If you didn't catch my post about trying to reconcile some of Kerry's conflicting positions, his membership in Skull & Bones, and his politicking for secrecy, it's here.
And here's a little more of similar Kerry politicking:
June 20, 2003: Senator John Kerry says he - in fact "every one of us" - was misled by President Bush concerning Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. And he says the deception is one reason he is running for President
The BBC reports on Kerry's realization that he had been lied to and his determination that he will not let President Bush "off the hook."
If John Kerry had been interested in the truth, why did he refuse to meet with his Western Mass constituents before voting for the war resolution? Why did he close his Springfield office on October 11 - shutting out his constituents - in the aftermath of his vote in favor of war? Link.
...In October, 2002, 23 Senators and 133 Representatives voted against the Bush Administration's war resolution. John Kerry voted for it. What did 156 Members of Congress know that Kerry did not know? Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of his constituents had called him, urging him to vote against war. After he voted for war, over 20,000 constituents wrote in the name of Randall Forsberg, who ran against him in a last minute write-in anti-war campaign in November.
During the lead up to war, much came to light in terms of US and UK deceptions concerning the weapons of mass destruction allegations. Surely, Senator Kerry took note of these developments. article
Sure he did. They all knew. Or could have known. We knew.
Kerry may be better than Bush, but just barely.
If you insist on playing the game as though it weren't fixed, find the candidate who voted against the war - who didn't accept the lies, who wasn't afraid to be a patriot.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Pretty Boys II
Recall the "pretty face" comments recently uttered by Double-creep from my earlier post.
Now, check this out, via Blah3.com:
This rang a bell with me this morning, so I went cruising through the archives. Bush said something similiar to this, in an interview with FoxNews' Brit Hume:
HUME: How do you get your news?
BUSH: I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi in the morning. They come in and tell me. In all due respect, you've got a beautiful face and everything.
I'm truly beginning to think that George W. Bush is a closeted gay man. Not that there's anything, etc., etc..
He's just criminally creepy. He's truly a sick man. Vindictive, stupid, creepy.
Excellent observations from a couple of commenters at Blah3.com:
1) In the cluttered warehouse of presidential gaffes, this humdinger ranks fairly low. Bush has so lowered the bar for presidential utterances that anything short of pissing on Reid's shoes seems positively statesmanlike.
That said, the adjective "pretty" is normally reserved for girls and women. When used in reference to a man, it implies effeminacy, gayness, or ineffectiveness.
2) Things like that are just to put people off step, at a disadvantage. There's no possible reply (I like your mouth too?). I consider it akin to the nicknames he gives. And the farting and making people put up with that. It's a power thing by a small, small man.
Mean and sick. A nasty little bully.
Please remove this man from office. I don't care if he goes back to Texas or Maine, but whereever he goes, surround it with concertina wire.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Now, check this out, via Blah3.com:
This rang a bell with me this morning, so I went cruising through the archives. Bush said something similiar to this, in an interview with FoxNews' Brit Hume:
HUME: How do you get your news?
BUSH: I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi in the morning. They come in and tell me. In all due respect, you've got a beautiful face and everything.
I'm truly beginning to think that George W. Bush is a closeted gay man. Not that there's anything, etc., etc..
He's just criminally creepy. He's truly a sick man. Vindictive, stupid, creepy.
Excellent observations from a couple of commenters at Blah3.com:
1) In the cluttered warehouse of presidential gaffes, this humdinger ranks fairly low. Bush has so lowered the bar for presidential utterances that anything short of pissing on Reid's shoes seems positively statesmanlike.
That said, the adjective "pretty" is normally reserved for girls and women. When used in reference to a man, it implies effeminacy, gayness, or ineffectiveness.
2) Things like that are just to put people off step, at a disadvantage. There's no possible reply (I like your mouth too?). I consider it akin to the nicknames he gives. And the farting and making people put up with that. It's a power thing by a small, small man.
Mean and sick. A nasty little bully.
Please remove this man from office. I don't care if he goes back to Texas or Maine, but whereever he goes, surround it with concertina wire.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Who?
I got my Missouri primary info in the mail yesterday. And I must admit, I was surprised to see a couple of names besides Georgie Porgie on the Republican list of presidential candidates. Bill Wyatt and Blake Ashby.
Who the hell are they?
Blake Ashby? Sounds like some daytime TV character.
God, it's so much work to be an informed citizen. I'm seriously considering being a dittohead. It'd be so much easier.
Seriously, though, check out that Wyatt link. And this one, too.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Who the hell are they?
Blake Ashby? Sounds like some daytime TV character.
God, it's so much work to be an informed citizen. I'm seriously considering being a dittohead. It'd be so much easier.
Seriously, though, check out that Wyatt link. And this one, too.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Halliburton and Bechtel need more of your money
A new report by Defense News...says the president will propose another $50 billion [for Iraq], in addition to the $166 billion already spent. According to the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the request "won't come until after the Nov. 2 presidential election" - effectively concealing the spending request from public scrutiny.
In the lead-up to the Iraq war...White House Budget Director, Mitch Daniels, said Iraq "will not require sustained aid" and that the war cost would "be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion."...And Bush had his new Budget Director tell the Senate that "we don't anticipate requesting anything additional for the balance of this year" - six weeks before he announced a request for an additional $87 billion. When White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey admitted that Iraq could cost up to $200 billion in the fall of 2002, he was summarily fired for his candor. article
You know that the right thing to do is to impeach these asshats. They shouldn't even be allowed to get close to November.
Send in the trees.
image lifted from WTF
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
In the lead-up to the Iraq war...White House Budget Director, Mitch Daniels, said Iraq "will not require sustained aid" and that the war cost would "be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion."...And Bush had his new Budget Director tell the Senate that "we don't anticipate requesting anything additional for the balance of this year" - six weeks before he announced a request for an additional $87 billion. When White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey admitted that Iraq could cost up to $200 billion in the fall of 2002, he was summarily fired for his candor. article
You know that the right thing to do is to impeach these asshats. They shouldn't even be allowed to get close to November.
Send in the trees.
image lifted from WTF
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
We promised democracy - they want democracy
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thousands of Shi'ite Muslims hit the streets of four Iraqi cities Tuesday, calling on the United States to hand over Saddam Hussein to be tried as a war criminal and demanding a bigger say in their political future.
The fresh rallies followed a march through Baghdad Monday by tens of thousands of people from the majority Shi'ite community demanding direct elections to decide who controls Iraq when the United States hands back power in June.
Many of Tuesday's protesters were supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand religious leader who has expressed support for Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Sistani and his followers, long persecuted by Saddam, have proven a thorn for the United States by opposing its plans to let regional caucuses appoint a transitional authority to take power at the end of June, instead of letting all Iraqis vote.
"We demand elections or we will bury every American here," said one Shi'ite cleric, Sattar Jabbar. article
Okay, the rest in short: Double-face has had to ask the UN to bail us out of the snare he got us into - asking for a team to go into Iraq and get these demanders of democracy to back off and permit a U.S. plan to go forward wherein representatives would be "hand picked" by provincial councils. Kofi Annan says he'll have to wait to see if a delegation comes back with a report that it's safe over there. (Sure it is.) And the UAE and Qatar have agreed to write off Iraqi debt.
From Juan Cole:
The Financial Times is reporting that British authorities in Basra now believe that there are no procedural obstacles to holding open elections in Basra of the sort that Grand Ayatollah Sistani has called for: Whether this is true or not, it is hard to see the British announcement as anything but payback for the way the CPA has ordered them about like lackeys since the fall of Saddam. The statement puts Mr. Bremer in a very difficult situation.
The British may in part been driven to this announcement by pure fear. They appear to have upped their estimate of the number of protesters last Thursday from 30,000 to 3 to 10 times that.
...I am hearing rumors, purportedly coming out of Najaf, that there will be big Shiite demonstrations throughout Iraq this coming Friday. One reason I am pessimistic that Sistani will back down is precisely that he has gone to the streets. He must have known that crowds will be hard to rein in if some basic modicum of his demands are not met, even if he himself is willing to compromise.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
The fresh rallies followed a march through Baghdad Monday by tens of thousands of people from the majority Shi'ite community demanding direct elections to decide who controls Iraq when the United States hands back power in June.
Many of Tuesday's protesters were supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr, a firebrand religious leader who has expressed support for Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Sistani and his followers, long persecuted by Saddam, have proven a thorn for the United States by opposing its plans to let regional caucuses appoint a transitional authority to take power at the end of June, instead of letting all Iraqis vote.
"We demand elections or we will bury every American here," said one Shi'ite cleric, Sattar Jabbar. article
Okay, the rest in short: Double-face has had to ask the UN to bail us out of the snare he got us into - asking for a team to go into Iraq and get these demanders of democracy to back off and permit a U.S. plan to go forward wherein representatives would be "hand picked" by provincial councils. Kofi Annan says he'll have to wait to see if a delegation comes back with a report that it's safe over there. (Sure it is.) And the UAE and Qatar have agreed to write off Iraqi debt.
From Juan Cole:
The Financial Times is reporting that British authorities in Basra now believe that there are no procedural obstacles to holding open elections in Basra of the sort that Grand Ayatollah Sistani has called for: Whether this is true or not, it is hard to see the British announcement as anything but payback for the way the CPA has ordered them about like lackeys since the fall of Saddam. The statement puts Mr. Bremer in a very difficult situation.
The British may in part been driven to this announcement by pure fear. They appear to have upped their estimate of the number of protesters last Thursday from 30,000 to 3 to 10 times that.
...I am hearing rumors, purportedly coming out of Najaf, that there will be big Shiite demonstrations throughout Iraq this coming Friday. One reason I am pessimistic that Sistani will back down is precisely that he has gone to the streets. He must have known that crowds will be hard to rein in if some basic modicum of his demands are not met, even if he himself is willing to compromise.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
An apology and a sigh of relief
Dick Gephardt dropped out of the Demo race. Thank goodness. I would hate to have to apologize to the whole of the country for another Missouri mess. Sorry, Dick, but you give me the willies. And we already have to account for Rash Limpbowell and J. Jesus AssKKKroft.
Sorry everybody. Sorry.
Sorry everybody. Sorry.
Prescription drug mark-up
Maybe Rush was just trying to save money.
My friend Marty, who for some reason sends me email under the name of Carol (what are you trying to say, Martin?), forwards the following:
WHAT DRUGS REALLY COST
Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life Extension, a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in other countries.
In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America. The chart below speaks for itself. This is based on 100 pills.
...It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreens on every corner...........
On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo..... three thousand percent!
So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the
pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10!
At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.
I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the
online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08. I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.
See Also: http://www.detnow.com/news/020925-drugchart.html
The fault doesn't lie "clearly" with the pharmacies, however, as the message says. It's a well-oiled racket involving kickbacks and intermingled company interests. And it's spawned a nice illegal racket on the side. When there's that much profiteering to be exploited, there will always be a criminal parallel.
Just goes to show you that when drug manufacturers, pharmacies, insurance companies, and prescribing doctors all work together what wonders they can perform. A lesson in the virtue of cooperation.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
My friend Marty, who for some reason sends me email under the name of Carol (what are you trying to say, Martin?), forwards the following:
WHAT DRUGS REALLY COST
Did you ever wonder how much it costs a drug company for the active ingredient in prescription medications? Some people think it must cost a lot, since many drugs sell for more than $2.00 per tablet. We did a search of offshore chemical synthesizers that supply the active ingredients found in drugs approved by the FDA. As we have revealed in past issues of Life Extension, a significant percentage of drugs sold in the United States contain active ingredients made in other countries.
In our independent investigation of how much profit drug companies really make, we obtained the actual price of active ingredients used in some of the most popular drugs sold in America. The chart below speaks for itself. This is based on 100 pills.
| BRAND | STRENGTH | WE PAY | STORE COST | MARK UP |
| Celebrex | 100 mg | $130.27 | $0.60 | 21,712% |
| Claritin | 10 mg | $215.17 | $0.71 | 30,306% |
| Keflex | 250 mg | $157.39 | $1.88 | 8,372% |
| Lipitor | 20 mg | $272.37 | $5.80 | 4,696% |
| Norvasc | 10 mg | $188.29 | $0.14 | 134,493% |
| Paxil | 20 mg | $220.27 | $7.60 | 2,898% |
| Prevacid | 30 mg | $44.77 | $1.01 | 34,136% |
| Prilosec | 20 mg | $360.97 | $0.52 | 69,417% |
| Prozac | 20 mg | $247.47 | $0.11 | 224,973% |
| Tenormin | 50 mg | $104.47 | $0.13 | 80,362% |
| Vasotec | 10 mg | $102.37 | $0.20 | 51,185% |
| Xanax | 1mg | $136.79 | $0.024 | 569,958% |
| Zestril | 20 mg | $89.89 | $3.20 | 2,809% |
| Zithromax | 600mg | $1,482.19 | $18.78 | 7,892% |
| Zocor | 40mg | $350.27 | $8.63 | 4,059% |
| Zoloft | 50mg | $206.87 | $1.75 | 11,821% |
...It pays to shop around. This helps to solve the mystery as to why they can afford to put a Walgreens on every corner...........
On Monday night, Steve Wilson, an investigative reporter for channel 7 News in Detroit, did a story on generic drug price gouging by pharmacies. He found in his investigation, that some of these generic drugs were marked up as much as 3,000% or more. Yes, that's not a typo..... three thousand percent!
So often, we blame the drug companies for the high cost of drugs, and usually rightfully so. But in this case, the fault clearly lies with the
pharmacies themselves. For example, if you had to buy a prescription drug, and bought the name brand, you might pay $100 for 100 pills. The pharmacist might tell you that if you get the generic equivalent, they would only cost $80, making you think you are "saving" $20. What the pharmacist is not telling you is that those 100 generic pills may have only cost him $10!
At the end of the report, one of the anchors asked Mr. Wilson whether or not there were any pharmacies that did not adhere to this practice, and he said that Costco consistently charged little over their cost for the generic drugs.
I went to the Costco site, where you can look up any drug, and get its online price. It says that the in-store prices are consistent with the
online prices. I was appalled. Just to give you one example from my own experience, I had to use the drug, Compazine, which helps prevent nausea in chemo patients. I used the generic equivalent, which cost $54.99 for 60 pills at CVS. I checked the price at Costco, and I could have bought 100 pills for $19.89. For 145 of my pain pills, I paid $72.57. I could have got 150 at Costco for $28.08. I would like to mention, that although Costco is a "membership" type store, you do NOT have to be a member to buy prescriptions there, as it is a federally regulated substance. You just tell them at the door that you wish to use the pharmacy, and they will let you in.
See Also: http://www.detnow.com/news/020925-drugchart.html
The fault doesn't lie "clearly" with the pharmacies, however, as the message says. It's a well-oiled racket involving kickbacks and intermingled company interests. And it's spawned a nice illegal racket on the side. When there's that much profiteering to be exploited, there will always be a criminal parallel.
Just goes to show you that when drug manufacturers, pharmacies, insurance companies, and prescribing doctors all work together what wonders they can perform. A lesson in the virtue of cooperation.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Preempting the premption
Just days after the Iraq war officially ended, The Age reported (May 10) that Australian troops had fought the first battles, killing and capturing Iraqi soldiers a day before US President George Bush declared the invasion had begun.
This remarkable true story went unnoticed in Australia, yet its strategic implications are crucial. Australian SAS troops initiated pre-emptive combat in western Iraq on the evening of March 18 (Iraq time). The force, previously secretly inserted into Iraq, attacked Iraqi positions in the first hours of darkness, 16 hours after Bush's 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam to cede power. Washington was determined to protect Israel against potential Iraqi Scud missile attack during the pre-invasion phase. This crucial task fell to Australia's SAS. The US had admired how effective the SAS had been in Afghanistan in operating behind enemy lines. They wanted the SAS for this job, and US-Australian operational planning began in mid-2002.
How these SAS pre-emptive operations were disguised by Washington and Canberra is crucial to this story.
Read the rest here.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
This remarkable true story went unnoticed in Australia, yet its strategic implications are crucial. Australian SAS troops initiated pre-emptive combat in western Iraq on the evening of March 18 (Iraq time). The force, previously secretly inserted into Iraq, attacked Iraqi positions in the first hours of darkness, 16 hours after Bush's 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam to cede power. Washington was determined to protect Israel against potential Iraqi Scud missile attack during the pre-invasion phase. This crucial task fell to Australia's SAS. The US had admired how effective the SAS had been in Afghanistan in operating behind enemy lines. They wanted the SAS for this job, and US-Australian operational planning began in mid-2002.
How these SAS pre-emptive operations were disguised by Washington and Canberra is crucial to this story.
Read the rest here.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Soon the internet
I keep wondering when we'll be denied communication via the internet. Maybe soon.
Al-Qaeda has issued a chilling new call to arms to recruits who remain undetected by security agencies. In a terrorist manual published on the internet, Osama bin Laden says: 'After Iraq and Afghanistan will come the Crusader invasion of Saudi Arabia. All fighters all over the world must be ready.'
The manual has been masterminded by Saif al-Adel, the organisation's third most senior man and the only terrorist other than bin Laden and his partner Ayman al-Zawahiri to have a $25 million reward on his head.
It is directed at new volunteers who are 'below the radar' of counter-terrorist authorities and who cannot break cover to undergo formal training in terrorist techniques.
...The manual is an internal al-Qaeda document and will be of enormous interest to security agencies. The fact that al-Adel, a former special forces colonel in the Egyptian army, has risked discovery to publish it is an indication of its importance.
'Though it shows that we have taken down a lot of the training infrastructure and made it hard for [al-Qaeda] to operate, it is very worrying in that it implies that there are a lot of recruits around who we have yet to pick up,' one British senior police counter-terrorist officer said.
In the manual, bin Laden calls on the recruits to be cautious in their operations, given the counter-terrorist surveillance efforts against them. He says that all those Muslims living in the lands occupied by the unbelievers should study the manual and be prepared to act.
The appearance of the manual - the January issue of what promises to be a monthly publication - is a major boost to al-Qaeda's propaganda effort. article
On the other hand, how do you know who's who and who's pretending to be whom? When I was in the bookstore the other day, a book jumped out and came home with me: See No Evil by ex-CIA operative Robert Baer. It's just a confirmation that the average citizen has no way of knowing who works for what cause.
What a mess.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Al-Qaeda has issued a chilling new call to arms to recruits who remain undetected by security agencies. In a terrorist manual published on the internet, Osama bin Laden says: 'After Iraq and Afghanistan will come the Crusader invasion of Saudi Arabia. All fighters all over the world must be ready.'
The manual has been masterminded by Saif al-Adel, the organisation's third most senior man and the only terrorist other than bin Laden and his partner Ayman al-Zawahiri to have a $25 million reward on his head.
It is directed at new volunteers who are 'below the radar' of counter-terrorist authorities and who cannot break cover to undergo formal training in terrorist techniques.
...The manual is an internal al-Qaeda document and will be of enormous interest to security agencies. The fact that al-Adel, a former special forces colonel in the Egyptian army, has risked discovery to publish it is an indication of its importance.
'Though it shows that we have taken down a lot of the training infrastructure and made it hard for [al-Qaeda] to operate, it is very worrying in that it implies that there are a lot of recruits around who we have yet to pick up,' one British senior police counter-terrorist officer said.
In the manual, bin Laden calls on the recruits to be cautious in their operations, given the counter-terrorist surveillance efforts against them. He says that all those Muslims living in the lands occupied by the unbelievers should study the manual and be prepared to act.
The appearance of the manual - the January issue of what promises to be a monthly publication - is a major boost to al-Qaeda's propaganda effort. article
On the other hand, how do you know who's who and who's pretending to be whom? When I was in the bookstore the other day, a book jumped out and came home with me: See No Evil by ex-CIA operative Robert Baer. It's just a confirmation that the average citizen has no way of knowing who works for what cause.
What a mess.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Win-Win for the Saudis
In a story datelined Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Reuters news agency is quoting former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as having told the Saudis that they should sell oil for gold ... not US$ ... to avoid being "short-changed" by a decline in the US currency. "The price of oil is US$33 ... but the dollar has declined by 40% against the €uro, so you're effectively getting US$20," Mahathir told an economic conference, Sunday. "So you're being short-changed!"
Saudi Arabia has already justified higher world oil prices saying they're necessary to compensate for the slide in the US$. article
How can you lose when you have the oil?
The debate is just the latest round in a general move within the oil industry to move away from the Bush 2 administration's depreciating US$ ... fatefully, Iraq had switched to the € uro as the currency of preference just before Bush launched the unilateral invasion of that country to remove dictator Saddam Hussein.
And recently, Venezuela has been talking about switching to euros as well. Prepare to liberate Venezuela, as demonizing Chavez continues to pick up pace in the U.S. administration/news complex.
It's too many for me, but if everybody starts talking euros for oil, I'm not sure how we're going to liberate them all. I guess we could take Dumbshit's lead and go "nukular".
Saudi Trade Minister Hashem Yamani says his country has narrowed differences with the United States that were holding up a Saudi entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) ... but Mahathir Mohamad has also warned the Saudis against rushing to join the WTO and says it is "not necessarily a positive move. It can be very negative if you don't handle it properly ... they try to impose their agenda without regard for some other countries."
Moves are nevertheless afoot for a majority of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to switch to Euros ... a major decision is expected when the oil cartel meets next month, and senior Venezuelan diplomats have already been speaking with Russian, Mexican and Arab counterparts to shake off the shackles of dependency on the US currency as it continues its international nosedive.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Saudi Arabia has already justified higher world oil prices saying they're necessary to compensate for the slide in the US$. article
How can you lose when you have the oil?
The debate is just the latest round in a general move within the oil industry to move away from the Bush 2 administration's depreciating US$ ... fatefully, Iraq had switched to the € uro as the currency of preference just before Bush launched the unilateral invasion of that country to remove dictator Saddam Hussein.
And recently, Venezuela has been talking about switching to euros as well. Prepare to liberate Venezuela, as demonizing Chavez continues to pick up pace in the U.S. administration/news complex.
It's too many for me, but if everybody starts talking euros for oil, I'm not sure how we're going to liberate them all. I guess we could take Dumbshit's lead and go "nukular".
Saudi Trade Minister Hashem Yamani says his country has narrowed differences with the United States that were holding up a Saudi entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) ... but Mahathir Mohamad has also warned the Saudis against rushing to join the WTO and says it is "not necessarily a positive move. It can be very negative if you don't handle it properly ... they try to impose their agenda without regard for some other countries."
Moves are nevertheless afoot for a majority of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to switch to Euros ... a major decision is expected when the oil cartel meets next month, and senior Venezuelan diplomats have already been speaking with Russian, Mexican and Arab counterparts to shake off the shackles of dependency on the US currency as it continues its international nosedive.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Tuesday
Today is Tuesday - Tyr's day.
The original Germanic god of war and the patron god of justice, the precursor of Odin . At the time of the Vikings, Tyr had to make way for Odin, who became the god of war himself. Tyr was by then regarded as Odin's son (or possibly of the giant Hymir). He is the boldest of the gods, who inspires courage and heroism in battle. Tyr is represented as a man with one hand, because his right hand was bitten off by the gigantic wolf Fenrir (in old-Norse, the wrist was called 'wolf-joint'). His attribute is a spear; the symbol of justice, as well as a weapon.
At the day of Ragnarok*, Tyr will kill the hound Garm, the guardian of the hell, but will die from the wounds inflicted by the animal. In later mythology, "Tyr" became to mean "god". He is also known as Tiwaz, Tiw and Ziu.
So, then do you suppose "tyrant" and "god" are interchangeable? Hmmmm?
*Ragnarok: Ragnarok ("Doom of the Powers"), also called Gotterdammerung, means the end of the cosmos in Norse mythology. It will be preceded by Fimbulvetr, the winter of winters. Three such winters will follow each other with no summers in between. Conflicts and feuds will break out, even between families, and all morality will disappear. This is the beginning of the end.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
The original Germanic god of war and the patron god of justice, the precursor of Odin . At the time of the Vikings, Tyr had to make way for Odin, who became the god of war himself. Tyr was by then regarded as Odin's son (or possibly of the giant Hymir). He is the boldest of the gods, who inspires courage and heroism in battle. Tyr is represented as a man with one hand, because his right hand was bitten off by the gigantic wolf Fenrir (in old-Norse, the wrist was called 'wolf-joint'). His attribute is a spear; the symbol of justice, as well as a weapon.
At the day of Ragnarok*, Tyr will kill the hound Garm, the guardian of the hell, but will die from the wounds inflicted by the animal. In later mythology, "Tyr" became to mean "god". He is also known as Tiwaz, Tiw and Ziu.
So, then do you suppose "tyrant" and "god" are interchangeable? Hmmmm?
*Ragnarok: Ragnarok ("Doom of the Powers"), also called Gotterdammerung, means the end of the cosmos in Norse mythology. It will be preceded by Fimbulvetr, the winter of winters. Three such winters will follow each other with no summers in between. Conflicts and feuds will break out, even between families, and all morality will disappear. This is the beginning of the end.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Monday, January 19, 2004
Update on the Apache video
The video of the helicopter gunning down three Iraqis comes from a January 9 ABC report.
A senior Army official who viewed the tape said the pilots had the legal right to kill the men because they were carrying a weapon. He said there were no ground troops in the area and if the Apache pilots had let the three Iraqis go, the men might have gone on to kill American troops.
Keane agreed. "Those weapons were obviously not being pointed at them in particular, but they [the three Iraqis] are using those weapons in their minds for lethal means and they [the Apache pilots] have a right to interfere with that," he said.
Anthony Cordesman, an ABCNEWS defense consultant who also viewed the tape, said the Apache pilots would have had a much clearer picture of the scene than what was recorded on the videotape. He also said they would have had intelligence about the identity of the men in the vehicles. "They're not getting a sort of blurred picture. They have a combination of intelligence and much better imagery than we can see." article
A senior Army official who viewed the tape said the pilots had the legal right to kill the men because they were carrying a weapon. He said there were no ground troops in the area and if the Apache pilots had let the three Iraqis go, the men might have gone on to kill American troops.
Keane agreed. "Those weapons were obviously not being pointed at them in particular, but they [the three Iraqis] are using those weapons in their minds for lethal means and they [the Apache pilots] have a right to interfere with that," he said.
Anthony Cordesman, an ABCNEWS defense consultant who also viewed the tape, said the Apache pilots would have had a much clearer picture of the scene than what was recorded on the videotape. He also said they would have had intelligence about the identity of the men in the vehicles. "They're not getting a sort of blurred picture. They have a combination of intelligence and much better imagery than we can see." article
Senator John Kerry - VietNam veteran
Square this Vietnam Veterans Against the War statement by John Kerry to the Senate Committee of Foreign Relations in April of 1971, with the following:
[S]ix staff members on the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs who were charged with investigating intelligence reports...drew an obvious conclusion: "that American prisoners of war have been held continuously after Operation Homecoming and remain[ed] in captivity in Vietnam and Laos as late as 1989." [The investigators were for technical reasons using live-sighting reports that extended only through 1989.]
The conclusion, however, was not welcomed by the DIA, or even by most members of the Senate Committee....John Kerry, the committee chairman, told one of the investigators that if the report ever leaked out, "you'll wish you'd never been born." Senator Kerry wants to normalize relations with Vietnam. When the briefing was over, Frances Zwenig, the committee staff director, ordered that all copies of the investigators' report be destroyed. article
Of course, it might not be true.
Old John Skull & Bones Kerry could be a straight-up kind of guy, and that report could be a lie. (It is a 1994 report, not a current campaign smear.)
[S]ix staff members on the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs who were charged with investigating intelligence reports...drew an obvious conclusion: "that American prisoners of war have been held continuously after Operation Homecoming and remain[ed] in captivity in Vietnam and Laos as late as 1989." [The investigators were for technical reasons using live-sighting reports that extended only through 1989.]
The conclusion, however, was not welcomed by the DIA, or even by most members of the Senate Committee....John Kerry, the committee chairman, told one of the investigators that if the report ever leaked out, "you'll wish you'd never been born." Senator Kerry wants to normalize relations with Vietnam. When the briefing was over, Frances Zwenig, the committee staff director, ordered that all copies of the investigators' report be destroyed. article
Of course, it might not be true.
Old John Skull & Bones Kerry could be a straight-up kind of guy, and that report could be a lie. (It is a 1994 report, not a current campaign smear.)
Fascistcroft burning the Constitution
More on the Supreme Court refusal to hear Bellahouel's case:
What began as a petition for his release has evolved into a battle over the public's right to know what its government is doing. Bellahouel, 34, alleges that a series of federal judges sealed the entire case against him without giving any reason, without allowing him or anyone else a chance to challenge the action.
All of which places Bellahouel, an unassuming immigrant living with his wife, stepdaughter and mother-in-law in Deerfield Beach, at the center of a legal storm.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and his prosecutors have warned that releasing even the names of post-Sept. 11 detainees could undermine national security. The Supreme Court last week refused to hear an appeal by civil liberties groups, which contend that such basic information should be public.
...Federal agents detained Bellahouel in October 2001 and held him for five months on the theory that he might have served food to hijackers and maybe even went to a movie theater with one.
...Born in the Algerian city of Blida, Bellahouel worked as a rural veterinarian before coming to the United States in 1996 to study biology at Florida Atlantic University. Out of money a year later, he left school and eventually took a job waiting on tables at the Kef Room, a gyros-and-falafel restaurant on Federal Highway in Delray Beach.
Federal agents picked up Bellahouel at his home Oct. 15, 2001, ostensibly on a violation of his student visa. At some point, he was taken to Alexandria, Va., to testify before a grand jury investigating post-Sept. 11 terrorism.
He apparently had nothing to add to the investigation. Authorities released him on bond in March 2002, signaling that they no longer considered him a potential threat.
Investigators targeted him because at least two hijacking suspects, Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, were regulars at the Kef Room. article
And that's all it takes these days to lose your constitutional rights.
graphic courtesy POAC
I have a page tracking similar Constitution-busting, civil liberties smashing cases on my website. And one on citizens' attempts to resist this turn to fascism. Another has articles on courts that uphold the Constitution when presented with such cases. Unfortunately, they are not the Supreme Court.
Impeach.
Repeal.
And put the real criminals behind bars. Let Georgie put on another costume. Pajamas with horizontal black and white stripes.
Then will the real mission be accomplished.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
What began as a petition for his release has evolved into a battle over the public's right to know what its government is doing. Bellahouel, 34, alleges that a series of federal judges sealed the entire case against him without giving any reason, without allowing him or anyone else a chance to challenge the action.
All of which places Bellahouel, an unassuming immigrant living with his wife, stepdaughter and mother-in-law in Deerfield Beach, at the center of a legal storm.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and his prosecutors have warned that releasing even the names of post-Sept. 11 detainees could undermine national security. The Supreme Court last week refused to hear an appeal by civil liberties groups, which contend that such basic information should be public.
...Federal agents detained Bellahouel in October 2001 and held him for five months on the theory that he might have served food to hijackers and maybe even went to a movie theater with one.
...Born in the Algerian city of Blida, Bellahouel worked as a rural veterinarian before coming to the United States in 1996 to study biology at Florida Atlantic University. Out of money a year later, he left school and eventually took a job waiting on tables at the Kef Room, a gyros-and-falafel restaurant on Federal Highway in Delray Beach.
Federal agents picked up Bellahouel at his home Oct. 15, 2001, ostensibly on a violation of his student visa. At some point, he was taken to Alexandria, Va., to testify before a grand jury investigating post-Sept. 11 terrorism.
He apparently had nothing to add to the investigation. Authorities released him on bond in March 2002, signaling that they no longer considered him a potential threat.
Investigators targeted him because at least two hijacking suspects, Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, were regulars at the Kef Room. article
And that's all it takes these days to lose your constitutional rights.
graphic courtesy POAC
I have a page tracking similar Constitution-busting, civil liberties smashing cases on my website. And one on citizens' attempts to resist this turn to fascism. Another has articles on courts that uphold the Constitution when presented with such cases. Unfortunately, they are not the Supreme Court.
Impeach.
Repeal.
And put the real criminals behind bars. Let Georgie put on another costume. Pajamas with horizontal black and white stripes.
Then will the real mission be accomplished.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
9/11 and WTC7
Recently I saw an article talking about the suspicious official reports on the smaller WTC7 building in New York City when the Twin Towers went down. Today, another article crossed my path. I don't see a date on it, but that's not too important.
In a stunning and belated development concerning the attacks of 9/11 Larry Silverstein, the controller of the destroyed WTC complex, stated plainly in a PBS documentary that he and the FDNY decided jointly to demolish the Solomon Bros. building, or WTC 7, late in the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
... Mr. Silverstein's comments imply that he and the FDNY threw together an expert demolition job in the space of a few short hours on the afternoon of 9/11. This revelation is staggering enough considering its blatant contradiction to what has been, all along, the official cause of the "collapse." But the fact that the building was buried under tons of debris and consumed in flames at the time makes his comments all the more baffling.
...WTC 7, like the Murrah building, housed high-level government offices including the FBI, CIA and the Secret Service. WTC 7 was also the storage facility for millions of files pertaining to active cases involving international drug dealing, organized crime, terrorism and money laundering.
...There's a compelling theory that bombs had been planted inside the twin towers designed to complete the job the hijacked jets had begun. A handful of seasoned professional firefighters and demolition men have commented on how neatly and evenly the towers collapsed. Mr. Silverstein's bewildering statements in "America Rebuilds" give an exponential boost in credence to this claim and, in a more terrifying light, loan credibility to growing suspicions that the attacks of 9/11 may have been an inside job. article
The White House has recently determined that there will be no extension for the 9/11 Commission. They must have their report done in May. This is, of course, absurd. Why should there be an end date to the investigation? Well, you know why - November election. But considering the White House has been stalling and refusing to cooperate with the Commission, the refusal to extend the investigation end date should be all the more suspicious.
More on 9/11 funny business is here.
In a stunning and belated development concerning the attacks of 9/11 Larry Silverstein, the controller of the destroyed WTC complex, stated plainly in a PBS documentary that he and the FDNY decided jointly to demolish the Solomon Bros. building, or WTC 7, late in the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
... Mr. Silverstein's comments imply that he and the FDNY threw together an expert demolition job in the space of a few short hours on the afternoon of 9/11. This revelation is staggering enough considering its blatant contradiction to what has been, all along, the official cause of the "collapse." But the fact that the building was buried under tons of debris and consumed in flames at the time makes his comments all the more baffling.
...WTC 7, like the Murrah building, housed high-level government offices including the FBI, CIA and the Secret Service. WTC 7 was also the storage facility for millions of files pertaining to active cases involving international drug dealing, organized crime, terrorism and money laundering.
...There's a compelling theory that bombs had been planted inside the twin towers designed to complete the job the hijacked jets had begun. A handful of seasoned professional firefighters and demolition men have commented on how neatly and evenly the towers collapsed. Mr. Silverstein's bewildering statements in "America Rebuilds" give an exponential boost in credence to this claim and, in a more terrifying light, loan credibility to growing suspicions that the attacks of 9/11 may have been an inside job. article
The White House has recently determined that there will be no extension for the 9/11 Commission. They must have their report done in May. This is, of course, absurd. Why should there be an end date to the investigation? Well, you know why - November election. But considering the White House has been stalling and refusing to cooperate with the Commission, the refusal to extend the investigation end date should be all the more suspicious.
More on 9/11 funny business is here.
Sharon backs the art-destroying ambassador
Follow-up to my post about the Israeli ambassador that went postal, destroying an exhibit in a Swedish art museum:
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised the ambassador's actions, saying that anti-Semitism was such a problem "it would have been forbidden not to have acted on the spot".
The envoy, Zvi Mazel, is unrepentant...[and] said he was surprised that the museum was continuing to exhibit the work. article
And, with that stamp of approval by Shraon, see what happens...
Danish radio reported that two of the museum's top staff as well as the artist had received threats.
It said the artistic director, Thomas Nordanstand, alone had received 400 e-mails about the installation, most of them abusive and one containing a death threat.
Mr Nordanstand was also shoved down the museum's steps as he smoked a cigarette outside the building on Sunday but managed to grab a rail to break his fall, the radio said.
...Artist Dror Feiler, who is also said to have been threatened, said the envoy's actions made reconciliation harder.
He told the BBC World Service that his work was "absolutely not" a glorification of suicide bombers as had been claimed and criticised Mr Mazel for a "stupid act".
"[My wife] came running to tell me... the ambassador was destroying our installation," the Israeli-born artist told the World Today programme.
"When I got there, I could see he had disconnected some of the lights."
Mr Feiler said he tried to persuade the ambassador to read the accompanying text which explained how innocent people had been killed in the attack by the bomber whose photograph he had used, but had been rebuffed.
...In a separate development, Mr Mazel confirmed on Monday that Israel would be vacating the building that houses its embassy in Stockholm after 50 years, Israeli radio reported.
He said the building's owners thought Israel's presence was a security risk.
No shit. And good riddance.
Where are the adults in this world?
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised the ambassador's actions, saying that anti-Semitism was such a problem "it would have been forbidden not to have acted on the spot".
The envoy, Zvi Mazel, is unrepentant...[and] said he was surprised that the museum was continuing to exhibit the work. article
And, with that stamp of approval by Shraon, see what happens...
Danish radio reported that two of the museum's top staff as well as the artist had received threats.
It said the artistic director, Thomas Nordanstand, alone had received 400 e-mails about the installation, most of them abusive and one containing a death threat.
Mr Nordanstand was also shoved down the museum's steps as he smoked a cigarette outside the building on Sunday but managed to grab a rail to break his fall, the radio said.
...Artist Dror Feiler, who is also said to have been threatened, said the envoy's actions made reconciliation harder.
He told the BBC World Service that his work was "absolutely not" a glorification of suicide bombers as had been claimed and criticised Mr Mazel for a "stupid act".
"[My wife] came running to tell me... the ambassador was destroying our installation," the Israeli-born artist told the World Today programme.
"When I got there, I could see he had disconnected some of the lights."
Mr Feiler said he tried to persuade the ambassador to read the accompanying text which explained how innocent people had been killed in the attack by the bomber whose photograph he had used, but had been rebuffed.
...In a separate development, Mr Mazel confirmed on Monday that Israel would be vacating the building that houses its embassy in Stockholm after 50 years, Israeli radio reported.
He said the building's owners thought Israel's presence was a security risk.
No shit. And good riddance.
Where are the adults in this world?
State of the Union
I see people writing from time to time about the truth of the situation (as they see it, of course), and I am reading that Paul O'Neill wanted to always tell the truth, because that's the best way to decide policy (although I see he didn't always tell the truth). I don't think Double-face is particularly interested in truth. At any rate, if he were, the trouble with trying to get the truth to a pResident who doesn't read and can't carry on a conversation, who can't analyze situations and solve problems, is that it's a lot of wasted energy.
There's no way to address the serious issues facing the Union until there is an overhaul in the White House.
Double-face is like the Wonka Chocolate Factory: nothing goes in, nothing comes out.
Ex Treasury chief Paul O'Neill, a wealthy ($60 million) conservative, arrogant in his own right - but analytical and a very good businessman, contrasts Double-dumb with the various other presidents O'Neill worked with and for. In one excerpt from the Suskind book, The Price of Loyalty, O'Neill compares the Oaf with Gerald Ford:
"Was Ford smarter than Henry Kissinger or James Schlesinger - or, for that matter, he (O'Neill) and Greenspan? All four regularly struggled, openly and fiercely, on various landscapes of public policy. And all could claim expertise that Ford couldn't match. Yet everyone, eventually, had deferred to Ford's judgment. Why? It wasn't just because he was the President, O'Neill thought. If only it could be that easy. It was respect born from a deeper constant. After Ford finally held forth, settling this issue or that, each man had the same thought: I like the way he thinks.
O'Neill knew that [EPA chief] Whitman had never heard the President analyze a complex issue, parse opposing positions, and settle on a judicious path. In fact, no one - inside or outside the government, here or across the globe - had heard him do that to any significant degree. And that, O'Neill decided, was what Whitman was getting at with the word "credibility". It was not just the President's credibility around the world. It was credibility with his most senior officials.
One thing early on in the book that O'Neill notes is that the president-elect had not earned O'Neill's respect.
That's so important. In this culture, we give respect to people for the strangest reasons - because of their social position - or financial one - without regard for what they offer as a person. And that's too bad, because, while it's possible that a person could earn respect by virtue of attaining great finances or position, it's much more likely that they've simply inherited these things or gotten them by virtue of glad-handing or whoring some favor or another.
If you've ever worked for a boss who knew infinitely less than you, and wasn't interested in learning, and who was too ignorant to know whether he (she) were being led toward a goal or a quagmire, you know what's been going on in the White House for the past three years. Now turn that boss into a vengeful, mean-spirited megalomaniac, and give your company the power to manipulate world politics.
Double-dumb says from time to time, "I don't negotiate with myself", when he doesn't want to argue a point (because he can't). What a stupid, stupid thing to say. Apparently he doesn't realize how idiotic that is. Anyone who has any sense at all is always "negotiating with" himself - always weighing the evidence from both the past and the ever-changing present, to make the best, most justifiable decision possible at every point.
When the king is an idiot, the viziers and advisors left to their own devices will eventually destroy the kingdom. Double-dumb will go down in history as the worst thing that ever happened to the Union, and even to the world. And he won't have the faintest idea how that happened. In fact, he'll probably be shocked when he hears it. After all, he doesn't read.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
There's no way to address the serious issues facing the Union until there is an overhaul in the White House.
Double-face is like the Wonka Chocolate Factory: nothing goes in, nothing comes out.
Ex Treasury chief Paul O'Neill, a wealthy ($60 million) conservative, arrogant in his own right - but analytical and a very good businessman, contrasts Double-dumb with the various other presidents O'Neill worked with and for. In one excerpt from the Suskind book, The Price of Loyalty, O'Neill compares the Oaf with Gerald Ford:
"Was Ford smarter than Henry Kissinger or James Schlesinger - or, for that matter, he (O'Neill) and Greenspan? All four regularly struggled, openly and fiercely, on various landscapes of public policy. And all could claim expertise that Ford couldn't match. Yet everyone, eventually, had deferred to Ford's judgment. Why? It wasn't just because he was the President, O'Neill thought. If only it could be that easy. It was respect born from a deeper constant. After Ford finally held forth, settling this issue or that, each man had the same thought: I like the way he thinks.
O'Neill knew that [EPA chief] Whitman had never heard the President analyze a complex issue, parse opposing positions, and settle on a judicious path. In fact, no one - inside or outside the government, here or across the globe - had heard him do that to any significant degree. And that, O'Neill decided, was what Whitman was getting at with the word "credibility". It was not just the President's credibility around the world. It was credibility with his most senior officials.
One thing early on in the book that O'Neill notes is that the president-elect had not earned O'Neill's respect.
That's so important. In this culture, we give respect to people for the strangest reasons - because of their social position - or financial one - without regard for what they offer as a person. And that's too bad, because, while it's possible that a person could earn respect by virtue of attaining great finances or position, it's much more likely that they've simply inherited these things or gotten them by virtue of glad-handing or whoring some favor or another.
If you've ever worked for a boss who knew infinitely less than you, and wasn't interested in learning, and who was too ignorant to know whether he (she) were being led toward a goal or a quagmire, you know what's been going on in the White House for the past three years. Now turn that boss into a vengeful, mean-spirited megalomaniac, and give your company the power to manipulate world politics.
Double-dumb says from time to time, "I don't negotiate with myself", when he doesn't want to argue a point (because he can't). What a stupid, stupid thing to say. Apparently he doesn't realize how idiotic that is. Anyone who has any sense at all is always "negotiating with" himself - always weighing the evidence from both the past and the ever-changing present, to make the best, most justifiable decision possible at every point.
When the king is an idiot, the viziers and advisors left to their own devices will eventually destroy the kingdom. Double-dumb will go down in history as the worst thing that ever happened to the Union, and even to the world. And he won't have the faintest idea how that happened. In fact, he'll probably be shocked when he hears it. After all, he doesn't read.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Northwest is forced to admit it handed over passenger information to the government
Northwest, based in Eagan, Minn., had said earlier it was not involved in the program.
"We do not provide that type of information to anyone," Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch told the New York Times on September 23.
Other airlines had said they would not cooperate in developing a government passenger-screening program because of privacy concerns.
The carrier declined to say how many passenger records were shared with NASA from the period offered, October to December 2001. More than 10.9 million passengers traveled on Northwest flights during that time, according to the Transportation Department.
...Northwest said it did not inform any passengers that it shared data with NASA.
...NASA said it used the information to investigate whether "data mining" of the records could improve assessments of threats posed by passengers, according to the agency's written responses to questions.
... The Northwest and NASA documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates privacy rights and open government.
The organization, which posted the documents on its Web site, said it plans to take legal action in an effort to force the government to disclose more information about NASA's secret security project and to investigate Northwest's actions.
article
Especially when the company has lied and said it wouldn't be participating. Otherwise, I suppose people might have chosen to fly another airline. Gee, can anybody be trusted to tell you the truth where a dollar is involved?
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
"We do not provide that type of information to anyone," Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch told the New York Times on September 23.
Other airlines had said they would not cooperate in developing a government passenger-screening program because of privacy concerns.
The carrier declined to say how many passenger records were shared with NASA from the period offered, October to December 2001. More than 10.9 million passengers traveled on Northwest flights during that time, according to the Transportation Department.
...Northwest said it did not inform any passengers that it shared data with NASA.
...NASA said it used the information to investigate whether "data mining" of the records could improve assessments of threats posed by passengers, according to the agency's written responses to questions.
... The Northwest and NASA documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates privacy rights and open government.
The organization, which posted the documents on its Web site, said it plans to take legal action in an effort to force the government to disclose more information about NASA's secret security project and to investigate Northwest's actions.
article
Especially when the company has lied and said it wouldn't be participating. Otherwise, I suppose people might have chosen to fly another airline. Gee, can anybody be trusted to tell you the truth where a dollar is involved?
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Meanwhile in Venezuela
Prepare for invasion....
British Ambassador Lamont was told of the latest threats to his embassy's security by top Metropolitan Police executives who are politically aligned with and under the overall command of anti-Chavez Metropolitan Mayor Alfredo Pena, raising suspicions that the scare is a politically-motivated ruse attempting to link the Chavez Frias government yet again to unsubstantiated links with Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda and international terrorist groupings.
Last February, two separate bombings -- at the Spanish Embassy and the Colombian Consulate in Caracas -- were linked directly to rebel military officers holed up at the Plaza Altamira 'Rebellion HQ' where four soldiers were also brutally executed by the rebels on the mere suspicion that they were government informers. Four officers, who have been clearly identified as the perpetrators of the bombings, escaped to southern Florida where they are being sought in Interpol arrest warrants to be returned to face justice. Meanwhile they have applied for political asylum in the United States claiming persecution by Venezuelan law enforcement officers. article
Bush had meetings at the Americas Summit in Mexico recently with just about everyone except Chavez. How I would love to see a meeting between those two. Chavez would eat him alive and spit out the bones. All the Oaf of Office can do is spout threats behind the skirts of his yes-men and paid security officers. Warning Latin Americans, warning Cuba about "interfering" in the affairs of Américan countries, and telling Venezuela's neighbors to carry the warning to Chavez. As if Chavez weren't keenly aware of Bush's threats.
US President George W. Bush has sent a clear warning to anti-democratic rebels in Venezuela, asking Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner to advise the Venezuelan government that the United States will not stand idly by and accept electoral fraud in any eventual revocatory referendum against President Hugo Chavez Frias. article
There are some countries who have gotten just a little bit sick of being manipulated and threatened by the United States. The uprisings amongst native populations who have been pushed to the breaking point is swelling into a great movement for independence and justice, and true democracy. I think Mr. Chowderhead's ignorance about anything outside his bubble, and his profiteering puppeteers are "misunderestimating" the situation south of us.
More on Venezuela
Also, as a follow-up to my post on Venezuela's decriminalization of drug use, there seems to be some confusion. I got the news from Al Giordano, who seems to have the proverbial finger on the pulse of South American events (he's actually there, which helps). Subsequently, I came across this article that talks about what might happen, and apparently Al is defending his position over on his blog.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
British Ambassador Lamont was told of the latest threats to his embassy's security by top Metropolitan Police executives who are politically aligned with and under the overall command of anti-Chavez Metropolitan Mayor Alfredo Pena, raising suspicions that the scare is a politically-motivated ruse attempting to link the Chavez Frias government yet again to unsubstantiated links with Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda and international terrorist groupings.
Last February, two separate bombings -- at the Spanish Embassy and the Colombian Consulate in Caracas -- were linked directly to rebel military officers holed up at the Plaza Altamira 'Rebellion HQ' where four soldiers were also brutally executed by the rebels on the mere suspicion that they were government informers. Four officers, who have been clearly identified as the perpetrators of the bombings, escaped to southern Florida where they are being sought in Interpol arrest warrants to be returned to face justice. Meanwhile they have applied for political asylum in the United States claiming persecution by Venezuelan law enforcement officers. article
Bush had meetings at the Americas Summit in Mexico recently with just about everyone except Chavez. How I would love to see a meeting between those two. Chavez would eat him alive and spit out the bones. All the Oaf of Office can do is spout threats behind the skirts of his yes-men and paid security officers. Warning Latin Americans, warning Cuba about "interfering" in the affairs of Américan countries, and telling Venezuela's neighbors to carry the warning to Chavez. As if Chavez weren't keenly aware of Bush's threats.
US President George W. Bush has sent a clear warning to anti-democratic rebels in Venezuela, asking Argentina's President Nestor Kirchner to advise the Venezuelan government that the United States will not stand idly by and accept electoral fraud in any eventual revocatory referendum against President Hugo Chavez Frias. article
There are some countries who have gotten just a little bit sick of being manipulated and threatened by the United States. The uprisings amongst native populations who have been pushed to the breaking point is swelling into a great movement for independence and justice, and true democracy. I think Mr. Chowderhead's ignorance about anything outside his bubble, and his profiteering puppeteers are "misunderestimating" the situation south of us.
More on Venezuela
Also, as a follow-up to my post on Venezuela's decriminalization of drug use, there seems to be some confusion. I got the news from Al Giordano, who seems to have the proverbial finger on the pulse of South American events (he's actually there, which helps). Subsequently, I came across this article that talks about what might happen, and apparently Al is defending his position over on his blog.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Help me, Obi Wan, you're my only hope
Remember the hologrammatic message that was stored inside the little droid R2D2?
Welcome to the future.
And for anyone following the UFO disclosure track, this is the technology that is claimed to be planned for the faked attack from outer space.
Don't ask me, I'm just reporting.
...you do what you want....you will anyway.
Welcome to the future.
And for anyone following the UFO disclosure track, this is the technology that is claimed to be planned for the faked attack from outer space.
Don't ask me, I'm just reporting.
...you do what you want....you will anyway.
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Katherine Gun - American British hero
She was an anonymous junior official toiling away with 4,500 other mathematicians, code-breakers and linguists at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham.
But now Katharine Gun, an unassuming 29-year-old translator, is set to become a transatlantic cause célèbre as the focus of a star-studded solidarity drive that brings together Hollywood actor-director Sean Penn and senior figures from the US media and civil rights movement, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
...Gun appears in court tomorrow accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act by allegedly leaking details of a secret US 'dirty tricks' operation to spy on UN Security Council members in the run-up to war in Iraq last year. If found guilty, she faces two years in prison.
...At the time Gun, who was sacked after her arrest and whose case is funded by legal aid, said in a statement: 'Any disclosures that may have been made were justified on the following grounds: because they exposed serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the US government who attempted to subvert our own security services; and to prevent wide-scale death and casualties among ordinary Iraqi people and UK forces in the course of an illegal war.'
She added: 'I have only ever followed my conscience.' article
Could I get a translation into American of the word "conscience"?
But now Katharine Gun, an unassuming 29-year-old translator, is set to become a transatlantic cause célèbre as the focus of a star-studded solidarity drive that brings together Hollywood actor-director Sean Penn and senior figures from the US media and civil rights movement, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
...Gun appears in court tomorrow accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act by allegedly leaking details of a secret US 'dirty tricks' operation to spy on UN Security Council members in the run-up to war in Iraq last year. If found guilty, she faces two years in prison.
...At the time Gun, who was sacked after her arrest and whose case is funded by legal aid, said in a statement: 'Any disclosures that may have been made were justified on the following grounds: because they exposed serious illegality and wrongdoing on the part of the US government who attempted to subvert our own security services; and to prevent wide-scale death and casualties among ordinary Iraqi people and UK forces in the course of an illegal war.'
She added: 'I have only ever followed my conscience.' article
Could I get a translation into American of the word "conscience"?
TJ graphics
POAC has some of the best political graphics I've come across on the web.
I'll have to ask the talented TJ if he keeps a graphics archive - every day he has a new (and excellent) graphic.
Like today's...
I'll have to ask the talented TJ if he keeps a graphics archive - every day he has a new (and excellent) graphic.
Like today's...
The Price of Loyalty
From the Suskind book:
P. 96
Beneath the surface was a battle O'Neill had seen brewing since the NSC meeting on January 30 (2001). It was Powell and his moderates at the State Department versus hard-liners like Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz, who were already planning the next war in Iraq and the shape of a post-Saddam country.
Documents were being prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency, Rumsfeld's intelligence arm, mapping Iraq's oil fields and exploration areas and listing companies that might be interested in leveraging the precious asset.
One document, headed "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts," lists companies from thirty countries - including France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom - their specialties, bidding histories, and in some cases their particular areas of interest. An atached document maps Iraq with markings for "supergiant oilfield," "other oilfield," and "earmarked for production sharing," while demarking the largely undeveloped southwest of the country into nine "blocks" to designate areas for future exploration.
...Already by February, the talk was mostly about logistics. Not the why, but the how and how quickly. Rumsfeld, O'Neill recalled, was focused on how an incident might cause escalated tensions - like the shooting down of an American plane in the regular engagements between U.S. fighters and Iraqi antiaircraft batteries - and what U.S. responses to such an occurrence might be. Wolfowitz was pushing for the arming of Iraqi opposition groups and sending in U.S. troops to support and defend their insurgency.
...During his confirmation hearings, Powell had said that arming the Iraqi opposition would be logistically difficult and ultimately unsuccessful in toppling Saddam. Since then, Powell had discovered that he was outnumbered.
So, O'Neill marveled as he read the New York Times story, Powell had taken the battle public...
O'Neill had witnessed many State-versus-Pentagon struggles over the years, often among his own friends...But it was rare to have pitched combat of the sort launched in the first month of an administration....there seemed to be no apparatus to assess policy and deliberate effectively, to create coherent governance.
That's what happens when you have a system of governance that relies on a leader and your leader is a self-serving, self-indulgent idiot.
Although those documents mapping out the oil fields for snarking up by U.S. interests and "foreign suitors" have been a subject on the internet for many months, they didn't make headline TV news. Neither at the beginning of BushCo's misadministration, or at the war planning stages. By July of 2003, the documents were news - but barely.
Various incidents retold in the book make it clear that, from the beginning, there was a veritable free-for-all in the White House. One such incident was the very first State of the Union address.
A mid-level analyst at OMB had written an analysis of a surplus that concluded it couldn't be used to pay down the national debt, adding justification for it to be used as the basis of a tax cut instead. I can't help you with the details here, because I simply don't understand high finance (or low finance for that matter - other than I don't have any money, so I won't be purchasing anything today, thank you). But I can understand that the Treasury Department, headed by Paul O'Neil at the time, was not consulted on the issue, and the erroneous report was worked into the SoU address....
P. 109
Treasury staffers called the White House. Excerpts of the State of the Union, which included the flawed calculus, had already been disclosed to the press. It was too late.
O'Neill was incensed. How could the White House political staff "decide to do things like this and not even consult with people in the government who know what's true or not? Who the hell is in charge here?" he ranted. "This is complete bullshit!"
That night, Bush stood before the nation, described the state of the Union in the most important speech a president gives, in any given year, and said something that knowledgeable people in the U.S. government knew to be false.
I don't think O'Neill was the last of the cabinet members to sound the cry, "This is bullshit!"
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
P. 96
Beneath the surface was a battle O'Neill had seen brewing since the NSC meeting on January 30 (2001). It was Powell and his moderates at the State Department versus hard-liners like Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz, who were already planning the next war in Iraq and the shape of a post-Saddam country.
Documents were being prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency, Rumsfeld's intelligence arm, mapping Iraq's oil fields and exploration areas and listing companies that might be interested in leveraging the precious asset.
One document, headed "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts," lists companies from thirty countries - including France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom - their specialties, bidding histories, and in some cases their particular areas of interest. An atached document maps Iraq with markings for "supergiant oilfield," "other oilfield," and "earmarked for production sharing," while demarking the largely undeveloped southwest of the country into nine "blocks" to designate areas for future exploration.
...Already by February, the talk was mostly about logistics. Not the why, but the how and how quickly. Rumsfeld, O'Neill recalled, was focused on how an incident might cause escalated tensions - like the shooting down of an American plane in the regular engagements between U.S. fighters and Iraqi antiaircraft batteries - and what U.S. responses to such an occurrence might be. Wolfowitz was pushing for the arming of Iraqi opposition groups and sending in U.S. troops to support and defend their insurgency.
...During his confirmation hearings, Powell had said that arming the Iraqi opposition would be logistically difficult and ultimately unsuccessful in toppling Saddam. Since then, Powell had discovered that he was outnumbered.
So, O'Neill marveled as he read the New York Times story, Powell had taken the battle public...
O'Neill had witnessed many State-versus-Pentagon struggles over the years, often among his own friends...But it was rare to have pitched combat of the sort launched in the first month of an administration....there seemed to be no apparatus to assess policy and deliberate effectively, to create coherent governance.
That's what happens when you have a system of governance that relies on a leader and your leader is a self-serving, self-indulgent idiot.
Although those documents mapping out the oil fields for snarking up by U.S. interests and "foreign suitors" have been a subject on the internet for many months, they didn't make headline TV news. Neither at the beginning of BushCo's misadministration, or at the war planning stages. By July of 2003, the documents were news - but barely.
Various incidents retold in the book make it clear that, from the beginning, there was a veritable free-for-all in the White House. One such incident was the very first State of the Union address.
A mid-level analyst at OMB had written an analysis of a surplus that concluded it couldn't be used to pay down the national debt, adding justification for it to be used as the basis of a tax cut instead. I can't help you with the details here, because I simply don't understand high finance (or low finance for that matter - other than I don't have any money, so I won't be purchasing anything today, thank you). But I can understand that the Treasury Department, headed by Paul O'Neil at the time, was not consulted on the issue, and the erroneous report was worked into the SoU address....
P. 109
Treasury staffers called the White House. Excerpts of the State of the Union, which included the flawed calculus, had already been disclosed to the press. It was too late.
O'Neill was incensed. How could the White House political staff "decide to do things like this and not even consult with people in the government who know what's true or not? Who the hell is in charge here?" he ranted. "This is complete bullshit!"
That night, Bush stood before the nation, described the state of the Union in the most important speech a president gives, in any given year, and said something that knowledgeable people in the U.S. government knew to be false.
I don't think O'Neill was the last of the cabinet members to sound the cry, "This is bullshit!"
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Between Iraq and a hard place?
(Sorry. I even stole the obvious title from another site.)
Desperate to extricate himself from the weekly carnage well before the November election, Bush can neither deliver on his promise of democracy via direct elections nor impose his plan for an Iraqi assembly elected indirectly by caucuses.
If Bush delivers on his democracy promise, the Shi'ites with 60% of the population will be elected, and the country will break out in civil war. If he tries to water down Shi'ite representation with his plan for an assembly elected indirectly by caucuses, the so far peaceful Shi'ites are likely to join the violence.
If the Shi'ites become violent, the insurgency would be too large to be contained by our present occupying force. Moreover, the outbreak of a general rebellion in Iraq would spill over throughout the Middle East where unpopular secular rulers are sitting on a smoldering Islam. Our puppet in Pakistan would likely bite the dust. Israel would then face countervailing Muslim nukes.
...Pilots and troops are shunning the cash bonuses offered for reenlistments. The troops recognize a quagmire even if their neocon overlords cannot. The only source of troops is the draft.
A Shi'ite insurgency that brought back the draft would deprive Bush of reelection. A civil war with the prospect of a Kurdish state would bring in the Turks....The US could come dangerously close to military conflict with a NATO ally.
article
Meanwhile, helicopters keep falling.
Of course, that's good for military contractors. Not so good for military personnel.
It was concern about these attacks that prompted Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American commander in Iraq, to go beyond the standard review after any crash and order last month a comprehensive study of all downings, Army officials said.
The goal was to detect more about the insurgents' techniques and weaponry, and possible weaknesses in the Americans' defensive countermeasures and tactics. article
Possibly one weakness in defensive countermeasures and tactics is the training of Iraqis who then "quit" and take their training with them.
No, I do not have the answer. Well, it's too late for that, at least.
It reminds me of another story....
A group of teenaged boys were goofing around one night, and one of them grabbed onto the bumper of another's truck as the truck was pulling away. There came a point when the young man on the bumper was in a terrible situation - he could no longer keep up with the speed of the vehicle, but he was pulled into a forward-leaning position so that he also could not let go of the bumper. Pavement taste test was coming, no matter the choice.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Desperate to extricate himself from the weekly carnage well before the November election, Bush can neither deliver on his promise of democracy via direct elections nor impose his plan for an Iraqi assembly elected indirectly by caucuses.
If Bush delivers on his democracy promise, the Shi'ites with 60% of the population will be elected, and the country will break out in civil war. If he tries to water down Shi'ite representation with his plan for an assembly elected indirectly by caucuses, the so far peaceful Shi'ites are likely to join the violence.
If the Shi'ites become violent, the insurgency would be too large to be contained by our present occupying force. Moreover, the outbreak of a general rebellion in Iraq would spill over throughout the Middle East where unpopular secular rulers are sitting on a smoldering Islam. Our puppet in Pakistan would likely bite the dust. Israel would then face countervailing Muslim nukes.
...Pilots and troops are shunning the cash bonuses offered for reenlistments. The troops recognize a quagmire even if their neocon overlords cannot. The only source of troops is the draft.
A Shi'ite insurgency that brought back the draft would deprive Bush of reelection. A civil war with the prospect of a Kurdish state would bring in the Turks....The US could come dangerously close to military conflict with a NATO ally.
article
Meanwhile, helicopters keep falling.
Of course, that's good for military contractors. Not so good for military personnel.
It was concern about these attacks that prompted Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior American commander in Iraq, to go beyond the standard review after any crash and order last month a comprehensive study of all downings, Army officials said.
The goal was to detect more about the insurgents' techniques and weaponry, and possible weaknesses in the Americans' defensive countermeasures and tactics. article
Possibly one weakness in defensive countermeasures and tactics is the training of Iraqis who then "quit" and take their training with them.
No, I do not have the answer. Well, it's too late for that, at least.
It reminds me of another story....
A group of teenaged boys were goofing around one night, and one of them grabbed onto the bumper of another's truck as the truck was pulling away. There came a point when the young man on the bumper was in a terrible situation - he could no longer keep up with the speed of the vehicle, but he was pulled into a forward-leaning position so that he also could not let go of the bumper. Pavement taste test was coming, no matter the choice.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
The French want a piece of Dick
From Guerilla News Network...
Will Dick Cheney be indicted by a French judge for his role as head of Halliburton when the company is accused of bribing the Nigerian government to secure a deal to build a $6 billion gas liquification factory? According to a well-placed friend of mine who I just talked to in Paris, it isn't looking good for Oil Slick Dick.
A Doug Ireland article.
Yet another sordid chapter in the murky annals of Halliburton might well lead to the indictment of Dick Cheney by a French court on charges of bribery, money-laundering and misuse of corporate assets.
At the heart of the matter is a $6 billion gas liquification factory built in Nigeria on behalf of oil mammoth Shell by Halliburton--the company Cheney headed before becoming Vice President--in partnership with a large French petroengineering company, Technip. Nigeria has been rated by the anticorruption watchdog Transparency International as the second-most corrupt country in the world, surpassed only by Bangladesh.
...According to accounts in the French press, Judge van Ruymbeke believes that some or all of $180 million in so-called secret "retrocommissions" paid by Halliburton and Technip were, in fact, bribes given to Nigerian officials and others to grease the wheels for the refinery's construction.
...The suspected bribe money was mostly ladled out between 1995 and 2000, when Cheney was Halliburton's CEO. The Journal du Dimanche reported on December 21 that "it is probable that some of the 'retrocommissions' found their way back to the United States" and asked, did this money go "to Halliburton's officials? To officials of the Republican Party?" These questions have so far gone unasked by America's media, which have completely ignored the explosive Le Figaro headline revealing the targeting of Cheney. It will be interesting to see if the US press looks seriously into this ticking time-bomb of a scandal before the November elections.
Maybe. But only to trash the French.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Will Dick Cheney be indicted by a French judge for his role as head of Halliburton when the company is accused of bribing the Nigerian government to secure a deal to build a $6 billion gas liquification factory? According to a well-placed friend of mine who I just talked to in Paris, it isn't looking good for Oil Slick Dick.
A Doug Ireland article.
Yet another sordid chapter in the murky annals of Halliburton might well lead to the indictment of Dick Cheney by a French court on charges of bribery, money-laundering and misuse of corporate assets.
At the heart of the matter is a $6 billion gas liquification factory built in Nigeria on behalf of oil mammoth Shell by Halliburton--the company Cheney headed before becoming Vice President--in partnership with a large French petroengineering company, Technip. Nigeria has been rated by the anticorruption watchdog Transparency International as the second-most corrupt country in the world, surpassed only by Bangladesh.
...According to accounts in the French press, Judge van Ruymbeke believes that some or all of $180 million in so-called secret "retrocommissions" paid by Halliburton and Technip were, in fact, bribes given to Nigerian officials and others to grease the wheels for the refinery's construction.
...The suspected bribe money was mostly ladled out between 1995 and 2000, when Cheney was Halliburton's CEO. The Journal du Dimanche reported on December 21 that "it is probable that some of the 'retrocommissions' found their way back to the United States" and asked, did this money go "to Halliburton's officials? To officials of the Republican Party?" These questions have so far gone unasked by America's media, which have completely ignored the explosive Le Figaro headline revealing the targeting of Cheney. It will be interesting to see if the US press looks seriously into this ticking time-bomb of a scandal before the November elections.
Maybe. But only to trash the French.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Making a killing in Iraq
The other kind.
It's 8.40am, and the Sheraton Hotel ballroom thunders with the sound of plastic explosives pounding against metal. No, this is not the Sheraton in Baghdad, it's the one in Arlington, Virginia. And it's not a real terrorist attack, it's a hypothetical one. The screen at the front of the room is playing an advertisement for "bomb-resistant waste receptacles" - this trash can is so strong, we're told, it can contain a C4 blast. And its manufacturer is convinced that, given half a chance, these babies would sell like hot cakes in Baghdad - at bus stations, army barracks and, yes, upscale hotels. Available in Hunter Green, Fortuneberry Purple and Windswept Copper.
This is ReBuilding Iraq 2, a gathering of 400 businesspeople itching to get a piece of the Iraqi reconstruction action. They're here to meet those doling out the cash, in particular the $18.6bn in contracts to be awarded in the next two months to companies from "coalition partner" countries. The people to meet are from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), its new programme management office, the Army Corps of Engineers, the US Agency for International Development, Halliburton, Bechtel and members of Iraq's interim governing council. All these players are on the conference programme, and delegates have been promised that they'll get a chance to corner them at regular "networking breaks".
article
How stupid are people? I mean, really. It will be very important to have a trash can withstand damage, and save that stuff you threw away.
Anyway, the other point to this post is...
"A fool and his money are soon parted"...
and the fool is us.
...[M]any delegates are sporting a similar look: army-issue brush cuts paired with dark business suits. The guru of this gang is retired Major General Robert Dees, freshly hired out of the military to head Microsoft's "defence strategies" division. Dees tells the crowd that rebuilding Iraq has special meaning for him because, well, he was one of the people who broke it. "My heart and soul is in this because I was one of the primary planners of the invasion," he says with pride. Microsoft is helping to develop "e-government" in Iraq, which Dees admits is a little ahead of the curve, since there is no g-government in Iraq, not to mention functioning phone lines.
...Youssef Sleiman, managing director of Iraq Initiatives for the Harris Corporation, has a similarly entrepreneurial angle on the violence. Yes, helicopters are falling, he says, but "for every helicopter that falls there is going to be replenishment".
Read the rest of the article for a look at the problem of insuring anything - and the solution. Yes, you figure into it. You pay taxes, don't you?
"To be honest," says Ed Kubba, a consultant and board member of the American Iraqi Chamber of Commerce, "I don't know where the line is between business and corruption." He points to US companies subcontracting huge taxpayer-funded reconstruction jobs for a fraction of what they are getting paid, then pocketing the difference. "If you take $10m from the US government and sub the job out to Iraqi businesses for a quarter-million, is that business, or is that corruption?"
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
It's 8.40am, and the Sheraton Hotel ballroom thunders with the sound of plastic explosives pounding against metal. No, this is not the Sheraton in Baghdad, it's the one in Arlington, Virginia. And it's not a real terrorist attack, it's a hypothetical one. The screen at the front of the room is playing an advertisement for "bomb-resistant waste receptacles" - this trash can is so strong, we're told, it can contain a C4 blast. And its manufacturer is convinced that, given half a chance, these babies would sell like hot cakes in Baghdad - at bus stations, army barracks and, yes, upscale hotels. Available in Hunter Green, Fortuneberry Purple and Windswept Copper.
This is ReBuilding Iraq 2, a gathering of 400 businesspeople itching to get a piece of the Iraqi reconstruction action. They're here to meet those doling out the cash, in particular the $18.6bn in contracts to be awarded in the next two months to companies from "coalition partner" countries. The people to meet are from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), its new programme management office, the Army Corps of Engineers, the US Agency for International Development, Halliburton, Bechtel and members of Iraq's interim governing council. All these players are on the conference programme, and delegates have been promised that they'll get a chance to corner them at regular "networking breaks".
article
How stupid are people? I mean, really. It will be very important to have a trash can withstand damage, and save that stuff you threw away.
Anyway, the other point to this post is...
"A fool and his money are soon parted"...
and the fool is us.
...[M]any delegates are sporting a similar look: army-issue brush cuts paired with dark business suits. The guru of this gang is retired Major General Robert Dees, freshly hired out of the military to head Microsoft's "defence strategies" division. Dees tells the crowd that rebuilding Iraq has special meaning for him because, well, he was one of the people who broke it. "My heart and soul is in this because I was one of the primary planners of the invasion," he says with pride. Microsoft is helping to develop "e-government" in Iraq, which Dees admits is a little ahead of the curve, since there is no g-government in Iraq, not to mention functioning phone lines.
...Youssef Sleiman, managing director of Iraq Initiatives for the Harris Corporation, has a similarly entrepreneurial angle on the violence. Yes, helicopters are falling, he says, but "for every helicopter that falls there is going to be replenishment".
Read the rest of the article for a look at the problem of insuring anything - and the solution. Yes, you figure into it. You pay taxes, don't you?
"To be honest," says Ed Kubba, a consultant and board member of the American Iraqi Chamber of Commerce, "I don't know where the line is between business and corruption." He points to US companies subcontracting huge taxpayer-funded reconstruction jobs for a fraction of what they are getting paid, then pocketing the difference. "If you take $10m from the US government and sub the job out to Iraqi businesses for a quarter-million, is that business, or is that corruption?"
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Israel's ambassador to Sweden destroys Swedish art
Israel's ambassador to Sweden was kicked out of Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities after he destroyed an artwork featuring a picture of a Palestinian suicide bomber, the artists said.
...A sailboat with the name Snow White floated on the water, and placed like a sail was a photo of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat, the female lawyer who blew herself up in the Haifa suicide bombing attack in October which killed 21 Israelis.
"For me it was intolerable and an insult to the families of the victims. As ambassador to Israel I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality," the ambassador told Swedish news agency TT.
According to museum director Kristian Berg, the ambassador went berserk in front of the 400 specially-invited guests when he saw the piece.
"He pulled out the plugs and threw one of the spotlights into the fountain which caused the entire installation to short-circuit and made it totally life-threatening," he told TT. article
...A sailboat with the name Snow White floated on the water, and placed like a sail was a photo of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat, the female lawyer who blew herself up in the Haifa suicide bombing attack in October which killed 21 Israelis.
"For me it was intolerable and an insult to the families of the victims. As ambassador to Israel I could not remain indifferent to such an obscene misrepresentation of reality," the ambassador told Swedish news agency TT.
According to museum director Kristian Berg, the ambassador went berserk in front of the 400 specially-invited guests when he saw the piece.
"He pulled out the plugs and threw one of the spotlights into the fountain which caused the entire installation to short-circuit and made it totally life-threatening," he told TT. article
It's time to preempt the world
The U.S. intelligence community has concluded Saudi Arabia intends to acquire nuclear weapons, the intelligence newsletter Geostrategy-Direct reports.
The assessment is contained in a report by the National Intelligence Council, a group under CIA director George Tenet. The council has released a report, called "NIC 2020," that envisions trends in the Middle East and other global regions over the next two decades.
...Saudi Arabia is among a growing list of nations that could pose a nuclear threat to the United States. Like Egypt, it has missiles and a large army and is a candidate for an Islamic revolution similar to Iran's 1979 conflict that overnight turned the country from being a stable U.S. ally to a vicious enemy. article
And besides, they have 9/11 connections that we don't want made public.
In contrast, the intelligence community sees Libya and Syria as seeking a rapprochement with Washington.
"Ironically, some of the most significant proliferation might involve moderate states such as the current Saudi regime rather than 'rogues' such as Libya or Syria," the report said.
..The U.S. intelligence community assessment of Saudi Arabia contrasts with statements by administration spokesmen that the kingdom would not seek to acquire nuclear weapons. That assertion, by the White House and State Department, came in October after Saudi Arabia was reported to have signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Pakistan.
The NIC report also appeared resigned to the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a development that was said to have prompted Saudi cooperation talks with Pakistan. The Iranian drive for nuclear weapons might not be affected by a change in regime in Tehran, the report said.
The intelligence community envisions increasing unrest in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A regime change in Saudi Arabia would prompt a major increase in oil prices, rock the Persian Gulf region and lead to increased tension with neighboring Iran, the report said.
"Replacement of the Saudi regime by a radical Islamist successor, for example, might increase Arabian-Iranian tensions, with a rivalry for Islamic leadership – one party Sunni, and the other Shia – overshadowing whatever common cha
The assessment is contained in a report by the National Intelligence Council, a group under CIA director George Tenet. The council has released a report, called "NIC 2020," that envisions trends in the Middle East and other global regions over the next two decades.
...Saudi Arabia is among a growing list of nations that could pose a nuclear threat to the United States. Like Egypt, it has missiles and a large army and is a candidate for an Islamic revolution similar to Iran's 1979 conflict that overnight turned the country from being a stable U.S. ally to a vicious enemy. article
And besides, they have 9/11 connections that we don't want made public.
In contrast, the intelligence community sees Libya and Syria as seeking a rapprochement with Washington.
"Ironically, some of the most significant proliferation might involve moderate states such as the current Saudi regime rather than 'rogues' such as Libya or Syria," the report said.
..The U.S. intelligence community assessment of Saudi Arabia contrasts with statements by administration spokesmen that the kingdom would not seek to acquire nuclear weapons. That assertion, by the White House and State Department, came in October after Saudi Arabia was reported to have signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Pakistan.
The NIC report also appeared resigned to the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb, a development that was said to have prompted Saudi cooperation talks with Pakistan. The Iranian drive for nuclear weapons might not be affected by a change in regime in Tehran, the report said.
The intelligence community envisions increasing unrest in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A regime change in Saudi Arabia would prompt a major increase in oil prices, rock the Persian Gulf region and lead to increased tension with neighboring Iran, the report said.
"Replacement of the Saudi regime by a radical Islamist successor, for example, might increase Arabian-Iranian tensions, with a rivalry for Islamic leadership – one party Sunni, and the other Shia – overshadowing whatever common cha