Don't know if there is any connection between these two news items, but if not they soon will be.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday that the Fed will consider making another large-scale purchase of securities if the slowing economy were to deteriorate significantly and signs of deflation were to flare.
The Fed chief offered his most extensive thoughts yet on how to pull the U.S. economy out of a deepening slump. His remarks came 90 minutes after the government said the economy slowed sharply in the second quarter to a 1.6 percent pace.
Fears are growing that the country could lapse back into a recession. Bernanke described the economic outlook as "inherently uncertain" and said the economy "remains vulnerable to unexpected developments."
Bernanke stopped short of committing to any specific action. But he raised the prospect of another Fed purchase of securities, most likely government debt or mortgage securities, to drive down rates on mortgages and other debt to spur more spending by Americans.
#6
The solution to a debt driven bubble isn't more debt.
The solution is deflation. Which means anyone who who has bought assets using debt will likely default and pretty much every bank in the world will go bust.
H/T Instapundit
...you'll get directed to the nearby FDR Memorial instead. Instapundit posted on the problem last night and Google still hasn't gotten around to fixing it as of 7 am Eastern time. Mapquest and Bing Maps aren't playing dumb games like that today.
I don't care if you like Glenn Beck or not. This is just stupid and immature. So much for "don't be evil", eh?
#6
Do they really think that nobody will notice when they get there that it's not the Lincoln Memorial? Everyone has seen pictures of the Lincoln Memorial - with the statue of Lincoln sitting in a chair and all.
Perhaps they are going to build a huge paper mache 'statue' of FDR and hope nobody will notice.
#10
DFMD, I pretty much use Bing for all my searches now. I'll only resort to Google if I can't find what I'm looking for with Bing (which hasn't happened yet).
Whatever I can do to pay back Google for the "respect" they show this country....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/27/2010 21:26 Comments ||
Top||
Syria's Assad called Israel a state "based on crime, slaughter." At about the time Assad was saying this, a State Department ninny visiting Syria was tweeting to the world, "I'm not kidding when I say I just had the greatest frappacino [sic] ever."
#2
a righteous ass-kicking of the Paleo peace process and our Obama/State Dept pressure on Israel. Build the hell out of East Jerusalem and tell the Paleos, Arab League, Obama and UN rabble to STFU
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/27/2010 10:18 Comments ||
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#3
Syria's Assad called Israel a state "based on crime, slaughter."
Few people in this world today would know more about crime and slaughter than Pencilneck ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/27/2010 10:46 Comments ||
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[Beirut Daily Star] While some US congressmen are pushing to cut $100 million in military assistance budgeted for Lebanon over fears of Israel's security and Hizbullah's leading role here, slashing the aid would only make Hizbullah stronger, drive the army toward US rivals and erode US credibility here, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Wednesday. Another example of coming to a conclusion and then building your arguments to support it.
The issue erupted in Congress after an August 3 incident in Adaysseh near the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Israel's cutting down of a tree sparked a firefight which killed two Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) soldiers, a Lebanese journalist, and an Israeli officer. Some US lawmakers voiced objections to the aid on the grounds that US weapons could wind up being used by the LAF against Israel, the closest US ally in the region.
In the years before the Adaysseh clash, US officials had backed aid to the LAF as benefiting Israel, subscribing to a philosophy that building up the LAF would weaken Israeli foe Hizbullah, while a stronger LAF could help keep the Israel-Lebanon border calm, said retired General Elias Hanna, who teaches political science at various universities. After the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon was beefed up to about 13,000 peacekeepers, while the LAF deployed in south Lebanon for the first time in decades.
Although the US has poured some $700 million into the LAF since the Syrian military departed Lebanon in 2005, the LAF's paltry arsenal still does not in the least represent a threat to the powerful Israeli military, Hanna added.
Considering that reality, the displeasure expressed by the congressional representatives could have also contained a political message to Israel, as an attempt to reassure it of unflagging US support for Israeli security while the administration was cajoling Israel to return to direct peace talks with the Palestinians, Hanna added.
At the same time, the legislators were venting their discontent over Hizbullah's increased sway over affairs in Lebanon and its presence in the government, said Paul Salem, head of the Carnegie Middle East Center. Some congressmen said they worried that arms given to the LAF could end up under Hizbullah control or in the group's possession.
"For them, that's a very simple argument that you should punish Hizbullah by punishing the army," Salem said. "It's not a complex argument."
Salem added that he anticipated that Congress would prevail in paring down US funding for the LAF, despite US President Barack Obama's administration continuing to call for the full $100 million aid package as part of a regional strategy. The mix of US midterm elections, US fiscal distress, public opinion and staunch pro-Israeli feeling should add up to a loss in US assistance to the Lebanese military, he said.
"The US administration is clear that it wants to maintain the aid; the problem is in Congress," Salem said. "This is going to have an impact and a negative impact.
"I expect there will be cutting -- the question is how much."
Reducing aid to the LAF, however, would backfire against US interests, said former Ambassador Abdullah Bou Habib, a political consultant and executive director of the Issam Fares Institute, a non-partisan think tank. A weaker LAF would lead the population to feel a greater reliance on the weapons of Hizbullah; the historical justification for the existence of Hizbullah rests on the inability of the Lebanese military to protect south Lebanon from the frequent intrusions of Israel, Bou Habib added.
Shrinking US assistance to the LAF "would make the arms of Hizbullah stronger," he said. Aside from concerns about Hizbullah and Israel, fortifying the LAF increases Lebanese sovereignty and allows the military to fight terrorists, he added. "It is in the interest of Lebanon and in the interests of the US that the US supply the Lebanese Army with the necessary weapons," Bou Habib said. "The majority of Lebanese would like -- and I think Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah agreed with it yesterday -- American weapons."
Not only would cutting support undermine the LAF's status, but it could also force the military to turn to US foes Iran and Syria for assistance, Salem said. President Michel Sleiman and Defense Minister Elias Murr, in response to Congress' objections to aiding the LAF, said they would propose to the Cabinet to seek military supplies from other sources.
Nasrallah, in his speech on Tuesday, said Lebanon should get military equipment from Arab states and Iran, which is Hizbullah's main patron. Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic could deliver military aid to Lebanon.
With so much invested in Hizbullah, though, any aid from Tehran would amount to more of a political gesture, demonstrating how widely Tehran can project its power, Hanna said.
"Iran is willing to help the Lebanese army to a certain degree -- the Iranians don't want a competitor for Hizbullah," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/27/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11135 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
How can these guys make the claim that they are in charge if they can't control the flow of arms to rival militias?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
08/27/2010 0:38 Comments ||
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#2
slashing the aid would only make Hizbullah stronger, drive the army toward US rivals and erode US credibility here, a number of analysts
What the hell kind of convoluted Alice in Wonderland logic is this? What analysts said this?
We could cut aid to zero and Hezbullah would still exist and still hate the U.S. and Israel. They would still be pulling shenanigans in the ME since their funding comes through mosques, Iran, and South America.
#3
JPOST > {Israel Radio] ISRAEL READY TO DESTROY LAF [Lebanon Armed Forces] IN FOUR HOURS, warns the USA to Lebanon unless Lebanon prevents any recurrence of the recently deadly 'Tree" border fire incident.
OTOH JPOST POSTER > threads that IRAN TO SIGN MUTUAL DEFENSE EPACT WID LEBANON???
ARTIC/THREAD = I'm not sure iff the Poster was repor per se NEWS, or else was only PERSONAL FORECAST = FUTURIST PREDICTION???
#1
Funny how folks blame Limbaugh and others for their rhetoric causing all sorts of hostility and potential violence and then assume the independent jihadists are not provoked by the rhetoric of folks like Al Qaeda and others. You can't have it both ways.
The main battle in the war against Islamic Imperialism is the propaganda element. Their world view must be put down like a dog. That is unlikely to happen with the media we have, so I expect this conflict to go on for some time.
I don't want to go on a rant here, but George W Bush really screwed the pooch when he did not start a massive program to build nuclear power plants right after Sept 11. He could have sold it on environmental as well as foreign policy grounds and the building would have meant jobs and they would have started coming online before he his second term was up, undercutting the oil money flowing into Wahhabi Mosques.
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By George Will
While some US congressmen are pushing to cut $100 million in military assistance budgeted for Lebanon over fears of Israel's security and Hizbullah's leading role here, slashing the aid would only make Hizbullah stronger, drive the army toward US rivals and erode US credibility here, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Wednesday.
