't know how much Palin's gender leads to this treatment, but they didn't do this to Huckabee, a much more open and obvious rightwing whacko.
Prophilactic note: I did not support Palin or McCain.
Posted by: jawbone | Nov 21 2008 19:37 utc | 52
jawbone, just in case anyone thinks I'm a bambi, thats not what I think the video implies. It's the juxtaposition seen as a visual metaphor. Of a graphic slaughter going on behind while a pretty politician waxes politely in front of the camera. I can't imagine a more perfect characterization of whats been going on for the last 8 years.
If she was not aware of the media set up, the background for the interview, and how it would read visually to the audience, then she's even more clueless than I thought.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 21 2008 20:18 utc | 53
@am and jawbone:
The Palin/turkey video is quite an exercise in semiotics, eh? Coenesque, indeed. I'm a meat-eater (tho' cutting back drastically in the last year) and I acknowledge my own reluctance to dwell on the reality of slaughter. Watching the turkeys get killed is not what bugs me. It's the dissonance--Palin and the background guy both seem to be aware of the camera angle. Does she glance back at him when a reporter asks her about the pardoning event ("this was neat...you need a little bit of levity in this job...this was fun"). He looks at the camera, somewhat uncomfortable, several times. The cameraperson framed the scene beautifully. It's not like she's some great distance away from the action.
The turkey-pardoning ritual itself is part of what I find repulsive, and makes me wonder if it's somehow connected to Calvinist notions of divine election. That puts pagan me metaphorically into the turkey grinder. Which part was fun, Sarah? Showing mercy to the elect, or the slaughter of those not chosen?
"I'm always in charge of the turkey...I'm where I need to be today, to prepare for that."
Posted by: catlady | Nov 21 2008 21:05 utc | 54
This is a lady who can field-dress a mosse, a few birds going down does not even register on her radar...
Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 21 2008 21:25 utc | 55
Bob Altemeyer, Associate Professor of Psychology at University of Manitoba, has a book you can read online called The Authoritarians.
He's done research in the Milgram turf for decades, and John Dean grilled him heavily while writing Conservatives without Conscience.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 21 2008 21:55 utc | 56
According to MSNBC, she was very much aware of the camera placement--"no worries"
This longer clip shows SP reading the pardon itself, and then recoiling from holding the live bird. Perhaps just one more example of thoughtless language and ritual. Bad art or bad joke, and I'm wasting far too much time on it. Creepy.
Posted by: catlady | Nov 21 2008 22:01 utc | 57
i’m just constructing/mosaic on floor/you’re stepping over/to get to
me or somewhere/where you are/incaranted as icarus/with worn wings
or perhaps skill/in archery a/way of directing/arrow towards centre
of white mountain/i have read/mostly when child/& could believe
in such geography/as if it/was next door/or even further/than you think
that is dynamic/i know well/search & destroy/chance & luck
you will have/to look closer/though i don’t/expect miracle
or at least/godhead by grades/divinity by degrees/that is geometry
you could get/used to trigonometry/pushing a ruler
across a space
towards a tiger/who thinks she/is shiva surely/something beyond man
beyond all this/dionysos is denied/on every day/that i walk/back into breakwater
diving for diamonds/though they’ve gone/to rougher men/with better minds
who don’t know/wrath of god/as i do/& have done/since the grave/i was borne
reigning over terror/south summer fire/with red tiger/north winter water
with black tiger/east spring vegetation/with blue tiger/west autumn metals
with white tiger/& the earth/with yellow tiger/heart of china
heart of world/i’m still searching/along the line/& around corners
no one else/will go gracefully/into a combat/plutarch pronounced
early in piece/though you’ve forgotten/& it is/not my place/to tell you
that there’s compass/& a rose/that you should/take into palm/of your hand
use as plan/to locate documents/that denounce corruption/you have committed
on some day/or other time/it doesn’t matter/no it doesn’t/matter at all
then you can/go a little/further into fire/certainly in forest
where you will/have to help/hansel & gretel/talk to witch
& negotiate food/for sleeping beauty/& her friends/who are as
hungry as hell/having heard heidegger/talk about tales/stories & narratives
he has destroyed/just for fun/on bright berlin/day was night/for most men
then is now/as far as/i can see/perhaps that’s nostalgia/for future
or an omen/i should look/out for oracles/or any signification/that was problem
john the baptist/forgot when walking/through the desert/imitating his friend
who was prepared/to triumph totally/for that little/something he sought
& crying out/for much more/than is necessary/at that time
he had habitat/others would envy/though he didn’t/take the time/to do business
americans would say/& have said/in different way/in television chapels
where they’ve taken/tree by root/& made fruit/fall onto lap/& they are
still counting seeds/they are throwing/into the soil/waiting for water
to drown them/& the saint/with seven holes/in his heart/having an appetite/for another answer
is being tattoed/on my arm/on this day/in this country/i’ll call jerusalem
wondering why women/have loved learning/i have accumulated
like a getty/heir to fortune/that never comes
except in this/heart of world/heart of china/wandering with white
tiger & toil/breaks my body/so i’m saying/so many amens
hoping i’ll be/able to go/into thebes alone/to meet her/devouring these diaries
vanquising elemental magic/i’ve set up/for audience/with implacable interventions
that open me/perhaps to ritual/assasination of king/has taken place
within me worlds/i don’t understand/simulacra or scenery
Posted by: | Nov 22 2008 3:08 utc | 58
China is going to build an energy pipeline through Myanmar.
http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=69846
Is this what all the huffing and puffing a few months ago was about?
Posted by: Jeremiah | Nov 22 2008 4:12 utc | 60
Is this what all the huffing and puffing a few months ago was about
That and the access to sea through Myanmar's ports. Pick a map and you will see why the Chinese are interested in that. Traffic from the Gulf could avoid the Mallaga Street.
The chump is Neel Kashkari. (Ex VP at Goldman Sachs.)
His first name in Hindi (his parents were from Kashmir, though...they may have spoken Hindi, or Kashmiri, or Urdu, or something else) is a number in the Indian no. system:
Neel = 10 trillion! - 10 to the 13th.
What were his parents thinking, bending down to smile at their sleeping infant? :)
Posted by: Tangerine | Nov 22 2008 14:52 utc | 62
Is this Shock Treatment, as Naomi Klein describes it? Are we the next Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, or Argentina? Is this the purposeful destruction of the U.S.? If it is the next Chile, are we being set-up for a Military Dictatorship? Ob wrote.
Imho, there is no master plan, only business as usual, looking for advantage in an ordinary way, within certain set frames of thinking, from certain positions, etc.
Paulson, and Neel Cash ‘n Carry, for ex. only want to cut out competitors and save ‘the’, read, their, banks.
The Spanish Empire, perhaps the best comparison if one is on the “Death of Empire track”, did not collapse quickly, but through a long series of wars/events that were not planned or desired. Morocco annexed the Spanish Sahara very recently - 80’s, it is still ongoing history in a way.
Another analogy, which we can experience directly, if we were fortunate enough to participate, is the life and death of large corporations or State Administrations (e.g. Enron, the Indian rail system, Wallmart, the French Bureaucracy, US automakers, to quote a varied mix) where cabals, coups, counter-coups, scams, indoctrination of the lower-downs, coercion, fear, exploitation, etc. as well as political clout, laws, etc. all play a role.
That said, it appears that what is new is that the media, specially in the US, now actually control what happens in ‘modern’ democracies. (See the choice and stellar rise of Beau Bama.)
Are the false visions, the scatter brained chatter, the dumbing down, and the ‘shaping’ or ‘spin’ their own hapless invention to make money, go with the flow, stay alive? Or are they ‘controlled’ by some PTB behind the scenes?
It must be a palsy-walsy (wd?) arrangement, where both parties, media an PTB, graciously submit to each other, in a delicate balance of power, a dance in which some outcomes are presented as uncertain but come about anyway. On occasion, orders come from on high (9/11, Iraq, etc.), these are accepted for the good of all, and the media has to persist in hiring lackeys and spouting nonsense to attest to their bona fides, they will not use the potential power they have, will show clean hands, be good soldiers. Hand in hand - the corps, the Gvmt, the media.
Posted by: Tangerine | Nov 22 2008 15:01 utc | 63
Smart interpretation, Tangerine.
But don't forget Hollywood. Why do you think MTV has suddenly decided to produce an MTV Africa awards show / event?
AFRICA, AFRICOM, MTV, CHINA, OIL, PIRATES - this all seems to be pointing towards one proposition: Africa is about to experience a significant increase in the amount of 'western' intervention. Are we expected to believe that this is because the respective powers sincerely care about the plight of the poor, poverty-stricken African people?
Posted by: Al | Nov 22 2008 15:32 utc | 64
al @64 - on the MoA home page, left column, under the section "specials" there is a useful primer on 'understanding AFRICOM' that addresses that very topic
Posted by: b real | Nov 22 2008 17:11 utc | 65
The Guardian -
Rich countries launch great land grab to safeguard food supply
Rich governments and corporations are triggering alarm for the poor as they buy up the rights to millions of hectares of agricultural land in developing countries in an effort to secure their own long-term food supplies.The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, has warned that the controversial rise in land deals could create a form of "neo-colonialism", with poor states producing food for the rich at the expense of their own hungry people.
Rising food prices have already set off a second "scramble for Africa". This week, the South Korean firm Daewoo Logistics announced plans to buy a 99-year lease on a million hectares in Madagascar.
(snip)Laos, meanwhile, has signed away between 2m-3m hectares, or 15% of its viable farmland.
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 22 2008 17:26 utc | 66
Smart interpretation, Tangerine.
indeed, we need 'open source thinking', if you will. Tangerine. brings a good discussion of that here. I was just reading something similar from another board in which, a commenter suggested, perhaps it is such, that, "There are ongoing differences of opinion about "conspiracist" vs. "institutional" explanations for the state of the world. Much of the time it is assumed that we need to definitively choose one model or the other. What if there is a place where these two meet?
It seems to me that we need to reject dogmatic models of all kinds, and instead take the best from all the work that human beings have done to explain their social reality.
Isn't there indeed the possibility that just such a common ground exists? Personally, I am not committed to one model of seeing over another, however having said that, I place some belief that there is a high probability that much has been taking place has been engineered to benefit a cabal.
Are the false visions, the scatter brained chatter, the dumbing down, and the ‘shaping’ or ‘spin’ their own hapless invention to make money, go with the flow, stay alive? Or are they ‘controlled’ by some PTB behind the scenes?
Both? A combination? Surely it's not one or the other.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 22 2008 17:36 utc | 67
The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, has warned that the controversial rise in land deals could create a form of "neo-colonialism", with poor states producing food for the rich at the expense of their own hungry people.
could? so, if not neo-colonialism, what else would one use to describe an entire global system, dominated by a handful of wealthy "developed" powers, that is reliant upon (& flagrantly abusive of) the peripheries for the production of raw commodities -- foodstuffs, minerals & ores, timber, etc?
or does objectivity in reporting also presume ahistoricity?
Posted by: b real | Nov 22 2008 18:10 utc | 69
mythology, reality, and Bruno Schulz
The human spirit is tireless in its glossing of life with the aid of myths, in its 'making sense' of reality. The word itself, left to its own devices, gravitates towards meaning. Meaning is the element which bears humanity into the process of reality. It is an absolute given. It cannot be derived from other givens. Why something should appear meaningful to us is impossible to define. The process of making sense of the world is closely connected with the word. Speech is the metaphysical organ of man. And yet over time the word grows rigid, becomes immobilized, ceases to be the conductor of new meanings. The poet restores conductivity to words through new short-circuits, which arise out of their fusions. The image is also an offshoot of the original word, the word which was not yet a sign, but a myth, a story, or a meaning.
contemporary poetry in the states is an amputated limb severed from a vital body to be studied by scholars and students in expensive MFA programs.
students and professors are both the generators and consumers of their products; tens of thousands of books of poetry are published every years. who reads them?
what's the last book of poetry YOU read?
poetry can be a bridge between logic and instinct, and when necessary a short-circuiting of meaning when the framing of national meanings grows too hideous to approach without reflexive gagging.
i haven't been able to write much at all as of late, but a piece from a few years back still makes me laugh. enjoy:
welcome collapse definitive brass horns bellowing
welcome acknowledgment pole halftime show tits
welcome purveyors of diamond stud smile cards
welcome wide-eyed debris strewn highway pileupgo away hawk wing satellite feed conniption fit
go away apple nibbling pearly gate report givers
go away fake nose stomach stapled runway feet
go away tongue depressing vomit diagnosis speechwelcome happy horemen riding pell-mell hither
welcome sappy bubble-gummy voice seduction
welcome eager beaver chewing down the final tree
welcome, one and all, us and them, you and me
Posted by: Lizard | Nov 23 2008 7:11 utc | 71
i figure it was a rhetorical question, but the most recent book of poetry i read was robert creeley's on earth: last poems and an essay
WarBlur of world is red smear on white page,
metaphors useless, thoughts impotent,
even the sense of days is lost
in the raging militance.No life other than political,
the fact of family and friends
subjorned to the general
conduct of this bitter abstract.I look in the mirror
to see old man looking back,
eyes creased, squinting,
finds nothing left.He longs for significance,
a scratch in the dust, an odor
of some faint fruit, some flower
whose name he'd lost.Why would they hate him
who fight now insistently
to kill one another
--why not.
Posted by: b real | Nov 23 2008 16:38 utc | 72
Starkly pro-American minister threatens Iraqi parliament - Keep US troops or face martial law
Iraq's defense minister Abdul Qadir Muhammed Jassim threatened to declare a state of emergency if Iraq's parliament refused to sign an accord allowing US troops to stay in the country for three more years.
(snip)A state of emergency could allow Iraq's government to dissolve parliament.
(snip)
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 23 2008 19:24 utc | 73
Re # 66 and 69
This is beyond comprehension.
Daewoo to cultivate Madagascar land for free
Daewoo Logistics of South Korea said it expected to pay nothing to farm maize and palm oil in an area of Madagascar half the size of Belgium, increasing concerns about the largest farmland investment of this kind.The Indian Ocean island will simply gain employment opportunities from Daewoo’s 99-year lease of 1.3m hectares, officials at the company said. They emphasised that the aim of the investment was to boost Seoul’s food security.
“We want to plant corn there to ensure our food security. Food can be a weapon in this world,” said Hong Jong-wan, a manager at Daewoo. “We can either export the harvests to other countries or ship them back to Korea in case of a food crisis.”
Daewoo said it had agreed with Madagascar’s government that it could cultivate 1.3m hectares of farmland for free when it signed a memorandum of understanding in May. When the company signed the contract in July, it agreed to discuss costs with Madagascar. But Daewoo now believes it will have to pay nothing.
“It is totally undeveloped land which has been left untouched. And we will provide jobs for them by farming it, which is good for Madagascar,” said Mr Hong. The 1.3m hectares of leased land is almost half the African country’s current arable land of 2.5m hectares.
(snip)
Get this:
However, a European diplomat in southern Africa said: “We suspect there will be very limited direct benefits [for Madagascar]. Extractive projects have very little spill-over to a broader industrialisation.”
So nice of them to point that out when the investor is not one of theirs...
Wikipedia on Madagascar has this,
The government of President Ravalomanana is aggressively seeking foreign investment and is tackling many of the obstacles to such investment, including combating corruption, reforming land-ownership laws, encouraging study of American and European business techniques, and active pursuit of foreign investors. President Ravalomanana rose to prominence through his agro-foods TIKO company, and is known for attempting to apply many of the lessons learned in the world of business to running the government. Some recent concerns have arisen about the conflict of interest between his policies and the activities of his firms.
No wonder.
If Madagascar agrees to this deal, they might as well go ahead and shorten the country's name to Mad.
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 23 2008 22:24 utc | 74
Global Research reproduces a Russia Today article, Authoritarian Georgia: Roses are red, Georgia is blue, with this snippet:
Saakashvili, whose habit of chewing his neckties when bored is famous already, will definitely have something to chew over when he testifies before a parliamentary commission investigating the August war on November 28.Chairman of the Parliament David Bakradze welcomed the president’s decision: “He was not obliged to bear testimony, but he showed the initiative. It was an unprecedented case in history of the Georgian parliamentary system.”
When presidents give testimonies, their resignations usually aren’t far away.
There have been talks of the U.S. looking for a new president of Georgia, with ex-acting President Nino Burdzhanadze rumoured to be the main candidate.
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 24 2008 0:36 utc | 75
@Alamet your argument is flawless. The pols of Madagascar must be both mad and greedy to sign a deal such as that you outlined. On the other hand 99 years is a very long time and as one brought up in a country run by a mob of idiots/crooks who signed deals to 'create employment' which in effect gave away resources, maybe getting a tiny fraction of their value in return, I can't help but feel DaeWoo executives also need their heads read.
The only way Daewoo will still be on that land in 50 years much less the 99 they have signed up for will be if that Daewoo Chaebol can persuade the Korean govt to use the fearsome Korean army to invade Madagascar and physically sequester the land.
That may be a possibility (however remote) in today's Korea with the close cooperation between big industry and government, but the Korea of a couple of decades from now will probably have a rather different political structure.
What the pols of Madagascar have done is cede a large chunk of quality agricultural land to a foreign country just as the world is heading into an era where national wealth will be primarily determined by a nation's ability to feed it's population.
The complex relationship between the real cost of energy and the cost of keeping a population sufficiently well fed to produce and remain docile is currently undergoing a major shake-up.
Those countries that lacked natural resources such as hydrocarbons and other minerals but who managed to become relatively weathly by producing efficiently are likely to suffer the most. hence the Korean attempt to bribe a 21st century style Louisiana purchase outta the crooked Madagascar pols.
We have spoken a deal about Africacom on these pages but mostly we have looked at it from the mindset of the most obvious current colonialisations, such as the failed attempt to invade Iraq. Oil was the chief motivation there. So when we look at Africacom we think of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the huge trove of mineral deposits.
However if we shift our viewpoint just a little and bring Zimbabwe into focus we can see that the Bliar led and amerikan aided recolonisation of that land, the fertile breadbasket of africa is currently in the process of being stolen from it's indigenous owners by pretty much the same crew as ripped it off murdering the inhabitants in the process, the last time.
But now everyone is getting in on the act. As This article in the ContraCosta Times maintains:
"Amid a global crisis that for a time this year doubled prices for wheat, corn, rice and other staples, some of the world's richest nations are coming to Africa to farm, hoping to turn the global epicenter of malnutrition into a breadbasket for themselves.Lured by fertile land, cheap labour and untapped potential, oil-rich Persian Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, where deserts hinder food production, are snapping up farmland in underdeveloped African nations to grow crops for consumption back home. . . .By next spring, Hadco hopes to be exporting wheat, vegetables and animal feed to Saudi Arabia.
The Emirates government recently signed a similar deal in Sudan for up to 70,000 acres south of Khartoum, the capital. Investors from Qatar are fattening sheep and chickens not far away. Egypt and Ethiopia are touting their agricultural potential, hoping to draw foreign interest.
The deals are bound to raise eyebrows, because countries targeted by the investors often are struggling to feed their own populations. Although Sudan has thriving exports of cotton and gum arabic, it imports more than 1 million tons of wheat annually and has suffered recent deficits in another staple, sorghum.
Of course the authors of the article have their own axe to grind so they have highlighted the deals done by ME corporations which are, after all, commercial contracts rather than invasion, or the sort of bribery, extortion, and IMF/World Bank assisted influence peddling which the 'whiteys' of england have used to get control of the entire nation of Zimbabwe.
The article goes on to argue that doing business with africa for food is immoral when so many in Africa are without sufficient food. As if a problem in say Bolivia ever prevented amerika from closing a deal with Panama or whatever. PlantersCorp getting African governments to stop their citizens from growing food and start growing peanuts.
I mean I agree this stuff (pressuring african pols with carrots and/or sticks to take food out of an area where food is short) is wrong but the article itself is strictly pot=kettle.
So if USuk and very likely the 'old europe' elements of the EU are articulating some sort of 'hands off africa is ours' doctrine to the newer richer countries such as the Gulf states it follows that the asian nations in need of food producing land will also be heavied off continental Africa hence Korea's deal for and islan (Madagascar). Just as england, france and holland held onto caribbean colonies long after amerika stamped it's foot and claimed all of america for amerika with the Munroe doctrine.
No one really knows how the combination of climate change and oil depletion will effect food production, but everyone is hedging their bets.
A friend was assuring me that the 'Trans-Tasman brain drain' the migration of young, often the best educated NZers to Australia (once quipped upon by crypto-facist kiwi PM Robert "Piggy" Muldoon as a boon which raised the IQ of both nations) and slipped into reverse. That intelligent young Australians concerned about Australia's increasing water shortage, were now moving to NZ where, being a long sliver of land in the middle of two huge bodies of water (Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean) NZ seems to be getting more water meaning NZ which can already feed it's population several times over, is increasing food production nearly as fast as Australian food production is falling.
I doubt that. Australia has enough natural resources to ensure that it's tiny population @ 20,500,000 for a land mass of 7692030 sq kilometres giving each citizen 37.5 hectares or 93 acres survive. That may mean swapping a few diamonds, a couple truckloads of uranium, aluminiam, zinc or iron ore for sufficient to make up the difference between what is grown and what is required, but Australia will be OK if population stays within the target.
If food production does become more difficult many countries will not be able to fall back on digging holes in th ground like Australia.
Many of those countries are inhabited by whitefellas or nations aspiring to be like whitey - countries such as Singapore - population largely Chinese and Indian and which is next door to the relatively vast and agriculturally under-developed Malaysia populated by Malays whose "un-flat to the floor get get get lifestyles" were the reason that the odious Lee Kuan Yew seceded from Malaysia. They helped themselves to some of the land of the Bumiputra (look it up at wiki my link allocation is all used up) when they grabbed Singapore. No reason to expect the same sort of theft wouldn't happen again.
Of course it isn't possible to seize physical control of land for production, using drones and war from afar. Boots on the ground is required. USuk may have to starve their own populations a deal before to motivate the masses sufficiently for the degree of killing required to recolonise food production.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 24 2008 0:51 utc | 76
http://www.detroitblog.org/?p=405>Detroit slowly disappearing.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 24 2008 9:46 utc | 77
http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2008/11/follow-up-jane-cooper-school.html>Detroit #2 still disappearing.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 24 2008 9:58 utc | 78
Israel tasked with spying on Americans - Bamford
'Israel tasked with spying on Americans'
Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:58:35 GMT
Bamford says concerns over the relationship between Israeli spy agencies and the FBI 'greatly increased following disclosure of the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping operations'.
The US entrusted Israeli intelligence services with spying on Americans after the 9/11 attacks, an intelligence journalist has revealed.In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the White House launched a massive program to spy on millions of Americans, best-selling author James Bamford has claimed in his latest book, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America.
According to the author, the National Security Agency (NSA) was tasked with monitoring 'billions of private hard-line, cell, and wireless telephone conversations; text, e-mail and instant Internet messages; Web-page histories, faxes, and computer hard drives'.
The two largest American telecom companies AT&T and Verizon collaborated with the NSA, assisting the federal government in eavesdropping on their customers.
Bamford maintains that the bugging of the entire two networks, 'carrying billions of American communications every day', were handed to two companies founded in Israel.
Verint and Narus, the two Israeli corporations, are 'super intrusive -- conducting mass surveillance on both international and domestic communications 24/7,' and sifting traffic at 'key Internet gateways' around the US, Bamford claims.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 24 2008 21:02 utc | 79
Debs @ 76, your post is very rich in context as always, thank you! Yes, the 99 year claim is particularly delusional. But, does the corporate world have a real sense of the long-term at all? Their thinking probably goes: - Can this arrangement last 10-20 years? Likely. - Will the current Daewoo execs be on the job longer than that? Unlikely. Hence, "Good deal, good deal, we loves it preciousss."
From the scant material so far, this latest wave of land grab feels more profit driven than strategy driven in general. Scant consolation when one thinks of the British East India Company of course... But look at those Gulf countries on the list, barely six million population between the lot of them! They could almost rent half a dozen kitchen gardens in, say, Italy, and remain food secure for life. The produce, I think, is meant for global markets.
Likewise with Daewoo. I bet they are counting on all sorts of incentives from S. Korean government, but when 'scarcity' arrives, S.K. will find it has to pay competitive prices. Even with that, prioritizing the home country would probably put Daewoo on the wrong side of the WTO.
And, you know, I suspect if these had been normal times, Citigroup, Merril Lynch, the other Welfare Kingdoms of the White West would all be co-investors in these projects. That would certainly damp down the western media's conscientious stomach pains!
In any case, let us hope we will not be silently witnessing the birth of new Haitis here...
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 24 2008 23:04 utc | 80
The ingrateful Iraqis have come up with a new excuse, says the IHT:
Foes of Iraqi Security Agreement Say It Can't Shield Assets from Suits
Iraqi lawmakers opposed to the proposed security agreement with the United States have seized on a new argument that has emerged only in recent days: the accord does not explicitly protect Iraq's vast oil wealth and other assets from seizure to satisfy billions of dollars in legal claims against the former government of Saddam Hussein.An extension of this protection, which is guaranteed in the soon-to-expire United Nations resolution that the security agreement is meant to replace, will have to be negotiated separately, a wide range of Iraq and American officials who support the security agreement acknowledged Sunday.
They also acknowledged that such a move will be critical to protecting Iraq's assets, or the government's main source of revenue — oil exports — could be thrown into disarray when the United Nations resolution expires Dec. 31.
(snip)
(Bernhard, Badger has some info on the SFA in the comments here.)
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 24 2008 23:14 utc | 81
Oups, the link should be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-FYkpw Please correct if you can. Thanks.
Posted by: L'Akratique | Nov 25 2008 1:35 utc | 83
Cynthia McKinney was going to participate in a conference in Damascus, Syria, but she was not allowed to exit the US??!!
A Funny Thing Happened to Me on My Way to the Damascus Conference
Includes the speech she had prepared to deliver on Palestinian Right of Return. An excerpt:
In the same year as Palestinians endured a series of massacres and expulsions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights became international law. And while the United Nations is proud that the Declaration was flown into Outer Space just a few days ago on the Space Shuttle, if one were to read it and then land in the Middle East, I think it would be clear that Palestine is the place that the Universal Declaration forgot. Sadly, both the spirit of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights and the noblest ideals of the United Nations are broken. This has occurred in large measure due to policies that emanate from Washington, D.C.If we want to change those policies, and I do believe that we can, then we have to change the underlying values of those who become Washington's policy makers. In other words, we must launch the necessary movement that puts people in office who share our values. We need to do this now more than ever because, sadly, Palestine is not Washington's only victim.
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 25 2008 22:37 utc | 84
Yet another tall tale brought to you by... yes, Con Coughlin again.
Iran receives al Qaeda praise for role in terrorist attacks
Fresh links between Iran's Revolutionary Guards and al-Qaeda have been uncovered following interception of a letter from the terrorist leadership that hails Tehran's support for a recent attack on the American embassy in Yemen, which killed 16 people.
(Found via this DKos diary which is worth the read.)
Posted by: Alamet | Nov 25 2008 22:56 utc | 85
who only served/who only waited/who only listened/who only heard/these are questions
i am afraid/to ask assuming/an answer asserts/it self of/own free will/british philosophy believes
in long nights/when bertrand russel/would walk over/to ludwigs rooms
for footnote/he had forgotten/or left somewhere/at the club/where he talked/on & on
& while he/was at it/could ludwig certify/what he’d said/on this page/& also on/that page burnt
in fireplace/after he left/there’d be books/wittgenstein wept/over before passing/over in silence
then asking to/be forgiven finally/for being rich/boy loving books/who was hurting/so badly he
sought out suggestions/from scandinavian seamen/who’d made position/clear & precise
as mathematicians betrayal/cambridge sometime 1930’s/when mr auden/thought he was
engaged to engagement/but politics ran/away before marriage/somewhere surely spain
where christopher caudwell/lost all blood/before finishing books/that made miniatures/of such men
spender too spending/his time timing/romance with regret/he’d use rest/of life explicating
something in air/that any new/mexican indian smelt/from the beginning/when they danced/in the snow
with abrahams children/whoever they were/they’re not here/unless they’re acting
in a performance/for operatic voices/i hear whispers/of another tragedy/to be played
out in here/we keep quiet/for results clear/as a bell/when we want/to leave room
crawling to crowd/who’re lying down/on a floor/built from head/of apes perhaps/of another species
who are stronger/who are virtuous/who are gods/who are men
we don’t know/who’s calling name/at other end/of a corridor/in a house
we’ve not visited/the manhattan project/where we began/whether we like/it or not/that we are
neither an accusation/nor an act/of repentance merely/truth being told/in only way
i can speak/condemnations & cures/inside this speech/but it would/tell you nothing
& i almost/have hell handy/by my side/just in case/heaven should fall/apart from this
yet another elegy i'm afraid. i'm spending too much time with the black dog. my doctors know that it is a complication between medecines i take for the heart & those for the diabetes. i was borne in melancholy but in a life full of struggle i have never been depressed - or clinically so. in this moment it gets frightfully close to that & i feel i have little tp ost except my fury
i thought obama's election would expose a little light but it is going to get worse, considerably worse before it gets better. all his choices, one by one in the administration are or appear to be wrong choices & on the wrong side of history
annamissed counsels patience & i have that if nothing else but i feel my dissapointment will quickly transform to anger
the way even vaguely 'leftist' commentators read the venezuela as a kind of weakening of chavez - missing two elemental points - more people voted for chavez than in the last elections & these local elections were really a test of the new party - a real attempt towards socialism - i would have thought it is easy enough to see the hard fought for success of the left's strategy. i'm dissapointed that people are loathe to celebrate the victories of a real left
paranthetically i'm very interested on the texts uncle $cam has brought us on a personal & theoretical level over the years on 'depression' & tho i am not the least bit tempted by antidepressants - i've only witnessed the damage they do never the good they might have done
in fact over 30 years working in that area - the only time it has appeared to work was with a palestinian friend from university who was doing law - then went to the country's only acting school - & in his first year everything went up in smoke - or more literally - lsd - & whose 'psychotic' episodes always had a theatrical quality - but who essentially went from one episode to another without pause for years i knew him - & in his case antidepressants did their job & he was clearly in less pain - but it seemed to me he fought the truncaation of his life even through that. i never, ever judged him - in fact he acted in a gifited & noble way in a number of my texts
in any case i am meandering - i wanted to explain to my comrades here that i am always here reading if not at full strenth to post. b & the posters here have offered work that i needed to study & contemplate
i read every day here at this well of real wealth
force et tendresse
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 26 2008 0:27 utc | 86
of reconstituting retreat/as step forward/into or over/pit we’ve seen/in a newsreel
shot in east/by a cameraman/with a diploma/in philology perhaps/on another subject
altogether from university/where heidegger taught/beings to be/teaching us all
we have places/to go ahead/that is not/guaranteed to be/god less man/equals 1848 revolutions
as they’re televised/in this year/or the last/as the last/liberation of mankind/for time being
not what it/once used to/be something else/entirely i’m told/if i read/my journals carefully
as you would/like to be/understood by untermenchen/who’re holding signs
when read closely/are quotations taken/from the books/of martin buber
something to effect/i & thou/that if not/for their fear/of the kingdom/people would swallow/one another alive
& there was/rebukers at gates/as its said/of the prophets/whoever they were/they’re not here
nor are they/there where it/is hurting enough/translating this tempest
no they are/somewhere else entirely/perhaps a palestinian/youth hidden behind/mask so melodramatic
we forget it/is history hiding/also another seer/is made blind/both before man/& whatever god
he has left/for small bar/in peking china/sometime in 1930’s/looking for lass/who might be
painter or person/lu hsun describes/in a novel/i haven’t read/for some time
i thought he/next to mao/had understood everything/having forgotten china/an ancient country
where everything happened/some time before/& is repeated/only for dull/& i am/surely that certainly
above all things/i plod through/& have slipped/so many times/i have begun/walking in circles
arriving at straight/line belatedly drawn/across a page/i have torn/& thrown away
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 26 2008 0:33 utc | 87
rgiap,
I don't recommend anti-depressants -been there in my youth, nothing worked.
On the bright side, perhaps this darkness is what it will take to finaly wake people up. Let us hope.
Stay strong.
This bit of news will not help, but I just heard Obama is going to keep Robert Gates on in his position.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- "Everything that President-elect Obama has done since election night has been just about perfect, both in terms of a tone and also in terms of the strength of the names that have either been announced or are being discussed to fill his administration," Senator Lieberman said during a visit to Hartford.
Perfect for who?
Posted by: Rick | Nov 26 2008 4:25 utc | 88
rgiap,
I don't recommend anti-depressants -been there in my youth, nothing worked.
On the bright side, perhaps this darkness is what it will take to finaly wake people up. Let us hope.
Stay strong.
This bit of news will not help, but I just heard Obama is going to keep Robert Gates on in his position.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- "Everything that President-elect Obama has done since election night has been just about perfect, both in terms of a tone and also in terms of the strength of the names that have either been announced or are being discussed to fill his administration," Senator Lieberman said during a visit to Hartford.
Perfect for who?
Posted by: Rick | Nov 26 2008 4:26 utc | 89
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081128/ap_on_re_us/arkansas_earthquakes;_ylt=AksVEGO6M8voU6IrOWhampys0NUE>Expert: Small Ark. earthquakes could be warning
By this weekend, seismologists hope to install three measurement devices to gather data about future temblors in the area. That information could show whether the rumbles come from heat-related geological changes or from an undiscovered fault — which could mean a risk of substantial earthquakes in the future."The potential for generating a high-magnitude earthquake is real," said Haydar Al-Shukri, director of the Arkansas Earthquake Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Five earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 2.2 to 2.7 have hit central Arkansas this month. Quakes with a magnitude of 2.5 to 3 are typically the smallest felt by people.
While hundreds of earthquakes occur each year, including several in Arkansas, the location of the recent ones give Al-Shukri pause. Arkansas quakes generally occur in the state's northeast corner, part of the New Madrid Seismic Zone, where three temblors with magnitudes of around 8 struck during the winter of 1812 and smaller ones continue today.
But central Arkansas does not have any seismic history, Al-Shukri said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081128/wl_nm/us_indonesia_quake_3;_ylt=AowqWaCO8F6Rnasn7Io3PI0XIr0F>Magnitude 6.0 quake hits Indonesia's Sumatra
Indonesia suffers frequent earthquakes lying in an extremely active seismic area where several tectonic plates collide.Last week, several strong earthquakes also struck off Bengkulu and a more powerful earthquake hit northern Sulawesi, killing at least six people.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081129/us_nm/us_quake_alaska_1;_ylt=Ah6pSYoXCABrWV3dqcfc0ZiJp594>
Two earthquakes rattle remote Alaska
A magnitude 5.3 quake struck 13 miles west northwest of the Alaska town of Anchor Point, which is about 200 miles south of Anchorage. About a minute later, a magnitude 5.1 quake occurred about 28 miles southwest of Cantwell, Alaska, which is about 200 miles north of Anchorage.Magnitude 5 quakes can cause considerable damage, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/antarctic-earthquakes-shake-at-glacial-speed_10093950.html>Antarctic earthquakes shake at glacial speed
Scientists have found that wide rivers of ice, which flow through relatively slow-moving polar ice sheets in Antarctica, en route to the sea, can generate seismic waves twice a day, thus resulting in earthquakes.The seismic signals from Antarctica’’s 60-mile-wide Whillans Ice Stream are as strong as those of a magnitude-7 earthquake, which could cause major damage in a developed area.
But, whereas an earthquake of magnitude 7 might last 10 seconds, the Whillans signals continue for ten minutes or longer.
They resemble earthquakes at glacial speed, according to Douglas A. Wiens of Washington University in St. Louis.
Because of the relatively long time over which the slip takes place, scientists standing right on the slipping ice stream feel nothing. In contrast, most rock earthquakes, which can take place in as little as a few seconds, are felt intensely by people in the area. (ANI)
TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD
Here's the reason for CentCom's merging AFNS and CIA Psy-Ops in Afghanistan:
Mayor Of Kabul Says Get Out
e-Ariana repost
Le Revue Gauche
11/28/2008
"No man can emancipate himself, except by emancipating with him all the men around him. My liberty is the liberty of everyone, for I am not truly free, free not only in thought but in deed, except when my liberty and my rights find their confirmation, their sanction, in the liberty and the rights of all men, my equals.-BAKUNIN.
Oh dear it seems that Hamid Karzai the Mayor of Kabul, since he can't travel outside of the city and has no base anywhere else in Afghanistan, has finally had it with U.S. and NATO forces fighting in Kandahar. Seems that the poor Mayor who is Pashtun and is running for re-election as the U.S. puppet President, is exerting some independence. Criticizing the very folks who are doing his fighting for him.
Afghan security at a seven-year low
Afghanistan demands 'timeline' for end of military intervention
His corrupt government of warlords, opium growers, and former Taliban, have made no inroads in developing real governance over the country. So facing the simple fact that Kandahar is the Pashtun stronghold, and Karzai is Pashtun, he is calling on us to all leave. Heck that's what the NDP and the left in Canada has been saying for the past two years.
Karzai says US, NATO created 'parallel' government
This is a phony war. The supposed development of a liberal capitalist economy, with liberal bourgoise enlightment ideals like education for women and girls, human rights, the end of torture and capital punishment, freedom of speech and religion, none of this exists in this failed Islamic State.
So what the heck are we there fighting for? Simply put so that this U.S. puppet the Mayor of Kabul can keep his job and keep his crony goverment in power sharing the spoils of war and international aid. And of course once again Karzai bleames others while the reality is that his is a corrupt regime.
Karzai fires prominent minister
'Nobody supports the Taliban, but people hate the government'
Mr. Karzai also blamed Afghanistan's endemic corruption in part on foreign contractors who "contract, then subcontract, and then another subcontract and then perhaps another subcontract." The process "means immense possibilities of major corruption."
The problems of Afghanistan are immense, at the heart of which lies the issue of trust. Time and again, in interviews with senior Western officials, I heard deep scepticism voiced about the ability of Karzai's government to use aid money wisely and effectively. As even the Afghan economics minister, Muhammed Jalil Shams, candidly admitted to me, for every $100 of Western aid given, only $40 finds its way to the intended projects. The rest disappears into the pockets of unscrupulous government officials. It is worth noting too that corruption surrounding the heroin trade, worth $3 billion a year, has further paralysed the government. A recent New York Times report identified the president's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, as a major beneficiary of the illegal trade. 'Corruption is the biggest problem facing Afghanistan,' Shams said. He went on to make the point that giving money to the Afghan government is still better than giving it to Western contractors to perform reconstruction jobs, when only 25 per cent of the money finds its way into the local Afghan community, but that is a tough argument to make to nervous aid donors and potential investors.
A recent survey conducted by the Asia Foundation is a good place to start. More than 6,500 Afghans were interviewed from all 34 of the country's provinces. It was the fourth public opinion poll conducted by the foundation since 2004, so it provides valuable perspective of the national mood of Afghans over time. Three quarters of those polled cite corruption as a major problem, especially at the highest levels of government. Fifty percent say it affects their daily lives. President Hamid Karzai's recent re-shuffling of his cabinet was intended to address this concern, which has undermined public confidence in his leadership.
Situation normal, all fouled up
Kabul businessman Nasrullah Rahmati rarely travels without a bodyguard but says his biggest security threat is not suicide bombers. "I have been robbed at gunpoint by our own police and I am more scared of them than I am of the Taliban," he said in his factory, where 250 workers make uniforms.
Afghanistan's politicians and government officials are as corrupt as the police, locals say, and a striking feature of Kabul is the "poppy palaces", mansions being built by strangely wealthy locals in a country that ranks behind only Somalia on the UN's list of the poorest and most dysfunctional countries. A British official working against the heroin trade jokes that the mansions are triumphs of "narchitecture". What is not so funny is the corrosive effect open corruption and poor governance have on the Afghan Government's legitimacy.
It seems to be conventional wisdom in Kabul that President Hamid Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai is an important drug dealer, a view many US officials privately share. Installed by the Americans, then endorsed in national elections, Hamid Karzai is likely to retain US support in elections due next year despite his ineffective rule. Karzai certainly has been a disappointment to the relatively few educated liberals in Afghanistan, who say he is not the champion of liberal democracy that he seems to many in the West. He has not championed women's rights with any great vigour and local journalist union officials say he warned them some time ago that his support for free speech did not extend to issues relating to the Islamic faith. When death sentences were pursued against two men for publishing unapproved translations of the Koran, the President offered only a muted response.
Despite all the vain glory announcements by those who support this war, and by our Government and military, we are not defending a liberal capitalist state, women still wear burkhas, child brides (female and male) are still traded amongst villagers, local patriarchs rule and dominate the culture, Islamic courts jail Christians as well as editors who speak out,
women are attacked for going to school, girls schools are burned, attacks on women have increased, opium production has increased, Pashtuns are fighting against our troops and will continue to as they see us as invaders.
Strict Islamic rules creep their way back into Afghans' lives
In Afghanistan, Islamists' influence widens
UN rights chief condemns Afghan executions
Women lose in deal made with devil
Afghan justice: 'They should die'
The perils of treating women in Afghanistan
Food Crisis, Poverty Spur Child Marriages, Grim Realities for Girls
A woman's lot
Violence and other abuse of Afghan women is enough to make you wonder what we're there fighting for, reports Paul McGeough from Kabul.
International human rights officials in Kabul are privately explosive about what they see as a marked slide in human rights generally, but for women in particular - especially in light of demands by officials that they must play the glad game. "Can't be all doom and gloom," a senior foreign official regularly exhorts his frustrated staff. Amid the many mistakes in Afghanistan, there have been two constants. One is the Western obsession with winning a war while forgetting the welfare of the Afghan people - particularly women. The other is reducing the equation to a simplistic contest between the "good" President Hamid Karzai and the "bad" Taliban. For women, this pincers grip has knocked their rights to the bottom of the agenda. "Karzai operates like a mafia crook. His regime is corrupt, brutal and repressive and it is based on the President's umpteen deals with the devil - fundamentalists, warlords and criminals," a senior human rights figure told me privately this week. "But Karzai never acts alone. His regime was supposed to be different to the Taliban… and the Australian and the French and all the other governments [still] back him."
Karzai lurches from one crooked or corrupt power base to the next - one day pardoning brutal rapists and saying nothing about it; the next celebrating the execution of small-time criminals while the Mr Bigs of the criminal and political worlds are untouchable.
The Pashtun are deliberately mis-identified by the Western forces and their media as Taliban, when in fact they are not. But they are fighting us as Karzai well knows, which is why he has called for peace talks and has called for U.S. and NATO forces to stop doing reconstruction, invading villagers homes and demanding a time line for so called victory over the Taliban. Which will never happen. Because the Taliban do not exist, who we are fighting are the Pashtun peoples of Southern Afghanistan.
Opium war impasse
About 250 of them had come to hear Governor Asadullah Hamdam's arguments about why they should give up growing opium poppies which, for many, were their primary source of income.
Then one elder from the village of Sorkh Murgab stood up and said what many of the farmers must have been thinking.
"The people don't have jobs," he said, according to notes taken by US government field officer Eric Bone during the November 26 meeting last year.
"The (Government) promised projects but we haven't seen them," the elder said. "The (Government tells us) there is not enough security to do projects. In the daytime the ISAF (the International Security Assistance Force, comprising Australian and Dutch troops) is around but at night the Taliban come and force us to cultivate poppy. We have the poorest region, who can we listen to?"
Another elder stood up and joined the fray. "Assistance in the past two years has only been to the provincial administration, not to us. The people have not received assistance ... when people don't have jobs they go to the Taliban."
These exchanges, contained in a series of confidential documents written by anti-narcotic officials in Tarin Kowt and obtained by The Australian, reveal the magnitude of the task faced by Australia and the West in seeking to kill Afghanistan's opium trade, which reaps more than $4billion a year, almost half of Afghanistan's total income.
Karzai offers Taliban leader 'protection' for peace
Afghan president wishes he could down US planes
Britain 'bribes Afghans to fight Taleban'
Divided tribes make it hard to find elders who will helpTHE tribes in Helmand province have been heavily fractured by decades of fighting, and balance of power is now inextricably linked to the drugs trade.
An Interview About Afghani Women's Rights and Rebuilding in the Face of Politics
Homemakers Magazine editor-in-chief Kathy Ullyott reveals the complex situation the progress of women's rights are in the face of the presence of Western countries, Afghani politics, and nation rebuilding. This is the first of a three-part interview.
SD: Yes, exactly, the period of jihad against the Soviet Union, which we know was covertly backed by the U.S., the civil war, the emergence of the Taliban who were essentially let loose by Pakistan to make their way north…
KU: It’s very complicated, and that’s something else I discovered, and I still don’t think I’ve answered your question – as you say, it’s a big thing and impossible to get a handle on, some I realized there while talking to people. Here we think of the Taliban as some opposing force, but there the Taliban is really just the most organized of the many insurgent groups with different interests. Some of them are the Taliban, but others are warlords in a certain area, in a very ancient and tribal culture going back hundreds of years. Some of these are very vicious rivalries spanning loyalties. The Taliban tend to claim responsibility for any attacks, but that’s just PR. A lot of attacks have nothing to do with the Taliban. It’s really a very amorphous thing and very difficult to fight. And I’m not a military expert by any stretch of the imagination. But it makes the whole question very complex…
SD: People don’t realize the extent of the power of the warlords or how far it extends into rural areas…
KU: Totally – into the rural areas and into the government as well. The women I spoke to, the MP, and Horia…one of the greatest frustrations of the people there is that the government itself is so corrupt. And we’ve seen reports of that. That’s one of the things making progress so difficult. And of the things that created so much pessimism in the intervening years is that people within the country expected that (the ousting of the Taliban) was going to be a big change and that life was going to get better. And they are continuing to see that these warlords exercise great control over the government. The opium trade is one such situation. They (citizens) know that there are ‘bad guys’ still in power, the police force is still horribly corrupt, yet they had hoped-with the involvement of NATO – that the more developed world was going to help them get rid of this stuff. But it’s much harder than they expected.
We are not battling Islam we are battling a medival patriarchical fuedal culture which we are trying to transform into a liberal capitalist democracy. We are failing just like the Russians and before them the British.
Tariq Ali talks tough
The West doesn’t totally appreciate one simple factor: that the Afghan people do not like being occupied by foreign powers,” he said. “Most people don’t like being occupied by foreign powers.” Ali argued that Hamid Karzai’s legitimacy is complicated due to Karzai’s construction on prime Kabul property. He added that a New York Times report links his brother to drug smuggling (Karzai has denied the charges).
Retired general looks back on Russia's Afghan war
Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times
THE GENERAL'S VIEW: Retired Lt. Gen. Ruslan Aushev says the key to U.S. success would be to help set up a sovereign government. Moscow and Washington have made the same mistakes in their conflicts there, says Ruslan Aushev. He offers advice for the U.S. as it enters the eighth year of war.We said, "Afghans, you are living according to the Soviet way of life, where religion is separated from the state, mullahs should be expelled, religion is the opiate of the people. You'll be living in collective farms. You will have pioneer camps, Comsomol [youth] organizations, and so on and so forth." The Soviet way of life in a country that still lives in the Dark Ages!And what did you say? You said, "We are giving you democracy." They cannot even translate the term properly. Under us there was a lot of corruption, and today there's a lot of corruption. Neither under you nor under us did an ordinary person get anything
There has been massive internal displacement, especially in the south as a result of the insurgency - which has intensified since 2006. The number of people being killed in the Afghan conflict has soared in recent years as violence has returned to levels not seen since the Taleban were driven from power in 2001.
The UN says that from January to August 2008 1,445 civilians were killed - a rise of 39% on the same period for 2007. Most deaths were attributed to the Taleban but the number of civilians killed by pro-government forces - the majority in air strikes - also rose sharply. Afghan and foreign forces say hundreds of militants have also been killed - it is impossible to verify precise numbers. Military fatalities among foreign and Afghan forces have also soared.
A number of analysts also say the United States and the broad coalition of international actors in Afghanistan will have to vastly improve reconstruction efforts that have failed to resolve severe problems since the Taliban's ouster in 2001. Drought, poverty, and persistent unemployment (World Factbook) in one of the world's poorest countries now mix with a resurgent Taliban and al-Qaeda as chief concerns for the international community. Aid organizations are warning food shortages and early snows could leave as many as eight million Afghans starving this winter (IRIN) -- 30 percent of the population. Some observers now say famine will outpace violence as Afghanistan's top crisis in coming months. "Whatever the effect of insurgent violence on the UN-mandated mission in Afghanistan," the London-based Royal United Services Institute said in an October briefing, "it is widespread hunger and malnutrition that will place a greater obstacle in its progress."
TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD TYPEPAD
Posted by: Shah Loam | Nov 30 2008 3:07 utc | 93
Obama's small donor base image is a myth, new study reveals | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times
Everybody knows how President-elect Barack Obama's amazing campaign money machine was dominated by several million regular folks sending in hard-earned amounts under $200, a real sign of his broadbased grassroots support.
Except, it turns out, that's not really true.
In fact, Obama's base of small donors was almost exactly the same percent as George W. Bush's in 2004 -- Obama had 26% and the great Republican satan 25%. Obviously, this is unacceptable to current popular thinking.
But the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute just issued a detailed study of Obama's donor base and its giving. And that's what the Institute found, to its own surprise.
"The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama's finances," said CFI's executive director Michael Malbin, admitting that his organization also was fooled. "The reality of Obama's fundraising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth."
Adding up the total contributions from the same small individuals (in terms of dollar amounts, not their height), the Institute discovered that rather than the 50+% commonly....
...reported throughout the campaign, only 26% of Obama's contributions through last August and only 24% through Oct. 15 came from people whose total donations added up to less than $200.
Posted by: Fran | Nov 30 2008 7:56 utc | 94
The last two entries at Imad Khadduri's Free Iraq blog are of interest, especially for those
wondering what Iraqi's are thinking these days. The list of 275 Iraqi academics assassinated since the U.S. invasion is strking for many reasons,
not the least being how many of these assassinations tooks place relatively
recently (say, from 2007 to the present, including about a dozen this year alone).
Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | Dec 3 2008 12:31 utc | 95
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I’ll bet there are some pilots (jet) and Steppenwolf fans around here. Kind of reminds me of why I became military when I was pubescent. If you liked aerobatics and good rock watch/listen to this. I looks authentic. Can anybody identify the aircraft?
Posted by: Juannie | Nov 19 2008 21:29 utc | 1