President Barack Obama has proposed a dramatic tax increase on the foreign profits of U.S. multinationals, in a 10-year budget blueprint released Thursday.
The tax increase on foreign income, taken together with proposals to crack down on offshore tax cheating, would swell federal coffers by an extra $25 billion a year in revenue by 2014, according to projections by White House budget officials.
The budget plan would also impose a $31.5 billion tax increase, over a 10-year period, on oil companies, by repealing various tax breaks now enjoyed by the sector. In addition to that, Mr. Obama would reinstate Superfund taxes, raising $17.2 billion over 10 years, much of which is accounted for by excise taxes on oil.
Those changes are part of a package that would raise taxes on business by $353.5 billion over the next 10 years, which could help fund other tax cuts or spending, or reduce the deficit.
"The budget also begins to restore a basic sense of fairness to the tax code, eliminating incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas and giving a generous package of tax cuts to 95% of working families," Mr. Obama said in his budget message.
Mr. Obama's plan would also raise close to $637 billion over 10 years by reversing the major tax cuts passed during the administration of George W. Bush for upper-income Americans.
In keeping with campaign proposals, those tax increases would hit single taxpayers with income above $200,000 and married couples with combined income above $250,000. They would come in three areas -- raising the top two marginal tax rates from 33% and 35%, to 36% and 39.6%, respectively; reinstating limits on itemized deductions; and raising the tax rate on capital gains and dividends from 15% to 20%.
The plan envisions letting those Bush tax cuts expire as scheduled at the end of 2010 for wealthy Americans, instead of implementing the tax increases this year or next.
The plan is short on detail regarding how Mr. Obama would roll back tax benefits for U.S. multinational firms. It also lumps in international tax reforms with unspecified proposals to shut down offshore tax evasion, raising a total of $210 billion over the next 10 years.
Marc Gerson, an attorney at Miller & Chevalier, said that taking away tax advantages now offered to U.S. multinational firms might harm those firms' ability to compete globally. "The current system allows them to effectively re-deploy foreign earnings, or competitively price contracts," he said.
But Mr. Gerson added that the overall impact on U.S. businesses from the tax-increase proposal would depend on whether the revenue is used to lower the corporate tax rate, or to fund unrelated spending. "If you took that and significantly lowered the rate, that to me is a debate worth having," Mr. Gerson said.
As expected, Mr. Obama proposed raising taxes on private-equity fund managers and venture capitalists, by taxing their profits as ordinary income instead of capital gains. That change would raise $23.9 billion over 10 years, according to White House budget office estimates.
Good gawd. Say goodbye to innovation.
But the hardest hit from the business-tax-increase proposals would likely be oil and gas companies. Mr. Obama would repeal a range of tax breaks, including a tax deduction for domestic production.
In addition, the White House proposed to repeal accounting last-in, first-out accounting rules, at the expense of oil and gas but also some other industries, including auto dealers. That change is estimated to raise $61 billion over 10 years.
The plan also proposes tax cuts for businesses, including a two-year expansion of a tax break for net operating losses that was dropped from economic-stimulus legislation at the last minute.
That tax break, important to manufacturers, retailers and home builders, is estimated by the White House to deliver $63.5 billion in tax refunds to struggling companies in 2009-2010. It is a candidate for inclusion in tax legislation to move later this year.
It also would make permanent the research-and-development tax credit and eliminate taxes on capital gains related to small business, both proposed by Mr. Obama during his campaign.
For individuals, the plan would continue tax benefits for middle-class and lower-income individuals that were enacted for 2009 and 2010 by the stimulus legislation. Those tax cuts, including a worker-tax credit, expanded child-tax credit benefits for lower-income families and education-tax credits, would cost the government a total of $770 billion over 10 years.
#1
As expected, Mr. Obama proposed raising taxes on private-equity fund managers and venture capitalists, by taxing their profits as ordinary income instead of capital gains.
Why not go after the trust fund and inheritance babies. They're not directly involved in wealth creation. Oh wait, that would include the Kennedy's and Kerry's. Never mind.
#3
Those greedy venture capitalists never produced anything of value (aside from Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, etc.). Let's put them out of business.
#4
raising the tax rate on capital gains and dividends from 15% to 20%.
Well, that's not going to cost most of us anything for a while. Nor raise much revenue for the government. An extra 5% tax on nothing is still nothing.
#1
While I don't condone folks buying more than they can afford I still get a kick out of this! If you need that explained to you then you wouldn't understand. (grin)
#2
Every home sale that I have been involved in had a "if you pay you stay, if you don't you won't" clause. And I'm pretty sure the title company had a copy of a signed version of the original.
RIVAL Palestinian groups agreed overnight to set up a unity government by the end of next month after reconciliation talks aimed at ending long-running factional feuding, officials said.
The agreement, which could lead to the creation of a Palestinian government acceptable to the international community, was announced by officials from two Palestinian factions involved in the Cairo-sponsored dialogue.
Jamil al-Majdalawi, an official with the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said the factions had formed several committees that would pave the way for the unity government. "The committees will end their work and a Palestinian unity government will be formed by the end of March," he said.
His comments were confirmed by Mohammed al-Hindi, deputy leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The reconciliation talks opened after the main groups Fatah and Hamas agreed on confidence-building measures to resolve the fate of prisoners detained by both sides and stop a war of words being played out in the media. The stakes are high as billions of dollars of funds to rebuild the Gaza Strip after Israel's war on the territory may be available if terms set by international donors can be met before an aid meeting next week in Egypt.
"We have no option before us but to succeed, and that will be difficult," Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who is mediating the talks grouping about a dozen Palestinian factions, said.
Egypt had originally called for Palestinian reconciliation talks in November, but Hamas withdrew at the last minute, complaining that Fatah was continuing to arrest Hamas members in the West Bank. The reconciliation process was relaunched by Egypt after Israel's 22-day war on Gaza that ended last month with more than 1300 Palestinians killed and buildings and infrastructure throughout the impoverished territory destroyed.
British foreign secretary David Miliband, visiting Cairo overnight, had called for the Palestinians to form a new government of "technocrats" to oversee political and economic reconstruction in readiness for elections.
Hopes of a positive outcome to the talks had been boosted after yesterday's meeting between Fatah, which heads the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, and Hamas - which is boycotted as a terrorist group by Israel and the West.
A joint statement said Fatah and Hamas had each agreed to release prisoners from the rival in several stages.
Today's conference, which brought in other Palestinian factions, stemmed from Egyptian proposals for a lasting ceasefire following Israel's onslaught on Gaza from December 27 to January 18.
BEIJING: A prominent Indian journalist on Wednesday rejected Tibetan independence propaganda, saying the regions economic growth was good and the atmosphere was relaxed.
The problems are largely in the minds of some sections abroad, in make-believe Tibet, and in the propaganda of the pro-independence movement of the Dalai Lama, N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, a leading English language Indian daily, told Xinhua on Wednesday.
Mr. Rams comments came after he concluded a three-day visit to southwest Chinas Tibet Autonomous Region earlier this week. It was his third visit to Tibet since 2000.
People always asked why I went to Tibet again and again, said Mr. Ram, attributing the visits to his intention to do a reality check.
Mr. Ram described how the Dalai Lama and the so-called Tibetan government-in-exile were active in India and some other countries claiming Tibetans were being reduced to a minority by the Han people and proclaiming a Greater Tibet with a population of six million.
Mr. Ram has travelled to various parts of the region, from the capital city of Lhasa to underdeveloped villages. He has seen schools, monasteries, orphanages and factories.
The reality is that Tibet is on the road of rapid economic development and the atmosphere there is relaxed, not tense at all, he said.
Tibet is remote for ordinary Chinese. You must be a fool to believe that Tibetans are being made a minority, Mr. Ram commented.
The total population of the region hit 2.84 million in 2007, with Tibetans accounting for 92 per cent according to official figures.
Mr. Ram observed that the problem facing Tibet was the economic slowdown as the global financial crisis took its toll on the region. But the growth rate of Tibet is still good, more than 10 per cent per year, much higher than other parts of the world.
Mr. Rams latest visit coincided with the run-up to the Tibetan New Year. We witnessed fewer people in work places as they went back home to celebrate the New Year, he noted. He added that there was no sign of strain or suppression there as people were filled with excitement and the atmosphere was festive. There were plenty of signs of prosperity on my long drive from Lhasa to Nyingchi, said Mr. Ram.
On the regions move to commemorate the end of feudal serfdom every year on March 28 the day the Chinese government dissolved the aristocratic local government of Tibet and freed more than one million serfs in 1959 he said: It is a good decision adding that there were serf systems in many countries, but it was worse in Tibet.
The contrast between the old and the new is very powerful, demonstrating what the Chinese government and the system have done for Tibet. Xinhua
Posted by: john frum ||
02/26/2009
16:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under:
Official figures confirmed a dramatic ongoing climb in the numbers of French adults out of work and seeking employment, with January's total up 4.3 percent on the month and 15.4 percent over the year.
The recent surge has pushed France's unemployment rate to more than eight percent, and European Commission experts predict the official rate will hit 9.8 percent by the end of this year and 10.6 percent in 2010.
#1
The recent surge has pushed France's employment rate to more than eight percent, and European Commission experts predict the official rate will hit 9.8 percent by the end of this year and 10.6 percent in 2010
Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), one of President Obama's most important Republican allies, is skeptical about his plan to raise a variety of taxes to reduce the budget deficit.
Obama's advisers have told lawmakers that they would like to fund a $634 billion healthcare proposal over the next 10 years by scaling back tax deductions for the nation's highest income earners.
"Maybe he's got the cart before the horse," Snowe said of Obama's proposed tax increases.
Specifically, Obama would like to reduce how much earners in the top bracket, who pay 35 percent income tax, may deduct. The president would like to limit the deductions of top-bracket earners to the same level as Americans in the 28 percent bracket.
Under this plan, top earners would no longer accrue $3,500 in tax savings for every $10,000 deducted. The benefit would be limited to $2,800 -- the percentage of benefit available to taxpayers further down the income scale.
Snowe has concerns that Obama's new plan will only add to the complexity of the tax code.
She believes Congress should tackle the bigger job of restructuring the entire tax code in a simpler way. "I would prefer tax reform," Snowe said Thursday after Obama's budget hit the Hill. "I don't know why we can't do it. I don't know why they can't set up a working group, a collaborative process between Treasury and Congress, House Ways and Means and Senate Finance and start that process because we have a serious problem with the tax code."
Snowe said she told Obama that she would like tax reform pursued during the 111th Congress.
The centrist Republican said now is the time to act because Congress will have to soon deal with the expiration of income tax cuts passed during former President Bush's first term and the expiration of a one-year freeze of the Alternative Minimum Tax. "I'm saying we should have tax reform in the next two years, just like we did in '84. We had two years of a lot of debate and a lot of contentiousness but worked it through between Treasury, House and Senate."
Snowe was the only Republican on the Senate Finance Committee to vote for the Democratic-crafted tax portion of the $787 billion economic stimulus package. Obama's Make Work Pay tax credit, which provided tax relief up to $400 for individuals and $800 for couples, was the centerpiece of that proposal.
Snowe was one of only three Republicans to vote for the entire stimulus package, the first major priority of Obama's first term. Centrist GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Arlen Specter (Pa.) also voted for it.
#1
There's a great big puddle west of LA how much would it cost to start tapping into that? I've heard that nanotech is coming up with some much better ways at de-salinization.
If they want to live in a desert, what do they expect?
#2
If those costs are right, then Nevada is suffering from a serious water pricing error. It sounds like their residential water costs are *lower* than what the utilities charge up here in rainy, green, wet central Pennsylvania. That's absolutely nuts. No wonder they're sucking their reservoirs dry!
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/26/2009 16:59
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Colorado river water heavily subsidized by the American taxpayer. It goes to show you can't kill free government money even after 70 years and several times growth in per capita prosperity.
Posted by: ed ||
02/26/2009 17:43
Comments ||
Top||
#4
I can hear Sam Kinnison now, "Its a fucking Dessert"
#6
I just moved to Las Vegas from the Bay Area. I bought one of those foreclosed properties. I'm replacing my front lawn with a xeriscape (the bank let my whole yard die.)
Every drop of water used inside in Vegas is cleaned and returned to Lake Mead.
This is a great place to live. If you are single or if you have a family. I love living here.
#8
#2, Mitch H; I suspect the expenses of the utilities in Pennsylvania are higher. Except perhaps in California, LV or Phoenix itself the wages in the West would be considered poverty level in much of the East. And ed is correct as well. However since the Feds control so much of Western lands they were required to chip in for lands that were locked out from being tax providing private land similar to the East.
#3
I will make it a priority to take a hard and close look at the disturbing trend that is the disappearance of journalism.
It happened a long time ago when the paper editors decided that their political agenda takes precedence over honest reporting and that the masses must be led by the nose.
#4
RMN had some very good reporting for a long time. Haven't read much of them lately, but I think they'll be missed. They seemed more like a local version of the WaPo than the NYTimes.
News organizations will be allowed to photograph the homecomings of America's war dead under a new Pentagon policy, defense and congressional officials said Thursday.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will formally announce Thursday that the Pentagon has changed its policy to allow media coverage of fallen soldiers arriving at Dover Air Base in Delaware, pending family approval. The current ban was put in place in 1991 by President George H.W. Bush. Like that's going to make a difference to the media. They'll just skip the families
"The president is supportive of the Secretary's decision," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday.
Since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, media has been forbidden access to images of flag-draped coffins returning to U.S. soil. Critics of the policy accused the Bush administration of hiding the "true cost of war."
But Gates told reporters Thursday that speculation over the ban's intent was of no concern to him. "This policy was first put in place in 1991 ... as far as I'm concerned, that's ancient history and I'm not going to try to figure out the motives," he said.
Obama asked Secretary Gates for a review of the policy earlier this month. Gates said he initially asked for the ban to be reviewed a year ago, and was advised then that family members might feel uncomfortable with opening the ceremonies to media for privacy reasons or that the relatives might feel pressure to attend the services despite financial stresses. Now families will be able decide if they want the public to witness the returning war dead.
"I think that the thing we always have to keep at the forefront of our minds ... should be the families and giving them choices," Gates said.
At least two Democratic senators have called on Obama to let news photographers attend ceremonies at the air base and other military facilities when military remains are returned to the United States. The Dover base is where casualties are brought before they are transferred on to the hometowns of their families.
Shortly after Obama took office, Democratic Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey also asked the White House to roll back the 1991 ban.
The new policy, which still has some details to be worked out, closely resembles the one at Arlington National Cemetery.
#3
This is the leftist Dem's backlash to the HBO film Taking Chance.
Taking Chance was a reenactment. You know, like "I'm not a doctor, but I slept at the Holiday Inn..". The fact the lefties can't tell the difference [they can when they 'reenact' numerous slanderous bits of media theater], says far more about them [it's not about truth, it's about power] than its says anything about Gates. The reality, that the MSM has moved on to other venues and is ignoring the WOT now that Bush is gone, means the need for such political props is minimal, particularly since its now Obama's War and they'll hide anything that detracts from their 'One'. Of course, campus commie parasites will try to use such pictures, but their audience is going to be distracted by other big events [like the life long bondage that Congress has pressed upon them].
#4
There was a very good reason this policy was put in place, and it saved the US military all kinds of heartburn. There is no way to photograph the dead, any dead, that makes the US military look good. Even if they were the ones who stopped the killing.
I guess Obama really wants to try and reenact Vietnam. But on his head be it.
President Obama's budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals.
1) On people making more than $250,000:
$338 billion - Bush tax cuts expire
$179 billlion - eliminate itemized deduction
$118 billion - capital gains tax hike
Total: $636 billion/10 years
2) Businesses:
$17 billion - Reinstate Superfund taxes
$24 billion - tax carried-interest as income
$5 billion - codify "economic substance doctrine"
$61 billion - repeal LIFO
$210 billion - international enforcement, reform deferral, other tax reform
$4 billion - information reporting for rental payments
$5.3 billion - excise tax on Gulf of Mexico oil and gas
$3.4 billion - repeal expensing of tangible drilling costs
$62 million - repeal deduction for tertiary injectants
$49 million - repeal passive loss exception for working interests in oil and natural gas properties
$13 billion - repeal manufacturing tax deduction for oil and natural gas companies
$1 billion - increase to 7 years geological and geophysical amortization period for independent producers
$882 million - eliminate advanced earned income tax credit
Total: $353 billion/10 years
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
14:46 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
CALL to ACTION:
We must gain the attention of Washington immediately to avert this disaster from forver changing our nation. I propose a National Strike. On an agreed upon date, not very far off, every opponent of this administration and it's insane socialist agenda should simply fail to go to work. A national Blue Flu. No demonstrations, no violence, no civil disobedience, just millions of people not working that day! And when they drive, headlights on! Let the politicians in Washington get a sense of the aner and frusration the actual producers of American feel at being robbed to pay or bailout those who don't contribute to our national prosperity but who would take ours by force of law.
#3
The number that matters isn't the annual deficit, it's the cumulative debt.
As debt goes up, interest payment consume an increasing proportion of revenues, leaving progressively less to be spent on other things.
High debt levels give governments a vested interest in inflation and the need to keep interest rates artificially low.
I can't find an estimate of interest rates paid by the gov in future years, but I doubt they are realistic and hence these projections probably meaningless.
"The âtop 2%â includes a family of two earners making $250,000 per year ⦠but it also includes the super rich such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. $250,000 to $40 billion. Thatâs a pretty big gap for a space of just 2%. Of course, most of the uber-wealthy do not pay income taxes but rather pay capital gains taxes, generally because to become that rich you either inherited it, donât actually make an âincome,â or own huge amounts of stocks and bonds and periodically sell. Those types of disbursements - set up by very top of global wealth - are generally taxed at a 15% capital gains rate and itâs why Warren Buffett is wrong on taxes when he says he âpays less than his secretary.â
Amid the frenzy to be âfairâ and have the ârichâ pay more, letâs remember one thing: income taxes are paid by those who make an income. In other words, they work. The majority of the highest income tax payers in America arenât the Forbes 400, but rather successful businesspeople and small business owners who take an income and not stock, tax free municipal bonds, etc."
Let's destroy the means of production while we seize them. /sarcasm off
#11
I note the static analysis used for these "estimates". They are not estimates at all, they are wishful thinking.
Tax collections depend disproportionately on reported income by high-income earners. This is extremely volatile. The CBO estimates on reported income are by their nature obsolete, based on previous years high levels of reported income. We certainly won't see that again for a long time. The CBO made the same gross errors in their revenue estimates for the 2001-2003 recession.
And then there is the fact that tax increases suppress reported earnings (and tax cuts increase them), so a tax increase NEVER collects as much as a static analysis implies.
Colorado's oldest newspaper will publish its final edition Friday. The Rocky Mountain News, less than two months away from its 150th anniversary, will be closed after a search for a buyer proved unsuccessful, the E.W. Scripps Co. announced today.
"Today the Rocky Mountain News, long the leading voice in Denver, becomes a victim of changing times in our industry and huge economic challenges," Rich Boehne, chief executive officer of Scripps, said in a prepared statement. "The Rocky is one of Americas very best examples of what local news organizations need to be in the future. Unfortunately, the partnerships business model is locked in the past."
The Rocky has been in a joint operating agreement with The Denver Post since 2001. The arrangement approved by the U.S. Justice Department allowed the papers to share all business services, from advertising to printing, in order to preserve two editorial voices in the community.
However on December 4 Scripps announced it was putting up for sale the Rocky and its 50 percent interest in the Denver Newspaper Agency, the company that handles business matters for the papers, because it couldnt continue to sustain its financial losses in Denver. Scripps said the Rocky lost $16 million in 2008.
One possible buyer emerged by the mid-January deadline to express interest in acquiring the paper, Scripps said. But the buyer was unable to present a viable plan for the paper, the companys press release said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
14:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
H/T Michelle Malkin. I'm glad BHO won't be using lobbyists in his administration. /s
Is it possible for Barack Obama to pick a Commerce Secretary nominee who'll actually make it past first base? Bill Richardson withdrew in the midst of a pay-for-play scandal. Judd Gregg withdrew in the midst of a humiliating power play over the Census and porkulus bill.
Now, former Democrat Gov. Gary Locke -- a lawyer for international firm Davis, Wright, and Tremaine who specializes in China -- is rumored to be the next nominee for the post. The MSM is pulling for him. WaPo writes: "Locke is regarded as a safe choice by senior officials in the Obama administration given his long history in public life, his strait-laced reputation and his bipartisan governing credentials." Wishful thinking? Willful cluelessness? Probably a bit of both.
I covered Gary Locke when I worked at the Seattle Times. I dealt with his campaign and gubernatorial staffs. "Strait-laced" is not the adjective I'd use for my dealings with him and his people.
In response to my columns pressing Locke on his close ties to campaign finance crook John Huang, the governor's office first stonewalled. His standard Democrat smokescreen? Play the race card and play the victim. From June 1999: Continued in extensive article....
Throughout the recent fighting in Gaza, the mainstream North African press was nearly unanimous in its support for the Palestinians and its condemnation of Israel. Some Amazigh (Berber) activist groups, though, made a point of distancing themselves from this mainstream view for which they were attacked by the Islamist press. While a number of conservative and left-wing Amazigh groups expressed support for the Palestinians, others expressed contrary views, to underline their non-Arab identity and their belief that North Africa should detach itself politically and culturally from the Middle East.
Following are excerpts from the Moroccan and Algerian press and electronic media on the dispute over Berber attitudes towards the Gaza war
Posted by: ed ||
02/26/2009 14:12
Comments ||
Top||
#5
That article's based on something called "ObamaForum", which clearly is a sociopathic spoof by hyper little trolls trying to out-moby each other. In short, tone-deaf Canadian journalist confuses online joke for real-world threat. Gee, that's never happened before.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/26/2009 14:25
Comments ||
Top||
#6
The Constatution is not perfect, but it's better than what we are using now! Love that quote!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/26/2009 14:32
Comments ||
Top||
#7
Beyond scary. I get one of these idiots coming after me and they will end up a corpse.
#8
Mitch, a few months ago home addresses etc. of those who contributed money to the Prop 8 (gay marriage ban) effort were put online, as were those of religious and other leaders who spoke out in favor of the ban. Threats, intimidation, vandalism and other attacks ensued, albeit at a relatively low level.
That followed on two elections during which there was overt, if scattered, violence not only against Republican campaign offices but also against homeowners with Republican signs in their yards and drivers with Republican stickers on their cars.
Those were relatively low level efforts, but they set a precedent. This is a fledgling national effort and it is occuring in the context of the President's calls for grassroots activism and action. I agree that it's a wannabe effort for now - except, perhaps, to someone who gets intimidated in her home or fired 'due to the economy' as a result.
Small sparks can set big fires, though, if the tinder is dry. And if economics get worse, as is quite likely given recent legislation and the administration's actions and speech, the tinder may get quite dry indeed.
Just as it did in Germany in the early 30s, to pick one example of relatively recent history ....
#3
Truthfully, if someone wants an Army career, they should be discouraged from going to West Point. Graduates of that institution are looked at with suspicion, at best, and distaste or outright enmity. The smarter ones hide their ring and never bring up where they came from.
Importantly, it is less institutional prejudice than the exposure to bad behavior, based in bad training, of academy graduates. Many of them are lacking in tact, have a bad attitude, treat enlisted personnel poorly, and offend their superiors.
Those with the wit to hide their history could get by, but the few who loudly announced their status were some of the worst, most despised officers I ever met.
One in particular was amazing. He made it a point to offend not one, but four war heroes, insulted several community VIPs, embarrassed his senior rater, openly despised senior NCOs, and treated junior NCOs as his personal servants.
The man was positively gifted. I'm surprised he never got fragged.
#5
my dad did pretty well as a young NCO in the 101st back in the early 60s and was rewarded by his Bn C.O. w/going to West Point to help train plebes (or whatever they call them now) over a summer period or some such. He said after his summer at West Point and dealing w/the Army's future officer classes he decided not to re-enlist when his time came. He didn't like the false sense of entitlement they had.
We only get about 11% of our officers from the naval academy. They get a bad rap to - I've known several of them and think they were 50/50 as far as peers go, I can see why our enlisted would think they were assholes. A couple were real arrogant. Arrogance is the scourge of the modern military. (or of any military at any time in history.)
#7
I suppose there is a reason why there is a saying that one of the most dangerous people in the world is a lieutenant with a screwdriver. The other one is a corporal with a clipboard.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told lawmakers Wednesday that the agency cannot meet its 2012 deadline for radiological and nuclear screening of all cargos coming into the United States.
Napolitano is the first security chief to leave out the words "terror" and "vulnerability" in testimony before the committee
At her first hearing before the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, Napolitano said the 2012 deadline set by Congress is not going to work.
"To do 100 percent screening requires agreements with many countries," Napolitano said, echoing a position taken by officials in the former Bush administration.
A law passed by Congress in 2007 requires the Homeland Security Department to screen all cargo headed for the United States by 2012. About 11.5 million containers come into the country each year.
Total screening also could significantly slow commerce at busy ports, and at least 27 countries and major industry associations have found significant problems with how they would be affected by the law.
Among the major obstacles to meeting the deadline is deploying trained U.S. officials to more than 700 foreign ports to operate scanning equipment.
Napolitano said the agency currently screens almost all cargo containers considered suspicious. She has said she agrees with the concept of catching threats before they reach the United States.
Earlier, Napolitano discussed the department's role in preparing for threats. Deviating from her prepared remarks, she said that terrorism is among those threats.
Unlike her predecessors, Napolitano used less terror-specific rhetoric when discussing the agency. At one point she said the issue for the department when dealing with terror is "How do we respond and recover with resiliency and efficiency?"
A comparison of her prepared remarks with those of her two predecessors found that Napolitano is the first security chief to leave out the words "terror" and "vulnerability" in testimony before the committee.
ATTORNEY General Eric Holder toured Guantanamo Bay this week, a "fact finding" visit prompted by President Obama's "close Gitmo" order. One wonders if his eyes were open to the facts on the ground - given Holder's evident conflict of interest.
Holder's previous job, after all, was as a senior partner with Covington and Burling - a white-shoe DC law firm that devotes considerable pro bono time to defending the Gitmo detainees. The job paid $2 million a year, and he expects to collect a like amount this year as part of his separation package.
As a senior partner, he undoubtedly had significant input on what kind of charity cases his firm picked up. He surely knew that dozens of lawyers from from his firm were among the 500-plus civilian lawyers representing the 244 or so remaining detainees (on top of military-court-appointed defenders).
Even now, his Covington colleagues continue to allege rampant torture at Gitmo. They're fighting hard to have detainees tried through the US court system - essentially given the same rights as US citizens. And their arguments and plans hinge largely on having Holder issue a bad report card.
Recent polls indicate that at least half of Americans disagree with affording the detainees legal rights on US soil. Will they have the same access to Holder's ears as his former colleagues do?
Will the people that Holder recently called a "nation of cowards" on racial issues be prepared to handle the truth from Gitmo - that, aside from three isolated cases of abuse in fall 2002, treatment at Gitmo has been transparent and exemplary?
If he tells the truth, Holder will report back that detainees are treated far more humanely and safely than in most US prisons - and are accorded religious respect in the form of individual Korans, prayer beads and orange cones in hallways during prayer time to remind US guards to speak softly.
He'll tell the president that the amount of actionable intelligence information flowing from Guantanamo is significant, has thwarted attacks on America and broken up sleeper cells here and in Europe. And that such intelligence gives us the tools to intercept al Qaeda money-laundering and cash transfers, defeat improvised explosive devices and disrupt terrorist recruiting and organizing.
If he toured the hospital and dental facilities, he saw more modern equipment than is available to the soldiers and sailors who guard and treat the detainees. Perhaps he was impressed by the digital radiological equipment or the physical-therapy ward with prostheses for detainees of the same quality available to wounded US soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Did Holder have the courage to speak quietly with the brave men and women who walk the blocks daily, subject to constant verbal and physical attack by the detainees? If so, maybe he learned of the young female medic who, while treating a detainee, had her face smashed against the bars, requiring 16 plastic surgeries to repair the damage.
Or of the nurse who returned to treat a detainee who'd punched her viciously in the face. "Why?" he asked. "Because you are my patient," she replied - after listening to him shout for a change of clothing because "this infidel whore's blood has defiled me."
Or perhaps the fact that African-American medics and guards are constantly called the "N" word by detainees grabbed his attention.
The Holder visit gives Obama the chance to revise his policy of closing the facility within a year by taking credit for "fixing" Gitmo. An honest public report from the AG will let the president say, It was bad, but now it's better, thanks to me.
When it comes to national security, results are more important than credit. If Obama insists on reflexively criticizing his predecessor's policies but continues measures, such as keeping Gitmo open, that keep Americans safe, then we ought to be grateful. Even if with an asterisk.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
12:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How the hell does a law firm make $2 mil doing "pro bono" work? Pro bono publico (in the public good) is supposed to be gratis. Also, using pro bono and gitmo detainees in the same sentence is an oxymoron.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/26/2009 13:04
Comments ||
Top||
#2
When you win a pro-bono case against the government you can bill the government for the legal expenses, and the government frequently will pay.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009 14:37
Comments ||
Top||
#3
the government frequently will pay be ordered to pay - by a sympathetic judge (who was once a fellow atty like the one's petitioning to be compensated) from the taxpaying pockets of the American people, who are not hale fellows and attorneys, by and large
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2009 19:36
Comments ||
Top||
A Russian man died after guzzling a bottle of Viagra to keep him going for a 12-hour orgy with two female pals.
The women had bet mechanic Sergey Tuganov $4,300 that he wouldn't be able to follow through with the half-day sex marathon.
But minutes after winning the bet, the 28-year-old died of a heart attack, Moscow police said.
"We called emergency services but it was too late, there was nothing they could do," said one of the female participants who identified herself only as Alina.
Chicago Sun-Times is about the only investigative newspaper in the country right now ...
The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Blagojevich's administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state's housing authority Sept. 10 -- about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.
I'm just guessing here but I wonder whether, if you went through each Democratic office-holder and their families around this country, if you would find more of these. Many more of these.
A spokeswoman for the Illinois Housing Development Authority indicated Wednesday there was nothing improper about Burris II's employment by the agency, whose mission includes overseeing mortgage programs for low-income home buyers and anti-foreclosure initiatives.
"He's an expert!"
Burris II's hiring, however, raises more questions about Sen. Burris' interactions with Blagojevich and his inner circle at a time when the governor was soliciting Sen. Burris for campaign contributions and Burris was angling to have Blagojevich appoint him to the Senate seat once held by President Obama. Blagojevich appointed Burris to that seat in late December after Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell the vacancy to the highest bidder.
More and more you wonder what the payoff was supposed to be ...
Sen. Burris, 71, is fending off calls for his resignation and is the subject of a Senate ethics probe and a perjury investigation by the top prosecutor in Downstate Sangamon County. Those probes stem from conflicting testimony Sen. Burris provided to the House panel that drafted impeachment charges against Blagojevich, who was removed from office Jan. 29.
Separately, federal authorities have been investigating hiring decisions by Blagojevich's administration. Authorities, however, have not expressed any interest in Burris II, Housing Development Authority spokeswoman Rebecca Boykin said. "Roland Burris II was hired by the Illinois Housing Development Authority's Legal Department based on his qualifications in response to a published job posting," Boykin stated. "As an employer, it is not IHDA's practice to request financial information from applicants."
Much too embarrassing to do that ...
Sen. Burris' office, Burris II and Sen. Burris' lawyer, Timothy Wright III, did not return telephone calls and e-mails seeking comment. Blagojevich's publicist also did not respond to questions about Burris II's hiring.
Burris II, 42, once worked at the same law firm as his father: Burris, Wright, Slaughter & Tom. That firm merged with another in the fall.
So Sonny pro'ly had a decent income ...
Burris II had resolved two federal tax liens in 2005 before being hit with the $34,163 lien in July. That lien against his property seeks unpaid taxes for 2004, 2005 and 2007.
Taxes are for little people, doncha know ...
A month after the IRS filed the lien, Burris II's lender filed its foreclosure suit. Since Burris II and his wife got the $372,000 mortgage on July 18, 2006, they've paid less than $3,000 on it, the suit alleges. The balance due is $406,685, including interest and penalties.
So in two and a half years they've made what, one, two mortgage payments? Three at the most? And he works for IHDA as a 'special counsel'.
The fact that Burris II faces foreclosure but is working at a housing-related state agency "reeks of hypocrisy," said state Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), who was the first to call on Sen. Burris to testify before the impeachment panel.
"It's probably not the area where he [Burris II] should be counseling Illinois citizens on how to stave off foreclosure," Durkin said. "I guess it just begs the question: Why was he placed there, and to what extent did Sen. Burris have conversations regarding the placement?"
Burris II built his home in the booming Bronzeville neighborhood on land he bought from the City of Chicago in 2000. City records show he paid $1 for the lot as part of an effort to clean up his once-blighted block.
And there's another problem. Bronzeville used to be pretty run down but in the last ten years it's cleaned up a lot. It sits on the south side between and west of Dearborn Park and Hyde Park. It had some terrible, terrible public housing but that was torn down (correctly so), and the area has been gentrifying with urban black professionals. It's close to downtown and it's a historic district. So how did Sonny get a $1 lot? Oh heavens, I can't imagine how ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
11:51 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And another exciting edition of ... Name That Party!
In WWII, Black Women's Army Unit Helped Mail on Its Way to GIs
It was 1944, and they came from small towns and big cities, high school graduates and working professionals who answered their country's call for service at a time when much of the nation barely recognized their citizenship.
Uncle Sam was looking for a few good African American women to join the military in Europe. Black women weren't any more welcome in most branches than black men were until first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, at the urging of African American civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune, began agitating for a role for black women in the war overseas.
The 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, a unit of 885 black Women's Army Corps (WAC) members, was charged with clearing up a huge backlog of mail sent to military personnel overseas. All that undelivered mail was hurting morale, Army officials said.
The job was expected to take six months, but the unit, known as the Six Triple Eight, working round-the-clock in eight-hour shifts, finished the job -- handling 7 million pieces of mail -- in three months. Later, they were sent to France for a similar assignment.
"We served our country proudly, and we did a good job," said Mary Crawford Ragland, 81, of Bladensburg. "When we came back, though, there were no parades, there were no speeches, there was no recognition. They gave us our papers discharging us and sent us on our way."
Ms. Ragland, we at the Burg thank you for your service and wish all of you well.
While a lot of his news cohorts are beginning to overshare a bit on Twitter, Keith Olbermann is backing away from the popular text service. We'll just have to soldier on without you, Keith. Come on, lads, buck up, stiff upper lip and all that!
"Enough of my life has been consumed by electronics that have been invented during my life that I may have actually reached my absolute far end of my ability to handle new electronics, new ways of communication," he told us at the Empire State Pride Agenda's "Defying Inequality" event at the Gershwin last night. "I may have hit a wall with an iPhone." Now that he's promised not to Twitter, I look forward to the day we can extract promises from him not to blog, blather, pontificate, or rant, ever again.
The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today. "As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons," Holder told reporters.
Holder said that putting the ban back in place would not only be a positive move by the United States, it would help cut down on the flow of guns going across the border into Mexico, which is struggling with heavy violence among drug cartels along the border. "I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum." Holder said at a news conference on the arrest of more than 700 people in a drug enforcement crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S.
Umm, Mr. Holder, you're the American AG, not the Mexican one ...
Mexican government officials have complained that the availability of sophisticated guns from the United States have emboldened drug traffickers to fight over access routes into the U.S.
Yeah, ya can't buy a gun in Messico unless it comes from the states, ev'rybody knows that ...
A State Department travel warning issued Feb. 20, 2009, reflected government concerns about the violence. "Some recent Mexican army and police confrontations with drug cartels have resembled small-unit combat, with cartels employing automatic weapons and grenades," the warning said. "Large firefights have taken place in many towns and cities across Mexico, but most recently in northern Mexico, including Tijuana, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez."
Grenades made in the U.S.A., of course ...
At the news conference today, Holder described his discussions with his Mexican counterpart about the recent spike in violence. "I met yesterday with Attorney General Medina Mora of Mexico, ...
... who is the Mexican AG, take note ...
... and we discussed the unprecedented levels of violence his country is facing because of their enforcement efforts," he said.
Holder declined to offer any time frame for the reimplementation of the assault weapons ban, however.
After the NRA has been euthanized, I think ...
"It's something, as I said, that the president talked about during the campaign," he said. "There are obviously a number of things that are -- that have been taking up a substantial amount of his time, and so, I'm not sure exactly what the sequencing will be."
In a brief interview with ABC News, Wayne LaPierre, president of the National Rifle Association, said, "I think there are a lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill cringing at Eric Holder's comments right now."
During his confirmation hearing, Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee about other gun control measures the Obama administration may consider. "I think closing the gun show loophole, the banning of cop-killer bullets and I also think that making the assault weapons ban permanent, would be something that would be permitted under Heller," Holder said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling in Washington, D.C. v. Heller, which asserted the Second Amendment as an individual's right to own a weapon.
The Assault Weapons Ban signed into law by President Clinton in 1994 banned 19 types of semi-automatic military-style guns and ammunition clips with more than 10 rounds. "A semi-automatic is a quintessential self-defense firearm owned by American citizens in this country," LaPierre said. "I think it is clearly covered under Heller and it's clearly, I think, protected by the Constitution."
Posted by: Omoter Speaking for Boskone7794 ||
02/26/2009
09:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
I keep hearing that those arms are coming from the US but I haven't heard of any individuals, dealers or distributors being prosecuted. I cry BS. I might expect a few individuals (especially with gang connections) but I haven't heard of that either.
#3
Almost all the reasons given for increased gun control are not reasons but excuses. The real underlying reason cannot be spoken - the disarmament of the people so they can never resist the government.
#4
It will be interesting to listen to all the pundits who claimed it would be logistically "impossible" to round up 13-20 million illegal immigrants trying to sell the notion that rounding up several hundred million weapons will be no problem at all...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/26/2009 13:13
Comments ||
Top||
#5
...or justifying a Waco a week.
A gun is a tool, Marion, like a shovel, an ax, anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it.
#6
This puppy is HR45 and it needs to be defeated. If you live in a district with a representative or senator that is on the fence please write him and tell him to vote no. If you don't know what your representative position is check the NRA website where they rank them. We need to hand this Obama a defeat on his attack on our civil rights.
In yesterday's WaPo
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal - selected to deliver the Republicans' Fat Tuesday response to President Obama - might also be voted the man least likely to let the good times roll. Slight, earnest, deeply religious and supremely wonkish, Jindal resembles neither his flamboyant predecessors as governor nor his reveling, 30-something contemporaries on Bourbon Street. Somehow the hall-monitoring, library-inhabiting, science-fair-winning class president has seized control of the Big Easy. And his coup has been an inspiration to policy geeks everywhere.
At a recent meeting of conservative activists, Jindal had little to say about his traditional social views or compelling personal story. Instead, he uncorked a fluent, substantive rush of policy proposals and achievements, covering workforce development, biodiesel refineries, quality assurance centers, digital media, Medicare parts C and D, and state waivers to the CMS (whatever that is).
Some have compared Jindal to Obama, but the new president has always been more attracted to platitudes than to policy. Rush Limbaugh has anointed Jindal "the next Ronald Reagan." But Reagan enjoyed painting on a large ideological canvas. In person, Jindal's manner more closely resembles another recent president: Bill Clinton. Like Clinton (a fellow Rhodes scholar), Jindal has the ability to overwhelm any topic with facts and thoughtful arguments - displaying a mastery of detail that encourages confidence. Both speak of complex policy issues with the world-changing intensity of a late-night dorm room discussion.
In recent days, Jindal has displayed another leadership quality: ideological balance. He is highly critical of the economic theory of the stimulus package and turned down $98 million in temporary unemployment assistance to his state - benefits that would have mandated increased business taxes in Louisiana. But unlike some Republican governors who engaged in broad anti-government grandstanding, Jindal accepted transportation funding and other resources from the stimulus - displaying a program-by-program discrimination that will serve him well in public office. Jindal manages to hold to principle while seeing the angles. Not according to today's WaPo editorial.
While Clintonian in manner, knowledge and political sophistication, Jindal is not ideologically malleable. His high-pressure Asian-immigrant background has clearly taught him not to blend in but to stand out. He has tended to join small, beleaguered minorities - such as the College Republicans at Brown University. He converted to a traditionalist Catholicism, in a nation where anti-Catholicism has been called "the last acceptable prejudice." Jindal, sometimes accused of excessive assimilation, has actually shown a restless, countercultural, intellectual independence.
But this has earned him some unexpected enthusiasm. In Louisiana, Jindal is the darling of evangelical and charismatic churches, where he often tells his conversion story. One Louisiana Republican official has commented, "People think of Bobby Jindal as one of us." Consider that a moment. In some of the most conservative Protestant communities, in one of the most conservative states in America, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, a strong Catholic with parents from Punjab, is considered "one of us."
This is a large political achievement. It is also an indication of what has been called the "ecumenism of the trenches" - the remarkable alliance between evangelicals and Catholics on moral issues such as abortion and family values against an aggressive secularism. Two or three hundred years ago, the Protestant/Catholic divide remained a source of violence. Two or three decades ago, many conservative Protestant churches questioned whether Catholics were properly to be considered Christians. If Jindal runs for president in three or seven years, he will be widely viewed as an evangelical choice.
Ultimately, however, Jindal is a problem-solving wonk, fond of explaining 31-point policy plans (his state ethics reform proposal actually had 31 points). This can have disadvantages -- a lack of human connection and organizing vision. But this approach also has advantages. Jindal is a genuine policy innovator. "His reforms," says Yuval Levin of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, "are the only constructive thing Republicans are doing on health care anywhere."
And Jindal's résumé, intellectual confidence and command of policy make him the anti-Palin. Fairly or unfairly, media and intellectual elites (including some conservative elites) regard Gov. Sarah Palin as an inhabitant of another cultural planet. Jindal, while also religious and conservative, speaks the language of the knowledge class and will not be easily caricatured or dismissed. To journalists, policy experts and Rhodes scholars, Jindal is also "one of us."
At this point in the election cycle, no Republican can be considered more than the flavor of the month. But this is an appealing one.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/26/2009
09:15 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
One suspects that he will be crucified by the media as a potential threat in much the same way that Palin attracted apoplectic opposition. It seems to be a new tactic to bring overwhelming criticism to a new conservative face before the public has a chance to make a judgement.
#3
"It seems to be a new tactic to bring overwhelming criticism to a new conservative face before the public has a chance to make a judgement."
This is Chicago style (mob style) politics. Nothing matters but winning and gaining more and more control. Obama is the proof case of this approach. He will do anything and everything to get his way.
WaPo House Editorial
THE RESPONSE by the loyal opposition to a sitting president's address to the nation is a prime opportunity on two fronts. It's a chance for the party to tell the country what it stands for and present concrete and innovative ideas that constructively challenge the administration in power. It's also an occasion to showcase emerging leaders. Under normal circumstances, the task is daunting. But it proved overwhelming Tuesday night for the man tapped to respond to President Obama, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R). Rather than offering new ideas, Mr. Jindal served up well-worn Republican mistrust of government and reliance on tax cuts.
Slamming the recently signed stimulus package, Mr. Jindal said, "Instead of trusting us to make wise decisions with our own money," Democratic leaders in Congress "passed the largest government spending bill in history." He argued that a better way to create jobs would be through income and business tax cuts, home-buyer tax credits and business incentives. Missing were Mr. Jindal's prescriptions for stemming the tsunami of housing foreclosures and unfreezing the credit markets. To bolster his argument that the stimulus package was a $1 trillion (with interest) boondoggle, Mr. Jindal criticized $140 million for volcano monitoring - as if watching volcanoes were different from, say, monitoring hurricanes or building levees.
That brings us to Mr. Jindal's frequent invocation of Hurricane Katrina, which laid waste to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans in 2005. "Some are promising that government will rescue us from the economic storms raging all around us," he said. "Those of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina, we have our doubts." It's true that when the federally built levees broke in New Orleans, Americans saw an abject failure by the federal government to come to the rescue. That doesn't mean that when disaster strikes, citizens are wrong to look to their government for help. The people of the Crescent City and the Gulf Coast have shown incredible resilience thanks to private charity -- and $140.2 billion from Washington.
That Mr. Jindal continues to eschew a role for government in extraordinary cases like Katrina (or an economic meltdown) is evidence of an acute case of ideological rigidity. Or maybe that's only when he's speaking on national television. According to House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn's office, Mr. Jindal is pressing Congress for up to $6 billion in Gulf Coast recovery funding for housing assistance, case management, debris removal and other vital projects. If Mr. Jindal firmly believes that "the strength of America is not found in our government" and that "the way to strengthen our country is to restrain spending in Washington," he should lead by example by forgoing the funds he seeks. Oh, that was clever! Give it all up, you hypocrite!
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/26/2009
09:10 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
As I said.
<<<< Mr. Jindal served up well-worn Republican mistrust of government and reliance on tax cuts >>>
The last 8 years could reasonably be contrasted with the Gingrich 'contact with America'.
In any case, the first month of the new administration might provide support for the proposition that although the mistrust of government is "well-worn" it is also well placed.
Furthermore, the "well-worn" support for tax cuts is to by juxtaposed with the current "well-worn" liberal agenda of taxing the rich, appropriating from the producers to the consumers, extending the welfare rolls to create dependency on central government and generally attempting to legislate egalitarianism when it is actually anti-life.
After Tuesday night, no one should doubt Barack Obama's ambition. His silent dismissal of the efforts of his immediate predecessors - he mentioned none of them - is only one indication of the extent to which he intends to be a new president breaking new ground in a new era.
George W. Bush defined his presidency by his response to the terror attacks. Anybody remeber a theme prior to 9-11? Not me.
Obama didn't discuss Sept. 11. And by relegating foreign policy to the status of a virtual afterthought, Obama indicated that he doesn't think his presidency will rise or fall by the success or failure of his diplomatic or military endeavors. Bill Clinton told Congress in 1996 that the era of big government was over. Obama withdrew that concession to conservatives and conservatism. George H.W. Bush worried in 1989 that we have more will than wallet. Obama has no such worries.
Obama's speech reminds of Ronald Reagan's in 1981 in its intention to reshape the American political landscape. But of course Obama wishes to undo the Reagan agenda. "For decades," he claimed, we haven't addressed the challenges of energy, health care and education. We have lived through "an era where too often short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity." Difficult decisions were put off. But now "that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here." The phrase "day of reckoning" may seem a little ominous coming from a candidate of hope and change. But it's appropriate, because it's certainly a day of reckoning for conservatives and Republicans.
For Obama's aim is not merely to "revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity." Obama outlined much of this new foundation in the most unabashedly liberal and big-government speech a president has delivered to Congress since Lyndon Baines Johnson. Obama intends to use his big three issues - energy, health care and education - to transform the role of the federal government as fundamentally as did the New Deal and the Great Society.
Conservatives and Republicans will disapprove of this effort. They will oppose it. Can they do so effectively?
Perhaps - if they can find reasons to obstruct and delay. They should do their best not to permit Obama to rush his agenda through this year. They can't allow Obama to make of 2009 what Franklin Roosevelt made of 1933 or Johnson of 1965. Slow down the policy train. Insist on a real and lengthy debate. Conservatives can't win politically right now. But they can raise doubts, they can point out other issues that we can't ignore (especially in national security and foreign policy), they can pick other fights - and they can try in any way possible to break Obama's momentum. Only if this happens will conservatives be able to get a hearing for their (compelling, in my view) arguments against big-government, liberal-nanny-state social engineering - and for their preferred alternatives.
Right now, Obama is in the driver's seat - a newly elected and popular president with comfortable Democratic congressional majorities and an adulatory mainstream news media. Still, Republicans do have advantages over their forebears in 1965 and 1933. There are more Republicans in Congress today, so they should be able to resist more effectively. There is much more of a record of liberal failures to look back on now than when the New Deal and the Great Society were being rushed through. Conservatism is more sophisticated than it was back then. So there is no reason to despair.
Still, conservatives and Republicans shouldn't minimize their tasks. Long term, they need fresh thinking in a host of areas of domestic policy, thinking that builds on previous conservative achievements but that deals with the new economic and social realities. In the short term, Republicans need to show a tactical agility and political toughness far greater than their predecessors did in the 1960s and the 1930s. "Else they will fall," to quote the great conservative Edmund Burke, "an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle," reduced to the unpleasant role of bystanders or the unattractive status of complainers, as Barack Obama makes history.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/26/2009
09:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[24 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Prior to 9/11, Bush's priorities were education (No Child Left Behind) and tax cuts. Both of which he achieved.
#2
No Child Left Behind was not something I would ever call an "achievement", though its co-sponsor, Ted Kennedy might. I lump it more with the Medicare Drug Benefit Bush gave us.
Aside from judges and the war on terror, there was little to like about Bush. Tax cuts were nice, but offset more than tenfold by runaway spending and Bush's unwillingness to veto anything.
#3
Sorry, but the GOP is going the way of the Whigs. Observe the pundit and inside the beltway self-anointed crowd feeding frenzy to "define" the party now that they're out of power. The aforementioned group hates Palin, Jindal and Joe the Plumber, and if they can't be "the deciders," they'll kill the GOP for not putting them in charge. Rank and file conservatives like me are well and truly fucked. At least the money I'm not sending the GOP will put a tiny dent in the huge tax increases we will all soon suffer because the GOP has no soul...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/26/2009 13:28
Comments ||
Top||
#4
I'm not much of a republican either, but I will support them because they are right now the only group standing in the way of socialism. So save your money and give it up later in taxes to the machine. Both Senators and 3 of 4 reps. from my state are republicans and have voted correctly (no)in my view on all the insanity. They need my support.
#5
Both my Sens are lib-pinkos. My rep McCotter is pretty good but I was upset when he voted for the auto bailout - being from MI I knew 99% he would - that's his constituency even though being an absentee MI voter and having plenty of fam in the big-3 I still thought the auto industry needed to sink or swim on it's own.
I'll vote for anyone whose fiscally conservative, genuinely understands & supports the U.S. const as it was written, (therefore is pro-gun) & pro-mil - those are my personal pet rocks.
#7
No, DMFD. Our choices are between the war party and the surrender party. I don't know who I would've voted for the first time FDR was elected, but the second and third times I would definitely have voted for the warmonger.
In the budget he will submit to Congress today, President Obama will outline an agenda that confronts the era's most intractable problems, from a tattered financial system that has helped fuel a deepening recession to health-care, education and energy policies that have long defied meaningful reform.
It amounts to a long work order for a legislature that has seen its productivity sag in recent years. Mired in partisan divisions, Congress has produced few bills of sweeping impact since the end of President George W. Bush's first term. Now Obama is asking lawmakers to deliver legislation on the scale of the No Child Left Behind education bill or the Medicare prescription drug benefit -- two of Bush's signature achievements -- roughly once a month. Bush had achievements? Who knew?
"It's a large agenda, but the American people wanted large change, and it was really a large election," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), a member of the Senate Democratic leadership, said yesterday.
A guiding principle of the Obama administration, articulated in the president's address to Congress on Tuesday night and implicit in the expansive policy goals set forth in his first budget, is that the economic crisis has heightened the desire for change that voters expressed in November, creating a once-in-a-generation opportunity for bold policy shifts.
Many Democrats have expressed trepidation about the lofty expectations that Obama has set and are keenly aware that the party could pay a steep price in the 2010 midterm elections if the promises are not fulfilled. Already looking toward 2010, eh?
At a White House meeting yesterday with House and Senate leaders, Obama noted that polls showed the Democratic Congress's popularity rising with the passage of the stimulus bill, despite Republicans' near-unanimous opposition because of the package's heavy spending programs.
On Tuesday, Obama closed his speech with a plea for Congress to get behind his ambitious goals. "If we come together and do everything I want to lift this nation from the depths of this crisis," he said, "if we put our people back to work and restart the socialist engine of our prosperity, if we confront without fear the challenges of our time and summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit except maybe, Iraq, then someday years from now, our children can tell their children that this was the time when we performed, in the words that are carved into this very chamber, 'Something worthy to be remembered.' " Obviously, there's much more to this WaPo story, at the link.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/26/2009
08:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under:
Iran has been increasing its involvement and control over Hezbollah's operations since terror operations head Imad Mughniyeh was killed a year ago. Hezbollah has not yet found someone of similar stature to replace Mughniyeh. They say that like it's a bad thing ...
Therefore, the Iranians have taken some responsibility for Hezbollah operations, using a large number of Iranian Revolutionary Guard and intelligence officers in Lebanon.
This means operational cooperation between Iran, Syria and Hezbollah has increased regarding all potential actions against Israel. Iranian officers, most of whom prefer to be based in Syria, often visit Lebanon and tour the Israeli border. Safe in the flesh-pots of Damascus are they ...
The Iranians are directly involved in running Hezbollah operations in southern Lebanon, and in addition, hundreds of Hezbollah militants head for Iran every month for training and exercises.
Senior Israeli defense officials told Haaretz that Mughniyeh's assassination, which Hezbollah blames on Israel, but which may have been done by either Syria or Iran or even as an internal Hezbollah action
left a large hole in the organization. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is now stuck dealing with operational matters he never handled in the past, say the Israeli officials. Let's hope he's as competent at that as he is in giving live speeches ...
#5
I wonder if the Israelis have found themselves another car salesman or cell phone shop... that could be why no one stepped up to take over Emir Mughniyeh's portfolio.
Here is the most stunning prospective appointment of the Obama administration as yet. Not stunning as in "spectacular" or "distinguished" but stunning as in bigoted and completely out of synch with the deepest convictions of the American people. What's more, Charles "Chas" Freeman is a bought man, having been ambassador to Saudi Arabia and then having supped at its tables for almost two decades, supped quite literally . . .
That Chas, as he is so artfully called, also made himself a client of China and China a client of himself, is evidence that he has no humane or humanitarian scruples that underlay well, his unscrupulous political views, viz, his remonstrance to Beijing that it should have smashed the democracy protests as soon as they emerged on the streets...or before. I do not reproach Hillary Clinton for talking economics with China this time. But Freeman is predisposed also not to see the urgency of insurrectionary politics cropping up all over the vast Chinese empire.
Chas Freeman is actually a new psychological type for a Democratic administration. He has never displayed a liberal instinct and wants the United States to kow-tow to authoritarians and tyrants, in some measure just because they may seem able to keep the streets quiet. And frankly, Chas brings a bitter rancor to how he looks at Israel. No Arab country and no Arab movement--basically including Hezbollah and Hamas--poses a challenge to the kind of world order we Americans want to see. He is now very big on Hamas as the key to bringing peace to Gaza, when in fact it is the key to uproar and bloodletting, not just against Israel but against the Palestinian Authority that is the only group of Palestinians that has even given lip-service (and, to be fair, a bit more) to a settlement with Israel. . . .
But Freeman's real offense (and the president's if he were to appoint him) is that he has questioned the loyalty and patriotism of not only Zionists and other friends of Israel, the great swath of American Jews and their Christian countrymen, who believed that the protection of Zion is at the core of our religious and secular history, from the Pilgrim fathers through Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy. And how has he offended this tradition? By publishing and peddling the unabridged John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, with panegyric and hysteria. If Freeman believes that this book is the truth he can't be trusted by anyone, least of all Barack Obama. I can't believe that Obama wants to appoint someone who is quintessentially an insult to the patriotism of some many of his supporters, me included. One is very tempted to open up on Mr. Peretz with a full 72-gun time-on-target barrage of 155mm snark. Far from being a "new psychological type for a Democratic administration," Chas Freeman is firmly in the tradition of Jimmy Carter and Chris Dodd and John Kerry and Bill Clinton and Madeline Dimbulb Albright and Nancy Pelosi, all of whom have embraced various totalitarian goon-ocracies and worshipped at the feet of Brezhnev, Mao, Castro, Chavez, Kimmie, Arafat, Assad, and so on. Has Mr. Peretz not read the comments threads at Democratic underground and DailyKos which regularly question Jewish patriotism? Has he not noticed the anti-Semitic protest signs at the antiwar rallies?
I don't want to kick him too hard, though--just administer a few gentle tough-love taps with the clue-by-four. He's starting to get it. We should encourage him in his efforts to get it.
If you know someone who, like Mr. Peretz, is starting to get it, be a friend to them. Welcome them as you would any ally. Apply Luke 15:7 by analogy.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/26/2009
08:24 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think what Peretz means is that previous Democratic "types" were leftist goo-goo sorts who were more generally of the Maoist-lite "the third world is more authentic, oh horrors the wages of colonialism!" mindset, whereas he's characterizing this Freeman boggart as being more in the paleoconservative Arabist tradition, a reactionary enthusiast for absolutist monarchy and neanderthalic social & cultural attitudes.
Well, that and the English breed of genteel anti-Semitism, which is distinct from the coarse American-style anti-Semitism of a Nixon or Carter.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/26/2009 9:44
Comments ||
Top||
CIA Director Leon E. Panetta says the relationship between the intelligence agency and Congress has "had a lot of problems" under the last administration and "has to be repaired," which he said is one of his top priorities.
Panetta, a former House member and top White House official who was sworn in Feb. 13, told a media roundtable Wednesday that the "relationship was badly damaged" and that he hopes "to restore the trust between this Agency and Capitol Hill."
"Frankly, I can't do my job unless I have their trust." he said. "And since I'm a creature of the Hill and understand what it means to be a member up there and have this kind of information, I'm prepared to try to do whatever I can to try to repair that relationship." Too bad Valerie Plame quit, she'd be a natural as his Congressional liaison ...
Panetta made his comments at a meeting with two dozen reporters who were allowed into his conference room inside the agency's heavily fortified headquarters compound, the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Va. Plates piles with big cookies were in the center of a massive conference table in a room a few doors from the director's office.
The hall is lined with offices with secure doors opened with safe-like dials.
Facing a portrait of President Obama on the opposite wall, Panetta said that under the Bush administration, there was at times "a deliberate effort to not develop firm ground rules" about congressional notification "in order to be able to do this in a haphazard manner depending on what the issues were." Flexibility is a bitch, what we need is a ponderous bureaucracy.
" I just think that's wrong," he said. "This country has to operate by a set of rules that are in line with our Constitution and in line with the laws of this country. ... We swear to support and defend that Constitution in taking these jobs. I think that, unfortunately, there wasn't a clear set of ground rules her ... in terms of how to deal with the Congress."
Panetta said that on some sensitive matters, the top congressional leaders (the "gang of four," in Hill paralance) were notified by the Bush administration, while other times the intelligence committees were included (the "gang of eight").
"One of the things I'd like to do, frankly, is set some ground rules as to when we do notify the Congress and who we do have to notify," he said. "Do we notify the gang of eight; do we notify all of the members plus their staffs ... so that we all know the rules that we're operating by." Let's tell Leaky Leahy everything.
At his confirmation hearing, Panetta vowed "a clean break" from some controversial Bush-era polices. He told the reporters: "If we stand by our ideals, if we stand by the beliefs that we have about what this country is all about, I think it makes us stronger, not only here but throughout the world." There are no sharks in the ocean, only "Charlie the Tuna". Lalalala
For one thing, he said, "We are closing black sites," a reference to secret prisons abroad used to hold and question suspected terrorist combatants. That makes me feel safer.
The phrase "war on terror," a hallmark of President George W. Bush's White House, is rarely used in the Obama administration, but Panetta that "there's no question this is a war."
#2
We are closing black sites, a reference to secret prisons
The term of reference "black" NFD, in the context used by the DCI, may not be limited to "secret" terrorist hold sites. What we may be seeing is a reduction of all clandestine intelligence activities that were developed post 9/11, and a return to the pipe smoking, academic approach to intelligence of the Carter years. The mention of "black programs" or "sites" by the DCI is ominous.
#4
I wonder if there are any "right thinking" members of the CIA that will start to "share" information with the "right thinking" press like the Ivy League Leftist Cabal in the CIA did with WaPo/NYT/LAT? It will be interesting to what revelations will come out about the Obama CIA versus the Bush CIA. I say there will not be much difference just disappointment to his adoring public.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/26/2009 10:58
Comments ||
Top||
#5
"This country has to operate by a set of rules that are in line with our Constitution and in line with the laws of this country"
Does anyone in Washington even know what the Constitution says anymore? I thought is just said whatever they wanted it to say. So clearly the CIA actions are as Constitutional as they want them to be.
#7
I call BS ... the Intel Committee was in the loop about ... well, everything during the past 8 yrs. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds. We are sooo screwed.
#9
Why of course, their Black God cannot be at fault, no way, no way indeed, how dare you even suggest such a thing. (Etc)
PROOF, watch this vanish into the moderator chasm of dislike.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 18:56
Comments ||
Top||
#10
Rednek Jim Redneck Jim you may have missed the message yesterday, you need to add the "c" back into your name handle. That's why you lost your comment count.
President Obama is proposing to begin a vast expansion of the U.S. health-care system by creating a $634 billion reserve fund over the next decade, launching an overhaul that most experts project will ultimately cost at least $1 trillion.
The "reserve fund" in the budget proposal being released today is Obama's attempt to demonstrate how the country could extend health insurance to millions more Americans and at the same time begin to control escalating medical bills that threaten the solvency of families, businesses and the government.
Obama aims to make a "very substantial down payment" toward universal coverage by trimming tax breaks for the wealthy and squeezing payments to insurers, hospitals, doctors and drug manufacturers, a senior administration official said yesterday.
Embedded in the budget figures are key policy changes that the administration argues would improve the quality of care and bring much-needed efficiency to a health system that costs $2.3 trillion a year.
By first identifying a large pot of money to underwrite health-care reform -- before laying out a proposal on who would be covered or how -- Obama hopes to draw Congress to the bargaining table to tackle the details of a comprehensive plan. The strategy is largely intended to avoid the mistakes of the Clinton administration, which crafted an extensive proposal in secret for many months before delivering the finished product to lawmakers, who quickly rejected it.
"We aim to get to universal coverage," administration budget aide Keith Fontenot told health-care activists last night. Obama is "open to any ideas people want to put forward. He wants to work openly with the Congress in a very inclusive process."
#4
It's not just medicine, it's everything! Personal wealth and savings, 401k, IRA, intestment, private interprise, "the man," etc. are the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! They must be extinguished to establish a level playing field for all, a new O'beginning where all are equal in the sight of The One! All work and investment must be directed by and to the Government as it knows best!
"begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: were a divided country, were a country that is just downright mean, we are guided by fear, were a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day, she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. Folks are just jammed up, and its gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, Im young. Forty-four!
#5
Cost controls lead to shortages, less doctors, less medicines, less insurers, less hospitals.
Punishing the wealthy means less wealth will be created.
Efficiency comes from competition, not government regulation.
Also the major question of moral hazard, is it wise (or moral) for the government to makes healthy taxpayers pay for the treatment of those who haven't watched their health? Won't it encourage more people to make bad health decisions as someone else will pay?
#6
Socialized medicine = age and procedure rationing = declining boomer longevity = compressed actuarial tables, immediate and long term Social Security and Medicare savings.
What's not to like?.....unless you're senior or plan on living beyond retirement?
I read a few blogs written by British docs in the NHS system. The level of pessimism, cynicism and anger has to be read to be believed. No way in the world do I want to practice medicine in such a system. I'm not yet old enough to retire (and my 401K is shrinking rapidly) so I'm going to have a problem.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009 11:34
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Wait a minute. He's gonna spend $1 trillion to reduce costs? Wouldn't a far more effect way to reduce costs be to just not spend that $1 trillion? Am I missing something here? I mean, whose costs are gonna be reduced? Certainly not the people who have to come up with that $1 trillion. Huh?
#9
My wife, KiloBravo is from England and has a large extended family there. The horror stories from the in-laws would curl your toes. Here a re just a few.
Uncle with blood in his urine - 6 months to get treated.
Uncle with failing health - gave him B-12 shots. Messed around for months, finally gave him Barium Enema to check for cancer. negative.(Ancient test no longer used in states) He went private and they found colon cancer, treated and survived in spite of NH.
Sister-in-law came back from Amazon cruise feeling poorly, they treated her for tropical diseases for months, she died of undiagnosed cancer.
Mother-in-law broke toes, not treated properly, deformed toes, hard to walk.
Mother-in-law broke wrist because of deformed foot problem, not treated properly, now deformed wrist.
My Brother-in-law the widower had a suspicious spot on his leg. We told him to get it checked as soon as he returned to England.
6 weeks to get appointment with dermatologist. Scheduled him for biopsy.
6 weeks to get Biopsy.
6 weeks to get the results. Positive for melanoma
They were going to schedule him for the surgery in 6 more weeks. We went ballistic and had him demand it be removed immediately. So far he has survived.
These people are like sheep and trust National Health because that's all they've known for 60 years. Besides it's FREE.
Note: More than a quarter of a million Brits fly to India for surgery each year. This includes hip replacements, heart surgery, etc.
Paramilitary troops have been called out in Pakistan's Punjab province to maintain order after street protests by supporters of former PM Nawaz Sharif. Demonstrators are blocking roads by making bonfires in many places and raising slogans against the government.
Legislators of Mr Sharif's PML-N party are sitting on the stairs of the Punjab assembly after their entry was blocked. The protests are against Wednesday's court order banning Mr Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz, from elected office.
Mr Sharif's PML-N holds power in Punjab province where his brother was chief minister but has now been forced to step down. Nawaz Sharif has accused President Asif Ali Zardari of being behind the ban.
Correspondents say the court order is expected to deepen the rift between the Sharifs and the federal government and increase the chances of political instability in the country.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/26/2009
06:26 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Troops out in not troops out of. Manolo! Where's my morning tea?
Bangladesh's prime minister has warned she will take tough action against mutinous border guards unless they surrender their weapons immediately. "Do not force me to take tough actions or push my patience beyond tolerable limits," Sheikh Hasina said.
A mutiny by the paramilitary troops in Dhaka on Wednesday has spread outside the capital, reports say. Latest reports from Dhaka speak of at least 10 tanks moving towards the border guards' headquarters. In a televised address to the nation earlier on Thursday, the prime minister warned the mutineers: "Lay down your guns immediately and go back to barracks."
Posted by: john frum ||
02/26/2009
06:25 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
At least 10 Bangladeshi army tanks have taken up positions near a barracks held by mutinous border guards in the capital Dhaka.
This follows a threat by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take tough action against the mutineers unless they surrendered immediately.
"Do not force me to take tough actions or push my patience," she said.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/26/2009 7:10
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Don't make me come up there".
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 8:19
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Looks like it's over...
DHAKA, Bangladesh The Bangladeshi government says all the mutinous border guards who seized control of their headquarters have surrendered after a two-day revolt.
The guards agreed to surrender after the government promised them an amnesty and agreed to look into their demands for better conditions.
But the process stalled and was only completed Thursday after the government sent tanks into the capital in a show of force.
Government negotiator Mahbub Ara Gini says "all the mutinous border guards have surrendered their weapons."
The conflict in Afghanistan is the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead of concentrating on the critical mission of keeping Islamist terrorists on the defensive, we've mired ourselves by attempting to modernize a society that doesn't want to be and cannot be transformed.
In the absence of a strategy, we're doubling our troop commitment, hoping to repeat the success we achieved in the profoundly different environment of Iraq. Unable to describe our ultimate goals with any clarity, we're substituting means for ends.
Expending blood and treasure blindly in Afghanistan, we do our best to shut our eyes to the worsening crisis next door in Pakistan, a radicalizing Muslim state with more than five times the population and a nuclear arsenal. We've turned the hose on the doghouse while letting the mansion burn.
Initially, Afghanistan wasn't a war of choice. We had to dislodge and decimate al-Qaeda, while punishing the Taliban and strengthening friendlier forces in the country. Our great mistake was to stay on in an attempt to build a modernized rule-of-law state in a feudal realm with no common identity.
We needed to smash our enemies and leave. Had it proved necessary, we could have returned later for another punitive mission. Instead, we fell into the great American fallacy of believing ourselves responsible for helping those who've harmed us. This practice was already fodder for mockery 50 years ago, when the novella and film The Mouse That Roared postulated that the best way for a poor country to get rich was to declare war on America then surrender.
Even if we achieved the impossible dream of creating a functioning, unified state in Afghanistan, it would have little effect on the layered crises in the Muslim world. Backward and isolated, Afghanistan is sui generis (only example of its kind). Political polarization in the U.S. precludes an honest assessment, but Iraq's the prize from which positive change might flow, while Afghanistan could never inspire neighbors who despise its backwardness.
Recalling failures of Vietnam
Echoing Vietnam, we're pouring wealth into Afghanistan, corrupting those we wish to rally; we're fighting with restrictions against an enemy who enjoys sanctuaries across international borders; and our core enemies are natives, not foreign parties (as al-Qaeda was in Iraq).
If the impending surge fails to pacify the country, will we send another increment of troops, then another, as we did in Southeast Asia? As the British learned the hard way, Afghanistan can be disciplined, but it can't be profitably occupied or liberalized. It's inconceivable to us, but many Afghans prefer their lives to the lives we envision for them. The lot of women is hideous, and the lives of nearly all the people are nasty, brutish and short. But the culture is theirs.
Even "our man in Kabul," President Hamid Karzai, put his self-interest above any greater cause. Reborn a populist, he backs every Taliban claim that the U.S. inflicts only civilian casualties in virtually every effort against terrorists. Karzai is convinced that we can't abandon him.
We should do just that. Instead of floundering in search of a strategy, we should consider removing the bulk, if not all, of our forces. The alternative is to hope blindly, waste more lives and resources, and, in the worst case, see our vulnerable supply route through Pakistan cut, forcing upon our troops the most ignominious retreat since Korea in 1950 (a massive air evacuation this time around, leaving a wealth of military gear).
Ranked from best to worst, here are our four basic options going forward:
Best. Instead of increasing the U.S. military "footprint," reduce our forces and those of NATO by two-thirds, maintaining a "mother ship" at Bagram Air Base and a few satellite bases from which special operations troops, aircraft and drones, and lean conventional forces would strike terrorists and support Afghan factions with whom we share common enemies. All resupply for our military could be done by air, if necessary.
Stop pretending Afghanistan's a real state. Freeze development efforts. Ignore the opium. Kill the fanatics.
Good. Leave entirely. Strike terrorist targets from over the horizon and launch punitive raids when necessary. Instead of facing another Vietnam ourselves, let Afghanistan become a Vietnam for Iran and Pakistan. Rebuild our military at home, renewing our strategic capabilities.
Poor. Continue to muddle through as is, accepting that achieving any meaningful change in Afghanistan is a generational commitment. Surge troops for specific missions, but not permanently.
Worst. Augment our forces endlessly and increase aid in the absence of a strategy. Lie to ourselves that good things might just happen. Let U.S. troops and Afghans continue to die for empty rhetoric, while Pakistan decays into a vast terrorist refuge.
A reality check
In any event, Pakistan, not Afghanistan, will determine the future of Islamist extremism in the region. And Pakistan is nearly lost to us a fact we must accept. Our strategic future lies with India.
President Obama pitched Afghanistan as the good war during his campaign, while rejecting our efforts in Iraq as a sideshow. He got it exactly wrong. Now our new president either needs to lay out a coherent, detailed strategy with realistic goals, or accept that, by mid-2002, we had achieved all that conventional forces could manage in Afghanistan.
We don't need hope. We need the audacity of realism.
#3
Yeah, let's give back Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas to the Apache. It only took about twenty years of inconclusive and muddled strategy to try to make it work. /sarcasm off
#5
I see no reason to condemn our Afghan friends--and a lot of these people are our friends, make no mistake about it, they've put it on the line for the same cause we're engaged in because they don't want their daughters enslaved in burkas either--to feudalism. I do think we need to be realistic about how quickly the place will change, and let them work things out at their own pace. I do agree with Peters that we need to pay more attention to Pakistan.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/26/2009 12:03
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Iraq was the 'good' war, though not recognized as such. In my opinion we should have scaled our A'stan presence back to a couple of isolated and defensible airbases from which to base Predator strikes and Special Ops. And that was not too far from what we did do, initially. Until all the yakking that Iraq was wrong and Afghanistan was right. Iraq was winnable and worth winning. I doubt A'stan is either one.
#7
Karzai needs to wake up to a couple days without American security, security advisors, or anyone in the American military returning his calls.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2009 19:32
Comments ||
Top||
#8
g: In my opinion we should have scaled our A'stan presence back to a couple of isolated and defensible airbases from which to base Predator strikes and Special Ops.
My impression is that isolation and defensibility are mutually incompatible characteristics. Bases need supplies and fresh troops. Isolation means supplies and men have to run the gauntlet to get to the base. Isolation means bases are hard to reinforce and resupply in the event of enemy attack. Isolation means bases that are occasionally overrun with the entire base population KIA, in accordance with Taliban policy towards infidels. The small presence we have in a huge country like Afghanistan (50% larger than Iraq) is probably the minimum necessary to prevent such debacles.
Click through for the video. Fast forward to 3:00 unless you want to watch three minutes of a dot flying at low level. The plane is either hit by AAA or deliberately crashes into a government building (Sri Lankan IRS) with a big bang.
This video shows the wreckage of the other plane in the attack, full of bullet holes.
A secretive armed group engaged in the bloody separatist jihad conflict in southern Thailand has told Al Jazeera that it will not compromise on seeking independence for the largely Muslim area. Speaking to Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen at a location outside Thailand, a senior member of the National Revolutionary Front Co-ordinate (BRN-C) said the group's main aim was "to fight for independence through an armed revolution".
"Our main aim is not war but we are forced into this because without violence Siam [Thailand] will never stop discriminating against the Malay people in the south," he said on condition of anonymity.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in the conflict since simmering tensions over rule by Buddhist-majority Thailand flared in 2004. Despite some 30,000 Thai troops being deployed in the region, the shootings, grenade attacks and car bombings happen almost daily, with 90 per cent of those killed being civilians. Muslims who work as teachers or in other positions seen as being too close to the government have also been targeted in some recent cases the victims have been beheaded or burned alive, rights groups say.
"We have three kinds of enemies," the senior BRN-C fighter told Al Jazeera. "Siam and its allies - and another enemy who we don't really know but they are people who obstruct our revolution. So we need to make them aware that as Muslims they should be on our side."
Another BRN-C field commander who admitted being responsible for many of the attacks over the last few years, told Al Jazeera that the group had cells in villages across the south that were so secretive even members did not know each others' identities. At a secret meeting in Narathiwat province he told our correspondent that the group was prepared to fight until its last breath to free Muslims from what he called the colonisation of the Thai south.
In an interview with Al Jazeera Thailand's prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, said his government was working to address "past injustices and grievances" as the way to move forward in the region. "My government has made it a clear policy that the key to peace in the south is justice," he said.
"It may be the aim [of the insurgency to demand a separate state], but my government will prove that the people living in the five provinces are treated fairly, that they will have opportunities, and that they are valued by the Thai government." But,with little progress so far, support for the separatist movement has been growing.
The Thai army believes the BRN-C has 5,000 armed fighters and bomb-makers, along with some 50,000 supporters. The group is believed to recruit mainly from madrassas or religious schools in the south, where opposition to Bangkok's rule has been fuelled in recent years by the often harsh tactics employed by the Thai army.
"These provinces are all Muslim areas but they are under Thai rule, so what people are fighting for are their rights. Now they don't have rights," Ali Sekan, a religious teacher, told Al Jazeera.
#1
he told our correspondent that the group was prepared to fight until its last breath
Y'all remember the Bronson movie Where he's got the doper/thug in his gunsights, sees a crucifix (Quite large) around the punks neck and says "You believe in God" terrified thug nods his head and says "Yes", Bronson says "Go find out" and blasts him.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 8:32
Comments ||
Top||
As federal authorities press their case against a Tustin man accused of lying about ties to Al-Qaeda, they disclosed this week that some evidence came from an informant who infiltrated Orange County mosques and allegedly recorded the defendant discussing jihad, weapons and plans to blow up abandoned buildings. On Wednesday, a man who claims to be that informant stepped forward, filing court documents saying that he had served as a confidential informant for the FBI from July 2006 to October 2007 to identify and thwart terrorist operations in the Orange County Islamic community.
The claim by Craig Monteilh, a 46-year-old Irvine resident, that he had been sent by the FBI to infiltrate several Orange County mosques could affect the government's case against Ahmadullah Sais Niazi. His allegations highlight recurring issues about the use of informants by law enforcement agencies and have fanned long-held fears by some Muslim leaders about religious profiling.
Monteilh said in interviews that he had alerted the FBI to Niazi after meeting him at the Islamic Center of Irvine in November 2006 and spending eight months with him. Monteilh said he called himself Farouk Al-Aziz and posed as a Syrian-French American in search of his Islamic roots. Monteilh told the FBI that Niazi befriended him and began to lecture him about jihad, gave him lessons in bomb-making and discussed plots to blow up Orange County landmarks. "He took me under his wing and began to radicalize me," Monteilh said.
The FBI declined to comment on Monteilh's allegations, which could not be independently verified. Niazi's attorney, deputy federal public defender Chase Scolnick, also declined to comment. But an FBI agent's testimony in the case Tuesday and interviews with Muslim leaders both appeared to bolster some of Monteilh's assertions about his role in the case.
Special Agent Thomas J. Ropel III testified at a bail hearing for Niazi that the defendant had been secretly recorded by an informant while initiating jihadist rhetoric and threatening to blow up abandoned buildings. Ropel did not name Monteilh but testified that the agency's informant was the same man Muslims had reported to the FBI as an extremist. In June 2007, the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported Monteilh to the FBI as a possible terrorist, said Hussam Ayloush, the council's executive director in Anaheim.
Ayloush said he was "100% sure" that Monteilh was the informant in question and expressed anger and disappointment that the FBI would infiltrate mosques. He accused officials of trying to entrap innocent Muslims, noting that Monteilh has been convicted of grand theft and forgery in the past. He said Muslims had worked hard to develop a partnership with the FBI -- and had been assured by J. Steven Tidwell, then assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles field office, at an Irvine forum in 2006 that their mosques were not being monitored. Now, Ayloush said, he has doubts about future relations with the FBI. "This is religious profiling at its worst," Ayloush said about the FBI operation.
The Afghanistan-born Niazi, 34, was arrested last week and is scheduled to be arraigned next month on suspicion of perjury, naturalization fraud, misuse of a passport obtained by fraud and making a false statement to a federal agency. Niazi, who has lived in the United States since 1998 and earned citizenship five years ago, is related by marriage to Amin al-Haq, an Afghan militant who fought the Soviet occupation of the 1980s with a U.S.-backed Islamic resistance force that now is branded an Al Qaeda affiliate. Niazi is accused of failing to disclose those ties during his application for citizenship. Niazi asserted after his arrest last week that he is an innocent man who is being retaliated against by the FBI for refusing to become an informant.
In Tuesday's bail hearing, Ropel asserted that Niazi was a danger to the community who should be held without bail. But prosecutors offered no testimony regarding the specific plots Monteilh says he told the FBI that he discussed with Niazi, allegedly involving attacks on Orange County shopping centers, military installations and court buildings. Nor was there any testimony about other mosque members allegedly having been involved in those or other terrorist activities, as Monteilh maintains was the case.
Ayloush said he had received numerous complaints from Muslims in 2007 that Monteilh was aggressively promoting terrorist plots and trying to recruit others to join him. Citing such behavior and saying that it made members of the mosque feel threatened, the Islamic Center of Irvine won a temporary restraining order in June 2007 that barred Monteilh from the mosque.
Monteilh filed a petition Wednesday to lift the restraining order, saying that he wanted to clear his name from any suspicion of terrorist activity. He had not contested the original order, he said, because he had been instructed by the FBI not to testify at the hearing. But he said he was speaking out now because the FBI had allegedly violated pledges to remove the restraining order, place him in a witness protection program, give him a final payment of $100,000 and grant other benefits in an exit package. "Although the FBI has not fulfilled their promises, I am proud to have participated in the War on Terror," Monteilh said in the petition.
Monteilh, burly and bald, said he first began working for the FBI in late 2003 as an informant on white supremacist and narcotics cases after making connections with the Aryan Brotherhood during a prison stint for forgery. In 2006, he alleges, he agreed to infiltrate mosques. During two weeks of training, Monteilh said in an interview with The Times, he was taught about Islam, Arabic, self-defense and weapons. He said he was outfitted with video and audio recording devices and given specific names of people to monitor. Monteilh said he also was instructed to progress slowly in his embrace of Islam to make his conversion seem natural -- wearing Western clothes initially and then eventually growing a beard and donning an Egyptian robe, shawl and head cap.
In August 2006, Monteilh said, he approached his first target: the Islamic Center of Irvine. There, he alleges, he made his declaration of the Islamic faith known as shahada and, as instructed by his FBI handlers, posed as a serious student of Islam. Several Muslims began to embrace him, he told the FBI, and by December he was approached by Niazi. The pair dined at an Islamic Chinese restaurant in Anaheim and hit it off after Monteilh pledged that he would do everything he could to protect Muslims from harm by infidels. He described Niazi as highly intelligent, devout, resourceful and scholarly, with a temperate mien overlaying the passion of his cause.
In an interview, Monteilh alleged that he told the FBI that Niazi told him that he had been one of 200 people who greeted Osama Bin Laden in 1996 when he took refuge in Afghanistan after being expelled from Sudan. Niazi called Bin Laden an "angel," Monteilh said -- an assertion that FBI Agent Ropel repeated this week as information gleaned from the agency's informant. Ropel testified Tuesday that Niazi told the informant that it was his "duty to engage in violent jihad."
Over a year, Monteilh further related in an interview, the FBI paid him sums ranging from $2,500 a month to as high as $11,200. Monteilh said he was cut loose as an informant in fall 2007 because members of the mosque he infiltrated began to suspect that he was working with the FBI.
Kenneth Piernick, a former FBI counter-terrorism official who is a consultant in Virginia, said parsing out what's true and what's not, even from someone deemed to be a reliable informant, can be challenging. "You don't go talk to choirboys to get information on thugs," said Piernick, who retired from the bureau in 2003.
He said informants can be egotistical, manipulative and dishonest. Those who are getting paid, he said, have been known to "exaggerate information, or even invent it" to keep the money flowing. Piernick said common reasons for discontinuing an informant include low-quality or unreliable information. "In other words, he's not worth the effort," Piernick said.
Does Iran have enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon? One thing is clear if it doesn't today, it can speed up the process substantially through work that takes little more skill than knowing how to use a plumber's wrench.
The issue has come under renewed scrutiny with the latest International Atomic Energy Agency report a few days ago on the state of Tehran's uranium enrichment program, which can create both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads.
It is also bound to figure in next week's deliberations of the IAEA's 35-nation board, which will focus on Iran's defiance of U.N. Security Council demands that it freeze enrichment and ease fears it seeks to make the bomb.
With the IAEA report issuing the latest figures of nuclear material Iran has processed, attention has turned to whether it could process the 1,010 kilograms 2,222 pounds of low-enriched uranium it is known to have amassed into enough highly enriched uranium to arm one weapon.
Some experts say 1,010 kilograms is close enough to the commonly cited minimum requirement of 1,100 kilograms, or just over 2,400 pounds, for Tehran to make a realistic attempt at making a bomb. Others say that for various technical reasons the 1,100 figure is too low, even if Iran took the unlikely step of reconfiguring its enrichment program to make weapons grade uranium under the nose of IAEA inspectors at the site. Still others are in-between, saying there are too many unknowns to make a clear prediction.
Lost in the argument is an important fact: should it be looking to make a bomb, Iran has the capacity to easily rev up production of enriched uranium to reach whatever amount it needs much more quickly than it is doing now.
It currently has close to 4,000 machines pumping out the low enriched uranium and has produced enough material to bring it at least close to 1,100 kilograms. But in a little noted observation, the IAEA report also said Tehran has 1,600 more centrifuges for enriching uranium gas feedstock on standby.
In numbers roughly tallying with the official IAEA count, Iran on Wednesday announced that 6,000 centrifuges were now "operating" at Iran's enrichment facility in the town of Natanz, including those enriching and those on standby. Iranian nuclear chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Iran hopes to install over 50,000 centrifuges there over the next five years.
Iranian technicians at the vast underground Natanz enrichment plant need to do little more than hook the extra 1,500 machines to the tap feeding the already operating centrifuges. Suddenly, 5,600 centrifuges would be on line instead of 4,000. Daily output of low-enriched, or fuel-grade uranium would rise to just over 3 kilograms 6.6 pounds from about 2.2 kilograms now.
With 5,600 centrifuges enriching, Iran could add about 100 kilograms more than 200 pounds to its established stockpile within a month; or even more, considering it is setting up additional ready-to-go centrifuges every day.
Even those 100 kilograms would give it an estimated low-enriched uranium stockpile of just over 1,100 kilograms the minimum experts believe is required to yield the 25 kilograms, or 55 pounds, of highly enriched weapons grade uranium needed to build one bomb.
However, those figures themselves are contentious.
The Federation of American Scientists argues that experts using the 25 kilogram figure fail to take into account that even if there is that much bomb-quality uranium mixed into their stockpile not all of it is recoverable through enrichment methods.
"The 12 to 13 kilograms they could produce would not be enough for a bomb," says FAS vice president Ivan Oelrich vice president of the FAS Strategic Security Program.
Moreover, the process of making the first uranium metal warhead from enriched uranium can lead to material loss, further reducing the amount left for a nuclear weapon.
Iran, for its part denies such aims, saying it only wants to enrich to low-level nuclear fuel grades for energy purposes. Still, with so many machines available, and more being manufactured daily, why hasn't it pressed all its centrifuges into service? Why has it only put about 200 of them to work between the IAEA's November report and the most recent one?
Even IAEA officials differ on these questions. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei recently suggested Tehran's reticence was "political" implying it was willing to wait on expanding enrichment in exchange for better relations with the new U.S. administration, which has pledged to break with decades of snubbing Iran and talk directly with it.
But some of his technical staff say the reason may have more to do with technical problems at Natanz. They note frequent breakdowns of centrifuges and say the Islamic Republic needs to have at least some ready to substitute for these.
Whatever the reasons, the agency is united in dismissing recent suggestions that Tehran had tried to hide the true amount of low-enriched uranium it was producing by purposely underestimating output between once-yearly IAEA inspections of amounts.
It turns out that the estimates were about a third less than the actual amount of 1,010 kilograms. Still agency officials say the mistake appeared unintentional and within limits of error inherent in such guesswork. And, as usual, in Iran's favor. Again.
"The agency has no reason at all to believe that the estimates of the low enriched uranium produced ... were an intentional error by Iran," according to IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. "Iran has provided good cooperation on this matter and will be working to improve its future estimates."
Even diplomats from Western nations accusing Iran of harboring nuclear weapons ambitions agree that at least this time Tehran is not guilty of deception.
#1
IRAN's NUKE CHIEF has already answered the question, i.e. that THE USA + WEST MUST ACCEPT IRAN AS A DE FACTO "NUCLEAR POWER", + Iran also repor STILL plans to enable or empower by Year 2012 as many as 50,000 centrifuges at its NATANTZ NUCPLANT.
IRANIAN = ISLAMIST NUCWEAPS are all but inevitable - the surprise or shock will occur IFF IRAN DOESN'T DEV NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
North Korea has built an underground fueling facility near a key launch pad, a news report said Thursday, making it harder for spy satellites to detect signs that a missile is being prepared for launch.
The facility was built at the Musudan-ni missile site on North Korea's northeastern coast either late last year or early this year, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unidentified senior South Korean official.
The National Intelligence Service, Seoul's top spy agency, and the Defense Ministry declined to confirm the report, citing the sensitivity of intelligence matters.
North Korea announced earlier this week that plans to send a communications satellite into orbit as part of its space program were fully under way. It did not say when the launch would take place, but recent satellite imagery showed brisk activity near the launch pad.
Neighboring powers and the U.S. believe the satellite launch may be a cover for a test-fire of a long-range ballistic missile.
"Our scientists and engineers are actively pushing forward on a peaceful space project," the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station said in a report late Wednesday.
In 1998, North Korea test-fired a long-range Taepodong-1 ballistic missile over Japan and then claimed to have put a satellite into orbit. In 2006, the country also test-launched a longer-range Taepodong-2 missile believed capable of reaching Alaska, but it plunged into the ocean shortly after liftoff. The North is believed to be working on an upgraded Taepodong-2 capable of reaching the U.S. west coast.
The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution in 2006 prohibiting Pyongyang from ballistic activity. South Korea says it would consider either a satellite or missile launch a threat and violation of the U.N. ban since both use similar rocket delivery systems.
"We expect the North to claim a satellite launch after firing a missile," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young told reporters Thursday, noting that the North has little need for a satellite in space.
Senior NIS officials told South Korean lawmakers Wednesday that the government suspects the projectile being prepared for launch is a long-range missile, not a satellite.
The object's shape "is similar to" the Taepodong missile, senior NIS officials said, according to ruling party lawmaker Lee Cheol-woo, who attended the closed-door session.
Analysts said satellite imagery taken last week revealed a flurry of activity at the Musudan-ni test site but no indication a rocket had been mounted on the launch pad. Once mounted, the rocket could take days to fuel.
Changes in commercial satellite images captured Wednesday by DigitalGlobe indicate progress toward a launch, said Tim Brown, director of Talent-Keyhole.com, an independent imagery analysis firm in the U.S. He predicted a launch within weeks.
Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il visited towns in the same province as the launch site, about 110 miles (180 kilometers) away, state-run media said Wednesday.
#1
You know fueling missiles with Hydrazine and fuming red nitric acid under ground might not be too bright. two chemicals that really want to react with each other. Nice ventilation system you got there, shame if anything happened to it. Another project for Operation Lemony Snicket.
POLICE have raided a Tokyo trading company suspected of attempting to export to North Korea equipment that can be used to make missiles, reports said. Public broadcaster NHK said the company, Toko Boeki, was suspected of trying to send the magnetic measuring instruments, which could be used to make missiles, to North Korea via a third country.
The trading house is reportedly linked to the North Korean residents' association in Japan, Chongryon. Police declined to confirm the reports.
Under Japanese law, exports of instruments which can be used to make weapons of mass destruction must be approved by the trade minister. Japan has intensified pressure on North Korea since Pyongyang tested missiles and a nuclear bomb in 2006.
North Korea said Tuesday that it was preparing to launch a satellite, a move that the US and its allies believe could be a long-range missile test.
Tokyo's relations with North Korea remain tense particularly over Pyongyang's kidnappings of Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s, a major political issue here. In 2007, Japanese police raided Chongryon buildings in central Tokyo over allegations that an ethnic Korean illegally tried to export medication to the impoverished communist state.
There are 600,000 Koreans in Japan, many of them descendants of forced labourers during the Japanese rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
#1
The almighty yen. Echos of Toshiba selling the Russians high-tech milling equipment. Only this time, the proceeds will be used to endanger Japan itself. Hang 'em high.
TALIBAN militants beheaded an Afghan in Pakistan's lawless tribal region after accusing him of spying for the United States, local police said today. The 35-year-old man was kidnapped one week ago and his body found today in Razmak some 65km south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, an official said.
"He was slaughtered overnight. His headless body was put on the roadside," police official Munir Khan said.
A note found on the body of the man, identified as Shafiq Gul, said he was "spying for the US".
"Whoever spies for the US will face the same fate. This is a gift to (US President Barack) Obama," the note said.
Islamist militants frequently kidnap and kill local tribesmen and Afghans, on alleged charges of spying for the Pakistani government or for US forces, who are battling a Taliban-led insurgency across the border in Afghanistan.
#3
Now that the Gloval War on Terror is over, The new Obama Administration is conducting a comprehensive strategy review in its war against Islamist extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
H/T Michelle Malkin
From the left-leaning Seattle Weekly, which has long documented Locke's cronyism:
Of course, there was that memory loss and all those "I don't recall . . . I don't remember" statements to Congressional investigators in 1999, probing his gubernatorial campaign fund-raising efforts; the astonishing $3.2 billion tax break he gave to Boeing while never disclosing he paid $715,000 to - and relied on the advice of - Boeing's own private consultant and outside auditor for advice; and those favors for his brother-in-law (who lived in the governor's mansion), including a tax break for his relative's company, personal intervention in a company dispute, and Locke's signature on a federal loan application for the company.
#1
Wake up smell the coffee people. In the state of Washington, under Democrats, Republicans or wild eyed populists, Boeing is a core industry. It gets what it wants...and we want it to. Nobody here wants to kill the golden goose or turn Boeing into the next Chrysler. It brings a boatload of bucks into this state even if it were to pay no tax at all.
If you are interested in Locke you may want to read my comment in the other Locke posting in this section.
#3
Boeing has stopped investing in Washington state due to the high cost of doing business, although it does have large legacy factory and research operations there. It's headquarters are now in Illinois.
Given the downturn in the airline business, the problems of raising capital to buy aircraft, and Obama's upcoming slashing of defense procurement, the Seattle area is going to take a major hit that will be difficult to recover from.
#4
The eye popping tax breaks mentioned in the posting is this states deal with Boeing to keep the new Dreamliner aircraft production in Seattle and address "the high cost of doing business".
This amazing aircraft is in the last stages of production and will begin delivery in the near future. The investment for this has already happened. The order book is so full that the next recession will come and go before production ends. Payoff time is coming. It sucks to be Airbus.
#5
Michelle had a link to a previous article with even more detail from her days at the Seattle Times. It seems that Locke is fused at the hip to the Chinese. Not a problem to for a Dem.
#6
I call shenanigans on this.
All this stuff was completely and boringly investigated by the newspapers and the government at the time. No one in Washington state who owned a tv set could miss it. It goes nowhere. It's finished. Fines paid and no one in jail. Locke easily reelectable.
The idea that he is "fused at the hip to the Chinese" is laughable to anyone in WA. If we go there, we will be ridiculed. Accused of having some racist fantasy that he is a Fu Manchu. Look like fools. Please. Don't. Go. There.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2009 19:44
Comments ||
Top||
#8
the astonishing $3.2 billion tax break he gave to Boeing
That's astonishing? Malkin is a little uninformed. Boeing is Washington state's biggest single employer. As it was, Boeing moved its corporate HQ to Illinois. Without that inducement, Boeing would have moved a lot more of its operations outside of WA.
A genuine negative is the fact that Locke is a member of the Committee of 100, an NAACP-type group. What the difference between the Committee of 100 and the NAACP? The NAACP doesn't advocate (much) for foreign countries. The Committee of 100 does.
Israeli warplanes launched two air strikes along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt on Wednesday as delegates from three Palestinian factions were crossing at a nearby terminal, witnesses said. Above ground or through tunnels?
They said the two air strikes left large craters and caused damage to surrounding homes near the border, where smugglers operate a massive underground network of tunnels to supply goods to the besieged territory. Were the houses damaged by blast into them from the entrances to collapsing tunnels?
There were no immediate reports of anyone killed or wounded. Better luck next time.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that two air strikes had been carried out in the area.
Palestinian militants had earlier fired two crude homemade rockets into southern Israel without causing any casualties, according to the military. Two rockets, two air strikes; that sounds like a proportional response, which should please the UN.
Delegations from the Islamic Jihad group and two factions from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) headed by the Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas were crossing into Egypt at the time of the Israeli raid. The delegations were to attend talks in Cairo aimed at reconciling the feuding factions.
#3
Given that the state of the cease fire has little or no relation to hostilities, I don't know why anyone even bothers mentioning it, unless they are issuing commemorative stamps and t-shirts.
#4
A few Daisy Cutters would take care of business.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
02/26/2009 5:35
Comments ||
Top||
#5
FOREIGN-SUPPLIED WEAPONS BEING USED AGZ CIVILIANS IN GAZA BY ISRAEL AND HAMAS.
That's not news, JosephM. Even I know some of Israel's weapons were purchased from the U.S., and all of Hamas's come from Iran and the international arms market... although probably none from the souks of Peshawar and Karachi.
DHAKA, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The rebellion by border guards Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) is all set to end as thousands of rebel soldiers started to surrender early on Thursday, nearly 20 hours after they staged revolt against their army officers. Quamrul Islam, Bangladesh's State Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, early on Thursday, after visiting the BDR Headquarters to observe the disarmament process, said the death toll of the mutiny may stand at "more or less 50."
Earlier, at least 30 others were confirmed to be injured, including civilians suffering stray bullet wounds.
The BDR soldiers, whose primary task is guarding the Bangladesh frontier with India and Myanmar, staged the revolt at their headquarters in capital Dhaka on Wednesday morning to press for their demands concerning their salary and other benefits. The rebels in the morning opened fire at the army officers, who commanded the BDR soldiers on deputation, complaining that they are mistreated by the officers.
Army troops were called out from Dhaka Cantonment to put down the unrest. They, as well as police and elite-force Rapid Action Battalion, took positions surrounding the headquarters in the west of Dhaka city with cannons and machine guns.
In the afternoon, Bangladesh's Prime Minister Hasina had a trouble-shooting talk with a 14-member rebel delegation at her official residence. After hectic negotiations, Hasina announced general amnesty for the rebels and assured meeting of their demands gradually while the BDR representatives promised the prime minister to lay down arms.
Despite the consensus with prime minister, the BDR soldiers opened fresh firing in the evening and declined to lay down arms, demanding a written assurance from the prime minister on amnesty and full withdrawal of army from all 46 BDR units countrywide.
Against this backdrop, fresh talks between the rebels representatives and the Home Minister Sahara Khatun took place where the mutineer finally agreed to surrender. After hours of closed-door talks that ended after Wednesday midnight, the country's female home minister entered into the besieged BDR Headquarters to make the rebels disarmed.
"We expect there will be congenial atmosphere following the disarmament," Home Minister Sahara Khatun told state-run BTV at a small ceremony early on Thursday inside the BDR Headquarters where mutineers surrendered their arms to her. Meanwhile, she said she has given her government's assurance to the rebel soldiers that army troops will not attack on them.
The home ministry will supervise the entire disarmament process and look after the arms, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, State Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Cooperatives told reporters here. Nanak, who negotiated with the rebels, also said the government will take pragmatic measures to deal with post-disarmament situation. "Since there are around 15,000 BAR soldiers, the disarmament process will take time," the law state minister Islam said.
"We expect situation will return to normalcy after the disarmament," said ruling party Awami League MP Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh who was also a member of the government negotiating team.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Intelligence failure not seeing this coming.
Plus, the failure of treating your troops like dogs, but hey.
#2
BDR personnel were seen repeatedly bayoneting the bodies of Bangladeshi Army officers. Quite a number were recovered from a sewage trench where they had been dumped.
The Army has moved in with tanks and they have brought in the RAB to 'assist'. Payback begins in a few hours.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/26/2009 6:04
Comments ||
Top||
President Barack Obama on Wednesday tried for the third time to fill the vacant commerce secretary position, tapping former Washington Gov. Gary Locke for a Cabinet post that two previous nominees have backed away from.
But Lockes post-gubernatorial efforts to drum up business for an array of companies in the rapidly expanding Chinese market may require steps to reconcile with the administrations ethics policy.
Just another seedy politician ...
It didn't hurt Hillary.
At a late morning press conference, Obama called Locke "the right man for this job" and asserted Lockes background equips him to be "a tireless advocate for our economic competitiveness, and an influential ambassador for American industry who will help us do everything we can -- especially now -- to promote it around the world." ...and that's why he's my third choice.
What's good for Microsoft is good for America ...
Indeed, Lockes personal story as the son of immigrants, his leadership of trade-dependent Washington State and his private sector work makes him tailor-made to head the Commerce Department.
The problem is that Locke, a partner in an international law firms China division, has advocated for Microsoft, Starbucks, and banking, timber and shipping interests in recent years, raising potential conflicts for him as head of a department charged with promoting U.S. trade around the globe.
One of Obamas first acts as president was to sign an executive order barring executive branch officials from working on issues "directly and substantially related" to their former clients or employers for two years.
Which he's already had to pull back a couple times ...
Yet if hes confirmed as commerce secretary, Chinese trade issues -- including some with direct impact on the companies he went to bat for -- are likely to be high on the agenda for Locke, who is the first Chinese-American governor.
Software piracy issues would rank among them. Microsoft and other software developers have lobbied both the U.S. and Chinese governments to crack down on profit-draining practice. On a similar front, Starbucks recently won a trademark lawsuit against a Chinese company using its logo.
An administration official brushed off questions about what steps, if any, would be necessary to ensure Locke complied with Obamas ethics policy. Instead, the official said that Locke didnt act as a lawyer for the companies named in this story, with the exception of Microsoft. The other companies likely were clients of Lockes law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine, suggested the official, who did not respond to requests to release a full list of the clients Locke represented in the last two years.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
How bad would it be were the position not filled for a few years?
#3
Discloser: I live in Olympia, WA. I have a close relationship with people who know and worked with Locke. I am not a Dem. I have never worked for the State or Feds except as a lowly US Navy sailor.
Locke is by all reports a amazing brainiac and a man that most people would call a overachiever. He is, of course, a social liberal though not a ideologue. He could also be described as a fiscal realist, perhaps not a fiscal conservative but he can identify waste and within the limits of our screwed up system, he will try to improve things. Several people I know and trust feel he is as clean as its possible to be in our political system.
About China: Here in WA, trade with the Pacific Rim is very important, it's also important to the US as a whole. Even though he can't speak chinese, being about 110% assimilated, he is well known throughout the Rim area. He has lot of experience with the high tech industry here in WA. This is not a negative when we need to export ourselves out of this hole we are in.
In my opinion, Obama has blundered into a wise choice for the US.
Extra credit! I have not seen a recent photo but he also a hot looking wife.
#4
Sorry people, the last line should read,
He also has a hot looking wife.
As much as I admire M Malkin, a tough woman indeed, she has dredged up a bunch of crud that was hashed and rehashed by the local press and never went anywhere. I would suggest that if she wants to work over a WA politician she should fixate on that lowlife traitor Jim McDermott(D WA). If she wants to catch a pol stealing a red hot stove, I suggest she keep a eye on Ron Sims (D WA), from Seattle. I think he was recently appointed to a job at HUD.
#8
So now we are judging people by the hotness of their spouse? (But she is damn cute :)
As I recall Locke at one time went to tour the schools in China to see 'what we can learn from them'. At a different time they discovered bats in the attic of the Governor's mansion. (talk about bats in the belfry...).
My impression is that Locke isn't quite as bad as some of the Pols around here in the Peoples Republic - like Ron Sims.
#9
The problem is that Locke, a partner in an international law firms China division, has advocated for Microsoft, Starbucks, and banking, timber and shipping interests in recent years, raising potential conflicts for him as head of a department charged with promoting U.S. trade around the globe.
The fact that he worked for American interests in China, instead of Chinese interests in America, would seem to be a plus.
Gannett is slashing its dividend for the first time in its history. It comes as the largest U.S. newspaper publisher succumbs to the recession's financial squeeze. The cut announced Wednesday will lower the payment to 4 cents per share, a 90 percent drop from 40 cents per share. The dividend had been steadily increasing since Gannett made its first quarterly payment in 1967.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
The Democratic-controlled House approved $410 billion legislation Wednesday that boosted domestic programs, bristled with earmarks and chipped away at policies left behind by the Bush administration.
The vote was 245-178, largely along party lines.
Republicans assailed the measure as too costly -- particularly on the heels of a $787 billion stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed last week. But Democrats jabbed back.
"The same people who drove the economy into the ditch are now complaining about the size of the tow truck," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., pointing out the large increase in deficits that President George W. Bush and GOP-controlled Congresses amassed.
From the GOP side, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas said the legislation was "going to grow the government 8.3 percent ... but the family budget which has to pay for the federal budget only grew at 1.3 percent last year."
The debate occurred one day after Obama told Congress in a prime time television address that he intends to cut deficits in half over the next four years, and one day before he submits tax and spending plans for the coming year. Given the extraordinary costs of the financial industry bailout and the stimulus, the White House projects this year's budget shortfall will be $1.5 trillion, triple the previous record of $455 billion in 2008.
In a symbolic bow to the recession, Democrats included in the spending measure a prohibition on a cost-of-living increase for members of Congress for the year.
Overall, the legislation would provided increases of roughly 8 percent for the federal agencies it covered, about $32 billion more than last year.
The bill is intended to allow smooth functioning of the government through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. The Senate has yet to vote on its version.
After persuading lawmakers to keep earmarks off the stimulus bill, Obama made no such attempt on the first non-emergency spending measure of his presidency. The result was that lawmakers claimed billions in federal funds for pet projects -- a total of 8,570 earmarks at a cost of $7.7 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. Majority Democrats declined to provide a number of earmarks, but said the cost was far smaller, $3.8 billion, 5 percent less than a year ago.
Among the earmarks was one sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., who secured $200,000 for a "tattoo removal violence outreach program" in Los Angeles. Aides said the money would pay for a tattoo removal machine that could help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past, and anyone benefiting would be required to perform community service.
Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said the bill included at least a dozen earmarks for clients of PMA Group, a lobbying company now at the center of a federal corruption investigation.
"It's simply not responsible to allow a soon-to-be-criminally indicted lobbying firm to win funding, all borrowed, in this bill," he said. No charges have been filed against the firm or its principals, although the company's offices were raided earlier this month, and it has announced plans to disband by the end of the month.
Federal prosecutors are investigating PMA Group's founder and president, Paul Magliochetti, who is a former top aide to Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds defense programs.
In remarks on the House floor, Republican leader John Boehner urged Obama to veto the legislation, citing earmarks.
At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs responded only in general terms whether that was possible.
"There is great concern in this building and by the president about earmarks," Gibbs said.
"Without having looked specifically at a piece of legislation, I'm hesitant to throw out that four-letter word, `Veto."'
After eight years without control of the White House, congressional Democrats also used the legislation to target several policies of former President Bush.
Under the bill, Mexican-licensed trucks are banned from operating outside commercial zones along the border with the United States. The Teamsters union, which supported Obama's election last year, had sought the move. The Bush administration backed a pilot program to permit up to 500 trucks from 100 Mexican motor carriers access to U.S. roads.
Bush administration restrictions on travel to Cuba were loosened in the legislation, to permit more frequent visits and expand the list of family members permitted to make trips to see relatives on the Communist nation-island.
Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., took aim at a provision that he said would vastly broaden the government's ability to invoke the threat of climate change to halt economic development. "Most all of the shovel-ready projects on the trillion-dollar stimulus bill would in fact be at risk," he said.
Nominally, the provision halts implementation of a Bush-era regulation that lists the polar bear as a threatened species, and Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said it would merely give the new administration 60 days to decide its fate.
Democrats also inserted a provision into the bill to end a program that allows students in the District of Columbia to use federal funds to attend private schools of their choice. Boehner, who helped establish the program as part of a political bargain several years ago, called the move "hideous."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[25 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Among the earmarks was one sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., who secured $200,000 for a "tattoo removal violence outreach program" in Los Angeles. Aides said the money would pay for a tattoo removal machine that could help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past, and anyone benefiting would be required to perform community service.
Now that's a damn good idea.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 1:41
Comments ||
Top||
#4
quote from website
I always wanted one from the first time I saw one. I thought of other stuff, but Im a young person whos interested in politics and whats going on, and I thought, Why not
Answer, because you've now branded yourself both Democat and loser (When the next election comes around and the Democratic party Vanishes from the political Stage)
Good enough reason? Don't think It'll happen, ask the Whigs.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 9:04
Comments ||
Top||
#5
IIUC, removing or otherwise defacing a gang stamp is severly punished and/or death penalty.
If the plan is indeed to fix the economy, its like watching 3am drunk Jenga.
I would like to see the President required to sign each and every earmark and addition to every bill. Get some old WWF commentators for CSpan to broadcast the President signing 8,570 times. "As we know the President cannot sign bills under the new law until the beginning of the next month and only has 6 hours to sign them all with 2 30 minute breaks and 3 10 minute time-outs, but I don't know Mean Gene this one's a bigger than a square of Andre's toilet paper, looks like he's getting tired, hand is starting to cramp - uh oh he switched to the other hand..is that even a legal move? The sweat is pouring and we aren't even a third of the way through this bill." That would definately stimulate the beer and pretzel industry out here.
#6
To paraphrase Evert Dirkson, "A trillion here, a trillion there... pretty soon it adds up to real money". The Dems or really something. In just 30 days, a trillion dollars has become chump change.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
02/26/2009 17:36
Comments ||
Top||
A plot to blow up transatlantic airliners on their way to North America mid-flight was "orchestrated" from overseas, a British court heard on Wednesday.
Prosecutors alleged eight Islamic fundamentalists who had aimed to cause death on an "almost unimaginable scale" were directed by masterminds overseas to take bombs disguised as soft drinks onto United States and Canada-bound planes. "Those responsible for making significant decisions in implementation of the plot -- the utilisation of the active cell of bombers, the date -- was all to be decided overseas," prosecutor Peter Wright told Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London.
Wright, who had indicated the masterminds were based in Pakistan, added "This was not some half-baked plot by any group of enthusiastic amateurs dreaming up schemes over a kitchen table in east London".
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[15 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
JERUSALEM - Benjamin Netanyahus hawkish Likud party launched talks on Wednesday with right-wing parties on forming Israels next government after he failed in initial efforts to enlist his main centrist rival in a broad coalition. Netanyahu, who has said he wants to shift the focus of Palestinian statehood talks from territorial to economic issues, was chosen on Friday by President Shimon Peres to try to form a government and become prime minister for the second time.
Likud negotiators met officials of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party of Avigdor Lieberman and other right-wing factions later near Tel Aviv on terms for political partnership in a governing coalition. A spokeswoman for Lieberman said he would push to secure either the defence, finance or foreign affairs portfolio for himself. She said the party also wants the justice and internal security portfolios.
Yisrael Beiteinu, which came in third after the centrist Kadima party and the Likud in a Feb. 10 election, opposes Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank. It advocates trading land in Israel where Arab citizens live for Jewish settlements in the West Bank in any peace deal with Palestinians and calls for all Israelis to take an oath of loyalty to the Jewish state.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[25 views]
Top|| File under:
Technically, Prime Minister Olmert, 3dc. Remember when Belgium's winning party couldn't form a government for months and months? The lame duck PM continued running things until it all was straightened out. I can't remember if it took another election to do so, or if the king tapped someone else in the end, or what, but it was utterly absurd.
Iraqi authorities on Wednesday launched a manhunt for an MP accused of involvement in an April 2007 bombing of Parliament after his immunity was lifted and he was prevented from fleeing to Jordan. "Mohammad al-Daini is on the run but we are after him because the arrest warrant is now valid," the spokesman for Baghdad's military security command, General Qassem Atta, told AFP.
MPs voted to lift Daini's parliamentary immunity on Wednesday, just hours after he was barred from flying out to Amman from Baghdad airport, where he was refused an exit stamp at passport control.
He was trying to leave for Amman on a Royal Jordanian flight together with four other MPs, a security source at the airport said. The plane took off without the MPs, as the other four stayed behind in solidarity with Daini, the source added.
Daini, a Sunni Arab who has insisted on his innocence, was not arrested at the airport as he still had parliamentary immunity at the time. On Monday, the deputy dismissed charges of having ordered the bombing which killed eight people including a fellow MP, as a politically motivated "fabrication" due to his party's defense of human rights. "We have been disclosing serious violations of human rights in Iraqi prisons," Daini, a member of the National Dialogue Front. "We knew there would be a price to pay ... but we didn't expect it to go this far, to go beyond all constitutional and legal norms," he said. "These are fabrications ... It was clear they were tortured when they were shown on television," the MP said, referring to video recordings of two of his bodyguards confessing to being involved in the suicide bombing.
The MP, an ex-member of an elite Saddamist force, was accused on Sunday of ordering the bombing two years ago in the Parliament's canteen.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
The Lebanese military on Wednesday found four rockets in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, Lebanese security officials said. The officials said the rockets were discovered in Ein al-Jawz in the southeast - a region facing the Golan Heights.
The discovery comes five days after two Katyusha rockets were fired from southern Lebanon toward northern Israel, one of which wounded five people near a home in the Western Galilee.
The IDF responded immediately to that attack by firing artillery rounds at the source of the fire in southern Lebanon.
No one claimed responsibility for the rocket-fire, in what was the third such cross-border exchange this year.
On Monday night, Israel filed a complaint to the United Nations Security Council following the attack, saying said it held the Lebanese government responsible.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
The BDR mutineers claim the mutiny was not culmination of any long-term plan, rather results of long-repressed feelings of being deprived of financial and other in-service benefits and being ignored by the army high command.
Speaking anonymously to The Daily Star over phone, a mutineer accused the army of enjoying all benefits and "looting" everything, while BDR personnel are given poor salaries not enough for basic living. "I get only Tk 5,000 which is not enough to cover my monthly expenses. We are given 60 percent ration supplies for our children below 12. We have been demanding 100 percent ration as we cannot afford to buy the remaining 40 percent from the general shops."
He claims the residential facilities for the lower-level personnel are very poor, while not only army officers enjoy good facilities, their families also enjoy the same when they go abroad on UN Peace Mission.
BDR lower-level personnel are also deprived of the opportunity to join the UN missions and are deprived of the opportunity to earn foreign currency. While carrying out border duties, BDR personnel are not even given bicycles, while army officers get "luxurious" cars, he claims.
It was not possible for The Daily Star to avail the version of the BDR officers on the mutiny till filing of the report last night.
During the BNP rule between 1991 and 1996, the BDR lower tier staged mutinies in Dhaka, Chittagong, Feni, Jessore, Khulna and Naogaon expressing similar grievances. Those mutinies did not witness bloodshed and the personnel were assured of measures to address their issues, which were ultimately shelved.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[32 views]
Top|| File under:
Hey, look at that. The price has gone up. Again...
Palestine Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Wednesday that the Palestine Authority in the West Bank is hoping to raise $2.8 billion in foreign aid at next month's international donor conference for rebuilding the Gaza Strip, which was devastated by a 22-day Israeli offensive in December. I'm hoping to hit Mega Millions this weekend...
"We have prepared a document on the basis of which donors will make their aid pledges. It foresees a total of 2.8 billion dollars for all sectors," Fayyad told reporters in Ramallah, the political capital of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. So line up. And bring those checkbooks...INFIDELS!
"This document was prepared by the Palestinian Authority with the participation of all concerned parties and contains, in addition to the required aid, mechanisms that will allow donors to start reconstruction," he added. Ah, yes. The "mechanisms". Is that's what they're calling it now?
Representatives from more than 70 countries are expected to attend the international donor conference for Gaza rebuilding in Egypt on 2nd March. The United States is expected to pledge about $900 million for rebuilding Gaza. So...what's in it for us again?
I'll wait...
Iraqi authorities have arrested 11 Shiite police officers for alleged attacks against Sunnis, including the murder of Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi's sister, a security official said on Tuesday.
The men are suspected of having killed or kidnapped a number of Sunnis at the height of the country's sectarian strife, said the official, who asked not to be named.
One of the Sunni Muslims killed by the gang of police officers in a wave of violence over several years was Maysoon al-Hashemi the sister of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, Interior Ministry spokesman Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf said.
" They killed people in broad daylight, in front of everyone, and used police cars to commit their crimes "
Major-General Abdul Karim Khalaf
"They killed people in broad daylight, in front of everyone, and used police cars to commit their crimes," he said.
He said the four men had admitted murdering Hashemi, who headed the women's section of her brother's political movement, the Islamic Party, the country's main Sunni group.
A gang of 12 people including 11 policemen was "implicated in murders and kidnaps of a large number of people in Baghdad," the official said.
The arrest of one policeman for involvement in a kidnapping led to the capture of all members of the gang, the security official added.
"They have admitted killing shopkeepers in the al-Karkh neighborhood and killing others in Karrada while they were on patrol," he said, adding that most of the attacks took place at the end of 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[24 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
Sign of true national progress, or so it appears.
House Democrats killed a resolution Wednesday that called for an ethics committee inquiry into the relationship between campaign contributions and earmarks. The resolution, drafted by Jeff Flake , R-Ariz., cited recent reports of a federal investigation into the campaign finance activities of a lobbying firm, The PMA Group, which has been a major contributor to lawmakers campaigns and a successful advocate for earmarked federal dollars for its clients.
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland moved to table, or kill, Flakes resolution, and the House voted, 226-182, to do so. The move prevented a direct vote on whether to refer the matter to the ethics committee.
Only two Republicans voted with the Democratic majority. Seventeen Democrats voted with Flake, and 12 lawmakers six from each party, including nine of the 10 members of the ethics panel voted present.
Rep. Tim Holden , D-Pa., who presided over the House during the vote, received more than $57,000 in campaign contributions from PMAs political action committee between 2001 and 2008. Holden secured $3.2 million in earmarks for clients represented by The PMA Group in the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations law (PL 110-116), according to a database constructed by the nonprofit watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.
The PMA Group, which had its offices raided by the FBI last year, is closing its lobbying operation, and many of its employees have left to join or form other companies.
More than 100 members of the House sought and obtained earmarks for clients of The PMA Group, the leading defense-centered lobbying firm in Washington, in that fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations law, according to a CQ study of the TCS database. Those same members received more than $1.8 in campaign contributions to their political committees from PMA sources between 2001 and 2008, CQ found.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States has opened a new era of diplomatic engagement, vowing to seek peace in the Middle East and to chart a new course in Afghanistan. He vowed to eliminate wasteful spending in Iraq and promised that the U.S. will no longer 'hide' the price of wars in both Iraq and afghanistan.
Obama, delivering his first address to Congress, declared unequivocally that the U.S. will not torture prisoners but also pledged to swiftly punish captured terrorists.
"In words and deeds, we are showing the world that a new era of engagement has begun," Obama told a joint session of Congress little more than a month after he took office.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I fear Obama's 'new era' will be the international relations equivalent of the mean kids giving him a swirlie and taking his lunch money.
Kudos to rabid whitetail for bravely going down with his ship.
The top three Taliban factions in Pakistan have unified "only to act together against the United States", Taliban leader Maulvi Nazir told Ahmedzai Wazir elders in South Waziristan in a meeting earlier this week, a tribal elder told Daily Times on Wednesday.
A delegation of Ahmedzai Wazir elders met Maulvi Nazir, the Taliban chief in Wana, to ask him why he had formed the 'United Council of Mujahideen' without consulting them, a senior member of the delegation said. "Gul Bahadar (the Taliban chief in North Waziristan) and I have reached an understanding with Baitullah Mehsud (the chief of the defuct Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) to fight the US together, because we are concerned over the surge in American troops in Afghanistan," Nazir reportedly told the delegation. He denied the groups had joined hands against Pakistani troops.
US President Barack Obama has ordered 17,000 additional troops into Afghanistan and Washington is currently meeting top officials from Islamabad and Kabul to put together a new strategy on tackling the Afghanistan problem.
Maulvi Nazir told the Ahmedzai Wazir elders that the understanding with Baitullah did not mean a merger of the three groups. "Each group will have its own independent status and emirates, and each group will be sovereign in their territory," the Taliban leader said. Maulvi Nazir did say who had helped them forge the alliance, the delegation member told Daily Times. "I think someone from across the border may have influenced the move," he added. The understanding comes despite serious differences between Maulvi Nazir and Baitullah Mehsud over Uzbek fighters among the latter's ranks. The Ahmedzai Wazirs and Maulvi Nazir had made a peace deal in April 2007 after the latter flushed out the Uzbek men from the area. The new understanding alarmed the tribesmen the foreigners might return to their land. "We told Maulvi Nazir if his understanding with Baitullah brings any harm to our areas, then the peace accord we reached with him will also be in jeopardy," the delegation told the Taliban chief, the elder said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
sounds like a declaration of war from a country since they control Pakistain, bomb awat at the shithole
(AKI) - The Sri Lankan army's final offensive against Tamil Tiger militants in the north of the country met with strong resistance as troops advanced into the last rebel stronghold, reports from the frontline said on Wednesday, quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency.
Fierce clashes between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in the town of Puthukkudiyiruppu left 22 rebels dead, the reports said.
At least six people were killed and many others were wounded when troops fired a shell near a makeshift hospital at Puthumaaththalan, according to the pro-Tamil website TamilNet.
Three airforce fighter jets also bombed Iranaippaalai twice on Tuesday, TamilNet reported. The Sri Lankan army has sustained heavy casualties since Sunday, unnamed sources close to the Tamil rebels told the website.
A senior military officer in the area said Puthukkudiyiruppu was the army's "last objective" and the war could be over in a few days.
The army said its endgame against the Tamil rebels was being delayed by the presence of an estimated 70,000 civilians inside in a shrinking coastal area of jungle, into which the army claims to have driven the rebels.
Independent journalists are not permitted to travel to the conflict zone so reports from either side cannot be verified.
The plight of civilians trapped in the combat zone has sparked United Nations-led calls for a truce to allow civilians to leave. The United States and the European Union have also been pressing for a ceasefire.
The UN and various governments have also accused the Tamil rebels of attacking escaping civilians. Some 35,000 civilians have crossed the front lines even though the rebels were firing on fleeing men, women and children, government officials said.
Last Friday Tamil rebels staged a surprise aerial attack on the capital, using two Czech-made planes.
The International Red Cross and the UN have both warned that a humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Lanka: Army 'facing strong resistance' from Tamil rebels
Now that's got to be the stupidest headline ever, Lankans are trying to kill the Tamil Tigers, what do they expect,a parade with candy and roses as the Tamils march to the gallows?
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 1:07
Comments ||
Top||
#2
The International Red Cross and the UN have both warned that a humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding in the region
Thanks for the info. Any comments about the humanitarian catastrophe that's claimed tens of thousands of lives over the years? Hopefully the whole d@mned thing will come to an end shortly and everyone can get on with their lives.
#3
An ex-Tamil Tiger told me that before he
managed to escape, he always had an officer's gun
pointed at him and hardly a day passed without
a fellow "soldier" getting executed for some spurious reason or on general principles.
The Tigers always refused to join Al Qaeda despite numerous overtures and the underlying
reason was that the rags where too soft...
There wont be many survivors in that neck of the jungle!
Posted by: Ming the Merciless ||
02/26/2009 13:53
Comments ||
Top||
Taliban on Wednesday disbanded checkpoints and stopped carrying weapons in public a day after announcing an indefinite ceasefire in the Swat valley, witnesses said.
Taliban commander Mullah Fazlullah ordered his followers to disband checkpoints in a speech on his illegal FM radio station late on Tuesday and asked them not to carry weapons in public. "The Taliban have removed their checkpoints in and around Mingora," Irfan Ahmad, a resident of what is the main town in Swat, said. He said he did not see armed Taliban on patrol in the town. The Taliban announced an indefinite ceasefire on Tuesday, a week after the government signed a deal with hardliner Sufi Muhammad to accept Islamic law as the system of justice in Swat.
Another Swat resident, Mushtaq Khan, said checkpoints have been removed from the areas of Matta, Charbagh and Kabal, all Taliban strongholds. "I saw a few Taliban alongside the road but they were unarmed," he said.
Khan said people celebrated the ceasefire after two years of uncertainty and insecurity, and that schools have reopened.
However, the sharia deal has triggered alarm in the United States, Europe, Afghanistan and India, amid concerns it will embolden Taliban in the North West Frontier province.
Thousands of Taliban have spent nearly two years waging a terrifying campaign to enforce sharia law, beheading opponents, bombing girls' schools, outlawing entertainment and fighting government forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Mmmm, I read this as their last sanctuary, don't screw it up and piss off the natives, there's nowhere else to go. (And stay alive)
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 1:20
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Just mind your Islamic manners, folks. Just cuz they ain't carrying their guns around don't mean they can't get ahold of them in a hurry...
(JTA) -- The Obama administration's reported pick for a top intelligence post helped peddle a Saudi-funded school study guide decried by Jewish groups and educators for having anti-Jewish biases.
Charles "Chas" Freeman, the U.S. envoy to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, is slated to chair the National Intelligence Council, according to The Cable, a blog at Foreign Policy magazine that has been unerring in reporting Obama administration national security appointments.
Sources acquainted with Freeman and his putative boss, Adm. Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, confirmed to JTA that Freeman is under consideration, but say that nothing is final. An acquaintance of Freeman's in the Middle East policy community says the appointment largely derives from the close friendship between Blair and Freeman.
Spokesmen for Freeman and for the White House declined to comment.
Freeman is president of the Middle East Policy Council, a Saudi-funded think tank. A JTA investigative series in 2005 exposed how the council, led by Freeman, joined with Berkeley, Calif.-based Arab World and Islamic Resources in peddling the "Arab World Studies Notebook" to American schools. In the version examined that year by JTA staff, the "Notebook" described Jerusalem as unequivocally "Arab," deriding Jewish residence in the city as "settlement"; cast the "question of Jewish lobbying" against "the whole question of defining American interests and concerns"; and suggested that the Koran "synthesizes and perfects earlier revelations."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This guy is the worst possible pick for this job. He's an arabist, and a jew-hater (I know, same thing).
#4
Well he is certainly upsetting the "intellectual NY East Side" jewish community led by TNR's Marty Peretz who along with the other 78% of jews voted for Obama. They just can't believe Obama would put Israel at risk. What with a Paleo kissing SecState, you didn't see this coming?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/26/2009 11:01
Comments ||
Top||
#5
In Atlas Shrugged, we were warned about a gov't that had State Dept types named "Dickie" and "Chas".
For what's it's worth, I once had a car I called "Chas"... it was a piece of , too.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday barred main opposition leader and former premier Nawaz Sharif from holding office and contesting elections, sparking political turmoil in the nuclear-armed nation.
The court order also applied to his brother Shahbaz Sharif, leading to the immediate collapse of his government in the central Punjab province, Pakistan's most populous state and the country's political heartland.
Neither brother was in court, but Nawaz Sharif called for street agitation to protest a court decision he said was delivered on orders from Zardari.
" I want to tell the nation that it should stand up to this lawlessness, to this judgment, to this unconstitutional judgment, to this villainous act by the president of this country, Zardari "
Nawaz Sharif
"I want to tell the nation that it should stand up to this lawlessness, to this judgment, to this unconstitutional judgment, to this villainous act by the president of this country, Zardari," Sharif told a news conference in Lahore.
The government enforced governor's rule in Punjab, the regional parliament was suspended and provincial governor Salman Taseer, a member of the main ruling Pakistan People's Party, took over the powers of chief minister.
"All petitions have been dismissed by the Supreme Court," senior lawyer Akram Sheikh told reporters in the capital Islamabad.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Somalia's Shebab militia wrested control of a border-town from pro-government forces Wednesday, witnesses and a rights group said, as Islamist insurgents battled African Union peacekeepers and Somali police for a second day, bringing to 69 the death toll in the worst bout of fighting for weeks.
The Shebab overpowered government forces in Hodur, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of the capital Mogadishu near the Ethiopian border, in clashes that erupted early in the morning, the group said.
The flare-up in violence in the caital came just days after new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed returned to Mogadishu to set up his new unity government, the 15th attempt to bring peace to the failed Horn of Africa state since 1991. Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel leader himself, has pledged to stabilize Somalia.
"Fighting has killed 48 civilians and injured 90 in the last 30 hours," said Ali Yasin Gedi, vice-chairman of the local Elman Peace and Human Rights group.
Witnesses said at least 15 Islamist fighters and six policemen were also killed in exchanges of gunfire and mortar bombs that have rocked the coastal capital for two days.
Rebel militia takes control
" There was heavy fighting in the town this morning and the Somali government forces fled after the fighting and the Shebab are controlling the town now "
Mohamed Dirie, a Hodur resident
"The mujahideen (fighters) took control of Hodur and the situation in the town is calm," top Shebab commander Sheikh Mukhtar Robow told AFP.
"The town has fallen to the Shebab fighters and there is no fighting inside the town now," local elder Adan Mohamed Yunus said, adding that he had no word on casualties.
"There was heavy fighting in the town this morning and the Somali government forces fled after the fighting and the Shebab are controlling the town now," said Mohamed Dirie, a Hodur resident.
The Shebab, a former military youth wing of an Islamist movement ousted by Ethiopia-backed Somali forces two years ago, had carried out relentless attacks against the Ethiopian forces who withdrew from Somalia last month. In recent months, the Shebab have also launched operations against rival Somali factions and conquered large swathes of territory, leaving government forces in control of little more than a handful of blocks in Mogadishu.
Islamist forces opposed to U.N.-sponsored reconciliation efforts in Somalia have launched several deadly attacks against the government and African Union forces in recent days.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
Does anyone else get the feeling there are just too many people in Somalia? That the fighting going on there for the last umpteen years is just nature's way of culling the population to what the land can sustain?
BAGHDAD - The withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 19 months, faster than agreed in a bilateral security pact, will not pose a problem so long as Iraq can equip its forces in that time, an official said Wednesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama is leaning toward a 19-month bug-out timetable to pull out of Iraq as violence unleashed by the invasion launched by his predecessor, George W. Bush, in 2003 fades, U.S. officials say. That is a compromise between a campaign pledge to leave Iraq within 16 months and the wishes of some U.S. commanders who fear withdrawing too early could put Iraqs security gains at risk. It is also faster than the end-2011 deadline foreseen in a U.S.-Iraqi security pact hammered out between the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Bush administration.
We had hoped that the withdrawal would be according to the schedule mentioned in the agreement, said Brigadier-General Mohammed al-Askari, spokesman for the Iraqi Defence Ministry. But even so, if the U.S. president decides to withdraw them in 19 months, with the agreement of the Iraqi government, we will speed up our readiness to be prepared by that time.
The most important thing, Askari said, was that the withdrawal date should be agreed between the two governments and that Iraq has the time it needs to properly equip its 600,000-strong, largely U.S.-trained security forces. Our readiness depends on equipping the Iraqi army. We are pushing hard now and using our relations with different countries to cut the time required to equip the Iraqi army and we are achieving good results, he added.
We will wait and see, said Ahmed al-Masoudi, spokesman for supporters in the Iraqi parliament of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has called for the 140,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq to leave immediately. Well see what the reality is on the ground. We dont believe speeches and rhetoric.
Askari said the most important piece of equipment needed by the Iraqi armed forces were helicopters. He said good progress had been made in ordering them but he gave no details.
Defence Minister Abdul Qaeder Jassim went to Washington recently where, among other things, he discussed the possible purchase of M-1 Abrams tanks and F-16 fighter jets. U.S. military officials say around $5 billion in Iraqi orders for weapons, uniforms, logistics and other materiel have already been delivered or are in the pipeline.
Askari said Iraqs first post-Saddam warship would be delivered by September, to help protect its crucial oil exports, and a second vessel would be delivered in early 2010.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Compare wid PAYVAND > BARZANI: US MUST RESOLVE KURDISH NATIONAL ISSUES FIRST BEFORE ANY WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ.
#2
ALL Obama promises come with expiration dates and loopholes for weaselling
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2009 5:28
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Screw the equipment, you chowderheads. You've got tens of billions in the bank, you can afford *stuff*. Worry about getting your logistics organized and your higher-order organizational & institutional controls well-put-together.
I'm kind of worried about how much the higher-level Iraqi political and military ranks are relying on the morale factor of having the Big Green Daddy sitting in the next room polishing the buckle on his ass-whomping belt to keep the kiddies from breaking out into slap-fights over the TV control.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/26/2009 9:52
Comments ||
Top||
#4
We'll probably leave them a lot of our basic gear. At this point in the desert mechanical life cycle it isn't worth the freight home. And if Zero really wants to stimulate the Detroit economy, he can buy our guys brand new trucks & such (hah!).
#5
We already are transfering thousands of Hummers incountry to the Iraqis : they get refurbed on the big American bases and handed over to the Iraqi Army. Those Hummers are mainly the unarmored and first generation armored versions that the military has decided they don't want, especially since the updated versions have all the required mods built in as they ship from Detroit.
(AKI) - Indian police on Wednesday charged the man identified as the sole surviving gunman from November's deadly assault on the Indian city of Mumbai. Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, was charged with crimes ranging from murder to "waging war on India" in relation the the three-day siege. With an 11,000 page charge sheet you'd suspect they've got the goods on him.
India has accused Pakistan-based militants over the attacks, which killed over 170 people and injured hundreds in multiple locations in the financial capital.
Police claim Qasab and nine other gunmen carried out the Mumbai attacks. Qasab, a Pakistani, could face the death penalty if found guilty.
The charges against Qasab and 19 others runs to almost 5,000 pages, the Times of India reported.
Outlawed Kashmiri separatist group Lashkar-e-Toiba's alleged chief of operations, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, is among those named in the charges. The suspected mastermind of the Mumbai attacks is believed to hiding in Pakistan.
The charge sheet also includes reports and forensic reports conducted by the FBI, the paper said.
Pakistan has admitted the attacks were partly planned inside the country but it and LeT have denied any involvement.
Pakistan says it has indicted eight people, six of whom have already been arrested and insists any trials will take place on its soil.
A Pakistani investigation last month found that the suspected Mumbai attackers sailed from Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi to Mumbai in three separate boats.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[20 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Lebanon on Wednesday released three of seven suspects held over the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, the office of public prosecutor Said Mirza told AFP.
The move comes just days before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, set up to try suspects over the Beirut bomb blast in February 2005 that killed Hariri and 22 other people opens its doors in The Hague on Sunday.
The three are Lebanese brothers Mahmoud and Ahmed Abdel Aal and Syrian Ibrahim Jarjura, all civilians who were being held on suspicion of withholding information and misleading the probe into the assassination. The investigating judge Sakr Sakr rejected demands for the release of two other suspects -- former Lebanese security services director Jamil Sayyed and domestic security chief Ali Hajj, a judicial source said.
No reason for release
They are among four Lebanese generals who were pillars of the security apparatus long orchestrated by Syria, the country's then powerbroker which has roundly denied accusations it was behind the assassination.
The other two suspects are Mustafa Hamdan, who headed the presidential guard, and Raymond Azar, who was commander of army intelligence.
The generals have been detained since August 2005 on suspicion of premeditated murder, attempted premeditated murder and carrying out terrorist acts but none of the seven have ever been indicted for the murder,
Sakr released the two Lebanese brothers on bail of about $300 and the Syrian on about $70. They were arrested in October 2005 but no reasons were given for their release.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[23 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
ok he has been rotting for 3 years get over it , he's dead and no one cares
(AKI) - A retired Syrian general has criticised a decision by the country's Atomic Energy Commission to refuse the United Nations' nuclear watchdog access to inspect the al-Kibar supected nuclear research centre bombed by Israel in September 2007. Musa al-Zaabi, said the decision by Ibrahim Othman, head of the commission, was a "grave error".
"Western countries and the International Atomic Energy Commission will interpret the Syrian refusal as proof that Syria is hiding something and is working on a banned military programme," Zaabi told Adnkronos International (AKI).
"It would be right and proper for Syria to invite the IAEA, European countries and also the United States to have serious dialogue about this matter."
The former general appealed to Syrian leaders in Damascus to "follow what Iran did with its nuclear programme paving the way for lengthy dialogue."
"Thhere would be nothing bad about Syria asking western countries for technical assistance for a peaceful nuclear programme, if it really wanted to head in this direction," Zaabi said.
Regarding scientific aspects of the programme, he said there was nothing to discuss. "Laboratories, analyses and scientific instruments exist that confirm or deny every doubt and hypothesis, and you cannot be skeptical about these results," he stated.
"It would have been better for Syria to provide the IAEA with responses and realistic proof that would not have given rise to doubts or other accusations,"Zaabi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Heads I win, Tails you lose, either the inspectors find what they don't want found, or they refuse and prove there really was a nuke plan there.
By choosing the ban option, the world still thinks the same, but without proof.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 18:48
Comments ||
Top||
The United States Wednesday singled out regional ally Egypt as well as Iran, Libya and Syria in the Middle East for jailing rights activists because of their beliefs. In particular, the State Department's human rights report for 2008 said the situation in arch-foe Iran had worsened and that respect for human rights in Egypt remained poor.
It said there were "continued serious challenges for the promotion of democracy and human rights" in the region during the year, "though there were some notable steps forward."
" Along with greater access to information through the Internet and satellite television came greater restrictions on media, including Internet bloggers "
However, technological progress also resulted in steps backwards. "Along with greater access to information through the Internet and satellite television came greater restrictions on media, including Internet bloggers," the report said, naming Egypt and Iran.
The report, the first released under the administration of President Barack Obama, said there was a decline in the Cairo government's respect for freedoms in 2008. Respect for human rights in Egypt "remained poor, and serious abuses continued in many areas," it said.
The report said Iran also intensified its crackdown on dissent "through arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture, and secret trials that occasionally end in executions."
On Israel and the Occupied Territories the reports said the government generally respected its citizens' human rights, although discrimination against Arabs, non-Orthodox Jews and other religious groups persisted. Also it said the Israel maintained unequal education systems for Arab and Jewish students.
Many Middle East nations continued to restrict religious freedoms, the report said, citing members of the Bahai faith detained in Iran.
"Legal and societal discrimination as well as violence against women continued throughout the region," the report said. "Iranian women's rights activists were harassed, abused, arrested, and accused of 'endangering national security' for participating in peaceful protests and demanding equal treatment under Iranian law."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
they screw goats and camels i don't think you can shame thenm anymore
The former leader of Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), Abassi Madani, whose party was poised to win parliamentary elections before the army interfered in 1992, called on Tuesday for a boycott of this year's presidential elections.
Madani, who has lived in Qatar since being freed from a 12-year jail term in 2003 and banned from political activity in his home country, said that the April 9 poll, which is also being boycotted by the two main legal opposition parties, served no useful purpose.
" The elections in Algeria are a way to consecrate a rotten reality "
Abassi Madani
"The elections in Algeria are a way to consecrate a rotten reality," the FIS founder said in a statement.
"Algeria is on a path from bad to worse with no end. There is no way to end this situation but to change the regime as soon as possible."
"Boycotting the elections is the only legitimate way for the people to express their rejection of the deteriorating situation," Madani added.
Incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was first elected in 1999 and is now 72, on Monday formally presented his candidacy for re-election.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under:
They keep records for scorpion eating? Do they have a league?
A Saudi man set a new world record last month after he ate 22 live scorpions in 20 seconds at a show in Riyadh. The 39-year-old earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records but told AlArabiya.net that is not why he did it.
"It's always been my hobby to eat scorpions."
"It's always been my hobby to eat scorpions," Majid al-Maliki told AlArabiya.net, adding that he once ate 50 live scorpions in one meal.
When asked how he eats the scorpions, Maliki replied that he treats them like any other type of food, he chews and then swallows. ...and they taste like chicken, I'll bet.
The Riyadh-based civil servant said he enjoys eating all types and sizes of scorpions, but especially relishes in the yellow species known as Palestinian. So...it's yellow and known as Palestinian? Heh heh heh...
Maliki said he has been eating scorpions for 22 years and said he also eats snakes, small crocodiles and lizards. "I can eat 10 snakes at a time," he said. So...what's for lunch, Majid?
Maliki explained he has never been poisoned and said he cuts part of the scorpion's spike so that the sting is mild. "Even if it stings, the poison won't affect me," he said, adding that it is not the sting that kills but the person's fear as people tend to panic causing the temperature to rapidly rise, which causes death.
"I advise everyone to stay calm after being stung since it is fear that kills," he said. "Scorpion poison has many benefits and as long as there are no ulcers, it is ok if the poison reaches the stomach."
The previous Guinness record holder was an American man, Dean Sheldon, who ate 21 deadly Chinese golden scorpions in 2004. Damn. And I was so proud. USA! USA!
Maliki said he had a contract with an American program to perform his shows, but said he stopped after the September 11 attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
(AKI) - An unnamed witness is said to have seen two men place in front of a hotel the deadly bomb that on Sunday exploded in a Cairo bazaar. The men then fled in a taxi that was waiting for them, the witness said. "I saw a man who had a plastic bag, go towards the hotel, where he met another man who was waiting for him. "The second man placed the plastic bag on the stone altar in the square, and soon after the explosion happened," said the witness quoted by Egyptian daily al-Masri al-Youm.
The witness, who was in the square with her sons to take photos, also claims to have followed the alleged culprits of the bomb attacks to an area near Cairo called Halmiya al-Zeitoun. "Then I saw both men running towards a taxi that was waiting for them in the al-Azhar street. There were two other men and the driver had a black beard. The taxi escaped and I followed them with my car until I saw them arrive in the area of Halmiya al-Zeitoun. Both men then entered an old house while the taxi drove off," said the witness.
The witness also claims to have asked a shopkeeper who were the two men, who claimed their names are Marwan and Naser. "I thought of filming them with the video camera I had on me, but I was afraid of being discovered, and I just left," she said.
Egyptian police have already interrogated several owners of firework shops that sell the material used for the explosive devices. At least three suspects have been arrested over the blast, which struck a hotel's open-air cafe packed with tourists next to the crowded Khan al-Khalili bazaar in Cairo at the on Sunday.
A 17 year-old French teenage girl was killed and 24 others were injured in the bombing. The wounded included three Saudis, 13 French, a German and four Egyptians.
The attack was the first targeting tourists in Egypt for three years. The banned Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, and its extremist offshoot Gamaa Islamiya on Monday condemned the bomb attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Hooray for the "Unnamed witness" that's exactly what's needed to stop this shit.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 1:22
Comments ||
Top||
Two of President Obama's Cabinet members authored a variety of earmarks in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill the House is poised to pass Wednesday to keep the government running through Oct. 1.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis were both House members when appropriators began to forge this legislation last year. However, a stalemate between President Bush and congressional Democrats forced the sides to punt the rest of the spending provisions until now.
New transparency rules ordered up by Democrats two years ago require lawmakers requesting earmarks to write a letter expressly asking Congress to dedicate money for a given project. And as one scours the omnibus spending bill, it's easy to find specific appeals from people who are no longer in office, like LaHood and Solis.
In LaHood's case, the former Republican Illinois congressman wrote a March 19, 2008, letter asking Congress set aside funding to move the "Jacksonville bandstand" from one of the House office buildings to the National Museum of American History in Washington. LaHood also earmarked funds for police radio upgrades, agriculture research and equipment at a planetarium in Peoria, Ill.
As a Democratic congresswoman from suburban Los Angeles, Solis asked for the federal government to cover the cost of police equipment in Covina, Monterey Park and Baldwin Park, Calif.
As Cabinet secretaries, LaHood and Solis will continue to have significant sway over Washington policy decisions. But because the omnibus bill is a holdover from last year, dozens of lawmakers who either retired or lost re-election are still legislating from the political grave.
After surviving a tight race in 2006, Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, decided not to seek re-election in 2008. But the House Wednesday will approve Pryce's request to fund after school programs at the YWCA. Former Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., was one of the most-vulnerable freshman Democrats to win a House seat in 2006. She didn't survive a 2008 challenge from Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins. But Boyda's earmark to "identify and trace food-borne zoonotic diseases" lives on.
Former Rep. Tom Allen failed to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine last fall. Still, Allen earmarked money for "Lowbush Wild Blueberry Research" and potato cloning programs at the University of Maine.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[25 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
So did Obama. These are the leftovers from 2008 budget that they didn't have time to scam the American Public. Some of these are actually overlapping earmarks in Porkulus/Stimulus ARRA bill just passed. A billion here, a trillion there, pretty soon we will all be Zimbaweans.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/26/2009 11:03
Comments ||
Top||
Aswat al-Iraq: The Iraqi minister of planning and development cooperation on Wednesday called to liberate the country's economy from its dependence on oil, according to an official statement. "Minister Ali Baban stressed the necessity of reforms to the Iraqi economy to put an end to its bad deterioration," read a statement released by the National Media Center and received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. The minister linked the poor performance of some significant sectors in the country to the lack of a clear reform policy.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[13 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ION AAAAAWLLL [oil], RENSE > PEAK OIL LIE: THE USA HAS UTTERLY GIANT OIL RESERVES.
This day in history:
1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.
1919 - Congress establishes most of the Grand Canyon as a National Park
1929 - The Grand Teton National Park is created.
1935 - The Luftwaffe is re-formed.
1966 - Apollo Program: the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket
1984 - US troops withdraw from Beirut.
1990 - The Sandinistas are defeated in Nicaraguan elections. (They're back)
1993 - World Trade Center bombing. (Testing, testing, 1 2 3)
After her only sister Marguerite was killed in the Blitz, she radically shifted her priorities from acting to instead working in field hospitals as a Red Cross nurse during World War II. She served in the 61st Field Hospital, Bari, Italy in 1944, where many wounded American airmen flying out of air bases around Foggia were hospitalized. During WWII, Madeleine Carroll donated her chateau outside Paris to more than 150 "adopted" orphans. She also arranged groups of young people in California to knit clothing for them. In a filmed RKO-Pathe News bulletin, Madeleine was filmed at the chateau with the children and staff wearing the clothes, where she thanked people who had contributed. She was awarded the Legion d'Honneur for bravery in France.
The Washington Post Co.'s reeling newspaper and magazine divisions stumbled again in the fourth quarter, extending an earnings slump that would have been even more disconcerting if not for the stability of the company's education and cable TV businesses. The publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine said Wednesday that it made $18.8 million, or $2.01 per share, during the final three months of last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under:
Pakistan is on a rapid trajectory to failure as a stable, democratic state and needs a boost of $4 billion in US aid and loans each year to begin turning around, a private foreign affairs group has concluded.
"Time is running out," said the Atlantic Council, which urged more training and deployment of 15,000 Pakistani police within six months to bring order to the country.
Chance: "Given the tools and the financing, Pakistan can turn back from the brink," the report said. "But for that to happen, it needs help now."
The Pakistan government has six to 12 months to implement economic and security policies, or "face the very real prospect of considerable domestic and political turbulence", said the report.
The US has given Pakistan about $12.3 billion in military and economic aid. The US Government Accountability Office says the US lacks a coordinated strategy in disbursing the aid and warns that Al Qaeda 'continues to operate freely in Pakistan's un-policed Tribal Areas'.
Vice President Joe Biden, former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Senator Richard Lugar, the panel's senior Republican, proposed last summer authorising $7.5 billion over five years in non-military aid for Pakistan. Similar legislation sponsored by Lugar and the new committee chairman, Democratic Senator John Kerry, is expected this year.
Kerry and Republican former Sen Chuck Hagel are the Atlantic Council's honorary chairmen. Hagel, having left the Senate, is now council chairman.
The Obama administration, meanwhile, began a policy review this week with senior officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Here for the talks, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Wednesday he was pleased with moves to increase US assistance to his country. "We need economic stability," said Qureshi in an interview with The Associated Press. "Until we have economic stability we will not be able to get political stability." He would not put a price tag on Pakistan's needs.
The report itself said it was sounding an alarm "that we are running out of time to help Pakistan change its present course toward increasing economic and political instability, and even ultimate failure". The situation has grown even more urgent, it said, with the November terror attacks in Mumbai. The report urged Pakistan to show it is serious in pursuing the perpetrators and other terrorists and terror organisations.
"The Mumbai crisis has yet to run its course," said the report. "The use of military force or other coercive action must be avoided."
Another concern in the report is that Pakistan might feel forced to enter negotiations with the Taliban and other insurgent groups and 'grant further freedom of movement to insurgents'.
The report warned that Al Qaeda and other radical groups could be emboldened "with frightening consequences for vulnerable targets in Britain, Europe and even the United States". Compared with the hundreds of billions of dollars poured into Iraq and the many billions into Afghanistan, aid to Pakistan has been 'relatively miserly', said the report. And the stakes in Pakistan are far larger and more important to long-term US interests, the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[26 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#11
Remember in the last week that the Pakistan government was giving weapons to the villagers to defend themselves now that the army has lost the battle against the Taliban. I suspect that the villagers have handed the first lot of weapons over to the Taliban and now are asking for a second lot. Weapons for Peace. MMMMMMMMM
Venezuela is to suggest a new output cut at the next meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in March. Wonder how that fits in with their plans to increase production since Hugo's going broke? Easy; the rest of them cut their production and Hugo keeps pumping ...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
kinda hard too pump sludge ain't it. how bout if they cut it we just now buy from hugo
PHOENIX Calling Mexican drug trafficking organizations a national security threat, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced Wednesday that federal authorities had mounted their biggest assault against one of Mexicos most powerful drug cartels. More than 750 people nationwide have been arrested, tons of cocaine and marijuana have been seized and the distribution of drugs has been disrupted through a series of raids and arrests as part of an investigation begun under the Bush administration 21 months ago, Mr. Holder said.
The operation comes at a time of rising concern over Mexicos drug violence and the reach of trafficking organizations into the United States. It has focused on the Sinaloa cartel and culminated with a wave of arrests, unsealed indictments and seizures on Tuesday and early Wednesday in California, Maryland and Minnesota.
The Sinaloa organization, based in Sinaloa State in northwest Mexico, is one of the oldest cartels and has been blamed for a large share of the spiraling violence in the country that has left more than 6,000 people dead in the past year amid turf wars and a government crackdown on their operations.
From Washington to Maine, we have disrupted this cartels domestic operations, Michele M. Leonhart, the acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said in a statement before a news conference in Washington with Mr. Holder.
The investigation, known as Operation Xcellerator, included the arrest of 755 people, among them leaders of the cartels cells based in the United States that helped transport and distribute drugs, Ms. Leonhart said. She said the arrests had also seriously impacted the cartels Canadian operations. Agents confiscated 149 vehicles, 3 aircraft, 3 vessels and 169 weapons, the officials said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
RUMORMILLNEWS > ITS A WAR NOW [Arizona + Texas likely in the crosshairs for Pan-Mexi Drug Violence border spillover].
YOOHOO, LTC. ROBERTO USMCR [New Mexico], I'M A'LOOKING AT YOU KIDDO - YOU'RE UP!
#4
When we have Apache's and Abrams on our border, then I will know it's time to kick butt!
Posted by: Omolugum Prince of the Platypi2692 ||
02/26/2009 3:24
Comments ||
Top||
#5
note that all of the legwork and investigation took place before Holder was in place
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2009 5:31
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Yes Frank, watching Holder step up to the mike and brief the nation on an investigation and program that has been on-going for nearly two years was particularly galling. The cynic in me must ask, did he just make public and conclude a program that was designed to be ongong?
#9
I just got through watching a prescient musical docudrama on this administration last night, dating from 1933. The Mexican kerfuffle is explained in the last verse:
"If any form of pleasure is exibited
Report to me and it will be prohibited
I'll put my foot down, so shall it be
This is the land of the free
The last man nearly ruined this place
He didn't know what to do with it
If you think this country's bad off now,
Just wait 'til I get through with it
The country's taxes must be fixed
And I know what to do with it
If you think you're paying too much now
Just wait till I get throught with it
*whistle*
I will not stand for anything that's crooked or unfair.
I'm strictly on the upper knot, so everyone beware!
If any man's caught taking graft, and I don't get my share,
We stand'im up against the wall and pop!Goes the weasel."
#10
Yawn. Over many long years I've heard the government make announcements like this time and time again. It never seems to make any difference. Meanwhile Mexico has devolved into a lawless narco state. When the border is lined with heavily armed troops who have orders to shoot to kill, I'll believe the government is getting serious. Until then the stench of corruption is sickening on both sides of the border.
Congress should cut U.S. military spending by $160 billion, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, proposed at a press conference Tuesday.
That same day, however, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who controls the House floor schedule, distanced himself and the majority leadership from Frank's proposal -- and both the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services declined to endorse Frank's plan.
"It's absurd to talk about reducing the deficit while giving a pass to the military budget," Frank told reporters. "We can reduce military spending without in any way undercutting our national security."
Frank's plan, according to a document released by his office, would reduce military spending by a total of $160 billion, with $100 billion of the savings coming from money currently being spent on the Iraq War. Other cuts would include a reduction of about 75 percent in the funding requested by the Bush administration for "nuclear forces," as well as deep funding cuts for the development of controversial weapon systems, including a tilt-rotor aircraft (V-22 Osprey) and stealth fighter jet (F/A-22 Raptor.)
For fiscal year 2008, President Bush requested $481.4 billion for Defense Department spending and an additional $145.2 billion to fund the "global war on terror," which he requested as emergency supplemental spending.
"No one is denying that America should be by far the strongest country in the world," said Frank. "But we are talking about by how many multiples we have to be the strongest nation in the world, and whether or not there is some money to be saved in doing that."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"It's absurd to talk about reducing the deficit while giving a pass to the military budget," Frank told reporters. "We can reduce military spending without in any way undercutting our national security."
Conversely,it would be absurd to pass a .75 trillion spending bill without including a prime core government function, defense.
Truly amazing and breathtaking garbage, in Franks standing before microphones and declaring defense needs to be cut after overspending everywhere else.
And it is no wonder the democrat house leadership will not include spending cuts for defense, especially after planning to increase every other part of the federal budget.
#4
Nah cut spending as he asked, defund his office, salary and pension.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 1:39
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Frank told reporters "We can reduce military spending without in any way undercutting our national security." This is the same guy who refuted Republican efforts to better regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie by proclaimming they were "financially sound" and well run.
#6
Is this the same Bawney Fwank that played clutch butt with Herb Moses, Executive of Fanny May Fannie Mae? Nah, it couldn't be, he's beyond reproach, We can trust him. NOT
#9
First we cut all the port from the defense budget that's been added by the Massachusetts delegation.
Then we close all the bases in Massachusetts.
Then we see what's left.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2009 9:47
Comments ||
Top||
#10
There's a lot of garbage in the procurements part of the defense budget. We could use another Senator Truman, to be honest.
Instead, we've got Barney Frank, Jack Murtha, and the rest of their sort, who are just interested in clearing a space at the trough by knifing some of their fellow swine.
I tell you what, how about we start with anything with Murtha's fingerprints all over it?
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/26/2009 10:16
Comments ||
Top||
#11
Rush calls him the Banking Queen and Shanklin made a parody song out the old ABBA hit. This is just the beginning of losing our officer and seasoned NCO corp and turning the remaining members over to the Obama Re-education Corp.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/26/2009 11:05
Comments ||
Top||
#12
There's not a helluva lot of military bases left up here to close. Hanscom AFB, Westover and Otis (AFReserve bases), Natick Labs, and some various small Coast Guard bases. One or two of the minor coastie bases might be in Barney's district, but that's about it.
It might be fun to do something like threaten to cut back on AIDS research, just to see how pissed off that would get him.
#13
Hell, why don't we just cut ALL the military spending? Imagine all the money THAT would save! I mean, now that The One is in charge, everybody loves us, right?
#14
Actually, the ongoing knife fight among the Dems over military spending is going to be fun to watch. Remember, the Pentagon and defense contractors have spent years putting plants in every major district; with the recession going on, Congress critters will fight to the death to keep those plants open and running -- high paying jobs with good benefits. Some of the really expensive high tech programs like the F-35 might take some hits, but the bread and butter programs like the vehicle replacement program will not be cut; as a matter of fact, I expect to see programs like that actually increased to "replace all the equipment wasted by Bushitler in his illegal wars" (actual statement from one of the Congress critters concerned).
FLORIDA wildlife managers have launched an experiment to see if they can keep crocodiles from returning to residential neighbourhoods by temporarily taping magnets to their heads to disrupt their "homing" ability. "No, you tape the magnet to the crocodile's head!" Florida? Pay em in beer. You'll have volunteers around the block.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[26 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Hey, Jim Bob! Let's you and him go stick some magnets on that gator's head."
"No problemo. Here, hold my beer."
Pedantic note: most of the big toothy reptiles in Florida are alligators. The American crocodile is found in Central America, but rare in Florida except for a small population in the south.
Posted by: john frum ||
02/26/2009 5:47
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Taping magnets?
Hell, just use non-magnetic lead applied with a large caliber gun. Stick the manager into a cage with a gator and let him pick which method he'd prefer.
#7
I live in a community with "beaucoup" lakes, ponds and canal infested with 'gators. The one about 200 yards from me has a family of 6. The poppa is a big boy - about 10 feet and he likes to roam at night (as most gators) from one water source to another. If you are out playing golf on the course late at dusk it is not unusual to run into one walking down the cart path. The neat thing about this idea of putting a magnet on their heads is that maybe I could pick up his location on my GPS driven Sky Caddie and be able to avoid this particular hazard:)
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
02/26/2009 11:14
Comments ||
Top||
#8
Maybe they meant a .44 Magnet applied to the forhaed of the critter?
#9
Just remember we are talking American crocodiles here not gators. Problem gators are handled by trappers that are allowed to sell off the gator parts. Crocs are covered by the ESA and being endangered you can't off them. So IIRC correctly there was one female croc that kept showing up at a Fort Meyers golf course. The problem was there was no place far enough away she could be relocated to that she wouldn't find her way back.
Of course if they let me start a IR fire ant control program way back when at turkey point they would be "threatened" by now.
As for paying them with beer, that is the preffered medium of payment for most reptile people. My buddy Joe would do it for beer, see: http://www.natselections.com/index.htm
A bomb exploded in Afghanistan on Wednesday and killed two civilians while 28 militants and two Afghan soldiers died in clashes, authorities said. The blast and the fighting took place in the south of the country. In Kandahar city, explosives, fixed to a motorbike, were detonated remotely as an Afghan army convoy passed, said regional army commander General Shair Mohammad Zazai. Two civilians were killed and three wounded, while five Afghan soldiers were hurt, he told AFP. Heavy fighting erupted in the neighbouring province of Helmand late on Tuesday when gunmen attacked Afghan soldiers protecting the police who were destroying illegal opium crops, the provincial government said. "Eighteen militants were killed and two Afghan army soldiers were martyred," provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP. Two Westerners training the counternarcotics team were also wounded in the fight, he said. Three British soldiers were also killed in southern Afghanistan as a result of an 'enemy explosion' on Wednesday, Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said. The soldiers were killed during an escort operation in the Gereshk district of Helmand province.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[18 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
President Barack Obama said his upcoming budget would increase the number of US soldiers and state the true cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while outlining a number of other plans geared to get the faltering economy back on track. Setting out his priorities for military spending, Obama said late Tuesday in his first address to a joint session of Congress that he wanted to provide relief to men and women in uniform with higher pay and a larger ground force.
"To relieve the strain on our forces, my budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines," he said in the speech. "And to keep our sacred trust with those who serve, we will raise their pay, and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned," he added. They gonna get an extra thirteen bucks a week too, like the rest of us? It'll help pay the increased Tricare premium ...
More than seven years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq have put unprecedented pressure on the all-volunteer military and their families, with top officers blaming a recent spike in suicides in the army on the relentless pace of deployments.
Obama's promise to raise the number of soldiers and Marines appears in line with the military's plans to expand its ground forces by nearly 100,000 troops.
Vowing to restore "honesty and accountability" to government spending, Obama said his budget "for the first time includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price," he said to applause.
Obama's jab at former president George W. Bush referred to his predecessor's controversial method of accounting for the cost of the two wars through "supplemental" funding requests outside of the main defense budget.
Obama said his administration would scrap wasteful contract work in Iraq and impose tough scrutiny on mammoth weapons systems that grew out of the Cold War, though he offered no specifics.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[17 views]
Top|| File under:
(AKI/Asian Age) - A report claims that insurgency in India is being fuelled by foreign countries, mostly developed nations, who are supplying high-end arms and ammunition to Maoists and insurgents operating in nearly a dozen states in India
Insurgents no longer depend on country-made guns and pistols and have to their disposal US-made carbines, Russian made AK assault rifles, Israeli guns and Chinese pistols which are frequently being used against security forces, according to latest inputs given by security agencies to the Indian home ministry.
The recovery of arms by security forces in 2008 has doubled from the previous year, posing a fresh security concern for security agencies grappling with left-wing extremism.
Russian-made guns are the most popular among insurgents, says the report, while Pakistan-made Pika guns, China-made pistols, as well as Belgium and US-made guns top the list of arms frequently being used by militants against Indian security forces in insurgency-hit Jammu and Kashmir.
The report says that Indian security forces seized 1714 arms from militants in 2008, double from the previous year.
Indicating a steep rise in Maoist activities in Orissa over the last two years, security forces recovered the highest 1040 arms in 2008 as compared to only 27 arms in 2007.
The report reveals that Maoists in Chattisgarh are also manufacturing arms locally, which include guns, bomb projector, pipe guns, mortar shells and revolvers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[27 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Who the hell would be financing Indian Maoists? The Chinese? Jihadi money would go to, well, Islamist insurgencies, one would think.
I just assumed that they were getting their funding the traditional way - gangsterism and drug smuggling.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
02/26/2009 9:47
Comments ||
Top||
#2
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > NEW DELHI: USA, INDIA MUST WORK TOGETHER TO CHECK CHINA'S GROWING ARSENAL [Mil buildup]. Analyst Richard Fisher also claims that CHINA INTENDS TO USE THE MOON AS A MILITARY = SPAWAR BASE???
Rival Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas met in Cairo on Wednesday to try to ease tensions ahead of Egypt-brokered reconciliation talks aimed at paving the way for a unity government. Senior officials from Fatah, the secular movement headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and the Islamist government in Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[16 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Wednesday announced full support to Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) if the security forces started an operation against the LI in Khyber Agency. Bara-based TTP leader Hamza Afridi told reporters by telephone from an undisclosed location that they would support the LI in the agency if the security forces launched an operation against it. He said Taliban would not abandon LI chief Mangal Bagh.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[21 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar-e-Islami
(AKI) - The conservative Italian government is planning to more than triple the 1,200 illegal immigrants that can currently be held in the country's 11 detention centres, unnamed officials have told Adnkronos.
Ministers were due to meet on Thursday to identify sites where the new centres could be located to hold 4,000-4,500 immigrants within the next few months.
Feasibility studies are being carried out this week and the new centres are likely to be housed in former military barracks and military facilities, as well as disused prisons.
Closeness to airports and non-proximity to residential areas will be factors in locating the new detention centres. The government wants to have one such centre in every Italian region.
Sites under consideration include the southern city of Caserta, the northern towns of Boscomantico and Tessera in the Veneto region, Grosseto and Campi Bisenzio in Italy's central Tuscany region and Falconara, close to the Adriatic port city of Ancona in the Marche region.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[14 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Save money, throw them back, and I DO mean "Throw".
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/26/2009 1:32
Comments ||
Top||
Uzbekistan has agreed to allow the United States to transport non-military supplies through its territory to neighbouring Afghanistan, President Islam Karimov said on Wednesday.
"Uzbekistan has agreed to allow non-military, I underline, non-military cargo to be transited through Uzbek territory to Afghanistan, in accordance with existing Uzbek legislation," Karimov told reporters. "Uzbekistan is participating in the development of the communication and transport infrastructure of Afghanistan. We've started a construction project on a railway from the (Uzbek) city of Termez to (the northern Afghan city of) Mazar-e Sharif," he said.
The US has been seeking new transit routes to supply coalition forces in increasingly unstable Afghanistan since nearby Kyrgyzstan announced the closure of a key US airbase on its territory earlier this month. Karimov, speaking at a press conference with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, described the significance of the agreement as "very high". General David Petraeus, head of Central Command, which oversees the region, travelled to Uzbekistan last week for a visit widely seen as a sign Washington was seeking to use the country as a transit route for Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2009
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[12 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#2
The military gets tagged to haul stuff for State, civic action programs, NGOs, etc. All that can be shifted. Now as to duel use materials, I guess we can use the same standards that the Euros, Russkies, and Chinese use when shipping stuff to Iran or other workers paradises.
February 23, 2009: The use of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device, a roadside, or suicide car bomb) in Iraq has moved to Afghanistan. So have the techniques U.S. troops developed to deal with these devices. The U.S. mobilized a multi-billion dollar effort to deal with IEDs, and that paid off. New technology (jammers, robots), tactics (predictive analysis and such), equipment (better armor for vehicles and troops) and a lot of determination did the job. In 2006, some five IEDs to cause one coalition casualty (11 percent fatal). A year later, it took four IEDs to cause one casualty (8 percent fatal) and by 2008 it took nine IEDs per casualty (12 percent fatal). The important thing was avoiding, detecting or defeating IEDs. In 2006, only 8 percent of IEDs put out there caused casualties. In 2007, it was nine percent. In 2008, it was less than five percent. The main objective of IEDs was to kill coalition troops, and at that, they were very ineffective. In 2006, you had use 48 to kill one soldier. In 2007, you needed 49 and by 2008, you needed 79. IEDs are doing worse in Afghanistan,
In Afghanistan, the enemy starts off at a disadvantage, because they don't have the expertise or the resources of the Iraqi IED specialists. In Iraq, the bombs were built and placed by one of several dozen independent gangs, each containing smaller groups of people with different skills. At the head of each gang was a guy called the money man. That tells you something about how all this works. Nearly all the people involved with IED gangs were Sunni Arabs, and most of them once worked for Saddam. The gangs hired themselves out to terrorist groups (some of them al Qaeda affiliated), but mainly to Baath Party or Sunni Arab groups that believed the Sunni Arabs should be running the country. You got the money, these gangs got the bombs.
The money man, naturally, called the shots. He hired, individually or as groups, the other specialists. These included scouts (who found the most effective locations to put the bombs), the bomb makers, the emplacers (who placed the bomb) and the trigger team, that actually set the bomb off, and often included an ambush team, to attack the damaged vehicles with AK-47s and RPGs. The trigger team also usually included a guy with a video camera, who recorded the operation. Attacks that fail, are also recorded, for later examination for things that could be improved.
Continued on Page 49
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
RIVAL Palestinian groups agreed overnight to set up a unity government by the end of next month after reconciliation talks aimed at ending long-running factional feuding, officials said.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine), one of President Obama's most important Republican allies, is skeptical about his plan to raise a variety of taxes to reduce the budget deficit.
Colorado's oldest newspaper will publish its final edition Friday. The Rocky Mountain News, less than two months away from its 150th anniversary, will be closed after a search for a buyer proved unsuccessful, the E.W. Scripps Co. announced today.
CIA Director Leon E. Panetta says the relationship between the intelligence agency and Congress has "had a lot of problems" under the last administration and "has to be repaired," which he said is one of his top priorities. 
Bangladesh's prime minister has warned she will take tough action against mutinous border guards unless they surrender their weapons immediately. "Do not force me to take tough actions or push my patience beyond tolerable limits," Sheikh Hasina said.
The conflict in Afghanistan is the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead of concentrating on the critical mission of keeping Islamist terrorists on the defensive, we've mired ourselves by attempting to modernize a society that doesn't want to be and cannot be transformed.
A secretive armed group engaged in the bloody separatist 
Does Iran have enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon? One thing is clear if it doesn't today, it can speed up the process substantially through work that takes little more skill than knowing how to use a plumber's wrench.
North Korea has built an underground fueling facility near a key launch pad, a news report said Thursday, making it harder for spy satellites to detect signs that a missile is being prepared for launch.
President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States has opened a new era of diplomatic engagement, vowing to seek peace in the Middle East and to chart a new course in Afghanistan. He vowed to eliminate wasteful spending in Iraq and promised that the U.S. will no longer 'hide' the price of wars in both Iraq and afghanistan.
(AKI) - The Sri Lankan army's final offensive against Tamil Tiger militants in the north of the country met with strong resistance as troops advanced into the last rebel stronghold, reports from the frontline said on Wednesday, quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday barred main opposition leader and former premier Nawaz Sharif from holding office and contesting elections, sparking political turmoil in the nuclear-armed nation.
Somalia's Shebab militia wrested control of a border-town from pro-government forces Wednesday, witnesses and a rights group said, as Islamist insurgents battled African Union peacekeepers and Somali police for a second day, bringing to 69 the death toll in the worst bout of fighting for weeks. 
The Washington Post Co.'s reeling newspaper and magazine divisions stumbled again in the fourth quarter, extending an earnings slump that would have been even more disconcerting if not for the stability of the company's education and cable TV businesses. The publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek magazine said Wednesday that it made $18.8 million, or $2.01 per share, during the final three months of last year.
Pakistan is on a rapid trajectory to failure as a stable, democratic state and needs a boost of $4 billion in US aid and loans each year to begin turning around, a private foreign affairs group has concluded. 
