Links May 9 09 – Moon of Alabama

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May 9, 2009

Links May 9 09

For show or for real? – ‘Full-scale’ assault on extremists has begun, Pakistan says – (McClatchy)
Pepe Escobar – Balochistan is the ultimate prize – (ATOL)
Gareth Porter – Officials Admit Pakistanis Reject U.S. Priorities – (IPS)

Interesting – The Shi‘a of Saudi Arabia at a Crossroads – (ME Rep)
Con(-man) Coughlin smears a book on Iran. This review takes it apart – Most Fundamentalist – (NYT)

Odierno – General Sees a Longer Stay in Iraq Cities for U.S. Troops – (NYT)
Maliki – Iraq committed to U.S. pullout deadline – (Tehran Times)

New torture pictures – Lego Torture Scenes Protest Media Censorship – (Wired)
Gitmo: Obama=Bush – Obama Set to Revive Military Commissions – (WaPo)

That would be nice … – Washington committed to seeking Syria-Israel deal – (Reuters)
But … – Obama renews sanctions on Syria for one year – (AFP)
And … – Netanyahu: Israel will never withdraw from Golan – (Haaretz)

Cheney, Gingrich, McCain, Petraeus – WTF – The Sunday Show Line-Ups – (TPM)

I wonder too – Ehrenreich: Where is the outrage over unemployment? – (MercuryNews)
Stiglitz on banks – The Spring of the Zombies – (Project Syndicate)

Posted by b on May 9, 2009 at 05:58 UTC | Permalink

Comments

that Sunday line up is scrumptious and should probably be consumed with some ground up slave harvested coffee beans and terrorized strips of industrial pig flesh cooked to a crisp.

Posted by: Lizard | May 9 2009 6:23 utc | 1

there is no US strategy
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-04-21-kerry_N.htm
and there won’t be.
To stop pissing off Russia, they would have to sell Eastern Europe, to stop pissing off China and Russia they would have to leave Afghanistan and Pakistan, to isolate Iran they would have to sell Israel and stop pissing off Russia and China, to keep their economy afloat they need China. China and Russia are neighbours and profit more from cooperation than from confrontation. They have no reason to enlist the US against the other country.
So, the US don’t really want to form an alliance with China nor with Russia. Europe does not want to fight and will go where the power is. China, Russia and Europe had horrible wars on their own territory in the last century. Those memories are alive to the third generation. The majority of people in China, Russia and Europe will not support any type of warmongering.
The US has lost any respect they might have had in the majority of people in the Middle East. People in the Middle East have watched Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza. They will not support any type of warmongering.
The demographics in the US go to the Democratic Party and to Hispanic people. How come nobody seems to talk anymore about Latin America? How do people in the US identify? Who is in the inner circle of friends? My take is Latin America will integrate the US into the continent, it won’t be the other way round.

Posted by: outsider | May 9 2009 8:17 utc | 2

Swat fighting threatens Pakistan army unity.
Journalists required to submit to biometric scan in Afghanistan.
Sanctions – not just for Iran.

Posted by: andrew | May 9 2009 9:42 utc | 3

War on drugs and Mexico’s demise.
Good interview to Arundhati Roy.
About Face on Pentagon Pundits?

Posted by: andrew | May 9 2009 9:48 utc | 4

Hey, b –
Ehrenreich link not working for me. I copied it and cut the “?nclick” and after, and it worked.

Posted by: china_hand2 | May 9 2009 10:28 utc | 5

How come nobody seems to talk anymore about Latin America?
Because drug-dealing has lost its mystery, and “terrorist” sounds so much cooler than “Contra”.

Posted by: china_hand2 | May 9 2009 10:29 utc | 6

okay, china_hands2 I googled it
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090509/COLUMNIST/905091015/-1/NEWSSITEMAP
I suggest Obama consults Gorbachev on how to shrink an empire …

Posted by: outsider | May 9 2009 12:21 utc | 7

Hey B…
Moved my nearly 90 year old parents here 6 weeks ago, ushered dad through new hip surgery (w/complications & very poor medical practices) and have literally been busy w/this stuff 24/7 for better than 2 months. The intensity of myopic focus on all this, to make their lives here as good as possible, necessarily resulted in exclusion of all I do to maintain best possible awareness of outside world. This included virtually no login to MofA or other places I go for info I need.
So last night & this morning, going back and reading your posts for last month or so, and read in a context which I have not in the past… which is sort of “out of the dark and into the light”, I am firmly reminded & persuaded of value in checking in here. As was reason I came back since barfly days, you so often manage to focus attention on first-principal issues, and for me there’s value in that.
So I’ve not always agreed w/you, and in fact expressed serious differences over conclusions and assertions you made wrt BO after inaugeration.
But through it all, I think I’ll keep coming back. And probably long periods of time where I won’t say anything, but just read/follow links/take what I can from given info, but I most certainly will find value in it.
So at this time, as is my practice of pausing to inventory and access things at intervals between processes in life, so am I doing now. And in doing so, I’m compelled to acknowledge value or your little, largely obscure corner of the web to me.
All my best.

Posted by: jdmckay | May 9 2009 13:57 utc | 8

I think America needs to ditch the empire and adopt a defense/foreign policy like Switzerland. Perhaps some day you can do a post on how they intend to defend themselves in the event of an invasion. It seemed to work back in WWII.

Posted by: heru-ur | May 9 2009 14:06 utc | 9

Syria sanctions renewed because it is a “state sponsor of terrorism”? When will the U.S. place sanctions on itself?
The Neocon-Zionist heart beats strong in the Obama Administration. Rahm Emanuel certainly isn’t “cleaning the White House floors”.

Posted by: Parviz | May 9 2009 14:38 utc | 10

oh my god those legos!
i am working my way thru all the links but just couldn’t resist calling them out.

Posted by: annie | May 9 2009 14:41 utc | 11

annie-
I’d checked out that link first thing this morning… I wouldn’t recommend looking before your coffee to anyone else.
I was musing last night about how important art is… even if the only one it helps is the artist. It is too bad that more people aren’t creating art to help them process the crazy world around them.
In making something like the Lego pieces, a person really needs to examine the event on many levels to decide how to engineer the scene… and while doing this they are forced to confront and understand what is happening and how they feel about it.
The Lego artist has created an amazing little shop of horrors from those colorful plastic blocks; it was scary how perfect several of the Lego blocks fit; covered heads, shackles, dogs, ect.
In trying to unearth the deeper meaning of these Lego creations I can’t help but notice the pairing of children’s toys and scenes of horrors… How few years passed between the torturer’s playing with Legos to them playing with live humans is the first question.
And there is the idea of something as benign as Legos representing death and destruction, almost another way of stating that “we’re all little Eichmann” from living our plastic lives in comfort while obvious evil criminals are committing crimes in the name of all of us.
Or maybe I’ve just had too much coffee.

Posted by: DavidS | May 9 2009 15:43 utc | 12

Reitinger announces ‘new rules of the game’ for High Tech
Obama administration’s six-point plan proposes federal supervision of software development, online gaming industry and Internet file sharing, with powers to seize troubled software and internet institutions
SILICON VALLEY (Reuters) May 9th – Runaway code bloat, rampant file sharing and online communities will face new barriers under a much tougher software rule book outlined by the Obama administration today, including broader government powers and mandatory regulation for the $1.4tn (£1tn) online gaming and file share industry.
DHS Deputy Under Secretary, National Protection & Programs Directorate, Philip Reitinger, speaking together with Under Secretary, Science & Technology, Bradley Buswell, told Congress that he wanted “sweeping” changes that range from stringent security and IPR protection requirements for online activities to authority for the government to seize struggling software companies.
He said there had been a “great loss of confidence in the basic fabric of our Internet system”, which needed “comprehensive reform… Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game”.
Reitinger, who is anxious to shake off political criticism of slow progress in stopping newspaper closures, software theft, insider stock leaks and internet democracy, said the changes amounted to “smarter, tougher, better-designed restraints on risky behavior”.
He said there was a “deep moral obligation” to protect consumers in choosing operating systems, internet browsers and planning for an online experience wholly apart from the Main Stream Media Monopoly.
“We won’t be able to save all people from making bad judgments about their computer experience but we can try to do a better job in making sure they’re not taken advantage of through illegal behaviour,” he said.
Addressing the House of Representatives commercial services committee, Reitinger set out a six-point plan consisting of:
• A single regulator with responsibility for systemic stability to supervise major software and online institutions.
• More conservative coding requirements for software firms big enough to pose a systemic risk to the omniverse.
• A requirement for online community sites to register with the department of homeland security and to disclose user personal information.
• A comprehensive framework of oversight for software developers including hitherto unregulated internet protocols.
• Stronger supervision of file sharing networks to avert the risk of mainstream media failure due to rapid abandonment of newspaper and TV.
• Tools for the government to seize control of troubled software companies including operating systems, browsers and online communities.
Reitinger proposes a Congressional Act creating a private consortium of the top 25 Israeli software companies, referred to as ‘The Head’, and that it be given “supercop” administrative privileges over all online user accounts and the “too big to fail” major operating systems and browser software companies, such as MicroSoft, Apple, Google, FaceBook and Twitter.
The disturbing mainstream media crunch has generated a consensus across the political spectrum of a need for tighter controls over the Internet, through a system of twelve Head Databank Daemons, one at each major Internet node in the US, although the shape of the new Head regime is still subject to rigorous debate on Capitol Hill.
Al Guano, a Republican congressman from Texas, warned that Washington must not “twitter to the point of being paralysed” but said sprawling online networks needed to be controlled: “Too big to fail is the right size to Federally regulate. The new Head consortium will provide that much needed oversight and administrative control.”

Posted by: Mela Amine | May 9 2009 16:41 utc | 13

MA 13) Funny…
America’s “Money Machine”
Stephen Lendman
Global Research
May 9, 2009
http://www.infowars.com/americas-money-machine/

Posted by: Paul Abdullah | May 9 2009 16:54 utc | 14

@all – Ehrenreich link corrected
@jdmckay – welcome back and thanks!

Posted by: b | May 9 2009 17:12 utc | 15

Admiral Mullen reveals DoD’s new “Af-Pak National Security” logo:
http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/4348/0acomgreensaharaaq5.jpg

Posted by: Shah Loam | May 9 2009 17:39 utc | 16

I’m sure the Pakistan army will put on a good show. Lots of bombs and rockets and dead Taliban. Not sure how long they can keep it going though.

Posted by: dh | May 9 2009 18:10 utc | 17

It doesn’t matter what Obama does when the GOP keeps sending out the same old GOP dip-shits on TV.
Talk about re-cycled bullshit. They just can’t go away.

Posted by: jdp | May 9 2009 19:58 utc | 18

The Ehrenreich link got corrected to an article about Latin America. Here’s the Mercury News one: http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_12318839
She’s right, as usual, though I don’t think she goes into just how much having a job affects the psyche. I don’t really feel able to do anything except search for work.

Posted by: Rowan | May 9 2009 20:50 utc | 19

If the Taliban was such a clear and present danger to global security, armed forces across Europe would be champing at the bit to fight alongside US forces in AfPak. Since they’re not, something tells me that Europeans in general think otherwise about this. So I wish more than anything that leaders across Europe would be perfectly blunt with Obama and his trigger-happy pals by telling them that, if anything, US presence in AfPak is having a radicalizing effect on the Taliban. I wish they would tell the US to cut its losses before we see world war looking at us square in the face.

Posted by: Cynthia | May 9 2009 22:41 utc | 20

That Ehrenreich article is a pearl. Huge amounts of propaganda are directed toward keeping idled workers on a jobhunt treadmill because stepping off the treadmill changes everything. Imagine 16% of the populace, and more, coming to think for themselves. Cataclysmic.

Posted by: …—…. | May 10 2009 3:15 utc | 21

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